Cancel the cancellations – bring back our fall festivals

  The evidence is becoming more and more clear all the time. Covid-19 is not the boogeyman for rural states like Kansas that we have been sold these last months.

It's time to recognize it for what it is according to legitimate data and get back to living, and the best place to start is to defibrillate all the heretofore canceled fall festivals and events whose red lined "save the date"corpses now litter the community calendars of Kansas towns and counties.

Event organizers need to rally ASAP and get those gatherings back on the schedule in their craft booth, BBQ sauce, car show, funnel cake and fiddle-pickin' glory, and help put our state back on its feet this fall.

Just as clear as the lack of rural Covid threat is the fact that government is not going to be able to fix the immeasurable economic and social damage its over-reactionary polices have wrought on Kansas. A solution is not coming from President Donald Trump or Governor Laura Kelly – government has finally done more financial damage than it can afford to fix. In slamming on the brakes on our schools, our businesses, our gatherings and our community economies without regard to virus dynamics and their relation to population density, government has created a financial maelstrom that it cannot manage nor rectify. 

    Particularly in Kansas, Governor Kelly's one-size-fits-all approach has been particularly damaging to rural communities. It's time for the regulators and bureaucrats to get out of our way and let us fix this problem.

Ignorance and half-truth are the handmaidens to irrational fear, even without plausible and suspected political motivations circling the drain toward the November 3 elections. Data finally released by the Centers for Disease Control last week noted that 94 percent of Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. were people with underlying medical conditions. In raw numbers, that means 180,000 deaths were quickly reduced to less than 11,000 nationwide, or about a third of influenza deaths the year before, when nothing was shut down or canceled. As it always is, this data reinforces that it s incumbent on people who know they're more susceptible to health threats to personally insure against them. The rest of us? Not so much.

In Kansas we watched state officials manipulate graphs to try to show counties that didn't follow Governor Kelly's mask mandate were recording higher rates of infection. A closer look at the actual numbers showed rates of infection were declining in mask counties but they'd also declined or stayed stable at lower rates in more rural, no-mask counties.

Also at issue is reporting of Covid testing results. Kansas is the second lowest in the nation in Covid testing rates per population, reserving tests primarily for those who believe they've been in contact with someone who has the virus or those presenting symptoms of some kind. That's not a random sample – it's skewed toward those with a higher probability of infection. Even so, the state's 45,000 cases of Covid so far represent 1.5 percent of the state's 2.9 million residents. The 481 fatalities reflect mortality of .0001.

Figures like that back up the anecdotal evidence that keeps popping up in relatively sparsely populated areas. A Memorial Day gathering at Lake of the Ozarks in violation of state shutdown orders resulted in two cases out of untold hundreds of partiers – so few the Missouri media hasn't even bothered to report the aftermath. The annual motorcycle event in Sturgis, SD., yielded 260 cases out of some 500,000 attendees – about .052 percent.

The numbers alone are enough to support a move back toward open outdoors public events, but there's a more human element at play as well. 

    As Marxist scumbags riot, murder and wreak carnage in America's cities, it's more important than ever for rural residents to be reminded that we are communities of character, and that our way of life extolls in sharp contrast to the rot being foisted on our urban cousins.

So let's break out the barbeque napkins and get back at it.

–Dane Hicks is publisher of The Anderson County Review in Garnett, Kan.

How Obama killed journalism

Barack Obama’s address at the Democrat National Zoom Festival last week was a stark reminder to practitioners of our once noble craft that it was he who sucked the life out of modern journalism.

Yes, Obama clipped Anderson Cooper. He buffooned Wolf “Baghdad” Blitzer. He blathered Dan Rather and fogged Brian Williams' memory even more than imaginary Iraqi gunfire.

Obama – the bitter reflection of the nation's unrequited hope that a black president might be a healing tonic for the ails of the country's black community, bottled up journalism in the United States in eight short years and left it to rot like a tuna salad on whole wheat left in a Ziplock bag on the dash of your car in July.

Yet, there he was at the Democrats' Covid convention, his historically anointed socialist sheen still luminescent against the stark and bitter truth that it was he, as much as 304 electoral votes, who in 2016 unleashed Donald Trump on a Pearl Harbor-esque, over confident and substance-starved American Left. It was he whose haughty derision for American exceptionalism made the words of Donald Trump resonate with such passion in the pool halls, farm coops, union halls and barbershops of our country. Yet liable as he is for the hell Democrats have lived for nearly four years, he is still reserved a seat at their royal table.

