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HEARNE: TALES OF TWO CITIES DYING NEWSPAPERS
Posted on June 16, 2023 by Hearne Christopher Jr.
Thumbing through Wednesday’s Arizona Republic I found myself a bit stunned…
For starters, the Republic is based in Phoenix which is five times the size of
Tucson and more than double Greater Kansas City.
And that kinda math matters.
That said, the once mighty Kansas City Star was once one of the country’s most
profitable newspapers – prior to McClatchy taking it over and failed leaders
like Mark Zieman and Mike Fannin ran it into the ground.
Make no mistake, they aren’t the only newspaper dudes to suffer the harsh
realities of going from being wildly successful to becoming red ink machines.
Then again, it’s not like they did a killer job of bucking those downward
trends. Quite the opposite.
Take a haunting trip down memory lane with me on this fairly fat print
Republic.
It has four reasonably large sections.
An A section has the expected gaggle of headlines like, “Trump enters not guilty
plea;” along with “Book tells of water’s power over people;” “Two Valley
restaurants cited for numerous health violations;” “Body found in remote area
near Saguaro Lake;” “Utility found liable in Oregon Wildfires;” and “Actor Treat
Williams dies after motorcycle crash”
Twelve pages and not too bad.
The Valley & State section has only six pages, but is still respectable with
stories ranging from a hotel in Mesa that looks pretty average, but for three
years has been doubling as a refuge for “people experiencing homelessness.” It
also houses an “Opinion Section” with stories like, “Headlines wrong on Ariz.
water future” and “Fuzzy math is just one problem for school vouchers.” And the
killer headline, “What made politics so toxic? Blame this little-known divide”
Not too shabby. Continue reading →
Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 8 Comments
HEARNE: OUT DAMMED DESERT, I’M HEADING HOME
Posted on June 15, 2023 by Hearne Christopher Jr.
This just in…
Hold on to whatever you wish, I’m heading home.
So get ready.
After three years in Tucson (Oro Valley), I’ve had enough. I shoulda known
better when I packed up my stakes, sold my house in Lawrence and moved to KC in
preparation for a return to the Arizona desert.
Some of you may recall I graduated from an all-boys school in Sabino Canyon and
went to the University of Arizona. Then I got a super low draft lottery number
and joined the U.S. Navy as a Seabee.
Afterwards, I retuned to the Kansas City Board of Trade and my family firm, and
spent a year in Mayfield, Kentucky (the infamous tornado town) learning how to
grade grain, run a grain elevator, party with farmers, drink moonshine and eat
country ham
But when COVID hit, I returned to Tucson.
I’d always loved Tucson and wondered if I’d missed my chance in life to embark
on an Arizona adventure. Instead I followed in my father’s footsteps, before
veering off on my own, running a local record rag called The Pitch, then
stepping into a larger limelight and writing a highly read column at the Kansas
City Star.
I had a ton of fun, put the grabs on a six-figure salary with expenses and
worked hours of my choosing, where I could pick topics that were edgy, newsy or
just plain dumb.
It was a dream job and I will forever be in debt to former Star publisher Jim
Hale and fledgling editor Art Brisbane.
Anyway, three years ago the time seemed right, so I came back to Tucson, just in
time to catch what my wife swears could have been a fatal bout of COVID, a few
days before Christmas 2020.
Other than being a bad flu – I was in bed for seven or eight days, and out of it
– I had none of the widely reported fatal COVID symptoms…although I did pass out
when it first hit.
In January 2021 we had a nice garage fire in a brand new home that resulted in
us living at the nearby Conquistador resort for a couple months. Later, when I
got around to looking into car selling jobs here with Honda, VW, you-name-it, I
found out the hard way; that even as a halfway young-looking oldster, I could
not get a job.
They don’t want people dropping dead in 115 degree heat on a hot parking lot.
Because between May and late September, chances are you’ll be out sitting under
a tiny umbrellas in high 100-plus heat, and dealers prefer to hire younger
dudes, like Brandon Leftridge. That despite that I had a heckuva sales track
record at BMW, VW and Honda as usually the top or No. 2 salesman.
Long story short, that hurt…
I didn’t move here to retire, I came to work, and I really like cars and car
sales.
There’s more… Continue reading →
Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 17 Comments
LEFTRIDGE: A NEXTDOOR TOUR
Posted on June 3, 2023 by Brandon Leftridge
Let me ask you something…
Well, a couple of somethings. 1) Have you ever been on nextdoor.com? And 2)
Why?
Started in 2011 ostensibly as a place for you to connect with neighbors,
Nextdoor is now available in 11 countries and had revenue exceeding $200m in
2022. It is also the internet’s preeminent site for posting pictures of your
lost cat, posting pictures of a cat you’ve found, asking what all the cops were
doing around ______, reporting that “suspicious” vehicle you noticed on your
block (always a painter or handyman), or, if you’re an old white person,
reporting someone walking around that you don’t recognize (hint: it’s never
another old white person).
It’s also a great online space for digital people watching. My Northland
neighborhood is never without its share of drama, triumph, and missives that
sometimes make you wonder if the poster is having some sort of medical
emergency.
Let’s take a look. Continue reading →
Posted in Brandon Leftridge | Tagged Brandon Leftridge, internet, Nextdoor | 3
Comments
HEARNE: ANATOMY OF A BAD ELECTION
Posted on May 30, 2023 by Hearne Christopher Jr.
Countdown to a meaningless election, anyone?
On June 20th, uninspiring KC mayor Quinton Lucas will take on – wait for it –
mayoral wannabe, Clay Chastain.
