Republicans quote news sources with no credibility

Hats Off to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Which Has Found the Key to Covering Trump:  A lie is a lie. A liar is a liar. This is how it’s done. Echo opinion published in Esquire by Charles P. Pierce. 

A lie is a lie. A liar is a liar. This is how it’s done.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer was once one of those famous local newspapers at which people like me dreamed of working one day. 

Its history went back past the Civil War to the days of Jacksonian Democrats. It had a romantic name, resonant with echoes of The Front Page. It won a Pulitzer for editorial cartooning in 1953. It won another for the columns written by my friend Connie Schultz. Alas, in recent years, the paper fell into the dark mills of absentee owners. In 2020, its owners shuttered the print newsroom, leaving only Cleveland.com. 

This weekend, however, the Plain Dealer recaptured a piece of its noble past. It decided to call a lie a lie and a liar a liar. No fear, no favor. Its editor, Chris Quinn, has declared its independence.

"Why don’t our opinion platforms treat Donald Trump and other politicians exactly the same way? Some phrase it differently, asking why we demean the former president’s supporters in describing his behavior as monstrous, insurrectionist and authoritarian. I feel for those who write. They believe in Trump and want their local news source to recognize what they see in him. The angry writers denounce me for ignoring what they call the Biden family crime syndicate and criminality far beyond that of Trump. They quote news sources of no credibility as proof about how the mainstream media ignores evidence that Biden, not Trump, is the criminal dictator.

But...The north star ✧here is truth. We tell the truth, even when it offends some of the people who pay us for information.

The truth is that Donald Trump undermined faith in our elections in his false bid to retain the presidency. He sparked an insurrection intended to overthrow our government and keep himself in power. No president in our history has done worse.

This is not subjective. We all saw it❗👀😲 Plenty of leaders today try to convince the masses we did not see what we saw, but our eyes don’t deceive. (If leaders began a yearslong campaign today to convince us that the Baltimore bridge did not collapse on Tuesday morning, would you ever believe them?) Trust your eyes👀😖😮❗. Trump on Jan. 6 launched the most serious threat to our system of government since the Civil War. You know that. You saw it.

Chris Quinn and his reporters have found the key to covering the former president*, and it was lying out there in the sun, in plain sight, all along. The facts involving Trump are crystal clear, and as news people, we cannot pretend otherwise, as unpopular as that might be with a segment of our readers. 

There are not two sides to facts. People who say the earth is flat don’t get space on our platforms. If that offends them, so be it.

The “reality-based” community, as that loathsome ferret Karl Rove put it during a previous ghastly Republican perversion of political norms and institutions, has found a voice. The PD (Plain Dealer) ran a beta test on it during the last U.S. Senate campaign when it simply announced it was going to ignore what it saw as the lies spouted by Republican candidate Josh Mandel. At that time, Quinn was just as immovable.  

We could have written a traditional “he said-she said” story, saying, “Senate candidate Josh Mandel is calling on Gov. Mike DeWine to end coronavirus restrictions, but health experts warn such steps will endanger more people.” But that’s not what this was about. Mandel knows he is calling on the governor to do something that would endanger countless people. ⚠ No, what this was about was a naked bid for attention. So, we could have covered it with an analysis piece, saying, “Senate candidate (far-right) Josh Mandel seeks attention by calling for coronavirus steps that would kill Ohioans.”

We ultimately decided not to write about Mandel’s call for DeWine to lift his coronavirus restrictions. Mandel is pretty much a nobody right now, a nobody begging for people to notice his tweets a year ahead of the Senate primary. 

Just because he makes outrageous, dangerous statements doesn’t mean it is news.... We are proud of our role as a center of discourse, with a diversity of viewpoints you can find nowhere else in the state. But we do not knowingly publish ridiculous and idiotic claims.

See how easy it is, NBC? See how simple, New York Times? 

See how freeing it must be, Politico? No desperate groping for “balance” before you say that, yes, there’s a guy walking down the street with a duck on his head, and no reason to seek out someone to say that they saw a duck walking down the street with some guy on his ass. No more being tied to the millstone of Both Sides, the one that’s sinking the profession (and the republic) into the abyss. Follow the Cleveland Plain Dealer into the clear air and the light. 🌞There’s plenty of room.

