Blog Catalog

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Quote of the Day -- Donald J Trump, In a Nutshell


Someone on Quora asked “Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?” Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England wrote the following response: 

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A,few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman.

But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.


And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:
• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.
• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created? If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.



Seriously, How Is This Man Still President?


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So either last week or a month or two ago this President Trump learned Russia and his buddy Vladimir Putin actually put a cash bounty on our own American soldiers over in Afghanistan, to be paid to Taliban members who killed them, again, our American soldiers.

The revelation was bad enough, certainly.

Then we learned our President hadn't done anything about it.

Nothing. 

Did nothing whatever to punish Russia for putting a cash reward for killing our soldiers in the field.

At least as bizarre, if not more so, to this day, this Republican Party President Trump still, still has done nothing. Done nothing to punish Russia in any way.


Stunning.

Thanks, Mr. President.
Thanks, Republicans.

I ask again, how is this man still President?

No one can or does say it any better than an American Veteran.



How long, Republians?

How long, America?

How long?


Is This Not, Then, the Very Definition and Act of Treason?


On the subject of Russian bounties paid to the Taliban in Afghanistan for any and all of our American soldiers killed by them there, this broke yesterday.


And still, from that day to this, from whatever day this President Trump learned of these bounties paid by the Russians for killing our American soldiers, still, still, to this day, this President has done nothing, nothing to punish Russia for this act, for these acts.

What is that, ladies and gentlemen, if not treason?


Is that not, as I asked, the very definition of treason?
It certainly seems to clearly be a betrayal of our American military, of all our American soldiers.


This Is How Bad This President--and Our National Situation--Is Just Now


This article broke yesterday.  This is where we are, Americans. This is our "leader."

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Just a little from the article:
  • The Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein on Monday painted a scathing portrait of President Donald Trump's conduct on the world stage, particularly as it relates to his conversations with other leaders.
  • Multiple sources described the US president as bullying and belittling allies while fawning over autocratic leaders.
  • Sources said that Trump behaved in a "near-sadistic" fashion with female leaders; that he talked to Russian President Vladimir Putin as if they're "two guys in a steam bath"; and that Turkey's president "took him to the cleaners."
  • Trump's behavior was said to be so unusual and erratic that it convinced several senior administration officials that the president was "delusional."
  • In some cases, Bernstein's CNN report said, Trump's actions led White House officials to conclude that the president posed a national security threat.
All of the above are bad, if not even possibly frightening, in a national leader but that last one? Check that out.  People within the White House themselves concluded the "President posed a national security threat."

Unreal. Unbelievable. Nearly. Yet this is where we are.

I say again, thanks, Republicans.

That's quite a guy you've got there. Quite the guy you've foisted on us all, on the nation.

And all just so you could have and keep power.


Remembering Tricky Dick



We thought we'd never do any worse than Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew.

US President Donald Trump and US Vice President Mike Pence

Yet here we are.


Thanks, Republicans.

You've outdone even yourselves.


TR45SON



I honestly do think and believe and feel this President Trump has now committed treason, yes, absolutely. But it's treason by ignorance and recklessness and even stupidity, not by design.  It's unbelievable this is where we are.

Thanks, Republicans.


Monday, June 29, 2020

Entertainment Overnight -- Birthday Edition


Wishing an extremely happy birthday to one Colin Hay, born this day, June 29, 1953. Scottish–Australian musician, singer, songwriter, and actor, lead vocalist of the band Men at Work and later also as a solo artist. He and they made some great, great music and seemed like they had a heckuva fun, good time doing it, too.

First this one. What a great memory and way to kick this off.

So good.

Be good, Johnny.

And then finally this, one of my also favorites of theirs but on a more serious, even important topic.


Remember Hillary's 11 Hour Testimony on "Benghazi!"?



Me.  I'm right here.  My hand is up.

Thanks, Mr. President
Thanks, Republicans.


Fantastic News From KCPT!


I am pleasantly, very, very pleasantly surprised to the point of shocked today.   Our local PBS station,  KCPT, made a terrific, even fantastic and very responsible decision. Here goes.

Watch Online

As a trusted source for public media in the Kansas City area, KCPT monitors community feedback and evaluates station programming, services and initiatives to ensure they effectively fulfill the needs of the audiences we serve. With our viewers, members and community in mind, we have made the decision to pause the production of the weekly roundtable debate program Ruckus.
KCPT will take some time to consider whether we might better use our station resources in support of another program, one that allows for differing opinions but maintains the standards expected of our organization.
The long and short of it is that they, KCPT, are dropping, have dropped their weekly "news" program "Ruckus."

