See You In September

Entertainment Overnight -- We're Going to Hell

Least Expensive Gas in Missouri?

The lowest price for gasoline--this weekend, anyway, yesterday--in Western Missouri, hands down.

The Flying J Travel Plaza in Peculiar, off State Highway 49.

Entertainment Overnight -- The Cello

My favorite instrument.

The latest video from 1/2 of 2Cellos.

Crazy Things Donald Trump Has Actually Said

At first, months ago, when Donald Trump was said to be running for president in the upcoming 2016 election, I thought it was merely funny, an amusement, for me and a lot of us out here in the nation. But the longer this goes on and the longer period of time Mr. Trump is in first place in popularity for Republicans and the Right Wing, frankly, the scarier and more ominous the situation and he become.

Here, then, to clear the air, are actual statements and quotes from The Donald, things he has actually said and believes. Because people need to know this clown:

"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're sending people that have lots of problems...they're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime. They're rapists."

“Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are little short guys that wear yarmulkes every day.”

"He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured." –On Senator and Veteran John McCain

"When was the last time anybody saw us beating, let’s say, China in a trade deal? They kill us. I beat China all the time." –Donald Trump, on his diplomacy skills

"Free trade is terrible. Free trade can be wonderful if you have smart people. But we have stupid people."

“All of the women on The Apprentice flirted with me—consciously or unconsciously. That’s to be expected.”

"We need a leader that wrote The Art of the Deal." –Plugging his book in his presidential campaign announcement

"I have people that have been studying [Obama's birth certificate] and they cannot believe what they're finding... I would like to have him show his birth certificate, and can I be honest with you, I hope he can. Because if he can't, if he can't, if he wasn't born in this country, which is a real possibility…then he has pulled one of the great cons in the history of politics." –Three weeks before Obama released his long-form birth certificate in 2011

"I have a great relationship with the blacks."

"When it comes time to default, they’re not going to remember any of the Republicans’ names. They are going to remember in history books one name, and that's Obama." –Urging Republicans to force a default on America's debt so that Obama wouldn't be reelected

"I don't like the crying." –On House Speaker John Boehner

"These are stupid people that say, `Oh didn't Trump declare bankruptcy? Didn't he go bankrupt?' I didn't go bankrupt." –On filing for bankruptcy on parts of his various businesses (And yes, yes he did: 

Donald Trump goes bankrupt. Four times)

"The man that wrote the second book ... didn't write the first book. The difference was like chicken salad and chicken s**t." -On President Obama's books

"I will build you ... one of the great ballrooms of the world." –On building a $100 million ballroom at the White House (because that's important)

“I think the only difference between me and the other candidates is that I’m more honest and my women are more beautiful.” –While teasing a presidential run in 2000

"In life you have to rely on the past, and that's called history." –On Celebrity Apprentice (I'm glad he cleared that up)

“You know, it doesn’t really matter what [the media] write as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass.”

"I don't think Ivanka would do that, although she does have a very nice figure. I've said if Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her." –When asked how he would react if Ivanka posed for Playboy

"She really has become a monster ... I mean monster in the most positive way." –On his pregnant wife Melania

"You know the funny thing, I don't get along with rich people. I get along with the middle class and the poor people better than I get along with the rich people." 

“.@ariannahuff is unattractive both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man- he made a good decision.”

"My fingers are long and beautiful, as, it has been well been documented, are various other parts of my body."

"I'm not a schmuck. Even if the world goes to hell in a handbasket, I won't lose a penny." 

"You were born stupid."  --To very Right Wing columnist Michelle Malkin who, if she liked him could be a possible help to Mr. Trump and his campaign

"The beauty of me is that I'm very rich."

"Our leaders are stupid, our politicians are stupid, and the Mexican government is much sharper, much more cunning. [So] they send the bad ones over because they don’t want to pay for them, they don’t want to take care of them.” —GOP debate, August 2015

“Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest—and you all know it! Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure. It’s not your fault.” —Twitter, 2013

“It’s like in golf. A lot of people — I don’t want this to sound trivial — but a lot of people are switching to these really long putters, very unattractive. It’s weird. You see these great players with these really long putters, because they can’t sink three-footers anymore. And, I hate it. I am a traditionalist. I have so many fabulous friends who happen to be gay, but I am a traditionalist.” —explaining his stance on, of all things, gay marriage in a New York Times profile in May 2011

Finally, at least today, because I'm sure there will be more, my personal favorite:

"Let me tell you, I'm a really smart guy."

Fantastic KC Video

Fantastic.   From local videographer Dan Wood. 

Michael Jackson -- Gone Too Soon

Michael Jackson -- born this day, 1958. Rest in peace.