Catholic Governor Christie becomes Pontius Pilate reenactor

Do the hypocritical right wing Christians recall the Biblical passage where Pontius Pilate condemns the innocent Jesus Christ to death? By giving in to the relentless crowds in Judaea, Pilate seeks to avoid personal responsibility for the death of Jesus.

Well, Governor Chris Christie, maybe you were in a New Testament, Biblical reenactment at the July 19, 2016 "Goop-vention" in Cleveland, when you called on the after dinner crowd to scream "guilty", like you were starring in a Cecil B. DeMille movie saga. 

Were you trying to become a modern day Pontius Pilate?

A good Roman Catholic would know better but you've obviously abandoned your moral compass for more nefarious ambitions, like gaining political notoriety.

Governor Chris Christie claims to be a Roman Catholic, but maybe he's descended from the Roman governor Pontius Pilate

CHRIS CHRISTIE: HUMAN TUMULT MACHINE

(IMO- a Pontius Pilate impersonator......just sayin')

By Benjamin Wallace-Wells
CLEVELAND- Let’s do something fun,” Chris Christie said at the Republican National Convention last night (July 19th). 

The Governor of New Jersey had spent the past day in less expansive emotional states—defending Melania Trump’s plagiarized speech on the “Today” show, expressing his own disappointment that Mike Pence was the Republican Vice-Presidential pick—and he seemed due for some pleasure. 

Christie told the delegates that he, a famously truculent former federal prosecutor, would present an indictment against Hillary Clinton, and they would get to judge whether she was guilty or innocent.  (It appears to me that Governor Christie's speech was threatening and totally circumstantial...IOW, badly flawed.)

The crowd on the floor, gossipy and distracted (like in Judaea? Just sayin') when Paul Ryan spoke, a few minutes earlier, grew attentive. This was the case that Christie had been promising he would make against Clinton since early in his own Presidential campaign. “As a flawed evaluator of dictators,” (is there really such a word as "evaluator"?, just askin') 

Christie asked, suggesting that the former of Secretary of State had been too ready to reset relations with Russia, “is Hillary Clinton guilty or not guilty?” 

Analogous to Pontius Pilate, he asked for verdicts on Clinton’s competence (“as an inept negotiator”) and for being weak toward the Syrian regime (“as an awful judge of the character of a dictator-butcher in the Middle East”). The floor, following the California delegation’s lead, chanted, “Lock her up!” Christie said, “I’m getting there.”

If Christie was pursuing Clinton last night, he was also being pursued. Earlier in the day, Christie’s mentor and appointee David Samson, who was once the chairman of the Port Authority, had pleaded guilty to shaking down United Airlines to keep them from cancelling a direct flight that he took to his vacation home.  (So is this something like the time when Pontius Pilate was called back to Rome, where he was scolded for not managing political unrest and before he kowtowed by asking the mobs to judge Jesus? Just askin'.)

The case against Samson grew out of the investigation into the Christie administration’s vindictive George Washington Bridge lane closures, which presses on. Even during his political ascent, Christie was a creature of grievance and emotion, an open wound, a human tumult machine. When he gave the keynote speech at the 2012 Republican Convention, Christie got three-quarters of the way through a talk about himself (eighty paragraphs into the written version) before he said the name of the candidate, Mitt Romney. This time, Christie had expected to be named Donald Trump’s running mate and when he found out that he wouldn’t be, the Governor turned “livid,” Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, reportedly told friends.

Still, Christie appeared on the “Today” show yesterday, to insist, a little humiliatingly, that “ninety-three per cent” of Melania Trump’s speech had not been plagiarized. He was also asked how he felt about being passed over by Trump. The Governor said that he didn’t want to “sugarcoat it,” and that he was disappointed. 

“If you compete for something like I did, you’d like to be picked. I wasn’t. So you take a deep breath, and you go to bed, and you wake up the next morning and get on with your day,” he said. The general opinion was that Christie had debased himself and had gotten nothing for it. The more specific opinion, among the New Jersey delegation on the Convention floor, was that the emoting was all very Christie. “I almost think when he does something like that, he makes himself vulnerable to the public,” Maria DiGiovanni, the mayor of Hackettstown, said.