That’s how far Kansas City’s political fortunes have fallen.
We have a mayor who accused a black woman opposing him in the primary of racism
for daring to criticize one of his political positions. Running against a dude
who, way-back-when lived here but has been hiding out in Virginia for decades,
while vying for the title of KC’s top gadfly.
How lame is that?
So lame that iconic Westport businessman Bill Nigro didn’t even recall that
Chastain had cut his teeth here as the “savior” of Union Station. That was long
before Chastain left town with his lawyer wife Valerie, and began to hassle KC
mayors like Emanuel Cleaver about his Light Rail plans and running for mayor
from a different zip code.
And so lame that, Quinton was so abhorrent to Nigro he wrote in talk show host
Pete Mundo for mayor in the last election. This time out though, Nigro says he
plans to vote for Quinton. That after Chastain’s suggestion six months back –
following a shooting in Westport – that its bars close at midnight.
“I’m just saying that everybody who votes for Clay Chastain is somebody who
doesn’t like Quinton Lucas,” Nigro explains. “Last time he got 20 percent of the
vote, but now probably everybody in Westport isn’t going to vote for him.”
Once upon a time Chastain was viewed by some artsy types as an idyllic dreamer.
Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments
LEFTRIDGE: CRAP FOR SALE ON CRAIGSLIST, MEMORIAL DAY EDITION
Posted on May 25, 2023 by Brandon Leftridge
This gallery contains 10 photos.
With Memorial Day on the horizon, you’re probably thinking of throwing a party…
And why shouldn’t you? When it comes to honoring people who’ve died, nothing
says “I’ll remember you forever” like shooting a Roman Candle at your Cousin
Jake’s … Continue reading →
More Galleries | 5 Comments
HEARNE: LORD OF THE RINGS REDUX
Posted on May 25, 2023 by Hearne Christopher Jr.
Guess what?
A very special treat is about to arrive in the form of an early Christmas gift.
One of your all-time favorite KCC columnists – Brandon Leftridge – is suiting up
again.
And believe it or don’t, he is poised to become the HIGHEST PAID KCC columnistof
all time. Let’s get real; if I could dig up The Scribe, obviously I would. A
Ouija Board being out of the question – and Brandon still being alive – was
choice was obvious.
Sure there are plenty of ink-stained loser types I’d love to lasso. Dudes like
Steve Vockrodt, what’s left of Paul Wilson , Mancow, Joe Miller, Matthew
Donnelly and David Scott Whinery to name a few.
But guess who was 1st on my list of past, present and future KCC MVPs?
You got it.
And now, we all got it.
Speaking of which, can we please have a moment of silence for that Tony guy?
Love that boring, uncensored comments section, but let’s try and up the ante a
bit.
Posted in Hearne_Christopher, Uncategorized | 4 Comments
HEARNE: BUTTERING MARTHA’S 81 YEAR-OLD MUFFIN W/ GATES BBQ
Posted on May 21, 2023 by Hearne Christopher Jr.
About Martha Stewart being on Sports Illustrated’s annual swimsuit issue…
Face it, she’s an octogenarian – yet there she is in the flesh – with plenty of
cleavage, a carefully revealed amount of leg flesh and a soft focus covering her
however many facelifts and beguiling, sexy smile. Enough to make any number of
red-blooded dudes think twice.
Or as Fox News puts it…
“Martha Stewart’s Love Life Heats Up After Poising in Daring Swimsuit For Sports
Illustrated Cover. Stewart, 81, recently made history as being the oldest woman
to cover Sports Illustrated Swimsuit.”
Ah, but this isn’t Stewart’s first trip the sexy lady plate.
And the fact that there are four (count ’em) SI cover models for this year’s
swimsuit issue doesn’t take away from her accomplishment. One of the cover
models is a trans dude and the other two appear to be more traditional swimsuit
cover grrrrls.
In point of fact, in June of 1999 I interviewed fabled local BBQ icon Ollie
Gates of Gates B-B-Q after he made an appearance the Martha Stewart Living show.
And I gotta tell you, Ollie was smitten.
That was 24 years ago and Ollie – who’s turning on 92 in July – was 68 to to
Stewart’s 57.
So how smitten was KC’s BBQ legend?
“She stuck her finger in the bowl and licked it and said it was great,” Gates
told me.
Stewart’s rib-eating technique was anything but a turnoff for Ollie, I replied.
“She picked them up like a lady and very delicately started to eat – very
delicately, very sexually – she knows how to eat ribs. You know, I’m telling
you, she makes it look very sexy.” Continue reading →
Posted in Hearne_Christopher, Uncategorized | 4 Comments
HEARNE: HOW FORMER MAYOR KAY BARNES SCREWED KC
Posted on May 17, 2023 by Hearne Christopher Jr.
There’s a dude in Westport who’s been itching for this…
And he’s far from alone, so get ready, here it comes.
Former Kansas City mayor Kay Barnes has taken her fair share of bows for helping
now-deceased, under-the-table, political wheeler-dealer Steve Glorioso reverse
engineer the T-Mobile Center and Power & Light District.
To their credit – for starters, anyway – both projects still exist and are
popular, despite just about everything bad imaginable happening subsequent to
their 2008 launches. That includes recessions, COVID, Black Lives Matter, urban
unrest, you-name-it.
But lest Barnes bask too fully in that limelight, note that many of the promises
made (or strongly implied during their selling stages) remain unrealized.
