When Wrigley's got in a mountain of trouble (Bubble Gum Weekend)

Back in 2002, Metamucil ran a TV commercial in which a park ranger poured the product into Old Faithful to help the geyser stay regular. The National Park Service just about pooped a hole in its pants, since they feared the ad would encourage people to throw objects into Yellowstone's thermal features. Wrigley's made a similar gaffe in 1980 in a commercial for its famous spearmint gum.

The difference between chewing gum and bubble gum is beyond the scope of this entry. It may be moot here, since nobody bubbled in the commersh.

In this ad - which I remember because it aired during soap operas that my mom watched - a man in a hang glider perched atop a jagged mountain crams a pile of Wrigley's Spearmint Gum into his cavernous maw. Then he majestically flies away, soaring over clouds and a river - while the singers stirringly chant the Wrigley's Spearmint Gum jingle...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ87pBjQt0k

Quite a bit of controversy erupted over that commercial. If you look closely, the man appears to be littering as he deposits the gum wrapper onto the mountain. This resulted in Wrigley's yanking the ad.

Also, I used to parody the voiceover man's opening lines: "Fresh. Clean." Whenever this ad came on, I would say, "Stale. Dirty." Just because I was 7 and thought that was really funny.

Clinton bounces to 15-point lead

Even when your running mate is a dud who cost you a 13-point lead in the polls, I guess some folks might be willing to forgive when they realize your leading opponent is so much worse.

Disappointment over Tim Kaine cost Hillary Clinton a commanding polling edge and sent the despicable Donald Trump into the lead. But this letdown appears to have been short-lived. A new poll by RABA Research says Clinton has now soared to a 15-point lead nationwide...

http://www.rabaresearch.com

And RABA isn't generally a Democratic-friendly pollster. It had been showing Trump doing better than other polls did. In fact, this poll actually oversampled Republicans.

Just think what a Sanders/Warren ticket would be doing to the Donald right about now.

Media throws fit because Louisiana cuts unconstitutional program

The yells are approaching a howl in The Media today.

The state of Louisiana gives loads of handouts to private schools. In fact, New Orleans is in the process of abolishing public schools altogether. These policies are unconstitutional, of course, but who's counting?

Now Louisiana is facing a budget crunch that has forced the state to slash some of these handouts. What do the self-styled budget watchdogs of the Right think about this? They claim to be for fiscal responsibility, so you'd think they'd cheer the cuts. But that assumes you haven't spent the past 25 years keeping an eye on their hypocrisy. Rather, they're the first ones complaining about the cuts.

Sounds like a case of affluenza to me. The private school gimme program will still be partially funded, so the right-wing media shouldn't be looking a gift horse in the mouth. If I was put in charge of my state's budget, private schools wouldn't get anything - simply for constitutional reasons. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards calls the program an "unproven gimmick." That it is - and worse.

I saw a Bush sticker today

To this very day, I still see more Michael Dukakis bumper stickers than Donald Trump. But today, we traveled by car to southern Campbell County. The southern half of the county is an alternate universe stuck in a time warp like that area in Moldova that never got over the breakup of the Soviet Union. What I saw today is an indicator of that.

We stopped at the Meijer store in Cold Spring to use the johnnypot, and my jaw just about hit the ground when I saw what I saw. I walked past a car that had a white, oval sticker that made me do a double-take. It sure looked like a "W '04" sticker from George W. Bush's 2004 campaign. But it couldn't possibly be. As I got closer to the car, I discovered the sad truth: It was.

Worst all, it was a brand new car! It wasn't some old clunker from 12 years ago. What this means is that there's some right-winger out in Cold Spring or Alexandria who hoarded Bush stickers back in 2004 and still uses them whenever they buy a new car.

How utterly humiliating.

I really didn't think I'd ever see one of those stickers on a car ever again, since Bush was unpopular to begin with, and all his supporters were rich, so they can buy a new car more than once every 12 years.

Betcha anything it's someone I went to Brossart with.

We can't just whisper about Whisper Ridge scandal

Tim Kaine is the closest thing the Democrats today have to Zell Miller. Kaine apologists insist that - while Kaine has a spotty record on economic matters - he at least has solid marks on social issues. But this story proves that's far from the truth.

