Read it here first: Obama takes Supreme Court seat, doesn't resign till he is confirmed. Biden becomes Prez; runs for reelection; Hillary is out.

You are reading this prediction and advice here first, breaking news from the heart of America, Shawnee Ks. at 8:41pm Sat. Feb. 13, 2016:

If he's smart, President Obama nominates himself, immediately, to be ratified by the US Senate to replace the late (and still lukewarm) Justice Antonin Scalia.

He does this because: he is young, needs something to do the rest of his life, and because he can.  Come on, read the list that USA Today just posted, (end of this post) of 10 other possibles.  They are virtual nobodies.

Appointing any of them is a recipe for disaster.  It invites a frozen Senate, waiting out the election.

The only way to ram thru an appointment and confirmation is for Obama to nominate himself.

Obama would not resign until the Senate confirms him.  Vice President Joe Biden would then automatically become the President.  He would also go to the Democratic convention this summer, and seek his first FULL term.

Biden's calculus has changed.  He was way behind, in the process--when he chose not to file originally.  What a difference a day makes...

The Senate would approve Obama because even the Republicans would prefer Joe Biden to Hillary Clinton.  And the Dems would confirm Obama because he's qualified (he was a Constitutional law professor before he became President.)  Whether you like him or not (and I don't) he does have the resume and more importantly--think about it.  count the votes.  Obama can twist arms on any number of issues to ensure he has the votes...and gets confirmed this summer.

The losers would be Hillary...and Bernie Sanders.  Now Hillary MIGHT accept being Vice President, figuring that Biden might die in office.  Or she'd just go home and be a grandma.

The Democratic Party got a big win today with the death of Scalia.  Nobody saw that coming.  They had been campaigning on the assumption that up to three justices might be expected to die in the next eight years, AFTER the Presidential election.  But Scalia was not on that list of justices who were older and in frail health.  He died in his sleep. Of natural causes, during a hunting trip.

Tho they have hunted together, previously, former Vice President Dick Cheney was nowhere near Scalia on this trip!!!

Had he been able to make a choice, I'm betting that as a VERY conservative Republican, the late Justice Scalia would not have chosen Feb. 13th to take the exit lane while the Democratic President could name the nominees to replace him.

No sitting President has ever used this self-nominated strategy, but it's been discussed.  And hey, there's always a first time.  I believe that at times, a sitting President has sent three names to the Senate for vetting and confirmation.  Now wouldn't it be a hoot if those three names were:
Himself
Hillary
Bernie

In basketball that's called a three-pointer.  Or a slam dunk.

Here's the USA list of Ten Nobodies:

WASHINGTON — Who could replace Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia if Republicans don't block all of President Obama's nominees, as appears likely? Here are 10 possibilities:

Sri Srinivasan: The 48-year-old federal appeals court judge was confirmed unanimously in 2013 for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit — a traditional stepping-stone to the Supreme Court. He would be the court's first Indian-American justice.

USA TODAY

Sri Srinivasan: Supreme Court justice in the making?

Patricia Millett: Srinivasan's 52-year-old colleague on the D.C. Circuit is popular in both parties and is frequently mentioned as a possible candidate. She argued 32 cases before the Supreme Court as an advocate.

Merrick Garland: At 63, Garland is older than most nominees, since presidents want their choices to stick around for decades on the bench. He is a moderate who serves as chief judge on the D.C. Circuit court and could be a compromise choice.

Kamala Harris: California's attorney general, 51, could be another leading candidate. She has the added luster of holding political office, a life experience that is sorely lacking on the Supreme Court. She's currently running for the U.S. Senate seat of retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer.

Deval Patrick: The former governor of Massachusetts, 59, is a close friend of the president who served in the Justice Department during President Bill Clinton's administration.

Amy Klobuchar: If the Senate would be less inclined to block one of its own, the senior senator from Minnesota, 55, might be someone Obama would consider.

Sheldon Whitehouse: See "Senate" above. Whitehouse, 60, the junior senator from Rhode Island, is a former attorney general of Rhode Island and U.S. attorney with strong credentials.

Goodwin Liu: He was Obama's choice for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in 2010, but Republicans blocked his nomination, making him a less likely choice now. At 45, he sits on the California Supreme Court.

Paul Watford: A judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, Watford, 48, is another Obama nominee with a potentially stellar future.

Jane Kelly: She is a 51-year-old judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit who was a career public defender. From Iowa, she has enjoyed the prior support of Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee.

More on the death of Justice Scalia:

For a related story, about the effect of Scalia's untimely death, and the new likelihood that Missouri's Justice Clarence Thomas will have to actually write some dissenting opinions, see www.KcmoPost.com

Renee Kelly's Harvest, an overpriced greasy spoon in Shawnee, by a pretentious chef who wants to move to KCMO

Renee Kelly's Harvest, is in the old Caenen Castle on Johnson Drive in Shawnee--west of Shawnee City Hall (Nieman) about half a mile.

The building has also been a rest home, a night club and other things.

Renee Kelly's Mom told me, personally in 2003, that she bought the home to launch a career in food service for her daughter.  Caenen Castle, (sans the Renee) was the name at first.   She started at first doing catering, private parties and lots of wedding receptions.  The house, sans elevator, is beautifully restored.  It has lots of charm.  But on this Friday night, in the height of KC Restaurant Week, was largely as deserted as its former life as a haunted house.

Over the years, Renee's brand identity shifted from the ambiance to her personality.  She changed the menu from home cooking to feature a growing trend of "Farm to Market" cooking.  That means locally grown foods, mostly organic.  Renee is a bit stiff, like a scolding nun with a ruler, about rapping the customers' knuckles with this incessant message of virtue and health.  Her menu is so broad and changes so often it is described on numerous web sites as "all over the place".  Many online reviews call her food overpriced.  So I wanted to sample it during KC Restaurant Week, $33 for dinner or $15 for lunch.  I defy you to find that menu online.  She signed up at the last minute, long after the first 100 restaurants were committed to the charity event, and many places had already booked up for the 10 day season.

