Men ran drug ring out of luxury apartments

You're not going to hear much about this story, because it was a crime committed by rich residents of some luxury apartments. If a homeless person had committed this same crime, you'd never hear the end of it.

Two men - a father and son - have been convicted of running a drug ring out of their luxury apartments in Cincinnati. The drugs included fentanyl, crystal meth, and cocaine. The apartments were in the Pendleton and Mount Auburn neighborhoods. These luxury dwellings were gentrification projects that drove out many of the neighborhoods' previous low-income residents. One of apartments cost $4,200 per month.

Federal court documents say the Pendleton apartment was "a major source of illegal narcotics in Cincinnati."

This is like how one of the richest streets in Southgate - a street where lots of right-wing politicians live - was known as the go-to place to buy heroin. The media of course never covered that.

Gentrification. Bringing drug lords to a neighborhood near you.

People beered at the pool

Today, to make use of the record heat, I went back to the pool at Ziegler Park in Cincinnati. Channel 5 was there! But if I got on the news at all, it was probably only briefly.

Also, some couple smuggled in beer - in stark violation of an Allowed Cloud. I also detected the smooth, airy vapors of a certain green herb.

The tradition of seeing celebrity look-alikes at this pool continued as I saw a Sinead O'Connor look-alike.

Snack stand with broken card reader only accepts credit cards

The far-right World Economic Forum agenda has crossed another threshold of stupid.

Some of you know that on the few days when we have suitable weather, I use the swimming pool at Ziegler Park in Cincinnati. A couple of times, people have pooped in it, causing it to be closed for a bit. Anyway, you used to be able to pay cash for admission and snacks. But a few years ago, this public pool began to accept only credit cards - for no apparent reason.

This was a problem today, because the card reader at the snack stand was broken, even though the stand only takes credit cards. So I had to walk all the way over to the entrance to pay for my chips.

This is idiotic beyond belief. If they accepted cash, we wouldn't have to worry about a broken card reader. Yet they will not accept cash, no matter how much everyone pleads. Cash is supposed to be legal tender, but that's lost on 3CDC, the WEF, and the right-wing media.

Why do so many venues - especially in close proximity to the far-right 3CDC - reject cash? It couldn't just be to exclude those who they want to exclude. Ever since apps and online retailers became popular, very few American adults today have no credit card, because it's impractical or impossible to pay cash for app or online purchases. That's different from paying in-person like at a public pool or a festival. Clearly, someone is using credit cards to collect data on customers. Otherwise, these in-person venues wouldn't require credit cards. Who knows who has our personal information and what they'll use it for?

Today's encounter was complicated by another factor. This isn't limited to young people who toil away at snack stands. It's afflicted almost everyone over the past 5 years. The problem is that everyone mumbles now. I could hardly hear a word they said at the snack stand today. How did everyone get in the habit of mumbling? What were people doing a few years ago that gave rise to this habit? Ponder, ponder. Again, this problem plagues all of society - not just a few people.

An otherwise fine pool is dampened by the expanding totalitarianism of 3CDC and the WEF. I may go back there in the very near future, so I'll be sure to bring my walking shoes so I can walk all the way over to the entrance when I pay for a snack.

Here's the deal: Joe and Jill Biden look-alikes sighted

On Tuesday, in front of a local restaurant, I saw an elderly couple who looked just like Joe and Jill Biden walking along the sidewalk!

Duke Energy fined for billing violations

The Kentucky division of Duke Energy - the powerful monopoly that controls utility service in greater Cincinnati and charges some of the most exorbitant electric rates in the nation - has been fined $120,000 by Kentucky's Public Service Commission. The commission found that Duke committed billing violations affecting almost 8,000 customers and that the violations were "willful", as they continued even after Duke was warned to stop.

"Willful" means deliberate and intentional. It was not an accident. It was not an oversight. They did it on purpose.

Anyone who still had a benign view of our major corporations and institutions can wipe the poo off their face now.

A person bunkerooed at Hoffman Park

Today, I went Roads Scholaring over in Northside. While I was resting at Hoffner Park, I heard the sound of an LAP bunker blast.

Have no fear, the June ish is here!

The June issue of The Last Word is pub, and it's going to gobble you up when you least expect it!

