If you’re like me – and who isn’t? – you’re probably tired of listening to all these candidates BS about issues that ARE NOT THE KEY ISSUES IN AMERICA TODAY./
Well, it’s high time somebody address the real issues.
CRIME IN AMERICA: It’s out of control. I can’t go to a movie or shopping mall and not have to worry about being shot!!!! Daily!!! How about a military base or a school!!! Shootings are practically daily now. How about just going out at night after say 9 pm to a Quick Trip or night spot. You take my life in your own hands. WTF!!!
Now thats a real problem. Police and law enforcement need to go back to protecting us, not writing speeding tickets and BS DUI checks which are mostly just a way to make money, nothing more.
WE NEED REAL POLICE PROTECTION, AND NOW.
THE REAL ECONOMY: It’s not taaxing businesses. Most small businesses make little to no money, so dropping their federal tax is not a big issue. NOW STATE TAX, that’s another thing. State taxes are just too high. How about making loans available for small businesses? The SBA? Good luck on that one!
And CD’s pay nothing! That’s a real crime, nobody’s life savings are safe now. There’s no income for retired Americans. WTF!
Yet if you borrow money, different story. How about credit cards charging 29%. And we get 1% on our money! How’s that make sense?
Want to lower taxes? Then it needs to be personal tax and really drop them – don’t do the pretend drop.
RACE RELATIONS: At an all time low and I’m afraid it’s all about time and EDUCATION. Our public schools suck and need attention. Teachers need more money and better working conditions. NOW. Educated young people are less likely to go out and shoot up the streets.
DRUG LAWS: Need to be changed and modernized. Around 80% of our prisons are filled with low level drug offenders. Get off it! Legalized drugs governed by law enforcement could work. Illegal drugs are the leading business of bad guys – mostly our kids. Dig?
MILITARY: We’re always in bad shape, right? No, we’re not! We run the world. Use our power to control the Middle East better with Israel’s help. Most of the terror is over there not here. Our criminals are almost all Americans who are fed up and dangerous. We’re a warlike nation – we always have been, always will be – that’s how we roll. So rule!
THOSE ARE THE BIG ONES.
Some could have quick fixes like banking and the economy. Drug laws and getting the police back to working for us and not against us are simple too.
So let’s talk about those issues with our soon to be NEXT PRESIDENT wannabes.
And let’s dispense with all this pro life talk. We already did that one. It’s a woman’s choice. End of story. The borders, thats back to the issue of law enforcement going to work. These are not two of the top issues.
nice article glaze.
But the powers that be have already planned everything out.
They have been taken over by monied people.
Trump said it during the debate that every politician is bought and
paid for ….and the 98% of America is kicked out on the street.
And today the media was talking only about megyn and trump.
It is a mess.
4 people shot last night in Westport!
Your best comment yet, Harley.
thanks steeley……
its fun to see some intelligent/focused and different opinions
on this site.
With the old guys like pauly and southman topgolf and chuck
their comments are filled with b.s and no documentation
for their thoughts.
Hopefully hearne with redirect his blog to include
stories that are relevant and where intelligent people (not
these fools) can discuss important issues unlike the
famous stories of shame published here about cobblers
in Lawrence or a diamond thief which caused one of the
writers to get stuk under his dashboard while he fantasized
about there being secret police next to him because their
car had large antennas.
thanks hearen and glaze.
this site has potential…step your game up and you can
outnumber the views of tkc without the hate/anger and
racism that rules on the other major blog in kc.
good work boys!
glaze…heard sanders on tv last night….your wishes sound exactly like his
stands on major issues.
go read his positions….they would fit your world perfectly and we’d
have no war with iran and destabilitze the middle east.
