Category: Blogging

Not the type you wear either…
Hillary Has Questions – Curated tweets by Green_Footballs

This is Governor Brownback’s legacy to the state of Kansas.

Long ago when I first arrived in Kansas I used to work for a person who was a self-designated “DINK” – Dual income, no kids. He was proud of the fact that he and his wife would enjoy life to the fullest by buying all the big boy toys, (he did,) and retire early (they did.) He didn’t just celebrate it, he reveled in it and rubbed people’s noses in it, sometimes sneering when he would hear of a new child to come for someone who worked with him. His usual comment was something like “well that’s a shame, there goes that hardbody…” This guy’s wife made a lot of money, and as a manager he made a respectable sum as well, but he kept his wife on a make up budget. If he wasn’t an outright libertarian then he was libertarian in nature.

The entire time I worked for him he had a pet peeve that you would hear about at least a couple of times per month. He would bitterly complain about having to pay for “other people’s kids to go to school.” It was an anathema to him, he would rant on and on about it while standing in a computer room surrounded by technology designed, created, and built by other people’s kids who attended public schools. He did it while driving in cars built by kids who attended public school, and he did it while driving down roads that they constructed. A few years later in life he had serious health issues and his life was saved by doctors who attended KU med. Even after that he never saw the hypocrisy of how he benefited from public schooling in Kansas while railing against it.

The University of Kansas has outlined the first half of about $3.8 million in cuts to academic and administrative programs expected this year at the Lawrence and Edwards campuses.

Among the programs taking significant cuts in this first-round announcement are the Kansas Geological Survey, Kansas Public Radio and the Audio Reader service for the blind and visually impaired.

Officials said the first $1.3 million in cuts announced by Provost Neeli Bendapudi on Wednesday are necessary as the university tries to manage a $7 million reduction in state funding mandated by Gov. Sam Brownback this summer.

An additional $3.7 million in state funding has been cut from the KU Medical Center budget, and officials there said the budget reduction would cause significant hardship for the medical school.

More: KU, KU Med Center reveal preliminary budget cuts required after Brownback cut funding this summer

Hillary Clinton on on Donald Trump’s greatest weakness.

Since the pre-leak of the announcement there’s been lots of discussion of how progressive Tim Kaine is or isn’t, some of it emanating from the Berniacs, however much is also coming from the usual anti-Hillary camps. You know them, those edge forces who are going to vote Jill Stein or people masquerading as social libertarians but who really land on the tribal nationalist right if you lift their mask.

Their usual approach to the argument is through concern trolling (e.g. “Does Hillary really support LGBT causes enough? etc.)These same forces helped Barrack overcome Hillary through some pretty insidious campaigns when she ran the first time with the thought in mind that Obama couldn’t possibly win. That backfired big time, but here they are trying again.

So here is my take:

Because Financial and Banking regulations are crafted or blocked in the Senate, taking Tim out of that picture while leaving Booker, Sanders, and Warren in place to lead the efforts is really a stealth progressive move. Whether intentional or not removing Kaine pulls someone who wants to deregulate for Capital 1, or whatever the argument is, totally out of the picture. If progressives really want to aid the cause they can stop kvetching about this move and start lobbying Virginia’s governor to appoint a true progressive to back fill Kaine.

See my original post at LGF

If you are like me then you are sick and tired of seeing jobs flee the state, our schools and roads running down, our health care choices diminishing while costs go up, and more budget deficits ballooning in the future. We need a reasonable tax revenue to secure the health of our citizens, the future of business in our state, and the future of our children.  However Governor Brownback and the zealots behind him have a pretty devil may care view about everything but tax breaks for big businesses that seem to wheedle more advantage out of our bewildered legislators at every opportunity while failing to pay their fair share.

The real dilemma faced by voters in this primary election is how the heck do you tell the moderate candidates from the laissez-faire zealots backing Brownback, especially since the zealots are trying to lay it all off on Brownback and pretend they are moderate now? The good news is that the Mainstream Coalition has created a list of endorsements to help you weed through the candidates in your area. I’m including it below or you can visit this link:

2016 MainPAC Primary Election Endorsements

Printable PDF Table

Today Bernie Sanders gave a full-throated, unreserved endorsement to Hillary, here’s a transcript of the final segment:

In these stressful times for our country, this election must be about bringing our people together, not dividing us up. While Donald Trump is busy insulting Mexicans, Muslims, women, African Americans and veterans, Hillary Clinton understands that our diversity is one of our greatest strengths. Yes. We become stronger when black and white, Latino, Asian American, Native American – all of us – stand together. Yes. We become stronger when men and women, young and old, gay and straight, native born and immigrant fight to rid this country of all forms of bigotry.

It is no secret that Hillary Clinton and I disagree on a number of issues. That’s what this campaign has been about. That’s what democracy is about. But I am happy to tell you that at the Democratic Platform Committee which ended Sunday night in Orlando, there was a significant coming together between the two campaigns and we produced, by far, the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party. Our job now is to see that platform implemented by a Democratic Senate, a Democratic House and a Hillary Clinton president – and I am going to do everything I can to make that happen.

I have known Hillary Clinton for 25 years. I remember her as a great first lady who broke precedent in terms of the role that a first lady was supposed to play as she helped lead the fight for universal health care. I served with her in the United States Senate and know her as a fierce advocate for the rights of children.

Hillary Clinton will make an outstanding president and I am proud to stand with her here today.

You can read the full text of his speech here:
Boston Globe transcript of Bernie Sander’s endorsement speech.

So you just got that credit from the Apple settlement and Amazon is having a fire sale with one priced at $50.00.