This ish talks about our town installing Flock cameras to retaliate against dissidents, memories of carnival fights, people stupidly ruining records, a university's dumb rules on how to throw pies at people, a 21-and-up McDonald's, and more!

So poop your pointer here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/868675526/The-Last-Word-6-2025

If that doesn't work, glide on over here...

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2506.pdf

Gum for the holidays...At Kroger!

Today, I braved the rain to go to Kroger. While I was there, some woman was in such a Krogery mood that she bubbled.

A person bubbled and made a big issue out of it

This morning, I went to the parade down the street, and some kid kept bubbling in elders' faces and making a big deal out of it.

Don't be fash! Accept cash!

Earlier today, I went to Taste of Cincinnati - or as I call it, Baste of Cincinnati - and was it ever booorrrrring!

But there's lots of poologgery going on that must be confronted. There were ploppings too, but I'll get to those.

The main issue there was that most of the food stands that I patronized only accepted credit cards. No cash was accepted. You could wave George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in their face, and they wouldn't take it.

In my day, this was unthinkable. It was unthinkable even the last time I went to Baste of Cincinnati, not to mention the most recent Ploptoberfest, which was only 8 months ago. But the far-right World Economic Forum agenda is rapidly encroaching.

When I used the portable restroom, I did notice that several items had been plopped into the dumper. They included one of those plastic rings that holds together 6-packs of soda, small plastic bottle lids, and a pair of underpants someone wiped their ass with. So at least Baste of Cincinnati isn't a total loss.

But I'm not likely to ever return to Baste of Cincinnati unless their food stands start accepting cash again. There ought to be a law. Every currency note is printed with a notice that it's legal tender. I'm old enough to remember when that meant what it said (because I'm older than 5).

Supremes split on religious charter school

The big story here isn't that a state planned to allow public funding of religious schools. This happens all the time through voucher schemes, even though it's unconstitutional. The real story is that the U.S. Supreme Court split 4-4 on this case when it shouldn't have even been close.

Not long ago, Oklahoma planned to allow a religious charter school run by the state's Catholic dioceses. The constitutional problem with this was obvious: The school would have received public funding to sponsor religion. But even Oklahoma's Republican Attorney General didn't support this affront to separation of church and state, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled 6-2 against the dioceses.

Now the U.S. Supreme Court - with only 8 of its Justices on the case - has split 4-4 on the matter. This means that the lower court ruling stands, and that you can't have religious charter schools. The real shocker is that it was 4-4 instead of 8-0. Because of this deadlock, similar cases could be tried later.

In brief, religious charter schools are unlawful, as they constitute taxpayer sponsorship of religion. This is basic constitutional law. There is no wiggle room on this. Sometimes you can see how courts can disagree on how to interpret constitutional law - after all, that's a main reason we have courts - but this is a case where there is absolutely no ambiguity. Yet the Supreme Court has drifted so far from even the most basic legal principles that they ruled 4-4 instead of 8-0.

Pick up the Post...It's full of greed! (a blast from the past)

This has been backlogged on our hard drive for 19 years, and the culprit is a newspaper that's been out of business almost as long. But we can't let this go unanswered. (That's how The Last Word got its name.) I was attacked by the familiar suspects we all know and love for 35 years, and 19 pales in comparison.

Back in 2006, the right-wing Cincinnati Post ran a right-wing editorial demanding draconian sweeps against homeless encampments so nobody would have to see them during the Tall Stacks festival. This nonsense put out by the Post sounds like it's straight out of the Tea Party or the People's CDC...

"City officials, with ample notice, should clean out the camps, particularly those along the downtown riverfront. They need not feel guilty about it. If there's any guilt to assign, it involves the shortage of institutional housing alternatives for the mentally ill who constitute such a large portion of the homeless population."

In other words, the Post not only wanted to conduct brutal sweeps of encampments but also lock up the homeless in psychiatric "hospitals."

This frenzied screed from 19 years ago is still relevant now, because this right-wing mentality encouraged the increasingly violent responses that cities unleash against the homeless today.

Jet crashes into San Diego neighborhood

One of the most widely ignored stories is the likelihood of planes crashing into homes. It's been a national epidemic for decades, yet nothing is ever done about it.