Let me ask you this: when you feature just three entrees for the special, {rabbit ravioli (3 to a plate); clams and mussels (a meager 10 count) and baby back ribs with barley risotto}, how in heck does a competent chef with integrity run out of the ribs , at 6pm on Friday night?  Even Aldi down the street had raw ribs, if that is what you lacked.

One had to plan ahead early that morning, to substitute with a far lesser cut of meat, brisket that needed to be marinated in sarsaparilla.  And the $33 special cost more than most things on the regular menu.  Quite the opposite of the six other fine dining places I visited this week.  They offered a deep discount.

Renee is ambitious.  I'll give her that.  I followed her this season on Bravo's excellent series, Top Chef.  Renee won the first Quickfire challenge.  This gal can chop up a tray of 30 whole chickens into smaller pieces, I tell you!  Whack, whack, whack!!!

While she was then voted first to leave, as was KCMO's Debbie Gold, a truly charming, creative and self-effacing chef from several seasons back, Renee Kelly demonstrated enthusiasm, confidence and sass.

One wonders why chefs leave their business for a month to appear on Top Chef.  It became clear to me that Renee has her eyes set on whatever will land her a choice second location in the heart of KCMO.  Because when she introduced herself, she never once mentioned that her flagship--and ONLY-- restaurant at the moment is in Shawnee.  KANSAS!   Hands on her hips, stuck out at a jaunt, tossing her auburn curls, it was: "I am Renee Kelly, the sassy chef from Kansas City MISSOURI!"  

(Excuse me?  She is not.  No restaurant there, no license, etc.  And not even a tax subsidy, tho of course everyone asks.)  The very personable waitress, Claire, added, "Nobody knows where Shawnee is."  Well that's not the point, when you are trying to brand yourself as being not from a major market.

I do recall in the early "aughts", when Renee and her rah-rah stage mom first approached me at a Chamber event, to intercede with the codes officials and planning staff at the city of Shawnee about opening Caenen Castle as a public restaurant.  (I was the elected president of the Shawnee City Council then.)  They had the big head about expecting the city to completely ignore or break all their codes.  To hear tell, Renee's Mommy wanted the city to condemn adjacent land for a song, so they could magically and cheaply meet the city's firm and inviolate requirements for offstreet parking.  Or just make life easy: to commandeer onstreet parking, currently in use by the existing neighbors, to suddenly post it from 5p-10p as as Private Parking for Caenen Castle only!

And I quote: "Do you realize just how talented my daughter is and what she is about to create??  For this little town??"  

To Shawnee's credit, we maintained our requirements.  And did not 'give away the farm' to the eventual Farm to Table/Contemporary American restaurant.  Perhaps that's why Renee Kelly's 'Harvest' (forget the Castle) is now rebranding and seeking greener pastures in KCMO, the lush land of abatements.

Oh brother.  I'd love to be a fly on the wall if Mommy Kelly tries to negotiate with the other queen of entitlement, Shirley Helzberg, (above) for Renee Kelly to now be handed a tax-abated signature site downtown in Greedy Shirley's tax-abated development in the Crossroads.  For BNIM Architects, who cannot keep a straight face by threatening to move to JoCo if their ladidah millionairess landlady-first-time-developer doesn't get her $5 million tax break?

Now that would be a dish: Filet of Catfight on Green Dirt Farm greens, with raspberry vinaigrette.

OK, so how was my actual dinner at Renee Kelly's Harvest in Caenen Castle in Shawnee?

Horribly greasy.  Both the substitute brisket with greens; 
   and the duck (regular menu) with gooseberry schmeared on
   the plate like blood from a crime scene.
Over-seasoned.
Over-priced.
Absolutely wonderful waitress, Claire.
Adele songs over the PA.  "Hello?" Pretty sure that's illegal...

You know what, Shirley Helzberg?  And Sly James?  You can have her.

Story, in PV: giving huge value at KC Restaurant Week. Just needs to frost their front windows

Of 184 restaurants participating in KC Restaurant Week this year, Story has the certifiably best food in JoCo--and they're practically giving it away.

The special dinners are just $33;  Lunches are $15.  IF you can get in.  Always use OpenTable.com for a reservation.  In this weather, wusses often cancel at the last minute, so do not give up.  Keep checking--you might score a top tier restaurant that will provide the meal of the year for you.

What does one get from Story for $33?  When the rest of the year, prices are higher?  I loved the Mahi Mahi.  A seasoned broth so special, the Bush Bean Dog is stalking Chef Carl on Twitter and Instagram, hoping he will reveal the secret recipe.  On the regular menu, just that course alone is $28.

Plus I quietly slurped up my choice of the starter, a creamy white bean soup, perfect for January--which the regular menu lists @ $9.  (I could have had the salad, a value of $8.)

Plus the world's most sensational bread basket--like a trip to Paris. Without the Muslim riots outside. The perfectly hard crust that so many restaurants cannot achieve.  I always feel a bit like a wolf on the prowl when I tear into really good French bread.  Do you?

And for dessert, merde---I adored the cardamom flavored Panne Cotta.  With two citrus pieces on top--like lazy cats curled up in the sun.

Wiki describes Panna cotta:   (Italian 'cooked cream') is an Italian dessert of sweetened cream thickened with gelatin and molded. The cream may be aromatized with rum, coffee, vanilla, or other flavorings.

Story is not a French restaurant.  It's that new breed of New American cuisine and craft bartending. The chef is Carl Thorne-Thomsen.  He might be the last of the hypenated husbands.  But he is first in my book of award-winning chefs in JoCo.  Just named to 100 Restaurants Worth Traveling To.  The only one in the metro.

And they weren't talking about just guiding your Lincoln up Mission Road from Leawood. They meant: fly into town, hail a cab (hard to get Uber at KCI) and head to 3931 W. 69th Ter, in the very middle of the Prairie Village Shops, next to Standee's Theatres and across from the great Cafe Provence.  

