A pile of app

What city in northern Kentucky - very close to our headquarters - recently began requiring an app to use its overpriced parking meters?

We plan to tell you in the next ish of The Last Word. Hopefully, the outside site we use to upload each edition will reenable uploads by then, but we're not confident of that.

The city in this story no longer accepts coins or any other currency in its parking meters. In addition, it expanded the app-mandatory meters to spots that previously had no meter at all. Even before the switchover, this city's parking meters were a poor bargain: A quarter got you only 9 minutes.

The choice of a new generation

Last night, I continued my proud tradition of smuggling soft drinks into Rip-off-fest in violation of the festival's "rules." Last year, it was Sprite. This year, it was Pepsi. Many different brands have been employed over the years.

People also beered, which also violated the Allowed Cloud. And the airy vapors of a certain herb wafted along the Newport floodwall.

Ploptoberfest is in a couple weeks from now, but I have other priorities that weekend. I'm my own designated driver, and I have no desire to hunt aimlessly for water like I did last year and be forced to buy from cashless vendors.

Have no fear, the back-to-school ish is here!

This year's back-to-school issue of The Last Word is now published!

The Last Word is an exciting populist zine that makes your face fly off like there's no tomorrow! Our latest ish includes investigative reports on Social Security robocalls and money-grubbing radio ministries. It also reminisces about high school pals spitting off a local skyscraper. And there's some nifty items about bubble gum and disgusting things being found in libraries, local municipal incompetence, a TV station losing its archive, a hilarious commercial for a record album, soaring power bills, and more!

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/1078929500/The-Last-Word-9-2026

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

https://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2609.pdf

A Grand old time

I'm all caught up posting my recent road photos, as I now have 13 photos up from July's Scholaring!

This focused largely on Covington's Latonia area, going as far abip as Grand Avenue.

You can always beep, and you can always weep, by pointing your pooper here...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/cov260707.html

A fair 'mount of fun in Fairmount

We've just released 14 Roads Scholaring photos from June!

In addition to the 2 bonus photos, this includes 12 items from our little bippus up to Fairmount. We examine a city street that is all but abandoned, a long-term highway closure, and more!

So point your pooper here...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/cin260618.html

5! 5! 5!

Time to put on your 5 face, as we have 5 more new Scholaring photos - all from northern Kentucky!

The main outing in this batch includes 4 photos from a tiny Scholaring in Dayton in June. This is not one of the more significant photo shoots, but it sheds a little insight on the extended bike trail and a few city streets.

So slide on over here for this blah event...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/day260612.html

19! 19! 19!

19! 19! 19!

We've officially released 19 new Scholaring photos, going back to March! The main event in this batch includes a frustrating outing in Over-the-Rhine that yielded 14 pictures. There's also 3 bonus shoots, which should also cause much bippage of navels.

Bip on over here and click on each of the 4 shoots that amassed in those months...

http://bunkerblast.info/roadpics/cin260309.html

Man, is this gonna be good!

The Last Word will have at least a couple investigative stories in the September ish, and man, one of them is gonna be really good!

It seems the Social Security Administration has been caught with its Underoos down around its ankles deliberately providing personal information of beneficiaries to a private company without their consent. As a result, this company keeps making unsolicited robocalls to beneficiaries.

For an agency that claims to respect people's privacy, it sure likes blabbing private information everywhere.

Have no fear, the August ish is here!

The August edition of The Last Word is a banner issue. This fanzine of freedom has now been around precisely one-third of a century, and it's joining forces with The Online Lunchpail and the rest of the People's Universe for more incisive investigative reporting!

Our latest ish talks about a trashed restroom at a doctor's office, local cities rejecting Flock cameras, another far-right crusade against Social Security, a Catholic high school endorsing a position in an election, a ruined concert, bad policy documents by political parties, a school district violating a disability law, the bare shelves of Kroger, a soccer league blocking websites, the National Mall police state, and more!

To fill your mind with the first issue of this exciting new phase of The Last Word, glide on over here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/1067638222/The-Last-Word-8-2026

If you can't read it on Scribd, just bip on over yonder...

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2608.pdf

Houston, we have a problem

What major American city is now finding its school system under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights for its illegal plan to segregate disabled students?

We'll tell you in the next issue of The Last Word.

This is only the latest in a decades-long nationwide buildup of violations of the 51-year-old Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. It seems as if this trend has only worsened in recent years.

Project 2029 B.C.

We at The Online Lunchpail want to know why the Democrats are writing a Republican policy document. Here's a hint: It's because they're pretty much Republicans now.

It's called Project 2029, and it's supposed to be the Democrats' answer the Heritage Foundation's far-right Project 2025. But the first plank the Democrats released in this manifesto is a demand for a law barring anyone under 16 from using social media.

Laws like this aren't meant to protect children, but to micromanage and keep tabs on adults, as adults will be forced to verify their identities just to use sites like Facebook, Twitter, or Reddit.

