Life wouldn't be life if we didn't put out a sparkling new ish of The Last Word!
Our new January ish talks about the ransomware attack on a local school system, people being kicked out of amusement parks, the shrinking lifespan of electric razors, more ruined stamp collections, and more!
So point your pooper here...
https://www.scribd.com/document/695564180/The-Last-Word-1-2024
If that doesn't work, bip on over here...
My latest Substack entry talks about mission creep surrounding COVID social controls...
What an idiot!
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has amassed a record of failure, and now it's continuing as she has vetoed a bill passed by lawmakers that would have banned noncompete agreements that hamstring workers.
Hochul's goal was to appease Wall Street, which had fiercely attacked the bill.
One of the worst governors in America (outside New Mexico) strikes again!
My latest Substack entry is a short one that deals with new developments that show lockdowns were at odds with social justice...
https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/more-lockdown-racism
My latest Substack entry covers assorted acts of COVID fascism that persisted into 2021 or later...
https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/hindsight-is-2021-too
Usenet used to be the armpit of not just the Internet but of all of society. But, compared to the heavily censored social media sites of today, it's looking pretty good now. The harassment isn't as bad on today's social media as it used to be on Usenet, but the censorship is far, far worse - even though Usenet wasn't free of censorship itself.
Usenet is public. Social media sites are privately owned. That's one advantage Usenet has.
But now that some have expressed a renewed interest in Usenet because of the bottomless Big Tech censorship on social media, Google has now decided to end Usenet support. Starting in February, Google will no longer support posting new messages on Usenet or archive new Usenet content. Yet its archive of past Usenet content - which is full of forged posts, spam, and other garbage - will of course remain. Google refuses to allow users to delete their own content from this archive, much less remedy forged posts. It won't even post a disclaimer warning readers that much of it is fake.
Got that? Google promoted Usenet when it was the worse alternative, but is now dropping it as more people consider it superior. Is this Opposite Day or something?
Who is putting Google up to this? The federal government colluded with Twitter and Facebook to censor "disinformation" about COVID. I suspect that's what's going on here.
My latest Substack entry is long, but it covers a lot of lockdown fascism from 2020, including canceled festivals and funerals, limits on protests, and health problems that occurred because people weren't allowed to visit a doctor...
I've just received an important text message declaring that a Vladimir Putin look-alike was seen at a local eye doctor.
My latest Substack entry is a short account of recent lies about COVID numbers that have actually affected policy...
https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/liar-liar-revisited
It's a December to dismember, as the December issue of The Last Word is pub!
This ish talks about a visit to the Columbus Zoo, an overflowing toilet ruining an Airbnb, an Idaho town that missed the Super Bowl, getting chased down the street in 7th grade and breaking my arm, and more!
So point your pooper here...
https://www.scribd.com/document/688403433/The-Last-Word-12-2023
If that doesn't work, rock on over here...
Another Substack entry! This one covers an assortment of bad effects of lockdowns, especially those that became known in 2020...
I have a brand new Substack entry that talks about Slovenia refunding lockdown fines, even as some claim that nobody was ever punished for violating lockdowns...
My new Substack entry describes how officials lied when they said vaccines would end COVID restrictions...
https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/vaccines-no-shot-in-the-arm-for-lifting
My newest Substack post is about CNN trying to whip up fear over the pneumonia outbreak in China...
My second Substack entry today touches on brand new COVID restrictions enacted in a U.S. national park just yesterday...
https://bandit73.substack.com/p/and-the-hits-just-keep-on-coming
I have a new Substack installment that describes labor unions selling out by supporting lockdowns...
My latest Substack entry touches on mask hoopla, including how adults harassed small children for not wearing masks at playgrounds...
https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/the-kids-arent-alright
My latest Substack entry introduces us to the lingering failures of remote schooling...
My latest Substack installment describes the beginnings of dissent against the lockdown thought police...
This entry in my Substack series describes how lockdowns violated constitutional protections and separation of powers...
Today I went to the Columbus Zoo, and a person bubbled a green bub.
My latest Substack piece is about how lockdowns forced people to stay indoors where viruses spread more easily...
My latest Substack installment talks about how COVID totalitarianism was backed by the rich and powerful...
It's hard to believe we're seeing stories like this in 2023, but that's 2023 for ya!
On Tuesday, a precinct in east central Louisville actually voted 61% to 39% to go dry - i.e., to prohibit alcohol sales. This angered the owner of a restaurant in that precinct, and some officials have noted that supporters of the alcohol ban used racist language throughout the campaign. The precinct also has at least one store that sells beer.
Rural Kentucky counties keep voting to go wet after years of being dry, yet a big city like Louisville can't handle a restaurant serving beer to adults. And the racism makes the situation even more un-American.
And don't even ask about how badly the Louisville school system has declined in the past few years. Now it's like Campbell County or that district north of Cincinnati where some right-wing loudmouth keeps ranting about stuff.
I'm back with another Substack piece. This entry deals with lies by the media and politicians that propped up the COVID command state...
The permacloud is fortifying, and we won't see the sun for the next 7 months, but it's always a beautiful day to dispel a Big Lie regarding Social Security. I don't think I've touched on this nearly enough, and it's time we set the record straight.
Here's the facts: People pay into Social Security for themselves - at least in the United States. It's their money. Contrary to what the media has claimed, current retirees are not being funded by younger workers. One website correctly notes, "If you have no record of paying into the system, you will not receive payouts." That means people are paying into this program for their own benefits.
To cut their benefits is theft.