For those who think otherwise….isis is now being attacked by us
planes and drones…its just a matter of time hopefully til the’re
taken out. they are brutal but they are not al quada and bin ladens
organization. If fact we are teamed up withim fighting insurgents…
now isn’t that strange.
and guess what dudes..price of gas will go down when 4 million barrels
hits the market. If I was Obama I d open the national reserve and put
all these terrorists out of business.
but you guys lve boots and ground…more lives lost…more limbs lost
ad only think the military can solve problems…well boys we’ve seen
how well your policy ideas have worked.
and remember….bush signed the deal to get americans out of
Iraq by 2011/2012…not Obama.
and the joint chiefs agreed…I think they knowmore than cowboy
and chuck and jeb bush the loser, trump the draft dodger and
the rest of the war mongers in the u.s.
Sheesh…is crime really the worst it’s ever been, or is it just more noticeable since you can read everything on the internet nowadays?
Same with race relations. I have to think they’re better now than they were back in the days when whites were lynching blacks all the time. Nowadays, you just hear more about the bad stuff that happens.
The economy is bad and all this govt regulation just makes it worse. Raising the minimum wage is a great example. There are stories coming out of Seattle about min wage workers wanting their hours reduced, so they don’t lose their welfare benefits. The higher min wage screws the business owner and does nothing to reduce the welfare rolls.
People used to be embarrassed to be on welfare and would bootstrap their way up. Now they just complain about their situation and proudly take their welfare checks.
The military needs to be cut way back. We’ve been at war for 15 f’n years with nothing accomplished. Does anyone feel safer now than they did in 2002?
We need a President that’ll cut back on regulation, cut govt spending, and give the people in this country a good kick in the a$$. We’ve got too many people that just want things handed to them.
Violent crime rates have been going down since the 90’s.
I think the glazed one has been dipping in his ‘paranoid powder’ a bit much lately.
-*_*_ I am not scared to go see a movie, or send my child to school. At least not afraid of my child being killed by a mass shooter, curriculum is a different story. The odds of it happening are just so infinitesimally small. Just everytime it happens it is all over the news. According the the New York Times, citing the FBI, from 2002 to 2014 only 486 people have been killed in mass shootings. About 4000 people drown every year, so I am far more afraid to take my child to Ocean’s of Fun than I am about going to a movie or sending them to school.
In reality, the economy will fix everything else. That is what is most imporant. The three most indebted countries by % of GDP, are the US, Japan, and Greece. We all know how Japan has done over the last 30 years, and Greece is all we heard over the last 3 years, and now China is dumping Treasuries at the highest pace ever witnessed. We’ve been on a 5 year bull run stimulated by the Fed’s low rates and money pumping. We are due for a correction. The dollar is dangerously strong (or not, depends on your point of view). Equities are too expensive right now, commodities are cheap, but the dollar is so strong it has made those cheap commodities more expensive than they were 4 years ago.
The economy is ALL that matters, right now. A robust economy will ease race relations, quell extremism, and reduce crime. The only thing a robust economy won’t fix, that you have listed, is drug laws. And everyone knows, Americans love their drugs. See 1980’s. *-*-*
great comments and facts. Maybe you should bewriting a column on
kcc.
only 486 people killed in mass shootings.
If that were your child/spous/family member/friend you
might have a different outlook of the ONLY 486.
eVERY LIFE IS IMPORTANT….and it’s time to have real
solutions to this problem and the number of crimes in
our society.
Still very informative article.
There is risk in life, Harley. Can you imagine an America, where everytime someone died (or if 40 people a year) we passed a law to try and stop it from happening again? That isn’t a life I would want to live. Should we outlaw swimming in order to save people from drowning? Of course not! If we did I think my life would be worse, not better. Do we put metal detectors and wands at every entrance to a movie theatre? Of course not! If we did, life wouldn’t be better, it would be worse. Every life lost is a tragedy. Be it from abortion, or a car wreck, or murder, or cancer, they are all tragedies. But the only thing that is certain in life is we are going to die. We can’t stop every death, and we shouldn’t try to.
I wasn’t diminishing those lives, I was putting the issue in perspective. My family has fought in every war from the American Revolution to Operation Iraqi Freedom, and we did not spill our blood for less freedom, we spilled our blood for MORE freedom.
I consider the lives of my family, equal with that of the 486. My family and the hundreds of thousands that died with them should be honored and remembered too. People want to take away freedom in the names of victims to tragedy and spit on the names of those who gave their lives to give MORE freedom and defend a FREE America.
