On Republican Party Vote Suppression

--"The Republicans' new voter suppression bills are truly un-American. There's no real voter fraud. It's their naked effort to try and suppress Black, brown and Indigenous votes, to suppress any kind of votes from people who they think will not go for their far-right, 'promote the interests of the wealthy' program." --Al Gore

Clueless Mike Shanin, KCPT and "Ruckus"

They've done it again.

Mike Shanin, his weekly news program "Ruckus" and our PBS station KCPT all did it again.

On this evening's weekly program, on tonight's panel, they had 2 white men, a very white--even blonde haired--woman and one black man.

One person "of color."

And even the woman was clearly a Right Winger, very likely Republican since she called out for Mike Pompeo, praising him and saying he should run for President in the future.

Again, I say and ask again, how incredible would it be if KCPT and Mike Shanin and this show--and "Week in Review" for that matter, their other weekly news program--consistently, reliably, week after week, would have, at worst, one white man, one white woman, an African-American of any sex and a Hispanic or Latina, again, of either sex?

How great would that be?

And it wouldn't be difficult, either.

They would finally, at long last, reliably and dependably have a far better cross section of everyone in the metropolitan area instead of so thoroughly covering white people and their viewpoints and issues.

We can dream.

Can't we?

Until they do, isn't this just media approved racism? And segregation?

For now, they cover, again, the white viewpoint solidly and dependably.

That and the old, white viewpoint.

KCPT and any PBS station owes us far more.

What Do You Suppose It Will Take To Get KCPT To Recognize There Is a Hispanic Community Here?

Really, this puzzles me.

It took far too long to get KCPT to get one token black person reliably, week after week, on their weekly news programs, "Ruckus" and "Week In Review" and even now, they still get left off some weeks.

That was bad enough but the station still hasn't recognized or accepted or something there is a Hispanic Community in the metropolitan area.

Sure, we still get loads and loads o' white folk what with Right Wing, Republican Mike Shanin and his also Right Wing, Republican buddy Woody Cozad (don't get me started) but the shows are heavily, heavily weighted with bleached white people.

As I've said before, their commercials are all the time putting up minorities in them, asking people to send their money like so many Christian churches but what is it going to take to get a token Hispanice on both these shows each week?

They've recognized there is the Dos Mundos newspaper, having one of their staff on not long ago. You'd think they could--and would--maybe call them up once a week and ask if someone would show up for the program.

At least they let women---one, usually, each week, another token--on the program but once again, it's usually a white woman to round out that very varied group.

This week on Ruckus, they had 3 white people---ONE WOMAN!--and Terry Riley, a former City Council person.

And forget about "Week in Review" this week. The entire show was bleached white people. Every one of them.

Minorities??

Bah!

They don't live here in Kansas City!

Right, KCPT?

I would like to now take this time and place to formally challenge KCPT---a PBS station, after all--to please, for the love of God and fairness and decency and all that is good, to start having, reliably, one Hispanic, one member of the black community, one woman and one---ONLY ONE--white guy on these two programs each week, going forward, indefinitely.

Seriously.

It just doesn't seem like too much to ask.

They say they rely on our contributions in order to survive, exist.

How about including ALL of us?

KCPT?

Have you no shame whatever?

Fairness? Balance? Decency in journalism?

Any of that?

KCPT's "Ruckus" Back to Exclusion

One woman but not one "person of color", not one person of a minority, again, this week, on KCPT's weekly talk show "Ruckus."

See for yourself.


What, KCPT?

They're all on vacation?

Out of town?

None available?

Really?

Or do we just really not need to get their input?

What is it?

They surely have the white person viewpoints covered.

Question:

Would exclusion also be considered racism?

Asking for a friend.

They surely like to have minorities in their commercials, asking for money.

Same Old Same Old from "Ruckus"

Here we go again.

KCPT's weekly news program, on tonight, Thursdays, at 7 pm was more of the "same old, same old" tonight.

Right Winger host Mike Shanin asked a gray haired woman who said she was against the trolley downtown as well as extension of it, why she's against it.

She has never ridden it and won't, she says, but she's for mass transit, she swears.

Sure she is.

And open-minded. Of course she is.

Then, they went on to---wait for it---an all white, lily white panel to discuss affordable housing in the city.

Wow.

Quote of the Day -- Timely

Not only was H.L Mencken correct here but he and his quote are extremely relevant and poignant now, what with sports figures taking a knee about justice and injustice in our nation.

