KC Confidential

On the night of February 27, 1933, the Reichstag in Berlin, where the German parliament met, was set ablaze…

Four weeks earlier Adolph Hitler’s Nationalist Socialist (Nazi) Party had formed a minority government at the request of President Paul Von Hindenburg, with Hitler sworn in as Chancellor, i.e. prime minister, on January 30^th.  Hitler had immediately asked Von Hindenburg to call new parliamentary elections for March 5^th.  He had also sought the enactment of the “Enabling Act,” a special law which gave him as Chancellor the power to enact laws without having to get legislative approval.

In the meantime, the Nazi’s campaigned on a pledge to stop Communism by giving them an outright majority in the parliament and total control of the government.

On the night the fire broke out, Nazi officials and the Nazi controlled press immediately blamed the Communists, arguing that the burning of the Reichstag building was the signal for a nationwide insurrection, which had to be preemptively suppressed if Germany was to be saved from the Bolshevik menace.

An emotionally disturbed Dutch teenager, Marinus Van de Lubbe, with ties to a Communist street gang  was swiftly arrested, tried and executed.  Historians have debated for decades who actually set the blaze.

Regardless of who was to blame for the arson, Hitler and his henchmen like Hermann Goering and Joseph Goebbels used it as an excuse for an even harsher crack down on the opponents than any they had been calling for prior to the incident.

At Hitler’s insistence, Von Hindenburg signed into law “The Reichstag Fire Decree,” which eliminated freedom of the press, of speech, of free association and freedom from arbitrary arrest.

All this was combined with the rounding up of thousands of Communists, and the intimidation of any remaining parliamentary opposition and resulted in the destruction of Weimar Germany’s fledgling democracy and Adolph Hitler’s assuming total control as dictator.

The Trump supporters that trespassed on government property on January 6th in the hope that it would somehow stop the certification of the election should bear the full weight of the law.

This does not mean that they lose all legal rights.

Right now, four hundred people are being held in sordid conditions in solitary confinement in a D.C. jail.  They have been denied bail and access to counsel.  The sainted Attorney General Merrick Garland, martyred at Mitch McConnell’s hands in his quest to reach the Supreme Court, has announced a nationwide man hunt for everyone who was on the Capital grounds on January 6^th and considered a nationwide no fly list for political opponents of the Democrats.

The Biden administration has enlisted the help of the credit card companies to contact anyone who made charges in D.C. on or around January 6^th, even if they had no connection with the Capital riot.

People have been subject to dawn raids by the FBI because they bore a passing resemblance to people who showed up on security cameras in the Capitol that day.  Once more, Democrats have the inestimable advantages of trying these political enemies before liberal D.C. judges and juries.  This has no practical difference from civil rights activists being tried by white jurors in the Deep South circa 1962. Continue reading →

After a year of awfulness, is it really any surprise that the beat still goes on…at least in California…

For starters, consider this.

I’m so far removed at this point, having returned too my former high school and college stomping grounds, buying a new house; having a garage fire one month in; succumbing to a bizarre case of COVID and playing a post-fire game of chicken with the insurance company.

Now I’m in California for my wife’s oldest daughter’s wedding and considering the true meaning of California Ken Doll, governor Gavin Newsom‘s screwed up state.

About the only thing as lame is wondering around the southern part of the state pretending it’s not June of 2020 in the Monkees trying to sell concert tickets to a “Farewell Tour” at the Uptown Theater with that Davey Jones and Peter Tork long dead and the remaining Mohicans right up there with Biden in terms of age.

In other words, tres lame….

The people who live in the Golden State today have been immersed in a bubble so long they have no idea what real life actually is. Continue reading →

Sir Jason

Don’t wanna bore you, but my January garage fire soap opera is nearing an end…

Meaning, I’ll soon have more time to help you guys limp through this ultra lame time in which what passes for straight-down-the-line “news” is virtually impossible to find.

I digress…

The latest: former 435 Magazine changed its name late  last year (I think) to Kansas City Magazine (possible jinx?)and is offering “11 Ambitious And Offbeat Ways To Make Kansas City A Better Place To Live” in its April issue.

About time, right?

Actually, 435, er KC Mag, has been doing a decent job job (maybe even financially, considering Covid.) Its April issue for example is 100 pages in length with about 35 pages of ads (50 to 60 being the sweet spot).

And while its tongue-in-cheek cover story is replete with zany stuff like Kansas City becoming “the Detroit of flying cars,” tiny homes revolutionizing homeless shelters and an “eye in the sky” to slow down homicides, it also gives a shout out to the know-it-alls at KC’s newspaper of record.

