Kris Kobach In Contempt Of Court

The Honorable Julie Robinson, of the Kansas Supreme Court, a George W. Bush appointee, has held the Kansas secretary of state, Kris Kobach, in contempt of court because he failed to allow some American citizens residing in Kansas to vote. Kris Kobach does not approve of voters who turn in their voter registration cards at local DMV stations, (actually, Kobach is merely worried that voters of races other than white will not be properly harassed and discouraged from voting if they register at DMV's or by mail, but his actions are unlawful for either reason) and prefers that the very same cards bearing the very same information be mailed to other government agencies, instead. He also maintains that a birth certificate is evidence of citizenship, even though citizenship can be changed without the issuance of new birth certificates. Judge Robinson ordered Kobach to mail postcards to all voters affected by his denial of the right to vote, and to register each one, but Kobach failed to obey her order. As of yesterday, he is in contempt of court. Kris Kobach is planning to run for governor of Kansas. Are the people in Kansas stupid enough to vote for someone with a criminal record, such as the one now enjoyed by Kris Kobach?

Donald Trump And Witch Hunts

In the wake of FBI searches of his lawyer's office, home, and hotel room, Donald Trump has lost his cool, yet again, and declared that authorities are on a "witch hunt", and that "attorney/client" privilege is "dead". He is so wrong.

Bob Mueller discovered some evidence connected to Michael Cohen, the attorney in question, that possibly connected him to crime in New York, and therefore turned the information over to prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. In turn, those prosecutors requested and were granted search warrants for Cohen's properties. That is not a "witch hunt". That is an orchestrated search warrant. Also, attorney/client privilege has never been extended to attorneys and clients who commit crimes together. Officers of the court are expected to remain above suspicion and refrain from corruption. The people of New York do not owe Trump or his attorney a free pass to crime and corruption.

On national television, Donald Trump declared that an FBI search of a property connected to a suspect is not only a "witch hunt", but "an attack on our country in a true sense".....whatever that means.....and "an attack on what we all stand for." Wow. So we now have a leader who thinks that we all stand for crime, and for the ability to get away with crime. Where does this leave all the recent police shootings of innocent unarmed black men? Trump does not have a problem with that. It seems that in Trump's world, the police are only here to promote what he "stands for"; racism and crime. In reality, there are a few of us left in this nation who do not stand for crime. If those agents serving the search warrants for the FBI were truly seeking a Witch, they certainly would have found one by now. 

Wichita Kansas Legalizes Murder

On December 28 of 2017, someone in California thought it would be amusing, while playing a video game, to call in a false report concerning a violent crime and give a random address in Wichita, Kansas. A few minutes later, the Wichita Police Department permitted its untrained officers to act as a SWAT team. A pig named Justin Rapp took aim and pulled the trigger within about sixteen seconds of an innocent by the name of Andrew Finch opening his front door to find out why there was suddenly so much commotion. No one spoke to Finch before he was shot. While Finch lay dying, his mother and two young children in the home were forced to stand outside, in snow, without coats and shoes. No ambulance was permitted near Finch until he died.

Fast forward to this morning: Justin Rapp will not be charged. The clear message here is that the police in Wichita can pretend that they have a SWAT team when they do not, pretend that they negotiate when they have not been trained, and shoot innocent people for no reason. Murder is legal there.

Abbie Hoffman Moment

Ostara, Spring Begins

School Walkout On March 14

In response to loosely translated and barely enforced laws in America concerning the ownership and uses of firearms, students in American public schools are planning a seventeen minute walkout on March 14, to recognize the loss of seventeen students in Parkland, Florida to a mass shooting at a school and to protest the current interpretation of the Second Amendment of the Constitution. Well and good; the First Amendment applies to students in public schools, along with everyone else in this country.

Schools have responded to this idea differently. Some schools have allowed it, some schools have discouraged it, and other schools are threatening to impose unconstitutional sanctions to students who exercise their First Amendment rights and walk out for seventeen minutes. A lot of schools are making threats of inappropriate sanctions, seemingly without contacting the attorneys that represent their school boards. Beyond counted the seventeen minutes of missed class time as an unexcused absence for each student who walks out, a school really does not the legal authority to back up their claims of having children arrested for walking down hallways and through doors. Further information can be accessed here, though a list of protocols published by CNN.

Something public schools should recognize, prior to criticizing children for demanding change is that because of our leaders, Trump in particular, advocating the notion teachers should carry loaded weapons to class, children feel even less safe in school than they did before the last mass shooting at a school. In Kansas, schools actually began the 2013-2014 school year without insurance  because of lax gun laws in Kansas. 

Lucas Hernandez Missing

Five year old Lucas Hernandez has been missing from Wichita, Kansas, for almost a month; since February 14. Since then, his stepmother has been arrested and detained on charges of child endangerment, and his father and mother have not given any interviews wherein they make clear requests of the general public to simply help find Lucas and bring him home. This is troubling, but as of today, there is a dedicated tipline, 316-268-4407. Crime stoppers is 316-267-2111.