Now I love Story.  Went there for my birthday.  But I have two suggestions.

One:  Someone please go buy Chef Carl some black plates.  All of his are white.  But when you serve a Panne Cotta, which is ivory, on a white plate, even tho it has those fancy drips orbiting the dish, like Neptune's 14 moons, well, it would be  breathtaking if it just was served on a black plate--so this "out of this world" dessert could really stand out in the culinary firmament.

And Two:
Frost the windows on the east side of their front door.  Or get reflective tape.  Because there you are, swooning with delight, until some SUV pulls into the parking space with their headlights on, and sits there.  No doubt texting or calling or catching up on Facebook.  An eternity.   If you are seated in any of the first four tables, the lights are right in your eyes.  Six feet from the window!  Think doe in the headlights.  Or the raid in Benghazi.  It completely ruins the moment.  In Gitmo, they use that kind of a surprise on the guys we are torturing to elicit confessions.

Why isn't this fixed??  I know the market research says show people inside dining, to attract folks from the sidewalk.  But really.  Perhaps Chef Carl and the waiters are always standing up when they stroll thru the dining room.  If they EVER sat down, after dark, where they seated me, trust me, they'd be fixing this.  It's bad enough that the view all the time is the Chico's sign.  Story has cute faux drapes of stringy yarn.  They fail to cover the windows nor cut the glare.  Please.  Design a better solution.  You'll rocket from one thumb up--because my other hand was rummaging for my sunglasses.  To two thumbs up.

Clean up your yard quick! And close your garage door!!! Big Brother/aka JoCo government is taking the picture of every home.

Click here to see why there's a white van in front of your home...

It's just Big Brother.

And it's time for the Johnson County update.

I know it would look much more prosperous if the bureaucrats scheduled this when there are leaves on the trees.  Oh well, apparently, NON-beggars can't be choosers, either.

At the very least, close your garage door.  Nobody wants to see it.  You've seen those commercials for Febreze, re pet odors you have gone "nose blind" to?  Every day you park your car and rush to enter your home through a maze of rubble, boxes, sports equipment, plastic toys, tomato cages, hoses, loppers, ladders, shovels and junk just piled up waiting for Deffenbaugh's Spring Cleanup.

I am reminded of the great George Carlin, and his routines about Our Stuff.

And what about those treasures you are pre-staging in your garage for that sale you never got around to, last year?

Ouch, I just hurt myself with self-confession.  

Surely someone will pay handsomely for Joan Baez vinyl.  Nobody I'd date, but somebody.

Remember the JoCo Golden Rule: We in the golden ghetto do not want to see the white trash you have become "garage blind" to.  Close your garage door except when ingressing or egressing.
That's the rule in my HOA.  Or at least it was before the world's worst HOA President, Krista Turner, came to power.

Besides, in these temps, it's freezing all the garden and painting supplies you have in your garage.

And if your yard is cluttered as well, hurry--there's a brief warm-up in the weather.  Pick up your crap.  Store your giant trash bins where they belong, either inside your garage, or at least behind the front wall of your home.

These curbside portraits of your biggest investment will be like a drivers' license for your home for more years than you might imagine.  Used not just for assessment and taxation, but also all these google maps, etc that prospective homebuyers search before they buy in your neighborhood.

So between the county's white van and Google Maps' eye in the sky, you can run but you can't hide.

If your neighbors' yards look a mess, that can reflect negatively on your home's value, especially if you are moving soon.  Have some fun.  Challenge your neighbors to play a game like I do with kids: 30 Minute Pickup.  Only in your case, the winner gets a beer.  Not bad, right before the next playoffs game.

At the bottom of the link, there are some other things the Curious Mind can search.  Verify the property lines for your fences, for example.

And if you have a loved one in the dating world, or on Tinder (heaven help you), or your kids or grandkids are going on playdates with schoolmates, one can check out the kind of dwelling they might be visiting.


With my Norwegian frugality, and OCD talents, at least when I decide to get rid of stuff I will have the right sized box to put things in:

Now why haven't I cleaned out my own garage, you ask?  I'm busy.  Blogging.

Happy New Year.

10 snobbiest cities in Kansas--and all but one are in JoCo!!! But at least my town, Shawnee, was 18, and didn't make ten most redneck towns.

Just in time for holiday taunting...See the 10 snobbiest cities in Kansas--here!

Gotta love the descriptions. Years ago, I promised snobby Leawood Mayor Peggy Dunn that I would not say "ladidah Leawood", in any of my memorable radio spots for Rutlader Furniture,  for an entire year.  Well, time's up.  Ladidah is as #1 lives.  Truth be told: that is not a live giraffe ogling the Mayor's cleavage.  She was at a Lyric Ball auction.  And she is not really taller than a giraffe.

Second spoiler alert: Prairie Village does not have mountains.  Yet.  Tho once the new mayor, Laura Wassmer, decorates her new free Joco tax subsidized community center, the former Meadowbrook Club House, she may want to build a ski chalet and serve cocoa at Meadowbrook.  But only if the county commission subsidizes it.  Someone, ask Commissioner and former mayor of PV, Ron Shaffer.  It could be the next tax subsidy: New Courthouse plus Morgue for Olathe.  Plus a bonus Mountain Range for Prairie Village, to get those swing voters there.

And when they show Fairway on this list, that photo is the Shawnee Indian Mission museum.  This is disgusting, because it was where snooty Kansas missionaries had the courts/sheriffs kidnap and house little Indian kids, and tried to turn them into worker bees for white families.  Tried to beat their native religion out of them, and turn them into Methodists.  And yet, we spend JoCo county tax dollars to subsidize this and celebrate it.

