The November issue of The Last Word is pub-a-rooooooooooooooo!
This ish talks about my BASIC gerrymandering software, a substitute teacher's trash talk, getting worthless trinkets as a reward in 4th grade, a kid eating a candy bar in math class, an idiot who used a drone to harass homeless people, and more!
So point your pooper here...
https://www.scribd.com/document/785665158/The-Last-Word-11-2024
If that doesn't work, stink on over here...
We've crossed yet another threshold of fascism! Imagine that!
There's a right-wing effort afoot in Kentucky to limit cities from regulating short-term rentals like those offered through Airbnb. Some cities wisely prohibit owners from using properties they don't live in as short-term rentals - as it artificially drives up housing costs. Short-term rentals not only promote gentrification but also constipate neighborhoods by effectively turning them into commercial districts. Surrounding residents end up being forced to have their shit and eat it too. These existing neighbors end up paying more for a lower quality of life.
But it's not even known what legislators are behind the latest effort. Apparently, it isn't legislators at all. A new piece from WKYT-TV in Lexington says of Airbnb, "The short-term rental company introduced two bills."
Since when can corporations introduce bills? I don't remember ever voting for a corporation. At least not on purpose. I did vote a straight Democratic ticket when I was 18, but I didn't know yet that the party was actually a Fortune 500 company.
Meanwhile, in Berea, Airbnb was recently sued because only one of the 16 short-term rentals in the city was paying taxes like everyone else.
Starting on January 1, medical cannabis will finally be legal in Kentucky - after being hamstrung for decades. Each municipality will be responsible for zoning regulations governing cannabis-related businesses.
But counties in our area have decided to just ignore the new laws and ban medical cannabis anyway.
Yet some local cities are taking exception to that. A few have decided to remain dry, a few have opted to legalize medical cannabis despite what the county says, and a few have decided to bring the issue to the people by letting voters vote on it.
Bellevue is among the cities that will have a referendum on November 5 on whether to approve medical cannabis. One article says that other local cities where voters will vote on it include Alexandria, Crestview Hills, Elsmere, Florence, Independence, and Southgate.
It's about damn time our cities and the rest of our state legalize - which seems to have happened everywhere else by 2000.
I've submitted a beautiful post to the "Greater Cincinnati Politics" group on Facebook that sums up the greed and incompetence of 3CDC, the unelected secret society that stage-manages policies governing much of Cincinnati. I don't expect the moderators to approve my post, because I'm making so much sense, but I'm reprinting it below.
(Begin post.)
Local political leaders should be doing something about 3CDC, which is taking 18 months to remodel the convention center - forcing the convention center to close all the while. This has forced the Cavalcade of Customs, the Cincinnati Auto Expo, and other events to cancel completely. This is costing the city and the whole area zillions of dollars in revenues from visitors to these events.
Who elected 3CDC? I don't know anyone who voted for them. 3CDC just decides to insert itself into every matter of public interest. They're as bad as the lockdown neocons at every level of government.
I'm a man of the people, and we shouldn't have to tolerate 3CDC's serial misrule and totalitarianism.
(End post.)
In short, 3CDC has launched an 18-month remodeling project for the convention center. How can a project like this take that long? This has forced annual events like the Cavalcade of Customs to cancel - costing the local economy dearly.
It's bad for recreation and jobs, and it encourages other economically costly projects in the future.
This was after the city already lost almost the entire early '20s to lockdown-related cancellations. But at least the Cavalcade of Customs was never canceled then, and in fact appeared practically normal (except for the 3 or so people who wore masks). Still, the city probably teetered on the brink of bankruptcy because of all the cancellations of events both inside and outside the convention center.
I fully expect my post to be rejected. If it is approved, I fully expect to be assailed by right-wing Republicans and right-wing Democrats equally. But it needed to be said. I've been in smaller rooms with bigger people, and I won't be bullied.
You might say this is a ballot measure where both sides deserve to lose, but we have to defend the country's principles, so we're voting no.
On November 5, something called Amendment 2 will be on the ballot in Kentucky. If it passes, it would amend the Kentucky Constitution to allow public money to be given to private schools.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was right when he said many of our public schools are "criminal enterprises." But the solution isn't to give money to private schools that may be just as bad - or in my experience, even worse. It's a fact that our so-called public schools and political "leaders" have abandoned the Kentucky Constitution's obligation to provide "common schools." In practice, common schools do not exist in Kentucky. It's clear our school and political officials care very little about education. They see private schools as more of a business competitor. But principles must come into play here.
One of the main principles we're standing on in opposing Amendment 2 is the fact that many private schools are religious institutions, and using taxpayer funds to sponsor them would run afoul of existing provisions in the federal and state constitutions against government sponsorship of religion. Furthermore, public money is for public schools. I know it's true that public schools refuse to do their job, but the solution is to find ways to make sure they do it. You might think that's asking too much, but we pay taxes, so we have a right to expect common schools to be operated and maintained.
Will Amendment 2 pass? Before 2020, measures like this almost always failed when put before voters. (It failed in California even after the Los Angeles Times ran a loopy op-ed supporting the measure that railed against "communist indoctrination.") But the past 4½ years have done more to destroy the reputation of our public schools than all the years before. Prussia originated common schools 250 years ago, but there has never been such a steep decline in our schools as we've seen since 2020. I didn't think our schools could possibly get any worse, but they managed to defy all expectations. There is no bottom.
I will vote against Amendment 2, but if it passes, our public schools are going to have to wallow in the consequences, after they refused to do their job.
To make August even more biptacular than it was, I went on a small local Roads Scholaring and amassed 14 photos, this time focusing on Covington.
They're ready to be pept, so point your pooper here...
Back in August, I went on a fact-finding mission in Pittsburgh - paying particular attention to the amazingness in nearby McKeesport.
This event yielded 288 Roads Scholaring photos, and they're gonna fly around and bite your face off in public (as a wise man would say).
So peep, weep, and oggle-beep...
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/pit24a.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/pit24b.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/pit24c.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/pit24d.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/pit24e.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/pit24f.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/pit24g.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/pit24h.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/pit24i.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/pit24j.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/pit24k.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/pit24l.html
It's bad enough that the company that owns the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant is going to restart the plant. It's bad enough that locals won't be allowed to use the energy it generates, as the entire thing will be used to power Microsoft's artificial intelligence projects.
But now the company is demanding a $1.6 billion federal bailout - so the taxpayers will again be left holding the bag.
Meanwhile, families who were affected by Hurricane Helene will be receiving only a few hundred dollars each - much like those affected by the Maui wildfire. The government always has a bottomless vat of money for corporate bailouts and illegal foreign wars, but none for disaster relief or Social Security.
Posts
All Comments
