NC disaster agency leader is out of a job (11-21-2024--Hour1)

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[00:00:28] So the Hogshead is down. Hogshead. Laura Hogshead. Hogshead down. The chief operating officer of the state's Office of Recovery and Resiliency, N-C-O-R-R, also referred to as NCOR, also referred to as Rebuild NC, after the grilling that she got in a legislative hearing on what?

[00:01:00] Tuesday, she is now out. And I didn't actually get to all of the audio clips from that hearing when I covered this the other day. I guess it was yesterday or Tuesday? Or maybe the hearing... Oh, the hearing was Monday. I covered it on Tuesday.

[00:01:21] And I did not get to all of the audio clips, including... Well, let me start with this one. Including cut number 10.

[00:01:30] Mr. Gibson, Director Hogshead.

[00:01:32] This is, by the way, Brendan Jones, Representative Brendan Jones. I believe he's one of the chairs of this GovOps subcommittee.

[00:01:45] It's not easy being on the hot seat, and I respect that. And I can understand there's probably a little resentment, Director, from my comments.

[00:01:53] But if you worked for me, I would fire you. I mean, that's just the business world.

[00:01:57] And you're asking us to trust you with more money, and I mean, you guys are like a teenager with mama's credit card.

[00:02:03] I mean, you just pour through it and pour through it and pour through it with your own admission of no accountability.

[00:02:08] Why would we give you the West?

[00:02:10] That's my recommendation to this committee that we don't give you the...

[00:02:13] You guys are like a comedy of errors.

[00:02:15] So he's talking about the Rebuild NC or NCOR, their latest budget-esque.

[00:02:25] They have now come... They came back to the legislature saying,

[00:02:30] Oops, we were not watching the budget closely enough.

[00:02:34] We were watching it, but not closely enough.

[00:02:37] And that's why we are like a quarter of a billion dollars short.

[00:02:43] And that's why we still have not been able to get people into homes that were victimized by Hurricanes Matthew and Florence.

[00:02:54] Hurricane Matthew hit the eastern part of North Carolina in 2016.

[00:03:02] And then Roy Cooper won the race for governor.

[00:03:06] And my good friend Ray took over the disaster response effort that Pat McCrory had begun.

[00:03:17] Then Hurricane Florence hit, 2018.

[00:03:21] So it has been now eight years since Matthew and six years since Florence.

[00:03:29] And there are people in eastern North Carolina that still are not back into their homes.

[00:03:39] South Carolina was also hit by Hurricane Matthew.

[00:03:43] And they had all of their people back into homes within, I think it was three years, two or three years.

[00:03:52] This agency has repeatedly failed.

[00:03:56] And Laura Hogshead was brought in, I think it was about five years ago, to try to fix the problems.

[00:04:04] And they still can't get it right.

[00:04:07] My good friend Ray, Governor Cooper, seems to be just as adept at fixing the disaster response agency as he was at clearing the untested rape kit backlog.

[00:04:23] Which he wasn't, by the way.

[00:04:25] Spoiler alert, in case you're not aware, you weren't here for the, I guess, a decade ago when he was getting all of the heat as the attorney general in charge of the crime lab.

[00:04:34] And they had all of these untested rape kits.

[00:04:36] They couldn't keep up with them.

[00:04:37] They couldn't clear the backlog.

[00:04:38] And then when he was running against Pat McCrory, McCrory kept hammering him on it.

[00:04:43] And he claimed that he had cleared it all out.

[00:04:46] And then Josh Stein took over as attorney general after Cooper beat McCrory.

[00:04:51] And Josh Stein then went about claiming he's going to clear out the rape kit backlog.

[00:04:56] And now he claims credit for doing so.

[00:05:00] You can't have the last two attorneys general both claiming to have cleared out the backlog.

[00:05:06] One of them was lying, right?

[00:05:08] One of them was lying.

[00:05:09] I suspect it was Cooper because the legislature stepped in and they funded a whole bunch of extra resources to clear the backlog.

[00:05:19] And then they were like, hey, Josh, you want to come over and stand next to us at our press conference?

[00:05:25] Oh, it was fun watching him squirm at that press conference.

[00:05:30] Because on the one hand, it's like, oh, clear out the rape kit backlog.

[00:05:34] And meanwhile, remember, Josh Stein accused his opponent in that election for attorney general who was a DA.

[00:05:44] Jim O'Neill, I believe his name is.

[00:05:47] He's, I think, out of Forsyth County, if memory serves correctly.

[00:05:50] And he accused a local DA of being responsible for the rape kit backlog.

[00:05:59] And the DA is like, I don't even have authority to test the kits.

[00:06:04] What are you talking about?

[00:06:05] And he sued Josh Stein saying Josh Stein lied about him in these campaign ads.

[00:06:11] And that's a violation of law.

