THE CASH STUFF FOR OCT. 23, 2025

                                                                REP. CECIL BROCKMAN

                                                    NCDP CHAIR ANDERSON CLAYTON

NC DEMOCRATIC PARTY

CHAIRS WANTS HOUSE 

REPUBLICANS TO REMOVE 

REP. BROCKMAN NOW

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer

North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton knows that Guilford County Rep. Cecil Brockman is legally presumed innocent until proven guilty after being charged recently with two counts of indecent liberties with a minor and two counts of statutory rape, but that isn’t stopping her from demanding that Republican leadership in the state House begin the process of removing Brockman from office immediately.

NCDP Chair Clayton told WRAL-TV last week that if Brockman, a six-term Democrat representing High Point and Guilford County, doesn’t voluntarily resign his office as other Democrats leaders, including Gov. Josh Stein, have demanded he do, then legislative leaders in the Republican-led state House should immediately begin removing Brockman from the seat he has held since 2015.

“[Republican House Speaker] Destin Hall should bring folks back to Raleigh and they should remove [Brockman] from the legislature,” Clayton told WRAL-TV last week when the legislature was briefly out, adding “We should make sure that places like High Point have representation right now in Raleigh.” 

Reportedly, Speaker Hall is already looking into what “House rules and constitutional requirements” must be met to have Brockman, who thus far has ignored all calls for him to step down, removed. Hall has agreed with Democratic calls for Brockman to step down, calling the charges against him “shocking and extremely serious.”

NCDP Chair Clayton says that Rep. Brockman has lost the High Point community’s trust, and can no longer effectively represent them. If he were to return to service in the legislature, Brockman would be a distraction.

“You can't exactly help people from a jail cell,” Clayton said.

        “The charges that were brought against Representative Brockman were serious charges, and we believe that anybody that's accused of something like that and has been held on a million dollar bond right now does not deserve to represent the people of North Carolina.”

        Brockman is currently being held in a High Point jail on a $1 million bail. His next court date is scheduled for Nov. 13th.

The last state House representative to have been removed from office was Thomas Wright of Wilmington in New Hanover County in 2008. Wright was charged with using campaign funds for personal business and using his office to get a loan.

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NC REPUBLICANS AGREE TO

DRAW NEW MAP CREATING 

NEW GOP VOTING DISTRICT

THAT HURTS BLACK VOTERS

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer

In an effort to help Pres.Donald Trump gain an electoral advantage in Congress, North Carolina Republican legislative leaders have agreed to redraw the First Congressional District in northeastern North Carolina, which Congressman Don Davis currently represents, so that Republican voters there will have a clear advantage come the 2026 midterm election.

If a Republican challenger were to win the First Congressional District, that would add one more seat to the Republican majority already in Congress. Other states, like Texas, are also redrawing their voting lines to give Trump more Republican House districts and add to that GOP majority.

The new Republican-leaning First District in North Carolina would, by all accounts, dilute an area of black voting strength that has elected a black congressional representative for at least the last 30 years. The redrawn district would lower the percentage of black voters by at least ten percent.  The new map would also make white Republicans at least 60 percent of the voting population.

Democrats are not happy about the new First District voting map.

“The General Assembly works for North Carolina, not Donald Trump. The Republican leadership in the General Assembly has failed to pass a budget, failed to pay our teachers and law enforcement what they deserve, and failed to fully fund Medicaid. Now they are failing you, the voters. These shameless politicians are abusing their power to take away yours,” said Gov. Josh Stein.

NCDP Chair Anderson Clayton went scorched earth on NC Republicans for their new district.

"North Carolina Republicans Phil Berger and Destin Hall are weak, subservient cowards, willing to steamroll the people of our state so they can give Donald Trump what he wants – power without accountability," she charged.

  “Today, the GOP Leaders announced they will be tearing up our already brutally gerrymandered congressional maps and redrawing them to give more seats to Congressional Republicans. Let me be clear: maps should not give you power; voters should," added Chair Clayton.

  "When politicians pick their voters instead of voters picking their politicians, that’s not democracy. That’s corruption."

        The NC House is currently in session this week to discuss the new redistricting proposal.

Interestingly, African-American plaintiffs just lost a lawsuit in federal court claiming that legislative Senate districts 1 and 2 were redrawn in a manner that denies the majority black population in northeastern North Carolina the representation of their choice, in violation of Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

A Republican federal judge ruled against those black plaintiffs, saying that they failed to prove that racial discrimination was still a factor in denying African-Americans the right to vote.

