Blog Catalog

Saturday, December 23, 2017

What Donald Trump and the Republican Party Represent and Offer the US and Its Citizens Presently



Oligarchy is rule by the few.

Plutocracy is rule by the wealthy.

Corporatocracy is rule by corporations, by business.

Kakistocracy is by the least qualified or most unprincipled.



We've got all that, presently in Washington, DC, at least, if not also in too many state houses.

Literally.




Another definition of kakistocracy is rule by the worst element of society, government by the worst people.

Links, definitions:







Thursday, December 21, 2017

Entertainment Overnight --- Winter


Winter Song




It's Donald Trump and the Republican Party vs the Rest of the World



When you think about this past year, with Donald Trump, President (it still depresses me), you have to recognize and accept that it's all become, yes, in fact, Donald Trump vs everyone else, vs all others, groups, individuals, everything and everybody.  Really. Think about it.

During the campaign last year and even after, it was him vs even what was supposed to be his own political party:

Trump Attacks Republicans for Giving Up 

on His Campaign



To prove my point further, once he became President, it didn't stop.



And they weren't easy attacks:


Once President, he took us, the US out of the Paris climate accord, the only nation in the world against it, suddenly.



Next, he's followed that up with his and the Republican Party's tax bill they've created, fought for and just passed yesterday.



Economists were against this latest Trump/Republican Party tax plan, for pity's sake.

Economists Say The Trump Tax Plan Will Have Disastrous Consequences


Here's a best example.


Now, today, of course, Mr. Trump and his representative at the United Nations are all going after any and all other nations that vote in that body against his bone-headed idea of making Jerusalem the capitol city of Israel.


I'm telling you, it is this man, this President (shudder) and his political party are both, all against the rest of the world. If you're not already wealthy and/or a corporation, you are not on his side, their side. He's against you. They're against you.


Wednesday, December 13, 2017

We Should Have This National Conversation For and About Women, Equality and Our Nation


I proposed/asked this earlier tonight out on Facebonkers:

Can you imagine how different, how likely radically different our country would be, our legislation, our laws, if 50 percent of our government legislators were women?

Honestly, we should have this conversation. A national conversation.

I'd love to hear it, first of all, and then I'd like to hear it at least locally and then go nationally.

On the issues of health care and child care and schools and, heck, war and our war machine?

And then there's equal pay for equal work, along with really an untold list of what would be different and changed.

Can you imagine how different even the legislative conversations would be, let alone the results of their legislation

I'm no fool on this. I don't for a minute think we'd hit some Nirvana.

I just think we would be a radically different society and nation. Our government would be radically different and so, our nation would, as well.

Scotland is ahead of us on this. They even have an organized group, pushing for 50% of their representatives to be female.

Women 50:50


There are more  people out there in the world, proposing this idea, this framework and working on and for and toward it than I knew, before today. Here's another example.

Can We Create Planet 50-50 by 2030? 


The UN is in on it, too.

Get involved: Step It Up for gender equality: 

About Step It Up


Think about it.

How insane is it that we're still so horribly unequal, that there is still so much gross inequality, not just in the world but here in the US in the 21st Century? We agreed the part about "All men...created equal" meant men and women long ago, I think most of us agree.


Imagine.

I'd love to hear at least one show, one full hour out on KCUR, maybe on Steve Kraske's show.

It would be perfect for that station, him and his program.



KCPD and Target Doing a Very Cool Thing Today



I had some time away from the office today and had to run some errands. One of those errands took me to the Target store at Ward Parkway Mall.  Those pesky vacuum cleaner bags, you know?

I pulled into the parking lot and, before getting parked, noticed a Kansas City, Missouri police department squad car, parked there but far out in the lot. It seemed odd. I never see that.

I got inside, of course, only to see an officer. "Ah, that's the one who parked there", I thought.

Then I saw another officer.

And another.

And sure, it's the holidays but the store seemed unusually busy for the middle of the week and middle of the day.

Pretty soon, I noticed there were police--and families with them, it seemed--all over the place.





I stopped this one young officer and asked him what was up.

He said that, yes, the KCPD did this, every year, I guess. Today there were going to be 152 kids go through with them, shopping, today alone. They call it their "Shop With a Cop" program, you guessed it, for the holidays.

I congratulated and thanked him and a few of the other officers there.