It's not only retirement, but disability too. Those who receive some sort of disability benefit from Social Security have also paid into it at some point. How much they've paid and how much they receive varies. But rest assured, they paid for it, and it's their money. When we say there's 2 certainties in life - death and taxes - we mean it. You can't hide from the taxman. You can be a hermit, and somewhere along the line, you're still paying taxes. We all live in a society - not in a total vacuum - and paying taxes is part of the deal.
Even the self-employed pay into Social Security.
Understand? These are facts.
Unfortunately, the Reagan regime did raise the retirement age from 65 to 67, and it was mostly covered up. These changes finally took effect just recently, and nobody did a damn thing about this theft.
The media also likes to harp about Social Security going broke sometime in the next few years so they can justify further cuts, but this crusade falls to rack and ruin every time the government throws more taxpayer money at foreign wars. This means the era of "we can't afford it" should be over.
If you don't receive every penny of Social Security you paid for, it's theft. It makes almost any other act of theft out there look like a 5-year-old stealing a pack of bubble gum from Kroger in comparison.
Finally!
I know this is about 40 years too late to prevent the disaster that occurred at Cline Middle School, but hopefully this means Lexington will stop using pepper spray.
This brief Substack entry describes brand new studies that continue to show the negative effects of lockdowns:
https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/lockdown-effects-still-emerging
My latest Substack article deals primarily with how lockdowns were selectively enforced:
https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/lockdowns-for-thee-not-for-me
November wouldn't be November if the November ish of The Last Word didn't magically appear!
This edition talks about another New Mexico trip, more kids breaking toys, more beer getting ruined in transit, NBC airing the wrong part of a miniseries, politicians trying to gut our national parks, people throwing pies on TV, EBay scams, and more!
Once again, Scribd is blocking it, but you can find the November installment here...
My latest Substack report talks some about herd immunity and how eugenics inspired lockdowns:
This short entry in my Substack series talks about how election laws have been manipulated under "new normal" totalitarianism...
https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/a-political-power-grab
I've just received an important e-mail saying a waitress who looked like Selena Gomez was seen at a restaurant. After that, a Dalai Lama look-alike was sighted.
My latest Substack piece is shorter than the others so far, and it's a brief account of the narcissism of the lockdown thought police:
The latest entry in my Substack series on failed COVID lockdowns asks: What is a lockdown?
The second installment in my new Substack series is about how "progressive" blogs and politicians sold out by supporting the lockdown industrial complex...
https://bandit73.substack.com/p/the-parting-on-the-rightis-now-parting
Since 2020, I've been working on a report on the failures of COVID-19 lockdowns and related policies. Earlier this month, it was up to 204 pages, and it kept growing because the lockdown industrial complex kept outstupiding itself.
I had planned on releasing this report way back in mid-2020, but I couldn't, because lockdown town criers kept piling on, and the media was happy to help.
So instead, I've decided to split this report into a series that I've begun posting on Substack. It's being offered for free, and you can find it here...
Ba-de-ya! I just released a set of 5 new road photos from Cincinnati from September!
So point your pooper here...
I already released my road photos from the first half of my May trip to the Northeast a while ago, and now I've released my photos from the way back!
Beepers should be bipped in this direction...
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/meoh23a.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/meoh23b.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/meoh23c.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/meoh23d.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/meoh23e.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/meoh23f.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/meoh23g.html
Today at Kroger, I saw a George Carlin look-alike.
Maybe he should invent an eighth dirty word to describe the state of food at Kroger lately!
Here's the latest chart-topping smash from Beverly Hills leaders' "we screwed up" greatest hits collection.
This exclusive California city was known for a horribly botched COVID response and having a generally miserable disposition, but it never ends. Now city council has voted unanimously to ban Silly String, shaving cream, and Nair on Halloween - charging that these products might be used for vandalism.
Anyone caught with these products will be required to discard them instantaneously.
Just like how basic liberties have already been discarded there.
The October ish of The Last Word is now pub!
This edition talks about the recent Oktoberfest in Cincinnati, CNN's dumb airport stores, '90s police calls, fake progressive support for nuclear power, and more!
Once again, Scribd is blocking this ish, but you can find it on my own website by bipping your beeper here...
You're an idiot, Gavin.
California lawmakers just passed a bill to allow striking workers to receive unemployment benefits. But - naturally - Gavin Newsom just vetoed it.
Newsom claims to have strong labor support, but the unions that have supported him since 2020 are mostly company unions. He says the state's unemployment fund is already in debt, but most of this debt is because of COVID lockdowns - which he ordered.
What a disaster.
Gruesome Newsom is at it again!
California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants the U.S. Supreme Court to allow cities to criminalize the homeless by letting these cities have ordinances banning the homeless from camping on public property. This comes after federal courts rightly invalidated such a law in Grants Pass, Oregon.
In fact, Newsom has spent several years criticizing judges who nullify such laws. Newsom complained that these rulings have hamstrung California cities that have tried criminalizing the homeless.
Officials in San Francisco and San Diego also want the Supreme Court to intervene and let them step up their war against the homeless. This undercuts the progressive reputation that San Francisco once had. But this is far from the first time it's been undercut, as the city has been beset by right-wing authoritarian policies for decades now. This not only includes its attacks on the homeless and its refusal to remedy high housing costs but also its penchant for COVID totalitarianism that exceeds ostensibly more conservative locales. It's not an exaggeration to say that - in terms of public policies that are actually being carried out - San Francisco is to the right of much of rural Iowa or Montana. How is San Francisco much better today than what we had here at our worst?
If anyone is improperly squatting on land, it's gentrificationists who have marauded into our cities. Why aren't there any laws on this?
The magic continued at Ploptoberfest yesterday!
This time, I noticed somebody plopped an empty brown sugar cinnamon Pop-Tarts box. The restrooms grew to be such a hilarious mess as the day wore on that an entire row of them was closed. I even overheard a man saying, "It's bad," as he exited a portable lav.