The next issue of The Last Word will explore this a little more, but in the meantime, we'd like to suggest some good policy stances that actually belong in a party's policy document:

• Expanding Social Security.

• Accountability for the disastrous COVID-19 lockdowns.

• Reviving enforcement of the Voting Rights Act.

• An end to the overprescription of psychotropic drugs.

• Lifting of the Citizens United ruling.

And a lot more! It seems like every political cycle brings another layer of right-wing stupid that needs to be reversed, and the longer the party establishment bogs things down, the harder it will be. It's a shame the Democrats think age limits for social media of all things is more important than Social Security or the Voting Rights Act. Just let that sink in.

School flunks First Amendment test

This Last Word partnership is really good stuff!

In our latest investigation, we will cover a story in New Jersey in which a school got a judge to censor a newspaper that posted surveillance footage from the school.

One of the main problems in this sorry episode is that the ruling represents prior restraint against the free press.

Watch for this and other incisive reports!

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign

As our fusion with The Last Word expands, that monthly road atlas to freedom will be offering an investigative report on an embattled local Catholic high school's foray into electoral politics. This report will explore how this flies in the face of a federal law that bars nonprofits such as religious bodies from engaging in electoral campaigns.

At issue is the school's posting of signs that supported Amendment 2 - a Kentucky referendum in 2024 that would have allowed public funds to be given to private schools. This amendment would have violated the U.S. Constitution, and it ended up losing in every county in the state.

As separation of church and state is in the crosshairs of the far right, watch for this investigative report in the next edition of The Last Word.

Another right-wing attack against Social Security exposed

This blog is experiencing an exciting new link with The Last Word, with more investigative reports that will be shared between each project. You can almost hear the screaming guitars and horns. It's like the upbeat late '80s music that you used to hear in your head when someone graduated from school and went on to the next stage in life.

But don't get too excited, because it's back down to business when we do our investigating. Our latest probe deals with a right-wing op-ed by the Club for Growth's David McIntosh and former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell that attacked a congressional proposal to shore up Social Security. As a bipartisan duo of senators wants to save Social Security by removing the payroll tax cap, Blackwell and McIntosh laughably assailed the plan.

Each of the points by McIntosh and Blackwell is easily debunked by basic facts that are essentially built into our projects. The pair claims that the American economy is fueled by the wealthy so they shouldn't have to pay more. This is false, as the economy is actually powered by the working class. More buying power for the working class is the real job creator. The op-ed also says that removing the tax cap would turn Social Security into a welfare program, though it contradicts itself in the very same sentence.

More details on the Club for Growth's assault on Social Security lurk in the next ish of The Last Word.

Hangin' out...Down the street...

It was a rare warm, sunny day today, so I went to the pool in Cincinnati. While I was there, I saw a funny celebrity look-alike: Ashton Kutcher from back when he played Kelso on That '70s Show.

Have no fear, the July ish is here!

Celebrate America's 250th birthday with the July edition of The Last Word!

This ish talks about how most activities from our youth are now illegal, Wikipedia blocking edits from T-Mobile, a high school classmate chewing a dirty stick of bubble gum he found behind a heater, how I found my long-lost ACT scores, and more!

So point your pooper here...

https://www.scribd.com/document/1055821452/The-Last-Word-7-2026

If that doesn't work, you can fail to stink by sliding on over here...

http://bunkerblast.info/lastword/lw2607.pdf

It's bubbling season, Charlie Brown!

Today, I Scholared over in Fairmount, and it was disappointing, because I can't ride a bike up hills anymore (even hills that aren't very steep). I'm disappointed and angry beyond description, because I can't do the things I used to be able to do.

On the way home, I devoured lunchage at Piatt Park. While I was there, some woman walking down the street bubbled.

Cut a fart at the doctor

Today I went to the doctor, which is at the same practice as my dentist who I visited on Tuesday. While I was in the waiting room, a man got up from his chair and ripped an audible bunker blast.

Cut a fart at Kroger

Today I went to the dentist, and in the waiting room there, some woman bubbled. This is despite the fact that most dentists hate gum.

Later, at Kroger, a young man ripped an LAP bunker blast as he was emerging from the soft drink aisle. He looked around as if he was pretending someone else did it.

"LIberal" San Francisco says taxes are only for the little people

San Francisco in the 2020s continues its streak of outdoing Phil Heimlich-era Cincinnati in its rightism.

Last week, there was a voter referendum in San Francisco that would have enacted a tax hike on highly paid corporate executives. You'd think that would have passed easily. But - after the city's painfully slow ballot counting process - it now appears as if the measure was rejected.

A measure like this would have no trouble at all passing in small Rust Belt towns, yet it gets rejected in a supposedly "liberal" big city like San Francisco.

The referendum was opposed by right-wing Mayor Daniel Lurie and a host of corporate opinion havers who spent zillions to defeat it. If the tax had passed, it would have generated as much as $300 million in revenues for the city.

But the thought police didn't want that, I guess. Because rich people have had everything so rough in life. The poor things.