KANSASBAK

4 25

merri ok

DOGE USAID 2 BILLION/YR$

see kobach

see brownback libtard fail

===

note polarization less b/c mayors have to be pothole practical/accountable.

===

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AN 4 25

Being a Republican in Kansas means[

Not really. Sure, you might have to mumble a half-hearted apology or lose an election here or there. But don’t worry! You won’t face any sanctions with teeth or be out of office for long. Kansas Republicans embrace affirmative action for middle-aged, mediocre white men who believe the right things.

Take Rep. Nick Nick Hoheisel, R-Wichita. Back in February, he found himself in a bit of a jam after confronting with Rep. Ford Carr, D-Wichita, on the House floor. Hoheisel, who is white, confronted Carr, who is Black, over Carr’s rhetoric. According to witnesses, the Republican used profanity. Carr later filed a formal complaint.

In our original coverage of events, Hoheisel appeared to deny that anything untoward had occurred.

“I’m not going to dignify any of those false and outlandish allegations with a response,” Hoheisel wrote editor Sherman Smith in a text message.

IFrame Content

Yet Hoheisel eventually apologized to the House, while still claiming the allegation were “significantly overstated.”

A special committee made up of three Republicans and three Democrats looked into the complaint and deadlocked. Republican leaders lowered the boom on Carr, however, and subjected him to a multi-day ordeal before that same committee. His main sin appears to have been calling the GOP racist. The panel will potentially send a letter to the full House admonishing Carr.

Hoheisel escaped any discipline whatsoever.

That’s just for Democrats or saps.

Conservatives don’t pay a price for cursing at their opponents, losing high-profile races or an array of other bad behavior. Not in Kansas, they don’t.

State Sen. Virgil Peck once joked about shooting immigrants from helicopters. Then a representative, he issued a brief apology and kept serving. Eventually, he lost a primary for state Senate. But he worked his way into the chamber eventually, spreading nonsense about chivalrous manhood along the way.

Just this session, he criticized journalists’ “inaccurate” stories to justify raising the rent of press offices at the Statehouse.

Rep. Pat Proctor has left a trail of bellicosity and startling rhetoric about Kansas elections. Yet he’s now running to administer those same elections as secretary of state. A previous contender for that office, Mike Brown, failed in his 2022 bid to unseat elections chief Scott Schwab. Yet Brown simply pivoted to run for state GOP chairman the very next year — and won.

Senate President Ty Masterson went through bankruptcy and somehow found a six-figure job at Wichita State University to complement his legislative work. Nice work if you can get it, right? He’s likely to launch a gubernatorial bid soon.

The one and only Kris Kobach lost consecutive statewide elections to Gov. Laura Kelly in 2018 and Sen. Roger Marshall in 2020. He finally managed to claw his way back to relevancy through a successful bid for attorney general. Who knows where he might land next, but he clearly wasn’t daunted by Kansas voters’ repeated rejections. They don’t know what a good deal they have in voting for another subpar white man.

As I said, white male Republicans of a conservative bent can rest assured in their continued relevance, no matter controversies or losses.

The one person who appears to have paid a price for his shortcomings is House Majority Leader Gene Suellentrop, who was jailed on a drunk driving charge and ousted from his post in 2021. He stayed around the Statehouse through early 2023, though. Statehouse leaders didn’t want to look like they were too tough on the poor fellow, I suppose.

This year, we’ve heard repeatedly from those in Washington, D.C., that efforts to embrace diversity, equity and inclusion have gone too far.

We’ve heard repeated suggestions that prominent and accomplished Black people, women and LGBTQ+ community members don’t have what it takes. Marshall even suggested that DEI policies contributed to the crash of a passenger plane from Wichita.

Yet those in Topeka have shown us throughout recent years that the real threat doesn’t come from Black people, women or LGBTQ+ folks.

It comes from doughy white men who won’t take a hint to leave the rest of us alone.

*Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary,here.

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com.

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an 3 25

Kansas satanists to defy governor with ‘therapeutic blasphemy’ in black mass at Statehouse

TOPEKA — All hail civil disobedience.

Gov. Laura Kelly intervened Wednesday in satanists’ plans to conduct a black mass on March 28 at the Statehouse by declaring they would not be allowed inside.

The satanists plan to defy her undivine wisdom.

“We will be showing up on the 28th,” said Michael Stewart, founder and president of the Satanic Grotto, which organized the event. “We will be entering the building and attempting to perform the mass, and if Capitol Police want to stop us, they will need to arrest us.”

The Satanic Grotto’s plans to conduct a black mass in the Statehouse rotunda stimulated considerable attention online — and outrage from the Catholic Church.

In cheeky social media posts, Stewart describes satanists as “the scariest thing in the dark.”

But in an interview, he said he was planning a safe event, with nothing to be afraid of. His said his group has about three dozen members, primarily from Kansas City and Wichita, and is nonviolent.

“The black mass is a satanic version of the Catholic mass, meant to reflect our own pain and anger of us being subjected to religion that we never gave consent to,” Stewart said. “It was imposed upon us. So the ritual is sort of — you can think of it as therapeutic blasphemy.”

The group describes itself on its website as an independent and nondenominational church whose members are feminist, LBGTQ+ allies, and anti-racist — “Nazi Satanists can f---- off.”

The Satanic Grotto’s event listing on Facebook shows 26 plan to attend and 116 are interested in the event.

Chuck Weber, of Kansas Catholic Conference, said in a March 6 statement that such an “explicit demonstration of anti-Catholic bigotry will be an insult to not only Catholics, but all people of good will.”

“The Catholic Bishops of Kansas ask that first and foremost, we pray for the conversion of those taking part in this event, as well as each person’s own conversion of heart during this scared Season of Lent,” Weber said in the statement.

The governor entered the arena Wednesday, when she issued a statement declaring her concerns about the event. She said there are “more constructive ways to protest and express disagreements without insulting or denigrating sacred religious symbols.”

She acknowledged the right to freedom of speech and expression — “regardless of how offensive or distasteful I might find the content to be” — and that she has limited authority to respond to the planned event.

“That said, it is important to keep the Statehouse open and accessible to the public while ensuring all necessary health and safety regulations are enforced,” Kelly said in her statement. “Therefore, all events planned for March 28 will be moved outdoors to the grounds surrounding the Statehouse. Again, no protests will be allowed inside the Statehouse on March 28.”

Stewart said the governor’s office didn’t call him before issuing the public statement.

“This is a Democrat governor bowing to religious and Republican pressure,” Stewart said. “There was enough outrage that she had to do something, but she’s so chicken to actually stand up for anything, the best she could do was try to shuffle us outside and make it look like she has done something to save her own hide instead of standing up for religious and free speech.”

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an 2 25

LAWRENCE — Laura Mead has called Kansas U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran’s office every day since confirmation hearings on President Donald Trump’s appointees began — initially requesting a statement on his votes for confirmation, then urging him to host a town hall to address Kansans’ concerns about Washington.

Mead, an artist in Dover, is primarily concerned with Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and leader of the new Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE. She worries that Moran is failing his obligation of providing checks and balances by allowing Trump and Musk to dismantle agencies that Americans have relied on for decades.

Starting Feb. 11, she began urging Moran to hold a town hall. She took to Facebook, prompting other Kansans to join her in calling Moran’s offices. She said his office never responded.

“If he refuses to respond to us, what do we do?” Mead said.

Her answer: Host with a symbolic empty seat for Moran on Feb. 22.

About 1,200 people tuned in during the live, 2.5-hour event, which featured 32 speakers — farmers, veterans, health care workers, cancer patients, special-needs parents — who voiced concerns over Trump and Musk.