[00:06:13] State law says you can't lie about another candidate in your campaign ads.

[00:06:18] So he sued and charges were brought against the sitting or I guess later sitting attorney general, Josh Stein.

[00:06:28] And well, no, I guess he was an incumbent to them.

[00:06:30] Yeah, because he's two term.

[00:06:31] So charges were brought against him and he went to court to defend his right to lie about his opponent.

[00:06:38] To say that his opponent is the reason that the rape kit backlog existed.

[00:06:43] Which is weird because I thought he cleared it out.

[00:06:45] And I also thought Roy Cooper cleared him out.

[00:06:47] But that's the kind of expertise we have governing our state.

[00:06:51] And people keep voting for it.

[00:06:53] So we're going to keep getting it good and hard.

[00:06:56] Again, this is Brendan Jones at the hearing on Monday.

[00:07:00] It's the same thing each time you come in here.

[00:07:02] Hey, we've screwed up.

[00:07:05] When did you get it right?

[00:07:06] I mean, we've given you every opportunity.

[00:07:08] We've given you every tool you've asked for.

[00:07:10] I mean, if you were a business coming to my bank asking for money,

[00:07:13] I certainly wouldn't loan you anything because you've proven that you do not have the capability

[00:07:16] of being trusted with a taxpayer's money.

[00:07:20] So I'm just asking you.

[00:07:22] Would you trust you?

[00:07:24] Would you let you go forward?

[00:07:25] Briar, I'm like you, man.

[00:07:27] It's my people.

[00:07:28] Those are my people out of their homes.

[00:07:31] But at the end, if you want to carry it up to the change to the governor,

[00:07:34] y'all have failed miserably.

[00:07:37] There's no reason we're where we're at today.

[00:07:40] This should have been wrapped up.

[00:07:42] And we've given you every opportunity and gave you every dollar you've ever asked for.

[00:07:46] And it's going to be hard for this committee to swallow and go back to our respective chambers

[00:07:50] and ask for this money.

[00:07:52] No one has any more sympathy or empathy for the people of this state

[00:07:56] that are affected by the storms than I do.

[00:07:59] I have to live with them every day.

[00:08:01] You don't have to go to the food line and sit there and hold them while they're crying

[00:08:06] because they're not in their house.

[00:08:07] You don't have an 80-year-old come to your business

[00:08:10] because he's living in a mold-infested house.

[00:08:13] You don't have to do that.

[00:08:14] I do.

[00:08:15] John Bell does.

[00:08:17] Brent Jackson does.

[00:08:18] Buck Newton does.

[00:08:20] You don't.

[00:08:21] You say you care, but you certainly haven't shown it.

[00:08:25] I appreciate your presence here today.

[00:08:28] I hope you can come back with something that's realistic that we can put our arms around.

[00:08:34] But coming back for money, coming back for money again, I mean, you're like a kid that pours through it.

[00:08:39] And it's hard for us to go back and fund you every single time when you have proven to this committee

[00:08:45] and you have proven through the state of North Carolina your inability to handle the job.

[00:08:51] So why should we keep funding you and why should we, as he says, give you the West?

[00:08:58] The problems that the people of Western North Carolina have been dealing with for now almost two months,

[00:09:05] right, approaching the two-month mark, and y'all still haven't figured it out from eight years ago,

[00:09:13] from the storms that hit the state eight years ago and six years ago.

[00:09:18] Why should we give you that money?

[00:09:21] You're not fixing what's wrong.

[00:09:25] Laura Hogshead, chief operating officer of this agency, NCOR, oversees rebuilding efforts.

[00:09:34] She is no longer employed by the embattled agency.

[00:09:38] Don't know if she got fired.

[00:09:39] Don't know if she resigned.

[00:09:41] All we know is that a spokesperson for the state's Department of Public Safety,

[00:09:46] which houses this NCOR agency, confirmed that she is no longer employed by the department.

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[00:10:58] McClatchy News, which is the Charlotte Observer and the Raleigh News End Observer,

[00:11:04] has the story on Laura Hogshead, the now former chief operating officer of the state's Office of Recovery and Resiliency.

[00:11:12] It's called Rebuild NC or NCORR.

[00:11:15] N-C-O-R-R.

[00:11:17] And the guy who is now going to be in charge is a fellow by the name of Pryor Gibson.

[00:11:23] And just out of a sign of respect, I always call him Previous Gibson just because his name is Pryor.

[00:11:30] Sorry.

[00:11:31] I did make the joke earlier this week, but it's right there.

[00:11:34] I mean, I can't.

[00:11:35] Anyway.

[00:11:35] Gibson is the deputy legislative counsel, so a lawyer, for Roy Cooper.

[00:11:45] And he was assigned to monitor NCORR earlier this year.

[00:11:51] He has now been named as the interim director of the agency.

[00:11:59] I actually have – where is it here?