Celebrity look-alikes included "Weird Al" Yankovic and Lyle Alzado.
Also, some woman was in such a festive mood that she bubbled.
Ploptoberfest may be starting to lurch back to life! This weekend is the first Ploptoberfest held on 5th Street since 2015. The fest has returned to its rightful location after being confined to 2nd Street for years (when it took place at all).
Yesterday, I noticed someone plopped the lid of a tub of Blue Bonnet margarine. When I went into a portable restroom, I noticed Miss Blue Bonnet staring up at the world from the abysmal depths of the poopot. She looked as hilarious as you might imagine. Later, I noticed someone plopped a plastic cup.
Celebrity look-alikes included Oliver Anthony, James Garner, and Suzi Quatro.
And that's only Friday. Think of the promise that Saturday holds if I go down there again!
The only place the homeless get to live rent-free is in the far right's heads.
And when I talk about the far right, I'm using the historic definition of the term. Lately, the Democrats have been branding all challenges from the left as right-wing. But I'm using the real definition, not the shitlib definition. The Democrats these days support actual far right stances more and more.
Recently, some neighborhood "leader" in Cincinnati drafted a letter demanding removal of a homeless camp in Burnet Woods, a city park. The letter demanded police close the park at 10 PM every night to expel the homeless and discard their belongings. The letter pointed fingers at the homeless over assorted ills that plague the city.
A big problem with this letter - besides its general meanness - is that there is no homeless camp in Burnet Woods. A few homeless people might gather there, but there is no camp. The camp exists only in somebody's minuscule mind. Park employees and visitors confirmed to the media that there is no camp.
The letter prompted some folks to post a flyer around the area charging that a neighborhood committee aims to "displace and throw out the property of local homeless people." The flyer pointed out that these raids cause the homeless to lose medications and personal documents.
The main location of concern in Burnet Woods seems to be the corner of Ludlow and Clifton avenues. It just so happens that I had lunch at this corner on Saturday on the way home from Zinecinnati. There were folks gathered around, but none of them said a word to me or did anything illegal. Bees were a bigger threat than homeless people were.
I bet the writer of the letter is actually mad because he saw homeless people not wearing masks.
Remember when we had 3 branches of government that provided checks and balances on each other? That was cool.
One issue we go back and forth on is gun control. There are many events that shape how the matter should be handled. Concealed carry is generally a right. We've never denied it. But you don't get to stomp into a crowd like a weirdo and brandish assault rifles at random people.
Now something strange is happening in New Mexico, where embattled Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has just issued an executive order suspending the right to concealed carry in Albuquerque's Bernalillo County.
One thing is for sure: This order is illegal. The right to concealed carry is backed up by statute in New Mexico, as it is almost everywhere else in America. That's the law. Governors aren't supposed to be able to just bark down orders suspending laws on a whim.
Lujan Grisham can't very well claim she cares about protecting children, after she supported child abuse in the name of fighting COVID. America might be the only country in the world with such a severe gun violence epidemic, but it's also one of the few modern nations with such a deep history of economic inequality and where schools were closed over COVID for as long as they were. Since long before COVID, our political "leaders" have maliciously refused to address our bad schools, choosing instead to punish students who were forced out of school. And community improvement projects disproportionately benefit rich areas and the wealthy, while the poor languish in despair. Gun violence has root causes - which are never addressed.
If a governor can unilaterally declare an emergency and use it to suspend legally protected rights, then you really don't have legally protected rights.
Much of this is basic middle school civics. The governor's main job is to execute the law - not write her own laws. She is not part of the legislative branch. If you want to change the law, write to lawmakers.
Even some politicians and activists who favor more gun control say Lujan Grisham is overreaching. They point out that constitutional liberties have no exceptions for emergencies declared by governors. On the other hand, what have we been experiencing for the past 3½ years? The sequence of events in this story is very similar to that of the COVID lockdowns - which established a bad precedent that governors can suspend rights at will.
This could get out of hand in a way far worse than it appears now. Recently, for the first time in my life, I began to seriously believe that America could end up under widespread martial law that far exceeds even what we saw during COVID. What folks in New Mexico are seeing could be just the start. Considering the past lies and abuse by our "leaders", it could be a deliberate step to completely disempower the public in the face of unimaginable totalitarianism.
Since I was about 5, I've had this melody in my head that I've insisted appeared on 'Sesame Street'. Eventually I concluded that I was only imagining it, and it was never really on the show.
But now I've stumbled on a website that listed a few lost 'Sesame Street' segments. One of the entries is about a segment on lowercase 'v'. It says that while the Spanish-language version can't be found, the English-language version is still out there...
Now that I've found this, I do remember the Spanish and English versions, but most importantly, it confirms that the melody that I had in my head did indeed appear on 'Sesame Street'. What I'm talking about here is the melody sung by the animated mouth.
In other words, this is yet another Snuffleupagus moment confirmed by YouTube - like the Big Boy commercial and the PBS show where the kid asks French-speaking Quebec residents if they speak English. If I say I saw something 40 to 45 years ago on TV, you should probably assume it's real.
Some people deny that any postwar Western country can be a dictatorship. Yet Francisco Franco ruled Spain in my lifetime. And Ronald Reagan expressed admiration for Franco.
Under right-wing President Emmanuel Macron, France is essentially a dictatorship. Now Macron is digging in his jackboots further by saying he is open to "experimenting" with mandatory uniforms in public schools. According to the AP, Macron's plan to "experiment" on France's schoolchildren came after right-wing politicians expressed support for school uniforms. Right-wing politicians? You mean like Macron?
This is only the latest in a series of affronts to civil liberties plaguing the country. Macron isn't the only culprit, as other top French officials have also attempted to fan the flames of fascism, often pointing fingers at political foes.
