America: Consistency was never our strong suit

Fun idea?

I just saw these on an architect friend's Facebook page today. He's into design, rather naturally.

 

Wouldn't it be great if we organized a great number of people across the metropolitan area, at least, to buy one of these and then pitch them around our new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts one night?

I'm thinking maybe for some fundraiser or something.

I'd photograph it like crazy.

Thanks, Sven.

Entertainment overnight

Because it's been a while.

A flashback.







Which brings up this:

Uptown Hall shared a photo.

BOZ SCAGGS
Thursday July 25th
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Doors open 7:00,  Show 8:00

The Star comes out wrong on the airport

The Kansas City Star published an editorial piece yesterday on our airport and why a single, new terminal is a good idea.

They only made 2 claims and as it turns out, they were wrong on both counts.

Their first contention is that a new airport, however expensive and wasteful it would be, is good for travelers because it would improve security and so, be more convenient for us.

This, after all, is the only reason the airline companies came up with this idea of a new, single terminal anyway. They want to cut their costs for security so the Airport Authority agreed we need a single terminal. They want to keep those airline companies happy.

They also make the point that lines will be shorter, somehow, at a single terminal.

Right. We're all going through one building, especially for security and somehow, magically, the lines will be shorter?

Doesn't that defy logic?

Okay, so if we need one building for security, let me propose here yet again the idea of making terminal B the "Security terminal", still using some of B's gates for flights, if and as needed, and then having walkways to the other two terminals, B and C, for all the other flights?  That would totally work and we wouldn't have to tear any buildings down. We would still not have to go as far to catch our flights as you have to go at, for example, Atlanta's or Denver's airports so it can't be said it's too far to have to trek.

Their second claim is that a new, single terminal would be more evironmentally-friendly because the drainage of cleaning the jets would all be at that one terminal and it could be drained away to treat it better with the new building.

Well, okay, let's totally ignore that you have to tear down and throw away--in a dump--an entire building in order to build this new, single terminal, let's ignore that evironmental nightmare and fact and analyze this idea.

How about, again, instead of tearing down a terminal and throwing it away, additionally, hugely expensive as that is, why don't we go in and do this new drainage to the existing buildings so the chemical runoff from the jets goes where we need it to go anyway? That would surely cost far, far less, at 1.2 billion dollars, than an entire new terminal.

That's got to be far and away more environmentally intelligent and far less expensive than--sorry, one more time--tearing down an entire building, throwing it away, hauling it off to a dump and building a new terminal.

That only makes clear sense.

Sorry, Star. You blew it on this. You're mistaken. You're wrong. A new terminal makes no sense, especially financially but environmentally, too.

Links:   A KCI good for travelers and the environment

 Save KCI!
  
Save KCI | Facebook

Things Americans need to know about our economy (guest post)

Things we Americans need to know, now, both about our past and current situation and what we could and should do.

From The New York Times today:

The Chutzpah Caucus

By PAUL KRUGMAN

At this point the economic case for austerity — for slashing government spending even in the face of a weak economy — has collapsed. Claims that spending cuts would actually boost employment by promoting confidence have fallen apart. Claims that there is some kind of red line of debt that countries dare not cross have turned out to rest on fuzzy and to some extent just plain erroneous math. Predictions of fiscal crisis keep not coming true; predictions of disaster from harsh austerity policies have proved all too accurate. 

Yet calls for a reversal of the destructive turn toward austerity are still having a hard time getting through. Partly that reflects vested interests, for austerity policies serve the interests of wealthy creditors; partly it reflects the unwillingness of influential people to admit being wrong. But there is, I believe, a further obstacle to change: widespread, deep-seated cynicism about the ability of democratic governments, once engaged in stimulus, to change course in the future. 

So now seems like a good time to point out that this cynicism, which sounds realistic and worldly-wise, is actually sheer fantasy. Ending stimulus has never been a problem — in fact, the historical record shows that it almost always ends too soon. And in America, at least, we have a pretty good record for behaving in a fiscally responsible fashion, with one exception — namely, the fiscal irresponsibility that prevails when, and only when, hard-line conservatives are in power. 

Let’s start with the common claim that stimulus programs never go away. 

In the United States, government spending programs designed to boost the economy are in fact rare — F.D.R.’s New Deal and President Obama’s much smaller Recovery Act are the only big examples. And neither program became permanent — in fact, both were scaled back much too soon. F.D.R. cut back sharply in 1937, plunging America back into recession; the Recovery Act had its peak effect in 2010, and has since faded away, a fade that has been a major reason for our slow recovery. 

