Have no fear, the March ish is here!

It's time to march into March! The March issue of The Last Word is now available, and this ish discusses a failed TV ratings stunt to ruin our town, Kroger bags that rip, people shoplifting playing cards and setting off fireworks at stores, Hardee's food getting wasted, and more!

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/449191509/The-Last-Word-3-2020

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

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2003.pdf

Donald Trump is terrified of Bernie Sanders

Massie opposes anti-lynching bill

Our far-right congressmoron Thomas Massie can now be rightly labeled as an unashamed racist.

For 100 years, Congress has tried to pass a bill against lynching. Recently, the Senate finally approved a bill. Today, the House passed its version of the bill by a stunning 410 to 4.

Guess who one of the 4 who voted against it was?

That's right, folks. Thomas Massie.

Massie said outlawing lynching would endanger free speech. Seriously, he said that.

Just resign already, Massie.

Cold Spring adopts fairness ordinance

Now I've seen everything.

Cold Spring is arguably the birthplace of the alt-right, and has been infamously dominated by its conservative institutions, both public and private. Despite this, the city has just voted 4 to 1 to become one of only 19 cities in Kentucky with a fairness ordinance.

This is actually quite impressive if you're aware of just how conservative Cold Spring is.

Special election tomorrow

For those unawares, there's a special election for a Kentucky House seat in my district tomorrow. The district covers roughly the northern half of Campbell County.

I no longer have the patience or physical energy to write much detail about it, but I need to note it here. The Republican candidate is as bizarre as one might expect. She has taken an unusual interest in a proposed convention of states to amend the Constitution - a right-wing cause celebre to try to bypass public opinion and the usual amendment process. On her business filings, the Republican candidate lists her home address as Falmouth, which is well outside the district. For this election, however, she claims to live at an address in Bellevue that apparently does not even exist. I checked online real estate maps and records, and that address cannot be found. The maps and records just skip over that house number.

Republican appointees are of course trying to cheat outright. The GOP-dominated Campbell County Board of Elections moved numerous polling locations to stifle turnout. Republican cheating has worn mighty thin, and it continues unchecked.

I probably won't write about this election again unless something else unusual happens - which it often does.

Tennessee GOP introduces "fake news" resolution

Right-wing legislators would be a laugh-out-loud riot if they didn't enact laws that intentionally cause harm to real people - and if they didn't introduce resolutions like this that make a mockery of their constituents.

Republican legislators in Tennessee have put forth a resolution to declare CNN and the Washington Post "fake news" because their coverage of the Trump regime isn't positive enough. This is especially absurd regarding CNN, as that network has lurched so far to the right lately.

The resolution by State Rep. Micah Van Huss calls for Tennessee "to recognize CNN and The Washington Post as fake news and condemn them for denigrating our citizens."

The only entity denigrating Tennesseeans is the GOP. They do it by installing such laughable public officials as this.

The resolution whines that commentators at each outlet have likened Trump's followers to a cult. Well, Donald Trump's followers do not represent the people of Tennessee. Trump only got 1.5 million votes in a state with 4.1 million registered voters, so even in one of his best states, a majority aren't on board with his fascism.

Much of the media seems singularly dedicated to advancing right-wing causes, so it's hard for me to keep a straight face when someone cries that it has a liberal bias.

(Source: https://wreg.com/news/tennessee-rep-files-resolution-to-declare-cnn-washington-post-fake-news)

ICE defies law in courthouse arrests

California has a new law requiring a judicial warrant to make immigration arrests inside courthouses. But laws are just damn pieces of paper (to use Bush's phrase) to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

On Tuesday, ICE arrested 2 people at a northern California courthouse - in defiance of state law. Criminal justice experts said this raid undermines state and local autonomy and actually weakens public safety. ICE issued a smug statement to the contrary.

ICE's heavy-handed conduct is yet another example of "states' rights for me, not for thee." The right-wingers are always talking about how they support local autonomy, but when the rubber meets the road, we find out their claim is roo gas.