Today at the Kro, I saw a Hulk Hogan look-alike walking around in front of the store.
Democrats in the Kentucky legislature have announced new labor bills for the 2024 session. But you know damn well they won't seriously do a thing to pass them. The Democratic Party of today is not the Democratic Party we grew up with.
For one thing, the legislature has become overwhelmingly Republican - in part because the Democrats wouldn't do enough to pass some of these bills before. So these bills have little chance of becoming law at the state level. If they do, it will be because more Republicans begin supporting what were once Democratic ideas. For another thing, the Democrats can already pass laws like these in cities and counties that they already control - yet they refuse to.
Perhaps 5 or 10 years ago, the Democrats actually were passing some decent laws at the local level in Kentucky. But no more. Nowadays when you read about good local laws passing, it's usually in the Republican-led small towns, not the Democratic-led larger cities. These are usually laws the Democrats used to support but now won't make any serious efforts to enact - if they express support for these laws at all.
Democrats today are the Republicans of 20 years ago. I've had to give up on my once-great Democratic Party.
Also, who do you think is responsible for the brutal, classist war against the homeless in Louisville lately? Louisville isn't one of these Republican small towns. That's another example of the Democrats being taken over by Bush-era Republicans.
Earlier tonight, I went to Riverfest - or as I call it, Rip-off-fest.
Allowed Clouds were violated fluently. To defy the festival's ban on outside beverages, musical instruments, and tools, I smuggled in Pepsi, a kazoo, and a screwdriver. I also read that hula hoops are banned now too, but I can't very well sneak in a hula hoop in my pants pocket. Even funnier, people brang in beer - at a festival that has long been dry. Another Allowed Cloud was violated by someone setting off their own fireworks. People smoked pot too!
In addition to all these Allowed Cloud violations, I saw 2 - count 'em, 2 - people who were in such a festive mood that they bubbled.
Is it fascism yet?
New York City has announced plans to fly police drones over backyard barbecues this Labor Day weekend to spy on private gatherings. It's not even entirely clear why.
Privacy advocates are rightly outraged.
Incompetent Mayor Eric Adams boasts of his support for expanded use of police drones to monitor New Yorkers' private behavior.
If someone sees a surveillance drone hovering over their backyard, I hope they shoot it right out of the sky.
Ba-de-ya! The September issue of The Last Word is now pub, and it's our back-to-school ish!
It talks about schools censoring books, toilets blowing up in Denver parks, our plan to fight continuing totalitarianism, my high school's electron microscope, Old Stopsignface, and more!
So point your pooper here...
https://www.scribd.com/document/668117117/The-Last-Word-9-2023
If that doesn't work, saunter on over here...
Earlier, I received an important e-mail informing me that a young woman bubbled while waiting in line for a train in Alaska.
It wasn't just our imagination. The cities actually are getting worse again in matters of public policy, while rural areas are getting better.
As rural counties in Kentucky vote to loosen alcohol laws, the state's biggest city - Louisville - is seeing protests against Family Dollar stores selling beer.
Louisville today is like Piner 20 years ago.
For the record, since at least Friday, I was plagued by a tonsil stone lodged in my windpipe, and I was running a fever as a result. I wasn't able to dislodge it until this morning.
This happened back in February, but it wasn't covered by main local media until now.
The right-wing Campbell County Schools have generally been hostile to free expression and the interests of the community's young people, and now the district has banned 3 books from its libraries: 'Lucky' by Alice Sebold, 'Tricks' by Ellen Hopkins, and 'Out Of Darkness' by Ashley Hope Perez. What I'm talking about here is not books being removed from required reading lists. Rather, the books were censored from school libraries, so now nobody can even choose to borrow the books.
The district was reportedly reviewing 17 other books.
Are they gonna paddle kids who try to borrow these books?
These acts of censorship came at the direction of some organization that hasn't accomplished much on any issue. That includes fighting against our schools' COVID fascism. I'm just one person, but I've done more to fight against the COVID tyranny in our schools than this group has. I was on it right away, but look how long it took them. They spend more effort yanking books off library shelves than making sure schools are open like normal.
Kind of like the Campbell County Schools do.
In May, I goed on a road trip to the Northeast. It included Acadia National Park, parts of New York state, and other goodies.
Now I have 231 photos posted from the event! These pictures cover only the first part of the trip, but you're ready to read 'em and peep nonetheless...
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ohme23a.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ohme23b.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ohme23c.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ohme23d.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ohme23e.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ohme23f.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ohme23g.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ohme23h.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ohme23i.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ohme23j.html
Because this is a month ending in 'bip', a new Last Word is now pub!
The August ish talks about more ruined vacations, my cartoon reviews, sitting on a wad of bubble gum at an Occupy march, a person farting at Bush's inauguration, censorship of DVD's, and more!
So point your pooper here...
https://www.scribd.com/document/662189050/The-Last-Word-8-2023
If that doesn't work, scoot on over here...
The Licking Valley Girl Scouts Bridge is the highway bridge that replaced the Shortway Bridge between Covington and Newport. When it opened in 2001, I immediately noticed the span had a major drawback: Despite the 4 wide lanes of road traffic, it had a sidewalk on only one side and no bike lane whatsoever.
I repeat, this was 2001 - hardly ancient history. By 2001, highway planners should have known to include better pedestrian and bike access, especially since the roadway invited vrooming cars and SUV's. I complained about this bitterly in the years after the bridge opened. I warned point-blank that this was a dangerous - possibly deadly - situation. I pleaded for years for this setup to be corrected.