Stealing someone's culture and brainwashing them.  Not a good thing---
---Martha Stewart

To my knowledge, no native American Indians currently live in Fairway.  But Fairway does boast the region's largest inventory of homes with just one car garages, since that used to be the rule there.  Point that out, as you haul your relatives by car on this Tour de Snootiness.

Now many of you will argue, rightfully and indisputably, that of course Mission Hills should have been #1.  That's what makes these silly lists such perfect table talk for your family holiday party. Statistics.  Bigger liars than your Uncle Homer.

And is it true George Brett moved from Mission Hills to PV?  Someone report back on this.  I thought it was just his wife who opened a little noshery in PV.  There are no homes with ballfields in the back yard for George's four boys--in Prairie Village, are there???

So, before you put on your ugly sweater or unfurl your napkin--and tuck it tastelessly into your shirt collar, do one thing:

Print off the list, and tuck it into your pocket.  Pull it out when your family members bring up any of the Top 10 WORST subjects for Christmas dinner:
Hillary or--
Bernie
Trump
Cruz
Muslims
Planned Parenthood
Obamacare
Second Amendment v. Gun control
Former Royals players
How about those Chiefs

Before you shop for Xmas, peek at your new JoCo property tax statement: Comm. Steve Klika broke his promise, and just cost you $48 every year for life.

You could have bought a loved one a decent gift for around $48 this Christmas.  And every year thereafter.  But instead, by one vote, you are forced to pay the County to cover Steve Klika's sellout and failed job search.

This is what happens when unemployable men of low integrity get into office.  They break their campaign promises.  They sell us out, to pay off their pimp--by spending Other People's Money.  So three years ago, Steve Klika of southern Overland Park had failed once again in his career.

Untrained and with a whiny cloying personality hauntingly reminiscent of Barney Fife, Klika was let go from his 18 month job as an executive headhunter.  (But lied about it on campaign disclosure forms for 3 years.) This followed his previous job loss, running tour busses to Branson.  Not a college grad, he sure didn't want to lose his house in the Blue Valley school district.  He was desperate to feed his three kids and his very young wife, Amber.  As her boss at KC Agenda described her to me last summer, "Amber works just part time,  as one of our Party Girls--entertaining men at conventions at hotels in downtown KCMO."

So Klika ran to replace former Kansas City Chief, County Commissioner Dave Lindstrom, who went back to real estate.  Klika's opponent, Terry Presta, was a conservative Republican, who ended up with a job in Topeka running the Lottery.

How did Klika beat his opponent, a known and trusted conservative in that district of southern OP?  In the opinion of many, as documented in print, Steve Klika lied to the voters.  He POSED as a conservative.   At every campaign stop, he made a pledge: "I will not vote for ANY tax increases until we do our job and finally rebuild the outdated Johnson County Courthouse."

But two weeks after he was sworn in, he took off the mask.  Klika broke his promise, for the first of three times.  He became the swing vote for the worst real estate project in JoCo history, the King Louie bailout.  The $400,000 building the county bought from Eilert's supporter and future Sunflower landfill development partner, Kessinger Hunter--where Lindstrom has worked.  Klika poured $4.5 million into moldy King Louie in his first month as a commissioner.  By law that money should have been the seller's responsibility for asbestos abatement and buttoning up the building that had been just two weeks away from condemnation.

After that, Klika was the swing vote that poured even more tax money into King Louie.  A total of $32 million.  In a s shady financing scheme that pays much higher interest rates, and is reserved only for wealthy bond investors.  For an unnecessary community center seven blocks away from a far better community center operated by Overland Park, Matt Ross Center.

How did Chairman Ed Eilert get Klika's vote?  Well, many believe he promised the pathetic over-the-hill guy a job.  Which didn't pan out.  But Eilert got his vote.  During the same months as the King Louie votes, Eilert was backing Klika for the job of Director of the ATA.  After all, he had run a tour bus company worth less than $1 million.  Why not a five county bus company worth seventy times that in annual tax subsidies?  What's a few zeroes among friends?  All Klika had to do was sell out the taxpayers.

The professional headhunters for the ATA checked out Klika's declining career path and fuzzy dates on his resume.  The ATA had already banked Eilert's half a million annual subsidy of the newly reunited metro bus company.  They didn't need the dead weight of a weak manager in Klika.  So, the ATA chose Joe Reardon, the seasoned, scrappy guy from KCK instead.

Klika hung his head like Eyeore the Mule.  (oh alright, if you insist...)                                            

Now he had no new daytime big boy job.  Since then, he has remained totally dependent on his $65,000 a year one day a week Thursday job as Eilert's boy, his swing vote.  One of seven JoCo commissioners on the BOCC/Board of County Commissioners.  Now, for the record, Klika a neighbor in Blue Valley have started a new headhunter business--but that has never taken off.  Doesn't have a web site, an office or a phone.

So this is how politics works.  You pay off your supporters with sweet contracts.

This is how a one vote margin cost the average JoCo homeowner $48 a year, every year, in property tax increases.

The BOCC is seven men who meet during the day, instead of at night, like they used to.
2015 was an "off year" for elections...so this was the year that Eilert could still count on four votes he controlled, to the three conservatives he did not control.

There is no newspaper coverage of county business.
And the TV stations are busy covering crime in KCMO.
Their reporters must leave bread crumbs or plug into GoogleMaps just to find the county offices in Olathe.  And how do you tell a story in 45 seconds?  You can't.

So Klika is the big traitor.  But who are the other three men who love to spend Other People's Money?

Ed Eilert:
In 2014, Chairman Ed Eilert defeated challenger crazy lazy Patricia Lightner, the worst campaigner and debater in JoCo history.  He's on his final victory lap, and will likely set himself up to work for some of the real estate barons that he has enriched over the years.  So he votes for everything that enriches Overland Park, including King Louie.  And to keep the money flowing to moderate OP, Eilert votes against anything that would, by law, be required to be build in conservative Olathe, including a new Courthouse.

