Kentuckians to vote on pardon amendment

Not everything on the ballot forces us to support the uniparty.

Of course, we're not allowed criticizing the uniparty anymore, because that contradicts "official" election results, which are considered infallible and perfect despite the history of election rigging and overseas interference in our elections. But, while a party or candidate can lie to us, a referendum can't.

In November, Kentucky voters will vote on an amendment to the Kentucky Constitution to rein in gubernatorial abuses of pardon powers. This was prompted by the abuses by far-right Gov. Matt Bevin, who issued gobs of pardons just after losing reelection in 2019. Many of these pardons freed hardcore criminals - including at least 5 convicted murderers. Some of those pardoned went on to reoffend.

Even some of Bevin's fellow Republicans took notice, and the legislature overwhelmingly approved placing an amendment on the ballot to help prevent a repeat of this scandal.

This measure would prohibit governors from issuing pardons or commuting sentences starting 60 days before a gubernatorial election and ending when the governor's term ends.

Remember, this measure is limited to Kentucky, so it wouldn't stop Presidents from abusing their pardon powers - which Presidents of both major parties in my adult life have done. But at least governors of Kentucky would face new limits on their abuses - abuses that have turned dangerous criminals loose on our streets. If somebody should be pardoned, the pardon can be issued in a new term or by the next governor. It's only fair that governors shouldn't be able to act as absolute monarchs just for political gain or retaliation.

So, if you're a voter in Kentucky, you know what to do in November.

I need an eye doctor that won't drive me crazy...

I've just been informed that a John Mellencamp look-alike has been sighted at an eye doctor's office.

Have no fear, the October ish is here!

The October ish of The Last Word is now pub, and it's as spectacular as you might imagine!

The Last Word is a longtime populist zine based in northern Kentucky. We offer a mix of humorous pieces and serious investigative journalism that promotes economic justice and civil liberties. (Some people tend to miss the civil liberties part these days.) Our latest edition talks about smuggling Pepsi into a local festival in violation of its "rules", the end of Flock fascism in a local city, the flatulence-fighting "gas station" in a 2nd grade classroom, toys and comics getting ruined by irresponsible oldsters, our recent trip to Nashville, library farts, Colonel Sanders having angry outbursts over the decline of KFC, and numerous recent public policy disasters. We'll also answer the age-old question of whether anyone ever chewed bubble gum on 'Hee Haw'.

Scribd still has not reenabled uploads after the outage of many weeks ago, because it seems they'd rather dance around and go, "blup a bluh, blup a bluh!" But you can still find the October ish by pointing your pooper here...

https://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2610.pdf

Nashville is fivish

As some of you know, I got home last night from a family trip to Nashville. Several bunker blasts were detected throughout the course of this vacay, and a case of food poisoning was also had. I plan to include details in the October ish of The Last Word, which may be delayed slightly, as Scribd is taking a while to get its poop in a group after this month's outage affecting uploads.

Also, in the parking lot at Mammoth Cave National Park, some woman bubbled.

A pile of app

What city in northern Kentucky - very close to our headquarters - recently began requiring an app to use its overpriced parking meters?

We plan to tell you in the next ish of The Last Word. Hopefully, the outside site we use to upload each edition will reenable uploads by then, but we're not confident of that.

The city in this story no longer accepts coins or any other currency in its parking meters. In addition, it expanded the app-mandatory meters to spots that previously had no meter at all. Even before the switchover, this city's parking meters were a poor bargain: A quarter got you only 9 minutes.

The choice of a new generation

Last night, I continued my proud tradition of smuggling soft drinks into Rip-off-fest in violation of the festival's "rules." Last year, it was Sprite. This year, it was Pepsi. Many different brands have been employed over the years.

People also beered, which also violated the Allowed Cloud. And the airy vapors of a certain herb wafted along the Newport floodwall.

Ploptoberfest is in a couple weeks from now, but I have other priorities that weekend. I'm my own designated driver, and I have no desire to hunt aimlessly for water like I did last year and be forced to buy from cashless vendors.

Have no fear, the back-to-school ish is here!

This year's back-to-school issue of The Last Word is now published!

The Last Word is an exciting populist zine that makes your face fly off like there's no tomorrow! Our latest ish includes investigative reports on Social Security robocalls and money-grubbing radio ministries. It also reminisces about high school pals spitting off a local skyscraper. And there's some nifty items about bubble gum and disgusting things being found in libraries, local municipal incompetence, a TV station losing its archive, a hilarious commercial for a record album, soaring power bills, and more!

