Kansas RINOs Show True Colors, Become Democrats

Above, yours truly with then-Senator Greg Smith in 2016 at the Kansas
State Capitol. Smith was defeated by RINO-turned-Democrat Dinah Sykes. 

One thing I've learned over the years is that RINOs (Republican In Name Only) will eventually switch parties and become Democrats.

This has happened recently in Kansas when three so-called Republican moderate state legislators switched parties.

The Kansas City Star reported:

TOPEKA - Two more Kansas lawmakers are leaving the Republican Party to become Democrats, shrinking the ranks of GOP moderates after the Legislature grew more conservative in the November election. 

Sen. Dinah Sykes and Rep. Stephanie Clayton, both moderate Johnson County Republicans, said Wednesday they are becoming Democrats. They join Sen. Barbara Bollier, who left the Republican Party earlier in December. 

The party switching comes after a nationwide surge of Democratic voters in suburban areas. The surge helped defeat Republican U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder, and some state lawmakers are now aligning themselves with this new political reality.

It did not come as a surprise that Sykes switched parties, except she didn't do it sooner. She ran against Republican State Senator Greg Smith, a perfectly good conservative state senator, in the Overland Park area in the 2016 Primary Election and won. Many of us who closely followed that campaign suspected she was a "she-wolf in RINO sheep's clothing" and was actually a liberal Democrat posing as a moderate Republican with liberal backing. A real Republican wouldn't run against a Republican incumbent in a legislative district.

Now we know!

To read more, go here.

Mystery Grows Over Sunspot Solar Observatory Shutdown

Above, an alien display at the International UFO Museum
 in Roswell, New Mexico. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Something weird is going on at the Sunspot Solar Observatory near Alamogordo, New Mexico.

According to the Kansas City Star:

Mystery continues to surround the sudden shutdown last week of the national Sunspot Solar Observatory in New Mexico, which remained closed Thursday with little explanation offered. 

The silence has given rise to guessing games and conspiracy theories bouncing around on social media about what happened at the facility in the Sacramento Mountains, especially given reports that the FBI was involved. 

The observatory, near Alamagordo, was evacuated last Thursday, reported the Albuquerque Journal and other local media outlets. 

According to the Daily News, Benny House, the sheriff of Otero County, said the FBI was involved in what he described as an elaborate shutdown process and said “the FBI is refusing to tell us what’s going on.” 

“There was a Blackhawk helicopter, a bunch of people around antennas and work crews on towers, but nobody would tell us anything,” House said, according to the newspaper, which reported the observatory entrance was marked off with yellow crime scene tape on Friday.

Meanwhile, people from all over the country are trying to guess what’s going on.

The default position: This has something to do with aliens.

To read more, go here.


And, the Daily Star (U.K.) reported:

Employees at the site in Sunspot, New Mexico, were forced to leave as agents rushed to the research centre last Thursday. 

The building remains on lockdown, surrounded with yellow tape, with no time frame given to local police as to when it would reopen. 

Tyler Glockner, who runs YouTube conspiracy channel secureteam10, speculated the observers may have come across extraterrestrial life while picturing the sun.  

Otero County Sheriff Benny House told ABC: "The FBI is refusing to tell us what's going on.

To read more, go here.

Remains Positively Identified As Kara Kopetsky's

Above, Kara Kopetsky.

A ten-year mystery I've followed from the beginning has finally been solved.

The Kansas City Star reported:

Ten years after Kara Kopetsky walked out of Belton High School and was never heard from again, her remains have been identified. 

DNA tests have confirmed that the second set of human bones found in early April in Cass County belonged to Kopetsky, the high school junior whose 2007 disappearance captured — and has kept — the community’s attention. 

Police officials from Belton and Cass County went to the home of Kopetsky's family Wednesday afternoon to tell them what the parents have said they already knew in their hearts.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article167627987.html#storylink=cpy

Eclipse Maps May Be...Wrong!

Oh-oh! Some astronomical mapping experts are saying that online eclipse maps are wrong and may be off by a mile.

The Kansas City Star reported:

Anyone who has been using online maps to decide where they intend to view the historic Aug. 21 total eclipse of the sun may want to take another look. 

Those maps, provided by NASA and others, show a crisply defined, 70-mile-wide path of totality where the moon will block 100 percent of the sun. But they are not as precise as they appear, at least on their edges. 

The southern edge of the path as shown on the maps could be off by as little as the length of a football field or as much as a half-mile, eclipse mapping experts say. Likewise for the northern edge, meaning the path of totality might be just 69 miles wide.

I'm not concerned as I will be smack dab within the eclipse' umbra of totality.

To read more, go here. 

Best Places To See The Eclipse

Above, the general area where I will be on August 21. Map by HowToEclipse.com.

Are you in the path of totality of the August 21 eclipse of the sun?

There's a good article on the best places to view the eclipse by the Kansas City Star.

They begin with:

First, a note on the emotions of getting a full view of the solar eclipse on Aug. 21: 

Don’t fret. 

A great thing about the continental United States is that it stretches for a long way. So, too, will the historic eclipse’s path of totality. That means wherever you are, you’re likely to be pretty close to the 70-mile-wide band across the country in which the moon will be seen to completely cover the surface of the sun. 

Lincoln City, Ore., at 10:15 a.m. their time (12:15 p.m. Kansas City time) will be the first place in the continental U.S. to see the sun’s rays blotted out by the moon. From then on, the full shadow of moon will speed across the breadth of the country and over 14 states to depart the U.S. 2 1/2 hours later through Charleston, S.C., at 2:48 p.m. eastern time. 

About 200 million Americans live within a day’s ride of the path. Across the country, cities and towns at the very center of that path — known as the centerline — are either expecting or hoping to attract a crush of sky-viewing humanity.

One nice thing about being retired, I can just jump into my RV and head to where the totality can be seen without having to worry about a job. I'm doing my viewing in Idaho.

The article also provided this link to find out if your area will be in the eclipse's totality.

To read more of the Kansas City Star article, go here.

Greg Smith Wins Kansas House Seat!

Well, tonight wasn't a total loss for me.

The Kansas City Star reported that Greg Smith, R-Overland Park, won the 21 Senate District of the Kansas state legislature:

Smith racked up 53 percent of the vote to Roy’s 47 percent in the Overland Park-Lenexa Senate district. Smith is a conservative Republican who is backed by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.

I made a campaign donation to Smith's campaign.  It appears it was put to good use!

Congratulations, Greg!

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/11/06/3904114/in-early-johnson-county-returns.html#storylink=cp

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