Have no fear, the November ish is here!

When an ish is here, you should have no fear, so go and pop open another beer!

This will be a November to dismember, as The Last Word's November issue is pub, and it's a beaut!

This edition talks about the rejection of a local gentrification boondoggle, cops and judges talking about bubble gum, Dungeons & Dragons tantrums, my high school's failure to offer foreign languages, people having valuables lost by their parents, Storer Cable's hypocrisy on piracy, a street named for a swear word, the vindication of year-round school opponents, and more!

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/432721841/The-Last-Word-11-2019

Lest that doesn't work, try this...

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw1911.pdf

It was a May to dismember in Covington!

Peep. Weep. Oggle-beep. I beseech thee!

I've posted 14 Roads Scholaring photos from northern Kentucky's booming river cities from this past spring!

Know what you're gonna do? You're not only gonna peep and weep. You're also gonna dance around singing, "Shweep-a-beep, shweep-a-beep, shweep shweep shweep-a-beep! Pop!"

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/daycov19.html

Bevin is GOP's best hope while national party reels

The national Republican Party is in shambles. Its leader faces impeachment soon, and likely electoral defeat next year. The modern GOP displays a degree of fanaticism, intolerance, and violence otherwise unknown in modern America.

I relish the Republicans' downfall. We need at least 2 major parties, but with one choosing to forfeit its credibility, I will shed no tears if it is permanently vanquished as it richly deserves.

Kentuckians deserve to be so lucky, and polls aren't friendly to the Kentucky GOP either. Kentucky elections lurk next Tuesday, and pollsters portend a long night for Republicans. The average of 5 recent nonpartisan polls gives Democrat Andy Beshear a 12% lead over Moscow Matt, and the margin is only growing. Even a website that also factors in Republican pollsters rates the race as "strong Beshear."

The polls should speak for themselves. But in a state with a history of Russian election interference and other electoral fraud, it's not conclusive.

Am I enamored of all the Democratic candidates? No. Will I enjoy voting for them over the Republicans? You bet! At least now the Democrats are running on real issues instead of trying to be just as bad as the Republicans.

Do the Republicans even have real candidates for Secretary of State and Attorney General?

Even with no new nonpartisan polls with Matt Bevin down by less than 9%, be wary. But national trends are better than Kentucky's. Imagine what a President Warren or a President Sanders might do to Moscow Matt's evil attempts to cut Medicaid or his laughable report that demanded slashing Social Security.

How do you deal with a state where elections are a sham? We only have to live with rigged elections because there's too many damn right-wing liars in our media who never did have even an ounce of ethics. The pirates of the 18th century were on the right track. As ecstatic as I am about the collapse of national Republicans, it's going to get bad for them in their best states too. As a matter of necessity, repression breeds innovation. It's already so bad for the GOP that Bevin is their best hope this year.

(Also, it didn't help Bevin yesterday when he likened pensions to shoplifting milk and bread.)

Al-Baghdadi kept dying and coming back to life

This is at least the fifth time al-Baghdadi has died and Trump has tried taking credit for it.

On May 28, 2017, al-Baghdadi was said to have been killed in a Russian air strike.

On June 11, 2017, he was said to have died in a Syrian artillery strike.

On June 29, 2017, Iran's leader said he was "definitely dead."

On July 11, 2017, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed al-Baghdadi's death.

Just yesterday he finally appeared to have been killed for good. Trump is of course taking credit for it even though he had nothing to do with it. Just as predictably, the right-wing media is letting him.

Shut up, Donald. You have nothing to do with it.

What is the media going to say if al-Baghdadi somehow comes back to life once again - like he has so many times before? If he doesn't, one of his lieutenants is just going to take his place because Trump is so incompetent at fighting ISIS (like he is at everything else).

Beshear leads Bevin by 19%

I was starting to worry that Moscow Matt might actually have a real chance at a second term after all, but a new poll by Targoz Market Research has done nothing short of pulverize that possibility.

In the latest poll, Democrat Andy Beshear leads the embattled Republican incumbent by a smashing 55% to 36%. What's even more ominous for the Forehead is that this poll's sample actually has a disproportionate number of Republicans.

If Beshear led by "only" 9% - which was his average before this poll - you could argue Bevin might still have a real chance. Russian meddling in elections goes a long way. But 19%? Forget about it. I can't think of a major partisan election where the polls have been off by 19%.