Christie’s defining characteristic as a politician is his relentlessness. He has conducted a hundred and thirty-five town halls across his state, promising help for local problems and haranguing public-school teachers. But he also has a special sensitivity to the complex character of his state: after Hurricane Sandy, Christie was the nostalgist of the boardwalks, but he also nominated the first Muslim judge to the New Jersey Superior Court, in 2011, and heatedly defended the man’s patriotism and qualifications against an angry Islamophobic wave of resistance. Christie’s persona—that Springsteen/“Sopranos” amalgam—has always seemed a touch on the nose, as if it he had sketched himself. On the “Today” show, yesterday, Christie dealt amiably with rumors that Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, had opposed putting Christie on the ticket. (In 2005, Christie, as the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, sent Kushner’s father to prison.) “I understand that’s a sort of Shakespearean thing that people want to write about,” Christie said. And maybe it was.

New Jersey Republican officials are a prosperous and pragmatic clan, and by now they have generally made their peace with Donald Trump, as Christie has. “If you want to be a delegate from New Jersey, you really need to be a Trump delegate,” Henry Kuhl, who was attending his eleventh convention, pointed out. The main feeling among New Jersey’s fifty-one delegates was that Christie and Trump shared certain attributes: plainspokenness, an executive talent, perhaps an allergy to ideology. “It’s not my particular style, but he’s effective,” a delegate named Mary O’Brien said of Trump. Next to her, a delegate named John Traier said that he was disappointed that the national Republican platform was so starkly opposed to gay and lesbian rights, but added that he was pleased that the New Jersey delegation had supported equality. 

“Baby steps,” Traier said. 

On the broader matter of Trump he was serene. “Every so often the Party goes through a metamorphosis,” he said.

Up on the stage, Christie was completing one of his own. 

During his Presidential campaign, Christie had subdued his talk of American immigrant diversity in favor of a skepticism about Syrian refugees, and now he shed the sentiment and the lugubriousness, the parts of his character that least matched Trump’s. 

Some act of interior whittling had taken place. On Monday, when the mood in the Convention was dark and nationalistic, Christie had been said to be polishing his speech; by Tuesday it was full of the prosecutor’s blacks and whites, the high moral tone of a man eyed by a grand jury himself. “In Libya and Nigeria—guilty,” Christie said of Clinton. “In China and Syria—guilty. In Iran and Russia and Cuba—guilty.” Christie had maneuvered into place. Already Trump has said that Christie will lead his Presidential transition team. The talk among the New Jersey delegation was that he’d also make a fine attorney general.

Oh really? An AG? Well, he'd also make a good re-enactor the next time a traveling acting group is looking for a Pontius Pilate impersonator.

Sad beautiful Melania Trump - sets plageristic tone for all following speeches

Maybe the best the subsequent speeches at the GOP Cleveland convention might be those screened for lack of plagiarism.

Governor Chris Christie will surely have his narrative fact, and proofed for accuracy and anti-plagiarism.  Every speech given henceforth in Cleveland, at the "goop-vention", will be measured against the pathetic version given by Melania Trump.  

Melania Trump gave a plagiarized opening night speech, drawing attention to the heartfelt success of the Obama administration and causing more embarrassment to the GOP Cleveland failed convention roll out.

Plagiarism notwithstanding (people have lost tenure at major universities for such blatantly egregious transgressions), the fact is, Melania's speech was soaked with difficult pronunciation. Although it's fine for Mrs. Trump to have an exotic central European accent, she nevertheless had some difficulty with articulation caused, likely, by poor rehearsing.

As one "Twitterzin" posted, "....gee...things were going so well at the GOP convention, before Melania's speech...." (obviously, tongue in cheek haha).  

Newscasters, journalists and pundits are well aware of the insult given to any narrative when it's tainted by plagiarism. Melania's speech was clearly plagiarized. Indeed, her speech wasn't a spontaneous expression about her personal convictions but, rather, a copy-cat rendition, poorly delivered, lifted from the heartfelt narrative of the 2008 speech given by First Lady Michelle Obama.  

Beginning with the convention's opening turmoil, showcasing the deep Republican party internal divisions, capped by Melania Trump's plagiarism, the tone of the Cleveland "goop-vention" has an uphill climb to somehow overcome the flawed presention. America is witnessing a group of wanna-bees who can't manage their own messaging, never mind, govern the great United States of America. Let's Make America proud again! 

Plagiary sets a terrible tone for the GOP-vention.