Things like Kansas City being on the verge of snagging the Nashville Predators
NHL team that reportedly wanted to move to KC; an NBA expansion team; the near
death of the once-mighty Kansas City Star; and former business section
cheerleader Kevin Collison‘s imaginary “downtown ballpark.”
None of those ever materialized – just the bad stuff.
Yet 15 years after those sexy projects were unleashed, the average dude here is
unaware that Kansas City is taking it up the shorts trying to pay off Barnes’
dreams.
Or as Wikipedia puts it, “While the (P&L) district was originally projected to
generate enough tax revenue to pay for the bonds that were issued to finance it,
the city has instead needed to rely on its general fund and refinancing to make
debt payments.” Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments
HEARNE: COWTOWN PARTY ZONE ICON POISED TO MOVE ON?
Posted on May 15, 2023 by Hearne Christopher Jr.
Nigro parties with “The King”
At some point, even died-in-the-wool party people have to throw in the towel…
So it is longtime Westport business leader Bill Nigro is contemplating cashing
in his party chips and moving on to less politically charged (and hopefully
greener) pastures.
For the several years Wild Bill has complained about Kansas City mismanaging and
mistreating Westport, while kow-towing to downtown’s newer, glitzier party zone,
the Power & Light District.
And as age starts to set in, he’s toying with the possible sale of some of his
Westport real estate properties, such as the former Torres Pizza home (4112
Pennsylvania), Buzzard Beach (4110 Pennsylvania) and Federal Storage (4021
Pennsylvania).
In recent years Nigro has battled with Kansas City over the costs merchants must
pay to pay for “civil rights monitors” to oversee the “metal detector
checkpoints” at entry points to Westport on weekend nights. According to the
city, the monitors are there to prevent so-called racial profiling.
Which Nigro calls BS,
“Everybody walks through the metal detector,” he told Fox 4 last year after
three people were shot by Johnny Kaws bar. “It’s impossible for us to profile
because everybody walks through.”
Instead of wasting six figures on racial profilers, Westport could add more
security that might have helped prevent the shooting, Nigro says.
“I think it gives us the ability to put more people on the perimeter and scare
people off,” he told Fox 4. “Having security out there is a deterrent to crime.”
That wasn’t Nigro’s first trip to the plate fighting city hall on crowds and
violence. Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
DWIGHT: MORE RACIAL ARSON FROM THE KANSAS CITY STAR
Posted on May 14, 2023 by Dwight D. Sutherland, Jr.
Valentine McClatchy
The Kansas City Star has a long, dishonorable tradition of race baiting…
Following the lead of its founder – the bush league Citizen Kane known as
William Rockhill Nelson – for three generations the Star delighted in
patronizing the black residents of Kansas City.
However, when the Star was acquired by McClatchy, I had no idea this represented
the confluence of two of the most racist news organizations in the history of
American journalism.
Valentine McClatchy was the son of the founder of the eponymous newspaper chain.
Using his wealth and influence as a publishing heir, McClatchy launched a
crusade to keep Asians out of the United States. After 40 years as publisher of
the Sacramento Bee he sold his interest to his brother and devoted the last 15
years of his life to an omnibus committee (California Joint Immigration
Committee) dedicated to excluding all non-European immigrants from the country,
encompassing Japanese, Chinese, Koreans and Mexicans.
Under his influence the flagship McClatchy paper, The Sacramento Bee, ran
upwards of 90 racially demeaning anti-Japanese editorial cartoons between 1906
and 1945. Even though Valentine McClatchy died in 1938, there is no doubt that
his views were instrumental in the decision by the Roosevelt administration
(aided and abetted by moderate Republican governor Earl Warren of California) to
round up and intern Japanese American citizens during World War II. (The year
before he died, McClatchy lobbied to strip Japanese-Americans born in the U.S.
who were sent to Japan to study or visit family for an extended time of their
citizenship if they had stayed in Japan for more than a year. No more Mr. Nice
Guy.)
Here we are 85 years later and the KC Star/McClatchy legacy of racial
demagoguery soldiers on under the able stewardship of present-day Star
journalists.
The Star issued a lengthy mea culpa in 2020 for its anti-black racism of the
past. (No apology for its racist McClatchy heritage though.) It now seems to be
trying to overcorrect by focusing on stirring up black rage and white guilt by
inventing allegations of white racism against its political opponents.
The latest example is the unfortunate event in Clay County three weeks back.
A retired airplane mechanic, 84 year old Andrew Lester, lived in a typical
suburban home in Clay County north of the river.
A 16-year-old black man, Ralph Yarl went to the wrong house (he wanted to go to
a house on 115th Terrace North East but went by mistake to the house on 115th
Street North East where Mr. Lester lived).
After Mr. Yarl knocked–he was coming to pick up his younger brothers–Mr. Lester
shot through the door with a pistol. He wounded Yarl in the head and then shot
him in the arm.
The only real factual issue in dispute is whether Yarl started to open the storm
door when he thought he heard someone coming to let him in. If this is true it
is a totally understandable action on Yarl’s part and does not excuse Lester’s
acts. However, it may help to explain the shooter’s panicked reaction. By the
way, this occurred at 10:00 p.m.
The only fortunate aspect of this terrible event is that young Yarl was released
from the hospital within a day or two and is expected to make a full recovery.
Immediately the black grievance industry, both locally and nationwide, went into
overdrive and made it seem like this was a new Emmett Till case. (The young
black man lynched in Mississippi in 1955 for supposedly whistling at a white
woman. Ironically, his accuser, a white woman named Carolyn Bryant, died last
week April 25th, 2023.)