Dot Nary, a disability activist and wheelchair user, pointed to Musk calling people who rely on federal programs — like Medicaid — a “parasite class.” Musk has said he believes Medicare payment systems are where “the big money fraud is happening,” leaving Nary concerned for the future of Medicare and the Department for Health and Human Services.

“Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security permit people to have the basics to live with dignity, and to have the standard of living that Americans expect and deserve,” Nary said.

“Senator Moran, as my elected representative, I am relying on you,” she added. “Will you vote against efforts to cut funding for these Health and Human Services programs — both from the Department of Government Efficiency and in upcoming budget negotiations? Your constituents expect you to advocate for programs that allow us to live full lives in our communities.”

Musk facilitated the layoffs of about 1,000 Department of Veterans Affairs employees earlier this month. George Downing, a Korean War Navy veteran, said he is “ashamed” that Congress would allow this to happen — especially Moran, who ran a campaign focused on farmers and veterans.

He wasn’t the only veteran to voice concerns.

“My grandchildren will be given the awful debt accumulated by this administration, and by Republicans who now want to cut government without any thought to what will save money,” said Olen Pryor, a Vietnam War veteran.

Nick Levendofsky, executive director of the Kansas Farmers Union, said it is normal for a new administration to review spending. He said the harm arises when they cut off aid Americans were relying on.

Levendofsky said the federal spending freeze has thrown off farmers’ existing plans. He said a farmer in northeast Kansas, who took out a $55,000 loan under the Rural Energy for America Program Renewable Energy Systems, expected reimbursement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but because of the spending freeze will not be repaid.

“When farmers and rural businesses face instability, mainstream businesses from equipment dealers to grocery stores also feel the impact, Levendofsky said. “When the food system is disrupted, everyone pays the price. Delays in farm programs could lead to reduced production, supply chain disruptions and ultimately higher food costs for consumers.”

Kansas farmers’ products have been used to supply food for international humanitarian aid through the U.S. Agency for International Development, another agency under scrutiny from Musk. Moran is leading an effort to transfer the food supply portion of the program to USDA, preserving diplomatic ties and benefits for Kansas farmers.

Diane Journot, a Republican from Parsons who voted for Moran, says she sees Republicans “throwing up their hands” and allowing Trump and Musk to take “absolute control.”

Mead, who moderated the town hall, decided to target only Moran for the town hall and did not invite any other members of the Kansas congressional delegation.

“Of all the people I was seeing that could make the quickest impact, Senator Moran would be the one,” Mead said.

Mead said only a few Republicans need to “stand up against Trump,” and she sees Moran as “empathetic, thoughtful, and willing to listen to people who don’t agree with his views.”

Moran’s office did not respond to requests to comment for this story.

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Played for suckers: Kansas farmer blasts Trump voters in scathing editorial

an 2 25

'I feel so stupid': These 'horrified' Trump voters are having serious buyer’s remorse

'Act of God': Trump-supporting farmers reel from funding cuts

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AN 2 25

TOPEKA — A pair of House Republicans entertained a hypothetical act of violence toward a former representative Thursday as they acted out a traditional hazing ritual for new legislators.

Wichita Republican Rep. Patrick Penn performed the custom of grilling freshman lawmakers as they present legislation on the House floor for the first time. Rep. Kyler Sweely, a Republican representing Hutchinson who defeated Democratic incumbent Jason Probst in November, was the subject of Penn’s interrogation. Penn and Sweely have a shared history of serving in the U.S. Army in the Middle East and knowledge of the intricacies of combat. During the hazing ritual, with the attention of the full chamber, Penn posed a hypothetical to Sweely. They referred to “that guy from Hutch,” a moniker Probst adopted for his online newsletter.

Penn: “Now when we talk about the commands for firing, what are the components of a firing command?”

Sweeley: “Identifying the target, the direction the target is, the range that the target is, and then the type of ammo that you’re going to use to address the target.”

Penn: “So if I were to come to you and say, I have a firing command, and that command is, ‘Gunner, sabot, that guy from Hutch in the open, fire for effect,’ what would you say?”

Sweeley: “Gunner, sabot, that guy from Hutch.”

Penn: “Alright, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you on his maiden voyage here before you as colleagues, that new guy from Hutch.”

Probst, when reached by phone Thursday, chuckled at the exchange.

“Usually I find when people hate you that much and they talk about you that much, they want to be you,” he said.

He could take two interpretations, he said. One, the legislators were alluding to a violent threat, or two, “they’re very pleased with having won the election very narrowly,” Probst said.

“It’s really rewarding to know that I live rent-free in their heads,” Probst said.

Sweely defeated Probst by 294 votes in the November election.

Neither Penn nor Sweely immediately responded to an inquiry from Kansas Reflector. The House Speaker’s office also did not immediately respond to repeated requests for comment.

House Democrats expressed indignance and disbelief in response, with some calling on Penn to apologize and for the House Speaker’s office to discipline the legislators.

Rep. Alexis Simmons, a Topeka Democrat, said she told House leadership she expects formal action.

“We routinely hear members of the Republican caucus call points of order on Democratic members for benign, perceived slights because their feelings are hurt,” she said in a text message.

Simmons said the comments were “clearly violent in nature,” and said it would be “not only irresponsible but negligent” to allow them to stand.

“Bottom line, it’s just a ridiculous thing to even suggest shooting a political adversary,” she said.

Immediately following the exchange, some House Democrats exchanged looks of disbelief and caused disruption as they scrambled to confirm the question, “Did he say that?” according to Rep. Ford Carr, a Wichita Democrat.

“Had I known the individual that uttered those words,” Carr said, “there would be talk of disciplinary action and nothing less.”

House Minority Leader Brandon Woodard in a statement denounced “the use of inflammatory rhetoric that incites violence in any form, particularly during a time when attacks on public officials are increasing.”

Woodard, a Lenexa Democrat, said political disagreements ought to be addressed at the ballot box. He called the exchange a promotion of political violence.

“This behavior cannot be overlooked,” Woodard said. “Representative Penn must take responsibility for his comments, recognize their inappropriate nature, and offer a sincere apology.”

Penn has served in the House since 2021 and this year is co-sponsoring legislation with more than 60 Republicans to cement the right to own guns, ammunition and firearm accessories in the state constitution.

Penn and Sweely, at different times, were deployed to the Middle East to support Operations Spartan Shield and Inherent Resolve, which included campaigns in Iraq and Syria.

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AN 12 24

Give the people what they want.

That’s the grumbling I’ve heard from more than one progressive in Kansas after voters strengthened GOP supermajorities in the Statehouse. New political math mean legislators likely won’t expand Medicaid or legalize marijuana anytime soon. Rather than support families in need, these lawmakers likely will erect further barriers to nutrition, health care and secure housing.

So what, these profoundly irritated people say. *Voters wanted this. Let them suffer the consequences

The same sentiment can be heard in national post-election dialogue. Voters can select leaders who harm them, experts warn.

“Authoritarianism is often popular. Many people support a strong and decisive leader,” said Timothy Longman, a professor of international relations and of political science at Boston University. “In Africa, which is the focus of my scholarship, military coups have frequently been greeted with dancing in the streets, because people think that military rule will bring order.”

People want a state government that throws the needy to the wolves. Let them feast.*

I understand why people feel this way. I understand the temptation to throw up one’s hands and retreat, leaving callous lawmakers free rein to slash taxes for oligarchs, pare budgets to the bone and legalize discrimination against minority groups. After an election in which consequences were clearly spelled out — Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly explicitly connected Medicaid expansion to state legislative races — a majority chose callousness.