[00:12:03] Ah, this is a piece from January at ncnewsline.com, which is a lefty-funded, you know, pseudo-news.

[00:12:18] I don't know.

[00:12:20] Pseudo-news.

[00:12:21] Nudo?

[00:12:22] It's like a nude – okay, yeah, probably not a good combination there.

[00:12:25] But a pseudo-news operation where they hire these, you know, former middle-of-the-road journalists totally from your legacy media outlets.

[00:12:33] They go to work over at these types – you know, like Cardinal and Pine is another one.

[00:12:37] There's one down in Charleston.

[00:12:39] Anyway, they're funded with, you know, grant money from these left-wing trusts and foundations and such.

[00:12:47] And so this was a piece, though, written by Lisa Sorg.

[00:12:50] I believe she used to be a reporter with the public radio station, one of them in North Carolina, which, by the way, did you hear this?

[00:13:01] That – heard Nick Craig.

[00:13:03] He was filling in for Vince Coakley today.

[00:13:05] Nick is the host of the Carolina Journal-NewsHour here on WBT at 5 a.m. every day.

[00:13:10] And he was – he broke this news or was talking about the breaking news because they announced it.

[00:13:17] WUNC, which is the public radio outfit out of the, you know, Raleigh area, they announced that they are leaving Twitter.

[00:13:27] We are leaving you.

[00:13:30] I did not see an explanation as to why, but they're heading over to Blue Sky.

[00:13:34] That's the platform that Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, set up so he could reimpose all of the censorship tools that Elon Musk dismantled.

[00:13:46] And so you go over to Blue Sky and you post anything not leftist and the algorithm immediately blocks you, bans you, whatever, warns you.

[00:13:59] It just – it's automatic.

[00:14:00] I mean, I'm seeing all these people that have gone over there to test it and they say, like, there are only two genders and they get banned.

[00:14:10] Like, within 30 seconds, they get banned.

[00:14:13] So that's the algorithm, which tells you really all you need to know about, quote-unquote, public radio, right?

[00:14:21] These news outfits, who works there, their general ethos.

[00:14:25] They have decided not to essentially distribute or promote their content on a single social media platform, Twitter or X.

[00:14:41] But they're going to Blue Sky, which is what?

[00:14:44] This is what all the leftists are doing, this virtue signaling, you know,

[00:14:49] I'm leaving.

[00:14:50] You shall miss me.

[00:14:51] I'm taking a stand.

[00:14:52] And it's code, right?

[00:14:56] They're sending the message out to all of the leftists that we stand with you.

[00:15:01] We agree with you.

[00:15:03] Trump, bad.

[00:15:04] Orange man, bad.

[00:15:05] Elon Musk, bad.

[00:15:07] We hate them all.

[00:15:08] Like, God forbid you want anybody to see your content, right?

[00:15:12] So they're making a decision.

[00:15:13] I would call it a business decision, but it's, you know, funded by taxpayer dollars.

[00:15:19] And so, I mean, it has a smidge of business sense in their operation.

[00:15:26] I say that as one who worked for an NPR affiliate.

[00:15:29] I worked for a public radio station.

[00:15:31] So I'm kind of aware of how things operate inside.

[00:15:35] I've listened to NPR affiliates my entire life.

[00:15:38] That's how I ended up in radio, by the way, is I grew up listening to public radio at home with my dad.

[00:15:46] He would have it in the car.

[00:15:50] All things considered, Kids America, all the different programs.

[00:15:54] But the fact that you would come out and announce this, it's just a signal that you're not of the right.

[00:16:02] Think about this also.

[00:16:04] When Jack Dorsey's Twitter was censoring, literally censoring people on Twitter, conservatives on Twitter,

[00:16:14] blocking news outlets from reporting on things like the Hunter Biden laptop, they were censoring people.

[00:16:20] And the left and NPR and WUNC, they had zero problems with any of that.

[00:16:27] And as soon as Elon Musk opens this up for free speech, that's a bridge too far for them.

[00:16:34] So they are sending a signal that Orange Man bed.

[00:16:38] Yes.

[00:16:39] But they're also sending a signal that they would prefer to be in a censorious echo chamber if it means that they don't get challenged.

[00:16:46] This is why the left is losing these arguments.

[00:16:50] It's because they're not forced to engage and defend them.

[00:16:54] That's why they're getting intellectually flabby and they just keep running away.

[00:16:59] Look, I understand.

[00:17:00] I wouldn't be able to defend your positions either.

[00:17:02] They're really silly.

[00:17:04] All right.

[00:17:04] Hey, real quick.

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[00:17:10] send me an email at Pete at the Pete Calendar show dot com and ask me about advertising.

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[00:17:25] Pete at the Pete Calendar show dot com and I can show you how it works.

[00:17:29] Run the numbers with you.

