House Fascism Caucus blocks Social Security bill

The Tea Party lives, and it's called the House Freedom Caucus.

The misnamed House Freedom Caucus is a handful of federal legislators who are 10 years behind the rest of the nation and still ree about government spending while glossing over the wastefulness in programs they support. Yesterday, during the election, they were commiserating in D.C. - probably stewing that Nikki Haley and Paul Ryan weren't on the ballot. But mostly they were there to try to kill a popular Social Security bill.

This bill has overwhelming public support, and was sponsored by a huge bipartisan coalition in Congress. It would allow some public workers to finally receive Social Security benefits. As it is now, many workers such as public school teachers and firefighters can't get benefits, because the far right had earlier screeched that this would be a tax on states. The bill would remedy much of this.

The House Fascism Caucus used some strange procedural trick to block the bill. They whined that Social Security was losing money.

Government programs like Social Security do not lose money. They cost money, but they don't lose money. Social Security isn't supposed to be a for-profit business. Nobody ever dares to say the Pentagon loses money, or that bailouts for big banks lose money.

The bill was blocked even after it seemed like it was headed for quick passage.

Fortunately, Rep. Bob Good (R-Virginia), a self-described "biblical conservative" who organized the effort to kill the bill, had already lost the Republican primary and won't be back in January.

The bill might pass anyway. Congress could put forth a brand new bill that's identical to the blocked bill and vote on it.

The Tea Party is as discredited as the Democrats who sought support from Dick Cheney.

Have no fear, the November ish is here!

The November issue of The Last Word is pub-a-rooooooooooooooo!

This ish talks about my BASIC gerrymandering software, a substitute teacher's trash talk, getting worthless trinkets as a reward in 4th grade, a kid eating a candy bar in math class, an idiot who used a drone to harass homeless people, and more!

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/785665158/The-Last-Word-11-2024

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

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2411.pdf

Since when can corporations introduce bills?

We've crossed yet another threshold of fascism! Imagine that!

There's a right-wing effort afoot in Kentucky to limit cities from regulating short-term rentals like those offered through Airbnb. Some cities wisely prohibit owners from using properties they don't live in as short-term rentals - as it artificially drives up housing costs. Short-term rentals not only promote gentrification but also constipate neighborhoods by effectively turning them into commercial districts. Surrounding residents end up being forced to have their shit and eat it too. These existing neighbors end up paying more for a lower quality of life.

But it's not even known what legislators are behind the latest effort. Apparently, it isn't legislators at all. A new piece from WKYT-TV in Lexington says of Airbnb, "The short-term rental company introduced two bills."

Since when can corporations introduce bills? I don't remember ever voting for a corporation. At least not on purpose. I did vote a straight Democratic ticket when I was 18, but I didn't know yet that the party was actually a Fortune 500 company.

Meanwhile, in Berea, Airbnb was recently sued because only one of the 16 short-term rentals in the city was paying taxes like everyone else.

Some local cities will vote on medical cannabis

Starting on January 1, medical cannabis will finally be legal in Kentucky - after being hamstrung for decades. Each municipality will be responsible for zoning regulations governing cannabis-related businesses.

But counties in our area have decided to just ignore the new laws and ban medical cannabis anyway.

Yet some local cities are taking exception to that. A few have decided to remain dry, a few have opted to legalize medical cannabis despite what the county says, and a few have decided to bring the issue to the people by letting voters vote on it.

Bellevue is among the cities that will have a referendum on November 5 on whether to approve medical cannabis. One article says that other local cities where voters will vote on it include Alexandria, Crestview Hills, Elsmere, Florence, Independence, and Southgate.

It's about damn time our cities and the rest of our state legalize - which seems to have happened everywhere else by 2000.

3CDC costs local economy zillions with convention center closure

I've submitted a beautiful post to the "Greater Cincinnati Politics" group on Facebook that sums up the greed and incompetence of 3CDC, the unelected secret society that stage-manages policies governing much of Cincinnati. I don't expect the moderators to approve my post, because I'm making so much sense, but I'm reprinting it below.

(Begin post.)

Local political leaders should be doing something about 3CDC, which is taking 18 months to remodel the convention center - forcing the convention center to close all the while. This has forced the Cavalcade of Customs, the Cincinnati Auto Expo, and other events to cancel completely. This is costing the city and the whole area zillions of dollars in revenues from visitors to these events.

Who elected 3CDC? I don't know anyone who voted for them. 3CDC just decides to insert itself into every matter of public interest. They're as bad as the lockdown neocons at every level of government.

I'm a man of the people, and we shouldn't have to tolerate 3CDC's serial misrule and totalitarianism.

(End post.)

In short, 3CDC has launched an 18-month remodeling project for the convention center. How can a project like this take that long? This has forced annual events like the Cavalcade of Customs to cancel - costing the local economy dearly.

It's bad for recreation and jobs, and it encourages other economically costly projects in the future.

This was after the city already lost almost the entire early '20s to lockdown-related cancellations. But at least the Cavalcade of Customs was never canceled then, and in fact appeared practically normal (except for the 3 or so people who wore masks). Still, the city probably teetered on the brink of bankruptcy because of all the cancellations of events both inside and outside the convention center.

I fully expect my post to be rejected. If it is approved, I fully expect to be assailed by right-wing Republicans and right-wing Democrats equally. But it needed to be said. I've been in smaller rooms with bigger people, and I won't be bullied.

Amendment 2 a wolf in sheep's clothing

You might say this is a ballot measure where both sides deserve to lose, but we have to defend the country's principles, so we're voting no.

On November 5, something called Amendment 2 will be on the ballot in Kentucky. If it passes, it would amend the Kentucky Constitution to allow public money to be given to private schools.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was right when he said many of our public schools are "criminal enterprises." But the solution isn't to give money to private schools that may be just as bad - or in my experience, even worse. It's a fact that our so-called public schools and political "leaders" have abandoned the Kentucky Constitution's obligation to provide "common schools." In practice, common schools do not exist in Kentucky. It's clear our school and political officials care very little about education. They see private schools as more of a business competitor. But principles must come into play here.

One of the main principles we're standing on in opposing Amendment 2 is the fact that many private schools are religious institutions, and using taxpayer funds to sponsor them would run afoul of existing provisions in the federal and state constitutions against government sponsorship of religion. Furthermore, public money is for public schools. I know it's true that public schools refuse to do their job, but the solution is to find ways to make sure they do it. You might think that's asking too much, but we pay taxes, so we have a right to expect common schools to be operated and maintained.

Will Amendment 2 pass? Before 2020, measures like this almost always failed when put before voters. (It failed in California even after the Los Angeles Times ran a loopy op-ed supporting the measure that railed against "communist indoctrination.") But the past 4½ years have done more to destroy the reputation of our public schools than all the years before. Prussia originated common schools 250 years ago, but there has never been such a steep decline in our schools as we've seen since 2020. I didn't think our schools could possibly get any worse, but they managed to defy all expectations. There is no bottom.

I will vote against Amendment 2, but if it passes, our public schools are going to have to wallow in the consequences, after they refused to do their job.

Ah! Some local road photos! Ew!

To make August even more biptacular than it was, I went on a small local Roads Scholaring and amassed 14 photos, this time focusing on Covington.

They're ready to be pept, so point your pooper here...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/cov24.html

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

Back in August, I went on a fact-finding mission in Pittsburgh - paying particular attention to the amazingness in nearby McKeesport.

This event yielded 288 Roads Scholaring photos, and they're gonna fly around and bite your face off in public (as a wise man would say).

So peep, weep, and oggle-beep...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/pit24a.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/pit24b.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/pit24c.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/pit24d.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/pit24e.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/pit24f.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/pit24g.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/pit24h.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/pit24i.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/pit24j.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/pit24k.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/pit24l.html

Three Mile Island owner wants bailout

It's bad enough that the company that owns the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant is going to restart the plant. It's bad enough that locals won't be allowed to use the energy it generates, as the entire thing will be used to power Microsoft's artificial intelligence projects.

