Chabot has history of making a fool of himself

Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) is the longtime congressman from a Cincinnati area district. And in recent years, it's just been endless bigotry from him and his supporters.

Chabot's backers also have no respect for IRS regulations against religious bodies endorsing candidates. A couple days ago, while traveling through Cincinnati, I saw what appeared to be a house with a huge Chabot sign. But when I looked closer, I discovered it was a church.

Chabot is also part of the right-wing extremist plen-T-plaint termed the Tea Party. I'm pretty sure that back in 2012, he gave a classist speech at a Tea Party rally on Fountain Square. I believe it was this event, and in this entry I described how I heckled the crowd...

http://onlinelunchpail.blogspot.com/2012/04/another-year-of-public-humiliation-for.html

I was pretty sure I released a "You lie!" during Chabot's speech, but that wasn't mentioned in my account of the event.

After the rally, a Tea Party member confronted Occupy Cincinnati and boasted that he only hired overseas for his businesses because he thought American workers were lazy because they demanded to be paid properly.

Trump planning executive order to end birthright citizenship

In an interview yesterday, so-called President Trump says he is planning an executive order to end automatic citizenship for children born in the U.S. to noncitizens.

Even with Congress's approval, this would of course be unconstitutional. The Fourteenth Amendment reads, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." But with the Republican Right's history of violating the Constitution, who's counting?

What's shocking is the way the media acts as if there's any ambiguity about this. They act like birthright citizenship is just an interpretation by legal scholars - when actually it's very clear. There's absolutely no wiggle room. Anyone born in America who is subject to the country's laws is a citizen. Period.

Trump also falsely claimed that the U.S. is the only country with birthright citizenship. Even the anti-immigrant organization NumbersUSA produced a list of 33 other such countries.

Whatever your stance on immigration, it's clear that the President can't just issue an executive order against birthright citizenship. That's simply not what freedom is about.

GOP should be on the hook for nation's PTSD crisis

A newly released study suggests that as many as 1 in 4 American college students may suffer from PTSD because of Donald Trump stealing the election.

This study was conducted last year at Arizona State University, and it says that 25% of the students surveyed had "clinically significant event-related distress", a predictor of PTSD.

Why would an election result cause PTSD? And why would the other side not also suffer from PTSD when they lose? The answer is simple. Some political figures - such as Trump, the Bushes, and Newt Gingrich - have enjoyed harming people. Their policies are rooted in evil.

Some government policies are not just more effective than others - but also more ethical. People do not get PTSD from benevolent actions that bring positive results.

People have a right and a desire to live in a society where they can be safe. The modern Republican Party has long been the party of violent bullying, and now it's become the party of rape and sexual assault too. When party leaders force the public to relive traumatic experiences, that doesn't just go away like a short-term disappointment. That's always going to be there.

That is why the Republican Party needs to be held liable for what is sure to be a national PTSD crisis. The cost of treatment needs to come out of their deep pockets. I don't care to ever hear another word from some rich right-winger complaining that their tax dollars are funding others' healthcare - because in this case, this would be an expense incurred by their actions. You reap what you sow.

(Source: https://www.al.com/news/2018/10/25-of-college-students-could-suffer-ptsd-due-to-trump-election-study-finds.html)

GOP's "mob" claim proves they've lost in the court of public opinion

When you've lost America, you've lost America.

And the Republican Party has lost America.

The Republican Right has long bragged of support from "the people." Clearly, their definition of "the people" didn't include a majority of people who you actually know. But they said it was mostly only "the media" that opposed them. Whenever they claimed "the media" was biased against them, it was their way of saying they really didn't have public support.

Lately, the GOP has generated lots of whining about a "mob" opposing them. This seems to be their final admission that they really don't have public support. After all, Donald Trump lost the popular vote. There's no ambiguity about that. The Republicans regularly lose the national U.S. House vote even when they win a majority of seats. Half of the Senate is elected from states that have a total of only 18% of the country's population.

For having tried so hard to cultivate their phony populist image, it's interesting how the Far Right has now thrown in the towel by being arrogant enough to act like they're the only ones who matter and that everyone else is just an uneducated "mob."

The real question is: Since there's more of us than them, how do we deal with their arrogance as they continue to impose their will on us because they think they're "better" than everyone else?

New polls dash GOP chances

A week ago, I thought the white supremacist Republican Party had a fighting chance of keeping the U.S. House. But - after seeing new polls - now I think they have no chance. There's just no misreading it.

I know they have a better chance of keeping the House than, say, the Sex Pistols have of appearing on Hee Haw, but that's about it. So let's move on.

They're lucky the Senate situation is better for them. This year may turn out like 1996 - when Republicans actually gained Senate seats despite an overwhelmingly unpopular GOP Congress. But this time, it's not because the Democrats are being dragged down by Bill Clinton mimicking Republican policies. It's because the GOP has the most favorable Senate map that any party has had since direct election of senators began a century ago - and because the Democrats have to defend some of their more conservative senators.