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/1078929500/The-Last-Word-9-2026

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

https://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2609.pdf

A Grand old time

I'm all caught up posting my recent road photos, as I now have 13 photos up from July's Scholaring!

This focused largely on Covington's Latonia area, going as far abip as Grand Avenue.

You can always beep, and you can always weep, by pointing your pooper here...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/cov260707.html

A fair 'mount of fun in Fairmount

We've just released 14 Roads Scholaring photos from June!

In addition to the 2 bonus photos, this includes 12 items from our little bippus up to Fairmount. We examine a city street that is all but abandoned, a long-term highway closure, and more!

So point your pooper here...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/cin260618.html

5! 5! 5!

Time to put on your 5 face, as we have 5 more new Scholaring photos - all from northern Kentucky!

The main outing in this batch includes 4 photos from a tiny Scholaring in Dayton in June. This is not one of the more significant photo shoots, but it sheds a little insight on the extended bike trail and a few city streets.

So slide on over here for this blah event...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/day260612.html

19! 19! 19!

19! 19! 19!

We've officially released 19 new Scholaring photos, going back to March! The main event in this batch includes a frustrating outing in Over-the-Rhine that yielded 14 pictures. There's also 3 bonus shoots, which should also cause much bippage of navels.

Bip on over here and click on each of the 4 shoots that amassed in those months...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/cin260309.html

Man, is this gonna be good!

The Last Word will have at least a couple investigative stories in the September ish, and man, one of them is gonna be really good!

It seems the Social Security Administration has been caught with its Underoos down around its ankles deliberately providing personal information of beneficiaries to a private company without their consent. As a result, this company keeps making unsolicited robocalls to beneficiaries.

For an agency that claims to respect people's privacy, it sure likes blabbing private information everywhere.

Have no fear, the August ish is here!

The August edition of The Last Word is a banner issue. This fanzine of freedom has now been around precisely one-third of a century, and it's joining forces with The Online Lunchpail and the rest of the People's Universe for more incisive investigative reporting!

Our latest ish talks about a trashed restroom at a doctor's office, local cities rejecting Flock cameras, another far-right crusade against Social Security, a Catholic high school endorsing a position in an election, a ruined concert, bad policy documents by political parties, a school district violating a disability law, the bare shelves of Kroger, a soccer league blocking websites, the National Mall police state, and more!

To fill your mind with the first issue of this exciting new phase of The Last Word, glide on over here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/1067638222/The-Last-Word-8-2026

If you can't read it on Scribd, just bip on over yonder...

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2608.pdf

Houston, we have a problem

What major American city is now finding its school system under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights for its illegal plan to segregate disabled students?

We'll tell you in the next issue of The Last Word.

This is only the latest in a decades-long nationwide buildup of violations of the 51-year-old Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. It seems as if this trend has only worsened in recent years.

Project 2029 B.C.

We at The Online Lunchpail want to know why the Democrats are writing a Republican policy document. Here's a hint: It's because they're pretty much Republicans now.

It's called Project 2029, and it's supposed to be the Democrats' answer the Heritage Foundation's far-right Project 2025. But the first plank the Democrats released in this manifesto is a demand for a law barring anyone under 16 from using social media.

Laws like this aren't meant to protect children, but to micromanage and keep tabs on adults, as adults will be forced to verify their identities just to use sites like Facebook, Twitter, or Reddit.

The next issue of The Last Word will explore this a little more, but in the meantime, we'd like to suggest some good policy stances that actually belong in a party's policy document:

• Expanding Social Security.

• Accountability for the disastrous COVID-19 lockdowns.

• Reviving enforcement of the Voting Rights Act.

• An end to the overprescription of psychotropic drugs.

• Lifting of the Citizens United ruling.

And a lot more! It seems like every political cycle brings another layer of right-wing stupid that needs to be reversed, and the longer the party establishment bogs things down, the harder it will be. It's a shame the Democrats think age limits for social media of all things is more important than Social Security or the Voting Rights Act. Just let that sink in.

School flunks First Amendment test

This Last Word partnership is really good stuff!

In our latest investigation, we will cover a story in New Jersey in which a school got a judge to censor a newspaper that posted surveillance footage from the school.

One of the main problems in this sorry episode is that the ruling represents prior restraint against the free press.