More money wasted by Bevin

This story is a good example of Kentucky Republicans squandering taxpayer money on pursuits that are strictly ideological.

So-called Gov. Matt Bevin has just wasted an untold amount of money on billboards all up and down Interstate 57 in Illinois bragging about Kentucky's right-wing laws. The aim of the billboards is to encourage businesses to leave Illinois and move to Kentucky because of the Bluegrass State's cheap labor, union-busting laws, and tax handouts to Big Business.

What good are new jobs when they're allowed to bust unions, underpay workers, and drain state coffers? As the nationwide trend has been towards these jobs, the real employment rate hasn't improved. It appears that workers at these jobs have so little buying power that they don't generate enough business for other companies.

But Moscow Matt's latest boondoggle can be mighty creative when it tries. One of the billboards takes the first 3 letters in the name Illinois to claim that state's tax system is "ill." Gee, Matt, now you can move up to 3rd grade.

(Source: https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-kentucky-billboard-campaign-20191022-ti2rrqscpjawfoiyi2nd5nbqxq-story.html)

MSNBC = Fox News

More than once, I've had to explain to people that Comcast-owned MSNBC is a right-wing channel not much better than Fox News Channel or CNN. I blackballed MSNBC as a source for this blog as long ago as 2008 because they deceptively edited a Michelle Obama speech.

MSNBC's latest enemy? Bernie Sanders.

Here's some quotes from MSNBC's right-wing analysts...

"Bernie Sanders makes my skin crawl."

"He's a socialist from the 1950s yelling at people in the same screechy voice, without smiling."

"I think he comes off as mean, he's disparaging."

"If you are still supporting Sanders, it's kind of showing your sexism." (What???)

"Bernie Sanders does have a certain problem with women." (What???)

I don't know these analysts by name, because they're such nobodies that I don't recognize these media elites from the video clips. Maybe they're public figures I once admired, but have since sold out. I don't get cable, because I can't afford to pay $90/month to watch this tone-policing garbage from right-wing talking heads who bash America almost daily. But there they are, smirking and grinning and trying to tell the viewing public what to think.

Gee, I'm sorry the Democrats aren't going to nominate Michael Bloomberg or Evan Bayh like they want.

The pundits want a loser. They don't want a winner like Bernie Sanders or even Elizabeth Warren. Media elites would rather impose school uniforms than do something beneficial like expand Social Security.

Be a fucking adult. Accept that the American people just aren't all that into the Third Way thought-policing that has actually helped prop up the Republicans. Cope.

Bevin used state aircraft for right-wing conferences

Why isn't this a really big story? Better yet, how come the media hasn't even put two and two together?

As battered as Matt Bevin is for abusing state aircraft at taxpayer expense, I found something that just leaped right out at me. Recently, Moscow Matt released a "comprehensive list" of state aircraft flights. But this "comprehensive list" completely skips over at least 20 flights just this year involving political events or unknown reasons.

One of the flights that Bevin's list skipped over was to Lynchburg, Virginia - home of the far-right Liberty University. It happened to be on the same day he spoke at the far-right Conservative Political Action Conference there.

Yet media reports that say he spoke there on that day act like it's a mystery why he flew there. They're saying he flew to Lynchburg for legitimate state business, but must have also flown there on a separate flight on the same day at his own expense for the humiliating CPAC spectacle? The moment I saw he flew to Lynchburg, I knew what it was for.

Another flight that his list skipped was to St. Simons Island, Georgia. That was another red flag. Media reports give no suggestion what the flight was for, but the destination rang a bell, because I knew that area was the site of another right-wing conference. Sure enough, it turns out that a secretive conference by the far-right American Enterprise Institute was being held in the area right at the same time as Bevin's flight.

I could figure all of this out in a split second, but the media can't even put any of it together? Even in media circles, there's some understanding that you're not supposed to use taxpayer resources for political purposes, but it doesn't seem like the media grasps just how big this story is. Kentucky has a history of right-wing politicization of everything. And I mean everything. But this is bad even by Kentucky standards. At these events, Bevin didn't so much promote his own election campaign or business interests but rather an entire ideological program - and did so in the name of Kentucky taxpayers. This program has denied Kentuckians personal and economic liberties. People are expected to fall in line behind this program.