Cleveland alert - Republican Party Ohio hoopla sounds like a bust

It's like getting an invitation to a time share sales pitch in Antarctica. Scientists notwithstanding, even with all expenses paid, who in the world wants to spend a week there?  Well, okay, there are always those dedicated few who just want to say they spent a week in Antarctica, but that's not too many people.

Well, that's sort of like what's happening with the Republican National Committee (RNC), while it's trying to spin a party for the nomination of their presumptive 2016 presidential candidate. Unfortunately, it appears that not many people want to attend this gala to crown Donald Trump to be the presidential nominee.  

Trump and the Republican National Committee (RNC) are planning a nomination party, but many prospective speakers have the equivalent of a political "dentist appointment" on the day they are invited to speak.

Too bad for "Trumpy-Dumpty". He has waited all his life to be elected the leader of the free world. Now, when he is just about to be the pseudo king of his own political ball, it appears as though not many people want to show up for the party.

Politico Reports:
GOP Stars Show Little Interest In Trump Convention Speaking Slots in Cleveland.

The traditionally coveted gig as Republican National Convention (RNC) speaker is drumming up little interest with career-conscious politicians, wary of presumptive nominee Donald Trump, Politico reports.

The website reports it contacted more than 50 big-name governors, senators and House lawmakers about a speaking spot at the convention.

"Only a few said they were open to it, and everyone else said they weren’t planning on it, didn’t want to or weren’t going to Cleveland at all — or simply didn’t respond," Politico's Alex Isenstadt writes.

Among the firm no-shows, according to Politico, are:

• South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, who's overseeing a House Select committee's investigation into Hillary Clinton’s handling of the attacks on Benghazi.
• South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford, a former two-term governor.
• Florida Rep. Carlos Curbelo.
• New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte.
• Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner.
• South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.
• New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who helped write the GOP platform at the 2012 convention.
• North Carolina Rep. Richard Hudson.
• Utah Rep. Mia Love, who's skipping the convention to travel to Israel.

Politico reports rising stars in the party like South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Oklahoma Rep. Steve Russell, a former Army lieutenant colonel who helped capture Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, say they've got no plans to speak. 

Nor are there plans for rising GOP stars Utah Sen. Mike Lee or former Trump rival Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, to speak. 

Even politicians from the convention host state of Ohio, Sen. Rob Portman and Gov. John Kasich, a Trump primary rival, haven't said if they'll speak.

According to Politico, "even the GOP leaders in charge of maintaining the party’s congressional majorities," Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker and Oregon Rep. Greg Walden, aren't saying if they'll speak at the event, Isenstadt writes.

"Everyone has to make their own choice, but at this point, 70 percent of the American public doesn’t like Donald Trump," Stuart Stevens, a GOP strategist who helped craft the 2012 convention, tells Politico.

"That’s as toxic as we’ve seen in American politics. Normally, people want to speak at national conventions. It launched Barack Obama’s political career."

A Trump spokesperson declined to comment on this year’s convention plans, but there are hints the event will be heavy on non-politicians.
It’s also expected that Trump’s children, including daughter Ivanka and sons Eric and Donald Jr., will get prime-time spots, Politico reports.  (This is puff endorsement from Trump's kids the same people who are protecting their own inheritance.)

Trump supporters like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich may be tapped for a spot on the stage, according to Politico. 

And Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke, a former leader of the Navy SEAL (operational word "former") team that would later kill Osama bin Laden, hopes to get a shot at the podium, a spokeswoman tells Politico. (Is he  looking for a Silver Star...?)

In my experience watching these political dramas every four years, this "no show" RNC list are the people to follow during the time when the convention is happening.  Maybe the "no shows" will even host their own convention. Perhaps, they can put on a program that people will find believable and present a policy platform the voters might consider supporting.

Donald Trump's impressive list of political enemies

Donald Trump's delusional ambition to be an American President is being undermined by nearly everyone in the political establishment. He has antagonized every constituent group except for angry white males, and they look more like the reincarnation of the Nazi storm troopers rather than American voters. It's hard to find people to speak publicly about supporting Donald Trump to be America's leader. Although the famous Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight supports the Trumponian campaign, he can't articulare an intelligent reason for his opinion. Other difficult to accept Trump supporters are the former vice-president candidate and Alaska "half term" Governor Sarah Palin (ho hum), Bobby Knight, a college baskeball coach, Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie, Maine Governor Paul LePage and Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions. This is hardly an impressive list of intelligencia. Incredulously, Trump's few supporters includes a failed governor and vice-presidential candidate, a failed presidential candidate, an unpopular Maine governor, a right wing extremist Senator who denies he has ties to the Ku Klux Klan and a college basketball coach who can't articulate why he supports Donald Trump, except to say he does.