Were it any other organization, he would spend his future in exile for the sin he committed against them. Obama brought the wrath of Trump on the Democrats, but his malfeasance against the nation as a whole and arguably the world in the destruction of journalism is a far higher crime.

Not just through his administration’s record denial of requests under the Freedom of Information Act; not just his use of the Espionage Act to attack whistleblowers who fed tips to reporters; Obama changed the face of journalism as the vanguard of a new phenomena in the American press – the untouchable topic.

From the minute his Italian leather-soled shoes hit the concrete steps of the Old State Capitol Building in Springfield, Illinois, in 2007 to announce his candidacy, his status as untouchable was etched into political stone. Any second-guessing of him by the press couldn’t be legitimate, because it was racist. It was an automatic blank check to make stupid decisions as president that benefited the Iranian Mullahs, the Russians in Crimea and ISIS in Syria with never more than a twitch from the mainstream media. Obama was the kryptonite to press criticism.

Now American journalism spends more time tip-toeing around every politically correct topic and choosing coverage angles and narratives in advance of interviews than it spends in hair and makeup. An entire host of taboo topics followed Obama into the circled wagons of American press privilege.

Obama’s legacy reaches clear to Kansas, where Democrat Governor Laura Kelly enjoys her own Lethal Weapon 2-style ‘diplomatic immunity’ from press criticism even after her statewide shutdown canceled the state’s economy and her mask mandate showed no impact on the virus. It is fallout from the Obama experience that mainstream media or anyone else for that matter can’t critique the performance of a Democrat governor, much less a female one.

But we remember the good old days, when Dena Sattler, then publisher of the Garden City Telegram, led the daily media tar and feathering charge against Gov. Sam Brownback. Sattler couldn’t write so much as a grocery list without blaming Brownback and state Republicans for the spots on her bananas. But her sheering voice of gubernatorial dissent has now faded along with the rest of that old liberal Kansas chorus. Without Brownback to disparage anymore, Sattler left the paper and is now a staffer in Gov. Kelly’s public affairs office.

This dynamic is why we see no condemnation of Black Lives Matter for its Marxist roots, no judgment of rioters in the destruction of American cities, no notice that Democrats spent four nights talking about how much they hate Donald Trump, but outlined not a single policy or initiative which could be discussed, analyzed and evaluated.

It is a delicate tight rope the modern national journalist must negotiate. The fall on either side risks “cancellation” by social media, the exodus of customers, sponsors and advertisers, and the end of careers should they stray toward the now Unholy Grail of objectivity.

The result has been a crippled press and an audience driven to the addictive comfort of an accommodating but scurrilously deceptive social media. Obama’s damage cannot be undone.

– Dane Hicks is publisher of The Anderson County Review in Garnett, Kan.

'Ghost of Elections Future' gives Dems a preview of November

 

   I'm the Ghost of Elections Future.

    I'm escorting my two new friends, typical Kansas Democrat voters Vic and Vicky Victim, on the last leg of our midnight post-primary election tour as we preview the upcoming fall election contests in the state.

Vic and Vicky, say hello to our audience...

        Vic: KRIS KOBACH IS A NAZI!

        Vicky: Yeah.

Vic, we've been over this. Kris Kobach is not a candidate this fall. He was defeated in Tuesday's Republican primary.

Vicky: Hooray!...wait..what?

Kobach lost his primary and won't be on the November ballot.

Vic: But...he took money from White Nationalists. He...he suppresses black voters. He...We were gonna beat him easy.

Now, Vic, get used to the fact Kobach will never again be a candidate for office in Kansas. You'll have to move on now.

Vic: But...HE'S...A...RACIST!

Moving along, let's look at the U.S. Senate race. Your candidate is Barbara Bollier. She's a doctor.

Vicky:  Good. She can cure Covid when she's elected. Trump has killed millions with that disease, and HE'S A RACIST, too. We're for her.

However, she used to be a Republican.

Vic: What? She was a Nazi, too? I'm against her, I think.