[00:17:30] Again, that's Pete at the Pete Calendar show dot com.

[00:17:34] I started to talk about this article from early January.

[00:17:38] So the article by Lisa Sorg at NC News line dot com from January starts thusly.

[00:17:46] Prior Gibson, whom Governor Roy Cooper has previously leaned on to fix a different troubled agency,

[00:17:54] has been assigned to rebuild NC or NCOR, the North Carolina Office of Resiliency and Recovery,

[00:18:00] which has blundered its way through a hurricane recovery program for more than four years.

[00:18:06] Cooper appointed Gibson as his senior legislative advisor back in December of 2022.

[00:18:13] He had been the head of the State Division of Employment Security.

[00:18:18] This week, rebuild NC rank and file employees learned that Gibson will have a role in their agency's operations.

[00:18:26] Laura Hogshead is the director of rebuild NC, also known as the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency or NCOR,

[00:18:35] and publicly has taken responsibility for the program's many failures.

[00:18:40] She is now out and prior will take over as the interim chief rebuilt.

[00:18:49] Again, this is from January.

[00:18:52] Rebuild NC has received roughly eight hundred million dollars in federal funding for its hurricane homeowner recovery program.

[00:18:58] Yet an extensive news line investigation in 2022 and 2023 uncovered a pattern of bureaucratic snafus,

[00:19:08] arbitrary decision making, inconsistent protocols and exorbitant waste.

[00:19:17] As a result, thousands of people who had survived Hurricanes Matthew and Florence were displaced from their homes,

[00:19:25] some for longer than three years.

[00:19:28] Rebuild NC housed them in cheap motels or with family and friends,

[00:19:33] while others lived in RVs or stayed in their decaying homes.

[00:19:39] Meanwhile, their belongings decayed in moldy, even rat-infested mobile storage units.

[00:19:46] Prompted by Newsline's coverage, state lawmakers held several oversight hearings

[00:19:52] to investigate rebuild NC's practices.

[00:19:54] But those hearings yielded few results and primarily served as a vehicle

[00:19:59] for Republicans to lambaste the governor using Hogshead as his proxy.

[00:20:05] Yeah, well, um, that kind of happens when the governor is in charge of the program,

[00:20:12] because he is.

[00:20:13] He's the governor.

[00:20:15] And underneath him is the Department of Public Safety,

[00:20:17] and inside the Department of Public Safety is NCOR.

[00:20:23] Which, by the way, um, who was it that asked this?

[00:20:27] Uh, the chairman, one of the chairman of the, uh,

[00:20:29] Government Operations Committee, Brent Jackson,

[00:20:32] he asked Hogshead earlier this week

[00:20:35] if the current structure

[00:20:38] has created more problems

[00:20:40] and more obstacles to actually,

[00:20:43] you know, achieving the agency's mission.

[00:20:46] With you having to report to the DPS secretary

[00:20:49] and the secretary reporting to the governor,

[00:20:51] it appears to me that we throw too much bureaucracy

[00:20:55] into this thing to get a quicker answer.

[00:20:59] Is, would it be a better direct course

[00:21:02] that you report directly to the governor

[00:21:04] as we move forward?

[00:21:06] Should we move forward with NCOR and Linda West?

[00:21:11] Sir, I don't know what the ideal structure is.

[00:21:14] I just know there are other structures out there.

[00:21:16] So, the very first hearing that we had,

[00:21:17] you asked Colonel Sanderson to testify

[00:21:19] about how this worked in South Carolina.

[00:21:21] And one of the things that he talked about

[00:21:23] was the importance of having an independent commission

[00:21:25] that reported equally to the governor

[00:21:27] and to the legislature,

[00:21:28] because that was the most expeditious way

[00:21:30] to get information shared amongst all parties.

[00:21:32] I think the key is to, as much as possible,

[00:21:35] get the politics out of hurricane recovery,

[00:21:37] because we all do want the same thing.

[00:21:39] And it is, whatever structure will give us

[00:21:42] the most transparency and the most communication

[00:21:45] between the bodies is appreciated.

[00:21:48] Okay.

[00:21:50] So, should there be a complete overhaul of this structure?

[00:21:55] So, it's no longer under the sole control

[00:21:59] and management of the governor?

[00:22:02] Or is this just sort of a reporting thing?

[00:22:06] Jackson asked whether the current structure

[00:22:09] and personnel should be trusted.

[00:22:11] You know, with all the past mistakes

[00:22:13] that have been made,

[00:22:16] and, you know, I've dealt with a large chain store

[00:22:19] for 30-plus years,

[00:22:21] and they always used to call us in

[00:22:23] every year after the seasons,

[00:22:25] and we had what we called a COE meeting,

[00:22:28] which was correction of errors.

[00:22:32] I'm going to ask this point-blank question.

