Tag Archives: kansas

Reality Virus Infects Kansas Legislators, Brownback Immune

Posted on March 29, 2017 by | 4 comments

By William K. Black
March 28, 2017      Bloomington, MN

The good news is that the Kansas legislature, the land of the lunatics, experienced an outbreak of the reality virus (first diagnosed and named by Steve Keen among neoclassical economists).  The bad news is that the Kansas’ Crazy-in-Chief, Governor Sam Brownback, has proven immune to the virus.

Brownback decided to put Art Laffer in charge of Kansas’ taxation policy.  Even neoclassical economists roll their eyes when it comes to Laffer’s claims that dramatic tax decreases lead to significantly increased net tax revenues.  Laffer’s batting average on this claim is .000 and his “proof” of his claim is a graph (the “Laffer curve”) that he drew that contradicts reality.  Brownback knew that Laffer was batting .000 on his claims and that Laffer never drops his claims when reality (repeatedly) falsifies his graph.  To no one’s surprise, Brownback’s tax cuts produced a fiscal disaster for Kansas.

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Another Reason to Retire Sam Brownback: The Senate Subprime Car Loan Sleaze

Posted on August 21, 2014 by | 1 comment

By William K. Black

When Sam Brownback was a Senator he carried water for the sleaziest of auto lenders – the subprime lenders that specialize in making “liar’s” loans.  His successful mission was to carve out an exemption from the Dodd-Frank bill’s protection for borrowers.  We had just seen the CEOs controlling similar home lending specialists lead the three mortgage fraud epidemics that blew up the global financial system.  The bill’s drafters and President Obama strongly opposed the Brownback carve out, but Brownback’s brigade of auto lobbyists made road kill of their opponents.

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Brownbackian Science in Kansas v. “Atheistic Theology Posing as Science”

Posted on January 15, 2014 by | 3 comments

By William K. Black

This is my fifth installment describing the assault on education, science, sex, and modernity in Kansas that was inspired by the Koch brothers.  The leader of Koch brothers’ retinue of politicians in Kansas is Governor Sam Brownback.  In my prior column I explained how Steve Abrams, a leader of the Koch’s shock troops, demonstrated the wisdom of our family’s twin rules whenever he wrote an op ed.  Our family rules are:

  1. It is impossible to compete with unintentional self-parody, and
  2. When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging

Abrams’ op eds were not the only gift to scientists and educators resisting the Kochs’ assaults on education, science, and modernity in Kansas.  Political wonks will recall that (then) U.S. Senator Sam Brownback, in a May 2007 Republican debate among candidates for the 2008 Party nomination for the presidency, was one of three of those candidates who held up his hand when the moderator asked how many of them did not believe in evolution.

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Kansas, Where Science De-Evolves into Creation Myths

Posted on January 10, 2014 by | 8 comments

By William K. Black

This is the fourth article in my evolving series of pieces prompted by the Kansas Regents’ new policy that eviscerates academic freedom and tenure.  In my third installment I explained that the Regents’ action, while cowardly, unconstitutional, and self-destructive, was not taken on their initiative but in response to extortion by Kansas legislative leaders.

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They’re Back: The Poltergeists in the Kansas Senate Renew their Attack on Education

Posted on December 31, 2013 by | 13 comments

By William K. Black

Two Kansas legislative leaders who have been attacking Kansas education for over a decade through their wars on teaching about sex and evolution are back.  Their threats drove the Regents’ policy destroying academic freedom and tenure.

Poltergeist:  A ghost that manifests itself by noises, rappings, and the creation of disorder – from the German Poltern (to make noise) and Geist (ghost).

I have written two prior columns (here and here) explaining how the Kansas Regents casually ended academic freedom and tenure in their universities with no notice to or participation by the faculty.

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The Kansas Regents (Casually) End Academic Freedom

Posted on December 19, 2013 by | 47 comments

By William K. Black

Wednesday, December 18, 2013, the Kansas Board of Regents drastically curtailed tenure and academic freedom.  The state attorney general aided this action.  The Regents decided that when university faculty use common forms of modern communication (“social media”) they no longer have the protections of tenure and academic freedom.  The Regents’ policy change does not even mention tenure or academic freedom.  The Regents acted without consulting the faculty and without any open debate.

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The Republican Campaign to Convince Missouri to Join in a Fiscal Suicide Pact with Kansas

Posted on November 19, 2012 by | 3 comments

By William K. Black
(Cross-posted at Benzinga.com and Huffington Post)

I have written previously to describe Kansas Republicans’ unholy war against moderate conservatives of their own Party.  Governor Brownback and Secretary of State Kobach led the successful purge in the primary elections of any Republican official who did not back dramatic changes in taxation and measures against “undocumented workers” or “illegal immigrants.”  The Kansas fiscal plan will end most income taxes, adopt highly regressive taxes that will not provide equivalent revenue, and sharply cut social programs such as education. Continue reading →

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