Whisper Ridge Health System was a psychiatric prison in Charlottesville, Virginia, where 6 young people attempted suicide in the course of only 2 months. City police also investigated the program for sexual assault. Whisper Ridge is owned by Universal Health Services. According to one website, 21 UHS programs nationwide are under a federal investigation for Medicaid fraud.

A Virginia state official also investigated Whisper Ridge and recommended that the program be shut down because of its abusive conditions. But a UHS lobbyist intervened and coaxed another state official to demand that this probe cease. Then-Gov. Kaine permitted this to occur. After this, Kaine's Senate campaign received a $25,000 donation from UHS. Kaine then recommended that the official who killed the investigation be appointed to head the nation's Medicaid and Medicare services. In other words, someone linked to scuttling a probe of a company accused of Medicaid fraud would be in charge of running Medicaid for the whole country.

Apparently, Whisper Ridge changed its name to Jefferson Trail Treatment Center following the abuse scandal. Name changes are common with abusive programs, because it throws people off. This happened after Whisper Ridge staffers actually blocked police officers from entering the facility to investigate the crimes there. Whisper Ridge's disrespect of the law ranks right up there with Cliven Bundy or that Tea Party standoff in Oregon.

Kaine costs Clinton her lead

So this really happened - just like I predicted. Is the DLC happy now?

A week ago, Hillary Clinton was beating Donald Trump by as much as 13 percentage points in national polls. Now - after Clinton picked Tim Kaine as a running mate - a new CNN poll has Trump ahead by 6 points.

Clinton just lost 19 points because of her vice-presidential pick. I thought at least Kaine might not have been as bad of a choice as Joe Lieberman was, but a VP pick causing such a seismic shift in polling is unprecedented in modern America.

One bad choice. Nineteen points.

This isn't a bump from the Republican convention, because polls from after the convention but before the Kaine selection showed Clinton still had a strong lead. The GOP convention actually hurt the Republicans - before Kaine squandered this edge.

The DLC shit in their hat, now they have to wear it.

DWS is out!

It's an end of an era for Debbie Wasserman's Schultz's zero-state strategy.

After the Democratic National Committee was humiliated by the release of a treasure trove of e-mails proving they sabotaged Bernie Sanders's candidacy, Wasserman Schultz is resigning as DNC chair.

But DWS's defenders say the Russians are behind it all, like it's 1954.

Sanders delegates may challenge Kaine pick

Good, it's happening.

News sources are reporting that Hillary Clinton may be forced to drop Tim Kaine from the ticket as Bernie Sanders's delegates plan to challenge Kaine at this week's Democratic convention. They want to force a vote on an alternate running mate.

Something has to be done to keep the Democrats from going full Tea Party, especially after the party invited right-wing former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to speak.

The man who saved bubbling (Bubble Gum Weekend)

At some level, it seems strange that bubble gum was ever invented at all. What practical purpose is served by a candy whose distinguishing characteristic is that you can blow bubbles with it for hours on end?

But let's face it: This zesty foodstuff needed to be invented. It had to happen. Humanity was crying out for it.

During World War II, however, bubble gum became harder and harder to find. This inspired a man by the name of Andrew Paris to find more efficient ways to produce the stuff - thus guaranteeing future generations the ability to bubble. He built a bubble gum factory that lurked large over a Texas city's economy.

And there was even an hour-long documentary film about the guy!

Mr. Paris was frequently seen bubbling, as the ladies gathered around him. He even dated Marilyn Monroe.

The growing interest in bubble gum also encouraged doctors to prescribe bubble gum to successfully treat a young polio patient who was suffering from paralysis in her jaw.

But eventually, the bubble gum busted. The IRS got suspicious of Andy Paris because he paid for everything in cash, and his business was (keek!) ruined.

That documentary movie has miraculously appeared on YouTube...



I have no idea why Michael Dukakis's name appears in the credits. Maybe the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee frequently bubbles in private.

New e-mails proved party bosses rigged primary

You can learn a lot from Wikileaks.

Wikileaks has just exposed e-mails from Democratic hacks proving that they rigged the primary to keep Bernie Sanders from winning. These bored panjandrums privately plotted to undermine Sanders's progressive-leaning campaign. One Democratic official - press secretary Mark Paustenbach - wrote communications director Luis Miranda about feeding a manufactured story to the media about the Sanders campaign supposedly being in shambles.

