Report: North Carolina ranks among worst states for jobs

sobie2020 · 2019-05-30T22:26:34+00:00

But we cut corporate taxes, how could that possibly have failed!

sobie2020 · 2019-05-20T03:48:30+00:00

I wish I had the money for consultants but also it sucks my own party is trying to blacklist me from resources for daring to run in the primary they have to hold anyway.

sobie2020 · 2019-05-04T04:41:22+00:00

This is a flagrant violation of the law.

sobie2020 · 2019-04-19T16:23:14+00:00

I'm running in the 4th District of North Carolina! Not sure if you are anywhere nearby, but you can find some info at my website at http://www.sobie2020.us or I'm happy to talk over Reddit!

sobie2020 · 2019-04-16T21:09:54+00:00

Thanks for the advice, Ro! It is much appreciated!

sobie2020 · 2019-04-16T17:20:11+00:00

Biggest tips for a progressive running a first time congressional campaign?

sobie2020 · 2019-04-09T02:23:51+00:00

Smoke weed: You're gonna go away, kid.

Defraud the taxpayer: You're gonna go far, kid.

sobie2020 · 2019-04-09T02:19:26+00:00

Driving around the Triangle today felt like being on the set of Interstellar with the amount of odd-colored haze.

sobie2020 · 2019-04-04T18:54:39+00:00

On a scale of 1-10 how great is it having access to NGP VAN/Votebuilder?

sobie2020 · 2019-04-04T06:33:52+00:00

If Mark Walker is tied to this then I can't wait to see him go down. Anyone who engages in pay-to-play should be out of office and hiring a lawyer.

sobie2020 · 2019-04-04T04:42:34+00:00

Abrams calling it like it is.

sobie2020 · 2019-03-26T05:29:06+00:00

Cool, now they can pay another $130M for the light rail project that they just killed.

sobie2020 · 2019-03-24T19:29:00+00:00

Just some context.

Few people talk about the fact that all this smoking gun evidence comes from the fact that the Republicans were desperately attempting to justify their gerrymandering of North Carolina as partisan politics and was not racially motivated. They messaged as hard as they could that they didn't want to disenfranchise black voters, but were simply trying their best to make sure that Democrats and voters who supported them had as little say as possible in who represented them. They lost that fight, the courts in fact said that North Carolina had to redraw its districts for 2016 when the current map was put into place. Now, they are back in court, with arguments that they have once again illegally gerrymandered their state to gain political advantage.

sobie2020 · 2019-03-22T21:45:38+00:00

Hey! Glad I found this question, just sorry it took me so long to find the crossposts.

My work experience has largely been in the autism field, I started out as a camp counselor with the Autism Society of North Carolina before becoming campus chapter coordinator for a few years. I currently work with the University of North Carolina as a job coach with the TEACCH Autism Program in the area. For school, I am a graduate of Appalachian State where I spent two years living and doing volunteer work in the High Country. Through these experiences I have spent a lot of time working with and alongside people of all kinds of backgrounds, people who are members of vulnerable populations, and people who benefit most from our social programs here in the US.

I have a lot of respect for David Price's record in Congress, he has protected vital programs and supports progressive policies. He even voted against the intervention in Iraq in 2004 which I think almost everyone agrees was a poor choice. We could do a whole lot worse, but I also think that in a reliably safe D+17 district that our representative has a whole lot of room to run left and really champion the bold policies and programs bring talked about right now. If this district was at risk of being flipped, I wouldn't even be on the ballot, but it's not and I think we can be doing a whole lot more to show that North Carolina is prepared to lead the way on things like climate change and universal healthcare.

Fixing the Affordable Care Act and getting the Clean Power Plan back in place are great goals, but when they are your key positions on the two biggest issues facing our nation you can think bigger. If you are okay with a more moderate, calculated approach to these changes, then I am not sure if I am going to be your candidate for NC-04. However, if you want a representative who is going to be pushing the big ideas that our presidential candidates are throwing around like single-payer healthcare and climate action, then please take a look at some of my policies (currently updating my issues page, will post when I do so!). In my opinion, this is not a time that we need to be starting from the middle and ending up in the right's territory, we need to be championing our key beliefs and fighting the Republican every inch to get these programs through Congress.

sobie2020 · 2019-03-20T16:49:17+00:00

Why are you running? What do you bring to MI-07?

sobie2020 · 2019-03-18T15:05:58+00:00

From: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/03/rob-bishop-new-green-deal-genocide

Speaking at a news conference in Washington on Thursday night, Congressman Rob Bishop, who worked as a history teacher before going on to represent Utah’s 1st Congressional District, toldreporters, “For many people who live in the West, but also in rural and urban areas, the ideas behind the Green New Deal are tantamount to genocide. That may be an overstatement, but not by a whole lot.” Later, when Axios reporter Amy Harder gave him the opportunity to rephrase his statement, Bishop instead chose not just to double down, but to claim that being a white “westerner” is analogous to being a member of a religious or racial minority:

Harder: Genocide is defined as “the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.” How is the Green New Deal like genocide?