That's not leadership.

A person bunkerooed because a person bunkerooed

I just received a very important e-mail about a person bunkerooing.

I'm told that a few days ago, a blast of the bunker variety loomed in the entrance of a condo building. No suspects could be indicted for this violation of the emoluments clause. It lingered for at least an hour.

This e-mail also said an aging Sen. Dianne Feinstein look-alike was sighted at the Atlanta airport (the same airport where a woman took selfies of herself bubblling and laughed uncontrollably about it).

It was a December to dismember in Newport!

Yesterday, I released the photos from last year's Illinois trip. Now I have a batch of 9 new Scholaring photos from a Roads Scholaring in Newport from last December!

Peep, weep. and oggle-beep...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/newpb18.html

It's already getting worse for Moscow Mike

As Michael G. Adams, the embattled Republican nominee for Kentucky Secretary of State, reels after the discovery that he worked for Eric Greitens and organized his bogus dark money "nonprofit", it's already getting worse for him. That is, if the Kentucky media picks up this story (which it probably won't, preferring instead to sweep it under the rug).

Way back last year, Missouri media reported that Adams evaded the rules governing lawyers in the Show Me State. He never paid the fees required to practice law in that state.

Missouri required attorneys from outside the state to pay a $410 fee. Records revealed that he had not paid the fee while he worked on a Greitens ethics case, and that he had not named an associate counsel as required under the rules.

(Source: https://www.hannibal.net/news/20180601/gop-attorney-who-represented-greitens-in-ethics-case-skirted-rules)

Kentucky GOPer was Greitens attorney

Moscow Matt at least has a slim chance of winning. I'm not so sure about Moscow Mike.

If you thought Matt Bevin was bad, Republican Secretary of State nominee Michael G. Adams - replete with his '90s helmet hair - is a complete joke. Early last year, far-right Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens was forced to resign because of a scandal and felony charges. One lawmaker even called the Greitens campaign "a criminal enterprise from its inception." It turns out that Adams was Greitens's attorney throughout this humiliating scandal. Adams's law firm is still being paid by the Greitens campaign.

In fact, Adams is still secretary and treasurer of A New Missouri Inc. - a dark money corporation founded by Greitens poobahs in 2017. Legislators accused A New Missouri Inc. of being created to illegally evade donation limits and hide the identities of donors who were not allowed to contribute to campaigns.

Adams was also involved in a settlement between the Greitens campaign and the Missouri Ethics Commission over the misuse of a veterans' charity donor list for fundraising. Officials for this charity testified that Greitens illegally took this list.

This man wants to be in charge of Kentucky elections? And you know what? The media will let him. That's the worst part of it. I wouldn't trust Michael Adams with an election for kindergarten class president - let alone any Kentucky election.

(Source: https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/the-buzz/article236253053.html)

It was a November to dismember in Springfield!

You may recall that last November, I went on a fact-finding mission to Springfield, Illinois. Now I have 88 Roads Scholaring photos up, and you're gonna peep 'em until your face flies off in public...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/spril18a.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/spril18b.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/spril18c.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/spril18d.html

How the nation's most unpopular governor can still win

Guess what, Moscow Matt, you're still in it. Barely. We cannot protect Kentucky election integrity when money is allowed to rule.

So-called Gov. Matt Bevin of Kentucky has been consistently ranked as the most unpopular governor in America by Morning Consult and other pollsters.

Moscow Matt has gutted teachers' pensions, abused state planes, repeatedly lied about the state's economic standing, raised taxes to give handouts to the 1%, tried to slash Medicaid (only to be rebuffed by courts), dumped his own lieutenant governor, put out a report demanding cutting Social Security, politicized Kentucky's higher education system and various state boards, and turned the state into a nationwide laughfest. In even his best poll - which is only a tie - he loses independent voters by 8%. That's not his worst poll, which has him losing by 15% overall.

Don't count Moscow Matt out. The embattled Republican has a better chance of winning than the Bengals do of making the playoffs. As Bevin himself might say: No question about it.

It isn't just because Kentucky is a state with a history of Republican election fraud and Russian electoral interference. It isn't just because each right-wing fake news item becomes a "mainstream" media talking point within minutes. It's because Bevin has money.