Many years ago, a jet airliner struck a North Carolina neighborhood. Newspapers carried photos of debris strewn up and down the street, but this wake-up call went unheeded. A commercial jet crashed in a residential area near Buffalo. Not long after 9/11, a plane crashed in a Queens neighborhood where many firefighters who served in 9/11 lived. Many people on the ground or in their homes have died from planes hitting.

Now a private business jet has crashed into a San Diego neighborhood, burning over a dozen homes.

As long as planes are as prone to crashes as they have been lately, flight paths should at least be modified to avoid going over heavily populated neighborhoods. Other folks have been warning about this danger for years, so the FAA had to have known about it. A Queens-based watchdog group many years ago called Sane Aviation For Everyone had warned about this very thing, and the aforementioned Queens crash proved the group's warnings should have been heeded. SAFE stepped up its warnings after this tragedy, and a bill was introduced in Congress to reroute New York area flight paths. It's unclear if these paths were ever changed, and threats remain all over the country.

This is a national scandal, and - maddeningly - it's getting no attention at all.

Wozzin' on Wozzfozz

Last month, I went Roads Scholaring on Cincinnati's Wasson Way - or as I call it, Wozzfozz Way.

That event yielded 25 photos of a Scholaring sort.

As usual, peep and ye shall weep...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/cineast25.html

Ohio floats unconstitutional plan to limit crowdfunding

Criminal defendants have a right to a fair trial. That even includes those who we strongly suspect are guilty.

But some Ohio officials want to change all that. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican, wants to make crowdfunding efforts for criminal suspects illegal. Remember, these are only suspects - not those who have actually been convicted.

Some of the crowdfunding campaigns that would be banned aren't just for legal costs but also the defendants' families.

A law against these crowdfunding campaigns would of course be unconstitutional. We've lamented the mollycoddling of known violent criminals, but a law like this shreds due process to unrecognizable scraps.

GoFundMe reportedly banned such campaigns for criminal defendants several years ago, following pressure by the media for stiff punishments for those who violated COVID lockdowns, but Ohio's new law would force all crowdfunding sites to have such a policy.

Ohio lawmakers are already working on a bill to do Yost's bidding.

Another bunker blast to make you laugh

Earlier this evening, I went to an important family gathering, and the scent of an SBD bunker blast was detected.

Belvin' in Bellevue!

"I was Belvin' in Bellevue...Belvin' on that Covert Run Pike they built..."

I just posted 12 new Roads Scholaring photos from a recent outing in Newport and Bellevue!

It was a brief event, since I had my usual medical issues to take care of, but you're gonna bip through 'em nonetheless...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/newbel25.html

Scholaring in Highland Heights!

Highland Heights, Kentucky! My hometown!

Before a big glob of mucus gobbles you up, it would be cool if you pept and bept a batch of Roads Scholaring photos I got last month around Highland Heights and Cold Spring. There's 18 items, and they rule!

So point your pooper here...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/hhcs25.html

UC Berkeley received $220M from China

This item has been largely covered up, but it explains a lot.

It has been revealed that the University of California, Berkeley, received $220 million from the Chinese government - that is to say the Chinese Communist Party. Federal officials turned a blind eye to it for several years.

This isn't surprising, and we're sure other American universities - maybe even local school systems - have also accepted CCP dough. The difference with UC Berkeley is that this school eventually got caught.

The Trump administration now says it is investigating the university, but I'll believe that when I see it. In other words, I won't believe it, because it's unlikely that Trump is actually doing much. Biden didn't go after the school either.

This story is important because it shows how hostile our education system is to the values of liberal democracy. It is not indifferent but outright adversarial.

All sorts of neet poo goes on down in the 'Nati!

All sorts of neet poo goes on down in the 'Nati!

That's why the No New Normal Cam has bubbled forth 20 new photos from a Roads Scholaring in downtown Cincinnati in March! There's some old signy goodness, some alleys, and other biperoony.

So point your pooper here...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/cincen25.html

Have no fear, the May ish is here!

The Last Word trudges along with its May issue!

This ish talks about a local Flock camera boondoggle, fun with OpenStreetMap, Bazooka bubble gum soda, congressional wastage bastage, and more!

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/855512221/The-Last-Word-5-2025

If that doesn't work, slink on over here...

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2505.pdf

It's bubbling season in the Belv!