But here’s my modest proposal: Forget that nonsense.

What’s right is right, no matter the majority’s whims. In Kansas, sizable numbers either voted another way or chose not to vote at all. Should we blithely accept policy that harms these folks as well?

A rising tide lifts all boats. But a sinking tide lowers all boats. Giving the people what they want could hurt everyone and everything.

Before starting at Kansas Reflector, I spent nearly four years in nonprofit children’s advocacy. My former boss, John Wilson, laid it out in a column published here Wednesday. Children will suffer the consequences of a neglectful Legislature. They can’t vote. They can’t make the kind of decisions that hand political power to one party or another. Their fates are up to the adults who take care of them.

“We cannot let the next legislative session go by without providing targeted relief to Kansas kids in need,” Wilson wrote.

He added: “We need every lawmaker to go into the 2025 session with the belief that there are tangible answers to the complex issues we’re facing.”

That means transcending rigid ideological frameworks. That means working across the aisle. That means accepting that sometimes government can provide solutions rather than simply create problems. That means opening lawmakers’ minds to the possibility that they can build and create, rather than slash and burn. Sometimes, the right thing to do — making sure that children grow up healthy and educated — transcends any one election.

This goes for Kansas’ delegation in Washington, D.C., too. Our U.S. senators and representatives will confront an dizzying array of choices in the coming months, along with great pressure from the new presidential administration. Can they chart an independent course, one that includes the folks who didn’t vote for them last month? Hope springs eternal, as Alexander Pope wrote.

I’m making a narrow point here, one that I don’t want folks to misconstrue. Lawmakers will reflect ideologies and policies supported by the voters who elected them. That’s natural. That’s the electoral name of the game. I raise no objection to such representation, even if I object to the policies that result.

Give the people what they want.

On the other hand, not all governmental functions can or should be viewed through an explicitly political lens.

Basic human rights transcend any election. These include the right to necessities such as housing and health care; the right to live unimpeded by prejudice; and the right to raise one’s voice in opposition, no matter the circumstances. They are elemental. They are foundational. While partisans may view such rights as liberal, they are in fact just reflections of our shared humanity.

In the words of President Franklin Roosevelt, speaking in 1941: “Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere.”

Some might say Wilson’s column sounds too optimistic. Some might say my column sounds too confrontational. (Some might say Roosevelt was just another liberal Democrat.) They might be correct. Or maybe we — and a huge number of Kansans — understand that politics can only take us so far.

Working together, let’s give the people what they need.

Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary,[here

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an 10 24

Sometimes you need to step back to see what’s right in front of you.

That alarming fact struck me last week as I watched firsthand how institutional forces conspire to deny Kansans the ability to vote for the candidates of their choice. I don’t believe the parties involved all gathered in some smoke-filled room to make their decisions, but they have nonetheless aligned themselves against pluralistic democracy and encouraged creeping authoritarianism.

On Wednesday, Facebook deleted our post referring to freelancer Grace Hills’ simple story explaining how Kansas can vote in the upcoming election. With Oct. 15 as the deadline for voter registration, the story was a timely reminder of how Kansans could participate in the political life of their state.

But Facebook didn’t want you to see it, claiming that “it looks like you tried to get likes, follows, shares or video views in a misleading way.” Not only could we not post the article but Kansas Reflector followers couldn’t either. The platform has at various points shut down pages belonging to the League of Women Voters of Lawrence-Douglas County and Kansas Reflector. Meta, the parent company behind Facebook, apparently has been deploying an artificial intelligence bot that mistakenly targets innocuous political material.

On Thursday, a press briefing from the Alliance for Youth Organizing featured Loud Light president Davis Hammet in a roundtable discussion with youth voting advocates from across the nation. Hammet recounted how the Kansas Legislature passed the bill that essentially shut down voter registration drives formerly carried out by Loud Light, the League of Women Voters and other groups. Those carrying out such drives could theoretically be prosecuted if someone mistook them for government officials, leading to uncertainty and legal exposure. A judge finally blocked the law’s enforcement this summer.

“The reason this really matters is that when you register someone to vote when they’re 18 or 19, they become more likely to vote for the rest of their life,” Hammet said on the call. “And the inverse is true. When they are deprived of that opportunity to get registered, to get engaged, they are less likely to participate. Not just in elections, but in civic life in general for the rest of their life. So voter suppression, but particularly voter registration suppression, causes irreparable harm, not just to young voters but to our entire country and to the idea of democracy.”

I didn’t want to just write about Facebook taking down links to our article. And while youth voting advocacy matters a great deal, Kansas Reflector reporters have covered that story. (Columnists have taken it on, too.)

But then it struck me: This is the same story. This is one and the same story.

This is a story about powerful institutions on the state and national levels who have decided that they want to make it more difficult for people to participate in the political process. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has apparently soured on the entire political process and reconciled with former president Donald Trump. Meanwhile, Kansas legislators have routinely found themselves in thrall to charlatans who claim voter fraud is a pressing threat.

Rather than steel their nerves and push forward with what is obviously the right course of action — engaging people of all ages in the democratic process — the Kansas Legislature and social media oligarchs have decided to shut it all down. Or come as close as they can.

We have no idea how many Kansas youths missed the opportunity to register through a drive conducted by Loud Light or other civic organizations. They may be silenced for decades to come. Likewise, we have no idea how many people browsing Facebook last week might have seen a link to Hills’ story and clicked, learning more about engaging with the political process. Facebook didn’t just suppress the story but actually took it down, leaving them without the opportunity.

In the background, Trump and his poisonous partisans have continued to claim without basis or justification that the 2020 election was stolen and that the 2024 election may be tampered with as well. The first didn’t happen, and the second won’t happen either.

But that’s not the point. These political actors hope to use confusion and anti-democratic messaging to suppress voter turnout and advance their own political project. It’s an absolute scandal. No matter your party, no matter your ideology, no matter your age, or background, please recognize the threat.

Our individual rights do not come from Facebook. They are not granted by shortsighted Kansas legislators. They do not issue forth from one campaign office or another. Our rights belong to us and us alone, as Kansans and Americans. We have the right to guide our government. We have the right to speak against those who would silence us.

We will only be suppressed if we allow ourselves to be.

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an 10 24

Sometimes you need to step back to see what’s right in front of you.

On Wednesday, Facebook deleted our post referring to freelancer Grace Hills’ simple story explaining how Kansas can vote in the upcoming election. With Oct. 15 as the deadline for voter registration, the story was a timely reminder of how Kansans could participate in the political life of their state.

But Facebook didn’t want you to see it, claiming that “it looks like you tried to get likes, follows, shares or video views in a misleading way.” Not only could we not post the article but Kansas Reflector followers couldn’t either. The platform has at various points shut down pages belonging to the League of Women Voters of Lawrence-Douglas County and Kansas Reflector. Meta, the parent company behind Facebook, apparently has been deploying an artificial intelligence bot that mistakenly targets innocuous political material.

On Thursday, a press briefing from the Alliance for Youth Organizing featured Loud Light president Davis Hammet in a roundtable discussion with youth voting advocates from across the nation. Hammet recounted how the Kansas Legislature passed the bill that essentially shut down voter registration drives formerly carried out by Loud Light, the League of Women Voters and other groups. Those carrying out such drives could theoretically be prosecuted if someone mistook them for government officials, leading to uncertainty and legal exposure. A judge finally blocked the law’s enforcement this summer.

But then it struck me: This is the same story. This is one and the same story.