KCPT's "Ruckus": All White, All the Time

Once again this week, KCPT-TV's weekly news program "Ruckus" was all white people, solving all the people's problems. The most open minded they could be was having two women on the panel.

They even discussed the DACA, "dreamers" controversy, possibly effecting 800,000 Hispanic people in the nation but do you think they'd include one minority, one Hispanic from the Kansas City metropolitan area?

NAH.....

They'll keep it lily-white.

Who are we kidding?

Because there aren't any minorities in this city.

No Blacks.  No Hispanics. No Mexican-Americans. None of them. Not in this town.

We know that.

Right?

Well, except on their own commercials, asking for donations and contributions--money--to keep the station running.

Side note:  In a -little bit--of a defense of KCPT here, they did include one Black man, Eric Wesson, on their show this week. Of course, it was a discussion, on that show, about the minority community demanding a percentage portion of the work if we do, in fact, build a new single-terminal airport. Two white men, one white woman and Mr. Wesson.

#Lttlegains

Yet One More Lily White "Ruckus" Last Evening

Yes sir and ma'am, yet one more lily white, bleached white, exclusive, exclusionist "Ruckus" news weekly last evening on our PBS station KCPT. Not one--not even one--person of color on the show. One woman but that, as usual, is as close to a minority as they got.

They go out of their way, every week, to include a middle-aged, middle-class, irrelevant white guy who calls himself a "Libertarian" but again---not one person of a minority.  And then there's always the really old, white guy with silver hair and moustache because, you know, old white guys' opinions just aren't "out there" enough already, right? (Other than the moustache, isn't that what Mike Shanin is already there for?).

The only question now is, will they do the same thing, yet again, with their other news weekly show, Nick Haines' "Week in Review"?  It's usually what they do, of course.

Pitiful

White People, Solving Kansas City's Problems

Both news weekly programs on KCPT this week were lily-white, bleached Caucasians.

Yet again.

One more time.

Not one "person of color." No one from any minority other than one woman on each show.

Kansas City Week in Review - KCPT

Kansas City Week in Review | Watch Online 

| Kansas City PBS ... - KCPT

Kansas City Week In Review | KCPT

Ruckus | KCPT

Ruckus | Watch Online | Kansas City PBS Video

 - KCPT

Watch online: Ruckus | KCPT

Shame on you, KCPT. You should know---and do---better.

Far better.

In their, KCPT's, defense, I will point out they have minorities in their commercial segments.

Oh, and, again, they will, however, accept their financial contributions to the station from minorities, to be sure.

Pretty ironic--and awful--any time but seems even more so in Black History Month.

KCPT's Again, Still Lily-White "Ruckus"

If you watched KCPT's and Mike Shanin's weekly news program "Ruckus" again this evening, once more, you would think that the Kansas City metropolitan area has not one "person of color" within its borders. Not one Black American, not one Hispanic, not one Asian, nothing. Zip, Nada.

Fortunately, they did have three women on their panel--again, very white--so there's something but the rest? White men, mostly old. All three of the men are clearly Right Wing being one Libertarian and the other two deeply Right Wing.

It really does seem as though no minority person's experience nor opinion matter either to this organization, the local PBS station, or to this city.

And once more, part of the panel discussion was about our just-passed November election. Clearly they think no person in this metropolitan area has any input worth giving to the voting and all its ramifications?

Is there not one person in this city that couldn't be included on this little, cozy club?

Really?

Their name does stand for Kansas City Public Broadcasting.  Right?

KCPT: Minorities Don't Matter In Kansas City?

Once again, our local PBS TV station, KCPT had a full one half hour discussing local issues and once again, one more time, they chose to make it an entire half hour, an entire show, all participants, the whole panel full of white people.

Only white people.

The closest they got to a minority was having a white woman on the show.

Otherwise?

All middle-aged or senior, white men.

Check it out.

The show began with an interview with one Wendell Cox, Principal of Demographia. Then it went to a panel discussion, mostly on the just-passed election with the following panel members:

--Jason Grill, media/public affairs consultant, 

--Mike Sanders, Attorney with Humphrey, Farrington and McClain

--Crosby Kemper III, Executive Director of the Kansas City Public Library and 

--Annie Presley, Author

All white.

Every. Single. One.

