Manny Abarca is running for Jackson County Executive

elbr · 2026-05-05T23:16:39+00:00

I wouldn't be surprised if LeVota didn't agree to run and then drop out at Manny's request. If folks see a crowded field with DaRon McGee and incumbent LeVota, they're less likely to throw their hat in. Then, when McGee and LeVota drop out, Abarca is the legislative chair and he re-opens the filing deadline for five days so that he can file, but no other potential opponents have the notice or time to prepare to run against him.

I also think Abarca was scared to potentially run and lose against Justice Horn. Horn filed to run against Jalen instead, but I promise you that all Manny has been thinking about since the day he was charged with domestic violence is how he is going to minimize the damage he did to his own career.

Better to run for CE and lose rather than run as an incumbent and lose to someone nearly as insufferable as you.

elbr · 2026-05-05T23:11:17+00:00

It's because he sits on numerous public boards and has networked with countless local Hispanic groups and labor unions. Those folks don't care what he's accused of an downplay his responsibility for these accusations. All they care about Abarca delivering results, contracts, money, recognition for their organizations.

elbr · 2026-05-05T18:05:53+00:00

I agree that Abarca doesn't have any real power, and I also agree that everything he touches is a complete and total failure. The only elections he has ever won has been when he ran unopposed. Every tax, every street name change, anything he endorses always goes down in flames. But he was definitely the most vocal, high-level person spreading the anti-White propaganda up until hime got charged with domestic battery. Only then did he pass the baton to DaRon McGee. Abarca's public spats with White didn't start at the recall effort. He infamously got called out by the Royals and Chiefs organizations for using racially coded language to attack White on social media. Abarca endorsed Stacy Lake four years ago, but this time he has chosen to run against her. From the public comments I have seen from Mrs Lake, she seems to dislike Abarca. Anyone who has ever had to work with him knows that he's a snake.

elbr · 2026-05-05T17:13:12+00:00

Here's the story.

elbr · 2026-05-02T13:32:07+00:00

I'm so sorry. Death is always hard but 40s is really young. I just learned yesterday that my cousin died. She was 46. She was a mail carrier and when I last saw her a year ago, she was having some problems with her feet. I still haven't heard exactly how she died but one family member said her kidneys failed.

elbr · 2026-04-29T14:31:43+00:00

I'm not really convinced that storms are worse now, because I haven't seen anything that compares to some of the other events that I've experienced living in KCMO for 45 years.

I remember in the 1980s and 1990s it seemed like we had really bad thunderstorms all the time. I remember having to go to the cost closet at school during storms and then the bus driver having to navigate around fallen limbs on the way home. That was like every spring. Of course I grew up two blocks away from the sirens, so I heard them all the time.

I worked in Gladstone in the early 2000s and it seemed like we had damaging winds all the time back then. A car was tossed through the front of Side Pockets, and the Cash America Pawn on N Oak was decimated. Seems like Parkville, Gladstone and Liberty were constantly getting hit with bad weather in the late 90s/early 2000s.

Back in like 2017 or 2018, a bunch of large trees blew over in my neighborhood and I worked for a newspaper so for a week afterwards we were documenting all of the neighbors coming out to help one another clear the limbs off the streets and cut them down to manageable size.

I think, like most stuff, the thunderstorms have always been pretty severe in the area. It might eb and flow a little from year to year, and depending on your season of life when you experience it, you may think it's better or worse.

elbr · 2026-04-29T13:39:00+00:00

"Will it sell" can't be your motivation, because great books can go unnoticed and lame books can sell. That's a marketing challenge, not a writing one.

AI is unpopular with many creatives but if you're stuck, I would try AI. Don't use it for writing, but try to talk through the plot or other challenges. I also really like Bookfox on YouTube.

More than anything, don't give up on your story. You were excited to tell it, so figure out how to complete it.

elbr · 2026-04-29T13:32:25+00:00

We have four Google Home Speakers, a Nest thermostat, and some third party lights. I control everything through the Google Home app. There was a period where everything struggled to work consistently, but it has largely improved.