No, far from it. See her here on the Senate floor a few years back? She's wagging her finger in the faces of some conservative members, and criticizing her own Governor Brownback for his tax cuts for businesses. Here you can see her voting to expand abortion rights in the state.

Vic: Well, that's more like it. I'm for her.

Her opponent is named Marshall; he's a doctor also.

Vicky: Did you say his name was Field Marshall? So, HE'S A NAZI, too? And a doctor? I've heard terrible things Nazi doctors did to people. So, he's one of them, too?

No, he's a Congressman and an obstetrician. He delivers babies.

Vicky: Big deal. Is he Pro-Choice?

No, he's against abortion.

Vicky: So, he HATES WOMEN and wants to take away their control of their own bodies? More Toxic Masculinity. I don't like him.

I never doubted that. Next, we have a couple of Congressional races to preview. This is Congressman Watkins of the Kansas 2nd District.

Vic: HE'S A CROOK! On Facebook I heard he voted several times in the same election. Keeps lying about his address; what's he hiding? Somebody told me he still lives with his parents and eats red meat. What a loser! I think he's going to jail.

He was also defeated Tuesday. He won't be running in November.

Vic: Good...what? A crook is easy to beat. Crap.Who's running instead?

Jake LaTurner. Here he is, with his wife and young family.

Vicky: "LaTurner?" What is he, French? He can't run here, can he? He looks like the 'Where's Waldo' guy. Or a White Supremacist. What's he hiding?

Nothing so far. Hes a young fellow with a nice-looking, All-American Family. Already been elected statewide once – has a bright future, most people say.

Vicky: Pfffftt. He's done something to somebody, you can bet on it. He's a white male; there's no telling what hes up to.

But, isn't your husband a white male also?

Vicky: My what? Are you for real? We're not married. We don't go for all that  legal mumbo-jumbo. We're free to come and go as we please. None of that Male Domination crap for me. Besides, Vic's not really a man, that's just how he identifies right now.

    I'm sorry...I just assumed...

Vicky: (Laughing) Who are you, my Dad?

Our last stop is the neighboring District, the Kansas Third. Two women are running here, Amanda Adkins, and incumbent Sharice Davids.

Vicky: Good. Two Sisters running. Both victims of Male Oppression. Which one is the Democrat?

That's Congresswoman Davids.

Vic: Wait...a...minute. She's an Indian. Is it legal for her to run for office?

Yes, Vic. She won easily last time; defeated an incumbent. You might be interested to know she's also a former MMA fighter.

Vic: She scares me. I'll vote for her..but..she scares me. I'm probably going to need a cry room and a puppy.

Shes also a lesbian.

Vicky: I don't blame her a bit. The fewer men in the way, the better (nods toward Vic).

Well, that's the end of our tour. Just one more thing. (A picture of President Trump appears)...

Vic: Arrrgh. RACIST! Hes going to kill us all with the Covid!

Vicky: He's PUTIN'S PUPPET!

President Trump carried Kansas by more than 20 points in 2016. If he does that well again this year, all your candidates are going to lose;  some very badly. I've been sent here to warn you of what lies ahead.

Vic and Vicky: (In unison) But, KOBACH IS A NAZI!!  ###

– David Hicks is a political analyst and editorialist for The Anderson County Review.

Democrat candidates must disavow Black Lives Matter

  There's a question that Democrat Roger Sims needs to answer in his bid for 5th District Kansas Representative.

It must be asked of Michelle De Le Isla who wants to be the U.S. Congresswoman from the 2nd District to represent Anderson County and pretty much the entire eastern third of the state. Don't forget to ask Mike Bruner, who wants to be the senator from Kansas' 12th District, which also represents most of our local area.

It's the same question that voters and the ever-tip-toeing-around-Democrats Kansas media need to ask all Democrats running for elective office in the state. Indeed it is the elephant in the room of the 2020 elections that must be addressed by all Democrat office seekers. And that question is this:

"Will you disavow the Marxist leadership and objectives of Black Lives Matter and the crimes of murder, rioting and violence its armies have perpetrated against the United States of America?"

America demands that question be answered by local, state and national Democrats as they stump for office over the next 90 days. It is required because their national leadership has failed to condemn BLM, nor to stand in support of police during 2020's Summer of Carnage.

