Kansas City Playlist: Should Local CEOs Fear Getting Clipped?!?

We certainly hope not . . .

In fact, in Kansas City the local corporate class have a very real tradition of working for charity and helping to provide economic relief across the metro.

However . . . There's no denying that the recent CEO assassination has revealed an unseemly glimpse at class-conscious tensions running rampant amid the American discourse . . . A brief overview . . . 

Social media users have sometimes outright gloated at the killing, which took place early Wednesday on a Manhattan street, as the UnitedHealthcare CEO prepared to address an investor conference. An as-yet-unidentified assailant came up from behind and shot him . . . That view, right or wrong, places the health insurance industry alongside a whole cast of characters against whom populist rage has been turned in the past dozen or so years.

Among them are business titans at the time of the financial crisis and Great Recession; public health professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic; and members of the perceived “political establishment” on both sides of the aisle, blamed for a deepening atmosphere of national dysfunction.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

The Memo: Populist rage comes to forefront in reaction to UnitedHealthcare CEO's killing

The reaction to the killing of health insurance executive Brian Thompson is the latest example of the strength of visceral anti-elite sentiment coursing through the country. Even though the motive ...

And so we ask . . .

SHOULD KANSAS CITY CORPORATE TYPES FEAR BLOODTHIRSTY POPULIST SENTIMENT?!?!

Again . . . This town is known for pathological politeness but we're also not above getting caught up in mainstream media trends.

And all of this inspires our playlist for tonight on the topic of corporate pushback both justified and overstated . . .

Let's start with "Sleep Now In The Fire" from Rage Against The Machine -- A song that served as the soundtrack for the Occupy Wall Street movement and still gets lazy millenials off the sofa . . . More backstory on one of our favorite videos: Rather than create a typical promo clip of the band playing live in a studio, Rage enlisted controversial director and activist Michael Moore – best known these days for his Oscar-winning documentary Bowling For Columbine – to film them playing a guerilla gig on the front steps of the New York Stock Exchange during the opening week of the US Presidential campaign on January 26, 2000.

A boomer party anthem that's a bit less serious about the hard rock "anti-work" ethos . . . We liked this old school video even if the audio isn't up to snuff . . .

Just for balance, we share a song with a better attitude toward biz and working . . . "Work To Do" is a classic tune from the Isley Brothers that still holds up to this day:

Classic radio constant airplay hasn't ruined our esteem for Steve Miller's "Take The Money And Run" which reminds us that greed & and bad mojo are pervasive across demographic lines.

Finally, we finish with a bit of American folkloric music which reminds us that complaining about bosses is a proud and patroitic tradition. A bit about this clip: Ernie Ford performs Merle Travis's timeless anthem to the working man Sixteen Tons on The Ford Show, October 18, 1956.

As always, thanks for reading this week and have a safe & fun Saturday night.