These warnings were not heeded by highway officials. Last year, a woman was hit by a car and killed while riding a bicycle on this bridge. It was a hit-and-run. A few days ago, a motorist pleaded guilty to a series of charges stemming from the tragedy.
Some local residents pointed out that this was preventable but that nobody tries to remedy things like this until after someone is killed. With the stark decline of our cities in this decade, it's also been noted that Boone County is now vastly outpacing Covington and Newport in adding new bike amenities.
Since officials were warned that the bridge was dangerous and refused to fix it, we should look into criminal or civil penalties against our officials.
This entry is about the twisted mess American radio is these days - and how the FCC lets it go on.
There's an article in the Detroit Free Press about a small high school radio station in Ontonagon, Michigan, that's been around for 45 years. It even managed to stay on the air during the height of the pandemic, when school was closed. But now an out-of-town religious broadcaster has applied to start a station in the same area on the same frequency.
Outrageously, the FCC rubber-stamped that request, even though that frequency already had a station. The high school station is now being forced to either find a different frequency or go off the air for good.
Managers of the school station learned of this when the religious station sent them an e-mail about it. This e-mail included a list of other frequencies they could move to. Then why didn't the religious station apply for one of those frequencies instead? Is it because it bips?
Even if knocking another station off the air or forcing it to accept interference is allowed under the FCC's rules, part of the FCC's job is to look at each application to see if it serves the public interest. But it never does, and hasn't in years.
Celebrate the Fourth on the first with a fifth by poppin' open a keg or three and relaxing with the July issue of The Last Word!
This ish talks about rich people complaining about storefront flowers ruining their vacation, Trump ruining summer camp, my history of broken calculators, Soviet bubble gum, the loss of the original 'Star Wars', and cheese getting wasted at Kroger.
So point your pooper here...
https://www.scribd.com/document/656412439/The-Last-Word-7-2023
If that doesn't work, scoot on over here...
Aspartame is likely the most common artificial sweetener in the world but has been known by researchers for decades to cause cancer. Its carcinogenic properties have only been very rarely even remotely touched on by the media, and any findings on it are always swept under the rug instantly. Official regulators in most countries have rarely even acknowledged that aspartame causes cancer. They have not only failed to regulate it but often encouraged it to be used even more. The company that made it was connected to Donald Rumsfeld.
Now - for the first time - the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer is planning on listing aspartame as "possibly carcinogenic to humans." This follows studies spanning many years, including one just last year in France that found an elevated cancer risk (which the media completely ignored).
Sadly, I know what the official response by American media and regulators is going to be to the WHO ruling. They considered the WHO's COVID-19 recommendations too lax, as the WHO was less reliant on hard lockdowns and mask mandates than the CDC and most U.S. states were. Those bodies went rogue against the WHO by enacting tougher mandates on the public - especially children. You can bet your bottom dollar that American regulators are going to reject the WHO's stance against aspartame, because they reject the WHO every time the WHO is right about something. On every issue lately, American health officials and media are out of step with the science recognized by everyone else, and their immature contrarianism fuels their policy stances that are diametrically opposed to what science would justify.
Everyone in Cincinnati knows that interests like developers and big sports teams always have their grimy hands out - and officials are always happy to oblige.
Now Ohio is planning on passing a budget provision allowing the city to charge users of services like Uber and Lyft to raise $482 million for the city to give to developers to renovate a hotel near the convention center. This plan is being driven by 3CDC, the economic terrorists who have destroyed amenities like Fountain Square and promoted bottomless gentrification and the COVID police state.
This isn't just a handout to developers. This is really like a tax that not only may hit lower economic groups harder but also others who must rely on rideshare services.
The fleecing continues.
Is it fascism yet?
Recently, city council in Seaford, Delaware, decided to let corporations vote. Corporations would be permitted to vote in public elections in the same manner that people are supposed to be able to vote.
That's fascism. I don't even need to tell you that, because you're smart enough to read this blog. When corporations are declared to be equivalent to people, it's fascism. In fact, this policy would give corporations more power than people have, as voter suppression looms large all over the country.
Jacobin magazine called Seaford's effort "a radical right-wing experiment that cuts at the basic fabric of democracy."
But Seaford's plan seems to have hit a snag as state lawmakers have failed to approve a measure that would allow city council to go forward with its idiocy.
Here's the real bip-up. Seaford already allows property owners who do not even live in the town to vote. This violates the constitutional principle of one vote per person as well as the longstanding protection against property requirements for voting. And get this. A few cities and towns in Delaware already allow corporations to vote. In fact, the manager of numerous businesses in Newark, Delaware, was allowed to vote 31 times - once for each business. Rehoboth Beach allows trusts representing wealthy property owners who do not live in the town to vote - which is exactly the sort of thing I'd expect after hearing about some of the police state totalitarianism in that town.
One of the big problems with the policies discussed above is that they allow wealth to confer special privileges. It could be for rich individuals who own large businesses or fancy second homes, or for faceless corporations like national retail chains that have a store in that town.
This ranks right up there with "the model" that has turned over practically the entire city of Sandy Springs, Georgia, to corporations.
Where are the lawsuits?
Kentucky has a corrupt system in place that grants monopolies to healthcare facilities and allows only 7 hospitals to operate in northern Kentucky, an area with hundreds of thousands of people.
Four of the 7 certificates belong to one operator that has had some questionable practices of late and posted medical disinformation on social media accounts. I've had good luck with individual doctors there, but it's generally not doctors or other healthcare professionals who run hospitals these days.
But I've also found that one of the 7 certificates is held by a facility that abused me when I was in my late teens but now operates under a different name, as if to hide its soiled reputation. It now has a partnership with the local hospital system that has most of the rest of the region's healthcare business. The facility that abused me now gets terrible reviews on Google, including a brand new review that says it serves raw food. There are also other complaints about inedible food and about other things that were the exact same things that were going on over 30 years ago. This includes reports that staffers have been verbally abusing and beating patients and not giving them blankets.
