Idiot pulls gun on protester

I went to the Families Belong Together rally in Cincinnati today, and it drew thousands of people. There were similar rallies all over the country today, even in much smaller cities and towns.

A few drew counterprotesters. A group of 3 thugs in Trump hats shoved participants at the rally in Petoskey, Michigan. And in Huntsville, Alabama, a counterprotester started a fight with a demonstrator. As the confrontation escalated, he pulled a gun.

He was then arrested for menacing and reckless endangerment.

What a beezweezer.

(Source: https://whnt.com/2018/06/30/man-in-custody-after-pulling-out-a-gun-at-immigration-policy-protest-in-huntsville;
https://www.al.com/news/huntsville/index.ssf/2018/06/man_brandishes_gun_at_families.html)

Have no fear, the July ish is here!

No July would be complete without the July issue of The Last Word, your road atlas to freedom!

This ish talks about tonsil stones, psychiatry protecting dominionism, putting pepper in Super Bubble to thwart gum thieves, watching TV shows just for the poo humor, people fighting over Bubble Tape, an art pen offer in a cereal box, and more!

So I beseech thee, point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/382825776/The-Last-Word-7-2018

If you can't read it on $crbd, you can find it here...

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw1807.pdf

Court blocks Bevin's gutting of Medicaid!

Not all of the federal judiciary has been swallowed by Tea Party extremism. Today, a federal judge blocked Matt Bevin from instituting a work requirement to receive Medicaid.

The reason for the ruling seems pretty simple: It's because such a requirement doesn't advance Medicaid's legally stated objectives. Plus, Medicaid is not welfare.

There's no doubt that Bevin will appeal this ruling as far as he dares. But as far as I'm concerned, this ruling is and will always be binding law, for the statute itself is very clear.

Maryland newspaper gunman is Tea Party activist

So tired of this.

The man who gunned down 5 people at a Maryland newspaper today is a Tea Party activist who once sent out a Twitter message criticizing the paper because of what he saw as negative coverage of Donald Trump.

In 2015, he posted that referring to Trump as "unqualified" is something that "could end badly" for the newspaper.

Not for the first time, a mass shooter has been found to be a right-wing activist.

Fascism on the march in the Supreme Court

In a blow to organized labor, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that unions representing public employees must subsidize nonunion workers.

But in a blow to the Supreme Court, the Constitution says otherwise. The Abood ruling of 1977 was settled law. Period. That's it. If you get union benefits, you pay the fees.

So, next time we get adults in the presidency and Congress - and given the Republicans' approval numbers, it won't be long - expect them to remedy today's ruling.

15 more Scholaring photos!

I just posted 15 more Roads Scholaring photos, this time from the bubble gum bustin' month of February!

Ahoy and enjoy...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/cinnorth18.html

Kentucky pension law thrown out!

Not many details yet, but a judge has just ruled that Kentucky's recent far-right law to gut pensions is invalid under the Kentucky Constitution.

Apparently, lawmakers didn't give the bill 3 separate readings on 3 separate days in each house of the legislature. Plus, since it's an appropriations bill, the bill fell short of the margin it needed to pass.

Trump regime forcibly drugs immigrant children

Is it fascism yet? Yes. America has been face-deep in fascism for 30 years, and Donald Trump's scandal involving abuse of immigrant children makes it even clearer.

Now a lawsuit says undocumented immigrant children held at Shiloh Treatment Center, a government contractor in Texas, are being violently held down and forcibly injected with psychiatric drugs.

The children were told they wouldn't be released to relatives unless they submitted. The children were also lied to about the contents of the drugs. Effects of the drugs included rendering the children unable to walk.

The practice is being compared to that found in the former Soviet Union. Or northern Kentucky in 1990.

(Source: https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/lawsuit-alleges-immigrant-children-were-forcibly-injected-psychiatric-drugs)

Godwin repeals Godwin's Law

Anyone familiar with the broken, heavily censored Usenet knows that Godwin's Law is about the only thing Usenetters care about. Anyone who accurately compares modern right-wing policies with those of Nazi Germany is shouted down by 100 posts bellowing, "G0DW1N'S LAW!!!!!!!!!!"

Godwin's Law was devised in 1990 by one Mike Godwin, and it seems to have been originally designed as sort of a meme - not a rigid fiat. The adage claims that as an Internet discussion grows, the probability of a comparison to Hitler or Nazis approaches 100%. It was only later that Usenet began using harassment to enforce it as a policy.