Is it a loaded question? Not really.

Not when so many of those victimized by BLM in these attacks have been the very black lives they say 'matter' – those who've been traditionally supportive of Democrat candidates ad nauseam for generations.

Not when innocent Americans of all races have been killed, confronted by mobs and had their homes and small businesses destroyed in the name of seeking 'justice.'

Not when the lionized martyr for BLM's attacks was too stupid and too high on meth to obey a simple instruction to get in the back of a patrol car.

Not when his murder was co-opted as a ploy to burn a country in an effort to besmirch a president.

Not when Democrat mayors and governors have sided with the attackers of their own citizens, cowered to the violence and appeased the criminals with the genius move of defunding the cops sworn to protect them.

Yes, it is a rightful question Democrat candidates must all answer.

Were it far right agitators or Neo-Nazis rioting and burning abortion clinics, basing attacks on a premise of racism, confronting and attacking police departments in minority neighborhoods, do you believe the media would be asking Republican candidates for their stance on such violence? That's been a standard of news coverage in the past. Those seeking office should be asked to declare themselves, their beliefs and their intentions on the major topics of the day, particularly when Americans are being murdered by riots condoned and facilitated by some in their own party.

Candidates should go on the record regarding BLM because the organization and its attacks are murdering Americans. The grieving families of those Americans deserve to know.

Retired St. Louis police officer David Dorn, a black man helping defend his neighbor's store during riots in St. Louis weeks ago, was shot and killed by a rioter.

David Patrick Underwood was a federal protective services officer murdered while guarding a federal building in Oakland, Calif.

Twenty-two year-old Italia Kelly was attending a protest in Davenport, Iowa, when things turned violent and she sought to leave. She was hit by a rioter's bullet and killed as she was getting in her car.

This list goes on although it's hard to find. Some casualties are police, some protestors themselves, some just bystanders. No one in the media has done a very good job of compiling the identities of the bodies the day after these 'peaceful protests,' as many media outlets have dubbed them, took place.

They all have one thing in common: Black Lives Matter.

Voters in the upcoming elections have a right to know if Democrat candidates, whose party members have created and fostered a petri dish for BLM's violence, condemn or endorse the actions of this Marxist-led mob of murderers.

     They owe America an answer. ###

–Dane Hicks is publisher of The Anderson County Review in Garnett, Kan.

Democrats now terrified of the bed they've made

Democrats are running scared in 2020.

Frightened of the Socialists led by Bernie Sanders and AOC.

Fearful of Black Lives Matter.

Panic-stricken over Antifa.

Intimidated by the Media.

Subservient to the Cancel Culture.

Terrified of Donald Trump and prospects of his re-election.

Incapacitated by their own atonement; oh-so-politically correct and apologetic to all. Except white males.

Mobs tear down Confederate statues, attack police, set fire to buildings. Has a Democrat uttered a discouraging word? On the contrary, the Democrat mayors of New York City, Portland, and Seattle egg them on, only criticizing federal law enforcement sent to quell the violence. 

And it is violence, not “peaceful protests” as their apologists in the Media claim. Good thing they’re not attacking a Planned Parenthood clinic, or the Leftists would be the ones calling in the feds.

Why are Dems as petrified as Barney Fife chambering his only bullet?

Because they are now captives of the monsters they’ve been creating for decades. Spoiled, entitled, under-educated children convinced for generations they are victims of “White Supremacy.” Too black, too Hispanic, too female, too ignorant, too fill-in-the-blank to succeed, with the federal government “eve­ning out the playing field” by making excuses for their failures and punishing those who advance beyond them.

Now, the monsters want a guaranteed income, free health care, free college, the end of both fracking and the internal combustion engine, and the head of Donald Trump.

And…they…want…it…NOW.

You can see the worry in the eyes of those who the Dems ironically call “leaders.” The Harpy of the House, Nancy Pelosi, knew the Impeachment Hoax was a lost cause this year, but was powerless to stand in the way of The Mob. You don’t think Adam Schiff’s eyes bulge like that all the time, do you? The Deer Community refers to that phenomenon as “Schiff-in-the-Headlights.”

Jerry Nadler was likewise bewildered that the Impeachment Hoax was taken from his Judiciary Committee for the first time ever and given to Schiff’s secret Intelligence Inquisition in the basement. It was an unprecedented “No Confidence” vote in Nadler's leadership.