Commissioner Ron Shaffer:
Former mayor of PV, beat Mission's former mayor, Laura McConwell. So how did he bring home the bacon to his liberal Dem voters?   Shaffer voted for King Louie, AND then immediately for Meadowbrook --the park department giveaway of a FREE community center for the voters in Prairie Village.  (The county took the hit for the city of PV.  And kept the worst half of the land, leaving the better half to a car dealer turned developer: VanTrust Foundation.)

Commissioner Jim Allen, former mayor of Shawnee, with 7,117 loyal State Farm clients, also voted for King Louie.  And Meadowbrook.  And the third leg of political pork: the Parks&Rec and Library mill levy increases as well.  So-- what did Shawnee get?  Bupkiss.  Losing a museum.  No new funds for crumbling streets.  And just $1.3 million for a study to fix the stupid Monticello "RedBox" lending kiosk that never works.  (I know.  It doesn't take that kinda money to "study" this.)

But Allen had to get something for his vote: the other half of Allen's District #2 is Lenexa.  And they got a second free library.  Allen voted with the Eilert Cabal to raise property taxes for not just Parks and Rec, but also the Library board.  Lenexa is building a new city center, on dangerous unstable land that was dynamited by Shawn O'Rourke's cave storage company, 20 years ago near 97th and Renner.  Hence, lots of buildings no taller than two stories, so they don't fall down, go boom.  But instead of that city paying to build themselves a second unneeded library, (in an era of Google and Wikipedia) Lenexa got the county to build them a second full sized one for free.

The difference between Shaffer and Allen and Klika?
Only Steve Klika campaigned on a promise of no new taxes.
Just remember that in the August 2016 primary and the August 2016 general election.

You could have bought your loved one something nice this Christmas.  But instead, Steve Klika sold you out perpetually, in a year with no election.  He's hoping you're too stupid to remember.  Let's find someone, a true conservative in southern Overland Park to replace him.

Editor's note: Ten days ago, the BOCC finally voted to "study" building a new courthouse.  Not build it.  Just study it!

Here is why Kansans and Missourians hate Stan Kroenke, destroyer of Metcalf South: Organic hard boiled eggs at Costco, already peeled...

It's not just ISIS.  There are poor folk and millions of middle class folk in the US who are out of jobs but full of resentment.  The war in the US is the Haves v. the Have Nots.  And in Kansas and Missouri both, Enemy Number One might just be Stan Kroenke, the real owner of abandoned Metcalf South.

He is a double 1%'er.  So rich he is high up in the 1% of America's wealthy.  The source of that is was smart enough to marry Sam Walton's sister.  So Stan and Ann own 1% of all Walmart stock.

Hey, maybe we will see Stan tonight, at 6pm, as your local Walmart drags all their employees in from Thanksgiving dinner for a jump start on Black Friday.

Memo to Stan's employees: "No pie for YOU!  Clock in by 4pm or lose your job."

We probably won't see Stan at the store.  Stan Kroenke is not driving down Metcalf to survey what his unrelenting selfish greed has done.  He's also not driving around downtown St. Louis, where he is abandoning his team, the St. Louis Rams, to take an even BIGGER tax handout by moving his team to LA.

Nope, Stan is said to be enjoying some deviled eggs at his $21 million home in Aspen, Colorado.  He is the richest homeowner with the biggest damn house in Aspen.  That's what greed do.

Now let me tell you about Kroenke's deviled eggs.  It is way too much trouble to boil one's eggs.  Or have to practice your Spanish so you can tell your third-world chef how to do that.  The truly rich start halfway to the finish line--get your hard-boiled eggs at Costco--they're already peeled!

Just slice in half, remove the yolks, (perfectly centered?  Or are those yolks leaning far to the right???)  Being collosally wealthy has its travails.

Mash up the yolks in a $1000 blender, add mustard and some mayo--the good Hellman's kind, not that Berman's crap from Aldi, plop back in, or use a cake-decorator pipe to do it up right.  And for God's sake, sprinkle with paprika or caviar BEFORE you artfully arrange on some $200 designer platter.  Nothing says middle class like spillage on the platter.  And no cleaning the outlines around the deviled eggs by licking the spillage with your finger.

Here's Stan's tough dilemma this month: does he have his chef buy the organic hardboiled peeled eggs, for $8.79 or the regular eggs, which are just $5.99 at Costco?

We all know what Stan Kroenke did.  He bought the organic.  The motto of every 1%'er is this:
Why spend more when you can spend a great deal more???!

Because he and his loyal knave, Owen Donahue from Lane4, are just biding their time, waiting for the city of Overland Park to cave in, and give him tax abatements, and Sam Brownback and the state of Kansas, to give him STAR bonds.  For that, he'd be required to build some stupid qualifying special attraction, eg a "water feature" in the parking lot at the former Metcalf South.

The last drawing showed a fountain the size of an above ground pool in KCK.  woohoo!  Last one into the fountain is a rotten egg!

 

Our town's little Sundance: KIFF starts Fri. Nov. 6: My picks for Film Festival include Curious Worlds, DreamKiller, and RightFooted.

On any given weekend, the same 12 studio films are playing in 80% of all theatres in every city in America.  Starring the same 36 actors and comedians interviewed at 10:30pm on every major network show.  It's group think for the masses.  That is why it stretches your mind when you carve out time to see some "indies"--movies too unique/controversial/artistic or sometimes subtitled to make it into general release.  YOU vote on the favorite documentary and narrative.  You make a huge difference in helping these small budget movies break out to earn nationwide distribution.

The 15th annual Kansas International Film Festival opens for one week only, this Fri, Nov. 6--with 80 independent films shown one time only!  Dozens of filmmakers and directors will be present for Q&A's.

KIFF president Brian Mossman and his screening board (the ones in blue shirts with bloodshot eyes!) have assembled a lineup this year with something for everyone: narratives, docs, shorts and animation.

The schedule, descriptions and all the trailers--all at kansasfilm.com.  Sort by your favorite genres.