Ironically, a similar important case is before the U.S. Supreme Court now involving the state of Louisiana establishing a second majority-black voting district in a state where one-third of the population is black. White plaintiffs in that case are arguing that establishing a second majority-black district there per the 1965 Voting Rights Act is a violation of the constitutional law outlawing the use of race.

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THE CASH COMMENTARY FOR OCTOBER 23, 2025

                                                                   CASH MICHAELS

LET AMERICA BE THE DREAM 

THE DREAMERS DREAMED

                        By Cash Michaels

Let America be America again.

Let it be the dream it used to be.

Let it be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a home where he himself is free.

  (America never was America to me.)

Those are the aspirational words of legendary bard and social activist, Langston Hughes, leader of the Harlem Renaissance. A prolific writer, well-known for his poetry, short stories, plays and novels, Hughes wrote an in-depth weekly column about the civil rights movement in The Chicago Defender.

In short, Langston Hughes was one of America’s best ever.

One of the things that defines a great writer is vision, the ability to look at his/her surroundings, and skillfully illustrate the meaning of life through words.

In Hughes’ case, he was so good at this that even civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. depended on his literary skills to help define the nation they both loved, but were both deeply concerned about.

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—

Let it be that great strong land of love

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

That any man be crushed by one above.

  (It never was America to me.)

That’s what made one of Langston Hughes’ most famous poems, “Let America be America Again,” so real, so visionary, so contemporary.

O, let my land be a land where Liberty

Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,

But opportunity is real, and life is free,

Equality is in the air we breathe.

  (There's never been equality for me,

Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

  Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?

And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,

I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.

I am the red man driven from the land,

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—

And finding only the same old stupid plan

Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

When I saw seven million concerned Americans Saturday peacefully taking part in the nationwide “No Kings March and Rally 2” to protest the utter shame and disgrace that is the Trump Administration, I immediately thought of the historic and peaceful Million Man March I proudly took part in exactly 30 years ago on Oct. 16, 1995. Hundreds of thousands of  black men, from all over the United States, peacefully came together in the spirit of love and brotherhood to reaffirm our responsibilities to our families, communities and each other to make America a better place.

It was an historic day I will never forget, and I'm so grateful I took part in.

But I also thought about Langston Hughes (1901-1967), and what he would be inspired to write today he had lived long enough to see what has happened to the America he loved, and would be deeply disappointed in.

Here we have a country that purportedly respects the rule of law, and yet, millions of American citizens felt the urgent need to take to the streets last weekend to express their dismay with the profound absence of that societal standard.

To express their dismay at being publicly called "left-wing radicals who hate America” just because they disapprove of the scheming, shameful and deceitful machinations of one political party in particular that bows to the slightest whims of a criminally convicted president who sees himself so much as a king and monarch, he’s shamelessly building huge monuments to himself similar to the French Arc de Triomphe, or a lavish White House ballroom, or Oval Office decorated in gold, or brazen images of himself wearing a crown.

To express their dismay that tens of thousands of federal employees have been senselessly terminated from their jobs in a foolish government shutdown, many forced to stand on food pantry lines, not knowing where their next dollar to feed their families or pay their mortgages is coming from. The president, however, seems to care less.

To express their dismay that the highest court in the land - the one that seems to thrive on giving our criminal president more and more power to violate our rule of law with, now seems likely to destroy the bedrock legislation that protected the voting rights of Americans of color who still experience discrimination in their communities and at the polls.

To express their dismay that the vice president of the United States goes out of his way to defend the absolutely racist group chat of a Young Republicans organization where right-wing operatives and future GOP leaders “flippantly” joked about gas chambers, expressed love for Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, and referred to African-Americans as “watermelon people” and “monkeys,” among other derisive terms. As an African-American, as shocking as this episode is, it is not surprising.

To express their dismay that masked federal agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division are going to people’s homes, schools and work, grabbing them by force and putting them behind bars without their due process rights.

To express their dismay that the president of the United States is illegally sending National Guard troops from red states to blue states supposedly to stop crime, even when top Democratic elected officials in blue states maintain they are not needed.

To express their dismay that at the president’s direction, red and purple states like North Carolina are illegally redrawing their congressional voting districts to give Republicans more of an advantage going into the 2026 midterm elections.

        And have you seen this extraordinarily sick A.I. video of the president, wearing a crown, flying a U.S. Air Force bomber jet over peaceful No Kings demonstrators... American citizens... seemingly dropping tons of human excrement on them? That disgusting, despicable A.I. video was issued from the White House account, meaning it was paid for by taxpayers. If you haven't seen it...it is astonishing how demented it is!

         Sycophant Republicans like House Speaker Mike "MAGA Mouse" Johnson actually defended the president's A.I. video as "satire to make a point" If so, it is truly sick satire!