(Source: https://apnews.com/56303dd4fea7b23d9375c1400d997364)

Far Right mass shootings in Germany

America isn't the only place where the Far Right has inspired deadly violence.

Yesterday, a gunman shot and killed 9 people in a series of mass shootings around Frankfurt, Germany. Authorities said today that the gunman was part of the Far Right. Most of the victims were Turkish, and the attacks appear to have been a hate crime.

National prosecutors are rightly treating the attacks as a case of domestic terrorism.

Washington Post details Bloomberg's history of offensive comments

An article in today's Washington Post details "Meow Mix Mike" Bloomberg's history of offensive remarks. The Post allows free access to only a limited number of articles per month, but if you have a subscription or have enough articles left, you can find it here...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/politics/michael-bloomberg-women

There have been numerous lawsuits blaming Bloomberg for a culture of sexual harassment within his company. In one instance, Bloomberg discovered that a woman who worked at his business was pregnant, so he reportedly declared, "Kill it!" Then Bloomberg began whining about all the women in his company who had a maternity-related status.

In another incident, Bloomberg launched a tirade against a female employee who couldn't find a nanny. In full view of other employees, Bloomberg allegedly thundered, "It's a fucking baby! All it does is eat and shit! It doesn't know the difference between you and anyone else! All you need is some black who doesn't have to speak English to rescue it from a burning building!"

In an effort to hide what went on in the workplace, Bloomberg has also enforced nondisclosure agreements on former employees - which would seem to be illegal.

You know, there's a reason Meow Mix Mike only got 0.12% in Iowa. Voters just aren't that into you, Mike. Maybe all the cable "news" channels are, but nobody else is.

Attack of the "moderates"

I don't have anything personal against the "moderates" running for the Democratic nomination - like Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg - but guess what? This is 2020. We should be way past the "moderate" stage now. (I'm not counting Meow Mix Mike as a "moderate", because he's so far removed from reality.)

This era should belong to progressive populists - not "moderates."

With Bernie Sanders winning 2 out of 2 states so far, I keep seeing people say things like, "But the moderates won voters who make over $150,000 a year."

If you're of normal means and insist on supporting a "moderate", I can't stop you. But what do we make of the fact that the "moderates" won more affluent voters? My answer: Who fucking cares?! Why should voters with more money commandeer a Democratic primary?

I'm not here to please people just because they have more money. To think it's important that "moderates" won the richest voters would be like if I was worried that donors to my former high school didn't vote for The Last Word as their favorite zine. Who cares? They're not The Last Word's audience!

It pisses me off to no end that a few affluent voters can have disproportionate influence in a presidential election - in both the primary and the general. We all know general elections are afflicted too, as Republicans do better among wealthier voters each time. But for the outsized influence of the very rich, we'd be living in a much freer society now. Contrast what we have with what we could have had, and it's pretty sad.

Sanders wins New Hampshire primary

Two states have had their primary so far. And Bernie Sanders has won both. There won't even be any initial doubts in New Hampshire like there were when Iowa had that big delay.

"Meow Mix Mike" Bloomberg did so poorly in New Hampshire that the website I'm reading lumps him under "other", which has only 1.69% right now.

Trump's acquittal dealt incalculable damage to our republic, but we have a real chance to stave off the right-wing media's inevitable engineering of this election.

Trump regime fails civics (again)

There's an article in the Washington Post about the Trump thugocracy's failure to certify the Equal Rights Amendment even though the ERA has been approved by the requisite 38 states.

The article says the House is trying to rectify this by removing the deadline for the ERA's ratification. It shouldn't even be necessary to do this, because the deadline is found nowhere in the text of the ERA. But the Trump regime says this won't count either, and that they'll still refuse to certify it. The article says of this move, "Even if the Senate cleared the measure, the Justice Department has ruled it would be unconstitutional."

Donald, you idiot, the Justice Department can't rule if something is unconstitutional. That's what courts do. That's not something the executive branch does. Besides, removing the deadline wouldn't be unconstitutional anyway.

