Kentucky

Cause of death, age of consent and burning initials + this day in history w/the Sandy Hook school shooting and our song of the day by Sufjan Stevens on your Morning Monarchy for December 14, 2017.

See that video up top? Amy McGrath made a HUGE splash with that video-- at least as big as the splash Randy Bryce made with this one. The video got her almost a million and a half views on YouTube. And was entirely responsible for her raising $800,000-- the 2nd or 3rd biggest haul among Democratic congressional candidates last quarter. She wound up with an interview on Chelsea Handler's show and some more national exposure.

American zombies, Paradise Papers and sources of rebellion + this day in history w/Reagan reelected and our song of the day by The Pack A.D. on your Morning Monarchy for November 6, 2017.

A federal judge in Kentucky ruled on Wednesday that it was unconstitutional when a deputy handcuffed an 8-year-old boy for misbehaving in 2014.
Kenton County Deputy Sheriff Kevin Sumner told the boy to comply with his demands or “suffer the consequences.”
“Oh, God! Ow, that hurts!” the boy screamed out in pain.

PPP released a poll of Kentucky registered voters yesterday. And in a state that gave Trump a tremendous win over Clinton last year-- 1,202,971 (62.5%) to 628,854 (32.7%)-- his job approval rating is nothing like it is in most the country. Fully 60% of registered voters approve of the way he's doing his job. Only 36% disapprove.

Mike Ward was an extraordinarily progressive congressman from Louisville, Kentucky and later Associate Director of the Peace Corps. His mom, Lukey Ward, had been the day-to-day manager of the Kentucky chapter of Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference. It's a good family to be from and Mike's son, Jasper Ward, is an attorney in Louisville who, with his wife, is working on Legalize Kentucky Now... "legalize" as in marijuana.

A lesbian friend of mine was as excited by the Amy McGrath video as I was-- no, more excited than I was. It's an inspiring video-- one of the best I've seen all season... on a par with Randy Bryce's introductory video. We covered it, enthusiasically, on Wednesday.

If the Democrats are going to win back another seat in Kentucky, it's likely to be the 6th district, which includes Lexington and Frankfort and is currently held by Andy Barr, who was first elected in 2012 by ousting conservative Blue Dog Ben Chandler. It's the only red district in the state that has a PVI that isn't double-digit Republican and the only red district in the state where Obama busted through 40%. Statewide, Trump beat Hillary 62.5% to 32.7% but in KY-06 it was a less humiliating loss, "only" 54.7% to 39.4%. When Barr first beat Chandler it was 153,221 (51%) to 141,436 (47%).

Julian Carroll turned 86 last April. He's even older than Pelosi, Hoyer and Clyburn-- and until this weekend he was the Democratic minority whip in the Kentucky state Senate. In 1968 he was elected Speaker of the Kentucky House and in 1974 he was elected governor of the state in a 470,159 to 277,998 landslide.

Supporters of Amish farmer Samuel Girod.
“I am not a creation of state/government, as such I am not within its jurisdiction.”
Those words were written by Samuel Girod in a document filed in a Kentucky federal court in June. Girod is an Amish farmer who was convicted in March of selling herbal health products that, as reported by the Lexington Herald-Leader on Friday, “were not adequately labeled as required by federal law.”