        All of the above disruptions to our democracy are just some of what has happened over the past nine months, and continues to plague the nation unabated.

Langston Hughes wrote his prophetic words “Let America be America Again” in 1935, almost as if he could look ninety years into the future to see America crumbling under the weight of authoritarism.

But there’s one thing Hughes’ words should remind all of us of, and that’s our individual and collective responsibility to make America “…the dream dreamers dreamed.” Millions of people across the fruited plain taking to the streets of big cities and small towns demanding a return to democracy, is just the beginning.

We must actively fight via our political system to return to that democracy that makes America “…the dream the dreamers dreamed.” And we have to get hard-nosed about it. We MUST refuse to accept a nation where a petty would-be king buries our collective history in favor of his own. Or rewrites our laws to protect his interests in lieu of our nation.

And we MUST punish the political party that has given him everything he wants to be all-powerful. These people are elected by the people, but care nothing about them, and serve only the rich. THAT MUST CHANGE!

Those of us who have paid our dues, and sacrificed much so that our country would be the kind of place our children could grow up in and prosper, are shocked that after all of those decades of sacrifice, our nation is in worse shape than ever before. And it genuinely frightens us that it can get worse before it gets better.

That’s why, this week, we look back on the powerful words of Langston Hughes, for direction and inspiration.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—

      The steel of freedom does not stain.

       From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,

       We must take back our land again,

       America!

 

       O, yes,

       I say it plain,

       America never was America to me,

       And yet I swear this oath—

       America will be!

 

       Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,

       The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,

       We, the people, must redeem

       The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.

       The mountains and the endless plain—

       All, all the stretch of these great green states—

       And make America again!    

Let America be America Again (c) 1935 by Langston Hughes

 

THE CASH COMMENTARY FOR OCTOBER 16, 2025

                                                                   CASH MICHAELS

LESSONS FROM THE SHUTDOWN

by Cash Michaels

For the second time, I’m beginning this column in the midst of the federal shutdown, this time on Oct. 10th, not knowing whether or not it will be over with by the time you read this. I’m pretty sure it won’t be.

That’s important because Oct. 15th is supposed to be payday for our troops and other federal workers. That will be my marker for ending this week’s commentary, whether or not our troops AND other federal workers got paid, and if not, why not. 

But today, Friday, Oct. 10th, seems like the perfect time to begin to offer some perspective on exactly who did what during this shutdown so far, and whether they did it well or did it lousy. Why is knowing any of this important? Because in my opinion, the manner in which this whole episode has been handled and mishandled, teaches us something about where our country is today, and where it will be tomorrow if we don’t pay attention.

So on Day 10 of the federal shutdown, let’s get started with our score card. 

As the shutdown days lead up to Day 15, I’ll fill-in the pertinent details in each category to accurately portray how each player behaved, why, and what role they played in either prolonging the shutdown, or bringing it to an end.

To me, the answers to those questions may determine what party takes over Congress in the 2026 midterm elections. That’s how important this shutdown is. Voters won’t forget!

And since context can be everything, then let’s start this by saying that on Day 10, the country is NOT in a good mood, with rising costs of living, Washington, D.C. seemingly out of control, and definitely a growing sense that America is NOT changing for the better. 

THE REPUBLICANS

First of all, what have we learned from the behavior of the Republican Party during this shutdown? Simple - how NOT to act when you’re being out-flanked, outplayed and outmaneuvered. GOP congressional leaders are acting desperate right now, because they are. They think that because their MAGA voters were dumb enough to make them the majority in the U.S. House and Senate, that those voters will follow them anywhere. But Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (MTG), that certified MAGA-nut from Georgia, has proven that at some point, you have to drop the pretense, and stand with the truth - shutting down the federal government just because you want to give big tax breaks to the very rich at the expense of vital health care access for everyone else in this country is a bad idea, simply because there’s no real explanation for it.

And there’s also little explanation for Republican Congressional leadership bending over and taking it from Donald Trump. He only has as much power as Republicans give him. He has clearly shown that he has no respect for them, or respect for the fact that Congress is supposed to be a co-equal branch of government.

Congressional Republicans are in deep, deep trouble over the shutdown in large part because they’ve allowed Donald Trump to put them there, and then walk away leaving them with the big bag of blame. They have gone too far out on the limb for him, and with him on this and many other important issues, with the notorious Jeffrey Epstein files being perhaps the biggest.

The MAGA base knows full well that convicted child sex trafficker Epstein was best buds with their leader and president, Donald Trump, and despite his denials to the contrary, they also know that something is in those files that he doesn’t want the world to see.