Some folks these days say that facilities like this don't do the bad things they did 30 years ago and that everything is better now. But 30 years ago, they said these facilities did not do the things they did 30 years before that, yet they were still doing them. Everyone thinks everything is better than it was, but it never gets better in places like that.
It was the Republicans that put this monopoly system in place, but now there's a few Republican legislators trying to fix it, while the Democrats keep coming up with flimsy excuses to keep this system in place. So it's a bipartisan problem, and the only thing that's changed is which party is worse. The long and short of it is that the Democrats have become the party of abusive healthcare monopolies. They've become the party of child abuse in general: Since 2020, Democrats have done more to lock children out of school than the Republicans have. When a Democratic legislator in Virginia fought against school closures, party hacks recruited an opponent to run against him. So much for "Vote blue no matter who."
Today at the friendly neighborhood Krogie-Wogie, some woman was in such a Krogery mood that she bubbled.
Last night, I had a dream where I was back in high school, and on the last day of the school year, a standardized test got peed on. This caused the school to notify police, and there was a big story on the news about it.
In April, I goed to the Columbus roadmeet, and the event yielded 144 photos of a Scholaring interest!
I divided them into 6 parts, and you're gonna peep 'em until your face flies off in front of millions...
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/col23a.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/col23b.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/col23c.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/col23d.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/col23e.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/col23f.html
We are headed harum-scarum down the road of fascist make-me-believe.
Yesterday, when I went to that public pool in Cincinnati, I made sure I brang a credit card. That's because I read on the website that the pool is now cashless - so I could not pay cash for the $4 admission.
All paper money in the U.S. is labeled as "legal tender for all debts, public and private." Period. Full stop. That means cash is supposed to be accepted for goods and services. The pool is perfectly equipped to accept cash. No excuses. It accepted it when I went there in 2019, so it can accept it now.
The fascist World Economic Forum is rubbing its hands together in excitement at the growing trend of places refusing to accept cash. It's like the days when workers were paid only in scrip.
Cash is freedom. Whenever possible, you should pay cash. Use it or lose it.
June wouldn't be June if it didn't sneeze up the June ish of The Last Word!
This ish talks about my Northeastern road trip, the humiliation of online Big Pharma apologists, new developments in a 7th grade schoolyard squabble, a ridiculous commercial for picture discs, and more!
So point thy pooper here...
https://www.scribd.com/document/649640495/The-Last-Word-6-2023
If that doesn't work, glide on over here...
Remember that Cincinnati city pool I visited a few times in 2019? Today I went back there to make use of this rare heat wave.
Celebrity look-alikes have been known to enjoy this public swimming pool. Just ask the Annie Lennox look-alike who I saw back in 2019. Today, I saw a Harry Styles look-alike there.
Also, some woman brang beer into the pool area, in stark violation of an Allowed Cloud. Funny also.
This morning, I went to the Memorial Day parade, and I saw 2 people who were in such a festive mood that they bubbled.
For years, I warned that digital TV signals were inferior to the old analog signals, because the nature of digital signals would cause them to break up. Nobody listened. Congress, the FCC, and the TV industry chose instead to stand around and play with themselves.
Now a new standard for digital TV is finally being developed to remedy this problem, and some stations have already started using it - though you need a whole new TV set to watch using this standard. Now there's another problem in addition to having to buy a new set. Some stations are encrypting their signals under the new standard using digital "rights" management.
DRM is a refuge of scoundrels. It already rendered digital music tracks useless. When consumers transferred their music to a new computer, tracks with DRM stopped working. That's like if records were designed to break if you got a new record player (though Panasonic did little short of that with their shitty styluses in the '90s). How will DRM will affect the new TV standard? With the new standard, stations may prevent DVD recorders from recording off the air.
The FCC has a mandate to make sure radio and TV stations operate in the public interest and provide free service to the public. You might think free over-the-air TV is here to stay. But the FCC is doing nothing to prevent encryption of broadcast signals, despite the mandate to make sure these signals are free.
Some of you may know that I was gone all week on a road trip to the Northeast. It ruled! It was better than dealing with society's mind-blowing public policy decline that has continued unabated for most of the past 40 years.
My string of fact-finding missions is generally beyond the scope of this blog. That's really Last Word material. However, on Wednesday, as we were sitting in traffic in Troy, New York, a woman who drove past bubbled.
I'm planning on going on a fact-finding mission in the Northeast next week, so I won't be home during the Kentucky primary on Tuesday, May 16.
That means I had to cast an absentee ballot! A few days ago, I filled out my ballot for Geoff Young for governor and took the sealed ballot down to the drop-off box at the county building.
At this point, I'm experienced enough to know that it's seldom productive to give detailed explanations for each vote. Never invest too much effort in any public figure. I've seen too many political figures abandon their strongest stances. I also know never to vote for Andy Beshear again, after his botched pandemic handling, his support of a Republican tax bill, and other foibles.
You're also probably wondering why I'm still a registered Democrat after Beshear's many screw-ups. I had planned to change my registration, but I am delaying it because President Biden might actually have a viable challenger in the 2024 primary. But only if poo.
May wouldn't be May without the May ish of The Last Word!
This edition is a special '90s flashback ish! In addition to the recent Columbus roadmeet, this ish talks about '90s events like the Highland Heights City Council meeting with the Monty Burns look-alike, a professor finding a mess in a restroom, the Phil's Gum City commercial, and hilarious online trolls.
Scribd is again blocking it, but you can still find this ish by gliding on over here...
