Here comes bubble gum!

Isn't it neat how most of the readership of this blog is sent into helpless fits of guffawing at the very mention of bubble gum? Not just the sight, smell, or taste, but the mere mention.

You would have had a blast at our local Memorial Day parade this morning! As people marching in the parade were tossing out Dubble Bubble to spectators, some woman yelled, "Here comes bubble gum!"

In addition, I saw 4 – count 'em, 4 – people who were in such a festive mood that they bubbled.

Baste of Cincinnati is back! (Circus Vargas, Circus Vargas!)

After being canceled 2 years in a row, the Taste of Cincinnati food festival – or as I call it, Baste of Cincinnati – is back! It's a miracle it survived being canceled 2 years in a row, and there was no excuse for canceling it the second time, but now it's back 100% normal!

I got in a confrontation with a pedestrian on the way home, but that's fodder for the July ish.

Taste of Cincinnati is not particularly exciting. At all. It never really was. It's better than being cooped up at home all day, but what's a mere mortal to do? Stink?

I only saw one celebrity look-alike today – namely an Eric Clapton look-alike. However, I did see some woman who was in a festive enough mood that she kept bubbling green bubs.

Have no fear, the June ish is here!

June wouldn't be June if The Last Word didn't put out its June issue!

This ish talks about a hilarious soda spill on a Michigan trip, hiding beer under school bleachers, the Governor of New York ruining books, people getting expelled from school, fights at a carnival, and more!

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/575881380/The-Last-Word-6-2022

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

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2206.pdf

Shitlibs, 2000 style

A common shitlib gimmick is to bark about how they were Republicans until the party nominated Donald Trump. It isn't true of all of them, of course, because the Democrats were plagued by the DLC for decades before. But what this shows is that many were Republicans long after that party drove most of its moderate members away.

I found an editorial from the now-defunct Cincinnati Post from 2000 that represents the right-wing Republicanism of many of those who became shitlibs. I used to hear the Post described as "Cincinnati's liberal paper", which shows just how right-wing the Enquirer is. Today, the Enquirer is part of the elitist, totalitarian media consensus that is mostly right-wing except for its patronizing wokewashing that lets them pretend to care about a few issues. But the Post was far from liberal.

The 2000 editorial from the Post was titled "Clinton's hate-mongering." The right-wing vitriol of this piece was overpowering. It attacked President Bill Clinton for advancing a bill against hate crimes and acted as if congressional Republicans were poor, innocent victims of liberal bullying.

The media thought Clinton was one cool cat when he pushed right-wing ideas like school uniforms, welfare "reform", and the late '90s war games with Iraq. But every time he came to his senses and supported something to make the country better, he was portrayed as some dangerous leftist radical.

The Post accused Clinton of "beating up on the Republican congressional leadership" and said the GOP "should beat up on Clinton for advancing such a misguided proposal" like hate crime laws. The Post's arguments against hate crime laws were laughably weak. The editorial said these laws "criminalize motivation", as if hate crimes do not include any actual bad behavior. It said hate crime laws were the same as double jeopardy – which means to try the same crime twice – even though the media had been silent over other criminal cases being tried twice just because prosecutors didn't get the result they wanted the first time.

The article then had the nerve to accuse Clinton of being "unnecessarily nasty" to Republicans. If you don't understand why that's ridiculous, you must not have been around in 2000. GOP spite never started to let up until many of the worst offenders joined the shitlibs who now fill Democratic ranks. In fact, most of the editorial is a textbook illustration of this malevolence.

The right-wing Republicans of 2000 are the Democratic shitlibs of 2022. I mean that literally. Many of them are the exact same people. Many of those who attacked opponents as "liberals" back then assail these same dissenters as "right-wing Trump supporters" now. If they call you the latter, remember that nasty editorial they wrote back in 2000.

Favorite shitlib insults

Go!

A shitlib is sort of like today's equivalent of the DLC. Shitlibs tar the name of a political faction while not even supporting the values that said faction is supposed to stand for. The term is often used by real progressives to denote establishment "liberals" who toe the party line of sources like MSNBC (which is now full of right-wing Republicans from the Bush era).

But what are some of the favorite insults lobbed by shitlibs?