And that’s one of the main reasons why Republican House Speaker Mike “MAGA Mouse” Johnson won’t reconvene the House after almost a month of paid vacation (the House hasn’t been in session since Sept. 19th. This Sunday will be October 19th). Because of a looming discharge petition vote to release the Epstein files, which would leave Johnson powerless to stop it, he has to keep the House out of session.

Let’s be clear - Republicans hate Obamacare and have been trying to kill it for 16 years, but can’t do it. They’ve tried convincing folks that it’s a failure, but it’s more popular than ever, and folks aren’t buying that Republicans have something better to replace it with - not after 16 years.

So Democrats have them by the short hairs on this one, and the American people know it!

Republicans have also considered doing away with the 60-vote Senate filibuster, which would allow them to end the shutdown without the Democrats. If they had any guts, that’s a trigger they should pull, except that they know what will happen when the Democrats take back the Senate, so they don’t dare touch it now.

This shutdown has exposed a lot of the fundamental weaknesses of the Republican Party, and no matter how much they continue to falsely beat their collective chests in their gambit, they already have “BIG LOSERS” painted all over their faces. On Day 13, “MAGA Mouse” Johnson was trying to continue to sound like a clown in control, but no dice. He warned that this federal shutdown could be "the longest in U.S. history."

From where I come from, we call that MAGA Mouse bluff a “woof ticket”  because it’s all bark and no bite. Even MTG openly called Johnson and all other GOP males in the party “weak” for uttering such toothless nonsense. 

On Day 13, Johnson’s master, Trump, was over in Israel and Egypt soaking up applause for the successful ceasefire deal that freed 20 Israelis hostages and stopped, for now, the incessant bombing of Gaza.

The message couldn’t have been clearer - when there’s glory to be gotten, there’s only room for one on the big stage. And Republicans by now, know who that is.

The Lesson- disagree with Democrats and lick the president’s boots all you want, but when it comes to the welfare and well-being of the poor suckers who put you into office, always do what’s right, because one day, it will be time to count receipts for what you have, and have not done, Republicans.

And that day may already be here for the Republican Party if they don’t get off the stick, and work with Democrats to end this shutdown now! 

DONALD TRUMP

The man is nothing but a user and a scammer. So if he sees somebody else with something he wants, and feels that he has to have, like power, he will do whatever is necessary to film-flam them out of it for his own designs. 

That is exactly what he’s done, and continues to do to the Republican Party and its voters.

And then, because he is who he is (as opposed to what he really is), Trump scares these people into doing his bidding, keeping them in line, and having them pay the price for such blind obedience.

If you’re paying even the slightest attention, that’s what happening now during the federal shutdown. The Republican Party is catching all of the hell, but Trump is the one actually throwing most of the partisan bricks. Why? Because he believes no one can touch him as long as he remains president. That’s another reason why he’s amassing so much power and ignoring the courts every chance he gets.

You’ve heard of the rule of law? Well Trump is master of the rule of flaws. He’s going to test established social and political norms until they break, a’la sending federal troops to major American cities under the guise of maintaining law and order. Or having his ICE agents grab innocent people and their children out of their homes in contradiction to their constitutional rights.

All of that brings us back to the federal shutdown, where Trump is labeling anything and everything he considers bad as “Democrat,” and issues threats of firing workers from “Democrat agencies,” or Democrats in Congress being responsible for shutting down the government, or not paying furloughed workers.

As The Atlantic reported:

With the government shutdown well into its second week, President Donald Trump’s strategy to break Senate Democrats has become clear: Maximize the pain of the closure to force them into retreat. His administration is firing civil servants en masse, threatening to withhold back pay from furloughed federal employees, and canceling billions of dollars in funding for states that voted for his opponent last year.

Of course, none of this would be complete from Trump without a healthy dose of bald-faced lying, which he believes a majority of Americans are falling for.

Again, another case of Trump joining the Republicans in assuming that the poor suckers who put them in charge of the White House, the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate are going to remain dumb suckers, especially when the common sense issues of this shutdown begin to bite them and their families. With health care - an issue Trump and the Republicans have never really mastered - front and center, they are finding out that lying about stuff really has a short shelf-life when it comes to what really counts to most Americans.

By now you know that since I started this week’s commentary, Trump has buckled under mounting pressure, and ordered Secretary of War Pete Hegeseth to use “all available funds” to pay our troops by Oct. 15th, which, no surprise, may not even be legal.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also reversed itself in laying off hundreds of vital CDC staffers, saying now that they got “incorrect notifications.”