Can't decide?  Just show up.  Ask a movie maven at the table to coach you. You will meet some great new friends over a snack in the KIFF Cafe.

My picks for the first night, Fri. Nov. 6: 
Curious Worlds/The Art & Imagination of David Beck at 5:40pm.    A weird obsessive artist.  Asked where he gets his ideas, he replies, "I have a book.  Ideas for Skinny Sculptors".

Watch the hilarious trailer for Curious Worlds here.

And then at 7:40pm, an Oscar nominee, "dream/killer", a true story about a young man in Columbia Mo convicted of murder --based on some witness's dream!  Spoiler alert--after 10 years, his Dad and lawyers got him out of prison.  The filmmakers will attend the screening.  This is the kind of excitement you witness at KIFF every fall.

 See the trailer for "dream/killer" here.

Yet another story featuring a resident from Columbia may be a huge hit Sat. night at 7:45pm: "RightFooted".  This unstoppable gal was born with no arms.  yet she flies a plane, pours milk on her cereal, dabs her mouth with a napkin--because she is "RightFooted".  AND a really happy person, a role model, and a wife.  So if you are sick of people who whine and complain, bring 'em to KIFF for an attitude adjustment.

Watch the trailer for "RightFooted" here.

KIFF happens at the new Glenwood Arts at Ranchmart, 95th & Mission.  The theatres and the film festival were forced to relocate from Metcalf South when Lane4 and greedy 1%er Stan Kroenke closed that venue last December--out of spite, to taunt the City of OP while begging for tax abatements, and build: NOTHING!  Maybe a filmmaker will make a doc about those greedsters some day.

The schedule, descriptions and all the trailers--are all at kansasfilm.com.  Sort by your favorite genres.

Can't decide?  Just show up.  Ask a movie mogul or maven at the table to coach you. You will meet some great new friends over a snack in the KIFF Cafe.

KIFF changed my life, maybe the same will happen to you.  This is where I became an activist, after seeing "Under Our Skin", the doc about Lyme Disease.  I started lobbying to support dozens of Kansas City victims of deer syphilus that the CDC and our two state governments refuse to diagnose or treat, whilst waiting for a new vaccine.

One year, I heard a Sex Offender Prison Choir.  From Leavenworth.  There's always a memorable moment at KIFF.  Come have yours.  Open your eyes--but please, turn off your cell phones.  See you Fri. Nov. 6 thru Thurs. the 12th--at the Glenwood Arts at Ranchmart.

Schedules and trailers, all the deets here!

Finally, I agree with Steve Rose: JCCC should drop name of Carlsen Center. Just don't rename it the Cosby Center!

Since I haven't read the KC Star for two years, thanks to Tonyskansascity.com for posting Steve Rose's column.

Read Tony's comments plus Steve Rose's column re Carlsen Center

Finally, Steve Rose and I agree on something.

Steverino loves being called Mister Johnson County.  And 99.97% of the time, he is an apologist for his golfing buddies and the development attorneys and the bankers and Ed Eilert who voted to give HIM that title, so then he supports whatever agenda of tax grabs and land grabs they want to advance.

So I was shocked that he wrote, we should rename the Carlsen Center at JCCC.

Now Steve Rose is not a journalist.  He inherited his millions from his great Dad, Stan Rose, back when we had a Sun Newspapers.  He is a mouthpiece.

So do I think he had this original thought?  Of course I do not.  I suspect Chuck Carlsen and his wife are tired of being reminded of Carlsen's history of chasing women who were his employees.  Rose quotes Carlsen.  Rose does not report.  He shares what he is told to do.

I believe Carlsen WANTS his name removed.  Good.

I believe the elected board of directors of JCCC WANTS to remove Carlsen's name.  And thus, Rose's editorial gives them political cover to finally do the right thing.  Good.

I believe the school newspaper staff and students deserve high praise, because it took great courage when Ann Bullers and her kids published their exposes about Carlsen--WHILE he controlled their budget.  And subsequent staffers and reporters have continued to press this issue.  Good.

Now two things:
the board of JCCC needs to also pass a guideline that henceforth no current employees get to use taxpayer dollars to build a building and then bully the board into naming it after them.

And: just don't rename it the Cosby Center.  Then we're good.

Does your Good Luck Royals T from 1985 roll up above your manboobs like a sausage casing? What's your good luck outfit or superstition that will bring the Royals the pennant?

The last time the Royals WON the World Series was 1985.  (Last year we came in second.  But you knew that, or else you are Isis undercover.)

So here's the question:  What will you be wearing Tuesday during the game?  Do you have a royal blue good luck T-shirt?  And does it cover you?  Or is it so tight, it rolls up, above your manboobs like you are in the discards pile of a sausage factory?

I do have a royal blue rain poncho.  And Gary Lezak et al (including that perky gal, Kalee Dionne, on 41, or Lisa Teachman, the one on KCTV5, with the faux twirly hair that doesn't move even during gale force winds), are all predicting rain.

May I wear that rain poncho, inside my living room?  Will this fool anyone--even my puppies, or the Isis man?

I also have a royal blue hat with a very long feather--it's a church hat.  Who am I kidding?  I'm a fair weather fan.  But still, Go Royals...

I always love those scenes from Silver Linings Playbook, where the co-dependent Mom is making her lucky recipes, Crabby Snacks and Homemades, for her OCD husband, Robert DeNiro.  And her nervous breakdown son, Bradley Cooper.  Because if she doesn't, or she runs out, that entire family believes, the Philadelphia Eagles are sure to lose the game.

and yes, this full service JoCoPost blog brings you the recipes:

Recipes here for crabby snacks and homemades

     
(Call me and I'll come over and taste them to make sure you made them just right...)

Have we come just three steps out of the dugout of history, the world of Fred and Betty Flinstone?  Is our society still so driven to "invent meaning" and connect the dots that superstition rules us today?  What are your favorite superstitions?

