KS Mainstream Coalition’s Walk to Raise Hell in 2018

 

Dear friends at the Sentinel,

 

You and I have something in common. I know it’s shocking, but hang on and I’ll get to it. Every time I click on your website to read your latest trashing of the KC Star, KCUR, moderate Republicans, all KS Democrats, any common sense legislation or to read your lovefest for Kobach and Brownback, a link pops up asking me for money.  Turns out I’m ALSO asking people for money.

Can you guess what for? A hint. You wrote about it today.

That’s right! It’s for the KS Mainstream Coalition’s Walk to Raise Hell in 2018.

First, I’m not the official spokesperson for the group, but I do belong and support what they stand for.  I’ve been attending their events for the past few years.

You were clever to point out the irony in how our group is trying to “raise hell” when we call ourselves “mainstream”.  First, I don’t think we have to raise hell since it’s going to be as hot as Satan’s living room tomorrow with a heat index of 101 for the walk – thanks Mother Nature.

Let’s explore that anyway.

Why does a group that is mainstream need to raise hell?  I wouldn’t check the “Kansas Truth Caucus” social feed for any hints, but Kansas is digging our way out of budget crisis the size of the Grand Canyon from disastrous tax cuts (still waiting on trickle down) and trying to establish constitutional funding for our public schools.  The legislature made big strides this last session.

Why?

Democrats and Moderate Republicans.

Who are supported with help from groups like….

Starts with an “M”

Mainstream Coalition!!!! Ding! Ding!

From the Sentinel, “Truth be told there is nothing “mainstream” about the coalition, never has been. The soft-core progressives who run the show now mimic the alleged “stealth candidates” they set out to expose twenty-four years ago.”

There is nothing “mainstream” about the coalition? Really? Nothing “mainstream” about wanting strong public education?  Nothing “mainstream” about supporting separation of church and state?  Nothing “mainstream” about fiscal responsibility?

Fiscal responsibility and a walk that has the word “hell” in it sounds ppprrrreeettttyyy radical.

I guess Kansans can decide if they like what Mainstream stands for and the candidates they support or if they want to go back to the failed tax experiment and that got us into this mess and had everyone asking, “What’s the Matter with Kansas?”

Signed,

A “soft-core progressive” who is excited to Raise Hell in 2018

 

Aimee’s Sunday Summary – Hinson, #Ksleg, Yoder/Sidie

It’s Sunday afternoon. My plan was to curl up on the couch with the new best seller “Shattered” to understand what went wrong with Hillary’s campaign. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4405698/Inside-Hillary-Clinton-s-doomed-campaign.html

Every day since Trump won, I’m like…

I went up to the local Barnes and Noble to buy my copy.

“I’m here for Shattered,” I said at the info desk.  I always head right to the info desk. because I’m not one to browse the Barnes and Noble in a hunter/gatherer type of mode.  Right or wrong, I treat the info desk more like a valet service.  Don’t judge.

I got more Barnes and less Noble from Miss Help Desk.

“That sold out almost immediately. Do you want to be put on a list? What’s your name?”

A list? I have to wait? I’m cool with lots of four letter words, but w.a.i.t. isn’t one of them.  I’ve already binge watched Girlboss on Netflix and it’s Sunday.

“Add me to your list.  Trust me, there isn’t a list, good or bad, in KS I’m not already on.”

Here we are. I’m caught up on Netflx, no book to read and it’s a rerun of Naked and Afraid on the Discovery Channel.

Idea! Let’s do a Sunday Summary!

Here. We. Go.

1. Big news this week that SMSD Superintendent Jim Hinson is “retiring” – I shouldn’t have put that in quotes because he really is retiring.  The quotes are that it came out of the blue, midweek and everyone was like…

Retiring. Sure.  I think he’s my age. My age being “29”. <cough> <cough>.

Why the sudden announcement?  I think the best source is the Shawnee Mission Post. They have reported all the dirt.  Was it the CBIZ contract? Was he on the wrong side of school finance? Was he pushed out? Probably all of the above. To be honest, I don’t think we will ever really know, but I’m glad he is gone.

Confession: I can’t stress enough how much damage this guy did to the Shawnee Mission  School District. I follow politics, but I don’t follow school boards or superintendents. I can’t name another KC superintendent or previous superintendent in Shawnee Mission. Some days I can barely sign permission slips and remember soccer practice.  #momlife The fact that I know about the Hinson dirt bothers me. My passions are state and federal politics. You know it’s bad when I’m regularly logging on to watch school board meetings and skipping the Real Housewives.  Sorry Andy. It’s Jim’s fault. The hottest ticket in town is the Monday night SMSD school board meeting. Follow along on twitter #SMSD or log in to watch.  All eyes are on you Shawnee Mission to clean up this mess.

