THE CASH COMMENTARY FOR THURSDAY, SEPT. 10TH, 2026

                                                                      CASH MICHAELS 

            SMALL POTATOES

                                    by Cash Michaels

You know, it truly is a shame how much we’ve lost in a national leader with you-know-who in the White House. Honesty, integrity, good judgement, compassion, commitment to serving the American people, courage, competence, I could go on. In my experience, those were the qualities that made for an exceptional president of the United States. From John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama and Joe Biden, each president had his strengths and weaknesses, but each pretty much knew what his job was, and did it to the best of his ability.

And the one thing we always knew about each president, even before Kennedy, was that despite their personal faults, our presidents always knew never to talk down to American citizens, or about American citizens. It’s just something you just didn’t do. I'm pretty sure that there were times when presidents wanted to, but where would it get you? Your job as an elected official was to serve all of the American people, and carve out the mandate as you best understood it when the American people have had their say, either at the ballot box or in the protest lines.

Whatever you did, displaying respect for the ultimate wisdom of the American people was your job when you served as president.

But not anymore.

Today we have a man in office who clearly admits that his term in office is all about him, and what he can get to do onlyfor himself. Our country is only great, he says, because he’s in charge of it. The only real history that is being made in our nation today is being made by him, and no one else. Recently he released a chart of pictures of former presidents which he rated, with the bottom floor of portraits featuring Barack Obama, Joe Biden and others labeled as “failures”, while his portrait stood above all other former presidents as the “greatest” ever.

And now we know how he thinks about, and how much respect he has for the average American.

Not much.

Oh, our current president talks a good game when it suits his purposes, but once in while he betrays what he actually thinks and feels. For instance, when asked why the term “war” was suddenly, after six months, being discouraged from use about the intense conflict we’re still in the middle of the war with Iran, the president said,  "A lot of people don't call it a war. I call it a military conflict, because it's small potatoes for us."

Eighteen members of our US military have lost their precious, young lives as a result of  what was routinely being called a war when certain people in power said it would be over with in 15 minutes. But now, because those same people apparently don’t want to be tagged with the responsibility of paying full death benefits to the families of those 18 brave Americans, or have to openly admit that they are losing their “war” with Iran, a war they arrogantly did not get congressional approval for, it’s suddenly time for semantics.

Except that now, the strategy is to minimize the sacrifices of brave Americans who have given their lives for their nation by calling what they sacrificed for “small potatoes.”

Let’s draw from previous insulting language about the ultimate sacrifices our brave men and women sign up for. Only “suckers and losers,” remember that, give their lives for military conflicts their commander-in-chief refers to as “small potatoes.”

Our president added afterwards that he called the Iran War, a war that he’s previously said was important to the United States because we must make sure Iran does not ever develop a nuclear weapon, “ not a big thing”

What kind of double-talk is that, except exactly the kind of double-talk we should expect from someone who has no respect for the people he’s supposed to be serving, people he’s sworn to be protecting, people he truly cares little about.

Look at his attitude about the long-suffering naval personnel onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, who are just being sent back home now months after their customary deployment in the Middle East. When asked about the suffering those sailors endured while serving on their aircraft carrier months after their initial deployment, our president responded, “They didn’t serve long enough!”

It has been written that our president, whose name I’ve decided not to utter in this column this week, cares more about how his ballroom and 250-foot arc are coming under construction than he does about what is happening in the war he started. He’s more interested in the self-monuments he’s building to himself than the war, because as he’s said earlier this week, no one is going to pay the kind of tribute to him when he’s gone that he feels he deserves.

And apparently, instead of doing the job he was elected to do in lowering the cost of living for the American people, the absolute best that he can do is import tons of questionable ground beef from some foreign country no one is willing to identify to flood the market with in hopes that will make up for the high cost of regular supermarket beef, and the rising cost of gas.

None of this is truly serving the American people.

All of it is treating us, including our war dead, like small potatoes.

