Multiple news reports say  North Carolina business recruitment is in steep decline — a direct result, apparently, of the infamous HB2 bill. You’re encouraged to believe the allegation that HB2 has so inflamed business leaders everywhere, that they have and will continue to  shun and blacklist the Tar Heel State until the law is repealed. Funny. Not funny, ha ha; funny, puzzling. Puzzling because just weeks ago the Business Journal reported N.C. had the nation’s fastest growing large economy by GDP. Several months back, Forbes wrote, “North Carolina moves up one spot to rank second in our Best States study. . . the only (State) to appear in (our) top five every year.” Meanwhile, as the bathroom drama plays out, NC population has zoomed beyond 10 million — now ranked as America’s ninth largest. Ninth out of fifty, only 100,000+ less bodies than 8th place Georgia. Evidently, NC special interests, politicians, community leaders and Media must discount this NC popularity — that it will all come crashing down. They claim  lucrative business will flee, that the tax base will shrink and that the persistent convoy of new residents will sputter and die because HB2  is defiling the toilet. If these dire predictions come to pass, you’re left to ponder the stunning consequences. Population growth almost certainly would suffer, removing any hope that North Carolina could one day overtake the population  of Pennsylvania, Ohio and even New York — a dreadful blow to the potential quality of life. In fact, the population would likely regress as thousands of transplants, primarily from the North and Midwest, choose to move elsewhere in protest, and future thousands would take the State off their lists as a possible destination for jobs, education or tourism. Further, the loss of these progressives would deprive you of their superior intellect and ability. And the flight of these exceptional people more than likely would include droves of LGBT members who would take their talents elsewhere. This mass exodus would leave a woeful vacuum, abandoning the State to the ordinary hands of ordinary NC natives, unworldly, unlearned, uncultivated, average and essentially intolerant. However, you can’t rule out a reverse scenario. Because North Carolina has a uniform bathroom privacy law, it’s possible thousands of bigoted puritans, primarily from the North and Midwest, may prefer to put this State first on their lists as a possible destination for jobs, education or tourism. Conceivably, those fleeing the scene of the crime might pass their replacements in equal number heading south and east on Interstate highways, bound for the Tar heel State. Business owners who are interested in why NC ranks among America’s top business performers, might also appreciate that HB2 frees them to manage their own bathroom policies. Fancy having that freedom. The outcries over HB2 — the passions, the peevishness, the petulance — must mean there is rampant hysteria among the grass roots. True enough. There is hysteria and it’s all too real. But the grass roots has nothing to do with it.  It is pervasive Media, not the people, who are wetting their collective pants. The Media, the civic leaders in power, the special interest lobbies, the legal eagles and social activists all have something to say about an intensely personal issue that affects millions of people. Only nobody cares what these millions think or want. The millions don’t count. They have no say. Not a syllable. The Media would prefer to cite third party surveys to represent what these millions think or want. Here’s a one word tip, Matilda — Referendum. Put HB2 on the November ballot. Time to flush this mess and move on.

Just about everyone has a pet issue. Just about everyone who votes in political elections has a bone to pick and wants something done about grinding up that bone. You listen to a popular Conservative radio and TV host, with his inevitable annoying delivery, spout off a laundry list of political actions for the next President. You would settle for just one — one act that would have an inestimable positive impact on the future of this country. Immediately abolish the Federal Department of Education (ED). You can thank President Jimmy Carter for giving ED cabinet level status in 1980. His decision was an unforced, unconstitutional error that set the tone for the rest of his failed term; and no administration, including Reagan’s, in the next 35 years, had the good sense to right the wrong and end the madness. Carter didn’t begin the madness. Public schools took a nose dive in the 60’s when social engineering mandates replaced the attainment of knowledge and skills — when learning took a back seat to centralized government policy, process and political intrigue. Despite massive spending and the herculean efforts of dedicated educators, public education remains in free fall, leaving behind generations of casualties. Everywhere you turn, you see and hear the outcome — in knowledge, language, culture and mores. But you’re not surprised. After all, today’s parents, teachers and administrators are none other than the students of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. Many of them were spoon fed mush and today many of them serve up that same mush to the generations that follow. And the beat goes on. Perhaps you need an example of how