From one day’s news reports…
The Missouri Senate, after midnight of course, found 22 votes for a proposal to make St. Louis City’s elected prosecutor subservient to the Attorney General. To bring the matter to a vote the Senate activated the “nuclear option,” calling the previous question. Among those silencing the will of city voters were senators from St. Charles, Jefferson, Phelps, Greene and Buchanan counties as well as west St. Louis County’s own Andrew Koenig. No Democrat – including the city’s two senators – voted for the vindictive and probably illegal measure (you can’t target one person or place with a law). It passed anyway.
During a pandemic citizens expect their governor and state bureaucrats to look out for them. This being Missouri, despite the state being called a “hotspot” by federal experts, his accidency, Governor Mike Parson refuses to issue a state-wide mask mandate, nor will he have his health director impose strict regulations to control the spread of COVID 19.
Parson did contract – at $250,000 a month – with a Washington insider firm (created by former General Stanley McChrystal), ”to provide a management structure to coordinate a pandemic response between state agencies and the governor’s Cabinet. ‘A unified, whole of government response is needed in coordination with the Missouri health care system,’ [Chris] Moreland told the Post-Dispatch. ‘Missouri must sustain a coordinated, unified response to ensure Missourians are safe. The specialized capabilities McChrystal Group provides to our response are critical to continued success.’”
https://apnews.com/cf149d89c3c274537f7137731ebc2b4c
Let me translate: his accidency, his highly-paid state Chief Operating Officer and his Cabinet can’t manage the problem, so, they throw big money with virtually no accountability to a Republican-friendly Washington mercenary. You see, it’s not smart to expect the governor and his staff to know what they’re supposed to do.
Back to the attack on the city prosecutor. The House and Senate were called into extraordinary session – at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars a day – to give the governor some advertising fodder. The former sheriff wants to look tough on crime. Yet after weeks of work the legislature still hasn’t completed his charge.
The Missouri GOP doesn’t want to do anything to lessen urban crime. No, they want to highlight that crime is an urban (read: black) problem, that cities and Democrats are bad and the only answer is giving Republicans even more unchecked power to run the state the right way. That’s why is wasn’t a mistake that a bill to control gun transfers ‘temporarily’ included language to allow kids to get guns without their parents’ permission. [ https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/513771-missouri-lawmakers-pass-law-making-it-legal-to-give-guns-to-kids-without ]
Why? Well, grandpa needs to be able to give his grandkids hunting rifles, even if the parents think 10 years old is too young to own a 30 – 30 Winchester.
Or, heaven forbid I be denied my right to walk to the local middle school and hand out free pistols.
A lot of Missourians think that’s okay. That’s why we have the government they want, the government Missouri deserves?
Glenn