The Star immediately swung into action, along with all the other racial
grievance hucksters.
Continue reading →
Posted in Dwight D. Sutherland, Jr. | 7 Comments
HEARNE: IS MRS. MAHOMES THE WICKED WITCH OF THE MIDWEST?
Posted on May 10, 2023 by Hearne Christopher Jr.
Who among us married types doesn’t have an unsavory in-law?
Comes with the turf…
That’s the bad news, the good news is mostly, who cares?
No such luck for Chiefs superstar Patrick Mahomes.
Mahomes lives in a glass bubble where just about any and everything he does is
on display or open to public criticism. Lucky for him, he’s good at handling the
limelight, with an open, down-to-earth personality most folks find refreshing
and likable.
Unfortunately, his high profile little brother Jackson and wife Brittany are far
less gifted, and seem to be following in the footsteps of Jimmy Carter‘s beer
swizzling brother Billy and Joe Biden‘s infamous son Hunter .
Such is life…
And while Jackson Mahomes gets most of the bad PR – as evidenced by his recent
arrest for sexually assaulting on camera the owner of an upscale Overland Park
restaurant, Brittany Mahomes is fast becoming similarly unlikeable.
The Chiefs and Patrick appear to have been – prior to Jackson’s recent assault
charge – successful in keeping things on the down low, but managing Brittany is
also proving to be a challenge.
Take her advice to locals on Jackson’s high profile arrest.
“They are ignorant. (Jackson) is a human just trying to live his life and find
his way and until you walk a day in his shoes – which no one ever will – you
have no right to say shit about him. So it’s just best to shut up.”
Maybe she should consider taking her own advice.
Uh, no such luck… Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments
HEARNE: MAHOMES ROCKS (ALMOST) BUT NOT WHATABURGER
Posted on April 29, 2023 by Hearne Christopher Jr.
Everybody has an Achilles heel or two…
I won’t bore you with mine, but Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes has a few that I
think are interesting. Beyond his droll wife, loser brother and – now –
questionable taste in fast food.
Face it, we are what we eat, right?
I grew up thinking Winstead’s on the Plaza was god’s gift to hamburger lovers.
My earliest dating skills were forged in its parking lot, backing my Datsun 1600
sports car into its spaces. There I unfurled my early-on, crude – albeit
tasteful – romantic skills on Winstead’s so-called car hops.
But before you lose any sleep over Brittany Mahomes clumsy missteps or Jackson
Mahomes bizarre bad behavior, check this.
While some Chiefs fans are going out of their way to sample and savor Sir
Patrick’s’ favorite childhood chomp, Whataburger, based on my experience, it’s a
major whiff.
Mahomes helped bring Whataburger to Kansas, so it deserved to be tried and I
did.
That’s right, my Whataburger take: Much ado about nada.
As for it being a “Lone Star staple” – in other words, a basic or necessary item
of food – seriously?
No offing way; more like, all hat and no cattle, in my opinion.
So I sampled Mahomes’ Whataburger fave, the Numero Uno, a single with cheese,
ketchup and pickle only.
The verdict: pretty dad gum bland, as Roy Williams might say.
Okay, it was OK…
It was served up in a gigantic, boring box, with a five-inch diameter white
bread bun, sans much in the way of look or flavor.
No where near the taste – for comparison’s sake – of the
wildly-popular-but-unavailable to Cowtowners In-N-Out Burger.
Though far larger in terms of quantity, far lesser in terms of taste. Continue
reading →
Posted in Uncategorized | 12 Comments
HEARNE: HOLLYWOOD MADAME LOVES MAHOMES, NOT MIZZOU
Posted on March 20, 2023 by Hearne Christopher Jr.
Heidi Fleiss + Tom Sizemore
Once a Hollywood Madam, always a Hollywood Madam…
Although Heidi Fleiss is years removed from her colorful past – including her
turbulent romance with actor Tom Sizemore, who died recently at the age of 61 –
the thought of her moving to the Show Me state near Little House On The Prairie
namesake Laura Ingalls Wilder makes for a jarring vision.
Face it, a woman whose Wikipedia page has the headline, “Prostitution and Tax
Evasion,” moving to tiny Mansfield, Mo. to open an exotic parrot preserve is an
eyebrow raiser.
Yet while practically everybody in the free world was on that story one year
ago, it never happened, and Fleiss’ next move remains to be learned…
That is, until now.
“Missouri sounded great – like so many acres of forest for my birds – but then I
went there and it was right next to a trailer park – and it was decrepit,”
Fleiss says. “I put $50,000 down and got $40,000 back, but the seller kept 10
grand for lost income from her rental cabins that were like Unabomber shacks.”
So what exactly drew the former Hollywood Madam to Mizzou?
“I happened to find Missouri beautiful,” she says. “And from my limited
research, I didn’t notice that the temperatures fell below zero, but when it
gets down to 18 degrees here in Nevada, my birds love it. I have a little over
30 now and most of them are at the end stages of their life.”
Macaws live an average of 60 years – 35 to 50 in captivity – and up to to 100.
Fleiss post Mizzou plan? Continue reading →
Posted in Hearne_Christopher, Uncategorized | 2 Comments
HEARNE: HOLLYWOOD MADAM TO MIZZOU AS EX CHECKS OUT?
Posted on March 20, 2023 by Hearne Christopher Jr.
Heidi Fleiss
Would it surprise you to find I spent a day hanging with Hollywood Madam Heidi
Fleiss?