The Impeachment Managers themselves all looked like they were being directed by some­body off-camera as they emerged with their daily drivel. “Stand here….Say this…..Walk away.”

You could easily spot it during last week’s grilling of Attorney General William Barr. The questions were barely asked before the interruptions of him began. “I want to reclaim my time” was brayed over and over from congressional Dems afraid to let Barr actually speak. Like those who protest conservative speakers on college campuses, the Muzzlers of Freedom of Speech show a special brand of cowardice; unprepared for debate, and uninterested in any opinion that counters their own.

That used to be called Fascism; before everything was called Fascism.

Joe Biden is a pitiful and pathetic version of “Democrat 2020.” Only the presumptive nominee because he eventually outlasted the ineffectual alternatives including at least one Communist; he will only be a figurehead in his own doomed campaign. Robbed of his mental acuity, he may not even understand the forces that have driven him far Leftward and out of the American mainstream.

Most people start the day off with a healthy breakfast. Biden’s is a plate of crow. Apologies for his creepy behav­ior toward women; to blacks for his support of the 1994 Crime Bill; to liberals for his vote to authorize the Iraq War; and to anyone who’ll listen for his past friendships with segregationists. The start of his day is fortified by his own fear of his own kind.

Because of these sins, he’s bowing to demands he pick a woman, probably one of color, as his running mate. Among the contenders are an ex-po­lice chief of Orlando who once had her weapon stolen out of her police car in her driveway; a mayor uninterested in con­trolling crime in her city; a failed gubernatorial candidate who never accepted defeat; a former professor who falsely claimed Native American her­itage to further her careers in academia and politics; and an Obama crony who lied to the nation about circumstanc­es leading to the murders of Americans in Benghazi.

Not exactly an inspiring cast to be put one brainwave away from the presidency. I expect Biden's running mate announcement to look more like a hostage video.

“Democrats 2020” are a far cry from JFK. Heck, they’re a far cry from Jimmy Carter. No Profiles in Courage to be found. The lasting image of The Party of Jefferson and Jackson (ooops….they were slave holders) is of its “leaders,” in African garb, on their knees, in the Capitol.

Kneeling, conquered and surrendered.

–David Hicks is a political analyst and editorialist for 

The Anderson County Review in Garnett, Kansas.

When leaders are cowards, citizens must defend themselves

The St. Louis police who confiscated Patricia McCloskey’s inoperable handgun last week proved that when she stood by her husband’s side June 28 to defend their lives and property against a violent Black Lives Matter mob in their St. Louis suburb, she might as well have been pointing a summer sausage.

If something isn’t done to abet the rampant victimization and murder of our citizens underway by the Marxist Black Lives Matter organization, future responses by gun owning Americans will not be so inert.

St. Louis prosecutors were kind enough to have McCloskey’s handgun taken apart and reassembled to make it lethal prior to the pur­suit of the circuit prosecutor’s charges against the couple. While it still amounts to evidence tampering, their assistance provided the McCloskeys with a valuable service for which they would otherwise have most likely paid a full hour’s bench time at any local gun shop.

But the criminal case against the McCloskeys is compromised. At least for now but depend­ing on the continued coddling of violent mobs associated with the Marxist Black Lives Matter organization, brandishing a sausage is still not a crime in Missouri.

It’ll be interesting to see how that fact plays into the criminal charges against the McCloskeys, who have been rushed to the status of folk heroes among right-thinking Americans who are justifiably horrified at the destruction and murder wrought by BLM virtually unfet­tered by leadership in the nation’s urban areas.

What will not be resolved by the now compro­mised criminal case against the McCloskeys is the maturing mood among most of America that it is only those who follow the rules – not those who break them – that are subject to the conse­quence of law. The belief is justified, growing and dangerous.

The point has no more perfect illustration than the incident with the McCloskeys, who because of a lack of police protection took the last resort available to them to protect their lives and their property by arming themselves, standing their ground and confronting a defin­able threat. When the government fails or abdi­cates its responsibility to protect American families, what else can they do?