One more thing.  Look up in the sky.  Another full moon.  The one last month was the remarkable red moon, 17% closer to Earth so it appeared huge--and it was the TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE!  First one since 1982, three years before we won the World Series.    And the next one won't be for another 18 years.

One can only imagine if that happened during Game 1 of this World Series.  Some fans would be quite willing to sacrifice their first born son, in a trade to the Gods of Baseball, for a sacrifice bunt.

I hope the Royals win out in four.  Because between my too tight t-shirt (which I will NOT model for you), my rain poncho, my church lady hat and oh yeah, my blue suede shoes with Velcro closures--well I've only got four pieces of apparel to trade for a victory.

Go Royals.  I'll be sitting next to this gal...

Simple way to avoid cell phone scam! Buyer beware: online cell phones may be stolen merch that T-Mobile says "no longer exists in our universe"

I know.  I shoulda bought my cell phone from T-Mobile or Best Buy, but not from a third party seller.  And when my choice of Galaxy S6 Edge popped up on Glyde.com, instead of the usual $623, there was ONE for $421.  I'd been shopping for weeks.  I grabbed it two minutes later, like it was the last chocolate cookie.

Duh.  That should have sounded the alarm in my head.  Apparently, I don't have an internal brain app for Sucker Deal.  (Well, now I do.)  I went to the T-Mobile store Friday during the Royals game--expecting to be the only customer.  Instead it was like the Turkish border or a German refugee camp for Syrians.  Everything but a row of tents.  Doors lock at 9pm, the hard working staff (who at least do not call themselves geniuses, like snooty Apple does) stays on Fridays till 1 or 2 in the morning if necessary.  Who knew?

The phone was advertised as "Excellent", but Reza Niamat, the manager at T-Mobile in western Shawnee exclaimed, "This thing is brand new!"  BUT THEN REZA SQUINTED.  I should have known then.  Reza's lieutenants had transfered the contacts, and only THEN made the new SIM.  Uffda, as my Norwegian grandmother would have said.

Not only was the phone locked, it was "blocked".  Forever.  Kind of telephone leprosy.  An untouchable.  Or at least not activate-able, ever ever ever.  Believe me, I tried.  Assurant Insurance ladies are nice.  You can hear hundreds of them in a call center, all dealing with this national problem.  I was told the phone had probably been in more men's hands than a cheap hooker.  Maybe 3 or 4 transactions in short order.  From the thief to Craigs List or a bulletin board at a college, or e-Bay. (Altho at least e-Bay lists the seller, and blocks them when they get caught selling stolen merch.)

Or maybe the clueless gal who "lost" it or changed her mind filed a false claim, and thought she'd get to change brands just by paying $175 and then reselling the phone that was never lost in the first place.

Hours of research revealed, when a cell phone is reported Lost or Stolen, and the original owner pays her $175 to the insurance company to get a replacement, then the old phone no longer exists in T-Mobile's inventory.  You can't pay off the insurance claim.  It's shiny new yard art.  Filling America's landfills with "rare earth" and magnets.

Watch Lesley Stahl's story on Rare Earth, how China is beating us

Now here's how to avoid being scammed.  Don't buy a used phone until you look up the IMEI number.  Google it.  A website will tell you if that phone is BLOCKED.

And to Glyde's credit--they worked it all out.  I am sending back the Leper Phone, and they are covering the difference when I buy a legitimate one.  They checked the IMEI number before shipping it.   Good for Glyde.

And they blocked the seller.  Either she is clueless or devious.  At first I was told if she did it AGAIN, then they'd block her.  I responded, that is what is wrong with justice in the US.  Coddling and enabling.  Should we tell a murderer, "Now if you kill a SECOND person, then you're goin' to jail"?

OK, readers.  Soon I will have a great phone for taking videos to send to you.  As Shakespeare said, "All's well that ends well.  Can you hear me now?"

Apple Store genius Trevor reveals crappy sound is AT&T's fault, not your Apple phone! Here's the fix, so you don't have to go into the store.

Have you found it virtually impossible to hear your Apple phone friends when they call?  Because of intermittent kinds of static?  Crackles?  Bad audio?  Dropped calls or ones that make you have them repeat every darn thing they say?  As Bernie Sanders might say, "I'm tired of your damn phone calls!"

Well, guess what.  It's not the NSA--listening in.  It's ATandT's fault.  Finally--the secret is out.  And now, you can tell all your Apple-holic friends how to fix it, thanks to this blog (have you subscribed yet?  Please do so now, top RH corner.  And leave a comment.)

Apple phones of many recent generations have sounded terrible lately.  But Trevor at the Apple store (he's a genius you know)  in Leawood says, it's not Apple's fault.  It's AT&T.

At first I was skeptical.  But he actually fixed the problem, in 90 seconds (during one of those appointments it takes 10 days to get.)  And he shared how you can or your friend can perform this simple fix yourself.  Now.

ONLY AT&T started bundling their cellular signals in one switch, for both data and voice.  Kind of like some of the water pipes in Kansas City, Missouri, where they co-mingle storm water and water full of shit.  (There's a reason they call it Flush Creek rather than Brush Creek.  And that's why it's only out of town tourists who will ride in a boat at the Country Club Plaza. And never step foot in the brown water.)

So all the other carriers were smart enough not to bundle oil and water, or poop and water, or data and voice.

Apple phone owners with AT&T service only:
Go into Settings
Cellular
Disable LTE  (this changes it to data only, not voice and data.)
Reboot the phone.

Problem solved.  You're welcome.

Now sign up to follow this blog, and forward to your friends.  Even if THEY don't use AT&T, with an Apple phone, I guarantee they know SOMEONE who does.

Here's to world peace.  Go Royals.

If you see only one movie in next 2 years, make it PK. Thurs. 7:30pm Oct. 15, Standee's in PV. One showing only thx to OmFilmFest.com. Slumdog/ET/BeingThere/GodsMustBeCrazy/Bollywood.

