Attack of the "moderates"

I don't have anything personal against the "moderates" running for the Democratic nomination - like Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg - but guess what? This is 2020. We should be way past the "moderate" stage now. (I'm not counting Meow Mix Mike as a "moderate", because he's so far removed from reality.)

This era should belong to progressive populists - not "moderates."

With Bernie Sanders winning 2 out of 2 states so far, I keep seeing people say things like, "But the moderates won voters who make over $150,000 a year."

If you're of normal means and insist on supporting a "moderate", I can't stop you. But what do we make of the fact that the "moderates" won more affluent voters? My answer: Who fucking cares?! Why should voters with more money commandeer a Democratic primary?

I'm not here to please people just because they have more money. To think it's important that "moderates" won the richest voters would be like if I was worried that donors to my former high school didn't vote for The Last Word as their favorite zine. Who cares? They're not The Last Word's audience!

It pisses me off to no end that a few affluent voters can have disproportionate influence in a presidential election - in both the primary and the general. We all know general elections are afflicted too, as Republicans do better among wealthier voters each time. But for the outsized influence of the very rich, we'd be living in a much freer society now. Contrast what we have with what we could have had, and it's pretty sad.

Sanders wins New Hampshire primary

Two states have had their primary so far. And Bernie Sanders has won both. There won't even be any initial doubts in New Hampshire like there were when Iowa had that big delay.

"Meow Mix Mike" Bloomberg did so poorly in New Hampshire that the website I'm reading lumps him under "other", which has only 1.69% right now.

Trump's acquittal dealt incalculable damage to our republic, but we have a real chance to stave off the right-wing media's inevitable engineering of this election.

Trump regime fails civics (again)

There's an article in the Washington Post about the Trump thugocracy's failure to certify the Equal Rights Amendment even though the ERA has been approved by the requisite 38 states.

The article says the House is trying to rectify this by removing the deadline for the ERA's ratification. It shouldn't even be necessary to do this, because the deadline is found nowhere in the text of the ERA. But the Trump regime says this won't count either, and that they'll still refuse to certify it. The article says of this move, "Even if the Senate cleared the measure, the Justice Department has ruled it would be unconstitutional."

Donald, you idiot, the Justice Department can't rule if something is unconstitutional. That's what courts do. That's not something the executive branch does. Besides, removing the deadline wouldn't be unconstitutional anyway.

#NeverBloomberg

Know who we're getting mighty fed up with? Michael Bloomberg. Although he's a Republican, the former New York City mayor is seeking the Democratic nomination for President. The billionaire oligarch has flooded the TV airwaves with ads taking credit for things he had absolutely nothing to do with. He can't run on his real record, which includes expanding stop-and-frisk and supporting the Iraq War. We call him Meow Mix Mike because he supported the Catfood Commission - a committee that endorsed the Tea Party's plan to slash Social Security.

Even after getting only 0.12% in Iowa, the media is still cheering him on. This despite a trail of offensive statements that anyone can verify. For example, Bloomberg once said, "If women wanted to be appreciated for their brains, they'd go to the library instead of to Bloomingdale's." When someone told me he said this, I thought they were mistaken and that it was actually a Trump quote. But no. It was Meow Mix Mike. Do an Internet search for it.

The last thing America needs is for a racist Tea Party billionaire who makes chauvinistic remarks to be the Democratic nominee for President. Of course we can do better, but the media is doing whatever it can to prevent that - his humiliating 0.12% in Iowa notwithstanding.

#NeverBloomberg. Never, ever, ever.

School records protected even after death

Several media outlets are suing to acquire the school disciplinary records of Connor Betts - the right-wing gunman in last year's mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio.

No. That's illegal. It's illegal not just under Ohio law but also under a federal law called the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. Betts's school district has denied the media requests. FERPA is in force even after a former student dies.

The Dayton shooting was tragic - but Betts's school records aren't the sort of help we can use. What precedent would it set if news outlets could access his records?

I guess Heavy.com is going to have to make something up again.