But now the company is demanding a $1.6 billion federal bailout - so the taxpayers will again be left holding the bag.

Meanwhile, families who were affected by Hurricane Helene will be receiving only a few hundred dollars each - much like those affected by the Maui wildfire. The government always has a bottomless vat of money for corporate bailouts and illegal foreign wars, but none for disaster relief or Social Security.

Have no fear, the October ish is here!

The approach of October means the October issue of The Last Word is here!

This scoopy edition discusses my Minnesota trip, gentrification of comic books, NKU violating confidentiality laws, helicopter governing, blowing bubble gum bubbles with game pieces inside, and more!

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/773893365/The-Last-Word-10-2024

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

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2410.pdf

Blueberries got wosted

Today, I received an important e-mail saying that a woman spilled an entire 2-pound container of blueberries all over the floor in the checkout lane at Kroger. They were wosted. Either that, or they were sent to the store in Bellevue.

The e-mail also said that several celebrity look-alikes were sighted on a cruise. They included Walter Cronkite, Jared Polis, and Rosemary Clooney.

Misadventures in gutting antitrust law

Hard to believe anyone thinks this might be politically advantageous or legally sound, but there's some strange people out there.

As Kroger attempts to merge with Albertsons, this anticompetitve move is cheered by the elitist media, but you'd think elected officials would be more politically savvy than to support it. Yet a group of 12 Republican state attorneys general - including Ohio's Dave Yost - have filed a court brief claiming the FTC's antitrust powers are unconstitutional.

As with other recent weird legal theories, the legal logic of this is completely incomprehensible. But if this brief succeeds in court, government antitrust powers - which are already used much too little - will be essentially gutted altogether.

Even some Republicans have supported antitrust efforts in the past few years. Sometimes it was for reasons you might think are questionable, but broadly speaking, I would have supported these breakups, because competition is vital. Yost himself has even overseen some antitrust suits. But the new brief by the Republican attorneys general would stymie all of these breakups.

The move to gut antitrust law is mirrored by Project 2025, a policy document that consists mostly of right-wing ideas that have bobbed along for the past 45 years. Project 2025 has one good idea, which is to abolish the Department of Homeland Security. The rest of it stinks.

This comes after a recent FTC report said Kroger, Walmart, and Amazon have been taking advantage of supply chain disruptions to jack up prices. It started during COVID-19 and has continued ever since. Grocery price gouging is real. It's gone on since before then and has only gotten worse. Grocery prices have increased 25% in 4 years.

Antitrust enforcement is one of the most basic charges of government. And it's in danger.

P...lop...plop!

Yesterday, I went to Ploptoberfest in Cincinnati, and it's not quite what it used to be.

The good news is that they had a new space for it this year along the riverfront, which is far bigger than past years. It's certainly better than the years when they crammed it onto 2nd Street, though that era did produce a highlight in 2021 when people beered on the streetcar. Unfortunately, beverage choices this year were horrendous if you wanted to skip the beer because you had to drive home. They were hard to find too. I was about ready to pass out because of it.

Also, I was grimacing in agony for a while because of a medical condition.

This may be the last festival for me. I've become too weak to walk around at events like this.

Now, the ploppings. I went into one of the portable restrooms and noticed there were two ploppables plopped. Not for the first time, a metal lid to a pickle jar had been plopped. That's gonna do a number on their cleaning equipment! In the same dumper, someone had plopped a plastic water bottle (like for bottled water from the store).

The only celebrity look-alikes I saw were Judy Graubart and Dan Hill. Must have been '70s day!

Three Mile Island to be restarted

This is the sort of story that makes you wish you never opened the newspaper this morning.

The Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania was the site of the worst nuclear disaster in American history - and one of the worst in the world. An NIH report said that "total mortality was significantly elevated" after the 1979 meltdown, and a spike in birth defects was found in the area. The plant even had to pay a multimillion-dollar legal settlement.

The media has lately been engaged in a campaign of historical negationism to downplay the disaster, but nobody is fooled (idiots excepted). When the media isn't cheering foreign wars or demanding new COVID lockdowns or more cuts to Social Security, everything else it puts out sounds like a press release written by the nuclear power racket.

But now Constellation Energy has announced plans to restart Three Mile Island. All the energy generated by it will be sold to Microsoft - solely to power its artificial intelligence operations. Nobody who lives in the area will be able to use the power it generates - but their lives will be endangered again by the plant being nearby. The plant is scheduled to be restarted in 2028.

Instead of green energy, America is moving backwards towards filthy, dangerous energy that was in vogue over a half-century ago.

All of this is so Microsoft can run more AI. AI of course is the thing that comes up at the top of every Google search which I skip over because it's so full of inaccurate information. It's almost as inaccurate as the media's right-wing pro-nuke propaganda.

Another alarmist media prediction that didn't happen

Back in 2013, the right-wing Florida Times-Union of Jacksonville ran an editorial charging that the Social Security disability program was being abused fluently. They demanded changes, dammit! They said that unless the government cracked down hard on disabled Americans, the program's reserves would run out by 2016.

Well, how did that prediction turn out?

Bullies make threats, and this is a good example.

The media gaslights the public by constantly claiming Social Security is the "third rail" of politics, which nobody wants to touch - yet it's always the first thing they touch.

I had a funny dream about a filthy restaurant

Last night, I had a dream where we ate at a restaurant that was absolutely filthy.

A customer ordered iced tea, so a waiter put an ice cube in a cup of tea with his bare hands.

I walked out of the restaurant after seeing such a disgusting spectacle, but a family member stayed behind.

I smuggled Mountain Dew into Rip-off-fest

Indeed I did.

Also, people beered in violation of the all-encompassing Allowed Cloud. In fact, my shirt got beer spilled all over it when someone knocked over a folding chair that had a cup of beer on it.

Have no fear, the September ish is here!

The Last Word has issues - 599 of them!

The September ish is out, and it's our back-to-school issue! This edition talks about my Pittsburgh trip, Kentucky keeping track of "behavior events" in school restrooms, a local city that gives special parking privileges to a wealthy neighborhood, the myth of Reese's Pieces bubble gum, and more!

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/763996494/The-Last-Word-9-2024

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

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2409.pdf

Right-wing judge throws out rule against noncompetes

The growing fascism in America is enough to turn your brain into bubble glop.

Thirty years ago, it was generally understood that holding workers to noncompete clauses after they no longer worked at the workplace where they signed it was illegal. Then - despite little or no new laws on the matter - it was assumed by many to be legal unless your state had a specific law against it. But now, unelected judges won't even allow laws that prohibit noncompetes.

Not long ago, the Biden administration - in a rare moment of clarity - issued a nationwide regulation against noncompetes. But now U.S. District Judge Ada Brown has thrown out this rule. The reasoning for this ruling by the judge - a Trump appointee who was confirmed to her post in a bipartisan lovefest - is impossible to follow.

The case against the regulation was lodged by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce - a secret society that supported totalitarian COVID measures and has praised some of the vilest overseas dictatorships in modern times.

Our rulers no longer have the capability to carry out the duties of their office, and rarely even have the desire to do it.

Animation ruination

The greed never ceases.

Recently, it was announced that 4 new episodes of 'The Simpsons' this season will not be seen on broadcast TV and will instead be shown only on Disney+ - a subscription streaming service nobody has.

Granted, 'The Simpsons' ain't what it used to be. I was enamored of it for its first 25 years. But I stopped watching it when it got agonizingly dumb. That was around the time of the episode about Maggie whistling and the appearances of the guy who always shook his face and said, "You're fiiiiiiiiiirrrrred!" But can't a guy catch a fresh Simps without having to pay for what used to be free?

Much of what's going on here is that entertainment is afflicted by the same problem that afflicts other industries. It's become a giant corporate empire. Disney+ is part of Disney Streaming, which is part of Disney Entertainment, which is part of the Walt Disney Company. 'The Simpsons' is under 4 levels of corporate bureaucracy. Disney also now owns Pixar, Marvel, the 'Star Wars' franchise, Hulu, and more.