I say again, this is fantastic. That is some great news right there. Obviously Right Wing, Republican host Mike Shanin and all his old, Right Wing, also Republican buddies like Woody "I'm a Fossil" Cozad were WAY out of line. KCPT viewers and supporters deserve far better.

The program frequently had a very Right Wing weighted--and bleached white--panel, time and again. And you would think the host would only be just that, the host, and not interject his opinions, again, in this case, very Right Wing opinions yet there he was, every week, spewing those Republican or Libertarian or whatever viewpoints. 

His counterpart on KCPT, Nick Haines, over at "Week in Review" always did and does just that--that is, kept his opinions to himself. He has also begun having regularly, dependably balanced guests, too, with, specifically, two white people, a Black or African-American and a Hispanic or LatinX guest, thereby giving full representation to the entire community.

I had written KCPT and asked them, a couple times, maybe a few, to make the programs more representative of the entire metropolitan area.  Naturally, I also wrote about this here on the blog. (Perhaps one of you two readers may have seen it).  I thought they could and would maybe tweak both programs so they were balanced and representative of more views. They did it with Mr. Haines' program, I noticed. Perhaps they tried to do the same with Mr. Shanin's program as well. And he wouldn't budge?  Only they, on the inside, know, I suppose.

It's a shame something couldn't have worked out that Mr. Shanin couldn't have stayed with and on the show, kept his very Right Wing opinions to himself and dependably had a truly representative panel on the show, from across the city, week after week but so it goes. Maybe they'll create a new program with a similar format, a new, much better, more responsible host and again, balanced, representative guests for each week's panel.

Anyway, yes sir and ma'am, great, great news! Thank you, KCPT! You did the right thing here! We look forward to your continued success and growth!

Links: 




Hey, Kansas City! You're Getting Some National Attention!


Yesirree, Bob...  National attention to and for our very own Negro Leagues Baseball Museum!

Obama, Clinton join virtual celebration for Negro Leagues


A bit of the article:

Every living former U.S. president paid tribute to baseball’s pioneering Negro Leagues as the part of the “Tipping Your Cap” campaign celebrating the institution’s centennial.

Major League Baseball had originally planned a public tribute to the league for June 27, but the coronavirus pandemic forced its cancellation. Negro Leagues Baseball Museum president Bob Kendrick told The Washington Post he was at first resigned to holding the celebration a year late before having the idea for the virtual tribute.

“In our game, there’s nothing more honorable than tipping your cap,” Kendrick told the Post. “And once I realized that national day of recognition was going to fall by the wayside, I thought, ‘OK, maybe we can do it next year.’ But that didn’t really do it.”

“So then I thought, ‘How about a virtual tip of the cap?’ ” he added. “And let me say here and now, there is no way I could have done this myself. I could not be more proud of the response.”

In addition to former Presidents Obama, Bush, Clinton and Carter, participants in the tribute included baseball legends like Hank Aaron and Derek Jeter as well as iconic athletes from other sports, including Michael Jordan and Billie Jean King, as well as celebrities from other fields including Tony Bennett and Stephen Colbert.

“Today I’m tipping my hat to all the giants in the Negro Leagues, from Satchel Paige to Toni Stone and so many others,” Obama tweeted. “Their brave example, first set 100 years ago, changed America’s pastime for the better––opening it up for new generations of players and fans alike.”

The League, established in 1920, counted among its players greats such as Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson and Jackie Robinson, who played with the League’s Kansas City Monarchs before he broke the color barrier by joining the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. The league dissolved in the years following Robinson’s milestone as numerous others followed him into the major leagues.


So good on you, Kansas City! Maybe after all this coronavirus is straightened out, we'll get some more visitors and tourism out of it. We can always hope.


How Is Donald Trump Still President?


This President Trump learned, at some point, either last week or months ago, that Vladimir Putin and Russia put out a bounty to pay the Taliban in Afghanistan to kill our American troops, our soldiers over there.

Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump shake hands during a bilateral meeting at the G20 leaders summit in Osaka last year

His first response to this information

First he said he wasn't told, that he knew nothing of or about it.

Trump Says He Was Not Briefed 

On Russian Bounties


Now he says what he was told, the intelligence, wasn't credible.


Which is it?

Now it's June 29 and still, to this minute, that same President Trump has still done nothing about these bounties to Russia.

That is at least gross, gross dereliction of duty if it isn't, in fact, treason, no exaggeration.

trea·son
/ˈtrēzən/
noun
the crime of betraying one's country


Finally, there's this, breaking today. So much for the "I didn't know" and "No one told me" defense.