Sadly, the federal law did not stop the Miami Herald from somehow receiving the school records of Trayvon Martin - the teenager fatally shot by a trigger-happy George Zimmerman - and blabbing them everywhere. It was illegal for the school to release the records, yet it did so anyway. The newspaper printed information from the records even though this information was completely irrelevant to the story.

Sanders wins Iowa caucus; Buttigieg given more delegates

Bernie Sanders has handily won Iowa in both the first and final rounds of caucusing - but Democratic Party bosses have opted to give Pete Buttigieg more delegates anyway.

Why are party panjandrums running roughshod over the Gray v. Sanders ruling? The answer is easy. The Democratic Leadership Council - the Republican wing of the Democratic Party - is trying to throw the November election by preventing the party's most electable candidate from being nominated. That way, the Democrats are more likely to lose to a disgraced Donald Trump, and the DLC can use that as an excuse to hand-pick a candidate in 2024 who is to the right of any of the party's major 2020 contenders. It's a vicious cycle.

The DLC has a victim fantasy that says that when the Democrats lose, it was because they were too far left. But the fact is that the Democrats do better when they have more progressive candidates.

Sanders has the best policies among the Democratic field, and is most electable. Yes, we'd all much rather have Buttigieg in the White House than Trump. Buttigieg would also be better than Michael Bloomberg, the joke of a candidate who the DLC really wants. Still, Sanders would be best by far, and Trump is unfit for the presidency. Everyone we know agrees with us on these things. But after Bill Clinton enacted 30 years of right-wing dream bills, the DLC doesn't have very far to fall.

Much has been made about the delay in releasing the results of the Iowa caucus, but the far more serious hold-up is the delay in America getting universal public healthcare. It's been at least 50 years since it was first proposed.

In the meantime, Bloomberg didn't win a single delegate - after getting only 0.12% of the Iowa vote. But you know it's coming, because party bosses are actively working for his campaign - which is particularly absurd because Bloomberg is a Republican.

Incidentally, I wrote most of the above before it was revealed that delegates for Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were wrongly awarded to other candidates, and before it was discovered that 4chan encouraged Trump cultists to jam the phone line for reporting precinct results.

Captain Kangaroo goes Krogering

Today at Kroger, I saw a Captain Kangaroo look-alike.

ERA ratified, but Trump regime refuses to recognize it

This should be big news, but hardly anyone is covering it: A new constitutional amendment has just been ratified for the first time since 1992.

For decades, the popular Equal Rights Amendment had been waiting for ratification by the 38 states it needed to become part of the Constitution. Just days ago, Virginia became the 38th. Thus, the ERA is ratified. End of story.

There should be no ambiguity about it. I had been under the impression that the ERA had a time limit written into it, so it could never be effectively enacted if it wasn't ratified before the deadline. But now we know this is not true.

Nonetheless, the Trump regime - known for its lawlessness - is refusing to recognize the ERA's ratification. Trump's National Archives and Records Administration has declared that it would "take no action to certify the adoption of the Equal Rights Amendment." The reason is that the Trump regime opposes the amendment.

Uh, the President and his administration have no say in approving constitutional amendments. If enough states ratify the amendment, the administration is required to certify it and recognize it as the law of the land. Full stop.

Now 3 states are suing the federal government to try to force it to certify the ERA. Why aren't 38 states suing? Part of this is because some states that approved the ERA a long time ago now have corrupt Republicans as their attorney general, and they don't care about the Constitution. The Republicans have proven during the Trump impeachment that they have no respect for the Constitution - but I've known that for a long time.

As far as I'm concerned, the ERA is ratified and is now the law.

(Source: https://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Democratic-AGs-in-last-states-to-ratify-ERA-plan-15015680.php)

Duke wants yet another rate increase

Another electric rate increase???

After Duke Energy's recent increase in electric rates for northern Kentucky was rubber-stamped, this utility monopoly is already demanding yet another increase - this one by a staggering 16%.

Why? Just because.

(Source: https://www.rcnky.com/articles/2020/01/30/public-meeting-planned-proposed-duke-energy-rate-increase-16)

Have no fear, the February ish is here!

Feb wouldn't be Feb without the February issue of The Last Word! So let's Feb it up!

