Sandy Hook suit should send chills through right-wing media empire

Families of victims of the 2012 school shooting at Connecticut's Sandy Hook Elementary School are suing Alex Jones - and I hope the suit succeeds.

In a ghoulish attempt to discredit the families, Jones - a radio host known for his right-wing conspiracy theories - has claimed that the shooting was a hoax. Now the families are suing Jones for defamation in Connecticut and in Texas, where Jones's media machine is based.

Jones's attack has been sustained and malicious, and he has incited followers to harass the families.

I hope the lawsuit succeeds because that would send a strong signal that the Far Right's fake news machine must be reined in. I'd go a step further and support new legislation to punish what can be termed gross defamation. When people are shouted down based on fake news, it has a chilling effect on society and the public's general welfare. For right-wing media figures to be punished for their lies would be only fair.

Have no fear, the June ish is here!

June wouldn't be June if it didn't have the June issue of The Last Word to fart in your face throughout the totality of that month.

This ish is a beaut as usual, and it talks about numerous nifty things like these...

• Right-wingers' made-up complaints about everyone else buying big-screen TV's.

• A certain high school wasting over $5 million on a stadium.

• Sesame Place getting bad reviews.

• Gentrification greed.

• A funny body art question.

• The misery of Pac-Man cereal.

• And a whole lot more!

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/380083063/The-Last-Word-6-2018

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

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw1806.pdf

Tea Party misses parade

This is the first time in years that the Northern Kentucky Tea Party didn't show up in the Bellevue-Dayton Memorial Day Parade in an attempt to ruin it.

There were political parties and candidates, but the Tea Party itself was nowhere in sight - unless its float was so quiet that I missed it, which it never is. Last year, the Tea Party's presence received such an overwhelmingly negative reception that they probably realized they should lay low.

Also, I saw 2 - count 'em, 2 - people who bubbled.

Andy Barr trails by 15%

Andy Barr is the longtime far-right congressman in Kentucky's 6th District - who never should have won in the first place, because of his actions when he was in the administration of Gov. Ernie "Hey Bert" Fletcher.

Now - in the wake of Amy McGrath's stunning win in yesterday's Democratic primary - a new DCCC poll has McGrath demolishing Barr 52% to 37%.

I'll remember this when I'm watching the general election returns in November.

Wesley Morgan loses primary in upset

The Republicans actually lucked out yesterday in Kentucky.

Embattled far-right State Rep. C. Wesley Morgan - an ally of the late Dan Johnson - was defeated in the Republican primary for his Richmond-area seat. This at least gives the GOP a fighting chance in November - but not much.

At the same time, House Republican Leader Jonathan Shell - considered a rising GOP star - lost his primary to a high school teacher, after Shell helped pushed through legislation to rob teachers of their pensions.

Oh, and Lloyd Rogers lost his primary too.

Bubbling season is upon us!

Bubbling season coincides with Scholaring season. With the warmer weather, a wad of bubble gum becomes more pliable and easier to blow bubbles with.

Today, when I was on the way to Kroger, some woman walking down the street bubbled. I saw her tilting her head backwards, and I knew just what was next!

At Kroger, I saw 2 - count 'em, 2 - customers who were in such a Krogery mood that they also bubbled.

196 photos from my Big Bend trip!

In America, you visit national parks. In Soviet Russia, national parks visit you!

Back in October, I visited Big Bend National Park, because it's a park that belongs to the people, and I have every right to do so. This trip yielded 196 Roads Scholaring photos, and you're gonna peep 'em all...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/tx17a.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/tx17b.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/tx17c.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/tx17d.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/tx17e.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/tx17f.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/tx17g.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/tx17h.html

Everyday I write the book...about celebrity look-alikes!

Earlier, an Elvis Costello look-alike breezed through the alley next to my apartment on a bicycle.

Yep, the GOP is screwed

Tough toilets, Repubs.

Barring another Moscow midterm like 2014, the Republicans are utterly out of luck this November, and even West Virginia is an indicator of that.

If we were talking about the West Virginia of 20 years ago, it would be different, but today's GOP is a rural rump party, so West Virginia is their best bet now - and still they're coming up short. In Tuesday's primary, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin faced a longshot challenge from Paula Jean Swearengin - who is described as well to Manchin's left. But both Democrats got more votes in their primary than far-right Republican nominee Patrick Morrisey got in his.

Yes, even a Democrat who lost her primary got more votes than the Republican who won his! Many more voters voted in the Democratic primary than in the Republican primary - even though the GOP side was much more competitive and widely publicized. There's now real speculation that all 3 of West Virginia's U.S. House seats - currently held by Republicans - will flip to the Democrats in November.

It's not just West Virginia. It's Cincinnati too! Although Hamilton County now votes Democratic at the presidential level, Tuesday's primary in Ohio was the first time in decades that the Democrats got more votes than the Republicans in Hamilton County. This is especially stunning because GOP turnout is usually much higher in midterms.

When we're this late in the election cycle, and we're seeing results like this, you can safely say the Republicans have to cheat to win. Don't worry. They'll cheat. They've got Putin to help them.

Trump regime wants to end cost-of-living increases for federal retirees

The Far Right's bottomless war on workers continues.

Officials in the Trump thugocracy are urging Congress to slash retirement benefits for federal workers.