Watch for this and other incisive reports!

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign

As our fusion with The Last Word expands, that monthly road atlas to freedom will be offering an investigative report on an embattled local Catholic high school's foray into electoral politics. This report will explore how this flies in the face of a federal law that bars nonprofits such as religious bodies from engaging in electoral campaigns.

At issue is the school's posting of signs that supported Amendment 2 - a Kentucky referendum in 2024 that would have allowed public funds to be given to private schools. This amendment would have violated the U.S. Constitution, and it ended up losing in every county in the state.

As separation of church and state is in the crosshairs of the far right, watch for this investigative report in the next edition of The Last Word.

Another right-wing attack against Social Security exposed

This blog is experiencing an exciting new link with The Last Word, with more investigative reports that will be shared between each project. You can almost hear the screaming guitars and horns. It's like the upbeat late '80s music that you used to hear in your head when someone graduated from school and went on to the next stage in life.

But don't get too excited, because it's back down to business when we do our investigating. Our latest probe deals with a right-wing op-ed by the Club for Growth's David McIntosh and former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell that attacked a congressional proposal to shore up Social Security. As a bipartisan duo of senators wants to save Social Security by removing the payroll tax cap, Blackwell and McIntosh laughably assailed the plan.

Each of the points by McIntosh and Blackwell is easily debunked by basic facts that are essentially built into our projects. The pair claims that the American economy is fueled by the wealthy so they shouldn't have to pay more. This is false, as the economy is actually powered by the working class. More buying power for the working class is the real job creator. The op-ed also says that removing the tax cap would turn Social Security into a welfare program, though it contradicts itself in the very same sentence.

More details on the Club for Growth's assault on Social Security lurk in the next ish of The Last Word.

Hangin' out...Down the street...

It was a rare warm, sunny day today, so I went to the pool in Cincinnati. While I was there, I saw a funny celebrity look-alike: Ashton Kutcher from back when he played Kelso on That '70s Show.

Have no fear, the July ish is here!

Celebrate America's 250th birthday with the July edition of The Last Word!

This ish talks about how most activities from our youth are now illegal, Wikipedia blocking edits from T-Mobile, a high school classmate chewing a dirty stick of bubble gum he found behind a heater, how I found my long-lost ACT scores, and more!

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/1055821452/The-Last-Word-7-2026

If that doesn't work, you can fail to stink by sliding on over here...

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2607.pdf

It's bubbling season, Charlie Brown!

Today, I Scholared over in Fairmount, and it was disappointing, because I can't ride a bike up hills anymore (even hills that aren't very steep). I'm disappointed and angry beyond description, because I can't do the things I used to be able to do.

On the way home, I devoured lunchage at Piatt Park. While I was there, some woman walking down the street bubbled.

Cut a fart at the doctor

Today I went to the doctor, which is at the same practice as my dentist who I visited on Tuesday. While I was in the waiting room, a man got up from his chair and ripped an audible bunker blast.

Cut a fart at Kroger

Today I went to the dentist, and in the waiting room there, some woman bubbled. This is despite the fact that most dentists hate gum.

Later, at Kroger, a young man ripped an LAP bunker blast as he was emerging from the soft drink aisle. He looked around as if he was pretending someone else did it.

"LIberal" San Francisco says taxes are only for the little people

San Francisco in the 2020s continues its streak of outdoing Phil Heimlich-era Cincinnati in its rightism.

Last week, there was a voter referendum in San Francisco that would have enacted a tax hike on highly paid corporate executives. You'd think that would have passed easily. But - after the city's painfully slow ballot counting process - it now appears as if the measure was rejected.

A measure like this would have no trouble at all passing in small Rust Belt towns, yet it gets rejected in a supposedly "liberal" big city like San Francisco.

The referendum was opposed by right-wing Mayor Daniel Lurie and a host of corporate opinion havers who spent zillions to defeat it. If the tax had passed, it would have generated as much as $300 million in revenues for the city.

But the thought police didn't want that, I guess. Because rich people have had everything so rough in life. The poor things.

School bans kids from social media even outside of school

Man, everything just keeps getting weirder and weirder, doesn't it?

A Catholic school in Abbeville, Louisiana, has now decided to ban students in 8th grade and under from using social media sites - not just at school, but even away from school. The ban applies when they're at home, during weekends, and even during summer break. Students are banned from even having social media accounts.