And how do we do that, dare you ask? By...bipping! Just joking! Rather, you can do that by leaning back, relaxing, and probing your proboscis with the latest ish - which talks about the devious plot to tear down a historic building for a Burger King, bubble gum cigarettes, comic books getting ruined by a leaky toilet, a 'Super Fuzz' retrospective, modern-day homesteading, and more!

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/444681648/The-Last-Word-2-2020

If that doesn't work, point it here...

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2002.pdf

Connecticut lawmakers propose unit to fight right-wing violence

Listen up, Kentucky, because this is how it's done.

In 2017, authorities in Connecticut and nationwide reported a spike in what they called "bias crimes" - hate crimes motivated by race, religion, sexual orientation, or certain other factors. New legislation in Connecticut broadened protections from hate crimes, but some state legislators there say more needs to be done.

Lawmakers now want to create a new unit within the state police designed to fight against hate crimes and other right-wing violence. They want to be more proactive at identifying and investigating the sources of such terrorism. A press release said the new unit would "specialize in investigating far right extremist groups and individuals." Just by releasing that statement, legislators have done more to identify the problem than most other states do.

In the meantime, what are Kentucky lawmakers doing? The Kentucky GOP is instead trying to pass bathroom bills, anti-immigrant laws, and voter suppression measures - like anyone still gives a shit about their right-wing agenda.

(Source: https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-news-connecticut-csp-hate-crimes-20200122-vvirqerpevcvho3rrwg3ii4bh4-story.html)

January bunkeroo haul

Next time I go to an important family gathering, I'm bringing a gas mask!

Tonight, after a dinner with family members, we goed back to a family domicile to watch TV and be cool. While we were there, many silent but deadly bunker blasts were detected. I didn't notice most of them, but they reportedly went on all evening. The ones I did detect though were hilarious.

At first, it was agreed that these rock snakes had a canine source. But then the net was cast wider. Cries of accusation sprang up throughout the room. But no suspects were impeached for this high crime or misdemeanor.

St. Henry student accused of social media threats

Many media outlets intentionally do not cover terroristic threats or even actual violence in private schools as readily as they do for public schools. That is a matter of policy. Covering it conflicts with their aim of portraying private schools as perfect.

But they couldn't hide the fact that today, a 15-year-old student at St. Henry District High School - a Catholic school in Boone County - was arrested and accused of terroristic threatening for reportedly making threats on Snapchat. The threats included images of a pistol and knife.

In fact, he told police he had carried a pocketknife to school, and cops found a pocketknife in his locker.

He told authorities he made the threats because other students were harassing his pals. One thing is clear: Whether it was him or someone else, somebody precipitated this situation. This torpedoes a Bazooka hole through the media's unceasing claims of private school perfection.

Back when I went to Brossart, I heard about a student bringing a gun to school, and people made terroristic threats in paper form all the time. It cane nowhere near the media's threshold for coverage though, because there were no charges, as the offenders had a lot of money and clout.

Ohio cuts healthcare to give handouts to 1%

The Cincinnati Enquirer isn't exactly a progressive organ, but it took only one glance at the headlines on its website today to see how the Ohio GOP is robbing workers to give free Toy Money to the 1%.

One of the top headlines is: "You may soon be paying for Wyoming, Indian Hill students to attend private schools. Here's why."

The headline of another article reads: "Health-care cuts coming for 500,000-plus retired Ohio public employees."

These stories side by side speak volumes about Republicans' thirst for giving handouts to the 1%. It's about all you need to know about their priorities and their intent to harm workers.

Campbell County adopts Second Amendment resolution

Yesterday, Campbell County joined many other counties across Kentucky and the nation in passing a resolution supporting the Second Amendment, which safeguards the right to bear arms.

Spectacular! Now that Campbell County has proven it understands the Second Amendment, hopefully it will start to understand the rest of the Constitution too.

Take the First Amendment, for example, which the county has violated by prosecuting people over adult movies that are constitutionally protected.

Or the Fifth Amendment, which the county violated at least once - many years ago - by prosecuting a defendant twice for the same crime because it didn't get the conviction it wanted the first time.