Of course, Godwin's Law wasn't invoked when Jim Bunning laughably compared a political opponent to Hitler, but that's another story entirely.

Now, the bottomless extremism of the Trump regime and the alt-right have resulted in Godwin's Law being officially repealed by none other than Mike Godwin himself. Godwin reportedly said on Twitter: "By all means, compare these shitheads to Nazis. Again and again. I'm with you."

Interestingly, Godwin - an attorney from Texas - helped challenge the far-right Communications Decency Act, which was part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The reactionary Telecommunications Act helped enable those who invoked Godwin's Law to censor everyone else. The legislation itself was full of provisions borrowed from Nazi Germany.

GOP plan would raise Medicare age, gut Medicaid, and slash Social Security and vets' benefits

How reactionary is the Republicans' new budget?

Some details of the budget were released today, and it's everything you've dreamed of - if you like punishment.

The budget would raise the Medicare age to 67. It would cap Medicaid spending - and institute an illegal work requirement for Medicaid beneficiaries. It would also prohibit those who get Social Security disability from collecting unemployment insurance.

The budget would even slash veterans' benefits and student loans.

At the same time, the budget would of course increase already-bloated defense spending.

The budget is so extreme that it might not pass. Republicans would have to be mighty stupid to cut Social Security right before a midterm. Maybe congressional Republicans got tired of Donald Trump ruining their party's brand, so they decided to do it themselves. But there were no negative consequences for them in 2010, when they endorsed raising the retirement age to 70, so why do they think anyone will stop them now?

(Source: http://www.heraldcourier.com/news/national/house-budget-would-direct-billion-in--year-spending-cuts/article_df356fe5-e3a6-5999-aa5a-91bef2c2d8d1.html)

Drugstores grandstanded while America burned

Remember a few years ago when major pharmacy chains stopped selling over-the-counter allergy drugs because the drug warriors told them to stop?

While these stores ceased selling products that were effective, they also took actions that contributed to the ballooning pandemic of opioid abuse - proving once again the rank hypocrisy of the failed War on Drugs.

I don't recall if Walgreens was one of the stores that dropped allergy drugs, but the drugstore chain is now being sued by Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear for its contributions to the opioid crisis. The lawsuit alleges Walgreens engaged in deceptive business practices by not reporting suspiciously large orders the store received for prescription opioids. Delaware has sued both Walgreens and CVS, and Walgreens has already agreed to a settlement in Massachusetts.

In short, pharmacies denied legitimate product sales to innocent customers, while they allowed Big Pharma drug pushers to get an untold number of people hooked on opioids.

I dismembered January too

My Roads Scholaring photos have been piling up like logs all year long, and now a batch of 13 photos and videos from January is ready.

So peep, weep, and oggle-beep...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/newp18.html

Bo Duke got mad because he spent 5 hours in jail

I've always enjoyed The Dukes Of Hazzard, but John Schneider - who played Bo Duke - thinks spending 5 hours in jail is the biggest injustice in the history of the universe.

Recently, Schneider was taken to court for not paying alimony - because that's just a little bit more than the law will allow. He was ordered to spend 3 days in jail because he couldn't come up with $150,000 he owed. Apparently, Schneider has very little money because he spent a lot rebuilding his Louisiana movie studio after it flooded. It's a shame he was jailed for a debt he couldn't pay - it sounds like something that would happen to the Dukes - but the punishment was nothing compared to what most folks would face.

After being released, Schneider told the media he didn't receive any preferential treatment - then proceeded to list the ways in which he did receive it. Key among them is that he only had to serve 5 hours of a 3-day sentence.

That's nothing. What about my bogus "trespassing" arrest at NKU that kicked off a months-long legal battle? What about the false imprisonment at CPH? What about all the unarmed people killed by police?

John Schneider thinks he's fightin' the system like a modern-day Robin Hood, but all he's doing is grumbling about a punishment that's milder than what most people would suffer.

Bernie Sanders look-alike sighted at Kroger

Bernie Sanders is cool.

But today at Kroger, I saw a Bernie Sanders look-alike! I couldn't help but snicker after I walked past him, and I'm pretty sure the guy working at the store knew that's what I was laughing about.

So what bad things are happening this week?

• The Kenton County Planning Commission rubber-stamped yet another luxury housing development, because of course it did. The massively unpopular subdivision must now be approved by Covington and Park Hills, and is expected to drive up housing costs further and worsen water runoff that has already flooded Covington residents' homes.