Even worse, some DLC nobody named Brad Marshall concocted a plan to attack Sanders for being Jewish - in the hopes that voters in Appalachia would reject him. This strategy was bigoted on 2 fronts: It was anti-Jewish, and it was anti-Appalachian, for it assumed folks in Appalachia were dumb enough to fall for appeals to bigotry. (It didn't work anyway, because Sanders won every county in West Virginia.)

Party hacks also coordinated with MSNBC's Chuck Todd in an attempt to discredit efforts to install better party leadership.

All this while the party establishment kept rejecting the Sanders campaign's claims of a rigged primary.

Corrupt, bigoted party bosses took a stand in the primary before any votes were even cast! I know the modern Democrats have a history of this - Super Tuesday is an example - but now Wikileaks has confirmed it.

With the Democratic convention looming next week, now I truly hope there is a floor fight. The party bosses have earned it.

(Source: http://observer.com/2016/07/wikileaks-proves-primary-was-rigged-dnc-undermined-democracy)

Tim Kaine, a wasted opportunity

By picking Tim Kaine for Vice-President, Hillary Clinton made an unforced error that will cost her millions of votes and very possibly the election - nay, very likely the election. Clinton might as well have picked a right-wing hack like Paul Vallas or Zell Miller.

Kaine is the man who the New York Times said would "do battle with the progressive wing of the party." But this is an understatement. A vote for Clinton/Kaine is a vote for unconstitutional "right-to-work" laws: In 2006, Kaine declared, "The Secretary of the Commonwealth has no - I repeat, no - role in the enforcement of Virginia's right-to-work law, a law I strongly support."

Even after BP's oil spill, Kaine was a signatory to a Tea Party-penned letter that urged expansion of offshore oil drilling in the Atlantic. This despite the fact that he represents Virginia, a state on the Atlantic coast. And he attacked other Democrats in 2011 for daring to propose higher taxes on the rich.

Kaine was even incompetent as head of the Democratic National Committee, for he ditched Howard Dean's 50-state strategy that fueled the party's smashing comeback of the late 2000s. Plus, several news sites reported last month that Kaine accepted $160,000 in gifts while serving as governor or lieutenant governor. Why was Kaine picked for Vice-President even after this scandal broke?

Oh, and there's gonna be more where this came from to expose Kaine's right-wing extremism. Just you watch.

If Hillary Clinton manages to win the election after all this - and make no mistake, her poll numbers will nosedive because of this - I hope she lives a damn long time. For Tim Kaine to be a heartbeat away from the presidency is much too close. Nobody has credibly explained any logic in selecting Kaine as a running mate.

And this is why I'm voting for Jill Stein.

Trump's son plagiarized speech too

The Republican convention is going so horribly wrong that the Republicans may as well have farted a bubble of shit-flavored gum and floated over Cleveland for a week, before rupturing and stinking up the city for years on end.

Tonight's installment was as miserable as last night's. Like last night, it included a Trump family member delivering a plagiarized speech. Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., gave a speech featuring a passage that was ripped off almost verbatim from an article in a right-wing publication nobody reads.

The passage in question attacked public schools - since the GOP hates all things public. This part of the speech appealed to absolutely nobody except the far-right base.

(Source: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/donald-trump-jr-rnc-speech-lifted-language-too)

City ruins Ploptoberfest

If the city of Cincinnati can't make Oktoberfest work where it was, Oktoberfest doesn't need my money. I won't be returning to that event.

Cincinnati will be opening a microscopic streetcar line soon. It doesn't have much of a practical purpose. It's mostly just a yuppie tourist novelty that only runs a few blocks. The line will cross 5th Street, which for decades has been the site of Oktoberfest - Ploptoberfest, as I call it, because people like to clog toilets there with phone books and pants.

The city can make Ploptoberfest and the streetcar work together. That's what other cities do that have streetcars running near festivals. It's not a problem in other cities. But other cities don't have 3CDC - a gang of corporate overlords that bark out commands and expect total obedience.

So the city decided to just move Oktoberfest closer to the riverfront instead of keeping it near the streetcar. As a result, Ploptoberfest this year will conflict with 4 Reds games. The city is also shrinking the space for the event.

