Road photo embargo ends

I have a bunch of road photos from late 2019 and early 2020 that I embargoed because of the Cincinnati roadmeet in May because I was afraid highway authorities would remove some classic signage if they knew it was out there. I finally posted them days before the meet, but I haven't officially released them until now!

These include some events where I scouted out sites for the meet. There's some amazing stuff, so peep it all!

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/cinwcen19.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/cinnw19.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/scoutw19.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/scoutn19.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/scoute19.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/scoutft19.html (the only page in this batch that was not embargoed)
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/scoutw20.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/scoutn20.html

Have no fear, the October ish is here!

In our time-honored spirit of populism, the October ish of The Last Word is already pub, and this one's a beaut!

This ish talks about...

• A recent trip to Ocean City, Maryland.

• Crowds at our local fireworks.

• Signs getting ruined at NKU.

• National Geographic World magazines getting ruined.

• The wild parties sweeping America's colleges.

• People smoking blunts during online school.

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/477854704/The-Last-Word-10-2020

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

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2010.pdf

Trump's Supreme Court pick supports lockdowns

Some of the coronavirus measures are unconstitutional. Full stop. For example, an actual lockdown violates freedom of assembly.

But not long ago, Donald Trump's Supreme Court pick Judge Amy Coney Barrett ruled in an Illinois case that the state may enforce its draconian lockdown.

Reuters has also said Barrett is "a favorite among religious conservatives."

Just because Joe Biden is backed by so many narcissistic dorks and bullies doesn't mean Trump is any better.

Willingness to overturn lockdowns should be a litmus test for a Supreme Court appointment.

A funny dream about Ronald Reagan

A couple days before I embarked (arf-arf!) on my trip to Ocean City, I had a hilarious dream!

I dreamed I watched a TV interview with Ronald Reagan that was as ridiculous as you might imagine. The camera appeared to be in a dining room of a house, looking through a window to a kitchen where ol' Ronnie was seated. The former leader of the free (?) world was sitting on a stool. Instead of the body of an older man, he had the body of a young, muscular man and was wearing only a t-shirt and gym shorts. Throughout the interview, he was lifting a weight with one hand.

In the interview, Reagan kept talking about how great he was compared to George H.W. Bush and all later Presidents.

People bunkerooed on my Ocean City trip

Last night, I got home from a trip to Ocean City, Maryland, and Shenandoah National Park. The latter half of this fact-finding mission was like an encore of last year's Shenandoah trip.

As it is obligatory to mention it here, several bunker blasts were detected. Usually, that's 'Pail material, even though this is otherwise mostly a serious blog. (Writing serious material isn't as fun or productive as it used to be, and that's why this blog isn't as busy as it used to be.) But since it happened during a mish, it's Last Word material, and the next ish should provide more details!

Horseshit theory summarized

A synopsis of American politics under lockdown culture...

• The left and right agree that a governor who is otherwise one of the most right-wing governors in America has had one of the best responses to the pandemic, thanks to her state's lack of lockdowns or other major restrictions.

• The main dissenters from this view are the loudmouths on so-called "liberal" blogs that began supporting lockdowns to appease their advertisers. (These websites had steadfastly opposed stay-at-home orders before mid-March.)

• The left and right agree that a Republican governor with one of the most authoritarian responses to the crisis should be impeached.

• The biggest dissenters from that notion are "moderate" Democrats - who are inexplicably considered "moderate" despite their apologia for authoritarian measures instituted by a Republican.

Horseshoe theory? It's more like the horseshit theory. In my time, I've stepped in dog shit. I'm sure I've stepped in cat shit. I bet I've even stepped in rabbit shit. But the totalitarian lockdown culture is horseshit. People oppose politicians when these politicians completely lack any shred of humanity, ethics, or respect for the country's values - and whip up panic to promote their plans. One critic of the horseshoe theory says so-called centrists actually support fascist governments, and I think that applies here. I think it's fair to say some governors are indeed fascist.

We live in a time and place - a dystopia, if you will - where the so-called noble middle ground means supporting fascism.

And trust me, at all the meet-ups and Internet forums where I meet real leftists, they're every bit as opposed to lockdown culture as anyone else is. Media coverage is considered as much of a joke as lockdown politicians are. When I first voted in 1991, nobody who was considered to be liberal would have issued stay-at-home orders or closed schools for 6 months over a virus like this. It wasn't in any pandemic playbook.

We're getting the same old line in Old Line State search

It's possible I may go to Ocean City, Maryland, soon - so last night I went on Google to search for some visitor information.

Last week, I blogged about how Google search results have begun favoring media clickbait much more than before. My Ocean City search proves it. The first 28 sites - I repeat, 28 - that came up were articles by established media sources. No independent blogs or sites whatsoever. At least one of the 28 was so clearly laden with propagandistic conjecture in its headline that it would have been worthless in any context.