How can I justify encouraging my son to fight for this country like the generations before him, when he won’t be fighting for free country?
ALL LIVES MATTER!
and there are things we can do to prevent and
eliminate crime. It’s just the powers that be
don’t have the balls to do it…so they can use
the money to benefit themselves.
Crime…pretty simple. Call up the armed services/national guard. Put them on street
corners in high crime areas. Treat it like a
war zone.
The good people of the area would support
that…the bad guys wouoldn’t.
Surge into the criminals homes with warrants
and arrest those with problems.
Clean up the street.
Doesn’t make sense to have the cops at
1am in the morning in lw crime areas….
Focus on the areas that have problems and
flush outthe bad guys.
Not hard…just takes some balls to do it.
and I don’ think we have the balls to really
face the problems we have.
Too much money in crime…private prisons
make too much money….and no one has the
guts to find the simple solution and get the
nation togeteher to solve them.
They’d rather talk about megyn Kelly menstruating.
Nice post,
I agree with everything you said except:
“Call up the armed services/national guard. Put them on street
corners in high crime areas. Treat it like a
war zone.
The good people of the area would support
that…the bad guys wouoldn’t.”
I am not a “bad guy”, at least I don’t think I am. But I would NOT support this. In fact I would actively resist this. And that is saying alot, I don’t “actively” act like an activist often. But if you put boots on the ground in my neighborhood, I don’t think it will go well. In fact, I can say with confidence it wouldn’t go unnoticed or without reaction.
I can’t think of anyone in my family who would have honored such an order. I do not know the regulations governing my grandfather, since he was a navy man (both Navy and Marines), but the Army men of the family would disregard that order and seek to have the officer who issued such an order relieved. That is unless I had reason to believe an insurrection were occurring. Much like the LA Riots.
But for general law enforcement, you can bet your last two cents, red-blooded, god-fearing, freedom-loving American soldiers would disregard that order in a heartbeat.
Disregarding an order as unlawful is not something someone takes lightly, and the Posse Comitatus Act is about the only legitimate reason I can think of for disobeying an order from a commissioned officer. Try to establish martial law on the streets of America? Good luck.
Never served in National Guard.
Actually, I think the US is about 7th on the debt to GDP list…at least according to Forbes.
Phaedrus,
Correct. My bad. Unfortunately, the picture is even grimmer than debt to GDP. GDP is the Total gross domestic product, but the US government doesn’t have access to all of the GDP. The government only has the revenue from the taxes on the GDP. Using the more reasonable Debt to Revenue metric, it is Japan, Greece, then America.
Since you used Forbes, so will I. This is an article from 2014. Note it is using 2010 data, because country revenues are published as often as GDP.
“A better comparison is to examine each country’s debt to government tax revenue, since that is the government’s income. This also offers a better comparison because different countries have very different levels of taxation. A country with high taxes can afford more debt than a low tax country. Debt to GDP ignores this difference. Comparing debt to tax revenue reveals a much truer picture of the burden of each country’s debt on its government’s finances.”
“When I compute those figures, Japan is still #1, with a debt as a percentage of tax revenue of about 900 percent and Greece is still in second place at about 475 percent. The big change is the U.S. jumps up to third place, with a debt to income measure of 408 percent. If the U.S. were a family, it would be deep into the financial danger zone.”
NOTE—— The situation is even worse than those numbers report. This does not factor the several trillion dollars owed to Social Security, yet it includes the Social Security taxes collected. If Social Security taxes are not counted, the U.S.’s debt to income ratio rises to 688 percent (still in third place). This tells you something about the likelihood of increasing Social Security taxes in conjunction with declining Social Security benefits.
Thanks for the info. I don’t agree that debt/revenue is a better measure than debt/gdp.
To use an extreme example, a country with $100 of GDP, $50 of tax revenue (50% tax rate), and $200 of debt (4x revenue, 2x GDP) is far worse off than a country with $1,000 of GDP, $20 of tax revenue (2% tax rate), and $200 of debt (10x revenue, 0.2x gdp).