It appears that my annual road trip this year was to start on Ploptoberfest weekend, but now it makes no difference, because I wouldn't have gone to Ploptoberfest anyway because of this development.

The long and short of it is that the city moved Oktoberfest to appease suburbanites who don't live in the cities and already mooch off what the cities have to offer. It's the same right-wing mentality that fueled the push to remove the Central Parkway bike lane.

Melania Trump plagiarized Michelle Obama

Did you watch the Republican convention last night? Did that disaster really happen? Lucky for us, there's 3 more nights of this unchecked stupidity.

As it turns out, Melania Trump's speech was plagiarized almost verbatim from a speech Michelle Obama gave at the 2008 Democratic convention.

Another day of the Republicans breaking the stupid barrier - just like they've been doing almost every day for 30 years.

(Source: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/melania-trump-michelle-obama-convention-remarks)

Trump adviser wants Khomeini to denounce attack

Nobody in the Trump campaign knows a damn thing about world events, and this proves it.

Michael Flynn - who was on Donald Trump's vice-presidential shortlist and is now Trump's top adviser on military matters - has a rather unusual reaction to the terrorist massacre in Nice, France: He wants the Ayatollah Khomeini to denounce the attack.

Uh, Khomeini has been dead almost 30 years, you idiot.

(Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-military-adviser-nice-attack-khomeini_us_5788f0c6e4b03fc3ee50788b)

A person (?) rooed

Today at an important family gathering, somebody kept releasing silent-but-deadly bunker blasts into the smoggy air.

I suspect it was a human person, but many folks pointed fingers at a canine person.

Nah, it was a human person. Everyone always blames the dog, don't they?

GOP posts racist sign at convention

The Republicans just shattered the stupid barrier in a big way.

With the GOP convention in Cleveland getting under way, the Republicans posted signs in the hallways of the arena directing folks to "white elevators."

"White elevators"??? I swear I am not making this up.

Is this the 1940s or something?

I was in such disbelief that a major American political party in 2016 posted something like this that I had to go take a shower before finishing this blog entry.

(Source: http://us.blastingnews.com/news/2016/07/gop-forced-to-remove-white-elevator-conventions-signs-accused-of-jim-crow-era-racism-001019123.html)

Hospital sued for torturing elderly man

With the graying of America, elder abuse is said to be one of the nation's fastest growing crimes. A northern Kentucky case shows how out of control this crime is.

A lawsuit says workers for St. Elizabeth Healthcare and its partner Sun Behavioral Health tortured an elderly Alzheimer's patient last year. The man was strapped to a table overnight with weights on his legs. This incident resulted in not only a local criminal probe but a federal investigation as well. Criminal charges may be coming.

The suit also accuses St. Elizabeth of false imprisonment. This is the third time this year the hospital has been sued for false imprisonment. In the other 2 suits, patients were held against their will under the widely abused mental illness pretext. The fact that the hospital held people against their will busts the bubbles of all the right-wingers who keep complaining that it's too difficult to have someone involuntarily committed in Kentucky.

Sounds like a lot of people need to go to jail.

Trump picks Mike Pence for VP

The Trump campaign continues to make a mockery of the most powerful elected office in the world. Now the Indianapolis Star reports that the Donald is selecting Mike Pence - the unpopular, antigay Governor of Indiana - as his running mate.

Uh, Donald? You need Indiana to win. You just made winning Indiana all the less likely.

Don't the Republicans have anyone better than Mike Pence, of all people???

Right-wing billionaire wants taxpayer funds to move Raiders

Would you believe that Sheldon Adelson - one of the richest people in America - wants a $750 million handout to move the NFL's Oakland Raiders to Las Vegas?

In the immortal words of Shadoe Stevens: It boggles the mind, it mindles the bog!

Adelson - a major contributor to right-wing causes who has fought against legalizing medical marijuana - is joining up with Raiders owner Mark Davis to try to get a taxpayer subsidy from the state of Nevada to build a new stadium in Las Vegas. If the $750 million gimme is approved, it would be the largest taxpayer handout for a sports venue ever.

I guess Adelson needs his money, because he plans to donate $100 million to Donald Trump's floundering presidential campaign. He also recently purchased the Las Vegas Review-Journal - though that probably made no difference in the newspaper's content, considering the Review-Journal was a far-right rag to begin with.