mush can morph into a governing tyranny. in Portland, Oregon, the city’s School Board unanimously passed a resolution “to remove from classrooms any materials that ‘cast doubt’ on whether climate change is occurring.” No, this is not a gag. According to the Portland Tribune, the resolution “requires that textbooks and other classroom material present climate change as fact, caused by the activity of human beings . . . and also calls for the implementation of ‘curriculum and educational opportunities’ that address climate change and climate justice in all Portland Public Schools.” Not to be outdone by the adults in the room, Gaby Lemieux, a high school student, expressed support in his testimony: “It is unacceptable that we have textbooks in our schools that spread doubt about the human causes and urgency of the crisis. Climate education is not a niche or a specialization; it is the minimum requirement for my generation to be successful in our changing world.” Seig heil mein fuhrer! Bring back the Inquisition, Gaby, to punish Climate Change Heretics. Mush begats mush, Portland style. But you can have no quarrel with Portland. You don’t live there. If the majority of its people prefer to abolish free speech and thought, good luck and pity the minority who can’t afford private schooling. On the other hand, Federal bureaucrats will continue to batter all public schools into submission to foster a Progressive agenda. If elected, Trump should begin America’s renewal by eliminating the ED and placing Education where it belongs — in the hands of the 50 States, in the hands of teachers and parents at the local level. By definition, this one action will benefit every other area of American life — economically, socially, culturally and spiritually. Education is nothing less than America’s incubator. To be trite, the future is now.

The Kentucky primary returns roll in. Hillary Clinton gets 212,000 to Bernie’s 210,000. You can justify Bernie’s turnout because most of them are kids who are unread, puerile and unaccomplished and the rest are either on the dole or wannabes on the dole — the slugs of society, the unapologetic takers. Hillary lovers, on the other hand, boggle the mind. Doubtless, many women will vote for her because they happen to be women — it’s that  gender loyalty thing. Highly intelligent. But 212,000? Knowing what there is to know about Hillary — not rumor, not speculation — but absolute fact — you must conclude that millions of Americans are either drop-dead ignorant or have no moral or ethical underpinnings whatsoever. Think about it — two elderly people are running to command the highest job in the free world — one an avowed and utterly unaccomplished Socialist; the other a career deceitful criminal. This obscenity is happening in America. Happening now. Happening before your very eyes. This is not the Twilight Zone. This ain’t no reality show, Edith.  Out of 300,000,000 people, the Democrat Party is offering up these two as their champions. This is the best they’ve got. They couldn’t have picked two people more unworthy. Anyone reading this has a friend more qualified than these two. The truth is the Democrat Party only picked one. They didn’t want Bernie. But Bernie had enough smarts to see a vacuum and said to himself, “Why not?”  Knowing who these two are and what they represent, you would have expected the voter turnout in Kentucky to approximate a football score — say, 31-14. You could not imagine these two attracting more votes than that. But, no, a combined 400,000+ pulled levers in Kentucky. You’re smart enough to know that any society will produce a few dozen people who drink the Kool-aid. Jim Jones brainwashed 918. But 400,000? Millions? You do realize what this means, right? It means you necessarily interact with these people every day — at the grocery store, in the doctor’s office, on the golf course, in church, in your own home. Everywhere you go, there they will be. Unless you drop out, you will be in the company of these very people — speaking with them, buying from them; God forbid, shaking hands with some of them. You can’t be sure derangement isn’t a virus, deadly contagious, infecting millions. Now you can fully understand why many important thinkers have suggested over the centuries that democracies can’t survive. Obama’s two terms have proved that a traitorous autocrat can occupy the WH while the erstwhile Balance of Powers go missing. What the Democrat Party unabashedly is telling you is this: “We’re willing to elect a woman who has never run a business, never run a State, never run a city and never headed the PTA. We’re willing to elect a profane woman who was a failed attorney, an insignificant Senator and corrupt Secretary of State, and is guilty of malfeasance, money laundering and treason. We’re willing to elect this unprincipled woman. Why? Why haven’t we produced a worthy, credible candidate — or two, or three? Simple. We think the Clinton name can win. We have no one else who can win. If she wins, we win. If she wins, we have Bill Clinton back in power.” There you have it. For the first time, if the people allow, America will have a Queen and King — a Royal family — the Clinton Crime Family. Somebody needs to make an inventory of the WH furnishings. Then somebody needs to call Don McLean for the sequel to American Pie. Bye bye.