Let this sink in. The Republicans have yet to prevail in a presidential or midterm year in my adult life without cheating. It simply has not happened. Time and time again, America has rejected the party's burgeoning extremism. This time, I expect it to stick. The debate is over, and the GOP's deadly policies don't work. At all.

Paddling now banned in North Carolina public schools

Graham County was the last public school district in North Carolina that allowed corporal punishment. But now the county school board has voted unanimously to ban the practice - making North Carolina one of over 30 states to prohibit paddling in public schools.

Most of the states that ban it have a statewide law or regulation, so North Carolina is among the few where all local school districts eschew the practice in the absence of a statewide policy.

Media ignores Eastern Band Cherokee's positive statement on Warren

I understand that citizenship in Native American tribes is not automatically conferred by biological lineage. And I know that Elizabeth Warren took a DNA test so she could call Donald Trump's bluff - not to gain tribal citizenship.

We all know The Media wants 8 years of Trump, so they've been as rough on Warren for taking the DNA test as they would have been if she hadn't. But they've conveniently ignored a statement by the Eastern Band Cherokee supporting Warren. The statement says Warren "has not used her family story or evidence of Native ancestry to gain employment or other advantage" and that she "demonstrates respect for tribal sovereignty by acknowledging that tribes determine citizenship and respecting the difference between citizenship and ancestry."

This statement also listed bills that Warren has supported that would help Native Americans.

The New York Times mentioned this positive statement - but no other media outlet that I've seen has.

Now watch The Media carry on for the next 2 years.

Oregon towns laugh in the Tea Party's stupid faces by reopening libraries

Remember a couple years ago when the fascist Tea Party killed the entire public library system in Douglas County, Oregon?

This happened after many out-of-town Tea Party activists moved into this county of 100,000. They complain about immigrants, yet the Tea Party launched an outright invasion. Now many cities and towns in Douglas County have defied the Tea Party outright! These communities have voted to reopen their libraries - not as county libraries, but as municipal libraries. Recently, voters in the town of Drain even voted 76% for a tax hike to pay for it.

Tough toilets, Tea Party.

Of course, because of the Tea Party's fervor for gutting public institutions, not all county residents will have free access to the libraries. Roseburg's library will charge folks who live outside the city $60 a year for a library card. The libe argues that this is fair because the cities favored keeping the libraries open, while it was only the rural areas that supported closing the libraries.

So the Tea Party is reaping what they sow by having to pay more for services than the cities do.

Tonsillitis probably fails to ruin Utah mish

I plan to be on a fact-finding mission to Zion National Park in Utah next week, but a sense of worry began to befall me a couple days ago.

In the past 4 months, I've pried out several hilarious tonsil stones from my left tonsil. When I start to feel something stuck in my throat, I just dislodge the stone, and it's gone! No muss, no fuss! I found another this past weekend, but this time, my left tonsil swelled along with it.

I thought the swelling would end when I pried out the stone, but it didn't. Instead, for days thereafter, the swelling made it very hard to swallow. This was nothing compared to the severe sore throat that would accompany a Ronald Reagan supercold, but it had to come to an end before I left. I decided if it wasn't better today, I'd visit the bubble gum doctor - and this ailment would go on my feared Illness Log.

According to the Internet, tonsillitis usually lasts about 4 days. True to form, most of the swelling seems to have gone away this morning.

Will it come back to spoil my mish? If poo.

Media still mad at Elizabeth Warren

Before October 15, 2018, The Media hated Elizabeth Warren because she hadn't taken a DNA test.

After October 15, 2018, The Media hates Elizabeth Warren because she has taken a DNA test.

Well, I think I know who I'm probably supporting for President - though I admit she may have tough competition from Bernie Sanders for my support.

A person bunkerooed at Big Lots

Today at Big Lots, I detected the hilarious bouquet of an SBD bunker blast.

When Joe Manchin fought against entitled brats

With Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) ahead by as much as 12% in his reelection bid, make no mistake: It would help him even more if he votes against the disgusting Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation, which every other Senate Democrat has pledged to do. There's no denying that. Rejecting a spoiled bully like Kavanaugh would be the right thing to do, and it would be a political advantage.

Manchin fought against entitled brats once before. Even if it was just a few sentences in a speech, it was still more than what almost any other politician was willing to do. Some years back, when Manchin was Governor of West Virginia, he gave a speech in which he quite rightly endorsed revoking the driver's license of high school bullies.

If enacted, Manchin's proposal would have been the very epitome of justice. For years, legislators and agencies had been falling over themselves to find ways to take away licenses and other privileges from victims - never the perpetrators. They didn't come up with those laws because they had some compelling positive interest to do so. They did it because they were rotten people. Manchin's plan would have at least reduced some of the sting of giving special rights to rich bullies.