You remember her from 20 years ago when – as Wikipedia puts it – “She ran an
upscale prostitution ring based in Los Angeles and is often referred to as the
Hollywood Madam.”
Appearances promoting her book Pandering brought Fleiss to the Cowtown in 2003,
presenting an opportunity for me to spend serious quality time with her.
I recall her as being attractive – though her “horse teeth” were a bit
off-putting – and quite friendly with lots to say about the newly deceased actor
Tom Sizemore, who she had dated for like three years but was extremely afraid
of.
The latest: Fleiss, now 57 – according to news reports – had been poised a year
ago to move to a small Missouri town with her parrot menagerie and X-rated
memories.
A little background…
Fleiss prostitution pedigree is quite formidable, starting in the late 1980s and
continuing through her arrest and conviction on pandering charges in 1993. She
was sentenced then to seven years slam time, did 20 months, and later toyed in
2005 with opening a “stud farm.” She also ran a R-rated laundromat called Dirty
Laundry, and reportedly owns a small airport in Pahrump, Nevada.
Ah, but it was Fleiss’s love of animals that lead her last year, to relocating
to tiny Mansfield, Missouri (population 1,193), three hours south of KC. It’s
best known as the childhood home and museum of Laura Ingalls Wilder, of the
fabled children’s book, Little House on the Prairie.
The reason for the move: someone killed one of her beloved Macaws with a BB gun.
The idea of a Hollywood Madam hiding out in nowheresville Missouri with upwards
of 40 giant parrots is both weird and noteworthy. In part because Fleiss no
longer needs to worry about running into a drunk, drug addled, abusive Sizemore.
But earlier this month, the grizzled Sizemore checked out at the ripe young age
of 61.
Among his dirtbag debris, he’d had been “kicked off the set of the film Born
Killers in 2003 for allegedly sexually molesting an 11-year-old actress” and was
convicted that same year of domestic violence against Fleiss.
So can locals add a visit to Fleiss’s “parrot sanctuary” to their Little House
visits?
In a word, no. Continue reading →
Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 3 Comments
DWIGHT: BACK TO THE FUTURE
Posted on March 17, 2023 by Dwight D. Sutherland, Jr.
One of the most terrifying aspects of life in a totalitarian society is the way
the State demands that loyalty to the regime and its ideology takes precedence
over all other human bonds…
In Stalin’s Soviet Union the government relied heavily on mutual
surveillance; urging families to report on each other for disloyalty. The
Whisperers: Private Life In Stalin’s Russia. BBC broadcast, 12-22-2007.
So important was this idea that there arose a cult of martyrdom around a
13 year-old boy named Pavlik Morozov. Morozov was a member of the Soviet youth
group, the Young Pioneers, in 1932, when he turned in his own father for the
heinous crime of hoarding grain. (This was during the period when Russian
agriculture was being “collectivized,” i.e. the peasant’s land being taken over
for government collective farms.)
After Pavlik’s father was taken to a labor camp by the secret police (the GPU)
and executed, Pavlik’s family members supposedly murdered him out of revenge.
The Soviet government quickly used this incident to start a propaganda
campaign enshrining the youngster as a true hero of the Soviet Union. Morozov
was held up as a model for emulation for all patriotic youth and his memory
enshrined through schools and youth groups renamed in his honor.
It was only 60 years later, after the fall of Communism, that the truth
came out, i.e., the whole story was fabricated. Stalin’s allies in the press and
among intellectuals had eagerly promulgated this myth because it suited the
purposes of the regime, i.e. to keep the populace frightened and compliant for
fear of being betrayed by their own families.
Fast forward from 1932 to 2021…
We now have dozens, if not hundreds ,of American Pavlik Morozovs who have
been lauded by the Federal government and the American news media for betraying
family and friends for their participation in January 6th. (A dedicated web site
has been set up for informants to contact the F.B.I., fbi.gov/us capitol.)
The following stories appeared in American news outlets following January 6th:
*** Dozens of Capitol rioters were turned in by childhood friends, family
members, colleagues and ex-lovers who watched them storm the building. CBS News,
3-9-21
*** The people who turned in their parents for their role in the Capitol attack.
The Guardian, 1-7-22
*** A son explains why he turned in his father over the January 6th attack.
N.P.R., 3-3-22
*** Pushed to the edge by the Capitol riot, people are reporting their family
and friends to the F.B.I. Washington Post, 1-16-21.
*** Capitol rioter sentenced to 7 years in prison was turned in by his teenage
son, which broke up his family. Business Insider, 8-2-22.
*** A Mass teen reportedly spotted her family at a MAGA event prior to the
Capitol riot. He decided to call them out. The Boston Globe, 1-13-21.
There are a number of other stories in the same vein.
George Orwell
press pic
What is striking about all such accounts is that nowhere is there any doubt
expressed on whether we really want to have a society where informing on family
and friends is considered the highest form of patriotism. In fact, the authors
of these accounts undermine their own credibility by making lame excuses for
these acts of betrayal:
1. ‘Family members who turned in January 6th protesters were no different than
Unabomber Ted Kaczynski’s brother, who turned him into the Feds.’
Sorry folks, the Unabomber killed or maimed thirty-two people before he was
arrested. None of the 968 people charged for January 6th have done anything
remotely comparable to Kaczynski’s actions.
2. ‘Family members were driven by concerns over their loved ones increasingly
radical extremist beliefs. ‘I thought the protesters were prosecuted for their
actions on January 6th. Is challenging the outcome of a presidential election,
which is, after all, based on an opinion or belief, now an indictable offense?