2. #KSLEG is on recess until 5/1.  There have been a lot of great events around town to meet with your representatives. Smart to hold them at bars. Reason #1 why I show up. I hope you have been taking advantage of them.  http://www.mainstreamcoalition.org/

When break is over, they will be tackling school finance, the bleak budget, campus carry and expanding medicaid. It is…

 

Hello Ryan…

It is very exciting IF IT WASN’T THE SAME THINGS THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT WHEN THE SESSION STARTED. Tick toc my friends.

3. Speaking of things on repeat in Kansas, Jay Sidie is back raising money for the KS 03 to run against Congressman Kevin Yoder.  That will be a race to watch.  I’m sure there were lessons learned from the last race and as much as Yoder would like you to think he isn’t vulnerable, he is.  How do I know?  I’m a political genius. HA! Nope. He’s running around talking to anyone who will listen about how he’s not vulnerable. It’s not hard to figure out. #OverYoder

Everyone remembers Yoder supported Trump, people are frustrated with Yoder’s town halls that are l-a-m-e and I’m sure Sidie learned a lot from the last election (psst..go TV and radio EARLIER).

That is the Sunday Summary.  If anyone has a connection to a copy of the Hllary book, message me! I’ll be your BFF.

Have a great week everyone.

Thanks for reading.

Aimee

 

Turning up the heat on Yoder

Last week’s close race between Thompson and  Estes in KS 04 has all of Kansas buzzing about the future of other seats.  Paul Davis announced he’s throwing his hat in the ring for Lynn Jenkin’s 2nd district seat http://cjonline.com/news/local/state-government/2017-04-12/democrat-paul-davis-initiates-campaign-rep-lynn-jenkins-2nd

Loved this announcement.

The Governor’s race – buh-bye Brownback.  Can’t come soon enough.  So who’s running?  Everyone.  Hell, for all I know I’m running.  I can’t keep up with the list of names.  My question, who wants to inherit this hot mess?  The state is bankrupt, the school funding drama deserves a reality show on Bravo, our college kids aren’t only going to be raging at the local frat house – they will be armed.  #CampusCarry Good times.

And then there is Congressman Kevin Yoder.  After the Thompson/Estes race, all eyes turned to his seat.

From the KC Star,

http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article144290479.html

“If we start to see Republicans consistently underperforming … then someone like Kevin Yoder, who is in a much more politically balanced district that Hillary Clinton actually won, needs to be concerned,” said Patrick Miller, a political scientist at the University of Kansas.

Yoder’s office declined to comment for this article.

Of course they declined to comment. I’m not a political scientist, but let me break this down for you in suburban, mom-speak.

Remember the Women’s March?  That small gathering?

 

KC had a strong showing. A large percentage of the people there were from Yoder’s district. If Thompson can pull numbers like that in KS004 with a grassroots effort and almost no support from the national party, imagine what can happen in a more liberal district like Yoder’s?

Combine that with the fact that Yoder USED to be a moderate.  Heck, I used to like him back in the day. I know! Shocking! He has inched or should I say galloped to the right with the popularity of the Tea Party.  It’s  hard to pin him down on issues (healthcare vote) and has decided to phone in his recent Town Halls. #NoEyeContact

Yoder wants you to believe that everything is just a-ok.  He isn’t sweating it.  His camp finally released a statement-

 

Kev’s got lots of money. Whoopie. I’m not political spin doctor, but watch this…”Congressman Yoder has served his constituents well, will continue to until the election and welcomes an opponent to discuss issues important to Kansans.”

Translation – Yoder is really, really worried.

We all know the slogan #YoderVoter. Think about how easily it can change to #OverYoder.  Wouldn’t that be terrible if it gained momentum?

 

Top 4 points on the KS 04 – the day after

Hey everyone,

I know it’s been a while.  Sorry I haven’t been writing more.   What I’ve been lacking in blogging, I’ve been making up for in tweeting!

There have been numerous articles analyzing the KS04 election.  I had to chime in here with my top four takeaways from this special election.  In no particular order!

1. The swamp ad –  Estes stood in a swamp – an actual green, disgusting swamp with a mid-belly campaign sticker to prove a point about the disgusting DC swamp and then paraded the swamp to campaign for him.  Cruz, Pence and now swampy Trump all came out to support Ron Estes. Was the snake supposed to represent the liberals or Cruz?  Thinking back without reviewing the ad, I’m not exactly sure.