Today, some woman walking up the street bubbled.

Lockdown mayor wants to kill homeless

Longtime Mayor R. Rex Parris of Lancaster, California - a Republican - has long been known as one of the worst mayors in America.

Now he says he wants to kill homeless people by poisoning them with fentanyl. At a recent city council meeting, Parris said he wants to eliminate homelessness in his city by giving the homeless "all the fentanyl they want."

Later, Parris said he wants a federal "purge" against the homeless.

Now the mayor is the target of a recall effort.

Parris also does not believe in separation of church and state. In 2010, he declared his city was "a Christian community." Plus, he endorsed an alliance with the Chinese Communist Party. And don't even ask about his COVID response. He said that failure to wear a mask was "an act of domestic terrorism."

R. Rex Parris is an act of domestic terrorism.

A funny thing happened on the way to Target

Today, I saw a Whoopi Goldberg look-alike driving around in front of Target.

Ludlow in your face

To fight the forces of loom and doom, I Scholared last month around Ludlow and Bromley, an event that yielded 27 biptacular photos.

Peep 'em now before they peep you...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ludbro25.html

Have no fear, the April ish is here!

An ish! Wow!

The April edition of The Last Word is pub, and it's as important as all the rest! This issue talks about a college town's poorly attended events, people vandalizing a luxury apartment complex, Donald Trump's Sesame Street obsession, tons of people acting up at school, highway surveillance cams, the New York Post's crusade to replace gum with wood, a school donation box getting thrown at a ceiling fan, flatulence of professional golfers and TV sports reporters, and more!

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/844606017/The-Last-Word-4-2025

If that doesn't work, bip on over here...

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2504.pdf

Contract with America: still fascist after all these years

The substance of new congressional bills is usually bad enough, but sometimes they can only pass because of past congressional wrongdoing.

There's a regulation by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that rightly limits overdraft fees to $5, but Congress is taking an axe to that. Yet the Senate bill to overturn this commonsense rule passed by only 52-48.

What about the filibuster? Whenever any good bills come along, we have to listen to how it needs 60 senators to pass. Why is this bill different?

It turns out that it doesn't need 60, because it was approved under the Congressional Review Act, a stale relic that's part of the Contract with America Advancement Act of 1996.

We're still dealing with the Contract with America? Congress did lots of Nazi things under the Contract with America, but we shouldn't still have to put up with any of them. Yet President Clinton actually signed the 1996 bill into law, so we can't count on the Democrats to clean up the rubble.

We're ruled by unconstitutional laws passed by a Congress that hired an open apologist for the Nazis and the KKK as its House historian. It's just like how we're still affected by Reagan, who supported Francisco Franco and South Africa's apartheid dictatorship.

The Contract with America was America's Nazi moment. But for it, there might not have been so many Nazi moments since.

It's the Cincinnati Reds playin' basteball again!

Today I went to the parade for baseball's opening day!

It's recovering a little bit from the malaise of the past few years. People beered, and the airy vapors of a certain smokable herb wafted through the air!

Also, I saw 3 - count 'em, 3 - people who were in such a festive mood that they bubbled.

Elmwood Place in your face

It's time for yet another batch of Roads Scholaring photos!

This one is from last month when I went to Elmwood Place and the north side of Cincinnati. This event yielded 49 photos. It would have been funnier if it was 48, so I could do a Sesame Street voice, but it's 49.

So point your pooper here...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/cinnorth25.html

What a beautiful world this will be if we had more celebrity look-alikes

Today at the friendly neighborhood Krogie-Wogie, I saw some guy who strongly resembled Donald Fagen of Steely Dan.

Facebook connived with China to censor content

Here's a story that the BBC recently reported. We have to rely on foreign media for this story. The American media won't report it, because the American media is so closely tied to the Chinese government.

A former senior exec for Facebook said the social media behemoth worked "hand in glove" with China's ruling regime to censor content. Mark Zuckerberg himself considered agreeing to hide posts until Chinese authorities could approve them. This took place in the mid-'10s.

Facepoo also considered allowing Chinese officials access to users' personal data.

A complaint with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission even alleges that Zuckerberg and other Facebook execs made "misleading statements" to respond to congressional inquiries about collusion with China.