County officials also have a lot to learn about the constitutional responsibility to fully fund public education.

Why did officials express support for the Second Amendment but nothing else in the Constitution? The Second Amendment is the law of the land, and in no way should it be abridged. But the same is true of the rest of the Constitution. In this democratic republic, we don't get to pick and choose which parts of the Constitution we want to obey - like it's a smorgasbord.

For a county that has historically been very weak on civil liberties and economic security, why pick just one part of the Constitution to support? What does it say about the county if it doesn't support the First Amendment or a number of other constitutional provisions that protect our liberty?

West Virginia tries to annex Virginia county

It's nice to know West Virginia Republicans waste time on ridiculous campaigns like this.

Republicans in the West Virginia Senate have approved a resolution urging the annexation of Frederick County, Virginia. Apparently, this would leave the city of Winchester - an independent city that is not officially part of Frederick County - as a part of Virginia completely surrounded by West Virginia.

This effort sounds like a cash grab to finance Republican mismanagement. Frederick County actually has a higher average income than most West Virginia counties, and with 90,000 people, it would be a cash cow. The West Virginia GOP has managed the state so incompetently that they think they need to annex new territory to recoup the economic losses.

But Frederick County doesn't want to join West Virginia - precisely because of Republicans' fiscal mismanagement.

Delta flight dumps fuel on playground

Here's more of the news the right-wing media seems to lose.

Today, a Delta Airlines flight that had just taken off from Los Angeles dumped jet fuel on an elementary school playground - as children were present. Thirty children had to be treated or hospitalized.

Will the media cover it? Of course not.

The airlines received a taxpayer-funded bailout just to do shit like this.

Warplanes bomb people around the world. But Delta wages a war of its own against America's children.

(Source: https://breaking911.com/breaking-30-children-treated-after-flight-dumps-fuel-on-elementary-school-in-l-a)

NKU residence halls close because of structural problems

Looks like the 2020s are gonna be another decade of stupid at Northern Kentucky University! Super!

Students who live on campus at 2 residence halls are being forced to move right away because the buildings have deteriorated so much that they must be closed. A third building must close in June.

These buildings are less than 30 years old, and they've already gotten so bad that they must be demolished.

NKU squandered an untold amount of money moving its sports program to Division I and buying a bulk subscription to a far-right newspaper, but it wouldn't even properly maintain its residence halls? For years, the school has been poormouthing about how we couldn't have this or couldn't have that because there was no money, yet it wastes money on ideological projects or other stuff it doesn't need.

A person bunkerooed on Christmas Eve

It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas, and it wouldn't be Christmas without a big ol' nasty bunker blast.

Yesterday, I went to an important family gathering. Guess what was detected? An air biscuit. A trouser sneeze. A rock snake. A backdoor breeze.

The scent of a silent-but-deadly briefly loomed. It was initially believed that it had a canine source, but this theory was quickly discarded.

Have no fear, the January ish is here!

Put your rear in gear and drink some beer, for the January ish is already here!

The January edition of The Last Word talks about all sorts of splendid topics, among them...

• Dump trucks throwing fast food litter around.

• Candy that tastes like borax.

• Wine getting knocked over at Meijer.

• Weird Dungeons & Dragons rules.

• People carving up tables in 6th grade.

• A dumb GeoCities website about bubble gum.

• My high school thinking Wonder Woman was porn.

• A lost Peanuts comic.

• Ridiculous mail order commercials.

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/440737702/The-Last-Word-1-2020

If that doesn't work, you can find it here...

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2001.pdf

Trump impeached

Another historic day falls on the 18th of its respective month - just like the Plop Lecture and my birthday.

Donald Trump got impeached this evening - widening smiles all across the country. You may know this is only the third time in America's history a President has been impeached. In fact, Trump is the first to be seeking reelection at the time of impeachment. I have a feeling that won't end well for him.

Trump's impeachment blasts a Bazooka hole through the Facebook meme that says he can't be impeached because he "won landed holdings" or some bullshit reason like that. Property requirements for voting are unconstitutional. Plus, even if Trump won all 50 states and D.C., winning shouldn't make any difference as long as he committed impeachable offenses.