Well, we are NOT small potatoes! We’re proud Americans, dammit, and if the elected officials we put into office can’t treat us with the respect, dignity and honor we all expect and are due, then we need to make a change…NOW!!!

         I say the November midterm elections is a good time to start. Early voting is just around the corner, so there’s no excuse. Unless you actually enjoy the patent disrespect coming from our president AND his party, let's show them how we treat folks who think all we are are small potatoes.

Let's VOTE them out of office, then collectively lick the spoon!!!

-30-   

THE CASH STUFF FOR 09-10-26

BLACK STUDENTS AT 

UNC-CHAPEL HILL 

DECRY “RACIAL ATTACK”

DURING WATCH PARTY

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer

Black students at UNC-Chapel Hill are blasting the campus administration and police after a terrifying incident on August 31st left them feeling particularly unsafe.

According to the campus student newspaper, The Daily Tar Heel, “…a racially motivated attack…took place in Greenlaw Hall Monday night (August 31st.). The perpetrator entered a “Love Island” watch party hosted by several Black student organizations to throw objects at attendees and brandish a makeshift incendiary device.”

The Daily Tar Heel continued, “…during the watch party, the perpetrator entered the Greenlaw Hall classroom and made racially charged threats. Students in attendance said they felt that their lives were threatened.” “After leaving the academic building, the attacker was also spotted chasing students through the Pit while threatening them with open flames.”

UNC Campus police eventually caught up with the suspect, who was identified as 45-year-old Keegan Carlisle Wilson, a UNC alumnus. UNC police say that Wilson was apparently having a mental breakdown when he came on campus. He was committed to UNC Hospital “due to exhibiting mental distress.” Once cleared, authorities intend to charge Wilson with disorderly conduct, vandalism, damage to property and aggravated assault along with banning him from campus.

Reportedly, 80-100 Black students were affected by the “racial attack” and some sought counseling afterwards.

The suspect’s unidentified mother is quoted in subsequent published reports saying that “The system failed us,” referring to her inability to “get him mental health help for months.”

Meanwhile, UNC-Chapel Hill Administration and UNC - Chapel Hill Police are  pushing back on accusations by Black student leaders  and faculty members that those watch party students were essentially “abandoned” while they were under attack.

Some who were trapped by Wilson during the attack claim that there was no campus-wide Alert Carolina message issued, warning of the incident.

UNC Police Chief Brian James maintained that no campus alert message was sent out because of the length of time it takes to confirm an incident, and then have that confirmation approved. Even so, Chief James said the suspect was taken into custody within 17 minutes of officers being alerted.

"He was in custody and there was no longer a threat to campus," Chief James told WRAL-TV. "What I don't want to happen is, we're sending out multiple alerts all the time about everything, and then, when it pops up, I really need you to pay attention to it. You're like, 'Oh, this is another Alert Carolina message.”

Still, some UNC faculty members say the system has worked differently in the past.

"This is an incident where 80 to 100 of our students thought there was an imminent threat to their lives. They were ducking under their desks," Mark Peifer of UNC’s Dept. of Biology said. "This is, from my perspective, the most serious incident we've had on campus since when a gun was drawn and someone was killed."  

-30-

TRUMP’S ANTI-DEI TAX EXEMPT

STATUS THREAT INCLUDES

PRIVATE HBCUS TOO

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer

In an effort to further stamp out DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) policies in the nation’s higher education, private historically Black colleges and universities that in anyway maintain admissions policies, scholarships, loans or other programs for students of color could lose their tax-exempt status under a new proposed rule by the Trump Administration because they “engage in racial discrimination.”

In North Carolina this would affect Shaw University in Raleigh; Bennett College for Women in Greensboro; Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, Livingstone College in Salisbury; and St. Augustine’s University in Raleigh.

Overall, at least 18,000 private schools and colleges could now be affected by a draft proposal that was released last week by the Dept. of the U.S. Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service. Under this proposal, private schools K-12 and post-secondary institutions that are found to be discriminating on the basis of race, color or national or ethnic origin in administration of its educational , admissions, scholarships, athletic or other policies against whites,could have their 501(c)(3) tax exemption status revoked.