3. ‘The January 6th protesters were predominantly white so asking for equal
treatment with the George Floyd protesters is to highlight the racial tension
inherent in their arguments, since the Floyd protesters were more diverse. ‘How
dare you ask for equal treatment under the law, you white supremacist! (Never
mind that a large percentage of the January 6th protesters were non-white, with
Asian-Americans particularly numerous.)
4.’ The January 6th protesters were just the latest and worst manifestations of
white nationalist extremism.’ The problem is that the liberal press has since
learned that the January 6 protesters did not match the profile of members of
right-wing extremist groups. Those arrested and charged were older (average age
40), better educated (professionals and business owners, as well as retired
military) and not members of recognized extremist groups. Of course, this just
makes them more dangerous, according to liberal pundits!
5. ‘The January 6th protesters were different from the Floyd protesters in that
the latter wasn’t an attack on the very core constitutional processes, nor were
they an attack on the United Sates Congress.’ Kent Greenfield, a professor at
Boston College Law School.
Reuters news service ran the following story:
‘The FBI has found scant evidence that the January 6th attack on the U.S.
Capitol was the result of an organized plot to overturn the presidential
election result.The FBI at this point believes the violence was not centrally
coordinated by far-right groups or prominent supporters of then President
Trump.” Reuters, 8-21-2021.
If there was no organized plot or conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election by
those who entered the capitol, how was this a direct assault on American
democracy?
By contrast the BLM movement started in 2014 in the wake of the Trayvon
Martin incident.There were numerous protests over black men allegedly murdered
by the police in the years before George Floyd’s death, e.g., Eric Garner,
Freddie Grey, Michael Brown, etc. (BLM had representatives traveling with
Hillary Clinton as part of her 2016 campaign, i.e. Mothers of the Movement).
Within three days of the news of Floyd’s death, there were protests in 75 cities
and the next day in over 120 cities.
Eleven policemen have been killed during BLM protests and a thousand
policemen injured. Twenty-five other people have died. 1.5 billion dollars in
private property has been destroyed. Government buildings have been fire bombed;
including a police station, a federal courthouse and an ICE office. All told,
the damages due to the George Floyd protest were 1,000 times greater than the
damages to the Capitol on January 6th, 2021.
14,000 rioters were arrested during the Floyd protests. So far less than
1% of them have been tried and convicted, i.e., 120 people all told. The
Guardian, a British publication not noted for its right-wing bias, stated: “The
vast majority of citations and charges against George Floyd protesters were
ultimately dropped, dismissed or otherwise not filed according to a Guardian
analysis of law enforcement and media reports in a dozen jurisdictions around
the nation.”4-17-21. By contrast, almost all the January 6th protesters have
been zealously pursued and prosecuted, with suspects still arrested every day
and the government vowing to arrest another thousand people so that everyone
that was at the Capitol will be criminally prosecuted. 475 of the 968 arrested
have already been prosecuted and convicted, fully fifty percent of those
apprehended versus less than 1% of the Floyd protesters.
In short, there is no comparing the two events, a protest that got out of hand
but was quickly suppressed (January 6th) and a planned series of riots that went
on four months but only stopped at the express direction of BLM’s allies in the
media and among Democratic office holders (the Floyd protests).
See The Secret History of the Shadow Plan to Save the 2020 Election, Molly Ball,
Time Magazine, February 4, 2021.
While the BLM/ANTIFA toll of violence and destruction has been deliberately
suppressed, the aftermath of January 6th has been exaggerated and blown way out
of proportion.
There’s nothing surprising about that, given that any semblance of
objectivity has long been dropped by the national media. What is surprising, as
I noted earlier, is that no individual journalist has expressed any qualms about
family members, work colleagues, and childhood friends being turned in for
political reasons.
In fact, some commentators took it as hilarious that ex-spouses or romantic
partners were turned into the authorities, i.e. ‘I will never find it not
hilariously funny that over 300 insurrectionists were turned into law
enforcement by their ex-wives.’
This awkward and pretentious gibe has been made into a meme on the
internet, found hilarious by the feeble minded, hateful woke propaganda from the
Deep State. I’m sure that all these ex-spouses and romantic partners were driven
solely by worry about Our Democracy. Personal animosity or revenge didn’t play
into their motives at all! Nor did the $42 million dollars paid out in 2021 by
the FBI to tipsters!
FBI Field Agent Anthony D’Antuono, not coincidentally involved in the
Whitmer kidnapping hoax ,made the following announcement right after January
6th:“Even your friends and family are tipping us off. So, you might want to
consider turning yourself in instead of wondering when we’re going to come
knocking on your door-because we will find you.”The Independent (U.K.) 1-28-21.
All this was anticipated more than 75 years ago by George Orwell in his book,
1984.
The protagonist, Winston Smith, is being tortured to confess to a series of
political crimes(you know, like believing misinformation or engaging in
election denial). His interrogator, known only as O’Brien, and he have the
following exchange:
“How does one man assert his power over another, Winston?’
Winston thought: ‘By making him suffer? ‘,he said.
‘Exactly. By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering,
how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in
inflicting pain and humiliation. We have cut the links between child and parent
and between man and man and between man and woman. No one dares trust a wife or
a child or a friend any longer’.”
Orwell’s dystopian future – based on an authoritarian present he personally
lived through – has finally arrived.
Posted in Dwight D. Sutherland, Jr., Uncategorized | 16 Comments
HEARNE: SHOULD THE CHIEFS CHANGE TEAM NAME?