The most recent campaign finance report shows Democrat Andy Beshear actually outraised Bevin - $771,000 to $673,000. But that's only from people other than the candidates themselves. Bevin plunked down $900,000 of his own money. This gives him a smashing advantage of $1.58 million to $628,000 in cash on hand. There isn't any doubt that Beshear will win more votes per dollar. When do the Democrats not win more votes per dollar? If elections only counted votes per dollar, the Republicans wouldn't even be a serious party.

I know Trump's looming impeachment is hurting Bevin. The idea that it's helping him is laughable. It might not hurt him enough, because our media is a joke, and not just regarding this election. There have been several recent incidents where right-wing fake news sites have made up items out of thin air, and the "mainstream" media ran with them. It's as if the media is just throwing up its hands and saying, "Alright, we're not going to argue with these fake news sites anymore."

However, for Bevin to win, he'd have to outperform every poll. In 2015, Kentucky media outlets banded together to permanently blacklist pollsters that showed him losing. In most countries, polling is used to ensure the election results are accurate. Republican thugocracies get it backwards. If the media blackballs all the pollsters that have him losing now, there won't be any left except a few partisan outfits.

Google funds climate crisis deniers

Google has made what is described as "substantial" donations to at least a dozen national think tanks that deny the climate crisis and are campaigning against stronger climate policies.

This includes far-right groups like the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the American Conservative Union. The CEI has not only said the climate crisis is a myth but has also opposed antitrust enforcement.

The donations are reportedly an effort to get legislators to keep part of the far-right 1996 Telecommunications Act that shields companies like Google from being held responsible for the content posted on their systems.

Who's surprised, after Google yanked our AdSense account because of our politics?

(Source: http://www.canindia.com/google-heavily-paid-groups-that-defy-climate-change-report)

I got hit by a car but do you expect anyone to do anything about it?

Stories like this are why The Last Word was started in the first place, so I should wait until the next issue before writing about it. But I won't, because the Nazis don't deserve another break - because everyone else gives them a break anyway.

Today, after I scouted out sites for next May's Cincinnati roadmeet, I parked a Red Bike at the stand on Ward in Bellevue and walked across the street. Right when I got to the other side of the street, a black car coming down the street ran me off the road, and I flew onto the sidewalk, scattering groceries everywhere. Then the car turned onto Fairfield towards Dayton.

There were witnesses. Several people saw me with the bags of groceries all around.

It was deliberate. Nobody in the car said anything, but I know it was intentional, because there's a history of it. But they made a dumb mistake by leaving visible injuries. I thought they learned a long time ago not to leave any visible injuries. That way, they can claim every assault is a "hoax" - and the media is always happy to help. I guess they're even dumber than I thought. Either that or they know that under Trump they'll get away with it no matter how much evidence there is (as if they've ever been punished before).

I posted photos of all the bruises and cuts on Facebook and Twitter. That's kind of a smoking gun. What's their defense now? Mark my words, it'll probably be one or more of the following:

1) It's a "hoax" and all the witnesses are lying (despite the photos of the injuries).

2) It's not all that serious.

3) "Kids will be kids" (even though they're almost 50).

4) I did something to deserve it.

5) I didn't look where I was walking (even though pedestrians have the right of way).

6) It wasn't them.

7) "Their poo also voted."

What's the excuse this time? I'm waiting.

All of this obscures the fact that even if I wasn't specifically targeted, they still committed a hit-and-run.

I didn't report it to the police, because whenever I did, I was always the one to be treated like a criminal. Someone on Facebook said there must be a business or home nearby that had a video camera that caught the entire incident. Do you seriously think even that would be enough?

Wouldn't it be terrible if I posted the names and addresses of people who have done this before?

Queens KKK members cheer homeless shelter arson

The Far Right's long-running demonization of those less fortunate can be deadly. Why society tolerates it is a mystery.

This week, there was a public hearing in Queens about plans for a new homeless shelter. The Ku Klux Klan flooded the hearing and shouted down local residents and public officials who favored the shelter. When a woman said she supported burning down the shelter, KKK members cheered.

This hearing came only a few days after 4 homeless men were bludgeoned to death in Manhattan.