“What if Somebody Bought The Star And Turned It Into  A Nonprofit? it begins.

“The McClatchy Company, owner of The Kansas City Star, declared bankruptcy last year. The paper was then sold to a hedge fund,” it continues. “It’s early to say definitively how that will impact the Star, but we know what’s happened in other cities where hedge funds bought metro dailies. They aggressively cut jobs in an attempt to maximize short-term profits, then discard the corporate carcass once there’s no more cash to squeeze from it. The city is left with a hollowed-out institution no longer capable of keeping its citizens informed.”

A fairly harsh – probably realistic – assessment.

Which goes on to remind us that the Star has already shed plenty of staff – about 90 percent by my measure.

“Print advertising is in rapid decline due to a permanent change in consumer behavior, and the digital advertising dollars that were supposed to offset those losses are being hoovered up by tech platforms like Facebook and Google. Who wants to pay for a subscription when the paper keeps laying off staff?”

KC Mag’s solution: Go non profit like the Philadephia Inquirer and Tampa Bay Times.

Just one problem; the jury’s out on whether either of those dailies will survive the switch. Continue reading →

If it’s fair to cancel people for what they said years ago…

Why not have a little reality/accountability for our new racially in tune pals at KC’s newspaper of record?

Take the recent passing of fiery former KC City Councilperson and attorney Carol Coe.

Coe and I had a special bond that transcended her difficult relationship with most of the  reporters and editors at the Kansas City Star.

It’s hard to say which came first – the chicken or the egg – in terms of who disliked who the most.  This much I can assure you though:  prior to her stroke, Coe took as many shots from and suffered as much disrespect as the Star could dish out. Which in all likelihood resulted in her being a one term  City Council person

Return with me now to my early days running the KC Pitch when Coe was representing embattled KC fire chief Gilbert Dowdy  – soon to be convicted of heading up an allegedly $50 million a year drug ring with crack cocaine.

You won’t find this story on the Pitch website as it went down in 1990, years prior to the alt weekly’s foray into the Internet.

How huge was the story in KC at the time? Continue reading →

Greetings from the Wild, Wild West…

Long time, no see. Ah but after a tiny garage fire that resulted in two months of living at a local resort waiting for things like the power and water heater  in my house to be fixed and/or replaced, I’m finally back in my new Oro Valley abode.

Don’t get me wrong though.

My life is still pretty much upside down, waiting for new a garage door and front door and a complete repainting of the interior of the house. That and a host of other remedies still being sorted things out with the insurance company.

But the end appears near…

At which point we can finally begin unpacking stuff, hanging pictures, hooking up audio-video systems, getting in  new furniture and basically what passes for real life.

Then and only then can I set aside time to comment on the state of things Kansas City.

Most of which appears to be something of a mess, with the Kansas City Star pursuing a full-time course of action to eff with all things conservative and traditional in its quest to follow the New York Times, CNN and MSNBC is talking down to people with anything short of a far left overview of life today.

It really is amazing to see how topsy turvy things have gone, where even red necks like Star editor Mike Fannin have been forced to disguise who they really are so as not to risk getting cancelled or laid off.

Hey, it’s not as if they are alone in following this path. Continue reading →

One of the biggest complaints I’ve had for years was for referring to KC as a Cowtown…

Dates back to when I was growing up and locals lamented people on the coasts and in larger (presumably hipper) cities thinking of Kansas City as a “flyover” town with little to no sophistication or couth.

I never fully understood that at first – nor did it matter – but I grew into understand it better, after I began promoting concerts and writing for The Pitch and Star.

Thing is though, its never really took hold with me.

Guess I bought into all the arguments about us having the Nelson Atkins Museum, the Chiefs and Royals football and baseball teams and an “international” airport.

Oh, I was more than willing to look down on neighboring towns and cities like Topeka, Wichita and the like while thinking highly of all the cool stuff KC had.

Shoot, I graduated from high school and attended college in Tucson and most people here that went to the University of Arizona conceded that Tucson was a far better city, but if you wanted to get ahead in life, you moved to Phoenix.

When I went public and started writing I had to defend myself for jokingly referring to KC via its rural roots.

At which point I noticed many locals were obsessed with pointing out people who made it big and had connections to Kansas City.

OK, Walt Disney is hard to argue with – less so Rush Limbaugh, Pay Metheny or Mancow Muller.

I even remember when Don Cheadle was beginning to make it big.

