Hey Roger, You are not in THAT Kansas Anymore.

[Tommymac]

Link to tweet

I hate sleazy politicians. There is STILL something the matter with Kansas.

[dweller]

1. That would have been 1985

thru 1991 ...

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/history/chart

✌🏻

[dchill]

2. They seem to always want to remind us ...

... what assholes they are.

[Tommymac]

7. It's like the conscience they suppress still haunts them

Or maybe they are just really stupid.

[MuseRider]

3. Oh take my word for it, he is most assuredly

a sleezy politician. How this asshole won is a surprise but then how they all won is a surprise. We are overloaded and got punked when we thought we were going to do better. Yes there is something the matter with Kansas and as to what I cannot say. I am tired, old and done trying to figure it out.

[Tommymac]

8. Understand how you feel.

I felt that way in January 2017 after coming home from the DC Women's March, and took a 3 year break. I feel bad for sticking my head in the sand, but with my medical conditions, I would not have survived if I hadn't.

But this year, President Joe and the new, young guns in the Democratic Party have given me a new shot of adrenaline.

This is the most exciting first 30 days of any administration I have ever lived through, barring Kennedy's when I was simply too young to remember it.

I think I now know what the People must have felt like in January and February of 1933.

[MuseRider]

14. I am trying not to take a break.

I find I remain interested, of course, here daily but Kansas is leaving me behind. Brownback has returned and Kobach is firing up for something or other to make us look even worse. We are not gerrymandered in the least, it is almost equal all across the state but we got killed in the last election and there is absolutely no way to stop them from doing whatever they want. No way, only the issues the Kansas Supreme Court will hear. At least we have a very fair, mostly liberal leaning court. Other than that they could start stringing us up on the street corners and there is no one to stop them. I am terribly depressed. Going after transgendered kids now and women always and not so good with immigration although better since Kobach had to shut his mouth. He is back and getting fired up so my guess is the next most of the rest of my life I will be marginalized and so will anyone who is not a white christian male. *sigh* I come here but am no longer feeling the need to represent or even admit where I live. How did this happen? Koch. One word, one name (now anyway) Koch.

[Rhiannon12866]

4. He said he worked thru high school. He was born in 1960, so graduated in 1978.

I had a minimum wage job that summer which paid $2.30/hour.

[MuseRider]

12. I was looking back too

and in Kansas in 1978, a college graduate, I was getting paid $1.75 an hour by the city working at the zoo. I was poor poor poor. I made only a tiny bit more my next job but never topped $2.00 and hour until after nursing school and even then at night was barely making it.

I don't know if this is because of the state but I made less than a lot of friends but was not worse off than most at that time.

[Rhiannon12866]

13. My summer job was at an amusement park here in New York.

The first summer I worked there the minimum wage was $1.80, a couple of years later it went up to $2.30, but only those who had worked previous summers got that, others started at the previous rate. The owner of the park cut every corner he possibly could. I was fortunate that my Dad paid for my college so I was able to save what I earned.

[MuseRider]

15. My mom helped me,

my dad died my first year in college when I was 17. I don't know how anyone pays for it now. My kids earned great scholarships, one with a full ride and the other almost. We got lucky there.

[Rhiannon12866]

16. O, I am so sorry! That must have been awful!

I earned a NY State Regents scholarship but my Dad said I shouldn't let that determine my choice of schools since it mainly just covered books. My mother had earned the same scholarship back in the late 40s, but back then it covered the entire tuition.

And I know what you mean, the cost of college has become astronomical. When I attended college back in the '70s, my school was $5000 a semester which I thought was a great deal of money, but now I don't know how anyone can afford it without help.

[Silver Gaia]

21. My first job paid $1.60 an hour in 1972, as I recall.

But a gallon of gas was under 50 cents, and a week's worth of groceries was around $10 to $20 for 2 people, and we ate quite well on that. *sigh*

[Rhiannon12866]

22. I remember that, too.

My cousin gave me a ride back to school once (I didn't drive yet) and I remember stopping for gas at a rest stop on the highway. The price there was 47-cents and she said it was too expensive so we needed to find a cheaper station.

And when my parents were out of town, since I didn't drive, I took a long walk to a grocery store. I got $10 worth of groceries but it was such a big (paper) bag that it ripped on my way home.

[Dagstead Bumwood]

5. If the minimum wage kept pace with KSU tuition

it would be over $37/hour now. Yeah, you could probably scrape by on that.

[Tommymac]

9. Thanks for the math.

That's a great perspective.

[crickets]

23. 👆👆

[TomSlick]

6. My brother was raised in the same household as I in Arkansas.

Our parents have never voted for a Republican candidate in their lives. Our mother for some years was a justice of the peace (county legislator) and always proudly ran as a Democrat. We were both reared to know which party represented the interest of working families like ours.

My brother stayed in Kansas when he retired from the Army, married a local woman, and became a convinced Trumpster. So yes, there is something wrong with Kansas - and it's contagious.

[Tommymac]

10. I had a roommate from southeastern Kansas.

This was in the 1980's, but he was a hard core Paul Harvey conservative then. Can't imagine where he is today.

Nice guy. He was conservative through and through - but the one weird thing was he HATED Raygun. I could never really figure that one out. We had a lot of high talks about it, but I can't remember them.

[TomSlick]

11. Let's see - a SE Kansas, Paul Harvey conservative?

My bet is that he thought Raygun was a pinko.

[speak easy]

18. In the early 1980s I was on a journey from libertarian to liberal.

I loathed Reagan - he lied through his teeth - f'ing voodoo economics. I 'disliked' him so much I voted Carter in 1980.

[Tommymac]

25. Thank You for that. 1980 still stings.

I worked my ass off for Jimmy in both 1976 and 1980.

I moved from North Carolina to the Rocky Mountains in 1983.

That was all I could take of Raygun and his voodoo world. I was honestly worried about the end of civilization at the time - though I was not a survivalist - just an out of place hippie who wanted to get away from the News media and their love for the Chimp-Master.

[speak easy]

27. September 26, 1983. The end of the world WAS minutes away.

[Tommymac]

30. Not sure whether to thank you or run and hide again...

Those memories of that time are still all too real. PTSD may be too strong a term, but my outlook on life was changed for all time.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

17. this is the argument my brainwashed mother believes.

It couldn't be more frustrating.

[BobTheSubgenius]

19. What a dissembling POS.

Damn, that is some awful s***.

[Yavin4]

20. Politicians like him want to keep their constituents poor or in near poverty to keep them angry.

They manipulate that anger into votes by blaming their plight on immigrants, Blacks, feminists, you know the rest.

[crickets]

24. +1

[edhopper]

28. My brother lost the remote control to his TV

I told him just to get up and turn the dial, then adjust the rabbit ears to get his station.

[panader0]

29. I heard Richard Trumka (Pres of AFL-CIO)

say yesterday that if the minimum wage had kept pace with inflation, it would be $33.00 now.

[RANDYWILDMAN]

31. This is a generational problem

the college inflation since about 1990 is insane and most people who already went to college didn't pay attention

but it's no excuse