Entertainment Overnight -- Drowned Lovers

Quote of the Day -- After the WDJB Double Shooting

Entertainment Overnight -- Down So Low

Entertainment Overnight -- The Wayback Machine

The State of the Nation and World

Kim Jong Un and North Korea are threatening South Korea with attack.

China's economy is in freefall.

The Dow dropped nearly 1000 points the last 2 days.

The Mexican peso--in next door Mexico, of course--just hit a record low against the US dollar.

Wealth inequality in America is getting worse by the year with the already-wealthy getting richer and the middle and lower classes getting poorer.

Greece just nearly avoided a total bankruptcy of the nation.

Our infrastructure is falling apart.

Our Highway Fund needs funding from Congress.

All this and a lot more but Donald Trump and his disconnected, childish, really, musings on America and the world put him, somehow, somehow, "most popular" right now, number one in the polls of Republican candidates for president in next year's election.

This is no way to run a country.

Entertainment Overnight -- Flashback

It can't have been released in 1981, though.



Could it?

Quote of the Day -- Guest Post

A Facebook friend of mine, Kent Hartland, wrote and posted this today. I couldn't agree more.

My country has decended into a quagmire of wickedness where somehow prominent, self-important people strive to outdo one another in their shitty diatribes to achieve ever-higher status among the hate-baiters that own my nation.

I grew up in a God-loving home, as most folks did. Most of the truly good people in the world were also of the same cloth. I was taught from infancy to love and respect others, whether a different skin, disabled, mentally challenged or poor. We are all alike. Love your brothers and sister. Hold the door for a lady, say "Please" and "Thank you", "Yes, Ma'am" and "Yes, Sir." One of my earliest memories was taking food to old people in what we used to call a poor house or old folks home. I remember the dirt floors in some of the cabins.

Since when did religious folks, i.e. "Conservatives", identify with the same crowd that burns crosses, loves guns, defends the slaughter of first-graders as "unfortunate", says teachers need a fist in the mouth, blows up women's health clinics, assassinates doctors, bombs buildings where dozens of babies lie in their nursery, scream obscenities at immigrant children trying to escape the horrors of war, beat homeless people because "Trump is Right" or "Rush is Right" and who thirst for ever more war and spend fortunes seeking ways to further stigmatize, disenfranchise and decimate the poor?

Indeed. Wth, America?

Entertainment Overnight -- Especially at Night

...I worry over situations...

Quote of the day

"I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice. But still, the place you live in is that much more drab and empty that they're gone.

I guess I just miss my friend."

Entertainment Overnight -- Favorite Music, Favorite Era

Entertainment Overnight -- From the Wayback Machine

Fantastic music. What an era.

Entertainment Overnight -- The Wayback Machine

More Americans Need to Read--and Follow--the Words of Robert E. Lee

More people in this nation need to read and apply and live Robert E. Lee's own words.

These, on our nation and fellow countrymen:

"I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country than a dissolution of the Union."

"Obedience to lawful authority is the foundation of manly character."

"Madam, don't bring up your sons to detest the United States government. Recollect that we form one country now. Abandon all these local animosities, and make your sons Americans."

And this, on war itself:

"It is well that war is so terrible -- lest we should grow too fond of it."

Entertainment Overnight -- Ain't My First Rodeo

Ain't the first time I've seen yer dog and pony show

Republican Fiscal Programs Worst

The Kansas City Star covered a Business Insider article which ended ranking Kansas and Missouri economies 2 of the 10 worst in the nation.

Missouri and Kansas economies are two of the unhealthiest in the nation, report says 

A Business Insider ranking of state economies places Missouri and Kansas in the bottom 10 when it comes to the state of their economies.

The survey released last week, which examined the economies of 50 states and the District of Columbia, ranked Missouri 47th and Kansas 43rd.

47. Missouri

Missouri is home to 26 Fortune 1000 companies, including Emerson Electric, agricultural giant Monsanto, O'Reilly Automotive, and Energizer.

Missouri had a low rate of employment growth, with nonfarm payrolls growing just 0.8% between June 2014 and June 2015. The state was slightly below average on all our other metrics, like its 5.8% June 2015 unemployment rate, higher than the national rate of 5.3%.

43. Kansas

Kansas' economy has huge agriculture and aerospace sectors. Among the most disproportionately common jobs in Kansas are livestock wholesalers, cattle ranchers, turkey producers, and airplane manufacturers.

Kansas' over the year wage growth of 2.6% was somewhat weaker than the national rate of 3.5% between Q4 2013 and Q4 2014. Job growth was also below average, with nonfarm payrolls growing by only 0.8% between June 2014 and June 2015. Despite the slow change in employment, Kansas' June 2015 unemployment rate of 4.5% was quite a bit lower than the national 5.3% rate.Also worth note is that Right Wing, Republican New Jersey's economy, what with 2016 presidential candidate Chris Christie leading it, also comes in near the bottom at number 44.