Earlier this evening, I arrived home from the Columbus roadmeet! I plan to include details of it in the next Last Word, but it's obligatory that I post here about the fact that when I was at the Columbus bus terminal, ready to return to Cincinnati, I detected the hilarious sound of 2 loud-and-proud bunker blasts!
We're pleased to add Idaho as another state that has prohibited corporal punishment in public schools, as state lawmakers have actually passed what appears to be one of the most forward-thinking laws on the subject anywhere in the country.
What's interesting in this case is that Idaho actually has one of the most Republican legislatures in America. For a long time, the Republicans were the ones fighting to paddle kids more, but now that's the Democrats' specialty. In our part of the country, it's the Democratic-leaning major cities where schools have lately resorted to more extreme forms of physical punishment. The Lexington Herald-Leader recently reported that schools in Lexington now use pepper spray as a disciplinary tool. The same has been occurring in Memphis.
Hey Dems, how does it feel to be the party of paddling and pepper spraying 6-year-olds?
Remember Michael Moore? He was an Academy Award-winning filmmaker. He used to make some great movies, but now he just stovepipes whatever Apple tells him to say.
Because you're so cool, the April ish of The Last Word is pub. Scribd is blocking it again, and won't respond to my support ticket from last Friday, but you can read the latest Last Word on my own site!
This ish talks about a Central American cruise I didn't go on, legislators vandalizing a restroom at the Kentucky State Capitol, 'Solid Gold', the box-eating chair, the downfall of record fairs, and more!
So point your pooper here...
Remember that actress Imogene Coca? Today, I saw an Imogene Coca look-alike bicycling through the parking lot at the bank. She looked like Imogene Coca did when she was older, around the time she played Aunt Edna in 'National Lampoon's Vacation'.
I also received a very important e-mail declaring that a Nina Blackwood look-alike was sighted at a park.
Today, I went to the Opening Day parade.
It was so tame and poorly attended that it made the New Year's event on Fountain Square look like a late '90s Hineygate in comparison.
The Associated Press is completely off its rocker.
The recent train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, caused an untold amount of environmental damage. There will be cancers and mass deaths of wildlife resulting from it for decades to come. State officials are lying and covering it up.
But the AP just ran a piece saying this is just "anti-American propaganda" spread by Vladimir Putin, and those who make the above claims are being paid off.
Then where's my check from the Kremlin?
Usually, people who accuse foes of being paid off by Russia are themselves being paid off by China.
Living in modern America means more stifling statism for individuals but almost total deregulation for big corporations. This bipartisan scourge is the very essence of fascism, and lately it's been modeled fluently in Louisville.
For years, a pork plant on the west side of Louisville has had a history of noncompliance with the city's regulations on odors. Residents have complained of nausea and other symptoms. In addition, nearby neighborhoods have been plagued by odors from other sources, including smells of chemicals and sewage.
But now - instead of enforcing the rules - the city's Air Pollution Control District board has unanimously voted to loosen the rules. Much of this change came at the urging of the Jefferson County Attorney's office. But an environmental lawyer says this change gives more power to polluters.
Being a corporation means never having to follow rules like everyone else. In the past few years, public bodies in America's major cities have enthusiastically regimented individual behavior and lied about the reasons for it, yet corporate polluters can operate with no limits whatsoever.
Last night, I had a dream I went up to NKU and some guy kept walking through the halls and farting really loud. A professor then called the police.
For over 30 years, the U.S. has been in war after war after war almost continuously.
Now Lindsey Graham says he plans to introduce a bill authorizing a war with Mexico, of all places. "I would tell the Mexican government if you don't clean up your act, we're going to clean it up for you," the far-right Republican senator from South Carolina said.
Authorization for war would still need to pass Congress and be signed by the President. You can bet your bottom dollar the media is salivating at that prospect.
Last Wednesday, I goed Roads Scholaring on the east side of Cincinnati, and it turns out that most of my route followed the old path of U.S. 50!
But, whatever the weather, this outing yielded 12 photos, and last night, I posted them for you to beep of the oggle variety. So point your pooper here...
You may know that last October, I goed on a little camping trip to Athens, Ohio. This event yielded 113 Roads Scholaring photos, so bip your beeper here...
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ath22a.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ath22b.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ath22c.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ath22d.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/ath22e.html
Time to march into March - with the March ish of The Last Word!
This installment talks about the pros and cons of artificial intelligence, my latest kidney stone, the embarrassment of 'Today' stores in airports, a bad smell in a movie theater, the weird wrinkled pages in encyclopedias, and more!
So bip your beeper here...
https://www.scribd.com/document/628360502/The-Last-Word-3-2023
If that doesn't work, slog on over here...
This recent quote from Nancy Pelosi about George W. Bush is all you need to know about the Democrats' expanding Gestapoism: "The Bush family, it's because of their humanity, their faith, their generosity of spirit, their compassion. Once again, it's an honor to be associated with President Bush in this."
Well, there ya have it, folks. The country's leading Democrat just praised the worst so-called President in the country's history.
Well, at least his first 3 months in office were good. They were certainly better than the last 3 years.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear - a so-called Democrat - has signed a regressive Republican tax bill into law. This bill cuts the state income tax from 4.5% to 4% as part of a long-term effort to eliminate the income tax completely and replace it with a higher sales tax to hit working families harder. This comes several years after Republicans gutted the graduated income tax system. The old system levied a higher tax on those with higher incomes, but Kentucky now punishes the working poor by imposing a flat tax.
This is also while some states - under both Democrats and Republicans - are finally looking into lowering sales taxes. So Kentucky is becoming an outlier on the right.
Let me guess. I bet Beshear signed this bill to appease the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. That's his excuse for everything.