[00:22:34] Why in the world, with your past history,

[00:22:36] not you personally, but in COE's past history,

[00:22:39] would we as the legislature give the West

[00:22:42] to y'all to handle this project out there?

[00:22:46] Why?

[00:22:47] Sir, I don't want another entity

[00:22:49] to have to learn all those hard lessons again.

[00:22:51] And, humbly, I would say we have learned them.

[00:22:53] And what you all saw in North Carolina after Floyd

[00:22:56] was a structure that worked and then disbanded,

[00:22:59] and then was not in place when Matthew and Florence hit.

[00:23:03] There was simply too long between storms

[00:23:05] for North Carolina to maintain that expertise.

[00:23:07] I would submit that NCOR has that expertise today.

[00:23:10] We've made all the mistakes.

[00:23:11] We've corrected all of those mistakes,

[00:23:12] and now we know what not to do,

[00:23:14] and we know how to do the things

[00:23:16] that we need to do for the West earlier and better.

[00:23:19] The key is the funding.

[00:23:20] The key is getting the federal funding quicker

[00:23:22] and making sure that the applications

[00:23:23] are working together with FEMA,

[00:23:25] but I think we're on that path.

[00:23:26] So the reason to keep NCOR is because,

[00:23:28] simply, we've done this recently.

[00:23:30] And to start over with someone else

[00:23:32] would mean having to relearn

[00:23:33] some of those hard lessons.

[00:23:35] It'll never go away.

[00:23:38] That's the beauty of GovCo,

[00:23:41] is that when the program fails,

[00:23:44] the answer is to keep it going with more money.

[00:23:48] So we've learned all of the mistakes

[00:23:50] that we know of.

[00:23:52] She didn't say that part,

[00:23:53] but I will add that part,

[00:23:55] that you know of,

[00:23:56] because there could be a whole bunch of other mistakes

[00:23:58] and you just haven't made them yet.

[00:24:01] Looking forward to you making them

[00:24:03] in Western North Carolina, though.

[00:24:04] And then you can learn from those too, right?

[00:24:08] But you got to keep us around

[00:24:09] because, you know,

[00:24:11] somebody else could come in

[00:24:12] and they would make all of these old mistakes again.

[00:24:15] But we learned.

[00:24:16] So give us another quarter billion dollars

[00:24:19] and we'll handle the Western disaster area

[00:24:23] just as well as,

[00:24:25] no, no,

[00:24:26] better than we've handled

[00:24:27] the Eastern North Carolina disaster area.

[00:24:30] I do find it interesting.

[00:24:31] She mentioned Hurricane Floyd.

[00:24:32] That was 1999.

[00:24:34] It was 99.

[00:24:36] So in 25 years,

[00:24:38] a quarter of a century, basically.

[00:24:42] Like we did it better 25 years ago.

[00:24:45] But then we just went too long without storms.

[00:24:48] Curse you, climate change.

[00:24:51] Some breaking news.

[00:24:52] Matt Gaetz,

[00:24:54] posting on to Twitter,

[00:24:56] formerly known as X.

[00:24:58] Quote,

[00:24:58] I had excellent meetings with senators yesterday.

[00:25:01] I appreciate their thoughtful feedback

[00:25:03] and the incredible support of so many.

[00:25:04] While the momentum was strong,

[00:25:06] it is clear that my confirmation

[00:25:07] was unfairly becoming a distraction

[00:25:09] to the critical work

[00:25:11] of the Trump-Vance transition.

[00:25:12] There's no time to waste

[00:25:14] on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle.

[00:25:18] Thus,

[00:25:18] I'll be withdrawing my name

[00:25:21] from consideration

[00:25:22] to serve as Attorney General.

[00:25:25] Trump's DOJ

[00:25:26] must be in place

[00:25:27] and ready

[00:25:28] on day one.

[00:25:29] I remain fully committed

[00:25:30] to see that Donald J. Trump

[00:25:32] is the most successful president

[00:25:33] in history.

[00:25:34] I will forever be honored

[00:25:35] that President Trump nominated me

[00:25:36] to lead the DOJ

[00:25:37] and I'm certain he will save America.

[00:25:39] So Gaetz

[00:25:41] withdraws

[00:25:42] as Attorney General

[00:25:44] pick for Donald Trump.

[00:25:46] Now,

[00:25:47] he has also

[00:25:48] written a letter of resignation

[00:25:53] for his congressional seat

[00:25:56] when he was named

[00:25:57] as the AG pick.

[00:25:58] But he was re-elected

[00:26:00] to the seat.

[00:26:01] So,

[00:26:03] do they go ahead

[00:26:04] and put him back into his seat?

[00:26:05] Like, honestly,

[00:26:06] I think that's probably

[00:26:07] the cleanest thing to do.

[00:26:08] Unless he doesn't want it.