Reportedly, the Treasury Department estimates at least 750,000 students attending private schools across the country may be enrolled and “qualify for scholarships allocated on the basis of racial, ethnic or national identity.”

The proposed rule has not gone into effect yet, but and when it does,  is slated for May 31, 2027. But once it does, those private schools, if found to be in violation, will lose their tax exempt status, meaning they will then be subject to federal income tax, and donations to those institutions will no longer be tax-deductible.

HBCUs, in addition to other “minority-serving institutions” will be affected, most observers note. “Schools rebranding race-based preferences as equitable, inclusive, or diversity-enhancing does not change their discriminatory nature. Today’s Treasury and IRS proposed regulations establish a clear standard, and the institutions that continue to use discriminatory practices will no longer receive the benefits of federal tax-exempt status,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. “Under President Trump, this Administration is standing up for America’s students by ensuring racial discrimination has no place in American education.” 

Interestingly. The proposal would not affect private institutions that have a religious mission or curriculum. Religious affiliations would be exempt under the proposed policy.

Critics were not please with the proposal.

"This is not neutral enforcement ‌of ⁠civil-rights law. It is an affirmative attempt to turn civil-rights law against the very people it was enacted to protect," AAUP President Todd Wolfson said in a statement. "For half a century, federal policy recognized that measures intended to dismantle entrenched racial exclusion are not equivalent to policies designed to preserve it."

-30-

 

THE CASH COMMENTARY FOR SEPT 3, 2026

                                                                   CASH MICHAELS

                                   WHAT LIES FROM MICHAEL WHATLEY

                                                           By Cash Michaels

I get it, I get it! Roy Cooper is one of the most powerful, and successful  figures in North Carolina election politics, so in order to defeat the formidable Democrat, you’ve got to come with guns loaded for bear, because the people of North Carolina genuinely like him, and trust him.

But the crap and outright lies the Michael Whatley campaign, and those reportedly supporting the former RNC head to be elected to the US Senate seat being vacated by outgoing Senator Thom Tillis, have been telling in recent Whatley TV campaign commercials. In fact, they've been beyond the pale.

Now I’m from New York, the home of some of the most dishonest, disgusting, nastiest  political campaign advertising in history, so I grew up watching lie after lie on TV. After I moved to North Carolina, I’ve even lived through the 1984 Hunt-Helms campaign when Sen. Jesse Helms aired the infamous “white hands” commercial blaming affirmative action for white people in North Carolina not getting jobs they felt “belonged” to them.

I’ve seen a lot of disgraceful campaign advertising during my years as a reporter, and even long before that, but these current Michael Whatley campaign ads take the cake. They essentially add up to the following:

“The unexpected floods in Nepal have killed hundreds, if not thousands. Had Roy Cooper been doing his job as NC governor, those people might still be alive today!”

Absolutely ridiculous, heartless and certainly untrue, and yet, that’s what’s being put on TV to try to bring Roy Cooper’s numbers down in the US Senate race with Michael Whatley, truth be damned. Interestingly, Whatley’s name is never mentioned in any of the ads.

And the most sickening part about all of it is that the plan is working! One moment we hear that Cooper is soaring by twelve points ahead in the polls. Then we hear that that number has been cut down to just five. Now we’re hearing that it will be a “tight race” going into the stretch.

It shouldn’t be. But that, unfortunately, are what elections are all about in this country. Who can lie the best to win, and that usually adds up to who can scare the socks off of folks the most. Instead of campaigning on the issues - what important elections should always be about - we have candidates who campaign to our fears. In the old days, race was the “old reliable” bugaboo that campaigns used to mostly scare mostly white, Republican-leaning voters to cast ballots against Democrats.

Michael Whatley’s campaign proves that not much has changed.