This is a story about powerful institutions on the state and national levels who have decided that they want to make it more difficult for people to participate in the political process. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has apparently soured on the entire political process and reconciled with former president Donald Trump. Meanwhile, Kansas legislators have routinely found themselves in thrall to charlatans who claim voter fraud is a pressing threat.

Our individual rights do not come from Facebook. They are not granted by shortsighted Kansas legislators. They do not issue forth from one campaign office or another. Our rights belong to us and us alone, as Kansans and Americans. We have the right to guide our government. We have the right to speak against those who would silence us.

We will only be suppressed if we allow ourselves to be.

chief win superbowl taylor swift dude but

Kansans absorb shock of joyous Chiefs celebration turning into violent tragedy - Alternet.org

mass shoot 1 woam kia 20 plus wounded 3 arrest

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huh? newspaper

https://www.alternet.org/police-raid/ kansas 8 23

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https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/the-religious-right-coalition-behind-kansas-slew-of-anti-trans-bills/

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knowles an 2 23

Right-wing host wants to 'ban transgenderism entirely' because of 'occult sexual rituals'

Brandon Gage

Last Thursday, the Kansas State Senate voted 26-10 along party lines to pass what it calls a "Women's Bill of Rights" which seeks "to define a 'woman' as a biological female for leg...

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an ah 2 23

We are done with you': Kansas Republicans turn on each other following Democratic governor’s reelection

Alex Henderson

November 18, 2022

One of the many disappointments that Republicans suffered in the 2022 midterms came when incumbent Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly was reelected and narrowly defeated Republican nominee Derek Schmidt...

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521

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/far-right-kris-kobach-aims-for-political-comeback-announces-run-for-ag-in-kansas/

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brownback just keeps on giving // texas cold disaster

https://www.alternet.org/2021/03/kansas-gop/

gutted soc safe net, now covid fail

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/senate-hopeful-kris-kobach-bankrolled-by-billionaire-peter-thiel-says-coronavirus-numbers-are-being-cooked-to-hurt-trump/

no lnx

Senate hopeful Kris Kobach — bankrolled by billionaire Peter Thiel — says coronavirus numbers are ‘being cooked’ to hurt Trump

Written by Alex Henderson July 28, 2020

With Republicans in fear of losing the U.S. Senate in November, the last thing they need is for far-right extremist Kris Kobach to win the state’s GOP senatorial primary this summer and put the seat in play for Democrats. And Kobach’s recent comments on COVID-19 are a prime example of why Democrats believe they could defeat him in the general election: Kobach is claiming that the coronavirus death count is being exaggerated as part of a conspiracy to hurt President Donald Trump. Regardless, Kansas’ former secretary of state continues to pursue the nomination, and he has a major ally in tech billionaire and venture capitalist Peter Thiel.

On the YouTube program “National File,” Kobach said of the pandemic, “I believe that the numbers are being cooked.”

According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, the COVID-19 pandemic has killed more than 654,300 people worldwide and over 148,000 in the United States. Truth be told, that 148,000+ figure is probably too low — as the death count in the U.S. focuses on hospital deaths and doesn’t take into account all of the Americans who have died from COVID-19 in their homes and were never hospitalized. But Kobach nonetheless insists that the pandemic isn’t as deadly as Trump’s critics are making it out to be.

On the July 13 edition of K-File, Kobach claimed, “The books are being cooked, and the purpose, at least on the political left, is to use those numbers to scare the public and to scare the political leadership into shutting down. Now, they want to continue the government shutdown for — the business shutdown — with government pressure, for as long as they can. If they can slow it down by using masks as a signal that things are not back to normal— and therefore, you should not go out, you should not buy, you shouldn’t open up your business yet — whatever, but the reason is obvious.”

Such claims are a prime example of why Democrats believe they could defeat Kobach if he wins the Republican senatorial primary in Kansas and makes it to the general election — especially in light of the fact that Democrats defeated him once before. In Kansas’ gubernatorial election in 2018, Kobach (who served as chairman of the Kansas Republican Party from 2007-2009 and as Kansas’ secretary of state from 2011-2019) lost to a Democrat: centrist Laura Kelly, now Kansas’ governor. And as deep red as Kansas is, Kobach’s defeat in 2018 demonstrated that a Democrat can win a statewide race in that state if the GOP nominee is extreme enough.

But as extreme as Kobach is, he has found a major ally in Thiel. According to Vox’s Theodore Schleifer, Thiel held a fundraiser for the Republican in Manhattan and has since “pumped $850,000 into a super PAC behind Kobach.”

Schleifer reports, “If Kobach is elected, it could give Thiel a loyal ally in the Senate because of how powerful he is proving to be in the race. That alliance becomes all the more key if Trump loses this fall, which would weaken the Washington influence of Thiel — a board member at Facebook and a founder of Palantir, which has deep ties to the government.”

Patrick Miller, who teaches political science at the University of Kansas, believes that Thiel has become indispensable to Kobach’s Senate campaign. Miller told Vox, “I don’t want to overstate it and say that Kobach wouldn’t have a campaign without him. But I think the money that that super PAC is putting into the race — primarily through this one rich guy — is absolutely the lifeblood of the pro-Kobach campaign at this moment. You take that money away, and Kobach doesn’t have a lot of campaign left.”

Kobach is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Pat Roberts, who is retiring. In the primary, he is up against Rep. Roger Marshall — and the GOP strategists who fear that Kobach, if nominated, would lose to a Democrat are rallying around Marshall aggressively and hoping to God he becomes the nominee. Scott Reed, a political strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told Politico, “A Kobach victory would definitely put the Republican majority in jeopardy because it would add another state that would need serious resources.”

According to Steven Law, president of the Senate Leadership Fund, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is hoping that Kobach becomes the nominee because he believes that Kobach would be easier to defeat than Marshall. Law told Politico, “The latest ad from Schumer’s Kansas pop-up PAC shows that they want to start the general election early by going after Marshall, and we aren’t going to let them get the jump on us.”

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trump got cfg to back off attacking marshall (pro KKK?), vs bollier dem ex gop

https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/the-most-bizarre-senate-race-is-happening-in-kansas/

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watkins KS

https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/a-republican-congressman-just-got-charged-with-3-felonies-including-voter-fraud

Kansas Senate seat in play as Republicans look to re-nominate perpetual loser Kris Kobach

an 620

wagle

https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/kansas-republican-state-senator-goes-full-on-conspiracy-theorist-as-she-fights-for-us-senate-seat

// WI primary vote

https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/kansas-republicans-override-democratic-governors-stay-at-home-order-in-brazen-power-grab/

===

https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/they-loan-you-money-then-they-get-a-warrant-for-your-arrest/

They loan you money. Then they get a warrant for your arrest

Written by Anjali Tsui / ProPublica December 3, 2019

Cecila Avila was finishing a work shift at a Walmart. David Gordon was at church. Darrell Reese was watching his granddaughter at home. Jessica Albritton had pulled into the parking lot at her job, where she packed and shipped bike parts.

All four were arrested by an armed constable, handcuffed and booked into jail. They spent anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days behind bars before being released after paying a few hundred dollars in bail or promising to appear in court.

None of the four, who live in northern Utah and were detained last year, had committed a crime. They had each borrowed money at high interest rates from a local lender called Loans for Less and were sued for owing sums that ranged from $800 to $3,600. When they missed a court date, the company obtained a warrant for their arrest.

Avila was handcuffed and marched down the main aisle in the Walmart in front of customers and co-workers. “It was the most embarrassing thing,” said Avila, 30, who has worked at the store for eight years. At the time of the arrest, Loans for Less had applied to garnish her wages. “It just didn’t make any sense to me,” she said. “Why am I being arrested for it?”