Sadly, I don't think Manchin's idea was ever enacted. If it ever is, I'm sure there's some right-wing legal foundation with an army of lawyers ready to pounce about how unfair the world is to entitled bullies. Hardly anybody went to bat for their victims. But with perpetrators, it's different. We live in a society where crime pays.

This is somewhat comparable to an earlier story when Congress voted on a commonsense bill to stop schools from overprescribing Ritalin. One of very few legislators to vote against the bill was one who was ostensibly more liberal than most others. But there's no way I'd endorse that lawmaker after that.

Of course, none of this would excuse voting to confirm Kavanaugh - who is the very personification of the rise of entitled brats being allowed to enjoy limitless privileges. So, if Manchin votes to confirm, feel free to support his opponents in the future. Just make sure it's somebody credible and not a joke like Patrick Morrisey.

Boone County candidate endorses property requirement for voting

Every time I think living in Campbell County means I live in America's most unlivable county, I lean back, read The Last Word, and remind myself that it could be Boone County.

Jesse Brewer is the Republican candidate for a commissioner seat in Boone County. The Democrats - in all their wisdom - refused to field a candidate even though it's an open seat, because they were afraid contesting it would increase Republican turnout for other offices. Seriously, that's their reasoning.

Brewer wrote an op-ed for the Northern Kentucky Tribune complaining about how rough life is for big landowners such as himself. I have to give him credit, because the Northern Kentucky Tribune runs a lot of nutty right-wing stuff, so I guess it's the right place for such an article. The Tribune makes the Cincinnati Enquirer look like a far-left rag in comparison.

Brewer complains because he has to pay taxes on property he owns in Kenton and Campbell counties. Well, yeah. Of course he has to pay taxes on it. He says this can be remedied by allowing people to vote in cities and counties where they don't live - as long as they own property there. He says that not allowing landowners to vote in every county where they own property is "taxation without representation."

No it isn't. Being left off the census is, which happened to me in 2000. But letting a big landowner vote only once just like everyone else isn't.

Brewer wants to give a literal meaning to "Vote early and vote often."

Of course, Brewer's proposal is unconstitutional. I shouldn't even need to be saying this in 2018.

Brewer groans, "Wouldn't it be fair to let people who have a vested equitable interest (real estate) in the community - taxpayers - have a right to vote on the local elected officials who can levy taxes and fees on them?" As if people who don't own real estate aren't paying taxes too? Renters indirectly pay property taxes. That is covered in the rent they pay. On average, they pay more in other taxes than landowners do. There is no legal theory that would allow anyone to cast more votes just because they own real property. In fact, it's a violation of federal statute to vote where you don't live.

As the United States expanded the right to vote, one of the first barriers to voting to be abolished was the property requirement. Boone County is about to get a commissioner who wants to set America back by 200 years!

So I took it!

"So I Took It" is the name of a short 1975 anti-shoplifting scare film.

Parodies are protected as fair use under our copyright laws, so guess what I did to "So I Took It"? I took it!

A few years ago, someone purchased an erotic video and posted it to YouTube while adding their ridiculous commentary in a pitched-up voice. Now I've done the same thing to this anti-shoplifting film.

Prepare for some laughs...

North Dakota suppresses Native American vote

North Dakota is the site of one of the most competitive Senate races, in which Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp faces a challenge from fascist Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer. As Cramer stumbles - he even said Brett Kavanaugh should be confirmed even if the sexual assault allegations against him are proven true - the North Dakota GOP still wants this seat.

And now they might not need Russian interference to get it like they otherwise would.

In a move unprecedented in modern America, a federal court is allowing North Dakota to enforce a clearly unconstitutional new requirement on voters - upending a lower court ruling. The new rule says voters must have a street address to vote. Voters may not use a post office box.

Most Native Americans who live on reservations in North Dakota have a post office box - but no street address. The law is intended to suppress the Native American vote.

This is also unprecedented in modern times because it would also deny the homeless their right to vote.

As a progressive consensus forms among the American public, the Republicans must cheat to win.

Have no fear, the October ish is here!

Did you know that the October issue of The Last Word is now published? Cool people know. But what about you?

This ish talks about lots of cool stuff! There's something for everyone, including...

• People losing brand new drones.

• A ruined Kentucky Derby poster.

• Janet Jackson talking about bubble gum constantly.

• The long-awaited reveal of an old music video featuring Big Bird.

• A now-obsolete TV as a cereal prize.

• The theft of bubble gum from SupeRx.

• People making idiotic excuses for airline incompetence.

• And more! It's not sold in any store!

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/389793235/The-Last-Word-10-2018

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

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw1810.pdf