While the McCloskeys are quite accessible to the long arm of the law in their alleged fire­arm handling violations, accountability has been only sparingly asserted against the mob of thugs who tore down a security gate marked “no trespassing” to gain access to the McCloskeys’ private neighborhood. That’s typical for what has become the wanton violence and destruc­tion pursued by BLM against individuals and property owners of all races and tax brackets. Led by its avowed Marxist founders Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi, BLM saw a perfect smokescreen for its attack against America in the murder of George Floyd. Mainstream media has ignored the organiza­tion’s Marxist roots, and generally failed to condemn its attack on the country.

In city after city, American property owners have been victimized to the tune of billions and numerous citizens murdered, yet leadership in these cities still refuses to treat BLM as the enemy it is. The ludicrous rebukes by mayors of these urban muck pits to President Trump’s assignment of federal protection there speaks volumes as to whose side they’re really on. They lack the courage and the will to protect their citizenry, then they castigate the federals who try to cover for their neglect and cowardice. The immediate demands of citizens’ safety justify seizing to their own means of protection as they await an election to throw these left-leaning incompetents from office.

If leadership won’t act, the citizenry has no other choice but defend itself. And they won’t be pointing sausages. ###

–Dane Hicks in publisher of The Anderson County Review in Garnett, Kansas.

The cartoon, Kelly's over reach, the Holocaust and fact-checking the NYT

Happy Independence Day everyone! Following is the response I sent the Associated Press and to the New York Times about the cartoon. I wanted to be sure the UNCUT version was out there after they edit me... let's see how right they get it!

Happy 4th!!

From: Dane Hicks 
Date: Sat, Jul 4, 2020 at 6:34 PM
Subject: Fwd: Questions
To: michael levenson

Hi Mike- The person who has my old cell number forwarded me your message
(remember- it's a small town!!) here's a Q&A I did for our local AP guy. If
you have any other questions reply to this email. Thanks!

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Dane Hicks 
Date: Sat, Jul 4, 2020 at 6:26 PM
Subject: Re: Questions
To: Hanna, John D. 

John- I am the owner of the Review, we are an independent weekly.

1) I am a member and former president of various civic organizations
locally, none of which influence the newspaper or vice-versa. I am and have
been chairman of the county Republican party for a number of terms (I can't
remember how long off hand).

2) I photoshopped the cartoon. I'm no artist.

3) Political editorial cartoons are gross over-caricatures designed to
provoke debate and response- that's why newspapers publish them – fodder
for the marketplace of ideas. The topic here is the governmental overreach
which has been the hallmark of Governor Kelly's administration: absconding
with Kansans' additional federal tax refunds after Trump's change to the
tax law; a disastrous statewide shutdown that torpedoed businesses and
schools in scores of counties in Kansas that had no Covid-19 cases-
treating them just like virus hot spots in Johnson & Wyandotte counties; a
second blanket dictum that every Kansan would have to wear a mask in public
places, which would have certainly led to a resurgence in the "freak out
factor" with Kansans being reminded of the virus everywhere they turned,
resulting in a new wave of economic malaise. The most telling example of
authoritarian government I can think of is Nazi Germany – you'll recall
various media personalities and Trump Haters constantly making the analogy
between the president and Adolf Hitler – I certainly have more evidence of
that kind of totalitarianism in Kelly's actions, in an editorial cartoon
sort of way, than Trump's critics do, yet they persist in it daily.

Other Republicans? I have no idea- you would have to ask them.

4) Criticism and troll attacks: I've been in this business 35 years come
this December. Churchill said of criticism: “You have enemies? Good. That
means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.” I've found
that a poignant mantra in this business.

5) Apologies: To whom exactly? The critics on the Facebook page? Facebook
is a cesspool and I only participate to develop readership. I post much of
my writing there and my trolls are like family. I like to refer to them as
my narcissistic flea circus - I make them jump and I give them free rein
to attack me for my views and only rebuke them for vulgar language. I would
never apologize to them. They're liberal Marxist parasites who are
literally applauding and in some cases taking part in the burning and
commandeering of both public and private property in our country. As a
traditional American, they are my enemy.

If there are holocaust survivors or their relatives or Jews who take
offense to the image, I would certainly apologize and I intended no slight
to them. But then again they better than anyone should appreciate the
harbingers of governmental overreach and the present but tender seedlings
of tyranny.