We are so blessed that Johnson County is a better film community even than Denver.  So while we read up and make our choices out of 80 docs and narratives and shorts for KIFF, Nov. 6-12 at Glenwood Arts (kansasfilm.com), we can go this Thursday for the final encore showing in this market of the best film I've seen in 30 years: PK.

Thanks to Jerome van Wert at OMFilmFest.com, (who had a sold out showing of PK in September at Cinemark on the Plaza, there will be one final encore showing of PK.  I've never been to Standee's in the Prairie Village Shops, but I hear it's super.

Did you love The Gods Must Be Crazy?  ET?  Being There?  Slumdog Millionaire?  PK is Bollywood's biggest hit, so big that Disney bought the US rights, and locked this up with their princesses.  You can't buy it on DVD, nor see it on Netflix.

So I hope to see you there Thursday 7:30pm at Standee's.  It will make you laugh, and open your heart.  Promise.  One of the few films that actually hits its dramatic arch.

OK, SMSD: follow Chris Kemper's lead at KC Public Library: get OUR libraries to use student ID's as library card, and allow 24/7 access.

Kudos to the Kansas City Library system, so ably led by Chris Kemper.  It took 3 years to pull off, (which is crazy) but now KC Public School students log in online to the library, using just their student ID.

Saves a huge waste of plastic, admin time and as the boy in the Micheal Mahoney/KMBC.com story says, a whole lot of time on the bus.

Watch Ch. 9's Mahoney's story on national first: students use library with just their student ID

I can't believe it took Chris Kemper, (R. Crosby Kemper III) the scion of United Missouri Bank, now graciously and wisely serving the public like a Medici-in-residence, to accomplish a first for the nation.

Good for him.  Now it's time for Shawnee Mission School District to follow suit.

Just what is the problem, anyway?  Isn't there an app for that?!  Someone write a computer program, to accept all verified student ID numbers the same way they accept all those old "library cards" on plastic, that either have to be made by hand, and held at the desk, while we wait in line, or mailed by snail mail.

Our libraries are one of the most archaic and obsolete institutions.  They need to completely reinvent themselves--or lose their tax subsidy.  Google and Wikipedia are far better than the World Book Encyclopedia my family paid $399 for in 1957.  (Remember when the molecule was the smallest particle?  I do!  I wrote a paper on it in 1958--and got an A from Miss Mangan.)

How quarky was that?  OK, Shawnee Mission.  You filed your amicus brief, pleading just how broke you are, the day after you walked on $1 million in a TIF for Meadowbrook Park's "Recreational Welfare just for the citizens of PV" plus a subsidy of some luxury homes.   You gave all our students laptops and tablets.  Now get to work: hook em up to the library.

Maybe some students will use their access to brush up on economics.  And the distinction of socialist welfare.

SMSD cries wolf: feigning poverty day after walking on $1 million in taxes. Did they violate KOMA? Can Steve Howe subpoena their Ouija boards??

SM Schools --you can't act all rich on Wednesday, then file an amicus brief with the Kansas Supreme Court the next day, claiming poverty.

SM is talking out of both sides of its mouth.

So Wed. at 7:30am, the SMSD met.  The public was not allowed to speak.  And the hoped for moment, when someone dared to stand up to Ed Eilert's shenanigans and deceits, and refused to hand over $1 million in rightful property taxes to the county--for the purpose of funding Recreational Welfare: a FREE community center for PV--at the expense of every taxpayer in JoCo.

I was proud of Cindy Neighbor and Patty Mach, two board members, for even DARING to suggest ths goofy "reverse TIF" for a car dealer, was, as Commissioner Michael Ashcraft of Olathe admitted on PVPost.com, "a bad deal for SM Schools".  After all, the school board members, who work for free, are elected to protect our property values.  Not kiss up to Ed Eilert and his buddies.

It's not just to provide good schools for those of us who have kids.  But also to protect our single biggest investments, our homes.  And when our schools fail to compete with Blue Valley, we can easily lose $20,000 when we go to sell our homes.

But alas: this was the first round.  And when it came time to vote, there was no vote!  So, if the public's business must be conducted in public, then exactly how did Superintendent Jim Hinson discern that there were insufficient votes to even HOLD a vote, to possibly VETO the TIF?  And why is he so afraid of a vote, on the record?

Over the past week, before the vote, did he and the BOCC and the panicked Mayor Laura Wassmer of PV and the school board members all communicate using their district-issued Ouija Boards?

Gosh, we know emails are fair game.  Is ESP via Ouija board a violation of the KOMA?  Can DA Steve Howe subpoena every Ouija board hidden behind the librarian's desk there at every SM school?  (We knew about giving a tablet or a laptop to every student in September.  These Ouija's somehow slipped past our attention.)


The deets of the amicus brief are all covered on PVPost.com, which has done an excellent job, as usual, of reporting.  And Tonyskansascity saw merit and linked to it--for which we are grateful.

Click here to read PVPost story re amicus brief, feigning poverty

SM School District: It's not nice to fool the Kansas Supreme Court.  If you can walk away from TIF's, then maybe you don't really need more funding from the state of Kansas or us taxpayers.

This was just Round 1.  The taxpayers lost.  Cindy Neighbor and Patty Mach get it.  Hooray for them.  Now we need a few more to wake up.  In about two months, the SMSD will actually FORMULATE a policy on TIF's.  Hopefully, they will Just.Say.No.  Especially to Recreational Welfare.

Personally, it doesn't take a policy or being a Rhodes scholar to be able to make a sound financial decision.  And represent the people who put you there.  Or to be consistent in one's messages, to the car dealers and the courts.  So I am disappointed in our school board.

But then, (I was a teacher in a private school), we must remember:public education was never designed to promote critical thinking.  It was officially intended and still serves one purpose for a better work force of compliant workers: Public education teaches kids to shut up, walk in a straight line--and all hold hands.  Apparently, the SM school board got an A on learning that lesson.