Dwain Northey (Gen X)

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/naacp-travel-advisory-florida-says-state-hostile-to-black-americans/

Remember the good old days when there were only travel advisories and or ban for, what some would call, third word countries? Well now because of the vile vitriol of one Governor Ron DeSantis the state of Florida, a vacation destination, has received a travel advisory by the NAACP.

The wannabe future President has made the climate so venomous in Florida the anyone who is a part of any minority group does not feel safe in the state. Black, Brown, LGTBQ+, these are all groups that are under attack in the Sunshine State. The majority Republican legislature and their fearful leader has passed laws that make almost everything a jailable offence and the fact that the state has very loose gun laws and a stand your ground law makes it more dangerous than being a blonde female in central America.

Florida residents are able to carry concealed guns without a permit under a bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. The law, which goes into effect on July 1, means that anyone who can legally own a gun in Florida can carry a concealed gun in public without any training or background check. This with their ridiculous stand your ground law, ‘Florida’s “Stand-Your-Ground” law was passed in 2005. The law allows those who feel a reasonable threat of death or bodily injury to “meet force with force” rather than retreat. Similar “Castle Doctrine” laws assert that a person does not need to retreat if their home is attacked.’ Makes it really sketchy to go there.

This in top of the don’t say gay rule and the new trans ruling that just passed.

“Florida lawmakers have no shame. This discriminatory bill is extraordinarily desperate and extreme in a year full of extreme, discriminatory legislation. It is a cruel effort to stigmatize, marginalize and erase the LGBTQ+ community, particularly transgender youth. Let me be clear: gender-affirming care saves lives. Every mainstream American medical and mental health organization – representing millions of providers in the United States – call for age-appropriate, gender-affirming care for transgender and non-binary people.

“These politicians have no place inserting themselves in conversations between doctors, parents, and transgender youth about gender-affirming care. And at the same time that Florida lawmakers crow about protecting parental rights they make an extra-constitutional attempt to strip parents of – you guessed it! – their parental rights. The Human Rights Campaign strongly condemns this bill and will continue to fight for LGBTQ+ youth and their families who deserve better from their elected leaders.”

This law makes it possible for anyone to just accuse someone of gender affirming care to have their child taken from them this would include someone traveling from out of state. This alone justifies a travel ban to the Magic Kingdom for families.

Oh, and I haven’t even mentioned DeSantis holy war with Disney, the largest employer in the state. I really hope the Mouse eats this ass holes lunch.

Well that’s enough bitching, thanks again for suffering though my rant.

  • SCOTUS II

    Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

    The Supreme Court was created with some definite oversights built into the process. It seems that the only way to get rid of one is to impeach and that has to start in the House of Representatives.  It is unlikely that the process of impeachment will begin as long as the Republican Party holds the majority. When the opportunity provides, all the justices that have upheld Trump need to be impeached for Treason. 

      The events of Jan 6 clearly show that the followers of Trump were intent on stopping the peaceful transfer of power. That entire bonfire was built and stoked by Trump and that is also very obvious from the tapes of the event. Not voting to remove Trump from the ballot is supporting a treason act and it needs to be put to the judges that they also will face a day of reckoning for their crimes.

      Our country is being torn apart because of one persons over inflated ego and his ability to stir up trouble. The charges he is facing and the efforts he has made to get people to threaten anyone that says anything against him are ripping our democracy apart. This should not happen and the threat of violence needs to land on the doorstep of every fool that supports Trump. None of them are prepared to accept that violence can also be used against them.

      We teach children in Scouting Codes of Conduct and expect them to adhere to those rules. At every level when anyone is brought into an organization of any kind there are rules that are presented and expected to maintain. It is hard to believe that our highest court has no rules that they are required to or expected to obey.  The current court is supposed to be so righteous and yet the hypocrisy of their actions tells the world that they are anything but what they claim to be. At this point in time it is hard to believe that any of them has a mother that would approve of their actions.

      The nation has survived a great many things in it’s short history. A revolution, and then an attack to reverse that result, a civil war, and WWI the depression and WWII followed by the Cold War. The Korean Conflict and Vietnam as well as all the other times we have sent troops to fight and die on foreign soil for no good reason other than to make someone rich, or so it seems. Now we have a lone man and his ego to overcome and he has a following of individuals that are brave enough in a crowd but total cowards one on one. This person is saying that he will become a dictator if elected this time around. For most that should be enough to put a stop to this hope, most of us don’t need a belligerent father figure in our lives.

      If we can make this issue die on the vine then hopefully we can go back and fix some other issues such as gun control, voting rights, women’s health care, LGPQ matters as well as a host of other things that have been proven to be positive for the majority of citizens of most free nations. Moving forward with justice and equality and honor is far more important than one man’s wish to rule.

  • No they are not

    If you had the power to change one law, what would it be and why?

    Get money, big cooperate money out of politics… cooperations are not people . Government is supposed to be by the people and for the people and the common good not what is best for corporate profits.

  • S.C.O.T.U.S.

    Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

      The Supreme Court is really getting its day in the Sun. They have proven themselves to be anything but honest, voting to end abortion even after swearing that they would not go down that path. They have written an ethics bill for themselves that pretty much gives them immunity for life if they take bribes and do other deeds that honorable individuals would find offensive.

      They are to hear cases in reference to former president Trump and it is unknown if they will uphold the Constitution or side with a treasonous ego maniac that feels he has the right to do as he pleases whenever he feels like it.

