Behold the blasphemy. No Kings rallies. Flipping control.

By Sherman Smith | editor-in-chief

By Max McCoy

Pete, consider the cross.

Hear me out. You’ve made tremendous progress in a short time — you were confirmed as secretary of havoc less than two years ago — and already you have shown such promise that it has garnered the attention of my boss down below. He is concerned, however, that you’re just not thinking big enough.

So, consider crucifixion.

It’s not only the symbol of a major religion but also a practical method of public torture, execution, and terror. It’s been used for millennia by authoritarian regimes, from the Romans to the Nazis, and it avoids the low-testosterone optics of shooting a man in a wheelchair. Sure, you will get some who will claim that it’s blasphemous, but it’s really just blasphemy adjacent.

TOPEKA — Howard Tyler and Mary Oswald arrived early to secure a spot at the front of the crowd for Saturday’s pre-election rally outside the Kansas Capitol.

The Horton siblings made the trip to Topeka because they wanted to be conspicuous about their commitment to the power of voting and to register discontent with current management of government, especially at the federal level under President Donald Trump. The gathering hosted by the decentralized, grassroots Kansas 50501 brought together several hundred people.

It was part of No Kings: Vote Early events occurring in Lawrence, Overland Park and Mission, as well as across the nation, less than three weeks from the Nov. 3 midterm election.

WASHINGTON — A couple hundred people carrying decorated umbrellas walked from the former Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House to the U.S. Capitol lawn Saturday for a No Kings get-out-the-vote event in the nation’s capital.

No Kings, a coalition that has drawn millions of Americans to protests three times since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term, spread out its fourth effort across several Saturday events in Washington, D.C., in addition to thousands across the nation, to encourage early voting.

Party control is up for grabs in 15 state legislative chambers across the country as Republicans are increasingly on the defensive this midterm election cycle, a new analysis found. And in other states, including Kansas, Democrats could chip away at majorities or break GOP supermajorities.

In conversation about his new book with Kansas Reflector editor-in-chief Sherman Smith, Kansas Reflector opinion editor Clay Wirestone explores his writing process, explains his voice as an opinion writer and offers insight into the evolution of opinion writing in Kansas and beyond.

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