What a fantastic program. Seems Target sponsors it.


Seems it's quite the national program. Lee's Summit does it, as does Parkville and  Prairie Village, on the Kansas Side and lots of other cities and towns in the area. Unknown to me, it's been going on for years. This video, from KMBC News, is from 2014.



So kudos, KCPD, and to you, too, Target and really, all of Kansas City.

What a great thing. What a great, even beautiful thing to do.

It's enough to give a person hope.

Happy holidays, y'all.

Links:

shop with a cop




Monday, November 13, 2017

You Must Read This Article


If you only read one piece this year on technology and what it is, where it's going and where it may or may not go and take us, you should read this.

Will Democracy Survive Big Data and Artificial Intelligence?

Will Democracy Survive Big Data 

and Artificial Intelligence


It has far, far more in it than I could ever describe here.

It is both fascinating and alarming, at once.

Governments will no way be able to keep up with technology. Heck, they're already far, far behind. 

I would like--heck, I want--every member of our national, US Congress to read this, let alone our state legislators and office holders.

All the things called for in the article would have to be done by government, of course. It would have to be done by far-seeing, responsible legislators.

I don't see it happening.

I'd love to be wrong.

God help us all.









The Unkept Promises of Donald J. Trump



Observations from Robert Reich, American political commentator, professor, and author. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and was Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997

So what promises HAS Trump kept?

One year after the election. An update for Trump voters on his election promises:

1. He told you he’d repeal Obamacare and replace it with something “beautiful.” You bought it. But he didn’t repeal and he didn’t replace. (Just as well: His plan would have knocked at least 23 million off health insurance, including many of you. Instead he's sabotaging the ACA causing premiums to increase even more)

2. He told you he’d cut your taxes. You bought it. But the tax “reform” bill he and House Republicans have produced won’t cut your taxes. Half of the middle class would see their taxes increase. The bill would cut corporate taxes and give millionaires a huge is tax break, and explode the national debt by at least $1.5 trillion.

3. He told you he’d invest $1 trillion in our nation’ crumbling infrastructure. You bought it. But after his giant tax cut for corporations and millionaires, there’s no money left for infrastructure.

4. He said he’d clean the Washington swamp. You bought it. But he’s brought into his administration more billionaires, CEOs, and Wall Street moguls than in any administration in history, to make laws that will enrich their businesses, and he’s filled departments and agencies with former lobbyists, lawyers and consultants who are crafting new policies for the same industries they recently worked for.

5. He said he’d use his business experience to whip the White House into shape. You bought it. But he created the most chaotic, dysfunctional, back-stabbing White House in modern history, and has already fired and replaced so many assistants (one of them hired and fired in a little more than a week) that no one knows who’s in charge of what.

6. He said he’d close “special interest loopholes that have been so good for Wall Street investors but unfair to American workers.” You bought it. But he picked Wall Street financiers to head every economic policy job, and his tax bill still retains the “carried interest” loophole that benefits Wall Street private-equity and hedge fund partners.

7. He told you he’d “bring down drug prices” by making deals with drug companies. You bought it. But now the White House says that promise is “inoperative.”

8. He said that on Day One he’d label China a “currency manipulator.” You bought it. But then he met with China’s president Xi Jinping and declared "China is not a currency manipulator.” Ever since then, Trump has been cozying up to Xi.

9. He said he wouldn’t bomb Syria. You bought it. But then he bombed Syria.

10. He said he’d build a “wall” across the southern border. You believed him. But there’s no money for that, either. Chief of staff John Kelly says it is “unlikely that we will build a wall, a physical barrier, from sea to shining sea.”

11. He called Barack Obama “the vacationer-in-Chief” and accused him of playing more rounds of golf than Tiger Woods. He promised to never be the kind of president who took cushy vacations on the taxpayer’s dime, not when there was so much important work to be done. You bought it. But in his first 9 months he has spent nearly 25 percent of his days at one of his golf properties for some portion of the day, according to Golf News Network, at a cost to taxpayers of an estimated $77 million. That’s already more taxpayer money on vacations than Obama cost in the first 3 years of his presidency. Not to mention all the money taxpayers are spending protecting his family, including his two sons who travel all over the world on Trump business.

12. He said he’d keep Muslim immigrants out of America. But his executive orders to prevent citizens from predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States have been stopped by the federal courts, on grounds they violate the Constitution.

