KCRag Forum

i'm reading "american nations" right now and it feels very accurate on a macro-level. I appreciate the description of STL as a "border city" straddling the nations of Midlands and Appalachia.

I've not read American Nations but an excellent read with a very similar premise is "The Nine Nations of North America", by Joel Garreau (1981). A fun look at the country at that point in time, and rather accurate in it's divisions. A bonus is that the entire section on the plains nation (i.e. "breadbasket") is centered around KC as the capital city, including a BBQ debate. KC appeared to have substantial extra-regional influence in the late 70's - early 80's.

Well worth the read:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nine_ ... th_America

And 2014 follow up:

https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2 ... ears-later

i live in an extra-territorial annex of THE ISLANDS

That map reminded me of something I just heard-

"Make American Mexican Again" The idea that they should get back the land we took.

I think those living in The Empty Quarter would be the most insulted by these names.

grovester wrote: ↑Wed Nov 07, 2018 11:52 am

shinatoo wrote: ↑Wed Nov 07, 2018 11:34 am

grovester wrote: ↑Wed Nov 07, 2018 10:58 am I think Florida is lost. If they couldn't go blue this year what will change in 2020?

Ohio has a chance since Brown got reelected statewide, but will be difficult as the gop will control all of the statehouse. Iowa will be difficult for the same reason.

Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania will do it and the dems should be favored.

1.5 million ex-felons in Florida finally go their voting rights (40% of African American males in the state) back yesterday. I would guess that will have some effect on upcoming statewide elections.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics ... ts-results

That is very true and overlooked on my part, though Florida has 2 years to subvert the will of their voters.

FLA GOP doesn't waste any time.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politi ... nt-n985156

Infuriating. Hopefully the FLA courts will overturn.

We can’t confirm him,’ Pat Roberts warns of potential Kobach nomination for DHS

One of the GOP senators from Kris Kobach’s home state said Tuesday that the Senate would not be able to confirm the Kansas Republican if President Donald Trump taps him for a cabinet post.

Kobach, the former Kansas secretary of state, has been mentioned as a potential candidate for an array of immigration-related positions since President Donald Trump pulled his nominee for the director of Immigration Customs Enforcement and announced the departure of Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen.

But Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, said he doesn’t believe the Republican-controlled Senate could confirm his fellow Kansan, who has gained national notoriety for championing stronger restrictions on immigration.

“Don’t go there. We can’t confirm him,” Roberts whispered to The Kansas City Star when asked about Kobach Tuesday on his way into a Senate vote.
...

https://www.kansascity.com/news/politic ... ingstories

Not-so-bold prediction: if Trump nominates him, the GOP will confirm him.

phuqueue wrote: ↑Thu Apr 11, 2019 5:47 pm Not-so-bold prediction: if Trump nominates him, the GOP will confirm him.

And Susan Collins will just feel awful about voting for him.

Mayor Pete seems to be gaining a lot of traction. He reminds me a lot of Kander

I don't understand what is going on with all these states and these Abortion bills, Missouri looks to be the next one

What is the likelihood that the House is able to pass this? Pretty certain? I know Parsons said that they were around one vote shy of passage as of last night--how true is that?

It will pass and be immediately appealed.

All the red states with full legislative control (both houses and the gov) are passing new bans to entice the supreme court to overturn Roe v. Wade now that Kavanaugh has been confirmed.

I worry about how these laws will backfire. Young people will leave the state. Companies will decide not to locate here. Certain groups will not have conventions in the state. Tourists won't vacation here. Etc. etc. etc.

If I were a woman with a college degree, I would probably leave.

FangKC wrote: ↑Fri May 17, 2019 9:24 pm I worry about how these laws will backfire. Young people will leave the state. Companies will decide not to locate here. Certain groups will not have conventions in the state. Tourists won't vacation here. Etc. etc. etc.

If I were a woman with a college degree, I would probably leave.

I am very disappointed in Missouri but not sure why young people would leave given that any women can get the procedure in Kansas which is probably no more than a 20 minute drive for most Kansas Citians. The momentum KC has right now, however, could certainly be impacted by Missouri's continuing attempt to paint itself as an overly conservative backwards state.