Facebook's parent company Meta then accused the whistleblower who exposed all of this of being paid off by "anti-Facebook activists." But Facebook is so bad now that pretty much everyone who has ever used it has become an "anti-Facebook activist." Maybe Facebook needs to stop censoring posts, fix its broken notifications, and start respecting the privacy of those who don't want their friends list revealed.

Censoring content at the behest of China is like when Yahoo ratted out journalists to the Chinese government - which caused the journalists to be imprisoned for years.

America also has a record of suppressing dissent lately. Cities try to close theaters if they show movies they don't like (in addition to illegally searching bags of people on the beach), and government officials have coerced social networking sites into removing content they disagree with. The U.S. has lost a lot of credibility in its claims to be a bastion of personal liberty. But in addition to ending its online censorship program, the government should also pass a law promising stiff punishment for American websites that collude with the Chinese government.

Scholaring in The Big D again!

Last month, I went Roads Scholaring in Dayton, Kentucky. The main purpose was to investigate an attempt to illegally barricade a public right-of-way, but there was some other assorted biperoony.

So point your pooper here...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/dayky25.html

Louisville weakens housing regulations because Tea Party legislators told it to

Quick! Call the Unnatural History Museum! The Tea Party is still around!

Most cities have regulations on residential properties that are designed to protect residents. Louisville has regulations to fight lead hazards and to maintain a list of residential property owners. This isn't to pick on owners, but to help make sure they maintain safe properties. Everybody has to follow rules. I do too. That's part of living in a society.

But now city council - led by Democrats - has gutted most of the city's regulations, not because of any new laws, but because of a bill that hasn't even become law. A bill in the Kentucky legislature called H.B. 173 was introduced a couple months ago by a Tea Party Republican but has been languishing in committee ever since because it's so unpopular. This bill would ban local governments from creating such regulations.

Gee, what a big lesson in courage by Louisville Democrats!

The bill itself defies the principles of local control, but the main point here is that the so-called Democrats who run our cities cave at the snap of a finger. That's because they actually support the Republican bill and just won't admit it and care only about raising money off the issue. The Democrats are in power in Louisville and still do what the Republicans want. They can't say they don't have the power to do any better.

Someone on Twitter posted today, "The same Democrats who spent their Obama & Biden admin majorities crying about all the reasons why a majority isn't enough to pass legislation people want now want us to believe they're powerless to stop Republicans because they're out of power." But the Democrats still have a majority in Louisville and are using it to do what Tea Party Republicans want.

Both major parties use executive orders to enact bad ideas at the stroke of a pen, yet they always complain that they don't have the power to enact good ideas. The reality is that they don't want to enact good ideas. The parties have different priorities, but have become practically identical in their policy stances.

Have no fear, the March ish is here!

March into March with a brand new 16-page ish of The Last Word!

This edition discusses NBC's disinformation, our fight to reopen a local street, a school getting mad because I worked at the library, the FCC's UHF-only cities, making art out of broken glass, splicing a Pink Panther cartoon into an "educational" film, and more!

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/833529373/The-Last-Word-3-2025

If that doesn't work, gallivant over here...

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2503.pdf

Newspaper ordered to remove critical editorial

We've just crossed yet another terrifying threshold.

Recently, the Clarksdale Press Register in Mississippi published an editorial that dared to criticize Clarksdale city government. The newspaper charged that the city hadn't properly notified the public about a meeting regarding a resolution sent to the state legislature.

The city sued the paper over this editorial. Even more unbelievably, a judge sided with city officials and ordered the paper to remove the editorial from its website.

You can't make this stuff up.

We live in an era of the most extreme censorship we've seen in our lifetimes. School boards yank books off the shelves. Some books aren't even allowed to be published at all anymore, even though they were considered inoffensive in my youth. Federal officials have been caught coercing social media sites into deleting true information - and the Supreme Court let them do it. But the latest incident is a whole new frontier for censorship.

The plague of democratic backsliding is very real.

This is exactly like if the Campbell County Schools sued me for all the true statements I've made. I know they wanted to, but their lawyer probably laughed in their face. But this case sets a bad precedent that could open the floodgates and silence all but the biggest news outlets.

Scholaring is back! Circus Vargas, Circus Vargas!

A couple weeks ago, I went Roads Scholaring for the first time since my recent heart surgery. This time, I went to the west side of Cincinnati and explored some small roads I hadn't covered yet.