It’s against the law to jail someone because of an unpaid debt. Congress banned debtors prisons in 1833. Yet, across the country, debtors are routinely threatened with arrest and sometimes jailed, and the practices are particularly aggressive in Utah. (ProPublica recently chronicled how medical debt collectors are wielding similar powers in Kansas.)

Technically, debtors are arrested for not responding to a court summons requested by the creditor. But for many low-income people, who are not familiar with court proceedings, lack access to transportation, child care options or time off, or move frequently and thus may not receive notifications, it’s a distinction without a difference.

Reese, a 70-year-old Vietnam veteran, said he missed a hearing because he couldn’t afford to put gas in his car. Gordon, 46, said he was never personally notified of the court date. Avila and Albritton, 32, said they couldn’t take time off work.

:{:{}:

In Utah, payday lenders and similar companies that offer high-interest, small-dollar loans dominate small claims court. Loans for Less, for example, filed 95% of the small claims cases in South Ogden, a suburban city of 17,000 about a half-hour north of Salt Lake City on the interstate, in fiscal year 2018, according to state data.

:{:{}:

Across Utah, high-interest lenders filed 66% of all small claims cases heard between September 2017 and September 2018, according to a new analysis of court records conducted by a team led by Christopher Peterson, a law professor at the University of Utah and the financial services director at the Consumer Federation of America, and David McNeill, a legal data consultant and CEO of Docket Reminder.

Companies can sue for up to $11,000 in Utah’s small claims courts, which are stripped of certain formalities: There are rarely lawyers, judges are not always legally trained and the rules of evidence don’t apply.

Lenders file thousands of cases every year. When defendants don’t show up — and they often don’t — the lenders win by default. Once a judgment is entered, companies can garnish borrowers’ paychecks and seize their property. If borrowers fail to attend a supplemental hearing to answer questions about their income and assets, companies can ask the court to issue a bench warrant for their arrest.

Arrest warrants were issued in an estimated 3,100 small claims cases during the period studied by Peterson’s team. Almost all of the warrants — 91% — were issued in cases filed by payday, auto title or other high-interest lenders. The number of people who are jailed appears to be small. The state does not track the information, but ProPublica examined a sampling of court records and identified at least 17 people who were jailed over the course of 12 months.

Most people scramble to meet bail to avoid being incarcerated. Others, like Avila, Gordon and Albritton, are booked into jail and held until they pay. They often borrow from friends, family, bail bonds companies and even take on new payday loans.

“Bail” has a different meaning in Utah than it does in other states — one that tilts the power even more in the direction of lenders and other creditors.In 2014, state legislators passed a law that made it possible for creditors to get access to bail money posted in civil cases. Prior to that, bail money would return to the defendant. Now, it is routinely transferred to high-interest lenders. The law has transformed the state’s power to incarcerate into a powerful tool to guarantee that loan companies get paid.

===

1119 aha why is okla the ctr of evil, what's the matter w/ kansas, but both oil state; 5 hr drive 366 mi dallas to wichita; all 3 stacked, kind of cohesive unit geographically; tx okl mate, panhandle.

https://www.kshs.org/publicat/history/2007winter_pratt.pdf

Frank's What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives

Won the Heart of America (2004) argues that leftwing politics once

were commonplace in the Sunflower State.1

It is an intriguing idea and serves as the point of departure for this historiographical essay on Kansas radicalism. In these pages "radicalism" refers to a leftwing

political position beyond that of liberalism, a position that often embraced

government ownership and socialism, seeking to control or abolish big

wealth and private economic concentration. Radicals were not a monolithic

group, as they frequently differed among themselves on objectives and tactics, and many of them sought to work within the ranks of broader, less

ideological groupings at particular times.

Groups in which Kansas radicals participated included the People's Party, Knights of Labor, Socialist

Party, Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or Wobblies), Nonpartisan

League, Communist Party, and mainstream unions such as the United Mine

Workers.

Kansas was probably the most radical state in the Union in the 1890s,

and leftwing efforts there continued for several decades. "For much of the

twentieth century," wrote Fred Whitehead, "the state of Kansas has suffered the reputation of being a conservative bastion, yet during the 1880s,

through the Populist movement of the following decade, and even until

the anti-radical repressions of World War I, it was a dramatic laboratory

of social experimentation, free thought, and wild political insurgency."2

In no other state were the Populists as successful at the ballot box, electing a

number of congressmen, two U.S. senators, and two governors, not to mention hundreds of other public officials, including the chief justice of the state supreme court. Prior to World War I, Kansas Socialists held picnics, turned out to hear party notables such as Eugene Debs and Kate Richards O’Hare, and, perhaps most important for their cause, published the Appeal to Reason, the single most successful leftwing newspaper in American history. The radical IWW was also quite active in the state during the second decade of the twentieth century, organizing thousands of harvest hands and oil field workers. But U.S. entry into World War I in 1917 marked the beginning of the end of Kansas radicalism. By the early 1920s, the Sunflower State was well on the way to becoming the conservative bastion to which Whitehead alludes. Never again would Kansas be identified in the public mind with leftwing politics. Thus, Kansas radicalism is largely a topic confined to the years between 1880 and 1920. That said, however, a closer look at the sources reveals leftwing sentiment and efforts before and after those years. For the remainder of this essay, I examine how historians have treated Kansas’s radical past,...

William C. Pratt is a professor of history at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and a member

of the Board of Trustees of the Nebraska State Historical Society. His current research focuses upon

the agrarian left in the Upper Midwest. In the spring of 2007, he was a senior Fulbright lecturer at the

University of Warsaw, Poland.

Thomas Frank, What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2004). The concept of a "lost world" introduced in the

title of the present article is borrowed from Robert McMath's "The Populist Southwest: A Lost

World," The Progressive 42 (December 1978): 53-55.

Fred Whitehead, "The Kansas Response to the Haymarket Affair," ...

===

an 1119

...All of this has renewed the on-again, off-again speculation that Pompeo may be planning to run for Senate in 2020, as Sen. Pat Roberts is retiring — something that he has vehemently denied he is doing.

It is widely expected that if Pompeo were to run for Senate, he would lock the seat down, as he remains popular there and Republicans have not lost a Kansas Senate race since 1932.

But if he isn’t, many political figures note, then he is wasting everyone’s time and money. The Kansas City Star ran an editorial saying Pompeo has “better things to do” than repeatedly fly to Kansas, and he “should quit his rather important day job” if he’s really flirting with a run, and Senate Democrats have filed a complaint asking watchdogs to look into his Kansas trips.

Even without Pompeo speculation, the Kansas Senate race is already shaping up to be far more interesting than usual with Roberts stepping aside. Congressman Roger Marshall appears to be the pick of GOP leadership, but flamboyant former Trump ally and anti-voting-rights crusader Kris Kobach is also running fresh off his failed bid for governor. Meanwhile, Democrats have a star recruit in state Sen. Barbara Bollier, who was until recently a Republican before defecting over the party’s extremism.

https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/what-kansas-rebounding-economy-tells-us-about-the-farce-of-republican-tax-cuts/

Kansas had one of the worst economies in the Midwest when, in June 2017, its state legislature reversed former Gov. Sam Brownback’s disastrous tax cuts for the wealthy. And according to CNBC America’s Top States for Business study, Kansas is now the state with the most improved economy in the U.S. and is enjoying a budget surplus.