13. He said he’d force companies to keep jobs in America, and that there would be “consequences” for companies that shipped jobs abroad. You believed him. But despite their promises, Carrier, Ford, GM, and the rest have continued to ship jobs to Mexico and China. Carrier (a division of United Technologies) moved ahead with plans to send 1,000 jobs at its Indiana plant to Mexico. 

Notwithstanding, the federal government has rewarded United Technologies with 15 new contracts since Trump's inauguration. Last year, Microsoft opened a new factory in Wilsonville, Oregon, that was supposed to herald a new era in domestic tech manufacturing. But in July, the company announced it was closing the plant. More than 100 workers and contractors will lose their jobs when production shifts to China. GE is sending jobs to Canada. IBM is sending them to Costa Rica, Egypt, Argentina, and Brazil. There have been no “consequences” for sending all these jobs overseas.

14. He said he’d create coal jobs. You believed him. He hasn’t. But here’s what he has done: Since 1965 a federal program called the Appalachian Regional Commission has spent $23 billion helping communities in coal states fund job retraining, reclaim land, and provide desperately needed social services. A.R.C. helped cut poverty rates almost in half, double the percentage of high-school graduates, and reduce infant mortality by two-thirds. Trump’s proposed budget eliminated A.R.C.

15. He said he’d make America safer. You believed him. But according to Mass Shooting Tracker, there have been 377 mass shootings so far this year, including 58 people killed and hundreds injured at a concert in Las Vegas, and 26 churchgoers killed and 20 injured at a church in Texas. Trump refuses to consider any gun controls.

16. In referring to his opponent in the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton, he said he’d “lock her up.” But he has not locked her up. In the United States, unlike dictatorships, presidents do not prosecute and punish their political opponents. Trump has expressed frustration that he cannot order the FBI and Justice Department to do whatever he wants them to do."

Links:








Saturday, November 11, 2017

Fantastic Irony and Coincidence


I just saw this on the Kansas City Public Library's website, earlier today.

Kansas City International Airport

On this day...

Plane Speaking | KC HISTORY


On November 11, 1972, the Kansas City International Airport officially opened for commercial service. The airport replaced the existing Mid-Continent Airport at the same location. Twenty years before, the 1951 flood destroyed many Fairfax Airport facilities on the west side of the Missouri River and compromised operations at the downtown Municipal Airport. With the area’s two main airports shut down, Kansas City began planning a new airport 20 miles north of the flooded city.

In the same week we voted to bulldoze our very convenient, very workable airport.

Pretty bizarre.

Have a great weekend, y'all, regardless.