What about programs designed to aid those hurt by a depressed economy? Don’t they become permanent fixtures? Again, no. Unemployment benefits have fluctuated up and down with the business cycle, and as a percentage of G.D.P. they are barely half what they were at their recent peak. Food stamp usage is still rising, thanks to a still-terrible labor market, but historical experience suggests that it too will fall sharply if and when the economy really recovers. 

Incidentally, foreign experience follows the same pattern. You often hear Japan described as a country that has pursued never-ending fiscal stimulus. In reality, it has engaged in stop-go policies, increasing spending when the economy is weak, then pulling back at the first sign of recovery (and thereby pushing itself back into recession). 

So the whole notion of perma-stimulus is fantasy posing as hardheaded realism. Still, even if you don’t believe that stimulus is forever, Keynesian economics says not just that you should run deficits in bad times, but that you should pay down debt in good times. And it’s silly to imagine that this will happen, right? 

Wrong. The key measure you want to look at is the ratio of debt to G.D.P., which measures the government’s fiscal position better than a simple dollar number. And if you look at United States history since World War II, you find that of the 10 presidents who preceded Barack Obama, seven left office with a debt ratio lower than when they came in. Who were the three exceptions? Ronald Reagan and the two George Bushes. So debt increases that didn’t arise either from war or from extraordinary financial crisis are entirely associated with hard-line conservative governments. 

And there’s a reason for that association: U.S. conservatives have long followed a strategy of “starving the beast,” slashing taxes so as to deprive the government of the revenue it needs to pay for popular programs.

The funny thing is that right now these same hard-line conservatives declare that we must not run deficits in times of economic crisis. Why? Because, they say, politicians won’t do the right thing and pay down the debt in good times. And who are these irresponsible politicians they’re talking about? Why, themselves. 

To me, it sounds like a fiscal version of the classic definition of chutzpah — namely, killing your parents, then demanding sympathy because you’re an orphan. Here we have conservatives telling us that we must tighten our belts despite mass unemployment, because otherwise future conservatives will keep running deficits once times improve. 

Put this way, of course, it sounds silly. But it isn’t; it’s tragic. The disastrous turn toward austerity has destroyed millions of jobs and ruined many lives. And it’s time for a U-turn.

A Right Wing dream come true

A new movie coming to a theater near you.



It must surely have the Right Wingers, Conservatives and a lot of Republicans wetting themselves.

Kurt Vonnegut on writing, America and guns

Author Kurt Vonnegut on his book, "Breakfast of Champions."  Particularly poignant today as the NRA has their annual gunfest convention in Houston:

"I had become more and more enraged and mystified by the idiot decisions made by my countrymen. And then I had come suddenly to pity them, for I understood how innocent and natural it was for them to behave so abominably, with such abominable results: they were doing their best to live like people invented in story books. This was the reason Americans shot each other so often: It was a convenient literary device for ending short stories and books.

... Why were so many Americans treated by their government as though their lives were as disposable as paper facial tissues? Because that was the way authors customarily treated bit-part players in their made-up tales. 

 And so on.

Once I understood what was making America such a dangerous, unhappy nation of people who had nothing to do with real life, I resolved to shun storytelling. I would write about life. Every person would be exactly as important as any other. All facts would also be given equal weightiness. Nothing would be left out. Let others bring order to chaos. I would bring chaos to order, instead, which I think I have done.

If all writers would do that, then perhaps citizens not in the literary trades will understand that there is no order in the world around us, that we must adapt ourselves to the requirements of chaos instead."

 It is hard to adapt to chaos, but it can be done. I am living proof of that: It can be done."

Today in Missouri history

May 3, 1948 - 65 years-ago today, this building at 4600 Labadie became the house that changed America.

Between 1910 and 1940, the non-white population of St. L...ouis increased 150 percent. However, racially restrictive covenants limited the black population to small enclaves of city housing which became increasingly substandard due to overcrowding. By the time the J.D. Shelleys migrated to St. Louis with their six children in 1930, the housing shortage for blacks was acute. The Shelleys lived first with relatives in St. Louis and then in overcrowded, inadequate rental quarters in the segregated part of the city.

 

But, in 1945, with the help of a black real estate agent, they purchased this home at 4600 Labadie. The owners of the property were willing to sell to the Shelleys, and they were desperate enough to buy, despite a neighborhood covenant prohibiting the sale of properties to any member of the 'negro or mongoloid race" under penalty of suit by the other property owners and forfeiture of title should the covenant be upheld in court. Steeling themselves for almost certain trouble ahead, the Shelleys purchased the property and moved in. The Louis D. Kraemers, owners of other property on Labadie covered by the restrictive covenant, sued in the St. Louis Circuit Court to restrain the Shelleys from taking title to the property.