It's a certainty that Mitch McConnell will intentionally botch Trump's Senate trial. McConnell is an obstructionist.

Presidential impeachments are historically rare, but this is actually the second impeachment during the time I've lived in my current apartment. Some would argue it's because there's been a lot of lousy Presidents in modern times. But Bill Clinton wasn't the worst. Several Presidents committed impeachable offenses but were never even close to being impeached. Articles of impeachment have been introduced against 5 of the last 6 Republican Presidents, but for some of the worst offenders, the effort made it no further.

Some who support impeaching Trump say this is a sad, solemn day. But I'm happy. Trump earned impeachment. During much of this process, Adam Schiff had a look on his face like he was enjoying it. I don't blame him one bit. Trump might not be removed before the election, but impeaching him sure feels great!

Beshear ends Bevin's Medicaid limits

Moscow Matt Bevin had a pretty stupid idea of what Medicaid is supposed to be about. Although Medicaid is not welfare, Bevin tried to institute a work requirement to receive this benefit. Courts laughed in his face repeatedly - because the requirement was illegal.

I knew it would be a moot point the next time an adult became either governor or President. The Trump regime issued an illegal waiver to permit Bevin's work rule, but a real President was sure to revoke the waiver someday.

Now, newly elected Gov. Andy Beshear has revoked Bevin's order. This restores access to Medicaid that the courts hadn't already restored. Not only did Bevin institute work rules, but he also began charging Medicaid patients significant fees for treatment. Bevin even took away dental and vision coverage from many adult patients. Those changes are gone now.

Beshear said at a news conference, "I believe healthcare is a basic human right." This fact never used to be in doubt before the hard freeze of rightism suppressed this view.

Ending Moscow Matt's Medicaid limits is both good politics and good policy.

Nazism against Social Security continues

Social Security's benefits for disabled workers - SSI and SSDI - are always the target for cuts by right-wing politicians. Always. It's been that way for years. I have Google set up so news articles are automatically e-mailed to me every time certain topics are mentioned. One of them is SSDI. In all the time SSDI has been on this list, I don't think there's been any good news at all about it.

Like retirement benefits, Medicaid, and Medicare, SSI and SSDI are earned benefits - which is different from welfare. Even if it was welfare, it would be a moot point for this story. SSDI, however, requires a longer work history. It got even longer when Republicans - out of malice - instituted a rule allowing work credits to expire. Plus, Republicans - again out of malice - have made it harder and harder to qualify for these programs.

Now the Trump regime wants to make it even worse. Fascist members of Congress have introduced bills year after year to cut disability benefits by removing certain criteria and requiring cases to be reviewed more frequently. Because Congress has failed to pass these bills, the Trump thugocracy has now taken it upon itself to try to enact changes like this without even passing a law that allows it.

The proposal would establish a new category for disability beneficiaries called "medical improvement likely." For some of these conditions, however, improvement is not likely. If a person's case is moved to this category, their case will be reviewed much more often. One of the main goals is to make it harder for claimants to complete the huge volume of paperwork, so their benefits are revoked altogether.

Another change would remove factors like age from determining whether a person qualifies. It's as if the government thinks a person is less likely to be disabled as they get older.

These changes wouldn't save money, because more would be spent doing the reviews. It's about meanness. Simply put, those who proposed these changes are bad people. They enjoy harming others. They don't want a system that works effectively or lets people receive the benefits they've paid for. Besides, if they're such budget hawks, why do they squander so much taxpayer money on illegal wars and handouts to big corporations and the 1%?

These changes to disability benefits would in fact be illegal. But Trump does a lot of things that are illegal. With so few resources to fight these new rules, don't count on much being done about it.

Beshear restores voting rights to 140,000

Today, newly elected Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear restored voting rights to about 140,000 people convicted of nonviolent felonies who have served their sentences. The Democratic governor issued this directive 4 years after Matt Bevin violated a campaign pledge by revoking this right.