Hopefully the courts put an end to this recent surge of restrictions on one's choice quickly.

That might change. Pro-life groups in Kansas are already gearing up to change the Kansas constitution to enshrine as constitutional many of the measures they want to pass to restrict abortion.

https://www.kansascity.com/news/politic ... 87959.html

My point is that many young women will not want to be burdened by all the strict rules some conservative states are attempting to make law. They don't want to live where they would have to go to another state to get an abortion after 8 weeks (assuming Kansas follows suit with similar laws). Many women don't even know they are pregnant then.

When women graduate and start getting job offers, if they have to decide between a job in Kansas City or Portland, Oregon, they might look how conservative states are passing laws restricting abortions, proposing bathroom bills, and that still have no protections for LGBT residents, and just say, why would I want to live in a state that is so hostile to many residents?

I'm not sure what the procedure is in KS for amending the state constitution, but they elected a Dem governor last fall, so they will presumably have a little bit more trouble changing their abortion laws for the next few years. I think your broader point, that women won't want to live in states that pass laws like these, probably has some truth to it (anecdotally, my wife flat out refuses to move to a red state, so we will probably never move back to KC), but that only applies to women with the freedom and means to make that choice. Millions more will remain trapped in these states by economic circumstance. The women you are talking about are ultimately going to be a relatively small group, so I'm not sure whether it will have a big enough impact to be noticed by the people passing these laws.

I'm concerned about brain drain.

phuqueue wrote: ↑Sun May 19, 2019 7:10 am I'm not sure what the procedure is in KS for amending the state constitution, but they elected a Dem governor last fall, so they will presumably have a little bit more trouble changing their abortion laws for the next few years. I think your broader point, that women won't want to live in states that pass laws like these, probably has some truth to it (anecdotally, my wife flat out refuses to move to a red state, so we will probably never move back to KC), but that only applies to women with the freedom and means to make that choice. Millions more will remain trapped in these states by economic circumstance. The women you are talking about are ultimately going to be a relatively small group, so I'm not sure whether it will have a big enough impact to be noticed by the people passing these laws.

The red state / blue state distinction needs some context. Look at an electoral map of California and you can see that in terms of area, California was overwhelmingly red. Only the urbanized areas were blue. The same is true for Missouri. It's just that a larger portion of Missouri's population is rural compared to California although I suspect the burbs are probably a bit more blue in California than they are in Missouri.

Given that rural vs urban is the real divide in America, I'd like to see cities like Kansas City and St Louis explore the idea of ignoring state laws and becoming sanctuary cities in their own state.

By the way, I will be retiring to KC soon and I've thought the same thing about living in a state so intent on becoming a national pariah. Another way we are looking at it, however, is that we are adding two more relatively liberal votes to the state.

Incidentally, my wife is actually from California. But for her, the problem is less the idea that she'd be surrounded by Republican voters, which obviously wouldn't be true in KC (and she understands that), and more that Republican voters will control the state government, which will in turn control cities like KC and St. Louis, regardless of what the people living in those cities want. My wife isn't even especially likely to ever want or need an abortion (she has easy access to birth control, and we will probably decide to have a kid in the future anyway, so if it happened a little earlier than planned, then we would probably just make that work), but there's a broader problem with living under a government that doesn't value you as a full-fledged person capable or deserving of controlling your own body and making your own decisions. I don't disagree with your perspective that we would be adding our votes (and our political activism in general), but I also can't super blame her for not wanting to move to a place that views her as less than me.

As for cities ignoring state laws, I also don't really super disagree with that, except that I'm not exactly sure how you pull it off in practice, and also it potentially leads to a whole bunch of distasteful unintended consequences (it is, after all, basically a state-level replay of the nullification crisis, and nullification, in addition to being de jure illegal, is also very much a double edged sword). It was pretty rich when the supposedly "small government" Republicans used the power of the state government to override St. Louis's $15 minimum wage, but it is also pretty clear at this point that highlighting hypocrisy actually accomplishes nothing because hypocrites have no shame.