We'd like to see stronger constitutional protections of a progressive tax structure and against regressive taxation. The newly signed law is actually a form of taxation without representation, for the rich aren't exactly underrepresented in government.
This is the top story in the Lexington Herald-Leader this morning: "How often, why does Fayette County use pepper spray on students? What we know."
Whaa, what???
Pepper spray???
Hi there! Long time no pee!
I mean that last sentence literally, given the topic of this entry.
For the past 10 days or so - since Saturday, January 28 - I've felt as if I've begun to recover from several years of cognitive impairment and extreme fatigue. I have a theory that I was suffering from uremic poisoning and that it began to clear up when I passed a kidney stone that morning. This condition would have eventually led to kidney failure had it not apparently cleared.
This apparent recovery means I'll finally be able to catch up on my reading.
Unfortunately, I flushed the kidney stone before I could mail it.
Time to blow bubbles in your beer!
The first 201 photos and videos from September's trip to the Western U.S. were already released in the last photo shoot. But for months, you've probably been dancing around your den, chanting, "The rest of it! The rest of it!" You wanted the other 258 items without delay!
But now the second and final photo shoot from that trip is up, and you can roll around in its splendor! So point your pooper here...
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/oril22a.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/oril22b.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/oril22c.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/oril22d.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/oril22e.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/oril22f.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/oril22g.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/oril22h.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/oril22i.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/oril22j.html
An ish. An ish. An ish, an ish, an ish, an ish, an iiiiiiiish! (To the tune of the 'Pink Panther' theme.)
The February edition of The Last Word is now pub, and you can read it and bip! This ish discusses a man stealing coffee from Kroger, people ruining board games (usually with beer or vomit), the decline of chemistry sets, and more!
So blast on over here...
https://www.scribd.com/document/622478759/The-Last-Word-2-2023
If that doesn't work, slink over yonder...
There's no hope for this country.
I just read on one of my Reddit forums that an adult was carded at a grocery store just to buy glue.
That's right. Glue. That stuff we used in kindergarten.
In America, school board applications lose schools. In Kentucky, schools lose school board applications!
Kentucky - the state with one of the most perennially authoritarian and generally broken school systems - strikes again! Fayette County Schools (Lexington) has lost an application to fill a vacant school board seat. This seat became vacant because of a resignation in November, and the board must now take applications to fill it. An application was dropped off at the school board building, but the superintendent said that "we have been unable to locate their paperwork anywhere in the building." The superintendent admitted that this candidate "would have been eligible if not for the error by our administrative team."
After my experiences with the Campbell County Schools - and with the abusive behavior of schools nationwide in the past few years - it's hard to know whether the school district's stupidity is accidental or deliberate.
Every few years, we read about some school suspiciously losing students' completed standardized tests and forcing them to waste time retaking the test. In 2018, schools in Bessemer, Alabama, lost the grades of numerous 8th grade students and forced them to repeat the year. The students weren't told they were held back until a week before the start of the next school year. There is no limit on what school districts can get away with, and they always hire the best attorneys to shield them from accountability. So what's a mere mortal to do? Stink?
The American Academy of Pediatrics has already forfeited the privilege of being taken seriously, as it has been one of the leading voices for forcing 2-year-olds to wear masks. Forced masking of anyone would have been considered a human rights violation before 2020, and this principle should still stand. If it doesn't stand, it's not a principle. Principles don't change just because of a pandemic.
The AAP's credibility continues to swirl down the crapper, as now it is advocating that children have weight loss surgery to treat obesity. Just a few years ago, this surgery was considered radical - even dangerous - even for adults. I have known people who sadly have died from it. Yet the AAP now wants it used for children.
New AAP guidelines recommend aggressive drug therapy to treat obesity in kids as young as 12. This guidance suggests the surgery for kids as young as 13.
The drug recommendation shows the disproportionate influence that Big Pharma has in the AAP. This story also displays the AAP's lack of common sense. Instead of drugs and radical surgery, we should instead be trying to make sure children receive the right kinds of food and the right amount of exercise. Yet the AAP is allied with COVID disastrists who promoted lockdowns, which discouraged exercise by forcing children into their homes.
The AAP's new guidance represents the further Ritalinization of medicine.
However, obesity drugs that the AAP loves so much have been in short supply because of videos on TikTok - which is owned largely by the Chinese Communist Party - promoting them.
At this rate, it wouldn't be surprising if weight loss surgery is mandatory 20 years from now.
There are still some enjoyable 'Sesame Street' segments out there that I recall fondly but have never found online or on a DVD. However, here's one we can finally cross off that list now that it's surfaced...
That skit featuring Maria, David, and Bob reportedly first aired in 1975. Bob and David portray waiters at a fine restaurant, and Maria is their beleaguered supervisor. This is one of few segments where Bob had a mustache. I was really hoping this sketch was the one in which Maria spoke a famous line that was repeated for the rest of my childhood. Well, I got my wish.
That famous line: "What is the meaning of this?"
I remember many times when I was growing up, somebody would ask, "What is the meaning of this?" Inevitably, somebody would always follow with, "As Maria would say."
I also remember being somewhat frightened by this segment. The characters kept dropping trays and dishes and falling onto the ground, leading me to fear that they might be injured.
But good for David for quitting his waiter job! Now the world knows you can't walk all over David!
Last night, I went to the New Year's celebration on Fountain Square. And when I say it was tame, man, do I mean it was tame! I mean it like a dictionary! A big ol' Webster's!
But the TV networks have forfeited the privilege of me staying home to watch their garbledy-goop, because of their totalitarianism of the past couple years.
At least when I was on Fountain Square, I did detect the airy vapors of a certain herb. Also, before midnight, I saw 2 - count 'em, 2 - people who were in a festive enough mood that they bubbled.
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