Nevada now has one of the worst-performing public school systems in America - largely because school uniforms are more common there than elsewhere, and because the state gives unconstitutional handouts to private schools. Nevada also has one of the worst crime rates, since the state won't spend money fighting crime. The state also subsidizes corporations by having no corporate tax. Nevada won't lift a finger to fight crime or fund public schools, but it can throw taxpayer money around by funding major football teams, private schools, and other big corporations?

After the Rams left St. Louis even after getting a new taxpayer-funded stadium - and with the Cincinnati Bengals threatening to move to London even after getting their new venue - we ought to be marching in the streets with burning pitchforks over this. But nope - because the self-appointed Really Serious People don't want that.

Meanwhile, baseball's Atlanta Braves are robbing taxpayers too. Cobb County used taxpayer funds to build a new stadium for them - then the Braves got local officials to pass an ordinance making it illegal for nearby residents to let fans park at their homes. This forces fans to pay huge parking fees to the stadium.

(Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/14/oakland-raiders-las-vegas-stadium-sheldon-adelson-public-funding)

North Dakota gets new state route signs

Like county names, state symbols can have a lot of baggage that leads to their eventual retirement. Many folks believe this fate has befallen North Dakota's state highway route signs - but state transportation officials say that's not the case.

For 90 years, North Dakota has used a profile of Lakota law enforcement agent Red Tomahawk on its highway signs. He is the man in the feather headdress on North Dakota route markers. Red Tomahawk, however, is a controversial figure who participated in the death of Sitting Bull.

North Dakota is now retiring its old state route shields featuring Red Tomahawk and rolling out new ones featuring an outline of the state. But transportation officials say the real reason for this wasn't because of any controversy. They said the change is "just a part of the regular sign maintenance program" designed to raise the state's profile.

Meanwhile, more county name changes in nearby states may be in the works.

When the Tea Party impeded interstate commerce

I found an article on a trucking website about Black Lives Matter protests that block highways. Someone commented that it's a federal crime to impede vehicles - in this case, commercial trucks - engaged in interstate commerce.

Then why did the Tea Party obstruct highways more than Black Lives Matter has? I saw the Tea Party blocking roads at least a couple times in its brief heyday. But they weren't charged with any crime. For every Black Lives Matter participant who is arrested or charged for blocking roads, at least one Tea Party member needs to be busted too.

The concerns voiced by Black Lives Matter are very real - unlike those of the Tea Party. However, the fact that the Tea Party whined about stupid stuff isn't what's at issue here. The issue is that the Tea Party broke the law - and got away with it.

May all the Tea Party's Ted Nugent records become Coca-Colafied.

Local Tea Party leader sentenced to jail for animal cruelty

Remember last month's case of John Paul Roth, the Campbell County Tea Party activist who was busted for selling drugs?

On Friday, he was taken into custody and hauled to jail for a cruelty to animals case from 2013 in which he neglected horses on his property. He was actually convicted and sentenced to jail for this case back in 2014, but for some reason, they never made him serve his time until now. The 6-month sentence is supposed to end in January.

And you won't believe what Roth said about why he was jailed.

He said he was jailed because Campbell County government is out to get conservatives.

HA HA HA! That's really funny!

He really said that! I burst out laughing when I read that!

A Tea Party member actually thinks Campbell County - I repeat, Campbell County - is treating him worse because of his right-wing political views. You can't make this shit up!

The local media has ignored this development. Only Fort Thomas Matters - not exactly a champion of liberality - has covered it.

(Source: http://www.fortthomasmatters.com/2016/07/northern-kentucky-political-activist.html)

Must be a really slow news day

This is what passes for the media these days.

When they're not behaving as a 24/7 Tea Party mouthpiece, their top stories are items like this...

http://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/what-is-this-friends-extra-chewing-the-internet-wants-to-know/ar-BBu729D?ocid=spartandhp

You read that right: I went on the Internet this morning, and the top news story was a woman in the background of a Friends episode from 20 years ago drinking coffee and chewing bubble gum at the same time.

There's your media, folks.

Grant County judge-exec faces criminal investigation

The thuggish Tea Party in northern Kentucky has had some real setbacks over the past 2 or 3 months - a Tea Party leader was even busted for selling drugs - and their losing streak resulting from their own corruption is continuing.