Among the changes would be eliminating the cost-of-living increase for both future and current retirees. This comes as Donald Trump is demanding a pay freeze for current workers - despite inflation.

Supporters of the changes say it would "bring federal benefits more in line with the private sector." Are we talking about the same Big Business sector that's fueled America's chronic recession? Instead of this, how about if we bring benefits for private sector workers in line with those in the public sector? The Far Right boasts that their plan reflects the move in the private sector from pensions to programs like a 401(k) that lets rich investors gamble with workers' hard-earned money.

This evil proposal has already been blasted by the American Federation of Government Employees.

(Source: https://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2018/05/opm-proposes-legislation-cut-benefits-current-and-former-feds/148022)

People got mad because churches aren't right-wing enough

Don't be fooled by the proliferation of right-wing checkbook clergy. America still does have some cool churches.

I can't link to the article, because I saw it on an MSN page, but the Wall Street Journal just ran a piece about how people are losing their cool at mainline Protestant churches whose leaders are supporting more liberal causes. They say the churches are becoming less interested in spiritual renewal and too concerned with activism.

If they're so angry at churches engaging in liberal activism, why isn't a similar amount of ire being directed at churches that engage in conservative activism and even endorse right-wing candidates? Whether Protestant, Catholic, or anything else, America is littered with checkbook clergy who preach right-wing garbledygoop. Rather than offering spiritual renewal, these right-wing churches control people's lives, shame the poor, and honor only wealth as proof of God's favor.

Some churches strongly disfavor people of different backgrounds - whether it's on economics, sexuality, or some other reason. They idolize the rich and preach that those of less favorable economic circumstances must not have been worthy of salvation. According to these churches, if you're rich, you must have been good. It's only fair that we get to have cool churches to balance out this nonsense.

At least the Wall Street Journal was the right place for right-wingers to complain to about churches being too liberal. Everyone else is sick of their babblings.

Another Kroger bubbling

Today at Kroger, some guy bubbled.

GOP lawmakers leaked intelligence to Trump

Department of Justice officials now say that Republican members of Congress have leaked intelligence about Robert Mueller's investigation to so-called President Trump.

This explains why Trump seems to know so much about the probe. But it should have been obvious all along that lawmakers were feeding him intelligence.

This is obstruction of justice. A wimpy voice off in the distance says, "No, it isn't," because comgressmorons have "congressional immunity." Wrong again! They don't have immunity, because leaking intelligence like this isn't part of their job.

This isn't a problem we can just bubble away (try as though you might). There needs to be some prosecutions. But don't count on that happening, after the Republican wire fraud scandal during the Moscow midterm of 2014 was swept under the rug by the right-wing media.

(Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/02/us/politics/trump-justice-department-house-republicans.html)

Far Right politicizes Alfie Evans case

Some of the most hateful, arrogant people around are those who politicize the Alfie Evans case by citing it as a failure of public healthcare.

Nobody can possibly be dumb enough to think public healthcare killed Alfie Evans. So when they politicize it, it's malice - not ignorance that they can't help.

The right-wing thought police says the boy died because he was being treated by a hospital governed by Britain's National Health Service. They say his parents should have been allowed to take him to Italy, and that he wouldn't have been taken off life support there.

However, Italy - like Britain - also has national healthcare. If he had been taken there and not taken off life support, would they say this was a sign of public healthcare's success? Plus, it was British courts - not just the hospital - that ordered him off life support.

The Terri Schiavo case occurred in the United States at a time when corporate health care was at its nadir. Why isn't this case being used as a basis for criticizing capitalist healthcare, since public healthcare is criticized for the same thing?

National healthcare didn't kill Alfie Evans. He already had a fatal neurodegenerative disorder, and could not recover.

The Far Right doesn't care at all about him. All they care about is exploiting his death for political gain. It's just like how they swoop into every American city or town that suffers a major tragedy - and exploit it.

More folks would catch on to this right-wing demagoguery if the media would engage in more journalism and less preening hackery. The Republican Party is sinking into the peat bog - but our political media has been dragged along with it.

Pence attends racist fundraiser

Mike Pence is attending a fundraiser today for a pro-Trump "nonprofit" called America First Policies. As it turns out, the director of advocacy of this organization is one Carl Higbie, who has a rather, uh, interesting history himself.

Higbie - a Republican former congressional candidate in Connecticut - hosts a radio show with a history of bigoted remarks. He once claimed on his show that black women "think that breeding is a form of employment." Higbie has also claimed that PTSD was made up by veterans as a way to collect benefits.

Pence can't claim he doesn't know about Higbie's views - because Higbie had already been forced to resign a government post because of these revelations. Yet the Trump regime continues to embrace him.

Because, after all, this is the Republican Party we're talking about.

(Source: https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/01/politics/kfile-carl-higbie-says-comments-out-of-context)

Illinois school district abolishes uniforms

A victory for the forces of good!

The Proviso Township school district in Illinois is abolishing its right-wing mandatory uniform policy. Students complained that the uniforms promoted "racism, classism, and sexism." Because of the community's almost universal opposition to uniforms, the school board unanimously voted to do away with the requirement.

The right-wing website comments supporting uniforms are already approaching a howl.

(Source: http://www.forestparkreview.com/News/Articles/5-1-2018/After-students-rise-up,-D209-ditches-uniforms)