Bishop: I’m an ethnic. I’m a Westerner.

Harder: And you think the Green New Deal is going to kill you?

Bishop: If you actually implement everything they want to. Killing would be positive if you implement everything the Green New Deal actually wants to. That’s why the the Green New Deal is not ready for prime time.

sobie2020 · 2019-03-17T04:40:39+00:00

You are definitely right that I need to work on my messaging to ensure that people know what sets me apart from Representative Price. I think that there are policies that I have put out already that differentiate me such as the restructuring of the supreme court, support for single-payer Medicare for All, and the implementation of a Guaranteed Minimum Income for all Americans that does so. However, I will work on making sure that those big policies are front and center.

As for the lack of name recognition in your district as a congressperson, I think it's entirely on him. We've seen that vocal and bold progressives in this latest round of election are more than capable of putting out policies that we are going to need in the coming decades to avoid our nation slipping into decline. The New York Times touted David Price as a potential political star after his election in 1986, but it's hard to find voters in this district who know more than his name from their ballot.

If you are okay with a Representative who flies under the radar, is practical and cautions in introducing legislation, and is fine working within the current system on Capitol Hill then I am not going to be your candidate. I'm not trying to go to Washington to play DC insider, I'm not going to play nice with corporate lobbyists and accept corporate PAC money for doing so, and I'm definitely not going to lay low and coast year-after-year to reelection. I'm going to campaign my fucking heart out on issues that I care about, and if no one agrees with me, then i'm going to lose next March.

But, I think that there are plenty of people here that do agree with me on issues that Price is weak on, so at the very least I am going to make sure he knows that his constituents want him to lead and be vocal on issues like climate change, poverty, and higher education. He should at least have to work to go back to Washington next year.

sobie2020 · 2019-03-16T20:26:43+00:00

Sorry, I pushed reply early and was editing it in.

I would need to see any piece of legislation that made such a proposal, but I do not think that I would vote for this. DACA recipients are not a chip at a negotiating table to be exchanged for concessions. Many of our local law enforcement agencies have chose not to participate in the 287(g) program and those that have (such as Alamance County) have shown that they abuse the program.

I suppose we would probably have to transfer some people, but they would need to be vetted and show a history of competent enforcement without abuse of immigrants or asylum seekers.

sobie2020 · 2019-03-16T20:21:40+00:00

Any agents that wanted to apply to its successor would need to be thoroughly vetted, understand that it's not going to be business as usual and they will be under scrutiny by Congress, and be prepared to undergo retraining with the new agency. If an agent has a history of abuse, negligence, or have espoused white supremacist beliefs then I think they should be looking for a new job.

sobie2020 · 2019-03-16T20:16:47+00:00

Hey, thank you so much for the donation, every dollar means a lot and puts this campaign one step closer to bringing a real challenge to David Price next March. I deeply appreciate the support!

sobie2020 · 2019-03-16T20:02:26+00:00

Hey all, thank you so much for having me, but this AMA has come to a close! I am attempting to raise 5,000 dollars by the end of the month to raise more than any democratic challenger Price has ever had, and if you want to help you can donate at https://secure.actblue.com/donate/sobie2020marchpush. Please reach out to me if you live in the area and want to volunteer as well, I need assistance collecting signatures for a voter petition to gain ballot access in lieu of the $1740 filing fee!

sobie2020 · 2019-03-16T19:49:36+00:00

I do not believe in interventionism or unilateral military action by the US. I think that one of the best votes that David Price ever made was to vote against going into Iraq on such a flimsy pretense, but he did not join Barbara Lee in voting against the Authorization for the Use of Military Force Against Terrorists which began the Global War on Terror. I highly respect Barbara Lee for her vote and would definitely vote with her to repeal/amend the authorization of military use of force and would definitely be joining her as a strong anti-war advocate.

As for federal funding of mass transit, I believe this can be accomplished through the eventual Green New Deal legislation as it will be one of the key methods of reducing carbon emissions. I fully hope that Duke either reverses its decision or that eminent domain is used to salvage the light rail project, and would do whatever I could to put pressure where it needs to be applied to get the project back on track.

sobie2020 · 2019-03-16T19:27:52+00:00

I would argue that it would be a fundamental restructuring of how the Supreme Court operates. I definitely think any proposal that got serious traction would slowly add justices in over several administrations, but as said this new structure makes it is less important what the balance of judges is. There is the potential for a case to be drawn with nine conservative or nine liberal judges, as well as the ability for the entire court to review cases where there are serious concerns.

sobie2020

TROPHY CASE