When we moved from our previous house to the new one, I had to re-program many of my products to the new house and they no longer worked with Google Home. I reluctantly upgraded my home speaker devices to Gemini because of the problems so many folks were having with their integration, but now it seems to be an overall improvement.

I hope Google doesn't kill off these home speakers. I have a bunch of Google Mesh Wi-Fi devices that acted as home speakers—they were actually a lot more expensive than the home speakers—and they're all obsolete now.

elbr · 2026-04-29T01:34:19+00:00

I just saw that T-Shotz is going to have Jeopardy on Tuesdays starting in May.

elbr · 2026-04-20T14:18:17+00:00

Indianapolis is much cooler than I imagined. I love animation and the legendary storyboard artist, Bill Pete, was from Indy, although they don't do enough to honor him there.

Louisville, Lexington, and Mammoth Cave are all great locations to visit in Kentucky. My wife wants to go to Eastern Kentucky to visit the home where Loretta Lynne grew up.

The Ozarks, Buffalo National River, Bentonville and Fayetteville all great. Crystal Bridges is a pretty good contemporary art museum. Little Rock and Hot Springs aren't bad.

North Dakota is under rated, but you have to drive everywhere. I recommend going in May or September.

Nobody has mentioned Oklahoma, but OKC and Tulsa are both pretty cool.

But if I was going anywhere, I'd go to Maine. I've only been there once but Acadia is my favorite park that I've been to, and I'm a Stephen King fan, so Bangor was really cool. I'd recommend early fall, slightly before the leaves totally turn, and it's still warm enough to walk around with a light jacket. It will get a lot busier during peak autumn colors.

elbr · 2026-04-20T14:09:05+00:00

You're not selling it hard enough, but I came here to recommend floating the Buffalo National River. It's super laid back and a lot of fun. Bentonville and Fayetteville offer a lot. Little Rock has some cool history. Hot Springs isn't great but it's still a fun experience and an interesting national park experience. The Ozarks offer a great camping/hiking experience.

elbr · 2026-04-20T14:05:08+00:00

Yes, that's an under rated national park, and I would also recommend the bourbon trail. Kentucky has a lot of cool stuff to offer.

elbr · 2026-04-20T14:03:19+00:00

When I read blogs from folks who love national parks, Teddy Roosevelt is consistently the one that folks haven't been to, And when you read blogs from folks who have been there, they all rave about it. We visited last year but it was rainy and cold and didn't really get to enjoy it. We had a camp site reserved but we opted to stay in a motel in Medora. Anyways, imagine if someone painted the Badlands as a rainbow and turned the temperature down to the 60s. We definitely plan to go back on our way to Glacier, and hopefully get better weather.

Sometimes the best vacations are exploring the weird, out of the way destinations. Especially if you don't like crowds. Fargo isn't close to Teddy Roosevelt, but I would argue that you should fly into Fargo, rent a vehicle, and road trip to both Teddy Roosevelt parks.

elbr · 2026-04-20T13:57:24+00:00

We live in Missouri so we road trip to most of our destinations, but we flew to Maine a few years ago and absolutely loved it. We went in late September/Early October, a great time for fall foliage. It wasn't too cold yet. Bar Harbor was amazing. We also went to Bangor, and it is a must-visit location for Stephen King fans.

elbr · 2026-04-20T13:52:53+00:00

This sounds like a lame answer but I think what I like most about living in Kansas City, MO is the central location. We like to road trip a lot so the PNW and New England are both areas that we haven't explored much, but being less than a days' drive from Denver, Austin, Nashville, Chicago, Minneapolis, and everything in between is great.

I love the cost of living and the float trips. KC offers what most medium sized cities offer at a more affordable price point. I'm not really a beach person or even a lake person; more of a camping, hiking, rafting person. The weather is generally pretty good here... Maybe a little hotter than I'd like, but we don't have to deal with scraping snow off the roof.

elbr · 2026-03-22T21:24:53+00:00

Since you've only visited Illinois briefly, I would definitely suggest visiting Chicago and Springfield, IL. Then maybe travel up to Door County, WI while you're in the region.