In 2018, Kansas’ economy came in at an embarrassing #45 in the Top States for Business study and at #35 overall — and since then, it has improved by 16 points in general as well as by 16 points in the economy category, according to CNBC.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a centrist Democrat, was delighted with the news, telling CNBC, “We are returning to our roots as a very progressive, thoughtful, forward-looking state.” The Democrat went on to say, “Kansas, for years now, has been at the low end of all economic metrics. That’s changing.”

The economic problems that Kansas suffered under Brownback’s watch were the exact opposite of what the far-right Republican claimed would happen. When the GOP-controlled state legislature dramatically cut taxes for Kansas’ wealthiest residents and its largest businesses and Brownback signed the tax cuts into law, Republicans insisted that the state would boom economically.Instead, Kansas’ economy plummeted, and in 2017, a combination of Democrats and Republicans in the state legislature reversed the tax cuts.7

Brownback, whoresignedas governor in January 2018, was wildly unpopular during his final year in office. According to a Morning Consult poll, his approval rating was only 25% in July 2017. In contrast, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker — a Republican in a very Democratic state where Sen. Elizabeth Warren was reelected by a landslide in 2018 — enjoyed 71% approval in that poll and was cited as the most popular governor in the United States.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), Kansas had a $351 million revenue shortfall for fiscal year 2018. But with the reversal of Brownback’s tax cuts having taken effect, Kansas now has a budget surplus.

However, some Republicans in Kansas’ state legislature are pushing to restore some of the tax cuts and are arguing that the problem with Brownback’s economic program wasn’t the tax cuts — it was a failure to reduce spending.

A major shock in Kansas politics occurred in 2018 when the deeply Republican state elected a Democratic governor: Kelly, who defeated far-right Republican gubernatorial nominee Kris Kobach (Kansas’ former secretary of state and a one-time promoter of the racist “birther” conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama wasn’t really born in the United States).

Although Kansas’ economy has improved, according to CNBC’s study, Kelly stressed that there is still work to be done in that state.

Report Advertisement

“We will be studying our entire tax structure because it’s way out of whack right now,” Kelly told CNBC. “We want to take us back to what works for Kansas, which is really essentially what we call the three-legged stool: balance out our property taxes, our sales tax and our income taxes.”

419

Kansas Supreme Court Rules That Abortion Is Protected by State Constitution

Republican Official Unleashed a Racist Attack Against a Candidate Who Could Be the First Native American Woman in Congress

By Matthew Chapman, AlterNet

A Kansas Republican wrote a toxic screed against congressional candidate Sharice Davids. READ MORE»

---

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/21022018/clean-power-plan-repeal-cities-climate-change-epa-emissions-rules

Hundreds of U.S. mayors, representing one in seven Americans, have told EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt that they need the Clean Power Plan's emissions rules in order to fight climate change and protect their cities.

In a letter released on Tuesday, 236 mayors from 47 states urged Pruitt not to repeal the plan, which was a centerpiece of President Obama's effort to tackle climate change by cracking down on emissions from electric power plants. The rule has been in limbo during litigation, and President Trump wants it revoked, as Pruitt has proposed to do.

"We strongly oppose the repeal of the Clean Power Plan, which would put our citizens at risk and undermine our efforts to prepare for and protect against the worst impacts of climate change," the mayors wrote.

The group included the mayors of cities like Orlando, Houston and New Orleans that have suffered the ravages of storms and floods linked to a warming climate. It also included the mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, who was hosting Pruitt's latest hearing on the rules Wednesday.

On Twitter, Kansas City Mayor Sly James said the Clean Power Plan "benefits communities across the country."

The rules, which were imposed in 2015, aimed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by 32 percent by 2030. Pruitt, who had fought the proposal in court for years, began working to overturn it shortly after being confirmed as EPA administrator. The EPA is collecting public comment until April 26 about how and whether to replace the regulations.

...

===

https://www.alternet.org/election-03918/trumps-vote-suppression-team-doing-gops-dirty-work

Anyone who favors expanding voting rights should be relieved by Wednesday’s demise of President Trump’s so-called Election Integrity Commission.But the panel’s right-wing agenda to rig the voting process to benefit the GOP will continue.

There’s plenty to cheer about when white nationalists like Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the vice-chair, and voter suppressors like the Heritage Foundation’s Hans von Spakovsky were discredited by a panel run in a secretive, conspiratorial and clownish manner. But these Republicans are not giving up on their plan to create new barriers to eligible voters.

“Amid many challenges for the institutions of American democracy, this was a rousing win,” said Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice. “No doubt, there is fallout to come… The commission has vanished, but its pernicious objectives persist. The White House has asked the Department of Homeland Security to take up the commission’s work—a dangerous and appalling idea. Earlier this morning, the president took to Twitter to renew calls for voting restrictions.”

Indeed, Kobach signaled his next move to Politico, which noted, “The Kansas official said he expects officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and political appointees overseeing that agency to take over the commission’s work and begin efforts to match state voter rolls to federal databases of noncitizens. He insisted he was not disappointed with the president’s decision.”

“It’s the right move,” Kobach said. “It’s a shifting in tactics from having the investigation be done by a federal commission to having it be done by a federal agency. The agency has a greater ability to move quickly to get the investigation done.”

The GOP Strategy Unmasked

Kobach’s is referring to a strategy employed by the most fervent partisan Republicans to position red-run states to keep new registrants from voting and do mass purges of infrequent but otherwise legal voters from their rolls. In short, it draws on intentionally sloppy data-mining to creates thousands of false positives that are then used to stymie voters. That porous data has been used in recent cycles in Georgia to delay approving new registrations and to accelerate mass purges of voter rolls. But it's not just Georgia.

In 2014, Florida’s top election official proposed using DHS’s problematic citizenship data to purge voter rolls. In response, county election supervisors rebelled and blocked it—because they still felt the sting of the 2000 election, when Secretary of State Katherine Harris used sloppy data-mining (seeking former felons who could not vote under that state's laws) to purge tens of thousands of eligible voters before that year's presidential election.

If Kobach has his way, the contours of that sordid history will repeat itself, including using a DHS database that was never designed to be an authoritative list of every U.S. citizen. But in the years since Harris’ Florida purge, the right-wing strategy has become clear.

Republicans like Kobach strategically target weak points in the voting process. They pinpoint areas in the process that are ambiguous, or where there’s no authoritative national data to counter their claims of purported illegal activity.

For example, there is no federal agency that tracks so-called voter fraud, which these right-wingers define as someone impersonating someone else at the polls to vote more than once, and has become the go-to justificatiom for red-run states to erect new barriers to voting century. Since there’s no single federal agency that tracks so-called voter fraud, it becomes a useful propaganda tool for Republicans because it's left to acacdemics and the media to debunk it, which these partisans routinely ignore.

The latest high-profile example of this narrative is Trump's thoroughly debunked claim that millions of Democrats illegally voted more than once to deprive him of 2016’s popular vote majority.But that lie, recited again by Trump’s press office when announcing the commission’s demise, resonates among supporters who want to believe all Democrats are crooks despite vast documentation by academics and the press that voter fraud barely exists. In the absence of an authoritative federal accounting, it becomes an easy pretext for red states to pass laws to, as they purport, police the process’ integrity. In reality, they thwart Democratic voters.

Not surprisingly, on Thursday, Kobach spewed that same line to—where else?—Steve Bannon’s Breitbart News. “They [Democrats] have absolutely no interest in stopping voter fraud,” Kobach told Breitbart. “It’s truly extraordinary that one party in our system has made clear that they don’t care… Some people on the Left were getting uncomfortable about how much we were finding out.”