The fourth offense will result in expulsion.

This is a private school, and a private school has more power to control students' lives than a public school does. But in this case, the school is overstepping its authority. There ought to be a law to stop schools - public as well as private - from doing this. Then again, public schools have also shown over the past few years that they too like to control off-campus conduct, so you know public schools are chomping at the bit to copy this school's policy.

Louisiana was also one of the first states to give taxpayer money to religious schools, which is unconstitutional, but they do it anyway.

Have no fear, the June ish is here!

The June issue of The Last Word is pub like the spectacle it is!

This ish talks about insurance failing to cover a heart monitor bill, people having their vacations ruined, a high school teacher's tantrum over kids not understanding a poem, a Kentucky politician farting in church, the Kodak Disc camera, Google Maps losing timelines, Howard Cosell arguing about grammar, and more!

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/1044392755/The-Last-Word-6-2026

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

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2606.pdf

Court imposes Louisiana law on the rest of America

Reproductive freedom is a very important issue to hundreds of millions of Americans, and it must be respected. I might personally oppose abortion, but I am pro-choice. It is not my place to make this choice for others.

But now, in a Louisiana case, the right-wing 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has blocked the mailing of the abortion drug mifepristone nationwide. Louisiana is one of many states that banned abortion after Roe v. Wade was gutted, but the federal court is absurdly saying that Louisiana laws apply outside of Louisiana - even if the sender and recipient of this drug never set foot in that state. The ruling even blocks telehealth prescriptions for the drug, even when the doctor and the patient are not in Louisiana.

You and your doctor could be in a state with the most permissive abortion laws in the nation, and the ruling would block you from getting this drug. This is after those who defended the overturning of Roe v. Wade said the power was merely returning to the states. So - once again - states' rights applies only selectively.

Louisiana has been at the center of a lot of weird cases lately. When the U.S. Supreme Court recently laid waste to some of the most important provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Louisiana announced it would cancel the congressional primary in which voters were already voting and gerrymander its map of House districts. In other words, the state canceled an election until officials knew they were allowed to rig it.

The Pelican State has also inexplicably sued to have the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1975 ruled unconstitutional - just because. Nobody can figure out why. That was even after it was found that New Orleans schools were illegally denying entry to thousands of students on the basis of disability, which resulted in a consent decree involving the school system.

Now one state - which has had some of the strangest public policies - can control policy for the entire country.

Utah makes it illegal to post VPN instructions

With the recent proliferation of laws in America and around the world to block and censor websites, some people have turned to what are called VPN's - virtual private networks - to access banned sites. This is actually a step down. It used to be that there were free proxy servers to get around blocks that might exist, but most of today's VPN's charge a steep subscription fee. A post from 2018 - before the runaway stagflation of the 2020s - says a VPN cost $273 per year.

But now even zillionaires aren't safe.

Utah has just passed a new law making it illegal for websites to provide instructions on how to use a VPN.

This violates the First Amendment, of course. It's not as if the underlying ban on websites - which is what has prompted the instructions to be posted in the first place - doesn't also violate it.

But hey, who's counting?

More states join suit against Nexstar/Tegna merger

Now we're actually getting somewhere.

The proposed merger between TV broadcasting giants Nexstar and Tegna had been the target of an antitrust suit by 8 states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, and Virginia. We were worried we'd be stuck at 8, but now 5 more have joined the suit: Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. The suit is officially a bipartisan effort, drawing Democratic and Republican attorneys general alike.

One thing that helps the states' case is the fact that when the FCC and the U.S. Justice Department approved the merger, they didn't even follow the lax regulations that already existed on paper. They granted a waiver for the merger just for the asking, even though the rules don't allow it. What's the point of regulations if they can be waived at will?

Can I go out and run a red light and then ask for a waiver? Can I start stealing from Kroger and ask for a waiver? That's what this merger is like.

Wake up, Kentucky! Wake up, Ohio!

Have no fear, the May ish is here!

Around here, April showers bring May showers. And more showers in the rest of the months. But it also means it's time for the May issue of The Last Word!

This ish talks about the passage of an anti-Flock bill in Kentucky, a school troublemaker who retired at 56, the destruction of priceless wine glasses and toy helicopters, dominionists whining about the lack of Medicaid copays, a gun-toting Trump follower who chewed bubble gum, and more!

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/1032542650/The-Last-Word-5-2026

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

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2605.pdf