[00:26:10] I don't know

[00:26:10] if there are other kind of,

[00:26:12] you know,

[00:26:12] motives and machinations

[00:26:13] going on.

[00:26:14] But Matt Gaetz

[00:26:15] withdraws

[00:26:16] from

[00:26:17] the Attorney General

[00:26:19] nomination.

[00:26:20] Let's go to the phone lines

[00:26:21] and talk with

[00:26:22] James.

[00:26:23] Hello, James.

[00:26:24] Hey.

[00:26:25] Hey.

[00:26:25] I was

[00:26:26] listening

[00:26:27] when you were playing

[00:26:29] the

[00:26:29] woman that

[00:26:30] our beloved,

[00:26:32] well-respected,

[00:26:33] divine governor

[00:26:36] has appointed

[00:26:37] to

[00:26:38] oversee

[00:26:38] the disastrous

[00:26:40] problems

[00:26:40] that we have.

[00:26:43] Was I

[00:26:44] or was I

[00:26:44] not mistaken

[00:26:45] that her argument

[00:26:46] was,

[00:26:46] yes,

[00:26:46] we screwed up,

[00:26:47] but you need

[00:26:48] to leave us in place

[00:26:49] so we can fix

[00:26:49] what we screwed up?

[00:26:51] Yeah,

[00:26:51] well,

[00:26:51] I think she framed it

[00:26:53] a little differently.

[00:26:54] Like,

[00:26:54] we've made all of the mistakes

[00:26:56] and,

[00:26:56] you know,

[00:26:57] if you

[00:26:57] get rid of

[00:26:58] this current structure

[00:26:59] and get rid of me

[00:27:00] and get rid of

[00:27:01] the agency,

[00:27:02] then

[00:27:03] somebody else

[00:27:04] coming in

[00:27:05] is going to have

[00:27:05] to make all of

[00:27:06] those same mistakes

[00:27:07] again,

[00:27:07] but we won't make

[00:27:08] those same mistakes

[00:27:09] anymore because

[00:27:10] we've already made

[00:27:11] all of those mistakes.

[00:27:12] I think is how

[00:27:13] she would frame that,

[00:27:14] which is not terribly

[00:27:15] persuasive to me.

[00:27:17] But the people

[00:27:18] who are in there

[00:27:19] were already there

[00:27:20] and knew how

[00:27:21] to do it,

[00:27:22] supposedly.

[00:27:23] Supposedly,

[00:27:23] that's what they told us

[00:27:24] when they were doing it

[00:27:25] before they made

[00:27:26] all of the mistakes

[00:27:27] that have now

[00:27:28] come to light.

[00:27:29] And,

[00:27:30] but they can,

[00:27:31] but so now

[00:27:31] we want to leave

[00:27:32] the same people

[00:27:33] there and just

[00:27:34] throw more money

[00:27:35] at it.

[00:27:35] Well,

[00:27:35] that's what she

[00:27:36] would like.

[00:27:36] Although,

[00:27:37] now she's not

[00:27:38] there anymore

[00:27:38] either.

[00:27:39] She is no longer

[00:27:40] the head of

[00:27:41] NCOR.

[00:27:42] Don't know

[00:27:42] if she was fired,

[00:27:43] don't know

[00:27:44] if she resigned,

[00:27:44] but she is no

[00:27:45] longer employed

[00:27:46] by the department.

[00:27:49] Why is it

[00:27:50] that,

[00:27:50] you know,

[00:27:52] I spent 30 years

[00:27:53] working for

[00:27:54] Mecklenburg County

[00:27:55] as,

[00:27:56] on the law

[00:27:57] enforcement side,

[00:27:58] but why is it

[00:27:58] the bureaucracy

[00:28:00] always has

[00:28:00] the exact same

[00:28:01] argument?

[00:28:02] Well,

[00:28:03] because they

[00:28:03] know that

[00:28:04] it's the easiest

[00:28:05] one to make

[00:28:06] and it's the

[00:28:07] easiest one

[00:28:08] to go along

[00:28:08] with.

[00:28:09] The harder

[00:28:09] one is to

[00:28:10] dismantle

[00:28:11] something,

[00:28:11] right?

[00:28:12] Once you

[00:28:12] create a

[00:28:13] government

[00:28:13] program or

[00:28:13] service,

[00:28:14] it doesn't

[00:28:15] ever die,

[00:28:16] right?

[00:28:16] Unless they

[00:28:17] built in some

[00:28:18] sort of an

[00:28:18] automatic sunset,

[00:28:19] it doesn't

[00:28:20] go away.

[00:28:21] So,

[00:28:22] it's always,

[00:28:23] any failure

[00:28:24] is always going

[00:28:25] to be chalked

[00:28:26] up to no

[00:28:27] money,

[00:28:27] not enough

[00:28:28] money,

[00:28:29] because that

[00:28:30] means it's

[00:28:30] not their

[00:28:30] fault,

[00:28:31] right?