At minimum - the absolute very minimum - you'd think Disney+ being co-owned with Hulu would violate antitrust regulations. For a single company to own so many other brands and franchises would also seem to be an antitrust violation. But everyone knows that antitrust enforcement is a four-letter word these days. The federal government has an antitrust division - but hardly ever uses it. The government will throw people in jail for not practicing social distancing on a beach, but it won't enforce even minimal antitrust rules.

Corporations - in any industry, not just entertainment - have no constitutional right to exist at all. But they are treated as if they have more rights than people do.

One of the basic charges of the FCC is to make sure broadcasters act in the "public interest, convenience, and necessity." I think it's time for the FCC to step in and make sure TV and radio remain as free as ever. Not like I expect much from the FCC either, because it spends more time raiding pirate stations that don't hurt anyone than breaking up the monopolies that already afflict broadcasting. The FCC rubber-stamps companies buying too many stations, which would have violated old ownership caps. It even allows companies to own more than one TV network, which itself violates antitrust rules.

One of the priorities of our leaders should be to break up big corporations in every industry. What's happening to 'The Simpsons' is just a tiny piece of the corporate tyranny that has enveloped society.

Judge who ruled against RFK Jr. was fired for "ethical missteps"

The Democrats are a party of right-wing crooks and tyrants, and their corrupt machine in New York state only proves it more.

Early this week, New York Supreme Court Justice Christina Ryba struck Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from the presidential ballot in that state after a lawsuit filed by a Democratic superPAC. The thing about superPAC's is that they weren't even permitted until the far-right Citizens United ruling. The realignment of the 2020s has led the Democrats to abandon a proposed constitutional amendment to remedy this ruling, as the party has become fueled primarily by superPAC's.

This superPAC could be using the money it raised to promote Democratic candidates on their own merits. The problem with that is that the Democrats no longer have any merits. So instead they use this money to file frivolous lawsuits to knock opponents of the ballot. This dough was raised not from the Democrats' old working-class base but from millionaire professionals who have taken over the party because the Republicans in 2020 weren't authoritarian enough for them. Think the laptop underpantsers and a few academics.

Kennedy is appealing Ryba's decision, but it's important to look at what Ryba wrote in her ruling. For one thing, the Democrats' argument was that Kennedy is not actually a New York resident, so he should not appear on the New York ballot. What??? You don't need to be a resident of a particular state to run for President. Besides, Kennedy is clearly a New Yorker, as he votes and pays taxes in New York and has New York hunting and driver's licenses. If he lived in California, he wouldn't be able to have Nicole Shanahan as his running mate. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney sharing the same state didn't matter, because they were never required to follow rules like everyone else.

Ryba complained that Kennedy's home isn't a "bona fide and legitimate residence, but merely a 'sham' address" and that his claim to live in his own home is "highly improbable, if not preposterous."

A judge said that??? Can you imagine Harry Blackmun or Earl Warren writing a ruling that made such obviously partisan claims and said an argument like Kennedy's was a "sham" and "preposterous"? Is this a court or a sitcom?

But if you're a senator, you do have to live in the state you represent. If Kennedy is not a New York resident, how was Hillary Clinton able to claim New York residency? Clinton was actually still First Lady when she was sworn in as senator, so it's hard to see how she was a New Yorker.

This isn't the only ruling by Ryba that has no legal ground. In 2022, she threw out an Albany ordinance that protected tenants from illegal evictions. Landlords may evict tenants for cause - e.g., if tenants create a nuisance or refuse to pay rent. Albany's ordinance only barred evictions that lacked cause. Prohibiting these evictions strengthened contractual obligations and protected housing. Ryba's decision against Albany's law threatened the protections that existed not only in Albany but also elsewhere in New York state.

(This isn't the only bad court ruling regarding housing in New York state in recent years. Last year, a court ruled a co-op can evict without cause the unmarried partner of a deceased shareholder - even if they were in a long-term relationship. This runs roughshod over common law and other legal concepts.)

It turns out that several years ago, Ryba was fired as an appellate division lawyer because of "ethical missteps."

Our entire political process has become an "ethical misstep" - especially since superPAC's have been allowed to steal elections.

Walz jailed COVID dissidents

I knew there had to be a reason the media is so enamored of Tim Walz.

Walz is portrayed as some big teddy bear who really didn't maliciously overstep his authority during COVID like governors of more populated states like Gavin Newsom, Mike DeWine, and Kathy Hochul did. But that's far from the truth.

It turns out that a woman who ran a wine and coffee bistro in Albert Lea was actually jailed for violating Walz's COVID orders. The business followed Minnesota's shutdown orders at first, but refused to close during the later orders that began in November 2020. That was while big box retailers and other huge chains were allowed to remain open.

Let me repeat: This was under new orders issued in November 2020 - not March.

Outrageously, the state was still pursuing the case against the bistro owner even in December 2021, and she was sentenced to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. She missed Christmas and the birth of a grandchild.

And a small business was ruined - while big corporations only got richer.

It also turns out that Walz ordered police to shoot people with paintball guns just for being on their front porch during his stay-at-home order. Entire squads of police patrolled neighborhoods to carry out this assault.

Until now, these stories were never even reported anywhere that we could find them, unlike the lockdowns in general.

The man who gave us "Mind your own damn business!" wouldn't mind his own damn business. And he shows no remorse. He still insists he was right.

Tim Walz is a thin-skinned fascist, a gangster-like figure who is part of a banana republic. The revelations about Walz aren't even the only major story about our overlords' fascism to emerge in recent days, so you may want to keep an eye on this blog.

June! July! Game day bucket go boom!

I still amass local Roads Scholaring photos, and I've gotten 10 more from my immediate area over the past couple months. Read 'em and bip...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/daybel24.html

Kids acted cool in stores

Today I received an important e-mail about little kids acting up in stores.

Last week, a boy who was about 3 years old loudly imitated Cookie Monster in the cookie aisle at Kroger.

This morning, a youngster - possibly the same one - was in the balloon section at Meijer. He popped a balloon and let at least one other balloon float to the ceiling where it will never be retrieved.

A Bellevue bunkeroo for your bemusement

Today, I was walking down Fairfield, and a man piling laundry into his car ripped an LAP bunker blast.

Have no fear, the August ish is here!

August wouldn't be August if we didn't publish the August ish of The Last Word! And if it didn't rain constantly. Wait, that's every month.

This ish talks about the recent increase in online censorship inspired by Murthy v. Missouri, a shoplifter who chewed bubble gum, signs that mislabel public roads as private, people filling bubble gum with Pepsi, and more! It's not sold in any store!

So point your bippus here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/754704082/The-Last-Word-8-2024

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

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2408.pdf

SBD1 ruins condos

Sanitation District #1 of Northern Kentucky - SD1, or as I call it, SBD1 - strikes again!

Dozens of residents of a condo complex in Southgate are being forced to relocate because a sewer excavation project by SBD1 created slippage in a nearby hillside. Cracks have appeared in the condos, and a building has even separated from the ground.

The excavation itself was to serve new luxury developments that are being built all over. So people are threatened not only by a landslide but also unchecked gentrification that is artificially jacking up housing costs.

Some residents though have not relocated, because none of them have received any financial assistance to do so. SBD1 has so far been unwilling to pay for the damage.

This is the same SBD1 that was involved in months-long infrastructure closures in Bellevue that contributed to many Bellevue residents losing their shirts. These prolonged closures were also accompanied by the digging of deep holes in sidewalks that endangered pedestrians and animals. That was after this agency was stacked with political patronage appointees.

These appointees are of course allied with the groups that have politicized pretty much the entire Kentucky "education" system - that is to say the pro-lockdown Charles Koch Foundation. As always, follow the money.

Layin' some logs in the Aug!

You may know that back in May, I went on a family trip to St. Augustine!

That event yielded 168 photos for my Roads Scholaring collection, and you're gonna read 'em and peep...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/sa24a.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/sa24b.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/sa24c.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/sa24d.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/sa24e.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/sa24f.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/sa24g.html

Questions for the naysayers

There are 2 issues that are so important that I've begun to base my vote almost entirely on them. One issue is Social Security. The other is accountability for the atrocities during COVID lockdowns. At this point, I care far less about a candidate's stances on other issues. One issue that comes close is gentrification, but that comes up at the local level a lot more than in national politics.