 

The trial court held for the Shelleys in November 1945.

 

The Kraemers appealed, and the Missouri Supreme Court, on December 9, 1946, reversed the trial court and directed that the terms of the racial covenant be enforced. The Shelleys then appealed to the United States Supreme Court and, on May 3, 1948, the Court rendered its landmark decision in Shelley v. Kraemer, holding that racial restrictive covenants cannot be enforced by the courts since this would constitute state action in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Photo: Former Shelly home, at 4600 Labadie. It was designated a National Historic Landmark on December 14, 1990.

Let's be clear--"Obamacare" isn't what's causing companies to fire full-timers

There is a "meme" or thought--and exceptionally sick or lazy one, at that--going on right now that the Affordable Care Act--"Obamacare"--is what's causing companies and corporations to fire full-time people and hire, instead, say, two part-time employees.

What nonsense.

What utter, irresponsible nonsense to the point of being an ugly, scapegoat lie.

I saw this, today:

Obamacare Affects Part-Time Employment Yet Again;

Ladies and gentlemen, our country has had the most expensive health care system in the world for a long time, for many years. It's even been decades now.

And the fact is, the facts are, that not only do we have the most expensive health care system in the world but it keeps getting more obscenely, insanely, irrationally, even immorally expensive because, simply, it can.

We don't stop and we aren't stopping the corporations from the heatlh insurance companies to the pharmaceuticals or any other organization involved in this nightmare we call a health care system from raising their rates, arbitrarily, to wherever they want to put the costs to us.

To now, suddenly blame the insane prices for health care in this nation on this legislation and, by default, on the current president and administration is beyond ludicrous.

It must be wonderful for the people of corporate America who are actually responsible for the outrageous and ugly cost of health care in America to have so many people buy off on the lie and distraction that suddenlty, somehow this president and this legislation is responsible for full-time employment not being available in America so more of us can't afford a living wage.

This is obscene.

It would be funny if it weren't so dangerous for so many Americans who need but don't have health care insurance in this nation.

Links:

Why Does U.S. Health Care Cost So Much? (Part I) - NYTimes.com

Thinking About It: People are More Important than Profits

Gene Lyons: The soaring costs of health care

This one, from 2009:  An obscene healthcare system

Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out

Yet more brilliance out of Jefferson City

There's an article in today's edition about what's called "novelty" helmets motorcycle riders are wearing and to their peril:

Motorcycle riders, beware 'novelty' helmets

From the article:

Even as more than 800,000 novelty helmets are sold in the U.S. every year, and as motorcycle crash deaths mount, federal regulators have never acted with urgency to crack down on the popular but flawed headgear. Proposals to limit sales of novelty helmets have been delayed over and over.
So here's an article pointing out the hazards of wearing these cheap, "pretend" helmets and the damage or death they can cause, yet what is the Missouri legislature considering lately?

Missouri motorcyclists could go helmet-free in August under proposal

Brilliant.

What's up with the Star this week?

What was that with the Star this week?

Yesterday, it was a size-shrunken version, first. Height and width was reduced and it was only four columns wide.

What was that?

Then, for a couple days, it was on a really hard, white--no doubt cheaper--paper stock.

Today?

Today it's back to the old, familiar newsprint--well, except for the Johnson County pull-out--and 5 columns wide.

It's like Forrest Gump famously said with the Star now:  "You never know what you're gonna' get."

I don't envy the situation either the Star--or any newspaper, of course--or the US Postal Service are in. Both of them have continuing loss of revenue and advertising and customers so they have to keep raising their price and/or giving less and less product or service or both, so fewer and fewer people use the product so they have less and less income and profit so they have to raise the price higher so they have fewer customers...and, well, that ugly dog keeps chasing its own very ugly tail.

It's one bad spiral.

Down.

Quote of the day--on rich v poor in America

Happy 81st birthday, Alvin Brooks!

And thank you for all you've done for Kansas City and Kansas Citians, all these years.

Links:  Happy Birthday Mr. Alvin Brooks - NBCActionNews.com - KSHB-TV

Ad Hoc Group Against Crime

Snow. In May. In Kansas City

From photographer/friend Roy Inman :

Last time it snowed in Kansas City in May was on the 3rd in 1907. Union Station was completed in 1914, same year that WWI started. We are talking history-making stuff here folks.

The Founding Fathers on religion and our government?

Here you go. Here's one of our Founding Fathers and how serious he took the separation of church and state:



Faith based initiatives?  Funded by government?

I don't think so.

The Keystone XL Pipeline through Missouri?

Put the Canadian oil company's Keystone XL pipeline through the US and Missouri?