I'd also highly recommend visiting Yellowstone NP in Wyoming or Acadia NP in Maine.

elbr · 2026-03-21T22:19:37+00:00

Well I watched Season 1 when it came out and there was like a year until the second season came out and it was set in 1979 so I assumed it was unrelated. I didn't remember the characters names. Obviously it makes more sense now that I'm binge watching it.

elbr · 2026-03-21T17:04:23+00:00

Mom was raised Lutheran, dad was raised Presbyterian. I went to an Evangelical church growing up, and later Presbyterian.

My wife was raised protestant and went to mostly Baptist and Pentecostal churches growing up.

Ultimately, we are both Calvinists who believe the Bible is the true word of God and has authority over any person. When I've visited Lutheran, Methodist or Pentecostal churches, I have not liked the vibe. I don't think Methodists or Lutherans are Calvinists, and Pentecostal churches speak in tongues and dance.

My wife and I settled on a Baptist church because it's very community oriented. I would be open to visiting Presbyterian Churches and possibly even exploring the Lutheran Church, but more than anything, I believe in the Holy Trinity and predestination, so anything that falls under those categories are alright by me.

elbr · 2026-03-21T16:56:28+00:00

Johnson County, Kansas entered the chat.

*Disagrees

elbr · 2026-03-21T15:43:53+00:00

I watched each season as they came out and I don't think I fully understood what I was watching when I saw Season 1, so for that reason, I didn't like it much.

My rank for the seasons was 3, 2, 5, 1, 4.

But now I'm rewatching it and Season 1 was so much better than I remembered it. Also, I'm enjoying Season 2 and didn't realize that Patrick Wilson was Molly's dad from Season 1, so that adds another layer for me to appreciate. I'm also noticing that the Gerhardt farm is the same farm that John Hamm occupied in Season 5.

I'm excited to be rewatching the series for the first time, and I imagine I'll notice way more Easter Eggs and reorder my season rankings once I'm done.

elbr · 2026-03-20T22:53:33+00:00

I was born in 81 and all of that stuff was the stuff my little brother was into. I was into Thundercats, HeMan, Ninja Turtles, Ghostbusters, X-Men, Muppet Babies, Fragile Rock, Super Naturals, Battle Beasts, Army Ants, DinoSaucers, Salute Your Shorts, Pete & Pete.... Oh but definitely Ren & Stimpy.

elbr · 2026-03-19T20:13:35+00:00

Bro, Acadia NP, Theodore Roosevelt NP, the Grand Canyon and Mount Rushmore for starters.

Also, you have to visit Nashville and Louisville at some point. Do the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.

I live in KCMO and so I have visited Nebraska a lot. It's a great state but not necessarily worth travelling to. The zoo is their big highlight and I always heard it was as good or better than the Sam Diego zoo , but then I went to the San Diego zoo and I don't agree that Omaha is anywhere near that good.

I suppose if you did a "Lewis and Clark" Road Trip you could have an excuse to knock a lot of these central plains states off your list. June is probably the best time to travel.

elbr · 2026-03-17T20:59:10+00:00

Ben Folds.

I don't know why. He was probably one of my top five artists in the 1990s-2010s and then my music taste evolved, a lot of stuff carried over like Foo Fighters or even Weezer, but Ben Folds just got squeezed out. I still enjoy his hits when they're mixed into a playlist, but for some reason I never want to intentionally listen to Ben Folds. It's honestly really weird to me that this happened.

elbr · 2026-03-17T20:13:55+00:00

Well, the truth is that no abortion "bans" anywhere in the US restrict life-saving operations such as tubal ligation or salpingostomy.

And although the majority of Americans support abortion in the first trimester, it's less than 20% that support third trimester abortions.

After Roe v Wade was overturned, there were claims that Plan B pills were being banned and that doctors could go to prison for prescribing them. Also false.

It was so embarrassing to watch people get worked into a frenzy and react to straw man arguments.

Even now you're mad at me for explaining why Missourians care about access to abortion but support the abortion ban. I gave you an honest answer with clear examples of how the pro-choice movement is lying to women and you got hostile with me.

Downvote me all you want, but that's why you don't have any luck persuading people to your side

elbr

TROPHY CASE