What's wrong with these figures? Beyond the fact that some of these numbers, like his Kansas statistics, have been debunked, what’s missing is the context or the larger number, the denominator if you will: that is, how many people voted legally in all the years cited? In other words, how pervasive is this problem? What is its real magnitude in the real world of voting?Kobach, pretending to be authoritative, then cited figures that also have been pedaled by the Heritage Foundation's von Spakovsky. “The voter fraud commission has revealed: 938 convictions for voter fraud since the year 2000,” he said. “Fewer than 1 in 100 cases ends in a conviction. In Kansas, alone, there are 127 known cases of non-citizen aliens registering to vote. In 21 states, there were 8,471 cases of double voting discovered.”

The answer is it is a trifle. That's because that well over half a billion people have voted in federal elections alone since 2000, which means the 938 figure is close to a once-in-a-million occurrence. Nonetheless, the absence of an authoritative federal agency tracking this activity and issuing authoritative reports that are respected by legislatures and the courts, perpetuates Kobach’s propaganda. Its absence continues to serve as a red-state pretext to overly police voting—as seen in Trump’s Thursday tweets.

Kobach Wants ICE to Vet New Voters?

That fabricated backdrop for imposing new restrictions on voting takes us to what’s new and potentially insidious about Kobach’s latest gambit. He wants the Department of Homeland Security to take responsibility for preventing “non-citizen aliens” from voting. Just like voter fraud, there is no authoritative federal database—even at DHS—listing every American citizen. Their database is designed to ensure welfare recipients are entitles to their benefits; but it is not a list of every U.S. citizen.

That deficiency creates an opening which right-wingers like Kobach, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp and Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner have sought to exploit—and have exploited—to game the process of voting to up the GOP’s chances of winning. Because DHS’s citizenship database is incomplete, it cannot confirm the citizenship of every new person registering to vote. That omission was exploited by Kemp to delay processing tens of thousands of new voter registrations in 2014. After that November, almost all of those registrations were approved; but not for the election those Georgians wanted to vote in.

When Detzner tried to force Florida county election offices to use DHS’s citizenship data to purge voter rolls—initially claiming, like Kobach, that there were hundreds of thousands of illegally registered voters—local officials balked and forced him to back down. Later, it was revealed that there were fewer than 100 questionable registrants among Florida's 10 million-plus registered voters.

Why would Republicans focus on proof of citizenship in order to vote? Because, as the Brennan Center reported in 2006 and updated in a report last summer, an estimated 7 percent of eligible voters don’t have such documentation, typically a birth certificate or passport. In other words, adding proof of citizenship to register will reduce participation in elections. (Think of it as a barrier at the starting line of the process, just as stricter state voter ID requirements is a barrier at the finish line.)

“A nationwide survey by the Brennan Center in November 2006 found that 7 percent of the citizen voting age population, or 13 million people, did not possess documents that would prove their citizenship,” the Center’s July 2017 reportsaid. “The rate is twice as high among citizens earning less than $25,000 per year. Women who changed their name upon getting married are especially likely to lack the relevant documents: A third of voting-age women don’t have proof of citizenship that reﬂects their current name.”

In other words, making proof of citizenship a new requirement before getting a ballot will mostly hurt likely Democrats.

Bad Data as a Partisan Tool

Republicans also know that the use of incomplete citizenship data can be used to stymie voters on Election Day. That's because it is a tool to do pre-emptive voter roll purges, in which inactive voters, especially in blue epicenters, can be disproportionately purged or removed from voting in the next election without reregistering.

That’s not a paranoid scenario. The Supreme Court will later this month hear a case over that very issue from Ohio, where GOP Secretary of State Jon Husted took advantage of two contradictory sentences in the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to purge tens of thousands of mostly Democratic voters from his state’s three biggest cities. Reuters' reporters analyzed the purge and found it was mostly aimed at Democrats. Here again, the GOP saw and seized on a legal ambiguity and used data to tilt the process.

The reason Kobach and Trump’s commission was so bent on adding a new proof of citizenship standard is it benefits the GOP in many ways. First, as the Brennan Center noted, 7 percent of otherwise eligible voters don’t have the paper documentation.(Today people sign their name on registration forms as an oath under penalty of perjury; these Republicans say that's not good enough.) Beyond that, knowingly turning to sloppy data-mining to additionally delay new registrants further helps the GOP by thwarting grassroots registration drives. And using bad data to imprecisely target infrequent voters for selective purges also helps them.

The Voting Wars Continue

It’s a good thing that media scrutiny and public criticism of Trump’s election commission shut down that sham panel. But it was only one means to an end that is still in the GOP’s sights. Indeed, just this week it was revealed thst the Justice Department asked the U.S. Census to include a question on citizenship, citing a need to use that information to better enforce the Voting Rights Act.

Kobach and his ilk will do anything to subvert the process of voting for Democrats and non-whites. They’ve burrowed into the nooks and crannies of the law and process to exploit ambiguities and contradictions. Just watch what they will try to do in the months ahead—not just with baseless voter fraud accusation, but with screening for citizenship. As they wrap themselves in the flag, look at their data-mining. They know it’s shoddy and going to yield huge numbers of false positives, and that’s just what they want.

Steven Rosenfeld

...

But in the last few years, pressed by fossil fuel businesses such as Koch Industries and advocacy groups funded by the Koch brothers, including Americans for Prosperity and the American Legislative Exchange Counsel (ALEC), bills have been introduced in state after state to repeal these standards. And in a few states, such as Ohio and West Virginia, they’ve succeeded.

Now Kansas is following in their footsteps. This week the legislature voted to repeal its mandatory renewable portfolio standard (RPS), passed in 2009, and replace it with a voluntary standard. It passed overwhelming, 105-16 in the Kansas House and 35-3 in its Senate.

The legislation is now headed for Gov. Sam Brownback’s desk, and he’s certain to sign it, given that it was unveiled at a press conference last week held by Gov. Brownback and legislative leaders at which he said it “further solidifies and stabilizes the policy environment so that investment can continue in Kansas.” The *Wichita Eagle* noted that Mike Morgan, a lobbyist for Kansas-based Koch Industries, was also present at the news conference.

The bill, SB 91, is being touted as a compromise. While it replaces the mandatory standard, which required utilities to generate 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020, with the voluntary one, Kansas’ burgeoning wind industry staved off a proposed 4.33 percent excise tax on wind production. The bill also shortened the lifetime property tax exemption for businesses using renewable energy sources to 10 years. The deal was struck in a series of closed-door meetings with legislators, the conservative Kansas Chamber of Commerce, Americans for Propserity and wind industry representatives.

Kansas is already a national leader in wind generation. Last year, wind provided more than 21 percent of the state’s electricity, exceeding the 20 by 20 standard. According to the Wind Coalition, it has created 12,000 jobs in the state.

“The wind energy industry has been an economic and job growth engine for Kansas,” said Wind Coalition spokesperson Kimberly Svaty. “We are pleased that an agreement was reached that will provide investment and policy stability so Kansas can continue be an industry leader. We are always willing to come to the table with anyone who is willing to recognize wind energy’s economic benefits.”

But the group’s executive director Jeff Clark acknowledged, “It’s a step back from what we have now.”

Environmental groups, who were not at the table when the legislation was crafted, were not so upbeat. Zack Pistoria of the Kansas Sierra Club called it a “backroom deal,” and said, “Our state is riding the brakes while other states are hitting the gas pedal—Nebraska, Oklahoma, Iowa. They’re going to have a competitive edge. Now’s the time to double down on renewable energy, not double back.” He pointed out that the wind industry’s involvement likely resulted from their effort to stave off the excise tax, which could have crippled it.