The vitriol was initially cheered on by right-wing City Council member Robert Holden. Later, he said he was "disappointed with how this meeting is being portrayed" because of it - but it was partly his fault for having encouraged it. The meeting deteriorated so much that members of a tenants' union who supported the shelter had to be escorted out by police for their own safety.

On the other hand, if you want to fight homelessness, shelters aren't as effective as affordable housing. But everyone knows damn well that those who oppose the shelter would be the first to oppose affordable housing too.

(Source: https://gothamist.com/news/angry-queens-residents-shout-down-plans-for-homeless-shelter-i-hope-someone-burns-it-down)

Trumpthug points gun at Warren supporter over bumper sticker

With new polls suggesting Elizabeth Warren is now the frontrunner for President, and with a scandal-tarred Donald Trump's impeachment lurking on the horizon, Trump cultists are doubling down.

In Moorhead, Minnesota, a man aimed a loaded handgun at a young woman after seeing her Warren bumper sticker. The man pulled up alongside her vehicle while driving down the street, began yelling, and brandished the weapon. Joseph Schumacher, 27, of West Fargo, North Dakota, was then arrested on suspicion of felony terroristic threats while he was eating at a nearby shopping center.

The only thing missing is Heavy.com chiming in 2 days later and claiming Schumacher is some big progressive.

(Source: https://www.kvrr.com/2019/10/07/west-fargo-man-enraged-by-bumper-sticker-arrested-for-terroristic-threats)

Marianne condo plan dead

Good news, good news, Boss!

Remember that ridiculous plan to turn the Marianne Theater in Bellevue into luxury condos? It's dead. Deader than a dinosaur. After a firestorm of criticism by local residents, the developer has withdrawn the proposal.

With the glut of luxury housing all over greater Cincinnati, the last thing we needed was more high-end condos to artificially inflate housing costs.

(Source: https://www.rcnky.com/articles/2019/09/30/developers-withdraw-proposal-bellevues-marianne-city-moves-forward)

Supreme Court case may force states to fund religious education

Taxpayer funding of religious schools is banned under the Constitution's safeguard of separation of church and state. This little factoid is often overlooked by our scuzz-a-luzz gaslighting media and right-wing jurists.

Taxpayer-funded vouchers to attend religious schools? The Constitution says they're illegal. Period. End of story. It shouldn't even be subject to debate, because the Constitution means what it says.

But now the Far Right wants the Supreme Court to give free Toy Money to private religious schools even if the state and its voters don't want to. Not long ago - in the case of Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue - the Montana Supreme Court ruled that it violates the Montana Constitution to underwrite religious education with taxpayer funds. That was Montana's decision.

Petitioners laughably argue that the U.S. Constitution not only permits the government to fund religious schools but also requires it. They say they're being "discriminated" against because Montana won't give religious schools money.

Don't laugh too hard. This is a serious matter. The Supremes rightly ruled over a decade ago that states were allowed to limit funding religious schools in programs like this. But the Supreme Court has shown growing disregard for constitutional law in the years since. That's why petitioners are instead citing the court's outrageous 2017 ruling in Trinity Lutheran v. Comer - in which the state of Missouri was forced to buy a playground surface for a church. Even then, the petitioners don't seem to have a case - unless of course a rogue Supreme Court once again makes up its own laws.

Another example of "sates'' rights for me, not for thee."

(Source: https://www.scotusblog.com/2019/09/symposium-stripping-church-state-separation-to-the-bone-the-supreme-court-considers-mandatory-government-funding-of-religious-education)

A person wore a Trump cap to Kroger

After Donald Trump's awful, no-good, horrid week, who would want to humiliate themselves by wearing anything Trump-related in public? I don't think I've seen anyone wearing Trump gear in 2 years, but now that he's been disgraced worse than ever, I guess his cultists are doubling down.

Today, I goed to the friendly commune Krogie-Wogie, and there was a man wearing a red Trump cap shopping in there. When I walked past him, I made a funny noise that sounded like a gag mixed with a belch. He got really mad and scowled!

Have no fear, the October ish is here!

The coming of October means the October issue of The Last Word is pub, and it's a big one!