Why? So we can get more of this?

Exxon says Missouri oil spills from already-ruptured Pegasus line

Mind you, folks, this is from the news yesterday. That recent.

 

The picture below is from the recent Arkansas oil spill.

 

 

We want that? Some of that? More of that?

 

Certainly not.

 

Let's shut this down now. Let your Congressional representatives know we want no part of this.

 

Links:

 

U.S. House of Representatives Contact Information

 

U.S. Senate: Senators Home

A cousin makes an excellent point about upcoming technology

 

You have likely heard of Google's developing technology, their glasses, that are computer-equipped and -enabled.

 

As bad as American's have proven to be already, what with our cell phones and the car accidents we have wherein people have been hurt and, of course, worse yet, killed, my cousin makes the following observation yesterday on Facebook post on my page:

 

"Prepare to die in a horrible head-on crash."

 

Seriously. Can you imagine?

 

Some idiot will buy a pair of these things and feel sure he (for it will most surely be a male) can "absolutely, positively drive with these things."

 

Watch for it.

 

Congress should move immediately to simply and quickly outlaw the operation of automobiles with these things, before anyone gets remotely close to having this happen.

 

Instead, what will happen is our legislators and laws will wait, do nothing and be behind time on this. Consequently, people will be hurt, people will be killed first.

 

And then and only then will anyone in government think to react.

 

Facepalm.

 

Link:

 

6 New Google Glass Demos Worth a Watch - Mashable



Wow. Things I just learned last evening on "CBS Evening News" about America

Watching CBS Evening News last evening, I just learned a great deal of American history.

Unfortunately, it was more ugliness, abuse and racism.

 

First, the good part:

Kevin Krigger, Jockey, Chases Kentucky Derby History, Chance To Be First Black Winner Since 1902 - Huffington Post

Now the bad:

1) Black jockeys used to dominate horse racing in the US,

2) a black jockey hasn't won since 1902,

3) once being a jockey started paying well, the white jockeys started beating the black jockeys and ran them off.

Way to go, America.

 

But we don' need no steenkeeng "Black History Month."

Quote of the day--on present-day Republicans

"Apparently there are now two groups of Republicans in the House. First, there's a group of firebrand conservatives headed by Eric Cantor, which, as near as I can tell, is mostly dedicated to finding slightly more slippery language to sell its usual right-wing agenda of school vouchers, block granting Medicaid, increased tax credits, and gutting labor laws. Second, there's a group of insane, frothing-at-the-mouth conservatives who think of Cantor as Nancy Pelosi's lapdog and are basically uninterested in anything other than repealing Obamacare, slashing taxes even more, ending the welfare state, and making speeches about how Obama is destroying America."

--Kevin Drum, American political blogger and columnist

Link to original post:

Quote of the Day: House Republicans Have Completely Melted Down

Additional link:

Kevin Drum - Wikipedia

On our weather forecast: uh-oh

From a Facebook post just now:

US National Weather Service Kansas City Missouri

 

2"-3" of snow has fallen near Omaha this evening, and thundersnow is being reported in Nebraska City, just across the river from the northwest tip of MO. Trends are suggesting accumulating snow may make it further south and east than previously thought, and may make it into Kansas City. We'll have an updated snow forecast in a few hours.

Look at the forecasted snow amounts for Southern Missouri

Just now, from Meteorologist Doug Heady's photo on Facebook.

Americans must never forget

Timeline Photos

 

Remember this?

Ten years ago today, then-President George Bush delivered his now notorious, premature speech in which he declared American operations had ended in Iraq.

Mission not so accomplished. 

 

Far from it.

Read more here: http://on.msnbc.com/ZAcsYl

 

By: Hardball with Chris Matthews

America's intrinsic racism. Still

Yet further proof today, in the news, of what is, in this case, not America's blunt, forthright, obvious racism, no. This is the far more subtle yet sinister side of racism and without being physically punishing or abusive, as it used to be, still some of the worst.  From the news today:

Wealth Gap Among Races Has Widened Since Recession

From the article:

WASHINGTON — Millions of Americans suffered a loss of wealth during the recession and the sluggish recovery that followed. But the last half-decade has proved far worse for black and Hispanic families than for white families, starkly widening the already large gulf in wealth between non-Hispanic white Americans and most minority groups, according to a new study from the Urban Institute.

“It was already dismal,” Darrick Hamilton, a professor at the New School in New York, said of the wealth gap between black and white households. “It got even worse.”

Given the dynamics of the housing recovery and the rebound in the stock market, the wealth gap might still be growing, experts said, further dimming the prospects for economic advancement for current and future generations of Americans from minority groups.