Beshear's directive doesn't apply to serial murderers and rapists who have forfeited their right to live freely. It only applies to those convicted of nonviolent crimes who are presumed to have paid their debt to society. In my America, we give second chances to those who are capable of living freely.

The far right is already screaming that Beshear is being soft on crime. That's a mighty thin argument, because it was Bevin who gave full pardons to violent thugs who hadn't completed their sentences. Bevin screwed up a couple times and pardoned a few people who actually deserve it, but many of his pardons are for ruthless criminals with political connections. Bevin's allies have refused to even prosecute serious crimes that were staring them in the face.

Which position shows more leadership and compassion: restoring rights to those who have earned it, or excusing those who won't learn from punishment and can just coast through life on political connections? One of the most basic principles of criminal justice is proportionality - which means the punishment should fit the crime. Why should someone who wrote a bad check to a grocery store 20 years ago be punished more severely than a serial rapist?

Beshear restoring voting rights to those who have paid their debt to society isn't his only act that has angered the extreme right. When Beshear took office this week, one of the first things he did was reorganize Kentucky's board of education, which Bevin had stacked with right-wing hacks who wanted to dismantle public schooling. After this reorganization, Bevin's appointees sued to block Beshear, but the Kentucky Supreme Court promptly laughed them right out of the courtroom.

Politically connected killer pardoned by Bevin

After George H.W. Bush pardoned all those Iran-Contra traitors, we shouldn't be surprised that Matt Bevin has also pardoned so many politically connected criminals.

Bevin, who left the governorship this week after losing re-election in November, made yet another in a series of controversial pardons as one of his last acts in office. Bevin pardoned Patrick Baker, who had been sentenced to 19 years in prison for reckless homicide and other major charges stemming from a Knox County home invasion. Thanks to this pardon, Baker served only 2 years.

It turns out that Baker's brother had hosted a huge campaign fundraiser for Bevin. The event raised over $20,000. Baker's family also gave another $4,000 to the Bevin campaign.

The prosecutor who put Baker on trial said he believes he was pardoned because of his political connections. The case was tried by Judge David Williams, the Republican candidate for governor in 2011. Even he said of the case, "The evidence was just overwhelming." This shows even some Republicans have grown tired of Bevin's antics.

But not the party's leaders - who have a history of being soft on crime.

(Source: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2019/12/11/bevin-issued-hundreds-pardons-and-commutations-final-day)

Bevin pardons Tea Party activist for drug trafficking

Those who deny that people who have a lot of political clout get let off easy can shut their damn noisemaker now.

Remember John Roth, the Tea Party activist from Campbell County who was convicted of 2 felony counts of drug trafficking?

As one of his final acts in office, Matt Bevin granted Roth a full, unconditional pardon. Roth had been sentenced to 15 years in prison. But - thanks to Bevin's pardon - he served 3.

Let me repeat: He was sentenced to 15. He did 3.

In the pardon statement, Bevin said Roth "made a foolish decision a few years ago and broke the law." Well, yeah. That's why he went to prison. If anyone else had committed a crime like this, do you think they'd be out in only 3 years? If Roth had been a model prisoner, he would have been eligible for parole after 20% of his sentence, so he'd be out now without his cronies having to pardon him. Instead, he has friends like Bevin who thumb their nose at the justice system.

In Kentucky, the revolving door of corruption never runs out of energy.

(Source: http://www.fortthomasmatters.com/2019/12/jr-roth-receives-unconditional-pardon.html)

Lawmaker creates idiotic conspiracy theory about sonogram photo

Where do people come up with nonsense like this?

Far-right Kentucky State Rep. Savannah Maddox "represents" a rural area of northern Kentucky. Over the past couple days, she's come up with a bizarre conspiracy theory.

WLKY-TV in Louisville ran a story about a Kentucky anti-abortion law that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court despite being unconstitutional. Maddox promptly claimed the story includes a sonogram of a gorilla at the Louisville Zoo. Maddox said this is part of a "Pro-Abortion message" of WLKY.

WLKY is owned by Hearst Television, so it's pretty conservative. But more importantly, I watched the clip on WLKY's site. The gorilla sonogram does not appear anywhere in it.