Given this and everything else, honestly, this man Trump has done and said while in office, I'm one more who has to ask..

How is Donald Trump still President?
___________________________________

Breaking developments today, this morning:

Pelosi requests US intelligence leaders brief House on reports of Russian bounties
White House says Congress will be briefed on reports of Russian bounties

House Armed Services leaders demand briefing on reported Russian bounties on US troops

Voters must strongly reject the president's abuses by voting him out this November

Intelligence suggests Russian bounties led to deaths of several US troops in Afghanistan: report

Expert Wonders Why GOP Silent, Not Angry, on Russian Bounty Scandal


Sunday, June 28, 2020

Very Indicative Poll Out Today on this Pandemic, the President and Nation


There is a very indicative CBS News poll out today.


Just a few of the conclusions from it.

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Note that on this last one, this means a whopping 59% of we Americans think and believe this President Trump is handling this pandemic badly. That's no small thing at any time but especially in a presidential election year. Same with this next point.

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As I've said and keep saying...

God and heavens help us.

Oh, and thanks, Mr. President.
Thanks, Republicans.


Seriously, Honestly, For Whom Is This Republican Party President Donald J Trump Working?


I ask again, for whom is this President working?

I'll show and post 3 different examples of just why I ask. First this. This President Trump proposed this in August last year, 2019.

Trump Again Pushes For 

Russia's Readmittance To G-7


The other nations of the G7 don't want Russia and Mr. Putin in the group but Mr. Trump is working for it. Our known, self-declared, public enemy but he wants them in the group. 

Alrighty, then.

Next up, the President proposed this in early June this year.

Trump Directs Pentagon to Pull 9,500 Troops 

from Germany


Who, exactly, is that going to help but Russia and their leader Vladimir Putin?

And understand, this is from me, a guy who has said we need to shrink our defense budget drastically and it would still actually strengthen our nation.

Finally, there was this that broke this week from and in the New York Times.


A foreign leader and again, a known enemy of our nation, put a cash bounty on the lives of members of our American military. The administration knew about it...and did nothing.

"Benghazi!", my *ss.

Following that report were these responses.


Naturally, his response.


Not only did they---he, President Trump--do nothing about this information but even after this story broke, to this minute, Trump has done nothing about it against that foreign enemy, Russia.

And then, stunningly, stunningly, there is this.

So again I ask---just who, exactly, is this Republican Party President Donald J. Trump working?

Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump shake hands during a bilateral meeting at the G20 leaders summit in Osaka last year

This President doesn't take any time to take action against our known enemy paying out bounties to kill our American soldiers in Afghanistan but he does take time out from his busy week to retweet this.



Republicans?

Would you answer that for us?

And maybe get some control on your boy there?

Finally here today, whether you agree or not, this is how Germany's Der Spiegel pictures our own United States presently, under this leadership so here's an international take.



Links:





Quote of the Day -- Happy Sunday!


Image may contain: 1 person, text that says '"Religion is an insult to human dignity. Without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." Steven Weinberg Nobel laureate, Physics 1999 dialog with Sir John Polkinghorne'

Have a great day, y'all.


Friday, June 26, 2020

Yet More Reckless Insanity From This President


This news broke today, this morning.


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Trump administration asks US Supreme Court 

to end Obamacare


More insanity. Yet more insanity from this bizarre, reckless, even dangerous President.

During the most killing international pandemic in over 100 years, this Republican Party President Trump wants to cut Americans off from healthcare by ending Obamacare.

The heck of it is, I can't even imagine for whom, for what base, he's doing this. I don't think his supporters are out there in large numbers, calling for this, an end to Obamacare.

Does it simply come down to his wanting to defeat all things his predecessor accomplished? 

Is it that simple?

And again, insane?

Quote and Question of the Day



But hey, thanks, Mr. President!
Thanks, Republicans!

This President Trump's re-election slogan:

Trump 2020!
What ELSE have you got to lose?


Thursday, June 25, 2020

Achievements of This President and His Administration


He and they should be so proud.

Image may contain: 1 person, text that says 'Amee Vanderpool @girlsreallyrule Trump has pushed the deficit to over $1 trillion, a 74% increase in just four years and we have nothing to show for it. No new infrastructure, no great social programs and virtually no CDC to protect us from the Coronavirus epdemic. Trump has gutted us for nothing.'

Going Forward---Something to Think About


More and more, I keep seeing first this person and then another hinting at, suggesting about if a crash, an economic crash, should occur, what with this rather relentless killing, international pandemic and the effects it's having on us and our economies and institutions. Some examples. This first I got from my brother.