Grant County Judge-Executive Steve Wood - a Republican - is now facing a criminal investigation by the Kentucky State Police. The county refused to pay a jail officer, and Wood told him to keep quiet about it at a fiscal court meeting. Then the jail officer made an open records request and discovered the county's payroll records were full of discrepancies. Some of the time cards were even dated a year in advance.

The case was taken to a grand jury, and then a prosecutor and state police joined the investigation.

Republican hacks who serve in the judge-executive's office are the subject of some of these discrepancies. Apparently they were paid for work when they took vacation days that were supposed to be unpaid.

Meanwhile, the case has been taken up by the state police's white-collar crime unit.

In less than 2 years, Tea Party public officials in Grant County have nearly bankrupted the county and ruined jail operations.

(Source: http://www.fox19.com/story/32384705/kentucky-state-police-investigating-countys-payroll-records)

Man who exposed rapists faces 16 years

A man who helped expose the perpetrators in the Steubenville, Ohio, gang-rape scandal is now facing a much longer prison term than the rapists ever received.

Deric Lostutter - a Kentucky resident at the time who used the handle "KYAnonymous" - has been indicted by a federal grand jury for charges surrounding exposing the rapists. If convicted, he may face 16 years in prison - even though none of the rapists got any more than 2 years.

The federal probe of Lostutter was orchestrated by Steubenville officials who couldn't tolerate having anyone challenge them on anything.

(Source: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/crime/article88289687.html)

Recycling finally comes to Bellevue

Why did it take this long for a growing central city like Bellevue to gain a recycling program?

Highland Heights has had one since at least the early '90s. I know this because I still lived there then, and I remember doing an impression of Bill Clinton talking about how he'd never put a nonrecyclable Sunkist can in the recycle bin.

According to peeps who know, the delay in Bellevue was caused by the fact that the city farmed out garbage collection to a company that didn't offer a recycling program. Incidentally, this company recently failed to pick up our trash, but that's beside the point. But now Bellevue has contracted its trash collection to a different company.

My arm muscles are going to get a real workout shredding sensitive papers, because I don't have a paper shredder. But just think. Soon you might buy a box of cereal packaged in what used to be one of my bank statements, paycheck stubs, or medical documents!

P&G accused of tax evasion

Cincinnati's corporate culture is ultraconservative. Criticism of major Cincinnati corporations is usually not tolerated. And the local media supports corporate Cincinnati with a vengeance.

I was only in college when I started my spontaneously combustible underground newsletter criticizing Tri-State corporatism. I had good reason for it. You have to remember this was right after the Brossart and CPH disasters - which were unforced errors on their part. So I can't expect to be hired for even a menial job by major corporations that do business locally, and why would I want to at this stage? Corporate Cincinnati did a lot of irreparable damage - to me and others.

Now Procter & Gamble - the powerful Cincinnati-based consumer goods giant - is under investigation by countries around the world accusing it of tax evasion.

Italy is probing P&G because of allegations that the company routed revenue from its sales there through Switzerland so it wouldn't have to pay taxes. P&G's Italian offices were searched by tax collectors.

Plus, P&G has been the target of tax evasion investigations in Mexico and Argentina.

Some of you can probably see where we're going with this.

Big corporations seem to think they don't have to pay taxes like we do. Why do you think big banks don't have to pay a sales tax when they buy a smaller bank, but you have to pay a sales tax when you buy an Adele album or something?

(Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2016/07/06/p-g-target-of-tax-probe-in-italy.html)

Fox News sued for sexual harassment

Fox News - the channel of record for the kook-a-loon Right - is now the target of a sexual harassment lawsuit by former "personality" Gretchen Carlson.

Carlson says the channel fired her for rebuffing sexual advances from longtime media hatchet man and Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. Carlson also says she was the target of "severe and pervasive sexual harassment" from co-host Steve Doocy.

Once again, Fox News.

(Source: http://reverbpress.com/news/fox-friends-with-benefits-gretchen-carlson-sues-fox-ceo-over-pervasive-sexual-harassment)

Hitler reacts to my lawsuit victory

GOP may shut down government if Clinton isn't indicted

Is the entire Republican Party just one ongoing temper tantrum?

If nothing else, Hillary Clinton was completely cleared in the money-wasting probe of her State Department e-mails. The "scandal" appealed to nobody except the decrepit Fox News audience.