One of the most common is "anti-vaxxer", which they apply to people who aren't actually anti-vaxxers. Make no mistake, there are real anti-vaxxers out there. But shitlibs call people "anti-vaxxers" even when they write something that explicitly supports vaccinations. Shitlibs are the real anti-vaxxers. They deny natural immunity even exists – while vaccines are based on some of the same ideas as natural immunity.

Another shitlib insult is "dirtbag leftist." Though they intend this phrase as an insult, it's been turned around by those on the receiving end of it to be a compliment.

My favorite shitlib insult lately is "class reductionist." Shitlibs deny that classism and credentialism are even real. They think it's just a hoax. So anybody who points out a real instance of classism or expresses class consciousness is attacked as a "class reductionist."

Another favorite of mine is their tendency to call opponents "right-wing Trump supporters" – even though shitlibs were often Republicans until very recently.

What's your favorite shitlib insult?

George Carlin look-alike sighted

I just got back from a little road trip centered on northwestern Michigan, and I saw a George Carlin look-alike at a Speedway station in Findlay, Ohio.

Puerto Rico statehood drive would gut territory option

As corruption and authoritarianism grow in the once-great Democratic Party, it's also expanding in Puerto Rico, and that's why the Democrats are pushing harder than ever to make the island territory the 51st state. In fairness, existing states are plagued by tyranny and corruption too, but that doesn't make this effort any better.

The truth is, however, that Puerto Rico had a worse COVID-19 response than almost every existing state. A bad COVID response has practically become an article of faith for Democratic "leaders." COVID totalitarianism is a cult that the Democrats follow. I'm not using that term figuratively, for it has all the characteristics of a cult.

Now a group of Democratic members of Congress are introducing a bill that would authorize a referendum next year in Puerto Rico that would give the territory's voters 3 options: statehood, free association, or complete independence. One of the problems with this referendum is that it does not allow Puerto Rico to continue its current territorial status.

Trying to force Puerto Rico to change its status has angered the territory's leading opposition party.

Removing the island's existing status as an option isn't the only problem with this bill. There is currently no major effort to enact laws in Puerto Rico or nationwide against the government abuses we saw during the pandemic – and which we still see. Last year, Pennsylvania enacted a pair of measures to fight abuses of emergency powers. That would be a good model for the rest of the country.

We will not support the Puerto Rico statehood bill unless both these things happen: The referendum there must allow an option to continue the territory's current status. And there must be a law to limit emergency powers.

From now on, there must be a law against abuse of emergency powers before we can support any new states. It can be a federal law or a law enacted by the new state – just as long as there is such a law.

I say this as a former member of the local Young Democrats: The Democrats are now mired so deeply in COVID cultism that it composes much of their identity. It's a second skin to them. If they're able to do so, they will admit or reject new states on the basis of COVID policy alone.

If new states are admitted as a reward for having a tyrannical COVID response, we have a right to expect new states to also be admitted for having a good response.

WKU censored online criticism (a blast from the past)

Much of academia these days is made up of dumb losers who cannot tolerate or comprehend dissent. America's universities are in bad hands. But students have suffered through universities' intolerance for years now.

This includes the poologgery that occurred at Western Kentucky University back in 2012. Even in a state whose public universities have a history of political intolerance (as I know firsthand), this was worse than usual.

The college persuaded Twitter to close down a parody account that criticized the school. A student also said her schoolmates had been skeeped at by school officials over Twitter posts.

WKU's president went on Facebook to reprimand students over their posts, but getting Twitter to close an account is what truly crossed the line into censorship. The critical posts weren't even made using a school account or school computers.

WKU officials claimed they were trying to protect the school's brand. But actually the effort was aimed at silencing criticism of WKU.

By that time, much of our education system had already become a tainted brand. There wasn't much left to protect in 2012, and it's far worse now.

Kentucky Democrats endorse Andy Barr

The elitist bullies who make up the shitlib Democratic vanguard are always bumping their gums about how we must "vote blue no matter who." But a few weeks ago, they rejected the Democratic candidate for Senate in Utah and instead endorsed right-wing independent Evan McMullin. Now Kentucky Democrats have done something like this too. They're endorsing a right-wing Republican even though the Democrats have a candidate.