These issues come up in conversation, but a few naysayers keep asking why I still want accountability for events from 3 or 4 years ago. For one thing, COVID mandates haven't completely ended. For another, saying I should let it slide would be like if your Social Security is cut and you don't try to get it back.

But there's a more important question I've never once gotten an answer for. Why should we have had such severe mandates at any time since 2020, considering we got along fine without them before?

Gotcha on that!

Why aren't we using the same standards to define child abuse now as we did before 2020? The standards began backsliding in 2020, making the world more dangerous for children.

Do you really think there'd be as much support for COVID mandates as there was if the media hadn't egged it on? Be honest. Gotcha on that too!

How many stay-at-home orders were ever enacted to fight disease outbreaks before 2020? Other than among medical workers performing surgery or dentistry, how many mask mandates were there before 2020? How many amusement parks and schools demanded people wear masks before 2020? How many medical offices demanded masks on patients? Wouldn't a daycare be charged with child abuse if they put a mask on a 2-year-old before 2020? If I was a prosecutor, and if this happened in my county, I would prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.

You don't put masks on 2-year-olds. Ever!

When were schools ever shut down for a whole year or two over a disease outbreak before 2020? I can understand closing schools for a few days, and once in a great while - a long, long, long while - that used to happen. But 2 years?

Why should we have permanent mandates now, when we never had them before 2020? Gotcha on that too! Imagine that!

Getting coherent answers would rule.

Uniparty faces challenge in Maryland

This is very rare, but we have to correct something we posted yesterday.

It appears as if the U.S. Senate election in Maryland actually has more than 2 candidates. Ballotpedia says that in addition to the living disasters in the Republican and Democratic parties, there's also a Green, a Libertarian, and an independent. We were unaware of this, because of a post in another forum.

Thank heavens Marylanders may have a choice, but don't expect the media to let any of these other 3 candidates win.

Right-wing New York councilmember arrested for biting cop

In March, we told you about Susan Zhuang, a right-wing Democrat on New York City Council. She abused city e-mail accounts to raise funds for a nonprofit tied to the Chinese Communist Party, and she also organized a far-right rally against a proposed homeless shelter.

Zhuang was at another such protest today. And she was arrested for biting a police patrol chief. She faces numerous charges including felony assault, resisting arrest, and obstruction of governmental administration. Zhuang was among 9 people arrested for their conduct at the event.

Another day in the life of a right-wing uniparty acolyte.

Another idiot exposed

I used to think the Republicans would never be outdone in their horridness, but the Democrats lately have degenerated into a strange, unrecognizable glop.

Let's take a look at the disaster unfolding in Maryland. The U.S. Senate race there has only 2 major candidates: Republican former Gov. Larry Hogan and Democratic Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks. Hogan is no genius, but Alsobrooks is just an absolute idiot.

When Alsobrooks won her primary, the media held her up as some great progressive champion. That's far from the truth. This is a "progressive" who, in her 2018 campaign for county executive, accepted hefty donations from real estate developers to influence her stances. Her current Senate race is funded largely by wealthy developers in the Washington, D.C., area.

A Maryland law said politicians could not accept contributions from developers with projects pending in their county. Seems pretty fair, doesn't it? But Alsobrooks claimed this law was racist.

How?????

This is how the Democrats try to win votes these days. Instead of real progressive policy proposals, they adopt right-wing stances and attack real progressive legislation as racist. They've become a right-wing party that operates in a universe that's perfectly congruent to the existing right-wing party, yet nominally outside of it.

I firmly believe the Republican voter suppression bills so common a few years ago were racist. Much of what the GOP said and did at the time was. But campaign finance laws are not racist.

Maryland Democrats are so corrupt that they passed new laws not long ago that gutted these campaign laws.

During the 2020 election, Alsobrooks demanded that the county's 229 polling places be collapsed into only 15. Hogan clearly had the better stance regarding this, as he pointed out that this would violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Alsobrooks responded to this criticism by accusing Hogan of not locking down hard enough to fight COVID-19.

Thus it's no surprise that Prince George's County under Alsobrooks had one of the worst COVID records of any county in America. You can probably count on one hand the number of counties that were worse. As late as November 2020, she issued new capacity limits and other restrictions that were much stricter than state rules. She announced she would send "compliance teams" to break up private and public gatherings and close down businesses that tolerated such events.

If you support such extreme measures, you're not a progressive, but a right-wing authoritarian. Period.

The long and short of it is that the Democratic "leadership" has become a right-wing body that falsely accuses people of racism for daring to criticize them. Modern examples go back at least as far as 2016, when Hillary Clinton claimed Bernie Sanders's plan to break up big banks was racist, but this series of statements really didn't guide the party until 2020. It's actually a big change in a very short time.

It's a shame politics doesn't work like sports. When the Cincinnati Bengals were at their nadir, there was serious talk of suing the team on behalf of taxpayers who were forced to fund their stadium. This was on the grounds that the Bengals were failing to field a competitive team. It would be nice to be able to sue the Democrats in the same manner, as they've refused to field a competitive party. It's not just Maryland. The Democrats refused to even run a candidate in our local congressional district - telling Democratic voters to vote in the Republican primary instead, which is impossible because Kentucky is a closed primary state. Some Democratic insiders have told reporters off the record that the party has even conceded the presidential race to Donald Trump.

We don't have a two-party system - even in contests that are supposedly competitive. The major parties have mostly the same policy stances and differ very little other than in the way they use racism.

Another new mask mandate (imagine that!)

My latest Substack entry describes a brand new COVID mask mandate that just cropped up:

https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/another-new-mask-mandate-imagine

A person bubbled at Kroger

Today at Kroger, some woman bubbled a green bub.

Another broken promise, another year of masks in schools

My latest Substack entry is about the stupidity of masks in schools continuing in the 2021-22 school year, and the lawbreaking of schools imposing mandates in states where it was not allowed:

https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/another-broken-promise-another-year

Have no fear, the July ish is here!

The July ish of The Last Word is pub-a-roo!

This installment talks about yet more ruined vacations, a coordinated censorship effort on Twitter, scary TV shows and commercials, a scam by overseas third party sellers on Amazon, a teacher getting angry when students didn't do an assignment on the election, and more!

You can't find it on Scribd, because they're blocking it again. But you can slink on over here to read the latest Last Word...

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2407.pdf

Utility to shut off power on purpose

America is essentially a third world country now.

Pacific Gas & Electric Company is the greedy firm that has a monopoly on electricity and gas service in much of California. PG&E's negligence has led to many devastating and deadly wildfires. In 2010, PG&E even caused a pipeline explosion in a residential San Bruno neighborhood that killed 8. Now PG&E plans to shut off power in several counties this week as temperatures are forecast to reach 100° F.

So PG&E refuses to provide the service it has a monopoly on.

But when the power isn't off, PG&E charges its customers exorbitant rates. Online comments say the company charges as much as $300 per month.

Some parts of the country and the world have been hotter than 100° lately, and the utility companies there haven't shut off the power - yet. So this is on PG&E - and the California Public Utilities Commission, which has a cozy relationship with PG&E. It was this relationship that enabled PG&E to neglect its pipeline, causing the 2010 blast.

That's in a state whose "leaders" are always making nasty online posts about the Rust Belt and Appalachia, but at least most of those states haven't banned as many books or jailed as many surfers as California has over the past few years.

Murthy Murthy me...Things ain't what they used to be...

The U.S. Supreme Court ought to start publishing their rulings on toilet paper.

When they get things right, it's only by accident. Last week, we discussed the court's recent ruling that rightly requires investors in foreign corporations to pay taxes like everyone else, but that was one of very few constitutionally sound decisions they've made lately. Even then, I think they only got it right because they happened to stumble into it. Regarding almost everything else these days, they just completely ignore elementary law that we learned in 7th grade civics class.