This ish talks about a looming gentrification disaster, a trip to Shenandoah National Park and the accompanying bonfire, a person spitting out gum at Oktoberfest, wastage and filth at Chick-fil-A, a dine-and-dash at Big Boy, the cable company blaming sunspots for its own incompetence, a photo album ruining baseball cards, a person running records through a dishwasher, antique Christmas ornaments and wedding china being destroyed, the Franklin Mint's bad instructions for its coin sets, and more!

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/427647334/The-Last-Word-10-2019

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

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw1910.pdf

Impeachment inquiry makes right-wing media look dumber than ever

A few weeks ago, when the latest allegations against dictator Trump were coming out, analysts said that if they appeared to be true, Congress would jump right into impeachment - and Trump would be removed. But this talk was quickly swatted down - supposedly because too few people were making the allegations - and any journalist who dared to report on them was forced by their bosses to get down on their knees and retract them.

Those were the days, huh?

Because of this groveling, impeachment may be less likely than it would have been, but at least an impeachment inquiry was finally announced yesterday. If Congress follows this process to its condign end, it will be yet more egg on the face of the media, which has cheered right-wing public figures and causes for at least as long as I've been old enough to care.

People bunkerooed at Kroger

Today at the friendly commune Krogie-Wogie, I detected the hilarious audio of 2 - count 'em, 2 - LAP bunker blasts.

Water bottles, beer cans, Pepsi, oh my!

Folks, it's finally happened...



Today, I went to Oktoberfest in Cincinnati, and - in response to years of people putting things in toilets - that sign had been posted in at least one of the portable restrooms.

Not like it stopped the fun! In fact, Ploptoberfest was a total bore except for the fact that the sign was ignored.

The first restroom I used didn't have this sign, but I noticed 5 - count 'em, 5 - ploppings in the same toilet bowl. The toilet contained a water bottle, a Pepsi bottle, 2 beer bottles, and a beer can. When I used a different portable outhouse later, it did have the sign - but somebody had plopped a big plastic bag.

Other than people putting things in toilets, the festival was dead. Crowded (because they packed it into a smaller space), but dead. Ploptoberfest was killed off when the city moved it away from 5th Street to appease 3CDC's incessant crying.

When you return, it's the same old place...

Today, I returned home from a brief fact-finding mission to Shenandoah National Park. After reading that the Bevin dictatorship has appointed Tea Party favorite Charlie Coleman to the board of directors of Gateway Community & Technical College, now I know I shouldn't have returned.

This proves once again that the whole Kentucky higher education system isn't worth shit.

If you want to read about all the celebrity look-alikes and instances of flatulence I detected on my Shenandoah trip, the next issue of The Last Word isn't far off. Wilford Brimley, Jim Hightower, Don Imus, Paula Abdul, and Terry Bradshaw look-alikes were seen.

Elizabeth Warren wants bold plan for expanded Social Security

Of the entire field of Democratic presidential candidates, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are wiping the floor with the others in terms of policy and effectiveness. I know the right-wing media will cry and whine if they form the national ticket, because they think the President and Vice-President can't be from adjacent states (even though they were just fine with George W. Bush and Dick Cheney both residing in the same state). As far as I'm concerned, that's too damn bad.

Notice that the Republicans' response to every situation is always the same: cut Social Security. A gnat gets in your house? Cut Social Security. Your TV acts up during your favorite show? Cut Social Security.

For years and years, it's always been cut, cut, cut Social Security. They've done it too, and it's still not enough for them. It sure would be nice to have legislators who do their fucking jobs. Plus, many recipients rely on Social Security as their only source of retirement income, and the situation is only going to get worse because of stagnating wages for today's workforce.

But polls show a vast majority of Americans support increasing Social Security. This includes not just for retired seniors but also disability payments like SSI and SSDI. Now Elizabeth Warren wants to expand Social Security payments to fight rising costs of basics like healthcare, food, and housing.

Warren's plan would immediately increase Social Security benefits by $200 a month. It would allow even more increases for low-income workers and the disabled. It would have a fairer method of computing cost-of-living increases. It would ease the backlog that prevents applicants from receiving the benefits they've paid for. And it would reverse Trump's illegal order that turns administrative law judges into political appointees. It would accomplish the increased payments by making the richest 2% pay their fair share into the program.

In the long term, Warren's plan would reduce the federal budget deficit by over $1 trillion in 10 years.