But far-right Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California) says he wants congressional Republicans to shut down the government unless Clinton is indicted. Not unlike a big crybaby.

Of course, Issa was once arrested for car theft.

(Source: http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/07/06/3795983/darrell-issa-shutdown-government-because-hillary-clinton)

Man arrested for buying allergy medicine 2 years ago

This story shows just how idiotic our drug laws are.

A man in Greenwood, South Carolina, has just been arrested because he purchased too much pseudoephedrine allergy medicine at a drugstore - 2 years ago! He purchased a whopping 5 grams back in 2014. That was enough for him to be entered into the NCIC database - where he languished for 2 years.

Isn't that ridiculous?

The Bush regime's moronic war on pseudoephedrine is a contributing factor to the heroin pandemic of today. All the people who yelled about Sudafed 5 or 10 years ago have blood on their hands now.

It's true when people say it's easier to buy a gun than to buy allergy drugs. That's no exaggeration whatsoever. You can buy 5 guns in a day and you won't be entered into a government database. But you buy 5 grams of Sudafed in a month, and you're done - at least when they get to your case after they deal with all the other frivolous cases like this.

(Source: http://www.indexjournal.com/news/Man-arrested-2-years-after-attempting-to-buy-pseudoephedrine-17247150)

Have no fear, our July ish is here!

Here in the land of The Last Word, the undisputed #1 story of the past month is the Tea Party drug bust in Highland Heights. Team Tyranny was humiliated beyond reclamation when one of their own was nabbed for his own drug dealing.

And the latest ish of The Last Word covers it all!

This issue also covers lots of hilarious Kroger mischief and the NFL's greed-driven attempts to move a team to London after fleecing the taxpayers for a stadium that hasn't even lasted 20 years.

It fails to stink...

https://www.scribd.com/document/317488955/The-Last-Word-7-2016

Bevin threatened legislator who refused to switch parties

A lawmaker has come forward with a revelation that Matt Bevin threatened him because he refused to switch parties.

Kentucky State Rep. Kevin Sinnette, an Ashland Democrat, said Bevin approached him and other Democrats about switching their affiliation to Republican in an attempt to flip the precarious Kentucky House. When Sinnette rebuffed Bevin, Bevin launched threats and personal attacks against him.

Sinnette said Bevin told him he'd "do everything in my power to get you beat and take you down." After the meeting, right-wing activist Dr. Frank Simon made robocalls to voters in Sinnette's district attacking Sinnette.

Plus, in apparent retaliation against Sinnette, Republican legislators removed road projects in Sinnette's district from the budget. The legislator says other Democrats were treated the same way by Bevin, and he was afraid to come forward about this for fear of further retaliation.

Let's get one thing clear: What Bevin did is illegal and impeachable.

(Source: http://www.dailyindependent.com/news/lawmaker-says-bevin-tried-to-bully-him/article_364eee7c-3fca-11e6-b65d-533fc0f3386e.html)

Far Right gets redo of Austrian election

What's a far-right candidate to do when they lose an election? Just throw a fit and ask for a redo. Odds are they'll get it.

Norbert Hofer, a Donald Trump-style right-winger, lost the election for President of Austria to the Green-backed independent Alexander Van der Bellen back in May. It was widely feared that Hofer - like a dictator - would dissolve Parliament if he won.

After Hofer lost, his supporters threw a big sore loser temper tantrum. They claimed to have found voting irregularities in many districts. But no evidence could be found that the election was actually rigged or that any Hofer votes were flipped to Van der Bellen. In fact, some of the electoral commission members blamed for the irregularities belonged to Hofer's own party!

Despite this lack of evidence, Austria's constitutional court - in a baldly politically motivated ruling - threw out the election results and ordered a new election.

If the European Union is so democratic, why doesn't it intervene and protect Van der Bellen's democratically elected presidency? EU's stated rules require member nations to be democratic. Why isn't the EU enforcing this rule?

Furthermore, Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka ruled that the new election would not have exit polls. This is reminiscent of the American "elections" of 2002 when exit poll data was suppressed on election night because it showed the Republicans losing. (This is one of the forgotten stories of modern American elections.)

If the EU wants to regain credibility instead of being viewed as an undemocratic right-wing puppet, it needs to intervene on Van der Bellen's behalf.