Their ruling this week in Murthy v. Missouri is one of the most outrageously bad decisions in the court's history. This case was prompted by the Biden administration colluding with social media sites to censor content such as COVID "misinformation." Much of the "misinformation" that was censored was actually true. The Twitter Files prove this.

It is folly to characterize those who fought the White House on this as "right-wing." If you support government censorship like this, you're not a progressive. Period. This is what right-wing dictatorships do. You expect to see something like this under totalitarian butchers like Emmanuel Macron. You don't expect to see it in a democracy. Yet the whiny nerds at Vox produced a lengthy article attacking judges who opposed this censorship as "right-wing."

That was even after right-wing Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the Supreme Court opinion in Murthy v. Missouri that allows this censorship. Vox is siding with some of the most right-wing Justices in history, yet is accusing everyone else of being "right-wing." Vox also laughably claimed that those who opposed the censorship were actually suppressing the White House's free speech rights - not the other way around. Vox also said the First Amendment does not bar the government from asking social media sites to remove content. Yes it does, you idiots.

This ruling came even after every lower court - without exception - ruled against this suppression of free speech.

What's the Supreme Court's "reasoning"? They said it was because those who fought against this censorship lacked standing, but as hard as we try, we cannot follow this contorted line of thinking. In fact, those who were censored were no longer the plaintiffs by the time the case reached the Supremes. The case started out as Missouri v. Biden but was later retitled as Murthy v. Missouri. So the actual plaintiff was Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, who the victims were fighting against. If the case was thrown out, it should have been because Murthy lacked standing to sue those who were censored.

The Supreme Court is a rogue court. There are some issues where the Constitution leaves absolutely no wiggle room. This is one of them. The rights listed in the Bill of Rights were not created by people. They are natural rights. That's what "inalienable rights" means. Every current member of the Supreme Court has at some point recently placed either political alliances or weird legal theories ahead of real law.

But in this constitutional republic, real law takes precedence over the bizarre opinions of a few unelected dictators in black robes. Some things in the Constitution have to be interpreted, but there is no ambiguity that such government collusion with social networking sites violates free speech. Absolutely zero. The Supremes' ruling in Murthy v. Missouri is George W. Bush-level stuff.

Kentucky colleges raise tuition

A market system is full of vagaries and inequalities, but it's the economic model that we've been force-fed for almost everything we do. If you're in a position that you qualify for some program like medical benefits, you'll find that works better than leaving everything up to the market. But market economics are likely the reason you ended up poor enough to qualify.

Along with our commitment to civil liberties, our interest in economic justice is one of the reasons we dissent from COVID tyranny, but that's another topic altogether.

When I started college, I planned to major in broadcasting. Everyone tried to discourage me, saying there wasn't enough of a "market" for broadcasters. My response was always the same: Who cares? A few people even said I shouldn't qualify for any sort of financial aid unless I majored in something "marketable", but that argument is ridiculous on its stupid face.

Market hawks hounded me about my choice for a major. So I should be allowed to hound Kentucky colleges about the all-important "market."

There's a crazy little thing called supply and demand. In this decade, academia has destroyed their own credibility. As a result, colleges and universities all over America - maybe the world - faced a steep drop in enrollment in the early 2020s. They wanted to turn schools into prisons, and lots of our young people just weren't having it. For the most part, the enrollment decline wasn't the students' fault. There were a few students who demanded more fascism, but they came from trust fund backgrounds, and their peers didn't give a shit what they thought. When I was in college, nobody would have put up with it, period.

Demand among students for a college education has dropped. So tuition should become cheaper, right?

Well, welcome to Kentucky. In Kentucky schools, market economics is like the fourth 'R'. But not when schools actually have to follow it themselves. Accordingly, the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education has just increased tuition at most state colleges and universities - despite less demand.

This is one of a series of episodes in recent days that shows that Democratic corruption has gone past the point of no return. We can safely say they're even more corrupt than the Republicans now, even though the GOP is also far from innocent. Unlike 20 years ago when the state was mired in Republican corruption, the Democrats run Kentucky now. This is on you, Dems.

Dear Democrats: Get your corruption out of my state. The North Carolina State Board of Elections would be happy to have you if you want to be corrupt.

Higher education has become a money pit rather than a serious academic institution. It's one of the biggest scams in the country. I'm also sick of their smug attitude and disproportionate amount of power.

Lockdowns are for the birds

My newest Substack entry reports that new lockdowns are already in the works for bird flu:

https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/lockdowns-are-for-the-birds

Supremes uphold tax on foreign income

There's a consensus that the rich haven't been paying their fair share in taxes. One of few good things in the otherwise miserable Trump tax law of 2017 is a onetime tax on dividends made by shareholders in foreign companies. Before that tax was enacted, companies could dodge American taxes by parking their profits outside the country.

A couple in Washington state launched a bizarre court challenge against that tax after they had to pay taxes on their investments in India. They said the tax was unconstitutional under the Sixteenth Amendment. This is ridiculous because the Sixteenth Amendment specifically authorizes an income tax.

After losing in lower courts, they took it all the way to the Supreme Court. The Supremes have now ruled 7-2 against them. Right-wing Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas were the only dissenters.

The lawsuit was actually frivolous. I remember when the far right accused everyone of filing frivolous suits, but this is about as frivolous as it gets - with the exception of well-funded suits filed against state governments and schools by those claiming COVID restrictions weren't draconian enough.

Sports of all sorts

My latest Substack entry is a brief account of idiotic attempts to enforce mask mandates at school sporting events:

https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/sports-of-all-sorts

Schools and masks: a bad mix

I've been building up to this entry for months, and it's a long one. My latest Substack entry finally deals at length with the unparalleled evil of mask mandates in schools:

https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/schools-and-masks-a-bad-mix

It's against the law, revisited

I have a new Substack entry that's a brief look at politicians issuing COVID mandates in violation of state laws that explicitly banned them:

https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/its-against-the-law-revisited

More Reagan extremism

Forty years after the Reagan regime, we're still being forced to recap all the ways Rappin' Ronnie failed America and stole from workers.

He supported right-wing dictatorships abroad. He cut Social Security by raising the retirement age - a change that is now taking effect (which our "leaders" refuse to fix). And he added special new taxes on service workers who weren't making much money to begin with.

Most Americans who aren't in service jobs and don't have to rely on tips had thought that tips were not taxed. But it turns out they are. Donald Trump is making an issue of it, though I doubt he'll do anything about it if he wins - especially after his tax increase on the working class in 2017. But who started taxing tips in the first place?

I'll give you 3 guesses: Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan, and Ronald Reagan.

Reagan began taxing tips even as he began giving handouts to the rich.

Why does every city and town have some road or public landmark named for Reagan? He was the worst President in history not named Bush, yet historical negationists treat him as a god.

A person bubbled at New China Buffet

Today at New China Buffet, some woman bubbled.

Yip-yip-yip-yip-yip-yip-yip-yip, mum-mum-mum-mum-mum-mum, get a job!

My latest Substack entry is about how allegedly "progressive" lockdown advocates use extreme rhetoric that makes them sound like what they claim to oppose:

https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/yip-yip-yip-yip-yip-yip-yip-yip-mum

Philly mayor breaks agreement with homeless advocates

The worst big city mayor in America strikes again!

Back in 2020, the city of Philadelphia reached an agreement with advocates for the homeless that said a "village" of tiny homes would be constructed on a city-owned parcel. But - after taking office at the start of this year - Mayor Cherelle Parker decided to unilaterally scrap this agreement.

There is now a plan to build a drug treatment center there, but even the optics of this plan aren't as bad as the act of taking away the tiny homes that were promised. No plan has been put forth to build the homes elsewhere after Parker's right-wing dictatorship scrapped the original plan.

Have no fear, the June ish is here!

It's time for you to bury your beezer in the June ish of The Last Word!

This ish talks about my trip to St. Augustine, a waiter ruining some pancakes, a luxury development taking over a city-owned parking lot, more ruined board games, taking thorns to school to defend yourself, and more!