All of that leaves Congressional Republicans looking silly, and has weakened their argument for standing strong on the shutdown. They’ve been undermined by their own leader!

Trump sure knows how to pick the perfect chumps!

The Lesson - As the old adage goes, when you lie down with dogs, you wakeup with fleas. So when you do Donald Trump’s bidding, you’ll end up doing something that is supposed to be anatomically impossible - screwing yourself! Republicans are learning that everyday of this shutdown. 

THE DEMOCRATS

After the fateful 2024 presidential election. Many of us were of the opinion that the Democrats had severely lost most, if not virtually all of their credibility. What did they stand for? Who did they stand for? Did they even remember how to win an election anymore?

What added insult to injury was that Democrats had once again lost to Donald Trump, meaning that whatever powerlessness they experienced going against him when they were in leadership, would be now be made worse that he was back in power and stronger.

There was just no way to truly beat this guy, especially given that he now owns the White House, House, Senate and the Supreme Court - every avenue of power you could imagine.

Democrats indeed looked like a minority of chumps for a while there, until the federal shutdown happened, and Trump and the Republicans began overplaying their hand. For some unknown reason (stupidity, perhaps) Trump and his Republicans began acting like they were not the ones in charge of the government, and started blaming Democrats for the shutdown. But not only did House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his team saddle-up tough for the ensuing messaging war, but Democrats did their homework, and determined that health care, and specifically the Obamacare tax credit subsidies paid for by the federal government so that people with private insurance could afford the monthly premiums, would and could be a prime area of focus during the shutdown.

Republicans had the power to fix the looming problem of affordability, but wouldn’t because then they would have to screwup Trump’s massive tax cuts for the rich which they provided by gutting hundreds of billions in healthcare for regular people.

Hakeem and the Dems kept their message plain about Trump and his Republicans being willing to crash the government just to screw their voters, and their message was so effective, even Marjorie Taylor Greene had to sing along.

So now the Democrats are in a strong position during the shutdown, maneuvering Trump and his Republicans into unforced errors like firing thousands of federal employees, taking glee in posting that many furloughed workers wouldn’t be paid; refusing to call the House back into session over the Epstein files.

And Senate Democrats, who are key to much of this, are holding firm by not breaking the filibuster. That means Leader Chuck Schumer still has some juice in him. They should remain united.

I don’t know if Dems are going to maintain their strong position in the messaging war (they should), but this much I do know - forcing Republicans to at first say out loud that they weren’t paying the troops (which then forced Trump to break down and order Pete Hegseth to use “all available funds” in the Dept. of War to indeed ante up on time), along with allowing air traffic controllers to walk off the job, clearly shows who’s responsible for this mess.

Democrats don’t have the power to fix these catastrophes. Trump and his Republicans do, and the American people know it! Dems, make sure you keep reminding us!

The Lesson - Stay on message, don’t talk down to the American people; always be seen fighting for ALL of us, even the ones who didn’t vote for you; and consistently stand strong against a sorry tyrant who is the president.

                                                    DAY 15

        Well, we've reached Day 15, and the federal shutdown, like the pain in my back, persists. The Senate took an eighth vote last night in hopes that Democrats would buckle, but naturally nothing happened, even after Republicans began tastelessly blaming Dem Leader Chuck Schumer for "planes ready to fall out of the sky," or getting pressure from the left-wing of his party.

        Meanwhile, the House did not reconvene as Speaker "MAGA Mouse" Johnson originally said it would. The means that on October 19th - this Sunday - the U.S. House of Representatives will have been closed for business for the past month.

        At least our troops have been presumably paid as ordered by now, though thousands of other federal workers have either been fired, or remain furloughed.

        As for Donald Trump...he's back from the Middle East, already blowing up more alleged drug boats, promising to make Hamas drop their weapons in accord with the Israeli ceasefire deal, and complaining about his near bald-looking Time Magazine cover.

        Today the Washington Post reported Trump is "all but ignoring" the shutdown "for parts of the government" he favors. More federal worker layoffs are coming for those parts of the government he does not care for, and he's grabbing more power from Congress to do whatever he wants, primarily because they give it to him.

         Also, a federal judge in San Francisco temporarily blocked Trump's firings, calling them "unlawful," saying that they have "a human cost," and are not being thought through.

         Trust me, Your Honor, Trump has "thought this through." He wants to inflict the pain.

         How much longer the shutdown will continue, no one knows, but one thing I do know is that the American people deserve better from their elected leadership. I pray the millions who are expected to hit the streets for the second national "No Kings" march and rallies this weekend make that clear!

           I sincerely wish them, and the rest of us, peaceful GODspeed! 

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