Pandemic Upends World's 2 Largest Economies





The medical community seems convinced we're still on the "first round" of this coronavirus pandemic, not the 2nd wave and it just keeps hitting bigger and bigger numbers of Americans who contract it and then the numbers that die, too. We have more cases of coronavirus and more deaths in the nation, both, THAN ANY OTHER NATION ON THE PLANET. And those numbers keep growing.

Put that into perspective, too, folks. We have a little over 4% of the nation's population--a fraction of China's or India's, for a best comparison--yet we have, by far, the most cases of the coronavirus and the most deaths in this pandemic.

If a crash does, in fact, come, an economic crash---God and heavens forbid--and this man, Donald J.  Trump is still at the helm?

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Seriously, God and heavens help us all.

Link:

There is some hope out there. It's not all bleak.  Not completely.


Be safe out there, y'all. Be and stay safe.

And keep up that hope.

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

International, Killing Pandemic? The Rich Are Getting Richer


Important article more Americans need to see and read, from Forbes.


"Since the start of the pandemic, collective U.S. billionaire wealth has surged by more than $584 billion, while $6.5 trillion in household wealth has disappeared. That's according to an Institute for Policy Studies and Americans for Tax Fairness analysis published on Friday which stated that the U.S. billionaire class saw its wealth climb 20% between March 18 and June 17 with 29 new billionaires added to the total. Using Forbes data, the analysis found that the total net worth of the 643 U.S. billionaires climbed from $2.9 trillion to $3.5 trillion. During the same period, 45.5 million Americans filed for unemployment."

But tax the wealthy at a higher rate?

Is the Wealth of the Rich Merely Trickling Down to Us?

Fuggedaboudit!

Thanks, Mr. President!
Thanks Republicans!


On This President, His Political Party and Voting


From the interwebs today.

Image may contain: 1 person, text that says 'Dan Rather Yesterday at 12:46 PM … A rule of thumb: If you're lying about nonexistent voter fraud, if you're limiting polling places, if you're forcing people to line up to vote in a pandemic, even the old and the infirm, then it seems you're basically admitting most Americans don't want you to be president. 124K 3.3K Comments'

And if this is your political party's positions, you basically don't want fellow Americans, fellow countrymen, fellow taxpayers, to vote and again, your political party is atrocious. The party is for themselves and their donors, the already-wealthy and corporations, not the people.

Thanks, Republicans.


Saturday, June 20, 2020

Missourians! You Need to Know About


There is an extremely important vote coming up in Missouri soon and we all need to know about it.


In the past few decades, gerrymandering masterminds have been working on new ways to sort voters into districts so their preferred politicians can't be held accountable. Sometimes they try to change who counts in maps — and sometimes they try to rig the math to skew maps and take away voters' voices.

But a bipartisan coalition of reformers, academics, and leaders has been fighting back to find new ways to identify and quantify bias in maps and pass new reforms that put voters and communities first. (Some politicians really, really hate these reformers, but we'll get to that).

Here are 3 things you need to know about what’s in Amendment 3:

1. Amendment 3 would flip the voter-approved rules on their head to explicitly allow partisan gerrymandering.

In the Missouri constitution now, clear rules ensure no party will have an unfair advantage in legislative district maps. Essentially, the constitution requires future map-drawers to do the best they can to limit partisan bias in maps.

Instead of limiting gerrymandering, Amendment 3 would give the political operatives and lobbyists tasked with drawing maps the permission to gerrymander Missouri maps in extreme ways that would silence voters of both parties. It's insidious, it's gross, it's un-American — but it's right there in the fine print.

2. Amendment 3 would explicitly allow our state legislative maps to be more gerrymandered and more extreme than any other state legislative plan.

At the nonpartisan research website, Planscore.org, statisticians have analyzed state legislative plans from across the country — and literally no other statehouse plan is as gerrymandered as Amendment 3 would allow.

3. Amendment 3 would explicitly allow our statehouse maps to be gerrymandered more than any other state legislative plan in 40 years — since Mississippi in 1979.

It gets worse. The math in the fine print of Amendment would allow state legislative maps to be:
  • More gerrymandered than any other statehouse plan in America.
  • More gerrymandered than any other statehouse plan in 40 years.
  • More gerrymandered than any other statehouse plan since 1979. In Mississippi.
It's on us to stop this insanity from going into our state constitution. The politicians behind Amendment 3 are going to want to talk about anything besides the real goal of their proposal, which is to rig maps so incumbents can't be held accountable by their constituents.

If you haven't yet, make sure you sign up to volunteer virtually with the No On 3 team. Together, we're going to stop the politicians trying to dupe voters — and we're going to defeat Amendment 3. Sign up to volunteer today.