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/737745512/The-Last-Word-6-2024

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

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2406.pdf

A person beered at the parade

Today, I went to the parade, and an Allowed Cloud got hilariously violated.

As the parade was starting, a woman with 2 kids sat down in front of me on the curb. At first, I thought the woman was someone who went to my high school for precisely one day, but I don't think it was her. Before long, the woman whipped out a can of ice cold brew and proceeded to imbibe - in violation of alcohol ordinances.

She was cool!

But, surprisingly, nobody bubbled at the parade.

Big Pharma back to supporting GOP fascism

Which fascism will the corporate empire support today? Democratic fascism or Republican fascism?

A good rule of thumb is that they'll favor whichever party gets the fewest votes per newspaper endorsement. This means they supported Republicans through most of modern history, but began favoring Democrats when the underpants laptoppers took over that party. Whatever the weather, Democrats and Republicans exhibit largely the same fascism these days. Gavin Newsom and Nikki Haley would be the media's dream ticket.

Now there are plans for an expansion of the Republican Party of Kentucky's headquarters in Frankfort. The biggest donor was pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which gave $1 million to the GOP for this project, which includes a new 6,800-square-foot building that will contain an auditorium. The project got funds from defense contractors too. Other big donors include AT&T, Verizon, Metropolitan Life Insurance, Microsoft, Comcast, and Delta Air Lines. It reads like a who's who of corporate tyranny. It also reams a bazooka hole through the idea that big corporations are progressive bastions. Of course, with the Democrats being what they are these days, donating to the Democrats would have indicated the same thing.

These donations are made possible by a 2017 state law allowing corporations to donate unlimited money to political parties' building funds. Whose dumb idea was that? What gnawing need was there for this law in 2017?

This is one of many stories showing why we need to prohibit corporations from giving to political parties. Corporations are a corrupting influence on politics.

Hindsight is 2024

My newest Substack entry is about ongoing COVID totalitarianism that continues even today and is slated to continue in coming months...

https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/hindsight-is-2024

Don't stop believin' in celebrity look-alikes

For most of the week, I was on vacation in St. Augustine. I plan to write about much of it in The Last Word, but there were 3 celebrity look-alikes: Anne Bloom, Gordon Ramsay, and Steve Perry.

Cut a fart at Kroger...again!

Today at the Krogie-Wogie in Bellevue, an elderly woman cracked an LAP bunker blast in the orange juice aisle.

Did Oscar say a bad word? ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

Oscar the Grouch was my favorite character on the ol' Ses!

As summer travel season looms, you may have an experience like the 'Sesame Street' kick-ass crew did in a 1990 episode. In this installment, Gordon misses the bus to a basketball game and asks the ol' Osk and his girlfriend Grundgetta to drive him there...

But did Oscar say a bad word?

There was an episode of 'The Brady Bunch' in which Mike famously declares, "It's 6:00 in the morning," but there was clearly a word edited out just before "morning." It's pretty obvious he said a bad word. Something similar happens in this 'Sesame Street' episode. At 1:05, Oscar says to Gordon, "Just tell us how to get to the game and we'll be on our way." But there's a strange pause right before "game" - as if a word had to be edited out.

This kicks off a suspenseful narrative in which Oscar and Grundgetta take Gordon on a futile drive down Pothole Parkway - which makes the roads around here look like an Autobahn in comparison. It's really not even a road. It looks like it's just an alley between brick walls and buildings. It also requires a toll paid in old candy wrappers.

Spoiler alert! The delays cause Gordon to miss the whole game. He tries listening to it on Oscar's car radio, but the radio breaks just before the game's exciting conclusion. Sportscaster Marv Albert then appears out of nowhere and drives Gordon home.

Oscar the Grouch. A king among men!

Kathy Hochul makes racist comment

The dumbest governor in America (outside New Mexico) strikes again!

We already knew that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul isn't exactly a force for good in the world, and now the tragic Hochul saga gets even worse!

Yesterday, Hochul was speaking at a forum in California and began talking about "young Black kids growing up in the Bronx who don't even know what the word 'computer' is."

Elected officials from the Bronx rightly blasted Hochul for her racism.

This is Evan Mecham-level stuff. Forty years ago, an idiot like Hochul would have stood out for her stupidity. These days, hardly anyone notices. One reason is that the rest of America's political, corporate, and academic leadership provides real competition to see who can be the dumbest or most evil. Like Hochul, many manage to be both stupid and evil. Many are simply horrible people. Another reason people don't notice is that the media won't do their job like it used to, so stories like this aren't reported much.

Just resign already, Kathy.

Have no fear, the May ish is here!

May wouldn't be so biptacular if it didn't have the May ish of The Last Word!

Our latest edition talks about the shocking milk spills at Kroger, my failure to read books on required reading lists, my worst neighbors, Pepsi cans leaking onto magazines, a lost Bert and Ernie segment, and more!

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/727402990/The-Last-Word-5-2024

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

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2405.pdf

Gallagher look-alike sighted

I just received an important e-mail declaring that a Gallagher look-alike was seen at a local park today.

States keep violating Gun-Free School Zones Act

In the United States of America, you're supposed to be allowed to have a gun in your home. I'm also not against allowing concealed carry in most cases.

But new legislation in Iowa and Tennessee has raised questions about why schools are permitted to violate federal gun laws. These states are about to join several others in allowing teachers to carry guns in school - which has a real potential for not only accidents but also deliberate violence.

There's a federal law called the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990. This law was ruled unconstitutional not long after it passed, but it was rewritten to apply only to guns that had moved in interstate commerce - which happens to include almost all guns. The law says you can't have a gun in most situations within 1,000 feet of school property.

The law has a few exceptions, one of which is that this law is not supposed to apply in people's homes. Yet a woman was convicted for having a gun in her home, because it happened to be in a school zone. Unbelievably, another federal court later upheld this conviction. Federal authorities warned a New Hampshire town that hunters would be violating the law if they used the town's public hunting grounds, as part of it was within 1,000 feet of a school. The law is also broad enough that it's easy for people to violate it just by traveling with their gun in their car, even when it wouldn't otherwise be illegal.

In short, this law has been used to go after hunters and people who have guns at home. So why are states allowing guns in schools? Why are schools above the law?

This is selective enforcement at its worst. The heavy hand of this law comes down hard on those who seem to pose no threat. Yet authorities look the other way as guns are introduced in schools, which should be a refuge against violence. But even without all the guns, schools have become some of the most dangerous places, and it's because some schools have such dangerous administrators - who have a history of running roughshod over the well-being of our young people.

Why are people punished for guns in their own home while our schools are allowed to become a potential firing range?

Some North Vernon poo

To celebrate Monday's total solar eclipse, I went to North Vernon, Indiana. This outing brang us 27 Roads Scholaring photos, and you're gonna peep 'em all...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/nvi24a.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/nvi24b.html

Nursing homes played with fire

My latest Substack entry is about how nursing homes burned COVID patients' belongings without giving loved ones a chance to retrieve them:

https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/nursing-homes-played-with-fire

A person bunkerooed at Circle K

People have been fartin' up a storm in stores lately.

Today at Circle K, I detected the audio of an LAP bunker blast.

COVID fascism didn’t take a vacation

My newest Substack entry is a very short account of some COVID tyranny that faced vacationers...

https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/covid-fascism-didnt-take-a-vacation

Faketivists

My latest Substack entry is brief, but it talks about how fake activists have been attacking real activists for not supporting COVID totalitarianism...

https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/faketivists

Have no fear, the April ish is here!

April wouldn't be April if it didn't have the April ish of The Last Word!

Our latest edition talks about the destroyment of Sunlite Pool, free association, a TV set found in the lake at NKU, the decline in quality of vinyl albums, and more!

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/718297760/The-Last-Word-4-2024

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

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2404.pdf

It fails to stink.

Legal tender becoming illegal tough at national parks

America's national parks are an amazing treasure. But lately, our rulers have tried making a mockery of the whole system. It's not limited to the Department of the Interior's scuttling of a successful contingency plan that had kept parks open during a government shitdown.