Can’t say for sure, but maybe in the late ’90s I remember local movie marketer Jody Rovick hyping it based on Cheadle being a former KC guy.

Well, guess what? Continue reading →

It’s a strange kettle of fish…

On one hand KC newspaper of record loves the Kansas City Chiefs now that they’re on top of the world. Reminding us that the expression, “everybody loves a winner” is alive and well, even among the most jaded among us.

The only thing the Star loves more is bagging on folks with conservative views and cultural outlooks.

For example the newspaper has ridden hard and trashed up-and-coming Republican pol Josh Hawley from the get go. And now that Hawley had a high-profile lapse of judgement, the Star can’t bag on him enough.

Has there even been the slightest hint of fair-and-balanced coverage ever – before, during and or after Hawley’s current predicament? Of course not.

Saying even the most benign positive thing about anything Hawley would be the equivalent of devil worshiping, rooting for the old Oakland Raiders or supporting child pornography.

It’s not gonna happen.

Don’t get me wrong… Continue reading →

Never thought much about the day I’d long for deceased comedy king Craig Glazer...

Well, guess what?  That day has arrived.

Just saw a news break about “Saved by the Bell” star Dustin Diamond blowing taps.

Brought back by a memory I know Glazer would vividly recall about a handful of years back when the actor formerly known as Screech headlined  Stanford’s Comedy Club in Overland Park.

I was there – not so much because I was a Diamond fan – more like I was in the neighborhood. So while I can’t fully recall the exact details, I do remember Diamond being an asshole and nearly coming g to blows with Craig, who was pretty quick to put up his dukes.

I also remember Diamond’s show being pretty tepid, even though he was more than just slightly full of his has-been self and wanted  more respect  out of Glazer.

Not having watched Diamond’s hit sitcom, I was intrigued by the news of his passing at the youthful age of 44.

Hey, nobody ever said it was easy to be an aging child star.

Unable to find a story from that night, I did do a bit of digging and here’s what  I found… Continue reading →

Hey, nobody wants to lose there job, right?

Especially the highly paid honchos at the Prairie Village /  Mission Hill police. And they’ve got to watch their backs working for a bunch of left leaning, spoiled millionaires.

And if you’ve been following the national news that’s the kind of thing that can happen, even if some police chief’s wife posts something nice about Donald Trump.

Return with me now to the sixth night of Mission Hills conservative Dwight Sutherland‘s Trump and Roger Marshall yard sign’s being mowed down by somebody with a penchant for driving up on Sutherland’s yard – at first just to knock them down and then later to steals them.

Sutherland was waiting for a former FBI investigator to mount surveillance cameras, but decided to wait up to see if he could catch the culprit that sixth night.

Around 10 pm he saw and heard a small SUV screech by and into the yard of one of his neighbors (that I know personally) who were out-of-town.

At first Sutherland thought it was probably one of the couple’s college age kids. He heard someone exit the car and some talking. Several minutes later the SUV sped off and then made an awkward maneuver to approach Sutherland’s yard signs. It left the street and instead of just mowing down the signs, stopped in his yard and began to grab the signs.

Dwight raced out then and yelled warning to them and struck the SUV with his tennis  racket to drive home his point. At which point in trying to get away, Sutherland was struck by the SUV and fell to the ground.

Next thing he knew the SUV speed away at a ridiculously fast clip up the block.

As Sutherland collected himself something very unusual happened…

The SUV stopped, then turned around and headed back towards Sutherland who positioned himself in the street to deal with the dude.

As it approached Sutherland gave its windshield a whack as it veered into him, then sped off..

Sutherland hit the pavement with multiple injuries resulting in an ambulance ride with a PV / Mission Hills policeman who took his statement and expressed sympathy, saying that whoever did it would get his just desserts once the police determined who it was.

So much for sympathy from the so-called authorities. Continue reading →

gonna miss ya hc.
Been fun making you the brunt of my jokes!
Smartman…gone
Greg…gone/trump gone/
Glaze…gone
now hc….gone
Be in beautiful paradise valley so come
see me if in phoenix
With all the fun we had how can you give all
this up.
Only ones left are a country club janitor, a ditch
digger and southy who got beat.  Hated to see
southy get beat but that’s life in today’s world.
Say hello to senator Kelly and former senator Flake
for me and of course say “hola” to all my hispanic
friends in southern arizona.
With a tear in my eye as we lay to rest one the last
great site.  And stay away
from those latin hotties and U of A coeds.  They will
only get you in trouble.  And take lots of water…the
summers here are brutal!