Democratic lawmaker under fire for racist e-mail

I can't believe I ever voted for this party.

Delaware State Rep. Gerald Brady has decided not to seek reelection after it was revealed that he made racist comments in an e-mail. In addition, fellow Democrats are refusing to initiate an ethics investigation into Brady - even though the Delaware House has a rule that says lawmakers may not engage in conduct that "brings the House into disrepute."

Brady sent the e-mail using his official government account. The e-mail was accidentally sent to an advocate for decriminalizing prostitution.

Brady is also the executive director of the Delaware AFL-CIO.

This story has made a mockery of our entire democratic system and much of our labor leadership. If our "leaders" don't have the values to properly confront racism such as this, what do they have? They've abandoned economic justice, they've abandoned civil liberties, they've abandoned schools, and now they've even abandoned racial harmony.

This is not the Democratic Party I signed up for in 1991. I was a member of the Northern Kentucky Young Democrats in the mid-'90s, and I went to countless labor rallies in the 2010s, and this makes a joke of the work that I and others put into these organizations and events.

The Democrats being better 30 years ago isn't a reason to vote for them now.

The longest-running political party in the world. Complete garbage.

More Kroger bunker blasts

Today at Kroger, I detected 2 - count 'em, 2 - LAP bunker blasts.

Democratic kingmaker demands criminalizing homeless

This isn't what I signed up for when I first pulled that donkey lever when I was 18.

Jeffrey Katzenberg is a zillionaire entertainment mogul who is a growing source of funds for Democratic campaigns. Katzenberg faced an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2012 over allegations that he bribed Chinese officials. Katzenberg also tried unsuccessfully to ram through the right-wing Stop Online Piracy Act, which would have criminalized fair use activities. However, that bill was introduced by a Republican.

In the past few years, Katzenberg has emerged as one of the biggest investors in The Young Turks - a once-trusted show that has since degenerated from progressive commentary into shitlib nonsense, such as parroting CIA propaganda, smearing antiwar journalists, and blackmailing Jimmy Dore.

As one of the wealthiest residents of Los Angeles, Katzenberg exerts real influence over the city's public policy. Recently, Katzenberg met with city officials on how to deal with the crisis of homelessness that afflicts 40,000 people in the city. After the meetings, Los Angeles City Council decided to enact new regulations that banned homeless encampments from huge swaths of the city. Katzenberg urged council members to put strict limits on where the homeless could sleep.

Where there's smoke, there's fire. Deals with Chinese officials? Check. Funding major political campaigns and media projects? Check. Pushing totalitarian public policies? Check. I have a strange feeling that this goes much, much deeper than SOPA and L.A.'s war against the homeless.

Heading out to the highway...To see another celebrity look-alike!

Yesterday, I saw another celebrity look-alike! A guy who resembled Rob Halford of Judas Priest was seen walking up the street.

Democrats' right-wing racism

I've lamented for years how the Democrats and the Republicans often have little difference in policy as they've built their parties around an elitist right-wing media consensus. But I thought that at least the Democrats would reject militant racism - in contrast to the Republicans.

But these days, the Democrats are just as bad.

It turns out that one of the top Democratic Party bosses in northern Kentucky is a supporter of NumbersUSA. NumbersUSA is a xenophobic group that uses some of the most frankly racist arguments around to justify restricting immigration. It blames immigration for America's environmental crisis, a stance that one website calls "absurd" and "out of the mainstream." NumbersUSA was actually conceived by the publisher of a white nationalist newsletter.

This racism is the face of the Democratic Party in the 2020s. Shame on you, Democrats. This is absolutely inexcusable.

How did I find out about this? I'm not that stupid. I'm not going to reveal who the political operative in question is, but you may be able to find out if you have the right connections or have hobnobbed with the wrong politicians.

I can't believe that when I was 18, I voted for a party that has turned into a bunch of reactionary weirdoes. I damn sure won't vote for them at 48. America has minor parties but is for practical purposes a two-party system. So, after the Reagan regime supported South Africa's apartheid dictatorship, I have a right to expect the Democrats to offer something different. Thirty years ago, they did - but not anymore.

Democratic totalitarianism grows

I never thought the Democrats would trust the CIA more than the Republicans do, but here we are.

A new poll by the Pew Research Center shows ballooning totalitarianism within the once-great Democratic Party. In fact, this poll suggests the Democrats are actually to the right of the Republicans now.

The poll says 69% of Democrats now have a positive opinion of the CIA - 7 points higher than the Republicans' opinion of this agency. Seventy-eight percent of Democrats have a favorable opinion of the FBI - 23 points higher than the Republicans' opinion of it.

This poll is not an outlier. Other polls in the past few months show Democrats' support of the Chinese Communist Party and uncontrolled free trade also inching upward. Support for both now exceeds support by Republicans.

This just after almost all House Democrats voted to turn the Capitol Police into an interstate intelligence agency - while most or all House Republicans voted against it.

Ah yes, the same Democratic Party that has now made Bill Kristol one of its top pundits! The longtime right-wing analyst became a Democrat last year - even though his actual policy stances didn't change - so that shows you where the party is headed.

A person bubbled at Kroger

Today at Kroger, a person bubbled.

Judge lets Rotenberg use shock therapy

We all know that a lot of administrators in regular schools enjoy torturing students. I've known it for 40 years. But it's also true in schools, institutions, and "treatment" centers for disabled children.