This outing yielded 18 photos. So point your pooper here...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/cinwest25.html

Have no fear, the February ish is here!

The month of Febrewery is getting under way!

That means it's time for the February edition of The Last Word! This ish talks about how I had to have heart surgery because of our totalitarian rulers, a public alley in Cincinnati being limited to wealthy residents, movers stealing items, Uncle Al chewing bubble gum, and more!

So slog on over here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/822434754/The-Last-Word-2-2025

If that doesn't work, float on over here...

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2502.pdf

I had a dream where someone farted at a bookstore

I had another funny dream last night.

In this dream, I visited some bookstore and buyed a book about Usenet from 1990. The store had an area in the back where people could sit down and have coffee, juice, and bagels. When I was back there, someone farted really loud. A bunch of very studious college students who were sitting at the tables burst out laughing.

Then, when the laughter was dying down, some older guy went, "It wasn't me," just like in the song.

What the critics are saying!

Say what you want about Twitter. Well, as long as it's bad.

I know the censorship isn't as bad as it was, but it's not completely gone. And the embedded timelines are now either broken completely or they don't show posts in order, which means some timelines start with posts from 10 years ago. I got a Bluesky account to use as my timeline instead, even though censorship on Bluesky is supposedly worse.

But there is something on Twitter I noticed that actually works. I accidentally clicked on some symbol on my Twitter page, and it actually came up with some coherent descriptions of my page, as if Twitter properly catalogs accounts somehow.

One of the descriptions reads...

"A vintage music enthusiast with a sharp political edge, lamenting the repackaging of political ideologies and celebrating the lost hits of yesteryears."

Another says...

"Bandit73's been skewering politicians left and right, from calling out Phil Gramm's gaffes to dubbing Andy Beshear 'Ant Farm Andy.'"

I don't quite agree with that though, because neither Phil nor Andy is on the left.

Biddle gibzz!

It's official: entire Senate more right-wing than the Tea Party

Yesterday, the Senate actually voted 99-0 to confirm Marco Rubio as Secretary of State.

You may remember that Rubio was a Tea Party favorite when he was first "elected" - but Tea Party members later abandoned him because he was too right-wing even for them. That was after he praised the Patriot Act and the NSA's illegal phone spying.

The most right-wing Senate in the country's history - by far.

Congress and Bush stole from Social Security

Presidents change, but their underwear never does.

Here's something we should talk about, even if we know it won't be remedied. Pundits say Social Security is facing a shortfall that will force more benefit cuts in the 2030s. Whether this is actually true remains to be seen, but it could just be right-wing propaganda to force cuts before then.

Or the shortfall could be real. If so, it's because of the actions of those who want cuts now. The fact is that Congress and the George W. Bush regime stole from Social Security to pay for their pet projects such as illegal wars. They did not borrow. They stole.

It is folly to say Social Security can't borrow to cover the shortfall because government agencies can't spend more than they have - though talking heads have said it. Have they been paying attention for the past 200 years? The government has been in debt for most of the time since it was founded. The Pentagon is always spending more than it has.

It's like having a Balanced Budget Amendment on steroids. It's as if there's an amendment that applies to everything except war spending. There actually was a version of the Balanced Budget Amendment that was proposed by some right-wing loudmouths that was like this.

Social Security costs money, but it doesn't lose money. Nobody dares to accuse the Pentagon of losing money, even though it has failed audits over and over again.

All of this is after steep Social Security cuts have already taken place. What the media calls the "third rail" of politics is always the first thing cut. Always. The retirement age was raised, and nobody has lifted a finger to restore it. It's also much harder to qualify for disability than it used to be. This is borne out by statistics that show that far fewer people collect Social Security disability benefits than they once did.

While anachronistic jizzumjaws like Phil Gramm continue to have op-eds published that laughably claim Social Security and Medicaid are forms of welfare, and that they should be cut further, the facts are swept under the rug.

This is why our brand of hard-hitting investigative journalism must be kept alive.

A Kroger elderbubbling

Today at Kroger at County Square in Cold Spring, some old woman bubbled.

Grandpa Walton goes Krogering

Today at Kroger (which was out of milk as usual), I saw a Will Geer look-alike.