Recently, the National Park Service stopped accepting cash for entry fees at many of its parks - forcing people to use a credit card. This has prompted a lawsuit citing the fact that cash is to be considered legal tender.

The National Park Service's defense of the parks' cashless policies is incredibly dumb. They said it costs too much to "process" cash.

"Process" it? Cash doesn't need to be "processed" like credit cards do. Cash has been around since prehistoric times. Can you imagine cave people sitting around and "processing" money?

We're barreling harum-scarum into a social credit system, and the attempted phaseout of cash is one of the ways in which it is being facilitated.

Cash. Use it or lose it!

New York councilmember abused city e-mail to raise funds for CCP-linked org

According to the New York Daily News, a member of New York City Council abused city e-mail accounts to raise donations for a nonprofit tied to the Chinese government - run by the Chinese Communist Party.

Councilmember Susan Zhuang of Brooklyn - a right-wing Democrat - is under fire for these acts that appear to violate ethics laws.

The organization in question put together a parade in Brooklyn but also advocated for and worked with Chinese government entities. The donation request appeared in an e-mail last month from the official city council address of a Zhuang staffer. The nonprofit is also linked to a cohort of CCP-controlled groups outside China that aims to suppress criticism of the party and influence countries to enact pro-CCP policies.

Zhuang also recently helped organize an embarrassing far-right rally against a proposed homeless shelter.

Look under the toilet lid of any recent authoritarian trend in American public policy, and there's a good chance there's some link with the CCP. But there are usually more direct links with the CIA, which itself is CCP-linked. Major American media outlets are always happy to help them. The media supports authoritarian policies, and therefore, they support authoritarian regimes. The parent companies of top news organizations also have major interests in China like amusement parks and other investments. This is also why American movie studios censor their products to appease the Chinese government. Even the versions of movies distributed in the U.S. are edited like this.

And - you knew this was coming - this is also why the media praised China's COVID response but bashed Sweden's response. They continue to do it.

America and many other countries are becoming more and more like colonies of the Chinese Communist Party.

Cut a fart at Target too!

When it rains, it pours!

Today at the Target in Newport, I detected the sound of 3 - count 'em, 3 - LAP bunkeroos.

Idiot thinks searching bags at beaches is legal

We can all agree that Florida had a better COVID response than most of the rest of America, but the Miami area was a stark exception. True to form, the city of Miami Beach continues to violate the Constitution with no end in sight.

The city recently announced it would start searching bags of people entering the beach. This is an unambiguous Fourth Amendment violation. There is no wiggle room on this. The Fourth Amendment's safeguard against unreasonable searches and seizures seems almost tailor-made for protecting against this.

Somebody posted on a Reddit forum for legal advice asking if this was unconstitutional. Of course it is. But someone replied...

"No, it's not Unconstitutional.

"You can avoid your bag being searched by not going to the beach or not taking your bag to the beach.

"If you choose to take your bag in, you are consenting to the search.

"If you refuse the search, they won't search, but they also won't let you in."

Wrong, stupid. The beach is public in every sense of the word. The whole point of a free country is that you don't have to avoid going to public places like the beach. You don't have to choose to stay away from a public place just so you won't be searched.

Allowing these beach searches is no different from stopping and searching every car driving down the street.

What's shocking is that someone who is apparently an adult has so little grasp of basic civics. But this isn't new. Paid trolls have been filling online forums for years. I wouldn't be surprised if the CIA is funding trolls like this now. Bet on it.

Hopefully, someone will sue Miami Beach.

When Kentucky abused children

My latest Substack entry is about the doublespeak Kentucky used when digging in on mask mandates in daycares:

https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/when-kentucky-abused-children

Cut a fart at Kroger!

Today at Kroger, some old man ripped an LAP bunker blast.

It's bubbling season, Charlie Brown!

The most hilarious time of the year - bubbling season - is fast approaching!

Today, some woman walking up the street bubbled.

San Francisco: "We must have fewer schools"

San Francisco is borrowing a page from the Campbell County playbook!

In a video released on Saturday, the superintendent of the San Francisco school system declared, "We must have fewer schools."

Civilized countries are building more and better schools. But in America, schools are being shuttered. It appears as if San Francisco will be a particularly egregious offender. For many years, San Francisco was one of America's great cities. Now it's experiencing the same decline suffered by Cincinnati 40 years ago. At least Cincinnati survived that - though not unscathed. There's no guarantee San Francisco will even last another 40 years.

Make no mistake, San Francisco schools have seen a steep drop in enrollment in the past few years. But most of that was the schools' doing. After schools first closed over COVID, the city's schools could have returned to completely normal operation before the end of the school year. Yet the district chose to wait over a year before reopening at all, and didn't go back to normal business for months after. It was so bad that the city took the unique step of suing the school district. The only positive in this story is that the city sued. At least that's better than what occurred in other communities, where city or county officials let schools' incompetence at the time go unanswered. But this shows just how bad San Francisco schools got. Indeed, school systems that did not resume normal operation by mid-2020 should be required to forfeit public funds they got in the ensuing months or years of bad conditions, but that's another matter altogether.

We spent our entire youths being harangued about how important school was. What message does it send when school districts close schools?

Dayton! Newport! Game day bucket go boom!

In my long-running spirit of coolsterism, I've done a couple small, local Roads Scholarings in recent days. They'll make your face fly off in public, and we start out with a new road in Dayton, Kentucky...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/dayky24.html

If that fails to enchant you, sweep on over here for a Newport neighborhood that was cut off by an ill-conceived freeway routing...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/beech24.html

Have no fear, the March ish is here!

March into March by poppin' open a keg or three and chillaxing with the latest edition of The Last Word!

This ish discusses a delicate medical procedure, the new prohibitionism, a person getting mad because someone chewed bubble gum in a doctor's office, Kroger selling spoiled ham, a scam by Capital One, a Peanuts mystery being solved, and more!

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/709429073/The-Last-Word-3-2024

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

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2403.pdf

"New normal" can be a real turkey

COVID relief funds have been wasted on everything from turkey statues to tearing down amusement parks, and it's covered in my latest Substack entry...

https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/new-normal-can-be-a-real-turkey

Flooded airport restrooms! Spilling Coke on a bus! Game day bucket go boom!

Earlier I received an important e-mail that mentioned a bunch of interesting things.

Perhaps key among them is the restroom destructment at the Cincinnati airport a couple weeks ago. A men's room near the idiotic CNBC store had an overflowing toilet with a whole river of pee water running along the wall. Another beethoom was so bad that it was closed.

At a New York airport, a man oafishly spilled coffee all over his wife's phone and luggage.

As if that wasn't enough, a man spilled Coke all over the floor of a sightseeing bus.

More Columbus poo!

Last year was full of Columbus biperoony.

In November, we drove up to the Columbus Zoo. This outing actually gave us 4 photos for my Roads Scholaring collection. So glide over here...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/morecol23.html

More enchantment in the Land of Enchantment!

Last October, I went on an amazing road trip to New Mexico. Much of this was to see the annular eclipse, but there was some roadly poo too!

I amassed 309 photos of a Roads Scholaring interest, and divided them into 13 parts. Read 'em and peep...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/nm23a.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/nm23b.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/nm23c.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/nm23d.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/nm23e.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/nm23f.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/nm23g.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/nm23h.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/nm23i.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/nm23j.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/nm23k.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/nm23l.html
http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/nm23m.html

Masks are forever

My newest Substack entry details how mask mandates built up from being "just for 2 weeks" to being permanent in the course of 4 years...

https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/masks-are-forever

The deadly side of mask mania

My newest Substack entry is about the deadly side of ongoing mask mandates:

https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/the-deadly-side-of-mask-mania

It seems to me you lived your life like a celebrity look-alike in the wind...

Earlier I received an important e-mail declaring that an Elton John look-alike was sighted in Uruguay.

Double your displeasure with some school doublethink

School districts in our area have been mired in corporate stupidthink so deeply for so long that if they start the school year after about August 10, it's a big story. But an Iowa district is considering starting its school year before August 23, and families there are angry that it's starting too early. In fact, there appears to be a state law in Iowa prohibiting the school year from starting before August 23.