In the meantime, California's increasing taxes on the wealthy paid off their debt last week and their economy has grown.

California pays off $14 billion in costly debt from 2004

So the question is, the question still is, at what point do people from these states--heck from the entire nation--recognize and accept that "supply side", "trickle down" economics of the Right Wing and Republican Party just patently don't work?

Cutting taxes for the already-wealthy and corporations just plainly, plainly does not work or even remotely help.  Economists warned it's a bad idea yet off these states have gone and these are the clear, obvious, even paiinful results.

Can we stop this nonsense now, at along last?

Link to original article: 

RANKED: The economies of all 50 US states and DC from worst to best

Quote of the Day -- On Our Future

With corporations making record profits yet hiring fewer and fewer people and in lots of cases, transitioning to robots and machines to do the work, this becomes more and more not just possible but important.

Westport Gets National Kudos

Yahoo put this up a few days ago.

Where the Hipsters Are: the Brooklyn of Every State

And for Missouri, it's Westport, they say.



Missouri

Westport (Kansas City)

 A big thumbs-up to Cherokee Street in St. Louis for its Brooklyn-esque qualities, but Westport on the other side of the state is the spot. Westport is, first and foremost, an entertainment district. It’s where you party and eat like a king — at Port Fonda for Mexican, at Dave’s Stagecoach for the jukebox and a beer, at Kelly’s for a Guinness in a pub that’s been around forever but where the clientele has, well, shifted, and at Julep for a cocktail with an egg white in it. During the day there’s plenty to do as well, whether you want to search for an album at Mills Record Company to throw on your portable record player, grab a coffee at the 20+ year and still going Broadway Roasting, or get secondhand threads at Arizona Trading Company.

Just don't hang around late, after midnight, likely.

Republican's Kansas in the New York Times Tomorrow

The Republican's Kansas hits the Sunday New York Times in a pretty big way tomorrow with an article on the state in the rather prestigious front cover article of the New York Times Magazine.

The Kansas Experiment

Needless to say, given what that Right Wing political party, led by their governor, Sam Brownback, has done to the state and their finances and gun laws, etc., it isn't pretty. It's honest and truthful but certainly not pretty.

It's online now. You can read it at the link above.

Not to be done there, Kansas also gets fair and honest but critical treatment at the Atlantic, too, from last April, in case you missed it.

Kansas's Failed Experiment

And then there's the Washington Post's evaluation a year ago in July.

In Kansas, Brownback tried a red-state 

'experiment.'

Finally, at least for now, there is coverage from The Week, last April.

Kansas' experiment in concentrated 

conservatism keeps getting grimmer

The one reason I think it's so very important to note the mistakes and failures of Governor Brownback's and the Republican's efforts in Kansas just now is no way to gloat over their being wrong, no. The reason it's important to point out these huge, ugly mistakes is because virtually every candidate for president in 2016 from the Republican Party are espousing the same, so-wrong, even ignorant policies that have gotten Kansas into the fiscal and financial mess they're in now. 

That is, the Republican candidates are still pushing "trickle down economics." They're emphasizing tax cuts for the wealthy. 

It's not just wrong but it's been proven wrong nationally as well as more locally in states. Kansas is certainly one of the biggest and worst---best?---examples. And Americans need to stand up, say as much and vote accordingly.

The NYT article, after reading it and after watching the Republican debates this last Thursday evening, make it clear---very clear--what a destructive, negative mess the entire political party is.

The Republican's and Right Wing's economics for the wealthy and corporations have not only been proven wrong by states like Kansas and Wisconsin and others where debt has been wrung up but it's also been disproven by states like California that did the opposite. That is, California raised taxes on the wealthy, grew their economy and paid off their debt. This from 3 days ago.

California Pays off $14 Billion in Costly Debt From 2004

At long last, can we kill the "trickle down", "supply-side" economics nonsense?

Please?

Socialism or America's Capitalism?

In the ever-raging and ongoing battle of what's better? Capitalism or Socialism, I offer you today the Legatum Prosperity Index of world nations for 2015.

Britain leapfrogs Germany in list of world's 

most prosperous

Note two things, ladies and gentlemen.

The US is not "NUMBER ONE!"

And the top nine nations are Socialist.


Huh.

Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945

Here's a fascinating video representing every nuclear explosion since 1945.

As long-time friend and now Facebook friend Brian Rock pointed out, did you know there were 2 in Mississippi?



Missi--freakin'--ssippi?

One of the things about this that is especially illuminating to me---pun no way intended--is that so many of these blasts were tested by the US, the then Soviet Union and England on our own/their own land. England doing them in Australia.

It seems the height of irresponsibility and possible danger, to me.