6) Publication: I got the idea for the cartoon after last week's paper came
out so I put it on Facebook. It will run in the July 7 edition.

Sorry this took so long- if you have other questions reply and cc both this
address and 

On Sat, Jul 4, 2020 at 12:37 PM Hanna, John D.  wrote:

Mr. Hicks,

               I am a reporter for The Associated Press, and I would like to talk to you about a cartoon posted on the Anderson County Review’s Facebook page that is getting some notice. It’s the one about Gov. Kelly’s mask order with the caption that ends, “and step onto the cattle car.”

               My questions, to start:

• You are listed on the state GOP’s website as the Anderson County GOP chairman. Do you still hold that position?
• Did you post the cartoon yourself, or did a staffer do it?
• If a staffer did it, did you sign off beforehand?
• What was your thinking in posting the cartoon?
• How do you respond to criticism of the posting as “offensive” and “repulsive” from critics who think the comparison between the mask order and the Holocaust is inappropriately extreme?
• Does this cartoon represent the views of your fellow Republicans?
• Will you apologize?

John Hanna

Correspondent

Associated Press

300 S.W. 10^th Ave.

Room 37H-E

Topeka, Kan., 66612

785-234-5654 (office)

The information contained in this communication is intended for the use of the designated recipients named above. If the reader of this communication is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you have received this communication in error, and that any review, dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify The Associated Press immediately by telephone at +1-212-621-1500 and delete this email. Thank you.

K-State: Tell your football team "you're fired"

Kansas State University should fire the student athletes on its football team, women’s basketball team and any others who refuse to play their sports as directed by their programs, or risk the staggering moral and financial costs other universities have suffered.

Two reasons: First, university management is and should be in charge of its athletic and for that matter its academic programs, not the students. This accountability and responsibility is a point that has somehow been lost on those cowardly leaders now in charge of some cities, police departments and even state governments since this, the Summer of the Black Lives Matter Lie.

Second, K-State and its other students and faculty don’t deserve the kind of negative financial repercussions that will follow if the university doesn’t assert that it – not "woke" student narcissists and agitators who have nothing to lose – is in charge. 

That case in point should be clear except that 2015- 2016 is, in these Twitter-warped times, a long, long, long time ago. 

Ever hear of a place called the University of Missouri? 

Let me recap the story of how my dear ole’ alma mater lost the faith and confidence of the parents of Missouri college-students-to-be as well as that of donating alumni due to the the Black Lives Matter disaster of 2015-2016. 

In a nutshell, racial unrest on campus around the time of the Ferguson riots led to the Mizzou football team stomping its feet and going on “strike” due to racial tension on campus until former University President Tim Wolfe was fired or resigned. Spineless head football coach Gary Pinkel backed his players instead of firing them and playing the walk-ons from places like Florissant, Mountain Grove Thayer and Koshkonong, who would have done anything to play for Mizzou.

Lacking that, Pinkel and the players should all have been fired for insubordination and the Tigers taken the field that season with the C and D teamers, or simply forfeited their games. Then, Wolfe should have been fired as well because of his ongoing incompetence and cowardice.

To Mizzou’s ill fate, none of that happened. Instead, university management let the whole thing blow up in their faces. Protestors took over the university's famed quadrangle, confronting journalists trying to cover the events, in order to help control the story. In one instance, a communications professor named Melissa Click asked for "some muscle" to throw a photojournalist out of the protest area – on university property, no less.

In the ensuing years black and white enrollment both dropped at Mizzou. Some 4,500 students – 13 percent of enrollment and a number that translated to hundreds of millions of dollars in lost tuition, housing and beer sales – left Columbia. Also lost were donations from disgusted alumni for all manner of university causes. Dorms closed; faculty was cut; the university’s famed agricultural and medical research went undone or was set back. The hemorrhaging of dollars only ceased recently with meagerly recovering enrollment. 

K-State, you don’t want to go there. Much better to assert control of your university now and show the world the adults are in charge. Better to make the hard decisions and suffer the immediate consequences rather than capitulate to naive student bullies following Marxist agitators who will throw away the honor of a D1 athletic slot because someone said something that offended them. 

