Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Modelling Kansas


I've just written about the dangers facing our planet. A nearly equal warning of impending danger is this article about Kansas, the sealed-off laboratory of Reaganomics, the window into what will happen when Republicans pass their tax and budget bills. If humanity is destroying the planet, Republicans have destroyed Kansas, and are ready to do the same to America.

... What’s hidden are stories of regular Kansans who have suffered inside the silence. 
In the course of its investigation, The Star found that: 
▪ Children known to the state’s Department for Children and Families suffer horrific abuse, while the agency cloaks its involvement with their cases, even shredding notes after meetings where children’s deaths are discussed, according to a former high-ranking DCF official. One grieving father told The Star he was pressured to sign a “gag order” days after his son was killed that would prevent him from discussing DCF’s role in the case. Even lawmakers trying to fix the troubled system say they cannot trust information coming from agency officials. 
▪ In the past decade, more than 90 percent of the laws passed by the Kansas Legislature have come from anonymous authors. Kansans often had no way of knowing who was pushing which legislation and why, and the topics have included abortion, concealed weapons and school funding. Kansas is one of only a few states that allow the practice. 
▪ When Kansas police shoot and kill someone, law enforcement agencies often escape scrutiny because they are allowed to provide scant details to the public. The release of body-cam video has become common practice around the country after several high-profile, police-involved shootings. But in Kansas, a new state law is one of the most restrictive in the nation, allowing agencies to shelve footage that could shed more light on controversial cases. 
▪ Kansas became the first state to fully privatize Medicaid services in 2013, and now some caregivers for people with disabilities say they have been asked to sign off on blank treatment plans — without knowing what’s being provided. In some of those cases, caregivers later discovered their services had been dramatically cut. 
The examples, when stitched together, form a quilt of secrecy that envelops much of state government...
There's much more chew-worthy stuff in the article, which deserves a full read. It translates exactly to the inevitable consequences of Republican economic plans; and to the attempts by Trump to discredit investigative journalism and to censor what its departments may tell citizens. What words and phrases are not allowed. As the article says, a spokesman for the Kansas highway department was fired after explaining they don't have the money to fix a deadly stretch of road. Because, you know, tax cuts pay for themselves.

It's well-known to all but the Foxolimjonesified how dramatically Kansas' government is failing its people. And yet our R-controlled national government can't wait to do the same. In the name of enriching their donors.

And in the name of Jesus.

4 comments:

  1. The Republicans' soon to be enacted 'tax-cut/healthcare gut' bill is Kansas writ large. They HAVE to pass this... They're a laughing stock. They'll rally. BJ weeps.

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  2. That article you refer to is a great expose' of republicant history in a nutshell of the last 10 years of 'trickle down' in Kansas. Been watching that sideshow for years now as it originally caught my attention in connection with healthcare. The facts should be enough, but not for stupid stubborn suckers in Kansas until this year when their state govt may put a stop to it. If the recent local elections are any sign of the future, your blog about Democrats getting it right this time, is spot on due to the ineptness of our national loser leaders in D.C. The latest news last night was all tax cuts will expire by 2021 for all making less than $500K EXCEPT for the corporations, the richest one percent, and the estates value over 5Mil. Again, more B.S. with the truth obliterated by "i wanna be like Jesus" facetious f__kups called republicants. LOSERS!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'll give another ignorant Drumpf supporter from the less than mediocre state of Alabama story. As of a couple days ago...

    I'm not going to describe her other than 'her' and stereotypical southern white Mama with big hips.

    This 'her' discovered Twitter AFTER the election. Her main complaint? "Now I don't Twitter. I do not appreciate his Twitter's. I'm fed up with it all. This is not what I voted for. He promised xyz and has done absolutely nothing. Then I see him with Putin and China. This isn't what I voted for."

    It was one of those group live survey things and they all had the same gist of a story give or take. Mental health was also a concern.

    My point is these people who vote Drumpf and straight ticket Red team as a habit are in the middle of nowhere. It's generational. It's all anyone has ever had and their way of life is going away. But that's OK, let's just mine more coal and create jobs. They sneer at clean renewables. That's how utterly fucking stupid these people are! Retraining to the clean renewable industry is a dead end and it takes real American jobs. Coal mining.

    I'll say this YES 'her', YOU DID VOTE FOR THIS. All of it. They all did. They are equally to blame and it's sad that 'blame' has to be attached to people who voted Drumpf.

    It answered the age old question. Yes, America is capable of doing worse than Nixon and 'dubya'. America spawned Drumpf.

    The sad part? They'll still vote Red Team straight ticket because now the swamp is drained and the GOP is back baby!

    These same people think Democrats are dangerous to our constitutional rights, war on God, Christmas, stupid worthless roadkill Squirrel! and vote Drumpf. Cheer for 'tarp man'. Vote Drumpf, stop school bus at gunpoint. Full of small terrified children going to school. Not the "illegals" their "Intelligence" said it was. Vote Drumpf.

    If it's not guns and it's people that kill? Can we jail the people who take over a hwy and stop school busses at gunpoint? The people who take over Federal land by force? The people who incite violence in the name of God. Vote Drumpf...and Moore. Moore brandishes his pistol at rallies. They believe FOX "LEGS!" until a glimmer of journalism happens. Then it's the usual venomous hate filled stuff the Blue team gets. It was just that it was Shep Smith and Lumpy. Drumpf voters want to see Carl Rove embarrass an entire network on live TV. They do not want to here about Russia or the facts about anything any Clinton and that includes their pets.

    Until these people wake up, 4 day school is was they will get, until 3 day school. You think WA. education funding is bad? 4 day K-12.

    The sad part is we are all in this together and they are dragging the entire country down with them. Why? Ignorance, hate, stupidity. Decades of it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. EXHIBIT B: This just happened yesterday! Try not to be frightened.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=190&v=oMupq6zB1Tc

    ReplyDelete

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