[00:28:32] They're not

[00:28:32] going to

[00:28:33] claim responsibility

[00:28:33] because then

[00:28:34] they could get

[00:28:34] fired themselves

[00:28:35] and so

[00:28:36] they're not

[00:28:36] going to

[00:28:36] risk their

[00:28:38] own job.

[00:28:39] So,

[00:28:39] they say

[00:28:40] we needed

[00:28:41] more money

[00:28:41] to do

[00:28:42] the things

[00:28:42] that we

[00:28:42] wanted to

[00:28:43] do,

[00:28:43] and because

[00:28:44] we didn't

[00:28:45] get the

[00:28:45] money,

[00:28:45] we couldn't

[00:28:46] do those

[00:28:46] things and

[00:28:47] that's why

[00:28:47] we fail.

[00:28:48] That's always

[00:28:48] the argument.

[00:28:49] Yeah,

[00:28:51] except in

[00:28:52] bureaucratic

[00:28:53] circles,

[00:28:53] you don't

[00:28:54] want to

[00:28:54] fix the

[00:28:54] problem,

[00:28:55] because if

[00:28:55] you fix

[00:28:56] the problem

[00:28:56] that they

[00:28:57] created your

[00:28:57] agency for,

[00:28:58] then you

[00:28:59] don't have

[00:28:59] a reason

[00:28:59] to exist

[00:29:00] anymore.

[00:29:01] Right,

[00:29:01] if it's a

[00:29:02] problem that's

[00:29:03] fixable,

[00:29:03] I mean,

[00:29:04] I'd say

[00:29:05] law enforcement

[00:29:06] is not

[00:29:06] something like

[00:29:07] that,

[00:29:07] right?

[00:29:08] I mean,

[00:29:08] you're always

[00:29:08] going to

[00:29:09] have a need

[00:29:09] for law

[00:29:09] enforcement

[00:29:10] like you

[00:29:10] were,

[00:29:11] and so

[00:29:12] that doesn't

[00:29:13] ever go

[00:29:13] away,

[00:29:13] well,

[00:29:14] unless,

[00:29:14] of course,

[00:29:14] some Democrats

[00:29:15] get elected

[00:29:16] circa 2020

[00:29:18] with the

[00:29:18] BLM stuff,

[00:29:19] but the

[00:29:20] law enforcement

[00:29:21] agencies,

[00:29:22] yeah,

[00:29:22] but if you

[00:29:22] are different,

[00:29:23] I think,

[00:29:23] but yeah,

[00:29:24] if you set

[00:29:24] up something

[00:29:24] like the,

[00:29:25] I remember

[00:29:25] talking to a

[00:29:26] county commissioner

[00:29:27] at the time

[00:29:27] when they

[00:29:29] did the

[00:29:29] Wipe Out

[00:29:30] Poverty

[00:29:31] Plan,

[00:29:31] or the

[00:29:32] WOP,

[00:29:32] the W-O-P-P,

[00:29:34] Wipe Out

[00:29:34] Poverty,

[00:29:35] and,

[00:29:36] you know,

[00:29:37] I was kind

[00:29:37] of curious,

[00:29:38] like,

[00:29:39] well,

[00:29:39] it's a

[00:29:39] five-year

[00:29:40] plan,

[00:29:41] and what

[00:29:42] if it

[00:29:42] doesn't

[00:29:42] work?

[00:29:44] Are you

[00:29:45] going to get

[00:29:45] rid of the

[00:29:45] plan?

[00:29:45] Are you going

[00:29:46] to get rid

[00:29:46] of the

[00:29:46] funding?

[00:29:46] You're going

[00:29:47] to get rid

[00:29:47] of the

[00:29:47] cottage

[00:29:47] industry

[00:29:48] that now

[00:29:49] attaches to

[00:29:49] the grants

[00:29:50] and stuff?

[00:29:51] Of course

[00:29:51] not.

[00:29:51] That's part

[00:29:52] of the reason

[00:29:54] why.

[00:29:54] This is why

[00:29:55] government,

[00:29:55] its natural

[00:29:56] tendency is

[00:29:57] to grow.

[00:29:58] It's always

[00:29:59] to take more

[00:30:00] and more

[00:30:00] and more

[00:30:01] to expand

[00:30:02] the things

[00:30:02] because even

[00:30:03] if you

[00:30:03] give it

[00:30:03] a discrete,

[00:30:05] focused

[00:30:05] mission,

[00:30:06] and it is

[00:30:07] able to do

[00:30:07] that thing

[00:30:08] well,

[00:30:09] and they

[00:30:09] accomplish

[00:30:10] that mission,

[00:30:11] then they're

[00:30:11] going to start

[00:30:12] looking for

[00:30:12] other things

[00:30:13] to do

[00:30:14] in order

[00:30:14] to protect

[00:30:15] their own

[00:30:15] jobs.