The 2nd country can easily raise its tax rate, while the 1st one can’t.
Regardless, nothing is going to get better until the govt decreases its spending. You can’t just keep raising taxes and increasing regulation. If you’ve ever met a congressman, they are some of the dumbest people around. It’s ridiculous how much waste there is…
econmy 1…..give me your take on how we reduce crime.
we’ve trried almost everything from organizing dances
to spending trillions of dollars and we still have crime
spreading.
Heard where 2.3 million black fathers are in prison
for victimless crimes. Maybe change the sentencing
and crime categories.
I like many people are out of ideas….but a surge might
clean out the areas. Remember its probably a small
percentage of bad people..and the good ones would
probably agree with me…..try something diferent.
I m interested to hear your ideas.
Agreed. Jobs and the economy dwarf all other issues. Not to say those others are not important, but……..
Real paying jobs for the common person will sort out many of these issues.
Great article. It seems that we all can agree on these. From almost all sources, there is the general consensus that America is on the wrong track, but we can’t seem to change. We have found the enemy and it is we. We need to understand that when it comes to crime, protecting society is more important than the rehabilitation of criminals. We need to understand that laws mean little to criminals, and we cannot expect them to follow the signs calling for a gun free zone. In terms of the economy, we need to be honest tha labor participation ratesare probably more important than an unemployment rate, and GDP growth has been seriously lacking. Twice, we have been one quarter away from being in a recession, since the last great recession, and yet growth continues to be misserable, and, even here, we cause our own problems. The numbers point out that there is not a wholesale mass retiring as the babyboomers near retirement age, that it is the millenials that are unemployed, even with Masters and PhDs. Just this morning, a Democrat candidate proposed spending $350 billion for education, so millenial Masters and PhD candidates can ask if you want fries with that, meanwhile dumping the cost of that education on taxpayers, including small business, the group that employs a majority of employees. Nobody ever seems to ask how we get more jobs. In short, it is the cost of doing business, federal taxes, state taxes, unemployment, social security, state income taxes, unions, electrical rates, zoning ordinances, legal fees, and the simple fact that most small businesses are taxed at the individual level, so raise the cost to the individual, you are also raising the cost to the majority of employers. Concerning race, there is no pure blood race out there, thank God. Possibly the only reason to include race in any discussion is so psychologists and sociologists have something to talk about. You do he crime, you do the time, and that time should be based on the crime, not the appearance of the criminal. It should not and does not matter, as long as sentences are equal. Simply put, drug laws are a failed experiment. If someone wants to do heroin or crack and die early, that just leave more social security for me. Unless that person commits some other crime, why should I have to pay from free room and board, for a lifetime? Finally, concerning our military, they have a right to defend themselves, either domestically or abroad. We need to give them that ability. In terms of abroad, I think that our military needs to have the right to deal with the rules of engagement on a local level, and someone lower than the White House, someone closer to the action needs to make the decisions. We do not need our military policing our streets at home, but if they are attacked, they need to be able to defend themselves. More than anything else, I agree, we need the economy. We need full, instead of part-time jobs. We need interest rates that are comensurate with the costs of money. We need growth of business, not growth of stock prices, but we need to understand that we have done this to ourselves. We need to understand when we spend money to stimulate the economy, more than $0.10 of every dollar we spend has to go for the intended consequence, not be gobbled up graft and corruption. In front of Congress, the CEO of Boston Lager stated that his company would be worth $16 million more if it was a foreign company, that he has been offered that price to sell. We need to ask why, and we need to correct the problems. We need to understand that American small business pays its taxes on the 1040, so when you are talking about raising taxes to 39.6% on individuals, you are doing it to the group that is the number one employer in the US. Thanks for helping find solutions.
Part of Mr. Glazers posting was dead on. As for the DUI checkpoints. There are huge numbers of people that die each year from drunk drivers. So I have no problem with having checkpoints. Crime (black crime in particular) is a major issue. When you look at who is committing the crimes, 13% of the population is committing 83% of the crimes. 2010 DOJ stats. And no, that does not make me a racist to state a DOJ statistic.