Posted on February 27, 2023 by Hearne Christopher Jr.
In the words of Ronald Reagan, there they go again…
And you thought the Kansas City Chiefs season was behind you. Not so fast,
because the politically correct powers-that-be on Facebook are back.
They dug up a two year-old story about, “Understanding Native American
perspective about KC Chiefs potential name change.”
Sound familiar?
“If I’m being honest, I had never given any real thought to a need for a new
team name,” writer Lyle Graverson begins. “The term Chief isn’t derogatory like
Washington’s former name (Redskins) and their insignia isn’t a racist image like
the now retired ‘Chief Wahoo’ of Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Indians. So
why would it ever need to change? I’m certainly not someone that’s quick to jump
on the ‘cancel culture’ bandwagon just because it’s trendy.”
Then again…
“I often complain that one of the biggest problems with our society these days
is that nobody listens to each other,” Graverson continues. “Social media has
made everyone really good at stating their beliefs and criticizing the beliefs
of others, but there is a severe shortage of people who are willing to really
listen to and think about views different than their own.”
Fair enough…
So should the Chiefs change their name and if so, why?
“Hell, no, because it’s endless and it’s not about the changes themselves,” says
Sutherland Lumber scion Dwight Sutherland . “It’s about forcing people to abide
by laying a guilt trip on them. They have to keep atoning, atoning, atoning –
and there’s no end to it. This is a sick, racist society, so get your checkbook
out. Although even that won’t buy you redemption.” Continue reading →
Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 21 Comments
HEARNE: DOBLER DOGG CHECKS OUT
Posted on February 17, 2023 by admin
Conrad Dobler
There are movie villains, and there are real life ones…
By the NFL’s measure former KCMO 810 AM sports talker Conrad Dobler was one of
the best… as in, worst.
That’s because his football career was peppered with things like kicking Rams
star Merlin Olsen in the head while he was down and spitting on Eagles
linebacker Bill Bergey after he’d been injured.
Dobler was infamously known as one of, if not the dirtiest player in the NFL. He
once told Sports Illustrated he’d “do anything I can get away with to protect my
quarterback” including “holding, eye gouging, face-mask twisting, leg whipping,
tripping, even biting.”
In other words, Dobler preferred physical attacks to verbal ones.
“Verbal abuse could take all day,” he said in 1977. “A faster and more efficient
way to aggravate and intimidate people is to knock the stuffing out of them.”
“Dobler was one tough son-of-a-bitch and never took any shit from anyone,” says
Kevin Kietzman. “He was tough on radio, too.”
In a world where nice guys finish last, Dobler was far from last.
Yet as far as Kansas City listeners go, he was “kinder and gentler.”
“He was nothing like that to me, he was very nice,” says Todd Leabo, director of
sports operations at WHB radio. “I did the show with him when I was an intern at
KCMO in 1990 while I was in college. Mike Murphy and Marshall Saber were still
working there. I was 20 years old and wrote letters to all the local stations,
and when I went in to KCMO I met Conrad.”
How mellow was he?
“I remember him f-bombing some things, and then he looked at me and said, “I’m
sorry. Are you a religious man?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, no.’ And from there on out
it was, ‘Eff this’ and ‘Eff that.’ ”
“I remember him more for what people said about him,” says former
Entercom head Bob Zuroweste. “He was very outspoken, very controversial, but
what I liked about him was – unless you were a sports nut, which I’m not – you
could still listen to him because he was entertaining.”
“We took the Chiefs away from KCMO in 1989 and they called us, the hippie radio
station that was going to ruin the Chiefs,” says former KCFX FM honcho Bill
Newman. “Clearly he was a dirt bag, but I presented no threat to him.”
Somewhat oddly, there’s scant to no mention of Dobler’s time here.
Zuroweste’s take on who was KC’s top sports yakker of all time?
“Well, I had Soren Petro, Tim Grunhard, Bill Maas and Don Fortune,” he muses.
“But I think Bill Grigsby was the best. And Kevin Kietzman was really good, but
his downfall was he got so arrogant that he thought he could attack (Chiefs
coach) Andy Reid. And that’s like going to church and attacking Jesus.”
Speaking of which, Newman hired two of KC most famous Chiefs play callers: a
young KU intern named Kevin Harlan; plus his “biggest hiring mistake,” Mitch
Holthus, who still serves as the team’s longest (and most boring) play-by-play
caller.
Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 5 Comments
HEARNE: DEATH OF A MOVIE MOGUL + KING CARL UPDATE
Posted on February 17, 2023 by admin
Exhausted movie meister or villain?
According to longtime movie critic Jack Poessiger, prominent, old-timey
movie collector Wade Williams passed away and was cremated last month.
“There was never an obituary or notice in the Star,” Poessiger says. “Nothing
was said or done; he just quietly went away.”
Well, not quite…
“Film collector, rights hoarder, and guy that liked to put his name on
everything, Wade Williams has died,” reads one of several online, uh, tributes.
“He was 80…He also notoriously collected film negatives of 50s science fiction
movies, most notably the works of Ed Wood, and then tried to claim ownership of
the films via phony copyrights, and took people to court to try and assert those
claims…Film preservationists and general fans of genre movies of that era
generally did not like the man for his hoarding.”
Nor did some of his former neighbors near his gigundo mansion at the southeast
corner Ward Parkway and 55th Street.
Unfortunately, few who remain at the Star seem to ever heard of Williams.