Kentucky needs to be more like Iowa. A state law to prevent the school year from starting too early might be a very good thing for Kentucky. Summer break is useful for not only recreation but also agriculture and summer jobs. Some public officials and media outlets enjoy bashing small farmers, but farming is a necessary activity. No farms means no food. Central cities that don't have much farming also directly benefit from summer break, as this break allows more opportunities for summer jobs programs.

An argument has emerged lately that year-round school would prevent juvenile crime because schools are the only places that make kids obey. This argument is ridiculous. People should think - not obey. The past 4 years have been filled with enough "obey, obey, obey" garbage to last a lifetime.

Iowa is actually being very equitable and progressive by protecting summer break, while much of Kentucky keeps doing everything that big corporations and the media demand.

The biggest issue these days may be the doublethink surrounding this matter. Many schools were closed for 2 years over COVID, yet those who endorsed these closures are usually the same people who demand year-round school the rest of the time. They support two contradictory ideas. They want schools closed when they should be open, yet they want schools open when they should be closed. We have seasons for a reason. Seasons are nature's way of saying what's intended and what isn't. Why do you think city pools are open in July but not January? For humor?

Perhaps it's time for Kentucky to join several other states in passing a law that says the school year can't start too early.

Coney has it...your money, that is!

Coney Island amusement park in Cincinnati was known for decades for amenities like Sunlite Pool, which the park claimed was the world's biggest recirculating swimming pool. It all came crashing down recently when the park was purchased by Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, which announced it would tear down the park and replace it with a $118 million music venue. This is despite the fact that Cincinnati has plenty of music venues - many of which don't get much use as it is, because a lot of music acts won't come to Cincinnati because of past hostile actions against performers.

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is plowing ahead with its plans while arrogantly ignoring the public outcry.

It's bad enough that this is allowed to take place. It's bad enough that they won't at least keep Sunlite Pool. But it gets worse! Imagine that! A group of business "leaders" is now demanding that the state of Ohio give Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra $20 million in taxpayer money for this dumb project. All for free. No strings attached.

So not only is a ridiculous, useless project that will destroy one of the region's most popular recreation sites moving forward. Not only is the resulting outcry being completely brushed aside. Taxpayers may also end up being robbed to pay for it.

It's like being forced to build your own coffin.

More and more mask hysteria!

The vigilantism, violence, and racism of forced maskers is described in my latest Substack entry, along with officials' digging in on mask mandates at weddings. By necessity, this is a long, long entry, so hang on...

https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/more-and-more-mask-hysteria

A person bunkerooed at Popeyes

Today at the Popeyes in Alexandria, some old man ripped an LAP bunker blast.

Have no fear, the February ish is here!

Welcome to February - also known as Febrewery. That means it's time for the February issue of The Last Word!

This ish talks about a person wasting Bubble Tape at a public New Year's party, a flatulent animal called an akbab, road atlases getting ruined by Scotch tape, TV Guides getting moldy, and more!

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/702224652/The-Last-Word-2-2024

Lest that doesn't work, slide on over here...

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2402.pdf

Science!

Science! My latest Substack entry covers some brand new COVID stupidity, including a Rhode Island plan to impose masks even in "an absence of scientific evidence"...

https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/science

Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and masks

My latest Substack entry is about the ridiculousness of mask mandates at sporting events, amusement parks, outdoor concerts, and more...

https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/baseball-hot-dogs-apple-pie-and-masks

More mask hysteria

My latest Substack entry discusses failed mask mandates like those that afflicted American mass transit...

https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/more-mask-hysteria

The media is gonna keep lying? I'm gonna keep calling them out

My newest Substack entry talks about the media's latest COVID lie and more about society's restructuring...

https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/the-media-is-gonna-keep-lying-im

I got a fever of 100.1...

I had the flu starting Sunday and continuing through yesterday, and it was bad.

The only major symptom was a high fever that was at least 100.1° F. But this was bad enough. I was so weak from this that I couldn't sit at my computer for more than a few minutes at a time.

Now, back to work!

No Democratic candidate for House

How corrupt and right-wing is the Democratic Party in northern Kentucky?

For the first time in living memory, the party is refusing to field a candidate for U.S. House in Kentucky's 4th District, which is our district. The seat is currently occupied by Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican. Massie has taken some rather unusual positions for a Republican lately, even opposing the fascist Patriot Act and Real ID. Other than that, however, he's pretty right-wing on most issues.

In recent years, local Democrats have refused to run a candidate for many important posts. Their excuse is always that if the Democrats had a candidate, it would encourage Republicans to show up and vote against them, which might sway other races. Seriously, they said that. But what has actually been going on is that Democratic insiders have been meeting with Republican insiders behind closed doors to make backroom deals to not run candidates. You'll occasionally see a Democrat run unopposed too. But just not nearly as much.

We know this for a fact. A good example was the race for Campbell County Circuit Court Clerk in 2018. It was believed that any Democrat could have won the race for that 6-year term. A potential candidate with unassailable experience in the public and private sectors and forward-thinking policy stances stepped up and was told by party "leaders" that this race already had a candidate. But that wasn't true. There was no candidate. The Republican wound up running unopposed.

How are Democratic "leaders" handling the current U.S. House race? It's too late for a major party candidate to file. Instead, party bosses want Democratic voters to vote in the Republican primary and elect a congressperson that way. But they can't. Kentucky is a closed primary state. Voters can only vote in their own party's primary, and the deadline for voters to change their party registration has passed. Even if it was an open primary, there's still no way the Democrats could win that seat, because they don't have a candidate.

The Democrats are also refusing to field a candidate in the 5th District.

It appears as if independents have until April 1 to file to run, so - not for the first time - we'll have to rely on independents to save us.

The lack of a Democratic candidate is not really a big loss these days, ever since the Democrats decided to become the party of child abuse and lockdowns. They chose a hill to die on - even refusing to renominate elected Democratic officials who dissented - and these abusers will get absolutely no help from me. Democrats will not lift a finger for universal healthcare or expanding Social Security. But they will send the Department of Homeland Security after you if you stand up for your children against being waterboarded at school.

A vote for Democrats today is a vote for Real ID, Big Pharma, closed national parks, more war, dangerous nuclear power, child abuse, and more lockdowns. They are not the party they were in 1991, and they will hear about it from me from now until the end of time. When children's well-being is at stake, I don't mess around.

Not in a toilet, in a bubble gum! (Bubble Gum Weekend)

You're gonna laugh, because I'm about to mention bubble gum.

Many years ago, this bit of ridiculousness was all over American television...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAvVPOaVzfg

That's a commersh for the chocolate mint flavor of Bubblicious dated 1986. And is it ever silly!

It shows a bunch of people at a soda counter doing a goofy dance and blowing bright green bubs. They show up to embarrass some nerdy teenager about his chocolate mint soda order.

I remember seeing this ad and bursting out laughing! Fifteen years after it aired, people were still talking about it on the Internet.

A couple years before it aired, parts of this commersh would have been seen as scenic and interesting. But by 1986, it was viewed as overblown and gaudy.

But people bubbled.

L.A. Times lies again

I have yet another new Substack entry, this one to counter the latest lie put out by the Los Angeles Times...

https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/la-times-lies-again

Media madness

I have a brand new Substack article that touches on the American media's promotion of totalitarian COVID propaganda...

https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/media-madness

So it's just a conspiracy theory, huh?

My latest Substack entry is about a city that just enacted a brand new COVID lockdown today...

https://open.substack.com/pub/bandit73/p/so-its-just-a-conspiracy-theory-huh

But it just may be a celebrity look-alike you're lookin' for...

Last night, I went to the Fountain Square "bash" to ring in 2024. It was as tame as ever.

But I did see 3 celebrity look-alikes: Billy Joel, K.C., and Lisa Loeb. The K.C. look-alike was the funniest, as he was even wearing the wide-collared polyester suit.

Also, a person wosted Bubble Tape. This is a perfect story for the next Last Word.

In addition, a woman was in such a festive mood in the run-up to midnight that she bubbled.