In the longest segment, they discussed the recently-executed 2016 presidential election. You would think that would include some input from, oh, I don't know, some Black Americans? Some Hispanic Americans? Mexican-Americans? Any other groups?

Nah.

Just the white folks. Not so much as even one "token", to be crude.

You would think there weren't any Black or Hispanic or any other minority people in this entire city, watching this show, most weeks and that the election didn't effect them in any way whatever.

It apparently, really is a white man's world. At least in Kansas City.

Ironically and coincidentally (hypocritically?), the program was followed by two ads promoting inclusion and helping young minority youth in the city.   I nearly choked.

To be clear here, however, they will accept monetary contributions from minorities, rest assured.

Link: Ruckus | KCPT

A Senate Republican Speaks Truth to Their Power

At last, long overdue, but we get some truth and honesty from someone inside this political party, calling their "Voter ID laws" what they really are and that is voter suppression.

Most assuredly un-American.  It's shameful. We need to rise up, speak out against this and overturn these efforts and soon as possible.

Quote of the day -- Americans, Together

We need to be and remain Americans, together, first and last.

The Republican Message for This Election Day

Senate Republicans turn American history on its head

I don't know if you were paying attention two days ago but, as the title above says, Senate Republicans just further turned American history on its head.

I think all of us were taught, in grade school and middle and high school, all, that America was about equality and fairness.

Right?

Well, nuts to all that, say those Senate Republicans, yet one more time with their vote Wednesday this week:

Senate Republicans unanimously reject equal pay bill

Despite weeks of heavy messaging, Democrats failed to get a single GOP vote as the third attempt in recent years to pass the wage equality legislation fell six votes short.

“The promise of equal pay for equal work should not be a partisan issue — it should be a matter of common sense and fairness, an essential step for the security of our families, the growth of our economy, and the strength of our middle class,” Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement after the vote.

“Unfortunately, Senate Republicans disagree,” she added.

I say again, why any woman--any woman--in this nation would vote Republican, for this political party or for anyone in it is beyond me.

Now that I'm at it, why would black Americans vote for them? Republicans have come out against renewing the Civil Rights Act. 

Gays? Republicans are famously, famously against equality here, too, for gay Americans.

The elderly? Unless their wealthy, of course?  Republicans are for dismantling Social Security.

Hispanics? Republicans are notoriously against immigration reform of virtually any sort.

It truly seems the only people left to vote Republican are white, wealthy men.

Well, and any middle- and lower-class American the Republicans are able to dupe.

Quote of the day--on fairness and morality

Good to great things that happened this year

It occurred to me that actually there are quite a few good things that took place this past year. I thought I should make a list.  Herewith:

1) President Obama, the nation's first black president, was re-elected. That's pretty huge;

2) Mitt Romney, multi-millionaire and toady for corporations and the uber-wealthy, was defeated.  Magnificent;

3) The Koch brothers, then, and all like them and all they represent, were also defeated;

4) Money could not and did not buy this/these election(s) and they spent mightily;

5) More women were elected to the US Senate than ever before;

6) The American people have become tired of our perpetual Aghan war. It's important that take place;

7) More minorities voted than ever before. That's growth;

8) More and more equal rights--and acceptance--were gained for people of same-sex attraction;

9)  We finally, maybe, perhaps, have the will, as a nation, to address our national, repeated tragedy of mass slaughters of innocents with assault weapons.  Hopefully;

10) The world didn't end on December 21st.

May yet more good things take place for us all, but especially for the working class and the middle- and lower-classes.

Here's hoping.

Statistic of the day

From the "You think you have it tough?" department:

"For every dollar of non-home wealth owned by white families, people of color have only one cent."

Links: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/14-0; http://arc.org/downloads/2009_race_recession_0909.pdf

First Texas---next, Kansas and Missouri?

Let's hope so. It seems the US Department of Justice ruled Texas' Voter ID laws discriminatory and so, has thrown them out. Good for them. That's a good start. Now, hopefully, as said above, maybe it can come this way and disavow Kansas' and Missouri's useless, discriminatory, un-American voter ID laws since they're only really created to get fewer Americans voting. Link: http://www.workingamerica.org/blog/2012/03/13/texas-voter-id-law-deemed-discriminatory/

Lower- and Middle-Class people voting Republican

I'll never understand that. Or gays, or women or Blacks or Hispanics, for that matter, since they clearly legislate against all of them.