[00:30:16] And so

[00:30:17] they'll start

[00:30:18] expanding.

[00:30:18] Oh,

[00:30:19] we have

[00:30:19] a new

[00:30:19] initiative.

[00:30:19] Oh,

[00:30:20] we have

[00:30:20] a new

[00:30:20] way of

[00:30:20] doing

[00:30:21] this.

[00:30:21] That's

[00:30:22] the K-12

[00:30:22] government

[00:30:22] school thing.

[00:30:23] Why do

[00:30:23] they keep

[00:30:24] coming out

[00:30:24] with new

[00:30:25] ways to

[00:30:25] teach

[00:30:25] kids?

[00:30:28] It's the

[00:30:28] same sort

[00:30:28] of idea.

[00:30:29] And then

[00:30:29] in the

[00:30:30] meantime,

[00:30:30] you end

[00:30:30] up with

[00:30:30] all of

[00:30:31] these

[00:30:31] non-profits

[00:30:32] and these

[00:30:33] other,

[00:30:33] I call

[00:30:33] it the

[00:30:33] cottage

[00:30:34] industry,

[00:30:34] but all

[00:30:35] of

[00:30:35] these

[00:30:37] hangers

[00:30:37] on

[00:30:38] that

[00:30:38] then

[00:30:38] connect

[00:30:39] into

[00:30:39] the

[00:30:40] system,

[00:30:40] they

[00:30:41] then

[00:30:41] are

[00:30:41] reliant

[00:30:42] on that

[00:30:42] funding

[00:30:42] as well.

[00:30:43] And now

[00:30:43] you have

[00:30:44] built in

[00:30:44] a constituency,

[00:30:46] right?

[00:30:46] These are

[00:30:46] the people

[00:30:47] that show

[00:30:47] up at

[00:30:47] the government

[00:30:48] budget

[00:30:48] hearings

[00:30:49] and say

[00:30:49] don't cut

[00:30:50] the funding,

[00:30:51] don't cut

[00:30:51] taxes,

[00:30:52] in fact,

[00:30:53] raise taxes

[00:30:53] so we can

[00:30:54] get more

[00:30:54] of it to

[00:30:55] quote,

[00:30:56] help more

[00:30:56] people,

[00:30:57] right?

[00:30:59] That's

[00:30:59] always

[00:31:00] the case.

[00:31:01] James,

[00:31:02] I appreciate

[00:31:02] the call,

[00:31:02] sir,

[00:31:03] and thanks

[00:31:04] for your

[00:31:04] service,

[00:31:04] too.

[00:31:04] I appreciate

[00:31:05] that.

[00:31:06] Yeah,

[00:31:06] that's the

[00:31:06] natural

[00:31:07] tendency

[00:31:07] of the

[00:31:08] government

[00:31:08] is to

[00:31:08] take more

[00:31:09] and to

[00:31:10] grow,

[00:31:10] and the

[00:31:11] natural

[00:31:11] tendency

[00:31:11] of the

[00:31:12] citizenry

[00:31:12] is to

[00:31:14] surrender

[00:31:14] more and

[00:31:15] more to

[00:31:16] that

[00:31:16] government.

[00:31:17] It's very

[00:31:18] difficult to

[00:31:18] break,

[00:31:18] and if you

[00:31:19] doubt me

[00:31:19] on that,

[00:31:20] just watch

[00:31:21] what happens

[00:31:21] with Elon

[00:31:22] Musk and

[00:31:23] Vivek Ramaswamy

[00:31:24] and their

[00:31:24] efforts to

[00:31:25] rein in the

[00:31:26] federal government.

[00:31:26] All right,

[00:31:27] that'll do it

[00:31:28] for this

[00:31:28] episode.

[00:31:29] Thank you

[00:31:29] so much

[00:31:29] for listening.

[00:31:30] I could

[00:31:31] not do the

[00:31:31] show without

[00:31:31] your support

[00:31:32] and the

[00:31:32] support of

[00:31:33] the businesses

[00:31:33] that advertise

[00:31:34] on the

[00:31:34] podcast,

[00:31:35] so if you'd

[00:31:36] like,

[00:31:36] please support

[00:31:37] them,

[00:31:37] too,

[00:31:37] and tell

[00:31:38] them you

[00:31:38] heard it

[00:31:38] here.

[00:31:38] You can

[00:31:39] also become

[00:31:39] a patron

[00:31:40] at my

[00:31:40] Patreon

[00:31:40] page or

[00:31:41] go to

[00:31:43] thepetecalendorshow.com.

[00:31:44] Again,

[00:31:44] thank you so much

[00:31:45] for listening,

[00:31:45] and don't break

[00:31:46] anything while

[00:31:47] I'm gone.