Week in review: Toad lick warning, KCPD baby rescue, GOP disarray, Taylor Swift in KC

Leave this amphibian alone

The National Park Service has an urgent request: Please stop licking the psychedelic toads.

Apparently, some visitors are fond of slurping up the secretions on the back of the 7-inch long Sonoran desert toad, aka the Colorado River toad, which is found in the southwestern United States. The secretions contain a strong psychedelic chemical, but they can also make you quite sick.

Some are calling the toad’s slime the “God particle” for its effects. That’s led to a rush to capture the animal, threatening its survival.

The Park Service would like you to quit. It wrote in a Facebook post: “Whether it be a banana slug, unfamiliar mushroom, or a large toad with glowing eyes in the dead of night, please refrain from licking. Thank you.”

We are grateful for this timely reminder. In fact, we’d go further: It’s pretty much a bad idea to lick any amphibian. Licking should be reserved for ice cream cones and popsicles.

You can also, of course, lick your wounds. Which, interestingly, lots of losing candidates did this week.

We’ve received no reports of a psychedelic buzz from the practice.

KCPD officer a superhero and angel

We have nothing but applause for this Kansas City Police Department officer. He is somebody’s hero for sure. Police body camera footage shows officer Richard DuChaine sprinting into a Kansas City residence where a man hands him a swaddled infant who is not breathing.

The officer, with the urgency of a superhero and the tenderness of an angel, uses his lifesaving training to save the precious child’s life: CPR, pats on the back, and then freeing the child’s airway.

We often criticize KCPD for bad policing. It’s nice to be able to praise an officer for his quick and levelheaded response that saved the life of an innocent child — protect and serve in one beautiful swoop. His actions are a prime example of why we call on officers for help and why we need good policing. This cop really brought it and then followed up: DuChaine and his partner, Charles Owen, later visited the infant in the hospital.

With red wave miss, conservatives adrift

After confidently overpromising a GOP sweep of the midterms, conservative media outlets are nursing a case of whiplash as reality dawns that no, America doesn’t hate President Joe Biden and his party anywhere near as much as the anti-Democrat and antidemocratic echo chamber does.

It’s stunning to reflect on the massive changes the right wing pundit class has seen since Donald Trump took over the GOP. Just 6 1/2 years ago:

▪ Bill O’Reilly, a longtime Trump friend and ally, was the brightest star at Fox News, guided by Machiavellian CEO Roger Ailes.

▪ Missouri’s own Rush Limbaugh ruled the radio waves nationwide.

▪ Alex Jones’ InfoWars blared pro-Trump propaganda 24/7 in social media, radio and videos.

▪ Intellectual stalwart National Review published its “Against Trump” compendium of multiple solid conservative reasons to oppose him.

None of that world remains today. O’Reilly and Ailes were ousted from Fox, both amid multiple credible accusations of sexual harassment. InfoWars has been kicked off all major media platforms. Jones turned on Trump and is now staring down $1.4 billion in judgments for his inhumanely cruel lies about victims of the Sandy Hook massacre. Limbaugh and Ailes have died. National Review, like most other outlets on the right originally opposed to Trump, pivoted to mostly praise and rationalization of his reckless, spasmodic term.

Yes, Trump delivered Republicans a hard-right Supreme Court, and its unpopular Dobbs decision gutting abortion rights. But he lost them Congress, the White House and now their red wave. The linchpins of their mass media machine have been pulled and thrown away.

The party’s rightward lurch has sent Roger Marshall, Josh Hawley and now Eric Schmitt to the Senate. Their bomb-throwing approach to politics is a lot less Pat Roberts or Roy Blunt and a lot more MAGA than what Kansas and Missouri are used to. Here’s to hoping a newly-chastened GOP can pick up the pieces and turn down the temperature in Washington.

Taylor Swift X2 in KC

The haters gonna hate, Taylor Swift once sang. But here in Kansas City, she’s finding love galore. And too many fans for just one show. On Friday, the multiplatinum-selling, award-winning singer added a second concert next summer at Arrowhead Stadium as part of her 2023 Eras Tour. Swift announced the additional show here and several others on Instagram.

Swift will perform July 7 and 8 at Arrowhead, her third concert tour stop at the stadium since 2011. Presale tickets are available Tuesday, and general ticket sales begin Nov. 18. Shake that off, haters.