A new kind of protester
With the possibility of medicinal marijuana being approved in Frankfort, Aaron Smith imagines there will soon be a new set of protesters on the streets of our cities:
Bruce Maples (bruceinlouisville@gmail.com)
MLK: 'Our needs are identical with labor's needs'
“The labor-hater and labor-baiter is virtually always a twin-headed creature spewing anti-Negro epithets from one mouth and anti-labor propaganda from the other mouth,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told the 1961 AFL-CIO convention. As we approach Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I’m thinking of a different King. Rep. Steve
Pro-life? Or just anti-woman?
I’ve been mulling over my colleague Berry Craig’s excellent piece, “Republicans win on the Three Gs — plus an L for ‘Lying’,” which ran last month. A centerpiece of the Republican strategy that has made inroads in the rural parts of the state is to swear their allegiance to
Trump: the Great Prevaricator and Panjandrum of Porky Pies
President Donald Trump reminds veteran Bluegrass State journalist Bill Straub of an old Kentucky expression. He’d rather climb up a tree and tell a lie, than stand on the ground and tell the truth. – Old Kentucky proverb Straub ran The Kentucky Post’s Frankfort bureau before becoming Washington correspondent
It's time to reject toxic patriotism, and choose aspirational instead
In a 1908 Speech Samuel Clemons (aka Mark Twain) observed that “Patriotism is usually the refuge of the scoundrel. He is the man who talks the loudest.” Twain drew this conclusion from observing that political leaders often use “patriotism” to demand loyalty, unity, and conformity to group and nation when
"This is how cowards run a government."
School teachers, public employees, and their supporters quickly mobilized Monday after Republican Gov. Matt Bevin called a special session of the Kentucky legislature to make changes to the state’s pension systems, giving them only four hours notice. “I think we’ll see at least as good a crowd as
Comparing medical marijuana to booze? This lawmaker must've been drunk
Cassie Everett takes what seems like a whole apothecary full of pills each day to minimize the number and severity of her epileptic seizures. She sets alarms to remind her when to take the 10 medications throughout the day. It’s hard to remember what pill to take when, especially
The Repubs have never listened to the West End before
State Representative Regina Huff (R-Williamsburg) would like you to know that Republicans aren’t pursuing charter schools because the schools are a license to grift for out-of-state charter school chains and the hedge-fund managers that run so many of them — even though, historically, Republicans have been very generous to their
Is Governor Bevin on Santa's list?
Aaron Smith got a peek inside Santa’s workshop to see if Governor Bevin is on the Naughty or Nice list. Turns out, he’s got a list of his own!
The rural-urban divide in Kentucky, analyzed
Two hours after results started trickling in on election night, I tweeted this: Right now my biggest takeaway is that the urban/rural divide in Kentucky is not just alive and well, but getting significantly worse. — Robert Kahne (@rkahne) November 7, 2018 This was a hunch. At that point in
A small Republican block party
It’s always interesting when you get blocked on social media. If a friend blocks you, it’s something of an insult, and probably hurts. But if you’re in journalism / media / the public eye, and someone blocks you because of THAT, then you learn to just take it in
Mitch McConnell calls for "bipartisanship." Wow - really, Senator?
If there were a God, Mitch McConnell would have been reduced to a pile of smoldering ash years ago. After this op-ed at, where else, Fox News, God would sweep up those ashes, reshape and reanimate the remains, just for the pleasure of sending another righteous lightning bolt to smote
Republicans win on the Three Gs – plus an L for "Lying"
Democrat Charlotte Goddard was campaigning door-to-door in a working-class Mayfield neighborhood when she spotted a Ten Commandments sign in the front yard of a modest house. The occupant, a woman, was a registered Democrat, according to VoteBuilder, a computer program Democratic candidates use to identify Democratic voters. “I’d been
Gibraltar crumbles
Kentucky’s “Democratic Gibraltar” has crumbled. Jackson Purchase voters have defeated the region’s last two Democratic lawmakers. When the General Assembly convenes in January, a pair of GOP senators and five representatives will comprise the contingent from westernmost Kentucky. Not that long ago, Ballard, Calloway, Carlisle, Fulton, Graves, Hickman,
Will we lose our democracy on Tuesday?
In 49 BCE, a single Roman soldier put one armor-clad foot into a shallow stream in northern Italy. This single step by a single soldier led to the fall of Roman democracy. If you know your history, you know that I am referring to the crossing of the Rubicon by
Authoritarianism is on the ballot – will we stop it?
“When Fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross,” Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Sinclair Lewis supposedly warned in the 1930’s when Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler were consolidating their power in Europe. Liberals often apply the evidently apocryphal quote to Donald Trump. But