Kentucky's 6th congressional district has long been "represented" by right-wing Republican Andy Barr. Barr is seeking another term, and is being challenged by Geoff Young, who won Tuesday's Democratic primary.

Although Young was the choice of Democratic voters in a contested primary, the state's Democratic "leaders" are endorsing Barr instead. The Kentucky Democratic Party even released a statement saying they would not back Young. Failed Gov. Andy Beshear has been particularly nasty and vitriolic.

If Democratic Party bosses wanted somebody more to their liking than Geoff Young is, they should have put up a more well-known candidate – instead of throwing a fit about the results of the primary.

The reaction by Democratic "leaders" to Young's candidacy also typifies the burgeoning war by elites against rural America. Young actually won every county in the district except Lexington's Fayette County. Why should the gentrificationists who have ruined our cities have more of a voice in our electoral process than rural counties do?

Up here in northern Kentucky, most local elections are just as bad, for the Democrats – not for the first time - made backroom deals with the Republicans to not field candidates in most races.

There is nothing shitlibs enjoy more than calling Americans idiots. Yet they're mystified that we don't give a shit what they think anymore.

Celebrity look-alike embellishes Wasatch Range

I just received an important e-mail declaring that an Ellen DeGeneres look-alike was seen working at the Salt Lake City airport.

Getting your fill of Phil

Today at Kroger, I saw a Phil Donahue look-alike.

Vermont town wanted to burn house to force out residents (a blast from the past)

Here's another slice of fairly recent history that shows just how heartless our overlords are.

A few years ago, officials in the town of Arlington, Vermont, planned to ask the fire department to burn down a historic town-owned house to drive out a family that had lived there for years. The family included 6 people, including an elderly widow and a visually impaired man. Three of the 6 were deaf. Two of the 6 were small children.

But the town called the family "squatters." As we all know, that's one of those words that gets thrown around so much that it's lost all meaning.

It turned out that the town wanted to demolish the house just so the property could be turned over to a well-connected developer. The town practically admitted as much, as officials said clearing the property would be a good way to attract buyers.

When I was about 4, I used to think the purpose of a fire department was to burn down houses – not put out fires. But that was before I ever heard of gentrification.

Airline bee incidents could sting

For reasons that are completely unknown, the spread of killer bees was long laughed off as something we'd just have to live with – even though it could have been prevented. But a 2006 article said killer bees had reached Florida after "decades of hype" – posing a threat to "basically everyone who ventures outdoors." These "decades of hype" provided plenty of time to prevent it, but not a damn thing was done about it. Killer bees had already appeared in the southwestern U.S. in the 1990s. At least 14 people in the U.S. had been killed by them.

In Florida, killer bees killed animals and menaced utility workers, firefighters, reporters, and even police. People were trapped in their homes by swarms of the dangerous insects. The decades-long inaction on killer bees forced residents to bee-proof their homes.

Now there's been another incident involving bees. They might not be killer bees, but this episode underscores the dangers that may be present.

Last month, a shipment of 5 million honeybees heading from Sacramento to Anchorage was rerouted all the way to Atlanta by Delta Airlines. The bees were being shipped to over 300 beekeepers in Alaska. Most of the bees died when they were stranded on the hot tarmac in Atlanta. The crates were also placed so the bees could not access their food.

It's bad enough that this shipment was destroyed in a way that was completely avoidable. But here's a terrifying question we can't find an answer for: Are bees shipped on the same flights as passengers? Maybe the reason nobody can find an answer is that they might not like the answer.

The prospect of crates containing millions of bees being on passenger flights is a disaster in the making. If you don't understand why this is dangerous, ask an adult. Can you imagine 5 million bees swarming a passenger flight? No people should be anywhere near these bees unless they have special training and perhaps a beekeeping suit.

Even last month's incident could have threatened many people. When the bees first got to Atlanta, they were kept in a cooler. But many of the bees escaped from the cooler – right there inside the airport, no less.

At the end of the day, we need to make sure that bees are considered hazardous cargo that may not be transported on passenger flights. If this isn't a rule or law already, it ought to be.