North Carolina Representative Verla Insko (D) began our discussion with the news of Theresa May's (Prime Minister of England) resignation and the influence of Russian meddling on the Brexit conflict that likely forced May from office.  She continued to highlight the European elections in countries such as Germany (Angela Merkel) that have also seen divisions stimulated by far right influence. She noted that these uprisings and resultant problems seem to have been caused by the same social media influence from Russian backed groups seeking to diminish the strengths of democracies world wide.

Representative Insko highlighted many of the specific pieces of legislative work she has participated in writing and fighting for including reforms to early childhood education, fair and equal budgetary allocations for education, medicaid expansion, the light rail in the Triangle of N.C. and the plans to address the deep re-districting challenges that the state of North Carolina has faced over the decades.

She honestly recounted the earliest poor re-districting practices that brought Democrats into the majority during the 1950's & 1960's - broke "norms" that led to the worsening of these same practices (in the decades that followed) by the Republicans - which lead to their super majority in North Carolina. She highlighted how this had hurt the state - as it had robbed the citizenry of healthy debate and bi-partisan legislation. Since 2018, the breaking of the supermajority had at least given the governor veto power to balance some of the legislative work.

Mrs. Insko's extensive knowledge and hard work on issues of national, state, and local interest made for a compelling, informative, and different discussion of the current events and conflicts the country is facing.