The Urban Institute study found that the racial wealth gap yawned during the recession, even as the income gap between white Americans and nonwhite Americans remained stable.

 

Two things need to be pointed out about this.

First, that anyone, then, who blames the minorities, once again, still, for being "lazy " or "unwilling to work" or who thinks that all our opportunities here in America are all on a level playing field is fooling themselves and doing a grave injustice not only to the victims, the minorities, but to reality itself.

Second, it's more, further, obvious proof, as if any were needed of the old maxim/cliche' that "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer." Put another way--I've always loved this one--that "them that has, gets", disgusting as that is.

It's why we need more fairness in this country.

It's why we need government. It's why we need laws. It's why we need regulations--yes, those awful things called government regulations.

It's why we absolutely do need--yes, I'm going to say it--some wealth distribution.

Sue me.

It's not just wrong. It's not just obscene.

For anyone, anyone who gives a damn, anyone who cares remotely about decency and fairness and what's right and for doing what's right, it's what we need some of in this country.

For anyone paying attention, and for anyone who is either in a church, a church group, a religion or even, of course, those without religion--probably especially them--it's immoral.  It's grossly immoral.

And it needs to be changed.  And as soon as possible.

You can now discriminate against WHO??

I can hardly believe this happened in America:

City bans man with high IQ banned from being a policeman

And now, I can hardly believe a court said the city can do so:

Court OKs Barring High IQs for Cops

Wth, America?

Nothing, nothing good can come from this.

We need to be better than this.

We need to be SO much better than this.

So now we found yet another group we can discriminate against.

Freaking wow.

I can see the sign now:

"Intelligent police officers need not apply."

Brilliant.

Short-sighted, Greedy Corporate America is Robbing Us of Our Middle-Class: Happy May Day

For anyone who's been paying attention the last several years, we know the companies across the country are hiring more and more part-time positions instead of hiring full-time people and work. Instead of hiring one 40 hour person, they hire two 20 hour people.

Why?

Well, first, it gives the company more flexibility in the work schedule but second, and more important to the company, they don't want to pay benefits.

Health care, health insurance, dental insurance, vision, 401k, any and all of it, forget it, it's out the window.

How great for the companies, eh?

And with our health care system being the most expensive in the world and going ever higher, it's all the better for them.

To a point.

In the meantime, the people hired can't make a living wage.

How do you pay for rent and food and car and health and life insurance and, oh, take care of your children and pay for a car on a part-time wage?

We all know it's not possible.

And those expenses, I list above, are all without the additional need and yes, expenses of having a family.

So the middle class suffers. And shrinks.  And more people get kicked down to a lower class status. Or, worst yet, become homeless.

But what the companies and corporations don't take into consideration is that this hurts them, too.

How do you get committed, intelligent, familiar, hard-working employees and associates unless or until you pay them fairly--and commit to them--with full-time work?

How do you get someone who's truly familiar with your products and/or services unless they're there long-term---years---and dedicated to those products and services and company?

The answer is, of course, you don't.

So your sales and/or profits naturally suffer.  This is a matter of the old, old, very familiar situation of getting what you pay for.

Yet it's a spreading concept and situation in our nation.

This is no way to build and keep a middle class, ladies and gentlemen. This is no way to keep a functioning nation.

Henry Ford, the car magnate from early in the last century knew this. Fortunately, some companies, rather famously, like Costco, know this and for it they are rewarded with growth and profit.

We have to somehow stop this trend but with "free market Capitalism", it likely can't be stopped.

Here's hoping it's a short-term experiment, of sorts, that is shown to fail quickly so we can turn this around.  Part of the way we do that, part of the way we get this changed back is to solve our health care system's problems and situations of being so obscenely expensive that it wrecks not just household budgets but whole states and our nation's economy.  And that's what is happening, to all of us.

The Walmarts and 24 Hour Fitnesses and restaurant chains that are doing this must be stopped. They must be changed. They have to learn the error of these ways.

It makes for a very mean culture and society that can and would take advantage of its people and staff this way.

Workers of the world, unite, indeed.

If anyone thinks we--America--the working class and the lower and middle class don't need Unions and that solidarity and strength in numbers and organization, they need only look at this example, this situation to prove otherwise.

Otherwise, it's "God help us."

Because the wealthy and corporations surely won't.

Link to a list of articles on this topic:

https://www.google.com/#hl=en&gs_rn=11&gs_ri=psy-ab&cp=14&gs_id=1k&xhr=t&q=companies+cut+hours&es_nrs=true&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&oq=companies+cut+&gs_l=&pbx=1&fp=1&biw=1366&bih=668&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&cad=b