But now we have what’s known as super political action committees, or super PACs, “independent political groups that are not directed by political campaigns, but nonetheless raise and spend money to elect or oppose political candidates to office.”

In the case of Michael Whatley, the Republican Senate Leadership Fund is a super PAC that “ works to protect and expand the Republican majority in the United States Senate.” Lord knows they’ve been on the job here in North Carolina to make sure that the Senate GOP maintains its slim majority in the US Senate, especially since North Carolina was originally in the toss-up column just a few weeks ago. But campaign whoppers like the following from the Republican Fund have so far kept Michael Whatley in business.

This from FactCheck.org:

An ad from a super PAC supporting Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley features a heart-wrenching testimonial from the father of a woman who was murdered in 2025. The ad falsely implies the accused murderer was one of the prisoners released during the COVID-19 pandemic when Whatley’s Democratic opponent, Roy Cooper, was governor of North Carolina.

The problem: Cooper had nothing to do with the accused murderer’s release. The suspect was released from a prison in South Carolina, not North Carolina.

And the victim was killed in Columbia, SC, NOT North Carolina. Here’s the news link to absolutely prove it - https://www.wistv.com/2026/05/04/one-year-since-logan-federicos-death-where-does-her-case-stand/

Here’s how the ad from the Senate Leadership Fund or SLF PAC, tiptoes the line, implying, but not directly stating, that Cooper was indirectly responsible for the woman’s death.

“Logan was the most caring, loving person,” Stephen Federico, the father of a 22-year-old murdered in 2025, says in the ad while choking back tears. “It was a home invasion. Went to the house where Logan was sleeping and he pulled her out of bed and forced her on her knees and stuck a shotgun in her, left side of her chest, and pulled the trigger for no reason. Logan was a casualty of an agenda. Roy Cooper let 3,500 criminals out on the street; 18 of them were murders. Forty years of Roy Cooper is enough.”

What’s amazing here is how the SLF PAC doesn’t allow cold facts to get in the way of a flat out lying campaign ad. In 2021 during the growing COVID-19 pandemic in North Carolina, Gov. Cooper was sued and forced to reluctantly release, after negotiations, 3,500 nonviolent prisoners from North Carolina prisons to relieve overcrowding.

NONE OF THOSE RELEASED PRISONERS HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE MURDER OF 22-YEAR-OLD LOGAN FEDERICO.

Nor did any of those prisoners have a thing to do with the subsequent murders of Shemar Hayes in Charlotte, or the much publicized stabbing death of Ukrainian immigrant Iryna Zautska on the Charlotte transit system by Decarlos Dejuan Brown, Jr.

No one is saying that these ghastly and tragic crimes did not occur. Only that Roy Cooper had nothing to do with them. That means absolutely nothing he did or have happen had anything to do with these crimes occurring.

In the case of 23-year-old Shemar Hayes, the SLF PAC reportedly asked his father Ronald, to be interviewed for an “anti-gun violence” spot talking about the murder of his son, and to pretend like he’s speaking directly to Roy Cooper. According to Mr. Hayes, he was never told what the true purpose of the “interview” was for. Mr. Hayes is a Black Democrat, and told The News and Record that he plans to vote for Roy Cooper again, signaling that he does NOT blame the former Democratic governor for the death of his son because Cooper had nothing to do with it.

But you would absolutely think so upon watching the slick, touching SLF PAC campaign commercial that’s running.

In the case of the murder of Ukrainian immigrant Iryna Zautska on the Charlotte transit system by Decarlos Dejuan Brown, Jr., again, false flag, especially when the Charlotte-Mecklenburg DA was actually a Republican and was responsible, not Cooper, for Brown’s release to the streets after incarceration.

Here’s the kicker though - neither the Whatley campaign nor the SLF-PAC are worried about people taking the time to dig up the truth before they vote. They’re looking to shave off just enough support to make it a horse race to the end, which means as long as the money holds up and the polling gives the green light, we can expect more boldface lies from the SLF PAC and the Whatley campaign.