For All Our Veterans, On Their Day



For Veterans Day, for all our Veterans out there, a list of all the restaurants and businesses offering free or reduced items for you across the city and metropolitan area today.
  • Ameristar Casino Hotel Kansas City: Complimentary lunch at Horizons Buffet from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10.
  • Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar: A free dish from its “Thank You Meal” menu
  • Back Yard Burgers: Free Back Yard Classic Burger
  • Bar Louie: Free flatbread or burger
  • Barley’s Kitchen + Tap: Free entree
  • Blue Moose Bar & Grill: Free entree
  • Bob Evans: $5.99 breakfast from a select menu
  • Bonefish Grill: Free order of Bang Bang Shrimp
  • Buffalo Wild Wings: Free order of wings with a side of fries
  • Carrabba’s Italian Grill: Free appetizer with the purchase of an entree and Coca-Cola product
  • Chili’s Grill & Bar: Free Old Timer cheeseburger, chicken bacon ranch quesadillas, chili or soup with salad, or Cajun chicken pasta
  • Chipotle Mexican Grill: Buy one/get one free
  • Chuck E. Cheese’s: Free personal pizza
  • Coco Bolos Wood-Fired Grill & Cantina: Free entree
  • Cost Plus World Market: 20 percent off entire purchase (alcohol not included).
  • Cracker Barrel: Free slice of double chocolate fudge Coca-Cola cake.
  • Decadent, A Coffee and Dessert Bar: Free slice of pie
  • Denny’s: Free build-your-own Grand Slam
  • Dickey’s Barbecue Pit: Free meal
  • Dollar General: 11 percent off purchases
  • Donutology: Free glazed doughnut from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.
  • Dunkin’ Donuts: Free doughnut
  • Famous Dave’s Legendary Pit Bar-B-Q: Free lunch combo
  • 54th Street Grill: Free meal (up to $12). Dine-in only
  • Firebirds Wood Fired Grill: One complimentary military entrée with the purchase of an entree on Nov. 10.
  • Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers: Free combo meal coupon good through Nov. 30
  • Golden Corral: Free dinner from 5 to 9 p.m. Nov. 13
  • Grimaldi’s Coal Brick-Oven Pizzeria: 15 percent off on Nov. 10 and 11.
  • Great Clips: Free haircut on Nov. 11
  • Hereford House: Free entrée (up to $20) with the purchase of a second entrée at lunch and dinner. Hours vary per location.
  • Hooters: One free meal from a select menu
  • Houlihan’s Restaurants: Free meal from a special menu
  • Hy-Vee: Free breakfast
  • HOP: Free red, white and blue pancakes
  • Kansas City Zoo: Complimentary admission
  • LaMar’s Donuts: Free doughnut and 12-ounce coffee.
  • Little Caesars: Free lunch combo ($5 value) from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
  • LongHorn Steakhouse: Free appetizer and 10 percent off the total bill from Nov. 10 to 12.
  • Main Event Entertainment: Complimentary $10 FUNcard that can be used on all Main Event games, and one free entrée from the special Veterans Day menu.
  • Minsky’s Pizza Cafe & Bar: Free 6-inch Philly cheesesteak, fries and a soft drink, dine-in only.
  • Muscle Maker Grill: Free meal
  • Museum at Prairiefire: All access for veterans and their guests
  • O’Dowd’s Gastrobar: Free entree
  • Olive Garden: One free entree (five to choose from) with unlimited soup or salad and breadsticks, dine-in only.
  • On the Border Mexican Grill & Cantina: Free lunch combo
  • Outback Steakhouse: Free Bloomin’ Onion and free Coca-Cola drink
  • Pie Five Pizza Co.: Free pizza
  • Pinstripes, Prairiefire: Free entree up to $20.
  • Porto do Sul: Free Harvest Table, for lunch only Nov. 10 and 11.
  • Price Chopper: 25 cents off per gallon (or 500 points toward food savings) on veterans’ next fill-up at QuikTrip (up to 20 gallons). Veterans need to bring their Chopper Shopper Rewards Card to one of the stores on Nov. 11 to receive the discounts.
  • Red Robin Gourmet Burgers and Brews: Free Red’s Tavern double burger with bottomless steak fries
  • Red Lobster: Free appetizer or dessert.
  • Rock & Brews Restaurants: Free pulled pork sandwiches Nov. 10.
  • Ruby Tuesday: Free appetizer
  • Scooters Coffee: Free cup of coffee
  • Shoney’s: Free all-you-care-to-eat breakfast bar from 6 to 11 a.m.
  • Spin Neapolitan Pizza: Free Mini Mia pizza and salad or soup combo
  • Sport Clips: Free haircuts
  • Starbucks: Free tall coffee
  • Stroud’s, Fairway and Overland Park: Free entree
  • Texas Roadhouse: Free lunch from a select menu
  • Topgolf: Free basic lifetime memberships if veterans sign up on Nov. 11, as well as 10 percent off gameplay and 20 percent off other memberships.
  • Twin Peaks: Free menu item from a select menu on Nov. 13.
  • Yard House: Free appetizer, dine-in only.
  • YaYa’s Eurobistro: 20 percent off purchase and a $10 bonus card.
  • Zarda Hickory Pit Bar-B-Q: Free pulled pork sandwich, side and medium drink from 11 a.m to 2 p.m.
And for a national list:


Then, additionally, there is this:


Happy Veterans Day.



Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Vote, Kansas City! And Vote NO! On Question 1!


So today is the day, Kansas City! Get out there and vote! And make sure, on Question 1, calling for the more-than-one-billion-dollar-boondoggle, MAKE SURE you VOTE NO! Thank you, in advance!

Image result for mo rage keep calm and save kci

And just as a reminder, here are lots of reasons why we should all VOTE NO!