Americans for Prosperity, which had called the Kansas Renewable Portfolio Standard an “unaffordable mandate [that] merely drains family budgets, promoted by “powerful environmental interests,” expressed delight at the repeal.

“This is a good compromise that promotes the free market,” said the group’s Kansas state director Jeff Glendening. “We support an energy policy that allows the free market to decide which energy Kansans consume. Wind has a role in the mix. An electric market free of mandates is most efficient.”

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===

The Kansas legislature has sent a bill to Gov. Sam Brownback’s (R) desk that limits welfare recipients to withdrawing just $25 a day from their benefits and enacts a range of other restrictions.

If Brownback signs the law, recipients of the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program would only be able to withdraw $25 a day with their benefits cards from ATMs, which act like debt cards. No other states or the federal government currently limit withdrawals.

While one of the backers of the bill asserted that recipients could take out more at a bank counter, the cards can’t be used at counters and many poor people lack access to bank accounts given the need to maintain balances and pay fees. Seventeen million Americans are unbanked, going without formal financial products. Meanwhile, during debate over the bill state Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau (D) pointed out that many recipients need to withdraw hundreds of dollars some days in order to be able to pay rent.

The bill bans welfare recipients from using their benefits or withdrawing them at movie theaters, nail salons, pools and spas, liquor stores, jewelry stores, casinos or racing facilities, tattoo and piercing parlors, cruise ships, and other locations.

It also imposes hard caps on how long recipients can get benefits. After 36 months, poor people would hit the lifetime limit and not be able to get any further benefits unless they could prove they had an extraordinary hardship such as sexual assault, in which case they could get 12 additional months. The federal lifetime limit, on the other hand, is five years. It also bans anyone with two felony drug convictions from ever getting welfare and suspends anyone who tests positive for drugs after enacting a drug testing program in 2014 that has cost $40,000 and only turned up 11 positive tests out of 2,783 applications. State Sen. Michael O’Donnell (R) said he wanted the bill to go “back to the ‘T’ and making sure this is ‘temporary.'”

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/23/1331799/-Kansas-Supreme-Court-deals-another-blow-to-the-worst-secretary-of-state-in-the-nation

brownback fails

http://www.alternet.org/what-happened-when-extremist-christian-fundamentalist-got-run-whole-state?paging=off¤t_page=1#bookmark

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/31/kansas-supreme-court-bp_n_1847664.html?view=print&comm_ref=false

===

trms: wants to elim income tax, w/ kansas 1/13 jindal too

===

http://www.amazon.com/Whats-Matter-Kansas-Conservatives-America/dp/0805073396#reader_0805073396

What's The Matter With What's The Matter With Kansas

Katrina vanden Heuvel on October 11, 2005 - 11:37 AM ET

I'm a Tom Frank fan. I think he's a wonderful and passionate writer. But, now a respected political scientist is arguing that the "Great Backlash" Frank chronicled in his last book, in which "conservatives won the heart of America" and created a "dominant political coalition" by convincing Kansans and blue-collar, working-class people to vote against their own economic interests in order to defend traditional cultural values against bicoastal elites "isn't actually happening--at least, not in anything like the way Frank portrays." (Thanks to Doug Henwood--editor of the invaluable Left Business Observer and longtime Nation contributing editor--for turning me on to this new study.)

In a fascinating paper called "What's the Matter With What's the Matter with Kansas?", Princeton professor Larry Bartels uses data from National Election Study (NES) surveys to test Frank's thesis. He examines class-related patterns of issue preferences, partisanship, and voting over the past half-century. Bartels concludes that the white working class hasn't moved right and that "moral values" are not pushing them to vote Republican.

Moreover, for the most part, voters' economic and cultural attitudes are either both liberal or both conservative rather than the bifurcated split Frank sees. Bartels also disproves the argument that there's been a long-term decline in turnout.

Here's a summary of the report's findings if you don't have time to read the full 43 page paper, first presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association this September. You can also click here to listen to Henwood's interview with Bartels.

Conclusions:

* Has the white working class abandoned the Democratic Party? No. White voters in the bottom third of the income distribution have actually become more reliably Democratic in presidential elections over the past half-century, while middle and upper-income white voters have trended Republican. Low-income whites have become less Democratic in their partisan identifications, but at a slower rate than more affluent whites--and that trend is entirely confined to the South, where Democratic identification was artificially inflated by the one-party system of the Jim Crow era--itself a holdover from the legacy of the Civil War and Reconstruction.

* Has the white working class become more conservative? No. The typical views of low-income whites have remained virtually unchanged over the past 30 years. (A pro-choice shift on abortion in the 1970s and '80s has been partially reversed since the early 1990s.) Their positions relative to more affluent white voters--generally less liberal on social issues and less conservative on economic issues--have also remained virtually unchanged.

* Do working class "moral values" trump economics in determining voting patterns? No. Social issues (including abortion) are less strongly related to party identification and presidential votes than economic issues, and that is even more true for whites in the bottom third of the income distribution than for more affluent whites. Moreover, while social issue preferences have become more strongly related to presidential votes among middle- and high-income whites, there is no evidence of a corresponding trend among low-income whites.

* Are religious voters distracted from economic issues? No. For church-goers as for non-church-goers, partisanship and voting behavior are primarily shaped by economic issues, not cultural issues.

Click here to read the full study and let's hope that Democratic Party strategists are doing the same.

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Kansas Supreme Court Sides With BP Over Dirtied Town

AP | By ROXANA HEGEMAN Posted: 08/31/2012 3:41 pm

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court reinstated on Friday a verdict that said residents of Neodesha are not entitled to recover the cleanup costs caused by a dismantled oil refinery owned by BP Corp., a ruling that sided with Big Oil.

The high court said the judge made a mistake when he overturned the jury's decision following one of the longest jury trials — 17 weeks — held in Kansas. The judge had set aside the verdict after concluding he had given the jury improper instructions, saying jurors should only have been instructed to determine damages to be paid by BP Corp. North America and its predecessors.

Allen County District Judge Daniel Creitz said in 2008 that strict liability for the contamination was not a question of fact for the jury to decide but a question of law — and that Neodesha, located in rural southeastern Kansas, was entitled to judgment in its favor. He ordered a new trial only on the issue of damages, and BP appealed.

In its 34-page ruling, the Supreme Court said Friday that BP was correct in arguing that there were disputed facts that jurors had to decide, such as whether BP had done enough to clean up the pollution.

"Given the allegations as framed and the existence of disputed facts, we hold that the jury's verdict should not have been disturbed," the court wrote.

The refinery operated from 1897 until it was dismantled in 1970 and the property was donated to the city. Experts found groundwater pollution under 350 acres of land — including almost 70 percent of the town and land underneath City Hall, hundreds of homes and the community's schools.

The original lawsuit was filed in 2004 on behalf of the 2,700 residents, as well as government entities and businesses. The lawsuit contended the corporation lied when it told the community it knew where the contamination was located, when it said the contamination was stable, and when it told residents there was no risk.

The lawsuit contends the operation of the oil refinery and associated labs and storage facilities generated a variety of poisonous wastes, including benzene, toluene, polyaromatic hydrocarbons and metals, such as arsenic, lead and mercury.

The plaintiffs had sought nearly $478 million for cleanup costs and damages as well as punitive damages.

The defendants contended they had already assumed full responsibility for addressing the contamination caused by the refinery and committed publicly to remedial actions that the Kansas Department of Health and Environment deemed appropriate.

At trial, which began in August 2007, the companies argued the state agency has been reviewing the company's work and did not have a problem with the progress of its cleanup.

There were 46 witnesses over 69 days of testimony. Jurors reached their decision after less than three days of deliberations.