Republicans and Democrats are already baked into their positions, so these negative Cooper ads are designed to influence the considerable number of independent voters we have throughout the state.

It’s simply impossible for me to have any respect for any candidate for public office - be he or she Democrat or Republican - who lies like the day is long just to win an election. And it looks like Michael Whatley fits that description to a “T.”

Before you cast your extremely valuable ballot for any candidate, please do a little homework on who they are, what policies they support and don’t support, and if telling the truth is something they seem to have a problem with. Then make your decision, and vote in this fall’s November 3rd midterm elections.

We need you, but we need you because ALL of us deserve honesty in the people we elect to office.

-30-

THE CASH STUFF FOR SEPT. 3RD, 2026

 SAU OUTLINES COST-CUTTING

MEASURES TO FORESTALL

CLOSING ITS DOORS

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer

We now know what the beleaguered administration at St. Augustine’s University (SAU) in Raleigh plans to further do in order to forestall having the doors to its downtown Raleigh campus close after 158 years.

Recently in a shocking cost cutting measure, it was revealed by an attorney for the small, private historically Black Episcopalian university that SAU would not offer any academic or educational courses during its fall semester '26, effectively putting itself out of business for the time being, according to the federal bankruptcy Judge David Warren.

In the most recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy court hearing last week, university officials revealed to its creditors how it will furthermore reduce its monthly expenses in order to meet its fiscal obligations. Of the 300+ creditors SAU owes money to, it owes the Internal Revenue Service alone an estimated $14 million.

During the course of those revelations, the alleged previous actions by former SAU Board of Trustees Chairman James Perry and Vice Chair Brian Bouleware were called into question, with Bankruptcy Judge Warren questioning why the institution never maintained liability insurance for its trustee board officers and members.

A frustrated Judge Warren at one point told the defendants that SAU’s bankruptcy case held “too many surprises” due to a “lack of professionalism” by the trustee board leadership. 

“I’m just astonished people in fiduciary capacity for a university did not have a (directors & officers) policy,” Judge Warren said. “What else is out there that I don’t know about, or the public doesn’t know about?”

The alleged fiscal mismanagement actions of the former Board chair and vice chair are considered to be responsible for putting SAU into the dire financial straits it now finds itself in, including loss of its accreditation. As a result, new SAU board leadership has taken over while the previous chairman and vice chairman are no longer members.

On top of the millions of dollars SAU reportedly owes creditors, the judge was asked to order an automatic stay of a discrimination lawsuit filed against SAU by the estate of former President Dr. Christine McPhail. Dr. Mc Phail died several months ago. In order to prevent the cost of defending itself against the lawsuit from accruing, the judge issued a stay in the matter.

The school also informed the court that it wanted to hire a real estate advisor  to help in selling off some of the $200 million in acreage it holds in order to help payoff its debts.

Before scheduling the next bankruptcy hearing on October 1st, the judge ordered SAU’s legal counsel to prepare an update on the status of the school’s current insurance coverage and on its cash collateral budget.

                                                                        -30-

                                                WHATLEY                COOPER 

GOP WHATLEY’S SENATE 

CAMPAIGN ACCUSED OF 

USING BLACK FATHER IN 

FALSE NEGATIVE ADS 

AGAINST ROY COOPER

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer

The U.S. Senate campaign for Republican candidate Michael Whatley is being accused of using the crimes of Black convicted inmates to falsely smear opponent Democratic former NC Governor Roy Cooper in their race this fall.

In one of the alleged smear allegations, Cooper is even accused of releasing from a South Carolina prison a South Carolina inmate who reportedly killed a South Carolina woman, a power Cooper as North Carolina governor certainly wouldn’t have.

The best known alleged Whatley smear allegation against Cooper comes in a hard-hitting :30 second campaign commercial that features Ronald Hayes, a grieving Black father from Charlotte whose 23-year-old son Shemar, a college football player, was murdered in March 2024. In the interest of keeping his son’s name alive, Mr. Hayes reportedly agreed to take part in what he understood was an anti-gun violence campaign, and to speak to the camera as if he were directly addressing then Gov. Cooper, who was still in office.