Mr. Glazer is correct about drug laws. They need to be re-vamped. Life in prison for a pot conviction is just ancient thinking. Economy, Mr. GLazers posting is dead on.
BTW: Mr. Paul Wilson, if you see this, please contact me as I have a message I was ask to deliver to you.
I’m all for saving lives. I say we put a police officer and prosecutor in every hospital room in America. At the very least, every operation should be overseen by a county Prosecutor, even better yet a Federal Prosecutor. Hospital Errors are the third leading cause of death. Killing almost 5x more people than drunk driving. Very much like drunk driving, these are preventable. They are also, like drunk driving, often the result of negligence, so having a Prosecutor or Officer on site would aid in the investigation and prosecution of irresponsible doctors. We would have a much higher success rate in catching negligent doctors and saving lives by instituting this policy.
What do you say Don, lets save lives together. We can save way more lives, drunk driving is small potatoes, lets aim higher.
great comments by all..and they’re supported by facts and stats.
All the ideas mentioned should be considered because if we are to survive
the next “bust” which is coming (student loans) we need to make sure
we have the ability to solve the problem.
thanks guys…liked this article and all the points brought out.
Great comment harley. But I think you are being optimistic if you think student loans will be the next bust. A more imminent bust is the corporate bond market. Over a third of the corporate bond market is tied to commodities and oil/gas in particular. The three largest coal producers in America (2 headquartered in Missouri, Peabody and Arch Coal), have declared bankruptcy or will likely declare within 6 months. The oil Exploration and Production companies are way over leveraged and running out of time. Most of the 2015 production was hedged. Many companies are realizing $70-80 per barrel even with a current crude price of $45. Wait until those hedges roll off, and one third of the corporate bond market is faced with bankruptcy. Boy, oh boy, Glazer is talking about CD’s, the corporate bond market provides the returns for fixed income investors. What happens when this low-rate Fed induced bubble pops? Getting money for nothing and loaning it to oil companies seemed like a good idea in 2009 as oil prices were recovering and nearing $100 a barrel. Couple that with a Fed rate hike at the December meeting (which devalues corporate bonds), just as hedges are ending, and the free money has created a potentially devastating wave of bankruptcies and defaults that will send a shock-wave through fixed income portfolios nationwide.
“A toxic mix of high levels of debt in the oil sector and the sharp decline in the price of the commodity could have far-reaching effects on the global economy, economists at the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) warn.
New research from the BIS, known as the central bank of central banks and one of the few organizations to foresee the global financial crisis of 2008, shows that the total debt of the oil and gas sector worldwide stands at roughly $2.5 trillion, two and a half times what it was at the end of 2006.”
good info economy one….but the student loan crisis is
affecting people in every income group.
With over atrillion in debt…large schools bein shut
down…lawsuits against the schools and most
importnatl the failure to repay these loans puts the
government on the line for these guarantted loans.
This started years ago an flourished during the
2008 recession period when workers were retraining.
School loans have always been set up to profit the
owners of the schools as they furnished students with
govt guaranteed loans. It’s been a sham as schools
looked for unemployed and homeless people to
get loans which were never replaced.
Now…we kick the can down the road as even
doctors and lawyers don’t repaiy their huge govt.
loans.
It’s a huge problem because right now the govt
doesn’t have the life boats to avoaid a major
default.
Didn’t know about the bond markets or that
Chinese were turning in treasuries….
I see another tough time coming….especially
when you look at pension plans/retirements/and
the lack of growth in those who pay into the
system.
We’ll see. I think we may be seeing the start of
a huge national revolt with the pols that have
taken money from the cookie jar without realizing
the consequences.
And yes…I too am tirred of hearing about
abortion/marriages/and the political b.s. that
really doesn’t affect the nation as a whole.
Trump says “I wasn’t talking about her menstrual
cycle and it’s the news for days while the other
issues get pushed back.
I am a democrat and believe they have some good
ideas but increasingly seeing that with the big
money corruption we are seeing these “legal bribes”
take over and hurt our nation.
thanks for reading my comments.