Links:





Friday, June 19, 2020

Wyandotte County, Keeping That Task Force on Police and Community Relations White--and Ineffective?--As Can Be


I can really hardly believe what I've seen and read. Check out this article from the Star last week.

Marijana's Strawberry Hill











A bit of the article:

A task force on police and community relations in Wyandotte County will include the sheriff, the Kansas City, Kansas, police chief, and the mayor of the Unified Government.

But it will not include the Wyandotte County district attorney.

Mark Dupree, who has clashed with police and pushed for reforms since he was elected in 2017 as the state’s first black district attorney, was left off the list of members announced Monday.

In a statement to The Star, the office of David Alvey, the Mayor and CEO of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, said the task force will be charged with gathering community input and passing that input on to local officials. The members will not be making recommendations for change based on that input.

The group, the statement said, is intended to be an “objective panel” — a consideration that contributed to Alvey’s decision not to include Dupree.

“The intent was to allow the district attorney to remain independent, providing inputs and recommendation as part of the task force’s future public forum process, actually ‘presenting’ before and to the task force and offering his perspective and insight as it moves forward.”

But wait. It gets better...

The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to questions regarding what criteria was used to determine whether a task force member was objective and whether any of the chosen members have a history of advocacy.

So the "White Guy In Charge" decides that the local DA, the local District Attorney, shouldn't be included in a task force on police and community relations in light of the street murder of a black American citizen, George Floyd, and consequent calls for police reform in and across the nation.

Even though this very District Attorney has been loudly and publicly calling for that very reform in his job for the last 3 years.

Right.   Got it.

Seriously Mayor Alvey, Wyandotte County, Kansas City, Kansas---can you hear yourselves?  

And check this out. this is how this was all announced, days before the above article.


Let me say again, this Mayor announces a "task force" to "improve relations between community and police" but his first task on this force he created is to throw out the very qualified black guy who has been calling for this for years?

You can't make this stuff up.

Another thing to see from the article:

A woman in the crowd asked why no young black men were on the task force. The mayor said they aren’t trying to exclude anyone.

To which they should have added, "Well, except the one black District Attorney in town who's been calling for change for years.  We ARE trying to exclude him, for sure."

How much more blatantly racist and exclusionary can we all get and be, folks?  Incredible.

At least, thank goodness, the kindly Mayor did allow, in fact, for Unified Government Commissioner Harold Johnson, who is black, to be on the committee. Thank goodness for that, anyway. How good of him.

Interim Kansas City, Kansas, Police Chief Michael York is on the committee.   A white guy.

Fortunately, too The Rev. Tony Carter Jr. of Salem Missionary Baptist Church, a black man, they let him in on the committee, too, thankfully.

Other members of the task force:
  • Donnelly College student Yareli Castor-- a young woman of color. Apparently they think she'll be "safe"
  • Randy Lopez of the Wyandotte Health Foundation-- not a white guy, thankfully, and not ancient, either
  • Donnelly College President Monsignor Stuart Swetland-- White guy.  Very white.  (On the side, someone please tell me what an elderly white Monsignor knows about young black guys being pulled over by police. Please. I'm all ears}.
  • Wyandotte County Sheriff Don Ash-- And closing, of course, with a white guy. Another very, very white guy. And a member of a police force, in effect. Because he's not going to be subjective or defensive of his force, right, Mayor Alvey??  Right??  I'm just glad we wont' have anyone on this task force that is nothing but "objective." (Are you freaking kidding me??)
But let the local District Attorney in on this committee to examine relations between the police and the community?  The guy who's been clamoring for change for years? 

And as the young woman in the audience that day asked, not one younger black man on the task force? Not one?   What?  They didn't want his input?  His "subjectivity"?   Excuse me but I thought that's what a community task force was for. That is, to get people's input. You know, THEIR OPINIONS?  THEIR EXPERIENCES??

Added to this, I haven't seen or read anything critical about this task force at all. Not in the Star, not in the younger people's media like The Pitch--which doesn't really get widespread readership anyway, rather sadly.   Certainly not on the vacuous, local evening news.  

Nah....

Don't ask the DA in town. He's a black guy.

He won't be "objective" about it.  His, the Mayor's words, reportedly.

He may have an opinion.

Isn't having an opinion on a task force a good thing? Isn't that what this is all about? Or supposed to be?

This doesn't look like an attempt to fix or change anything as much as it does to maintain the status quo.

Systemic, institutional racism, anyone? Everyone?

Are you freaking kidding me, Mayor Alvey?

Are you kidding us?  All of us?

This is going to stand?