What Mr. Hayes was apparently unaware of was that the interview was being produced by the Republican Senate Leadership Fund, a super political action committee which turned parts of the interview around into a powerful, but false, Whatley campaign ad smearing Cooper.

The ad states that Hayes’ son was murdered by an inmate who was released by the Cooper Administration in 2021. Except that convicted murderer of  Hayes’ son was never incarcerated prior to the murder of Shemar Hayes in 2024. In fact, published analysis notes, the young man ultimately held responsible was only 14 or 15 years old in 2021.

Furthermore, the limited inmate release in 2021was part of a court-ordered settlement of a lawsuit that was filed during the COVID pandemic addressing prison overcrowding involving 3,500 nonviolent inmates with medical conditions.

None of those released inmates had anything to do with the Shemar Hayes murder, and in fact, the suspect responsible was finally convicted of the crime in 2025.

The Republican Senate Leadership Fund is not officially part of the Whatley Senate campaign, but it legally is allowed to attack and smear Roy Cooper’s campaign, regardless of the actual facts.

For his part, Ronald Hayes said he was not paid for his interview, nor told what it was actually being used for. He told The News & Record had he realized how his taped interview was actually going to be used, he never would have participated.

In fact, according to the newspaper, Hayes is a registered Democrat, and says he has vote for Roy Cooper in the past, and will do so again.

Cooper is also smeared with being “directly” responsible for another crime committed by another Black suspect.In this case, Michael Whatley accused the Democratic former governor of being “directly”responsible for the August 22, 2025 stabbing death of Ukrainian immigrant Iryna Zautska on the Charlotte transit system by Decarlos Dejuan Brown, Jr.

Again, that court-ordered COVID-19 settlement to release 3500 nonviolent prisoners by the Cooper Administration is being blamed for putting Brown on the streets to kill. However, several media organization have fact-checked this allegation, and have found no truth to it.

That didn’t stop the Whatley campaign from claiming on primary night last in March, “we don’t know for sure if all the child molesters, rapists, and murderers released by Roy Cooper will be at the Cooper party, but we bet those same child molesters, rapists, and murderers are in the Cooper camp."

A spokesperson for Cooper, a former NC attorney general who has a record of being tough on criminals, pushed back on the Whatley campaign’s allegations, especially one that stated that Cooper’s appointed criminal justice reform task force was “directly responsible.”In fact, the Republican-led NC General Assembly never implemented any of that task force’s recommendations.

Finally, another Republican Senate Leadership Fund super PAC campaign ad “…features a heart-wrenching testimonial from the father of a woman who was murdered in 2025. The ad falsely implies the accused murderer was one of the prisoners released during the COVID-19 pandemic when Whatley’s Democratic opponent, Roy Cooper, was governor of North Carolina.

         The problem: Cooper had nothing to do with the accused murderer’s release. The suspect was released from a prison in South Carolina, not North Carolina,” according to the nonpartisan website FactCheck.org.

Once again, the 2021 COVID-19 court ordered release of 3500 inmates from the North Carolina prison system is being blamed for putting the Black man who was eventually convicted of murdering  22-year-old Logan Federico. The problem is the crime took place in South Carolina, the convicted murderer is a South Carolina man, and the victim was also in South Carolina. So factually, Gov. Roy Cooper legally and practically had nothing to do with any of it. Yet the campaign ad attacking Cooper on behalf of Republican Whatley clearly puts the blame at Democrat Cooper’s feet.

“These attacks are false – this heinous crime was committed in South Carolina by a South Carolina criminal, but a Republican super PAC is using this tragedy for political gain,” a spokesperson for Cooper’s Senate campaign told FactCheck.org.

Democrat Cooper currently leads Republican Michael Whatley in the race for the U.S, Senate seat being vacated by Republican Thom Tillis.

                                        -30-