Jaden McNeil’s tweet that started the K-State trouble: “Congratulations to George Floyd on being drug free for an entire month!” was an off color joke, but only because of the bogus pre-election inflammation cooked up by the Black Lives Matter movement. Sure it’s inappropriate – lots of humor is. But certainly no worse than the old Saturday Night Live breaking news joke: “Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.” If you're too young to remember, Youtube it.

McNeil made a salient point in his own defense: “I condemned George Floyd’s life of violent crime and Twitter gave me a 12 hour suspension for ‘glorifying violence.’ ” 

That kind of logic, even if you don’t agree with it, is lost on these modern purveyors of Cancel Culture. Offend me, this new cultural phenomena says, and my mob will force my will on you. Unfortunately there are too many cowards in positions of leadership these days to fight back.

It’s a spooky place for America to be, and it’s incumbent upon heretofore sensible universities like K-State to draw the line. If the Wildcats cave in, the costs – both financial and in basic morality of right and wrong – may be devastating.

-Dane Hicks is publisher of The Anderson County Review in Garnett, Kansas.

The dark lie of Black Lives Matter

Former Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd. The world witnessed Floyd’s last conscious moments on video shot by bystanders. Chauvin was fired and has been charged in Floyd's killing, which most people regardless of color agree was brutal and unnecessary.

Black Lives Matter wants you to believe systemic racism – racism built into our social system aimed at blacks and to a lesser degree other non-whites – is responsible for confrontations between primarily young black men and police – predominantly white police. This is a smokescreen which denies the facts and falsely impunes police and other citizens around the country.

That’s because there’s a common denominator of criminal behavior in many of these confrontations – certainly the high profile ones that have generated an apparent justification to loot and burn neighborhoods and now to literally occupy a multi-block area of Seattle after city government surrendered it.

Back in 1991 Rodney King was driving drunk, leading police on a high speed chase through Los Angeles because a DUI would violate his parole on a robbery conviction. That was no excuse for the beating he got from cops, but King himself controlled the beginning of his story that night.

Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., stole from a convenience store and shoved a clerk after what may have been a drug deal there got rough, then fought a cop for the policeman’s gun back in 2014 before the cop shot and killed him.

George Floyd, whose criminal record dated back decades and amounted to numerous stints in jail and prison, tried to pass a fake $20 bill at a Minneapolis store before the incident that led to his police confrontation. He resisted getting into the patrol car and was subsequently subdued and handcuffed before Chauvin held his knee on a handcuffed Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes, killing him. Toxicology reports said Floyd had fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system when he died. Store employees who confronted Floyd about the bogus $20 bill before calling police said he was very intoxicated and “not in control of himself.”

If we can’t ignore the element of race in these incidents, we also can’t ignore the role criminal activity played. The chronology is too often the same regardless of the race of the subject involved: Subject is confronted or apprehended for a crime or suspected crime, suspect resists arrest, police reaction ends in subject’s death. At least part of the solution should be simple: Number 1, don’t be a criminal; and number two, don’t resist police authority to enforce the law.

Black Lives Matter wants to focus on race as the issue instead of criminality, but the statistics don’t support the fervent emotion of that claim. Last year nine unarmed black men were killed by police, while 19 unarmed white men were killed by police. Black men – overall 6 percent of the population – commit 44 percent of all murders and 50 percent of violent crime. The number one cause of death for black men age 15-34 is homicide – and 93 percent of all homicides are victims of someone of their own race.

Most Americans regardless of race live by the rules. We go to our jobs, we pay our taxes, we drive at least somewhere close to the posted speed limit. Most of us don’t drive drunk or high, we don’t shoot at members of rival gangs and hit innocent bystanders, and we don’t fight the police if we’re in a situation where we’re detained or arrested. This doesn’t mean we’re not flawed or that we’re some kind of heroes, but it does indicate we at least have a core respect for the society we live in and the laws we enact to protect us.

It’s apparent that the black lives that matter most to Black Lives Matter are those that can fit a false narrative of surging racism and rampant police brutality that can be leveraged for political gain, not the black lives being forfeited every day on the streets due to gang violence and homicides committed by other blacks.

How unfortunate that the energy that’s gone into protests and the sacking, looting and burning of some of America’s cities apparently can’t be brought to bear against the foundational problems that far and away cost the most black lives. ###

– Dane Hicks is publisher of The Anderson County Review in Garnett, Kansas.