Where is he now:
Anybody out there remember” King Carl Peterson,” the former KC Chiefs main man?
Turns out, he’s alive and well and holed up in the upscale suburban development
of Loch Lloyd.
That is, unless he and his wife, a former trainer / architect are out on “a ship
that sails the world that’s owned by like 75 people,” says a source. “He’s got a
condo on it and spends upwards of three months a year cruising from hither to
yon ( and possibly advising the Chiefs – as if they need him now.)
Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments
HEARNE: WOKE POLICE ATTACK CHIEFS – OP INJUN DUDE FIGHTS BACK
Posted on February 10, 2023 by Hearne Christopher Jr.
Remember the Good Ol Daze?
More than 20 years ago – long before the dawning of today’s woke culture –
writers at the Kansas City Star decided to take on Marty Schottenheimer‘s
Chiefs. for their Indian themes. That was back when neanderthal newsies like Art
Brisbane roamed the land, driving gigundo Ford sedans down a street that used to
called Grand Avenue.
Upwards of 2,000 staffers scattered around the metroplex, worked for a newspaper
that now employs as few as 10 or many as 450 (depending on who you ask.) My
guess is they’d be lucky to have 100 still, but probably fewer.
And every now and then today, the Star still scolds KC’s vaunted Chiefs for
using American Indian imagery.
Yet for all the Star’s devotion to righting historical (and hysterical) wrongs –
like blackballing “racists” like its founder William Rockhill Nelson and Country
Club Plaza godfather, J.C. Nichols – it seems to be taking a temporary pass on
critiquing the Chiefs current day misappropriation of Native American symbols.
That’s far from the case here in the desert where the Super Bowl is about to be
played.
Case in point, the Arizona Republic‘s front page headline, “Chiefs urged to
retire name; Activists say moniker offends Native peoples.”
“When the Kansas City Chiefs take the field against the Philadelphia Eagles on
Super Bowl Sunday, they will sport white uniforms with a distinctive logo: an
arrowhead with the initials KC emblazoned on the surface,” it reads.
“And greeting them among thousands of football fans: native activists who have
been urging the team to retire the name ‘Chiefs,’ the arrowhead and the rest of
the accumulated 60-plus years of cultural appropriation and stereotyping.”
Nice one, huh?
No surprise, the story sits next to another example of wokeness via the
headline, “Lawmakers advance bill to restrict drag shows; Violaters in Arizona
could face felony under Republican proposal.”
For years – and not that long ago – I championed local drag shows and performers
like a dude named John Koop, who performed as the “drag queen” Flo.
I even went to drag shows with my twin girls mother.
But back then, nobody wanted to do them in children’s school libraries
I digress; back to the politically insensitive Chiefs…
If nothing else, the Republic’s story is an amazingly well researched written
history of the team, its name and other aspects of its use of Indian imagery.
Just one problem… Continue reading →
Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 1 Comment
HEARNE: KC HOMECOMING, TOURISM SCRUM
Posted on January 28, 2023 by admin
Guess who’s coming to dinner, for the first time in two years?
You got it…moi!
I’ll be driving my tricked-out 2020 Honda Civic Si there in a couple days. So
save a little snow and ice for me, will ya?
As I plot my return – and contemplate partying with Ivan Foley of the Platte
County Landmark – I’ve decided to take a more formal approach to my pretend
vacation. As in, what folks are supposed to do in order to have an excellent
time in the Cowtown.
Besides the perfunctory barbecue visits, hanging with twin daughters Liza and
Savannah Christopher, and seeing what’s left of losers like Larry Sells of the
Uptown and Angry Westport wild man Bill Nigro, what’s left?
Well, I won’t be able to check in with Mike Fannin and few others that still
matter remain at the KC Star. Plus, I’m half afraid to look in on my buddy,
Pitch Editor Brock Wilbur…but I’ll try.
However, being a student-of-life, I found Getaway’s Top Things to Do In Kansas
City.
Check it out…
Numero Uno: Swope Park
Yeah, like that’s going to happen. No way I’m going there in search of a good
time.
No. 2: Power & Light District
This halfway makes sense, so maybe I’ll do drinks after work, but a tourism
destination…really?
No.3 The River Market
Excuse me while I fight off a yawn, but is the Steamboat Arabia still there? It
is, but don’t expect to see me down there.
No. 4 American Royal Livestock & Horse Show
I outgrew this event longer ago than I care to remember. Last time I actually
went was to interview Queer Eye’s Carson Kressley and later, Ike Turner
with Tina’s replacement. Neither entailed horses or livestock.
No. 5 Kansas Speedway
Is it just me, or are you guys starting to wonder what Kansas City actually has
worth checking out…on a vacation? Cuz right now, I’m batting .000
No. 6 Barbecue
Finally, something halfway real. I’m no food tourist, but at least this doesn’t
totally suck.
No. 7 Breweries & Beer Bars
Of course, hip beer bars beat small town mainstays like Applebees, but I’m
coming to KC for what again?
No. 8 Toys & Nostalgic Treasures
I’m not a collector, but at least this sounds kinda interesting. Kansas City’s
National Museum of Toys and Miniatures is reportedly huge, so if I stumble onto
it, I may look in.
No. 9 Liberty Memorial & World War I Museum
Finally, something I’ve been wanting to do forever. Count me in.
No. 10 Kansas City Jazz
Talk about no brainers… I wonder who is running Jardine’s these days. Or better
yet, The Phoenix, the downtown jazz club with a super small stage musicians
hate.
OK, enough… Continue reading →
Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 16 Comments
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