With a media and ruling party that have done nothing but cut this vital program for 30 years, it would be mighty refreshing if a plan like Warren's was enacted. Hopefully, whoever defeats Trump next year will enact something like it.

Comcast files frivolous suit over Maine cable law

Comcast - the hated cable TV giant that has a monopoly on service in many regions - has teamed up with network muckety-mucks to file a federal lawsuit against the state of Maine because of a new state law regulating cable.

This law requires cable companies to offer a la carte access to channels. This saves viewers from having to pay for garbage like Fox News Channel. When a cable company claims you get 500 channels when all but 10 of them are home shopping and right-wing propaganda channels, it's price-gouging.

Comcast and the cable industry are laughably arguing that the law violates the First Amendment. That's like saying newsstands have a First Amendment right to collude and not let you buy the New York Times unless you buy the Washington Times too. The suit also argues that federal law preempts state laws like this. No, it cannot, as that would be unconstitutional under the Tenth Amendment.

It's not surprising that Comcast would cry that the law violates the First Amendment. Any time the Far Right can't cause as much grief as possible, they always claim it's a First Amendment issue.

Comcast thinks Baskin-Robbins should be required to sell Neapolitan ice cream to customers who only want strawberry and force them to throw away the chocolate and vanilla layers they're allergic to.

The FCC appears to be on Maine's side. The FCC once issued a statement that says there's no federal law prohibiting a la carte cable pricing. That doesn't mean some right-wing activist judge won't make up their own law and gut Maine's regulations. The Supreme Court makes up its own laws all the time.

(Source: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/09/comcast-tv-networks-sue-maine-to-stop-law-requiring-a-la-carte-channels)

New York City caves to right-wing hate group

The Alliance Defending Freedom is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. That didn't stop the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod from teaming up with it to write a legal guide for its congregations. But a right-wing hate group the ADF is.

Now City Council in New York City plans to repeal its ban on harmful conversion therapy - all because the ADF told it to. The ADF is suing the city over the ban - though the ADF has no case.

By repealing the ban, New York City Council is now officially on record as being antigay. If City Council had any guts, they'd tell the ADF to fuck off. Would they cave to the Ku Klux Klan too? New York has a state law against conversion therapy - but it's not as broad as city law.

It's mind-boggling that hate groups are allowed to commandeer public policy. It's as mind-boggling as hate groups teaming up with churches to write legal guides - though given the growing hatred by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod's leaders, I'm not surprised by that. The ADF commits legal terrorism. The group has also been responsible for legal cases forcing public tax dollars to fund religious activities and gutting Obamacare's birth control coverage. The ADF even sued Arnold Schwarzenegger!

A leading ADF attorney in New Hampshire was convicted of federal charges for talking her own 14-year-old daughter to Canada to have sex with an adult man.

It's time to say, "Hasta la vista, baby," to the ADF's hate.

(Source: https://www.politico.com/newsletters/new-york-playbook/2019/09/12/nycs-conversion-therapy-ban-to-be-repealed-mold-cleanup-lags-citywide-assaults-against-mta-workers-soared-476799)

Theater may be ruined by luxury condos

There goes the neighborhood!

The Marianne Theater is an old movie theater that has served as a Bellevue landmark for almost 80 years. As recently as the late '90s, it was still showing movies, though by that time it was mostly just Spice World and the like. It certainly did not show first-run movies by then.

The city purchased the building some years back and solicited proposals from developers for a new use for it. Now a developer has stepped forward and is threatening to fill it with - are you ready for it? - yet more luxury condos.

City officials are expressing disappointment, because they wanted the Marianne used as a public space. Then don't approve the condos. It's that simple.

But do you really expect the city to not rubber-stamp this project? Nah, Bellevue would never rubber-stamp a useless development that serves only developers and the 1%. That's just a myth. Just joking! They would.

Why is this plan so bad? There's several reasons. This plan is yet another element of gentrification - a process that not only directly steals affordable housing but drives up housing costs. The condos would also generate traffic on already strained roads. And, by changing the city's character, it would weaken the political voice of the poorest residents. That's not to mention the fact that there's not even an actual need for more luxury housing. There is however a need for more public space.

Bellevue needs to welcome the 99% - not continue to roll out the red carpet for developers.

(Source: https://www.rcnky.com/articles/2019/09/10/proposal-marianne-theater-calls-condos)