Seems the more you learn of what we humans do to the Earth and one another, you get amazed we're still here.

This Thursday, August 6, 2015

This Thursday evening, is, coincidentally and/or ironically:

--the date of the first debate of the 2016 Republican Primaries.

--the date of Jon Stewart's final Daily Show appearance as host.

--the 70th anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan

--the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. 

Thanks for the first three to FB friend Doug Frank.  Thanks, Doug.

Happy Birthday, President Obama!

Yessir. Today, Tuesday, August 4 is President Obama's 54th birthday. And while part of this is to wish him well on his day, part of it for me and a lot of us is to thank him for all his work these last 7 years.

Herewith, some links to pages showing just some of his accomplishments for we, the people. Each has citations and links to their sources:

14 Facts About Obama's Presidency Most People Don’t Know

A List of 305 Accomplishments by President Obama so far

Like did you know...

• We've now had 65 straight months of economic expansion.
• We are currently enjoying the longest period of private sector job creation in American history.
• Unemployment has dropped from 10.1% in October of 2009 to 5.4% by Spring of 2015.
• The stock market continues to set new record highs since President Obama took office.
• The Federal budget deficit is shrinking. It’s been reduced by two-thirds since 2009.
• Under President Obama, government spending has increased only 3.3% annually, the lowest rate since Eisenhower was president.
• For 95% of American taxpayers, income taxes are as low or lower than they were at almost any point in the last 50 years.
• Nearly 20 million more Americans now have health insurance that didn't have it before President Obama. More Americans have health insurance, and fewer are without, in at least decades.

And that's just a short, very short list. There's lots more.

And then there's these, from the world community:

President Obama Named ‘Most Admired Man In The World

Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton Extend Run as Most Admired

Barack Obama is most admired man for 7th year in a row...

And as if that isn't enough for the Right Wing, there's this, too, from that same article:  Hillary Clinton is most admired woman for 17 th time in 18 years.

Like it, all of it--or accept it--or not.

So here's to you, President Obama, on your day.

Thanks, very much, for all your work.

Entertainment Overnight -- Helplessy Hoping

The "Thinning of the Herd" the Planet Needs?

Entertainment Overnight -- Playing for Change

War is not the answer
for only love can conquer hate

Right Wing Experiments

Right wing socio-economic experiments Republicans, Conservatives and the Right Wing have wrought for and on America and Americans in the last 30 or so years:

Trickle down - 35 years of experience - total failure, only benefits those who are supposed to trickle it down. But it benefits them a lot and they pay to maintain it.

Citizens United (unlimited campaign contributions) - monumental failure in only a few years. Even right wingers don't like it, although they are using it. Un-American, undemocratic - the rich are buying elections.

Drug testing for welfare recipients - a total boon for the drug testing industry and the politicians invested in it. The return on investment is profoundly negative in the states doing it - a huge waste of public money, in other words. Poor people don't have money for drugs - kinda simple, isn't it?

Charter schools - scandal after scandal wherever these have been foisted on the public. A horrible way to educate your kids, unless you're extremely careful. Another profitable right wing cause, however. Lots of cash to their benefactors.

More, but you get the idea. 

End these failed right wing social experiments. They've gone on too long as it is.

From high school and Facebook friend Brian Rock.

Quote of the Day -- Sunday Edition

Kansas City Makes A Great Cut

Yes sir! Kansas City makes part of a great top ten, nationally:

The Top Ten Cities for Creatives

From The Huffington Post . First, a bit of a description:

A thriving creative class is a key feature of nearly every successful modern city. A vibrant culture is not only valuable in its own right, it also often serves to attract and inspire talented workers in non-creative fields, creating a rising tide that benefits the entire city...

...the financial realities of creative fields such as dance, photography and music often mean that creatives cannot afford to live in many of the places where they have historically had the most success and influence. Cities like New York and Los Angeles have, simply put, become too expensive for many working artists.So which cities present the best opportunities for today's creative workers? To answer that question, SmartAsset compared the cost of living in major U.S. cities to the concentration of creative workers in those cities. We considered 28 different professions in our analysis, including jobs like graphic designer, choreographer and photographer.

And here it is. Kansas City makes the top 10, nationwide:

10. Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City has emerged in recent years as a creative hub to rival those in the northeast and on the West Coast. The city's Crossroads Art District has gained national recognition for both its growth and the quality of its offerings. Crossroads alone has more than 70 art galleries, to go along with larger institutions like the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.

Now, then, what's interesting, though, and what needs to be mentioned  and acknowledged, too, though, great as this is for KC, is that nearby neighbor Des Moines, Iowa "beat us out" at the number 8 spot and none other than Omaha, Nebraska came in at 7. 

 Gadzooks.

We gotta' get busy, Kansas City. We have to do better.