The 500 Million Dollar Lie About the Airport We Keep Hearing

A Less Convenient, More Congested, Extremely Expensive and Completely Unnecessary Single Terminal Airport

Every Day Now, Some New Lie About a New Airport
Why We Should VOTE NO on Question 1 Tomorrow On A New Single-Terminal Airport

Suddenly, A New Airport Is "Fiscally Responsible"

The New KCI People Are Getting Desperate

Full Court Press From the "New KCI" Folks

Now the New KCI People Are Trying to Threaten US

KCI/MCI: Still Convenient, Still Beautiful


And don't forget all these facts and statistics, folks. Our airport keeps getting MORE and yet MORE traffic, month over month, year over year, AS IT IS. As badly maintained and managed as our airport is now, by our Airport Authority, we STILL KEEP GETTING MORE PEOPLE GOING THROUGH IT. Face it, they're coming here, to Kansas City. They're not coming here for a new, gleaming airport.

KCI Passenger Growth Continued 

in November


KCI Airport Passenger Traffic Up 

for 13th Straight Month









Kansas City International Airport 

Reports 37th Consecutive Month of

 PASSENGER GROWTH



If anyone wants to increase the number of people and flights coming and going at our airport, they should give money to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, not propose we build a more than one billion dollar new airport terminal.

Links:

Monday, November 6, 2017

KCI/MCI: Still Convenient, Still Beautiful


This was made some time ago but it's still true today.



VOTE NO! tomorrow, folks, on Question 1 here in Kansas City. Kill the more than one billion dollar boondoggle that is a new, single terminal airport.

Then, let's hold the Airport Authority accountable. It's not THEIR airport to neglect and manage poorly and keep run down and looking shoddy so they can get a new, very expensive bauble.

IT'S OUR AIRPORT.

And they should run it well and smart and smartly, as they should have all along. It can be done and it should be done.

VOTE TOMORROW! AND VOTE NO! ON QUESTION ONE!

Links:

Why We Should VOTE NO on Question 1 Tomorrow On A New Single-Terminal Airport


Personally thanking KMBC TV-9 for recording and posting this since every other media outlet in town either mindlessly supports the more than 1 billion dollar boondoggle that is a new, single-terminal airport or they're silent on the issue.

The Show-Me Institute's Patrick Tuohey says Kansas City voters should vote "no" on Question 1.


Nov. 3, 2017 Editorial Reply -- 

KCI Airport Vote - KMBC.com


Finally, finally some logic and fiscal responsibility on this issue.

Thank you, KMBC! and thank you, Patrick Tuohey!

This video, above, is newer, but he videotaped the following response to the airport idea March 6, 2014.

"Patrick Tuohey explains that the cost of a new terminal at Kansas City International Airport would be passed along to passengers. Higher ticket prices would result and that could cause airlines and travelers to look for alternatives to KCI."


Tomorrow, folks! Vote! And vote NO--a resounding NO!--on Question 1 on the ballot in Kansas City.

Links:

Show-Me Institute 




Saturday, November 4, 2017

A Less Convenient, More Congested, Extremely Expensive and Completely Unnecessary Single Terminal Airport


A friend--an architect, no less--made this very clear, intelligent, fair observation this past week out on Facebook. (See link and credit below).

Mayor Sly James and The Kansas City Star and all kinds of people and organizations have come out for this new, single terminal, more-than-one-billion-dollar-boondoggle of an airport, saying, now it's "fiscally responsible" (it's anything but) and the right thing to do and the way to go forward with progress and the city. They also claim it will be just as convenient as our current airport and terminals.

To which I and a lot of us out here promptly say "bunk."

Think about this.

If, God forbid, the "New KCI" people and vote wins this coming week, we would get, yes, a single terminal airport. Sure, it will blow through more than 1 billion dollars that we don't need to and shouldn't spend and it will make flying in and out of Kansas City far more expensive and it's grossly, fiscally and environmentally irresponsible but there's one more thing.

We would get that one, single security check in.

Think how that works at other airports.

Think of the lines, the long, long lines just to get to security, that one security check in at all those other airports. Then think of waiting to get through that security.

We don't have that now. With our current terminals, we don't have those abominable long lines and long, long waits.

And Mayor James and the Star and others are going to tell us it will be just as convenient?

That there won't be long lines?

Really?

And people are going to fall for that?

Vote NO Tuesday, November 7 on Question 1.

Image result for save kci

Save KCI! | Better Solutions Come From Better Discussions



Save KCI (@SaveKCI) · Twitter

Link:


Sven Erik Alstrom