Shame On You, Missouri, Missourians

We rejected the gas tax? To fix, improve, repair our roads?

I didn't realize the proposed gas tax that was on the ballot this week failed until today.

The Kansas City Star got it right.

This was the worst mistake Missouri voters made in Tuesday's election

That headline isn't hyperbole, either.

Even in the face of having elected not just Josh Hawley to be our next US Senator, representing the state, and Steve Watkins, too, this is, by far the worst thing for this state, coming out of this election. 

Those two are horrible.

This is worse.

Missourians, you cheap so and sos.

Now we're going to get the roads the people who voted this down, deserve.

Links to just some of the facts.

Missouri ranks high in number of 'structurally deficient' bridges

Republicans, Ignoring Our Infrastructure

Inaction from Jeff City

No urgency on I-70 from anywhere

This President and His Administration Don't Even Pretend for Whom They're Working

You have to hand it to this Republican President and his administration.

They don't even remotely  pretend to be working for the average, working Joe and Jane out here in America. They don't make any attempt of any kind to try to appear they're working for the middle- and/or lower- and working classes. I give you this article from none other than Rupert Murdoch's own very Right-Wing, business-friendly Wall Street Journal.

An End to Airline Red Tape—

Or Consumer Protection? 

This is just the beginning of the article:

Airlines want to nix a host of rules that attempt to keep them from mistreating customers. The Transportation Department is considering it.

The DOT has asked airlines to suggest changes or cuts to regulations, part of a broad initiative from President Trump, once an owner of a small airline, to reduce government red tape. It comes as DOT fines against airlines fell by half last year.


The rules matter because DOT is just about the only protection consumers have in U.S. air travel. If the airlines get what they want, the government would weaken the tarmac delay rule, which imposes hefty fines for stranding passengers on planes for long periods, and eliminate a requirement that they show the full price of a ticket when people shop.

Carriers also have asked DOT to scrap the 24-hour grace period for a full refund when buying a ticket—you would pay a change fee even if you realized right away you booked the wrong date or made a mistake in the passenger name. They want to eliminate a rule that requires them to honor tickets sold for “mistake fares,” and they are asking for flexibility from a requirement they provide “prompt” wheelchair service. They argue the term “prompt” is ambiguous and complain that providing wheelchair service at zero charge costs the industry $300 million annually and exceeds benefits.

They also want their own booking systems to be free from the DOT ban on display bias so they don’t have to disclose to consumers they exclude competitors’ flights, and they want to drop requirements to show on-time and cancellation data with flights.

It's insane.

It's obscene.

What little protections we have, that we've been able to gain, as customers and passengers on airlines and these people are working to take them away. They're actually asking the airlines what rules they don't like and what they want to have done away with.

This guy and his henchmen and women are working, fighting for the already-wealthy and corporations, folks, not you and I, not, again, the middle class. 

They just recently handed out huge, deficit-creating tax credits and deductions to and for the, again, already wealthy and corporations. Then they have Betsy DeVos working for the same wealthy people in our schools, against the working schlubs like you and I. And then there's Scott Pruitt at the EPA, eviscerating our clean air and water and soil rules.

Here's further proof, today, from The New York Times:

Administration Imposes Sweeping Limits on Federal Actions Against Companies

Not only are they doing it, they're all but throwing public parties to celebrate it all.

Why anyone but the wealthy votes Republican is beyond me.

Meanwhile, we've seen lots of predictions and projections of just where, exactly, his and the Republicans tax package will take us. They already are.

Trump's America will be saddled with debt – 

like his bankrupted hotels 

God help us, America.

Not that we deserve it.

Stupid State Republicans

Once again, a bunch of mostly all white, old men, Right Wingers, Republicans, all got together, in spite of their claims of being "small government" advocates and ruled one more time against women's and couple's individual reproductive rights. This time, it was out of our own Jefferson City.

New Abortion Restrictions Head To Missouri Governor's Office

And they spent yet more state money in special session to do it, "Conservatives" that they are.

Are the roads and bridges and highways and sewers and all our infrastructure fixed?

No!

Is I-70, from Illinois on the East, all through the state, to Kansas on the West, upgraded and improved and modernized and made safe?

Again, no.

Is our own Missouri Department of Transportation, MoDoT, fully funded and functioning?

Absolutely not.

But are women and couples' private, personal, again, reproductive rights yet more limited even though, as we know, abortion is legal and has been since 1973?

YES!!

And they spent yet more state money, that they say we don't have, to do it!

For them?

SUCCESS!

I've said it before but why any woman would vote Republican is beyond me. Far beyond me. Well, unless she's a Right Wing, "Christian", anti-abortion zealot, of course.

But then, why any Black person, Hispanic, Latino, gay, physically-challenged or elderly person would vote Republican also baffles me completely. (Unless that elderly person is already filthy, stinking rich, of course. Then I think they have to vote Republican, don't they? Isn't that a law?).

Keeping in mind, this is also the state political party that just voted lower wages for Missourians into law, too.

Yay, us.

Link:

Missouri legislature sends right-to-work bill to Gov. Eric Greitens

Another Great Idea and Proposal From the Star

First it was Steve Kraske's idea about renaming the J.C. Nichols fountain, in last Saturday's paper, and now this.

Editorial: End the aggravation of out-of-sync traffic lights

And really, to whom has this not occurred? To whom of us, as we drive around the Kansas City metropolitan area, has this not struck as a good, even important idea? How many times have we been caught at a read light, sitting there, when no other cars are at the other cross street lights?

It can be maddening.

We read all the time how our computers and computer technology is making incredible breakthroughs and doing untold new, wonderful things for us. Shouldn't synchronizing traffic lights be one of them? And doesn't it seem like it wouldn't be that difficult or complicated, too, for us and the computers?

It would achieve actually a few really great benefits for us, as a city and people and even the nation.

• We'd waste less time so we'd be more productive. That could easily be shown as good fro business
• We'd waste less gasoline
• We'd pollute less since we wouldn't be sitting at these traffic lights, waiting, doing nothing other than running our car's engines
• We'd have far less frustration and even anger. The likelihood it could cut down on some road rage seems very likely
• We could and would likely improve the air quality we're annually being reminded of in the Summer months

Those benefits alone are enough to make this a very worthwhile endeavor.

The Federal Government is funding research on driverless cars, for pity's sake.

Columbus snags $40M grant for driverless car hub

Before we go off giving federal tax dollars for driverless cars, how about we improve existing traffic technologies so its as effective and efficient as it can be, first? Doesn't that seem like a good and smart idea?

Let's get this party started---and on both sides of the state line.