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