You can't carry on a conversation with the sociopaths and narcissists who support this garbage - so I don't even try. Sometimes they'll try to force you to argue with them, because they like being argumentative (the same thing they accuse everyone else of being). But they can't win on a level playing field, so they wait until they have some numbers or leverage.

Judge Rotenberg Educational Center is a program for developmentally disabled children in Canton, Massachusetts. The facility has been known for years for using electric shock therapy - a form of torture. The UN even called it torture.

Last year, the FDA finally banned electric shock devices in places like Rotenberg. But the facility promptly sued, and now some Republican federal judge has ruled in Rotenberg's favor. The judge said the FDA has no power to ban this kind of torture.

So what's the purpose of the FDA?

The ruling said the FDA can't regulate medicine. Uh, yes it can. It's in the name: Food and Drug Administration! Medicine falls under "drug."

I'd like to be able to say we have a right to expect the Democrats to rein in Republican judges like this, but the Democrats today support torturing kids, so I'm not counting on it. They like closing schools so much that they should have started with Rotenberg.

Executive order bans noncompetes

Well, he's finally doing something, I guess. But things shouldn't have been allowed to get so bad in the first place.

According to press reports, President Biden has signed a new executive order dealing with a variety of industries. The order quite rightly prohibits noncompete agreements - which prevent workers from moving to rival companies.

The $98.26 question is: Why were noncompetes allowed in the first place? How were companies able to enforce them on workers who no longer worked there? They couldn't very well fire them.

The order also puts a halt to excessive licensing restrictions and fights back against hospital consolidation. It calls for new rules requiring airlines to refund passengers for fees over things like baggage delays. It directs the Department of Agriculture to issue new rules to define when meat can be labeled as an American product and let consumers know if food producers treat workers fairly. The order even encourages the FCC to restore 'Net neutrality. The Democrats were big boosters of 'Net neutrality several years ago, but most of them abandoned this stance when propellerheads took over the party.

This executive order is bad, bad, bad news for the propellerheads, incels, and non-player characters who have mutilated the Democratic Party in recent years.

DLC revolving door keeps spinning

The Biden administration so far has not failed to disappoint. Perhaps its only major positive accomplishment so far is revoking a right-wing rule enacted late in the Trump era that would have gutted disability benefits.

It was bad enough that President Biden appointed Antony Blinken as Secretary of State, after Blinken was one of the architects of the failed Iraq War. Now, Biden has tapped failed Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to serve as U.S. ambassador to India - even after Garcetti's hopelessly botched handling of the pandemic.

That's not the Democratic Party that I joined when I was 18. It's not the Democratic Party that I gave a second chance to when I was 42, after I thought we had finally crushed the DLC like the Coke can it is. The party obviously didn't deserve a second chance, or even a first chance. I wouldn't have voted for them when I was 18 if I knew they'd be such a disaster 30 years later.

That's like putting 30 years into a romantic relationship only to see it fall apart because of something your partner did. All that time was wasted.

There are some terrible, terrible people in the Democratic "leadership" these days.

With no access to pools, it's sink or swim

Access to swimming facilities is more important than some people think. Swimming isn't just a good social event but it's also very healthy.

Greater Cincinnati has few if any natural beaches, and it's too cold or rainy for swimming for most of the year anyway. So around here, when you get a chance to swim, you jump at it!

Most of you probably don't have your own pool. But a few of you might be lucky enough to have family members who live at a condo or apartment complex that has its own pool. But this isn't always reliable. I planned to borrow such a pool this morning, but found it closed because the pump is broken and might remain so For The Foreseeable Future (tm).

Not everybody is fortunate enough to have even that, and those who struggle the most deserve access to pools too. You may recall that in 2019, I used a Cincinnati city pool. But last summer - under the guise of COVID-19 - this pool became open by reservation only, and only for brief time slots. This has been made permanent - even with the pandemic over. The purpose of this is to limit access to the public and reserve the pool for those with means.

Where does this leave the average person? They're very lucky if they have their own pool, and now even pools that were open to the public are limiting access or closing altogether. Pools that are still fully open are usually not accessible at all, because public transit has been reduced to a barebones system. The reduction of public transit was itself designed in part to deny people amenities like pools.

There's plenty of blame to go around. For most of my life, the Republicans were far more to blame than the Democrats for this. I don't think this is the case now, because there are so many psychopaths in the Democratic Party now. Unchecked psychopathy isn't completely new to the Democrats though. Even well before last year, there were a few regionally prominent Democrats who built their entire political careers around ridiculously insane and classist vendettas that have affected their targets for decades. They practiced the politics of retaliation and personal destruction. Sadly, in the spirit of partisanship, other Democrats wouldn't call out these insufferable tyrants when they had the chance. They preferred to hobnob with them rather than call them out.

The blame is truly bipartisan, and regardless of party affiliation, some of the politicians most responsible were horrible, horrible people.

The Cincinnati Post was mostly a fusty right-wing rag in its later years, but at least it had a few editorials calling out the city's recreation department for not opening pools in a timely fashion. The scarcity of pool access has gotten a lot worse since then, but nobody today dares to criticize it. The media has truly shifted the window of acceptable thought.

Ah! Some New River Gorge photos! Ew!

Celebrate the Fourth on the third with a fifth - by poppin' open a keg or three and enjoying 100 Scholaring photos from April's trip to New River Gorge National Park!

You'll laugh! You'll cry! You'll be back for more (as Ratt would say)!

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/nrg21a.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/nrg21b.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/nrg21c.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/nrg21d.html