• The Tea Party is backing a right-wing campaign against a popular new tax in Seattle that would charge big corporations making at least $20 million in gross revenue about $275 per full-time employee per year. This tax was supposed to help fund affordable housing programs. The Tea Party joins Amazon and Starbucks to be among the few to oppose the measure. Despite overwhelming public support for the tax, City Council plans to appease its corporate masters by repealing the tax.

• The Trump/Kim summit in Singapore (which was held there probably because Singapore outlaws chewing gum, and Trump probably doesn't know how to blow a bubble) was a disaster. What a surprise!

• Fascism is on the march in the Trump regime. When was the last time there was a Republican administration when it wasn't? Trump's Justice Department is arguing in a court case that the University of Michigan's policy against harassment is unconstitutional. The Trump regime's stance is that people have a First Amendment right to commit harassment on a university campus. Yep, that's been the cry of fascists everywhere for decades. Welcome to 1986, Donald.

A December to dismember in the Wolverine State!

An important Christmas family gathering in Port Huron, Michigan, doubled as a Roads Scholaring, and it yielded many a roadly exhibit.

This outing predated my whooping cough battle and broken finger, and you're gonna peep the whole thing until your face flies off in public...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ph17a.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ph17b.html

Yep, you guessed it! Another Kentucky GOP scandal!

The party that The Media considers constitutionally entitled to hold every public office in the state strikes again!

The latest scandal in the Republican Party of Kentucky involves longtime Scott County Coroner John Goble. Together with some state police officials, Goble was indicted today on charges surrounding the alleged theft of $40,000 worth of weapons and ammo. The indictment for receiving stolen property accuses Goble of acquiring stolen police ammo.

Authorities say the ammunition was stolen from a Kentucky State Police facility and delivered to Goble. Goble also allegedly received numerous guns stolen from state police.

Goble was also indicted for allegedly authorizing payments to a deputy coroner who did not perform any services. Other counts accuse Goble of unlawful possession of a controlled substance and transporting moonshine.

(Source: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/counties/scott-county/article212744224.html)

A person has an Oscar the Grouch tattoo

I've just been informed that a guy with an Oscar the Grouch tattoo on his arm was sighted at Donatos today.

The man must be a real Sesamoid!

"That's a pee stain!"

I had another funny dream last night.

In this dream, I was at a "discount" store like a Kmart or a Target. Some woman raised a stink about some service she received at the store. She then placed the invoice for the service on the floor.

Apparently, when nobody was looking, someone urinated all over the invoice. Later, the woman picked the invoice up off the floor and talked to the manager about the service she got, not knowing the invoice had been peed on. As the woman was showing the manager the invoice, drops of urine dripped off of it.

"That's a pee stain!" the woman exclaimed in surprise.

No truer words were ever spoken.

Trump appoints Gary Bauer to religious freedom commission

How stupid is this?

Gary Bauer is a longtime right-wing activist from Newport, Kentucky, who made a brief presidential run some years back. The Newport school system required students to attend one of his rallies.

Bauer has a history of saying bigoted things - particularly about gays, Muslims, and the poor.

Guess what? Dictator Trump has just appointed Bauer to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Let this sink in for a moment. A man who wants to deny religious freedom has just been appointed to a religious freedom committee.

This is like appointing a member of the Campbell County Tea Party as drug czar.

Baste of Newport isn't all that interesting

Today, I goed to Taste of Newport - or as I call it, Baste of Newport. I'd forgotten just how dead the event usually is.

I remember going to Taste of Cincinnati once growing up back around 1983. It was a very uninteresting affair, and I think it poured down rain. I didn't go back for decades.

Taste of Newport is no better. If the region wasn't such a recreational black hole, nobody would even notice it.

Despite this, I saw a young woman today who was in a festive enough mood that she bubbled. Because that's what cool people do. They bubble. You do it every day, because you're a cool person.

A November to dismember!

To fight the forces of loom and doom, I've finally posted my Roads Scholaring photos from this past November.

Peep, weep, and oggle-beep...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ft17.html

Another study ranks Kentucky last in economics

A new ranking is at least the second in recent months that places Kentucky dead last among all 50 states in economic development.

A new WalletHub study says Kentucky under Matt Bevin is the third-worst state to find a job - even as the national unemployment rate soars too. This study compares the states on 29 key economic indicators.

Reading the study further, we see that Kentucky ranks last in economic environment on the basis of average income, starting salaries, poverty rate, and other factors. Kentucky was also among the 10 worst states in unemployment and job opportunities.

Is the Courier-Journal still gonna say Matt Bevin should run for President?