Here are the voting groups who largely oppose Donald Trump's candidacy:

1.   Mexican Americans
2.   Hispanic groups
3.   Transexual and gay voters
4.   African Americans
5.   Democratic voters
6.   White women
7.   Muslim voters
8.   Jewish voters
9.   Moderate Republican-Conservative voters
10.  Newly naturalized American citizens

This is the public perception logo of the Donald Trump's candidacy for president of the US - immigrants climbing the border wall.

Mathematically, it's hard to see how Donald Trump can claim he is the Republican candidate who can win the 2016 to be elected President of the United States. Given the lack of Republican and traditional political support, added to the alienation of major voting blocks who are opposed to Donald Trump's hate filled rhetoric, it's impossible to understand how enough votes can be won in the national election to elect him as president. Moreover, on the electoral map, where the deciding votes are ultimately cast, there is no way Donald Trump can create winning support from blue voting states.  Consequently, it seems evident that Donald Trump has created too many political enemies to win the 2016 election.

Thankfully, Secretary Hillary Clinton has a "love Trumps hate" campaign to counter the "Trumpastic divisiveness" in the politically unpredictable public policies spewed by Donald Trump.  

Although Donald Trump appears to believe he will eventually call in the political "chips" owed him from his generous millions of contributions, given to high level politicains, he has simply created too many enemies to claim his bets. It's time for Republicans at the 2016 Cleveland national GOP convention to nominate a responsible presidential candidate. Instead of Donald Trump, they must choose a candidate qualified by education and experience to run in 2016, to be a respected leader of the free world. Moreover, they must choose a candidate who will not alienate 10 major voting groups. Simple arithmetic should be enough to convince the Republican delegates in Cleveland to figure out how to nominate somebody who does not have so many political enemies.

Second Amendment guns everywhere except where lawmakers gather

Menally ill people are somehow getting guns. Today's (March 28th) shooting at the US Capitol is evidence of how easily a mentally ill person obtained a gun.  Neverhteless, right wing Republicans continue to ignore any attempt to reduce the rate of gun violence in America, Oh, wait!  There's one exception.  Republicans want everybody to own guns, except if the weapons risk being pointed at one of them- like at the US Capitol or the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.  

US Capitol experiences another shooting incident- all gun violence is preventable

The Daily Beast reports:

U.S. Capitol Shooter Identified (Clearly, the gunman was delusional and a danger to himself and others- in other words, he should have been in a psychiatric hospital.)
Washington (CNN)U.S. Capitol Police shot a Tennessee man Monday afternoon after he pulled out what appeared to be a weapon at the Capitol Visitor Center, law enforcement officials said.
A female civilian bystander was injured by shrapnel, but no U.S. Capitol Police officers were injured.Multiple news outlets identified Larry Russell Dawson of Antioch, Tenn., as the suspect who alleged drew a gun at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center on Monday afternoon. As The Daily Beast previously reported, in October 2015, the 66-year-old minister was arrested after shouting "I'm a prophet of God" inside the U.S. House, allegedly assaulting a police officer during his removal.

Verderosa would not confirm or deny the suspect’s identity as Dawson, but said the perpetrator was known to police thanks to a previous incident at the Capitol. On Oct. 22, 2015, Dawson yelled “I’m a prophet of God” from the balcony of the House of Representatives.

Hello?  How did this delusional person obtain a gun and return to the US Capitol?  This is plainly ridiculous if not crazy!

Dawson allegedly ran from cops and resisted arrest, according to a police report exclusively obtained by The Daily Beast. Cops cuffed him for assaulting a police officer and unlawful conduct at the Capitol. The Washington Post reports that Dawson missed a court appearance in November, writing a letter to the court that said, "I have been called chosen and sent unto you this day. I am not under the law!. . .Therefore I will not comply with the court order, nor will I surrender myself to your office.” (OMG this is unreal- didn't anybody try to find this guy? He needed hospitalization because, clearly, he was a danger to himself and others.)
— Additional reporting by Betsy Woodruff from Washington, D.C.