Harley
Very true comments. I would add, don’t ever admit to having a drink. You don’t have to be over .08 to be charged with impaired driving. Even if it won’t hold in court, its not worth the hassle.
That was supposed to be a reply to your “dashcam” comment. Whoops
Yes these are some long and solid comments on the issues. As for crime not being so bad with the violent murder numbers, seems bad to me. Maybe the media is just so on it now, but all these school shootings, group killings, military base shootings, on and on are way up. Be that as it may, you guys are right solving the economic issues is a must and education along with updating our criminal laws especially around these huge low level drug sentences and enforcement. As one commenter wrote, ‘Americans love their drugs’ lord knows how many do gooders have prescription drugs mostly to feel good with’ every bit as strong as illegal ones. Its real unbalanced and unfair.
As for DUI stops. Sure there need to be some. But in our city, and many others, it is a money move for law enforcement, city bucks, money for lawyers on both sides, much more than trying to help anyone.
Hey I got my first pull over DUI check on the way home from work Saturday night. Just leaving OP for Fairway. “You were swerving sir” … of course I wasn’t. No speeding nothing..feild check first, which I failed, I don’t think a Chiefs player could pass that one either…finally after I told the officers, its always a bunch..I had one drink which was the truth and of course didn’t seem drunk at all, they gave me the test tube check. Blew a .025, meaning far from drunk. They let me go home, but damn its scary and I’ll write about it later. Still I saw several pullovers on the way home, most likely the same story. Another reason many folks don’t go out after dark anymore much…at least after 10pm. Too much police attention for such things that are not an issue.
Overall we have many problems in America. We always do and we always will. Yet we still live in the worlds best nation. Thank God for the NFL. Hah.
just read an article that young millenials aren’t going to nite clubs
anymore.
they want more excitement and with online dating they don’t have to
go spend big money to meet someone in a bar.
the world is changing!
next time you’re pulled over….remember
everything you do is on camera….so put on your best stage talents
and make the poiliceman who stopped you look like a fool.
I was once stopped at 119th and Metcalf…took the field test and
passed. Femalecop gave me the little breathalyzer was broken and
and she said it on camera and she tried 3 times to get it to work
and each time I blew half or less of the .08.
By the time the thing was over
she went back to her car filled with rookies she was training
and I spoke to the camera about the entire ordeal.
One thing I alwsay do. Don’t stop on public street or property.
Pull into private property to stop….that way your car can’t be
towed and saves a lot of hassles.
Glaze…that car probably costs you lots of headaches with police.
driving that car they want to see who’s in it n see what they
can do to stop you…even if you”ve done nothing wrong.
Swerving is a good excuse….what does that mean and I would
have asked to see the replay of what they taped on their dashcam.
You’re wrong about duis…everyone I know now takes cabs or
has dd when drinking. It changed our attitude about duis…they’re
costly and the city’s treat you like a criminal. I spend the 20-30dollars
with 10/10 taxi. Its like insurance against getting a dui and having to
face all the hassles of a dui ticket.
thank god for CUETO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He could win the world series on his own…..but a tough road against
cardinals…we have home advantage….but they gotta get there…
Houston will be tough.
But cueto plus our bullpen could mean you could pitch cueto with
3 days rest and go to bullpen in 6th or 7th.
with our bullpen a starter only need 5 innings….with hdh and now
medlan….plus the other relievers the test for yost is to how he handles
the pitching in the playoffs. If he’s smart….he wins it all.
If he doesn’t use the starters and bullpen effectively they could be out
early…..he doesn’t have to have starter go 6…..5 innicngs with royals
bullpen is still okay…….
remember…royals got cueto thru end of season.
doesn’t matter if he throws out arm…..use him as much as
you can.
don’t think moore will pay him the money he’s going to want.
short time in kc…..
plus you gotta pay Gordon….who is big in royals future!
interesting offseason for royals…
say bye to rios…take that money to Gordon…he probably
stays.
cueto….drop off other wortherless starters ….pay him
12-15 mill a year…he stays.