Nowhere. It simply isn't there. It's that simple. I don't know what else to say about it.

What the hell is Savannah Maddox talking about? Nobody else is claiming that WLKY included this picture in the clip - except the right-wing droids on Facebook who replied to Maddox's post.

This is a conspiracy theory based on something that didn't even happen!

It's hard to see which part of this story is the silliest. Is it Maddox's claim that the clip includes an image that it clearly doesn't include? Is it her claim that WLKY has a "Pro-Abortion message"? Is it her followers picking up her claims and talking to themselves about it? This has got to be one of the dumbest things to happen in northern Kentucky politics since Lloyd Rogers walked around town brandishing his gun because his campaign sign got damaged. And that says a lot.

The Faircloth Amendment: the most fascist law you've never heard of

If you really needed any more proof that congressional Republicans have deliberately tried to harm the public, now you've got it.

In 1998, far-right Sen. Lauch Faircloth (R-North Carolina) wrote a law that capped the amount of public housing available nationwide. This law - called the Faircloth Amendment - says the government cannot fund construction or operation of new public housing units if it would result in a net increase in the amount of public housing.

This law is pure evil. Who is it designed to serve?

The country's population has increased by 50 million since then - and right-wing policies have only made poverty worse. Yet the Unfaircloth Amendment remains on the books.

Very few Americans have even heard of this law, and there hasn't been much movement to repeal it. It's shocking that a law that was enacted with such evil intent remains on the books without a prominent effort to repeal it.

One of the solutions to America's housing crisis has to be building more and better public housing. But the Faircloth Amendment prevents it. Congress has thus far failed to repeal it, so how can our leaders fight it?

Hopefully, as soon as we get an adult as President, they will use their executive power to render the Faircloth Amendment unenforceable - as it seems to be an illegal limit on the government's interest in ensuring the public's well-being.

Right-winger who wanted to ban feeding homeless about to lead homeless agency

The Trump regime has an EPA that wants to destroy the environment, a Department of Education that wants to wreck our schools, and now this.

After the Trump thugocracy ousted Obama appointee Matthew Doherty from the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, the White House has tapped Robert Marbut to replace him. Marbut has a long history of regressive policies towards the homeless. He is a "consultant" who has encouraged cities to prohibit charities from feeding the homeless. He has also criticized housing programs that fight homelessness.

A right-wing activist since the age of 11, Marbut likes to brag of his experience at working with our cities. But he hasn't learned shit in all these years. In recent years, he got the city of Clearwater, Florida, to ban charities from donating food to the homeless, and he urged that city to get police to crack down on minor offenses instead of real crimes. He also worked with the sheriff's department to create a "shelter" that actually kicked people out instead of bringing them in.

Cruelty is a hallmark of the Trump regime and the rest of the Far Right. A lot of our public officials cause homelessness and poverty on purpose. We have public figures who enjoy causing harm to people. If you suspect that some public policies might have been designed to inflict maximum harm, then guess what? You're right.

(Source: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-04/homeless-robert-marbut-interagency-council-executive-director-trump)

Highland Heights enacts fairness ordinance

My hometown is finally in the news for something positive!

Last night, Highland Heights became only the 16th city in Kentucky to enact a fairness ordinance - which forbids discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity for employment, housing, and public accommodations. City Council's vote in favor of this ordinance was unanimous.

This should be the law nationwide. I said Highland Heights should adopt this law over 25 years ago. That was even before any other city in Kentucky did. It was only fair. To treat everyone equally is a basic value. At the time, however, things were going in the opposite direction thanks to America's hard freeze of rightism - which hit northern Kentucky and Cincinnati particularly hard.

Fact is, years before then, some federal agencies took a dim view of unfair discrimination. It used to be that people could complain to the Federal Housing Authority or the National Labor Relations Board. The Reagan regime dashed all of that.

It's taking a long time to rebuild what the authoritarian Right has torn down, but who would have ever thought Highland Heights would be at the forefront of progress?

(Source: https://www.rcnky.com/articles/2019/12/03/highland-heights-adopts-fairness-ordinance-third-campbell-city-year)