#NeverBloomberg

Know who we're getting mighty fed up with? Michael Bloomberg. Although he's a Republican, the former New York City mayor is seeking the Democratic nomination for President. The billionaire oligarch has flooded the TV airwaves with ads taking credit for things he had absolutely nothing to do with. He can't run on his real record, which includes expanding stop-and-frisk and supporting the Iraq War. We call him Meow Mix Mike because he supported the Catfood Commission - a committee that endorsed the Tea Party's plan to slash Social Security.

Even after getting only 0.12% in Iowa, the media is still cheering him on. This despite a trail of offensive statements that anyone can verify. For example, Bloomberg once said, "If women wanted to be appreciated for their brains, they'd go to the library instead of to Bloomingdale's." When someone told me he said this, I thought they were mistaken and that it was actually a Trump quote. But no. It was Meow Mix Mike. Do an Internet search for it.

The last thing America needs is for a racist Tea Party billionaire who makes chauvinistic remarks to be the Democratic nominee for President. Of course we can do better, but the media is doing whatever it can to prevent that - his humiliating 0.12% in Iowa notwithstanding.

#NeverBloomberg. Never, ever, ever.

School records protected even after death

Several media outlets are suing to acquire the school disciplinary records of Connor Betts - the right-wing gunman in last year's mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio.

No. That's illegal. It's illegal not just under Ohio law but also under a federal law called the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. Betts's school district has denied the media requests. FERPA is in force even after a former student dies.

The Dayton shooting was tragic - but Betts's school records aren't the sort of help we can use. What precedent would it set if news outlets could access his records?

I guess Heavy.com is going to have to make something up again.

Sadly, the federal law did not stop the Miami Herald from somehow receiving the school records of Trayvon Martin - the teenager fatally shot by a trigger-happy George Zimmerman - and blabbing them everywhere. It was illegal for the school to release the records, yet it did so anyway. The newspaper printed information from the records even though this information was completely irrelevant to the story.

Sanders wins Iowa caucus; Buttigieg given more delegates

Bernie Sanders has handily won Iowa in both the first and final rounds of caucusing - but Democratic Party bosses have opted to give Pete Buttigieg more delegates anyway.

Why are party panjandrums running roughshod over the Gray v. Sanders ruling? The answer is easy. The Democratic Leadership Council - the Republican wing of the Democratic Party - is trying to throw the November election by preventing the party's most electable candidate from being nominated. That way, the Democrats are more likely to lose to a disgraced Donald Trump, and the DLC can use that as an excuse to hand-pick a candidate in 2024 who is to the right of any of the party's major 2020 contenders. It's a vicious cycle.

The DLC has a victim fantasy that says that when the Democrats lose, it was because they were too far left. But the fact is that the Democrats do better when they have more progressive candidates.

Sanders has the best policies among the Democratic field, and is most electable. Yes, we'd all much rather have Buttigieg in the White House than Trump. Buttigieg would also be better than Michael Bloomberg, the joke of a candidate who the DLC really wants. Still, Sanders would be best by far, and Trump is unfit for the presidency. Everyone we know agrees with us on these things. But after Bill Clinton enacted 30 years of right-wing dream bills, the DLC doesn't have very far to fall.

Much has been made about the delay in releasing the results of the Iowa caucus, but the far more serious hold-up is the delay in America getting universal public healthcare. It's been at least 50 years since it was first proposed.

In the meantime, Bloomberg didn't win a single delegate - after getting only 0.12% of the Iowa vote. But you know it's coming, because party bosses are actively working for his campaign - which is particularly absurd because Bloomberg is a Republican.

Incidentally, I wrote most of the above before it was revealed that delegates for Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were wrongly awarded to other candidates, and before it was discovered that 4chan encouraged Trump cultists to jam the phone line for reporting precinct results.

Captain Kangaroo goes Krogering

Today at Kroger, I saw a Captain Kangaroo look-alike.