When I do a Google search, I have a right to expect a diversity of viewpoints - not a compilation of media elites' propaganda.

Ironically, one of few stories I've found that even touches on Google's increasing favoritism towards established media is in the Wall Street Journal, which ran a piece last November about it. The article reported that Google had a blog post reading, "We do not use human curation to collect or arrange the results on a page." But the piece says that's not quite true. It says Google had indeed been gaming its search results in response to pressure from various parties. Some changes were found to favor large businesses over smaller ones. Google even favors major websites like Amazon and Facebook.

Google was also found to have been keeping a blacklist that omitted some sites from searches - despite denying doing so.

Many of Google's changes to its search algorithms unambiguously favor the political right. Some on the right dispute this, but we can agree that Google certainly favors the authoritarian elitism that defines the established media - which no real leftist supports. Whatever the weather, these findings bolster the view that Google should be prohibited from arbitrarily manipulating search results. It's doubly true when you consider that these media outlets often report false information to appease the dictatorship in China where they have investments.

Meanwhile, Snap Map shows people in Ocean City are having a good time right now! They're gathering on the beach, the boardwalk, and in bars like it's an ordinary September! If it isn't still like this when I go there, it's only because some functionary was deranged enough to reject thousands of years of epidemiological science.

U.S. coronavirus death rate passes Sweden

From now on, I don't care to hear anyone who supports America's draconian coronavirus measures (which were borrowed from China) criticize the lenient measures taken in Sweden.

For months, America has had far more known cases per capita than Sweden. Right now, it's 19,300 per million in the U.S. versus 8,400 in Sweden. But now the death rate in the U.S. has also surpassed that of Sweden.

As a left-wing populist, I believe it's important to not only fight a virus but also save our social institutions from ruinous lockdowns. But the latest statistics prove once again that lockdowns don't even save lives from being lost to coronavirus.

Google results favoring media clickbait?

Notice something about Google these days?

It used to be that when you did a Google search for a variety of popular topics, the results would reveal gobs of independent websites, blogs, and message forums. Nowadays, such a search mostly brings up established news outlets - at a time when trust in the media is at an all-time low, thanks largely to outright falsehoods that the elitist media has published.

How did it get to be like this? Does Google actually rig its results to favor established media, thereby censoring independent sources? Or have established media outlets figured out a way to game the search results so more people click on their clickbait and are brainwashed? It has to be one or the other - or both.

In either case, it's further proof that the media needs to be broken up. If Google is rigging search results, it should be prohibited from doing so. Allowing it to do so would be like letting the phone company block calls based on content.

Major media monopolizing Google search results is antithetical to democracy, equal time, and the free press. Over at AlterNet, the greatest dream in life of some folks may be to become obedient followers of the elitist media's "experts" - but not here, because we think for ourselves.

Democratic platform a Strongly Worded Letter on coronavirus

We can only dream of the Democrats actually putting their words into action.

The Democratic platform has a section dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. I read this section. There's nothing in that section I truly oppose - though it's possible they buried something bad in another section. The problem is that Democratic officials don't act on good ideas, preferring instead to implement authoritarian measures - not unlike the Republicans.

This section quite properly blasts the Trump regime's incompetence and misrepresentations. It correctly says Trump "wasted critical weeks" early in the pandemic and practiced "racist and xenophobic rhetoric." This section supports better testing for the virus and providing vaccines for free. It endorses 'Net neutrality, scaling up manufacture of useful medical equipment, and enforcing the Americans with Disabilities Act (which has been arrogantly defied throughout this crisis). It also supports efforts to fight problems like utility shutoffs.

There's no explicit support of science-free measures like ruinous stay-at-home orders or keeping schools closed for 6 months. In fact, that section accurately accuses Trump of using an "authoritarian playbook."

But why do the Democrats criticize authoritarianism in their platform while so many of them practice authoritarian policies and provide no exit strategy? It's a complete lack of leadership. And they have nobody to blame but themselves. If they truly believe both stances at once, it's a textbook example of what George Orwell called doublethink - simultaneously believing two contradictory ideas. But I think it's truly a battle between patriots and turncoats within the party. As with the Republicans, there are some forces within the Democratic Party that care only about ruining as many lives as they can, and they think it's funny. There are some rotten people in politics who enjoy harming others.

The Democrats really botched things, didn't they? Their actions speak louder than the mere words in their platform - and it isn't good.

Where did I sign up for this when I registered under their miserable party? They lost a supporter - and many others.

Have no fear, the September ish is here!

Ba-de-ya! It's September, and the September edition of The Last Word is now pub!

This ish talks about how Orwell's '1984' has come to life in 2020, a college project against censorship, an armchair ruined by ink, a library unearthing hidden beer and gum, and more!

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/474409918/The-Last-Word-9-2020

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

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2009.pdf