Meanwhile- the Secret Service squelched a petition for Republicans to carry  guns to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July 2016.  No kidding?  I wonder if the NRA will sue the Secret Service and take their case to the US Supreme Court to file an injunction against the restriction of Second Amendment rights?

Obviously, Republicans support Second Amendment rights for everybody so long as it doesn't put them in the line of fire or the victims of collateral damage.  More right wing hypocrisy.

In fact, all gun violence is preventable. Those Republicans who refuse to stand up to the National Rifle Association should remember how they, too, are vulnerable to the gun violence they refuse to fix. Although I have no problem with the decision of the Secret Service to keep guns out of the National Republican Convention, the fact is, 43,000 people said they wanted to bring guns to the gathering, for what reason, I have no idea. These right wingers just want to show off their Second Amendmentn Rights, regardless of how offensive they are to others.

It's outrgeous for Republicans to ignore the need for Second Amendment reforms. It makes no sense for a mentally ill man, who was known to the police, to have access to to a gun, whereby he was able to shoot at the US Capitol. Moreover, Republicans who prevent Second Amerndment reforms have no regard for protecting others; while they use the Secret Service to shield them from their own ignorace and to protect them from their incompetence.

Cleveland Triple Kidnapping in Plain Sight - A Sociology Study in American Shame

CLEVELAND — One neighbor remembered occasional late-night deliveries of groceries to the boarded-up shoe box of a house in a rough-edged West Side neighborhood here (NYTimes).  

Images of this weird decade long triple kidnapping extend beyond the dilapidated house where the three victims were eventually found in plain sight.

Noticing the two patriotic symbols (small flag and eagle on porch) displayed on this crime scene property - what does this house and the people in it say about America? These patriotic symbols make me shudder because the man living inside the house was a serial rapist.

This Cleveland house is where at least three girls were abused, while the community, including public safety officials, appear to have neglected the suspicious activities reported at the location.  Did no one in ten years enter and survey what was going on with this property? What about tax assessors?  One family member of a rescued victim called the situation "shameful", during an interview by Savannah Guthrie on the NBC Today Show.

Residents of this run down location conducted nefarious behaviors in plain sight of the community. Television interviews with some of the victims' family members reveal very plain spoken relatives.  One can only imagine how Americans would respond to a series of similar victim interviews if the people impacted had been African Americans or even Arabic-Muslims living in ethnic ghettos, like Detroit.  Instead, these families are clearly a group of America's marginalized Caucasian societies.  They are all Caucasians (one family of the three victims appears to be of Hispanic origin and, thereby, they are Caucasians).  

Likewise, the perpetrators of these disgusting crimes are Caucasians.

This shameful tragedy involves the Cleveland community, the entire state of Ohio and transcends to our American national image.

Ohio is the state where, in the 2012 national presidential election, Governor John Kasich worked to "protect" his citizens from voter fraud by trying to restrict access to voting stations.  These infringements on voting rights in the name of "fraud" were targeted to discriminate against minority groups, especially nationalized immigrants. Instead, people like the Cleveland Caucasians, the victims and perpetrators of the triple kidnapping and abuse, were among the social groups Governor Kasich "protected" when he vainly created a voter fraud myth to limit the Democratic party turnout.

In the eyes of the world, Americans can certainly be stereotyped as backward people if the only images international viewers, who follow CNN, see of the three kidnapping perpetrators are the truly ugly pictures of them broadcast in the media. 

Obviously, the outcome of the kidnapping story is certainly preferable to the alternative, but in the survivors we have a series of American stories to reveal, and they won't be swathed in nostalgic patriotism. Unfortunately, these kidnappings, conducted over a decade in plain sight, are indicative of a Cleveland community's neglect, an Ohioan embarrassment of the public and social safety net systems and the American social blight called racism.  These families would not have hidden so easily in plain sight if they were among America's minority groups. 

Instead, being a "white" crime, rather than any other ethnic color, likely contributed to the late discovery of these kidnappings. It's, indeed, shameful that the public safety community was probably blinded by social racism.  Americans can and must do a better job at including all citizens into our public and social safety nets.