Roland Klose
@rwklose
editor/writer | St. Louis
Frederick Douglass sought major constitutional changes. Here’s what he said in St. Louis in 1867. rwklose.com/2023/06/19/a...
“Foot-ball is fallen very much into disrepute, and is not allowed in many of the play-grounds of schools in cities; it is also a very dangerous game, as a boy may have his leg broken, or receive a kick which may disable him for years.” (“The Book of Sports,” H.C. Peck & Theo. Bliss, ca. 1855)
This presidential campaign brochure is a reminder of how far to the right the political center has shifted in 50 years. US Rep. Mo Udall, a leading Democratic candidate in 1976, called for universal health care, taxing the rich, breaking up Big Oil, and passing the ERA. We got Jimmy Carter instead.
Wealthy candymaker led campaign to boost St. Louis, lost his fortune and snuck off to Chicago rwklose.com/2024/05/03/h...
‘Socialization itself is not new in the United States’: A Depression-era perspective on public welfare rwklose.com/2009/06/28/a...
Missouri Bootheel prosecutor coerced a confession by warning the accused that he might be lynched rwklose.com/2025/07/29/i...
Missouri lawmakers enacted gun control and abolished the death penalty — in 1917 rwklose.com/2023/03/31/t...
Granite City voters elected a Socialist as mayor in 1911; he immediately put a stop to police brutality rwklose.com/2023/03/14/k...
Trump’s war is spinning out of control. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Trump: “There has never been a group of people treated so badly in our Nation’s history” as the January 6 insurrectionists.
Somebody tell Josh: Trump has invoked the Fifth Amendment repeatedly. abcnews.com/Politics/tru...
“We are all held hostage by a regime in the US that has pressed its military and economic prowess in service of ego and ignorance.” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... by @nesrinemalik.bsky.social
Worth revisiting: Andrew Tate’s Empire of Abuse www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
A specter is haunting Donald Trump — the specter of communism. “Oh my goodness, we’re so back!” peoplesworld.org/article/the-... via @peoplesworld1924.bsky.social
Frederick Douglass: “I know of no greater misfortunes to individuals than an overconfidence in their own perfections, and I know of fewer misfortunes that can happen to a nation greater than an overconfidence in the perfection of its government.” rwklose.com/2023/06/19/a...
I’m no fan of media consolidation, but it’s kind of funny that some of local radio’s biggest losers may end up in the same “family” as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. www.stltoday.com/news/local/b...
Meanwhile, checking in on the circus in St. Louis County: “You cool down, you cool down, you cool down. I’m already cool. I don’t have to cool down.”
Another newspaper building bites the dust. www.commercialappeal.com/picture-gall...
“The people are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property, between former masters and slaves ...” #juneteenth
Among Democrats, the Democratic Socialists of America has a higher net favorable rating than Democrats in Congress. Socialism is now viewed more favorably than capitalism. www.cnn.com/2026/06/17/u...
I found a John Hagar who was sports editor at the Star-Times, then a picture editor at the Globe-Democrat. He was 94 when he died in 2020. Sounds like an interesting guy.
Iran’s top diplomat said Tuesday that the deal ending the war with the US also requires Israel to withdraw from Lebanon. “Without the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories they occupied during this war, the war has not fully come to an end.” apnews.com/article/iran...
Joe Palooka, Red Ryder and other features end up in the Post-Dispatch after it buys and closes its afternoon competitor, the Star-Times, in 1951.
On this day 75 years ago, the St. Louis Star-Times published its final edition. “It is unfortunate when any good newspaper retires from the field because the public cannot be too well informed,” the St. Louis Globe-Democrat said in an editorial.
“The economic conditions necessary for any Palestinian future other than permanent subjugation are being dismantled.” apnews.com/article/isra...
The Israeli military has deployed white phosphorus, an incendiary substance that can be extremely harmful, over populated areas in Lebanon in its battle against Hezbollah, according to experts, aid groups and visual evidence collected by The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/06/w...