2. The postcards

Who is paying for the postcards? Oh the drah-ma! SOMEHOW I knew that there was bickering between the state party and Thompson over paying for campaign postcards.  This came out at a critical time during the election.  My advice – ZIP IT! Both sides are at fault. Look, every family has dirty laundry, the point is to fake it like everyone does on Facebook. Pretend to be happy.  I could care less if the money was offered, if the postcards were purchased, if the party didn’t pay for the postcards, if there even were postcards. It DOESN’T matter!  I do remember hearing about this and thinking, “there must be some serious problems in this campaign.” REMINDER – I am 175 miles away from this campaign. I shouldn’t even know about the damn postcards.

3. Silence from the DNC

Oh Bernie.  He came out for Thompson.  He would say something nice at my daughter’s Bat Mitzvah if I asked him to.  Of course Bernie showed up, but Bernie can’t be everywhere.  Where were the others?  Warren?   Biden? Anyone? The response – “That does not escape the attention of voters,” said Ian Russell, who served as the DCCC’s political director last year. “If national Democrats come in, that becomes a campaign issue.” http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/election/article144157229.html

This excuse is such crap! See point #1 – the guy was standing in a swamp!  It was already a campaign issue.  You were represented by reptiles in a campaign ad.  Game on.  If you are worried about your leadership being a campaign issue, take a look at your leadership.

4. The DNC social game – sigh.  Where are you my friends?  I thought the twitter feed was @DNC.  I went crazy at their lack of involvement (no tweets since 4/4) and was corrected to the twitter feed of @thedemocrats.  I kinda apologize.  Only kinda, because twitter is my favorite social platform and EVEN I WAS CONFUSED.  How are others going to follow and figure this out, if I couldn’t?  You have a feed that connects people to another feed in the profile?  Who reads profiles?

Even on the correct feed, the tweets of support for Thompson are weak.  Post election, there are mentions of the race.  See below. Am I inspired?  Are you serious?  How many resistance shirts have I purchased?  How many protest signs have I drawn?  How many times I have I shown up at rallies and made my voice heard for you to barely phone it in to this important race.  AND now you have the balls to ask me if I’m “inspired?” Show me how you are going to step up YOUR game and then we will talk.

There is a grassroots movement out there and it is strong.  Listen to it.  Mobilize it.  Let it work WITH you.  Real change can happen, but you need to LISTEN.  Congratulations Thompson and your grassroots supporters who came out with a respectable showing and Estes on the win.

Moving on,

Aimee

The New York Times ad during the Oscars

The New York Times is running an ad tonight during the Oscars in defense of the attacks on the media by President Trump – the subject of the ad is the truth.

The truth.

They aren’t selling perfumes, pizza or even the latest tennis shoes, but the truth.

The New York Times doesn’t even make the truth look sexy, young or pretty the way advertisers are supposed to.  It’s just there in black and white. Cold and alone.

And they are spending a fortune in order to send this message.

The truth is hard.

 

Fake news.  False stories.  Sad ratings. The President been attacking the media from his early days in the campaign to today when he tweets from the White House.

I’m angry that an ad is running telling the world that the truth is hard.

But I’m not angry with the President.

I’m angry with the New York Times.

People who know me and read this blog, know I’m no fan of the President. I didn’t vote for him, I don’t support his policies and I don’t buy into his rhetoric.  But he is winning this battle. The media is playing right into his hand.

The truth is that the New York Times running an ad explaining the “truth” to us is nothing more than the public playing 3rd party to dysfunctional relationship between the media and the President that continues to boil since he took office.  I wish I could give credit to the person who coined the term “battered woman syndrome” in this scenario, because it’s a perfect description of what’s going on here.

It’s painfully obvious that the  media isn’t exactly sure how to handle BEING the story versus reporting on the story.  The President repeatedly beats them up, invalidates them, abuses them and yet they constantly seek his approval.  As clearly displayed in this ad, I’ve seen more self-confidence in a 13 year-old girl.

We get it, truth can mean different things to different people.  The media isn’t “fake news.”  We can scream we love you from the rooftops, but the one person you want so desperately to say it, never will.  So media, how are you going to learn to live with yourself for the next four years?  Taking out million dollars ads during every major news event isn’t going to fill that lonely void.

Have confidence in your product.  Stop being so defensive about it and, as Nike says “just do it.” Keep doing your job.  You are great at it. Report the fact and leave the truth part up to the reader. We all know deep down he really loves you.  Why would he spend so much time telling us how much he doesn’t? He can’t live without you.  That is the real truth and it didn’t cost a thing for me to advertise it.