      The states of Florida and Texas have gone to great lengths to get people of color to not vote. They have passed laws that make it possible for the state to put people in prison for voting if they happen to have a  fine or judgment on the books that they do not know about. The need to dominate others is so important that the political waters of these states are poisonous to all that attempt to exercise their rights.

      The DC appellate court found that Presidential Immunity is not absolute and that Trump will have to face the charges. The way the court wrote the findings makes it unlikely that the Supreme Court will be able to change anything to give Trump what he wants.

      The belligerent actions of Republican Governors toward the federal government is very disturbing and unnecessary. Many of the State officials are attempting to be little empire builders in their own right and unfortunately most do not seem to possess the brain power to get it done. Strong men are supposed to get things done and all these clowns seem to do is make life more difficult for themselves and everyone else in their states. The hope of putting Trump back in the WH is just not acceptable. His intent is to become a dictator and since he has proven that he cannot manage a fruit stand let alone a country we can do without his brand of bull shit.

      The comments made about Trump “telling it like it is” and he is “our voice” are so far from the truth that it is enough to make you sick. He is telling it the way you want to hear it and he is using first person as his target. By that I mean you all say how unfair you are being treated and how you would do it this way or that, typical armchair quarterback crap, and he is repeating you and that reinforces your rather pity me attitude. You believe he is going to do great things for you if elected, and the only entity he is looking out for is himself. 

      Read that many people are pessimistic at present. This is not a shocking outlook, the 1% feel that they are so privileged that anything they ask for they should have, to include who they want as President. With so many hoping to get Trump, a man with no morals, no spine, and no brains, so that they are able to get all restrictions removed from the way they want to run things, all profit and no consequences. We are getting closer to becoming cynical, not just pessimistic. If you are not sure what the terms mean then  let’s define it. Optimism is when someone says please pass the cream, pessimism is when that person says please pass the milk, and the cynic says please pass the pitcher, he is not sure if there is anything in it but he wishes to check for himself. 

    Any a all comments, concerns, rebuttals are welcomed.

  • Model of Efficiency

    Write about your dream home.

    My dream home would be a model of efficiency that would be powered by geothermal and solar energy, and also have zero carbon footprint, and actually absorb carbon from the atmosphere.

  • February Photos by Michelle

  • History Facts

    There’s a mysterious object from ancient Rome archaeologists still can’t figure out. 

    ARTS & CULTURE 

    Ancient Rome is one of the most well-studied civilizations on Earth, but there are some aspects of the culture that still puzzle researchers today. Among the oddest mysteries the Romans left behind are small, hollow dodecahedra— 12-sided objects — with no apparent purpose. These dodecahedra are usually about the size of a human fist or a baseball, although the ones that have been found by archaeologists range from1.5 inches to 4.5 inches tall. Each pane typically contains a differently sized hole between .2 and 1.5 inches wide, and each corner is marked by a spherical stud. The first one was unearthed in 1739, and more than 100 have been discovered since then, mostly around ancient Britain, Gaul, and Roman Germany.

    Despite having nearly 300 years to figure it out, archaeologists still aren’t even close to sure what the Gallo-Roman dodecahedra are for, but they do have some wildly disparate ideas. The objects could have been used for a game that’s disappeared from the historical record, for detecting counterfeit coins (some of them were even discovered in coin hoards), or as surveying tools. Names for the zodiac were found on one dodecahedron, leading some to believe that they could be used in astrology. Other ideas include a musical instrument, candle holder, child’s toy, calendar, or a gauge for water pipes.

  • Alaska State Flag

    Original photo by Joseph Sohm/ ShutterstockAlaska’s flag was created by a 13-year-old.Every flag has a story, but few are as endearing as Alaska’s. One of the rare places to have a flag before it was actually a state, the Last Frontier held a contest to design its territorial standard in 1926-27 — and a 13-year-old won. (The contest was only open to Alaskan children in the seventh to 12th grades, but still.) Benny Benson lived in an orphanage known as the Jesse Lee Home in Seward, Alaska, when he came up with the winning design, which included a descriptionhe wrote himself: “The blue field is for the Alaska sky and the forget-me-not, an Alaska flower. The North Star is for the future of the state of Alaska, the most northerly in the Union. The dipper is for the Great Bear – symbolizing strength.” His design also featured “1867” in commemoration of the year the United States bought Alaska from Russia, although the numbers didn’t make the final cut.

    In addition to being hailed as a local hero, Benson won a watch with his design on it and a $1,000 scholarship. He eventually used that money to attend Hemphill Diesel Engineering School after moving to Seattle in 1936. He was 45 when Alaska became a state in 1959, fulfilling the hopeful description of his design. Alaska kept its flag rather than adopt a new one, and Benson’s work lives on today.

  • Verify

    You get some great, amazingly fantastic news. What’s the first thing you do?

    Double check the sources and verify that the information I was given was accurate.

  • Still a law

    In Massachusetts, It’s Illegal to Scare a Pigeon

    Pigeons flying and hanging out on top of a roof.
    Credit: dadalan real/ Unsplash

    Since 1848, it has been illegal in the state of Massachusetts to not only kill a pigeon but also to purposefully frighten one from “beds which have been made for the purpose of taking them in nets.” Offenders face up to a month in prison as well as a $20 fine, and they’re also liable “for the actual damages to the owner or occupant of such beds.” According to Massachusetts Historical Society librarian Peter Drummey, the law was a sign of the times — in the 19th century, pigeons were both a food source for residents and used in target shooting, so the law was meant to protect hunters’ rights (rather than those of pigeons). While now outdated, the law, like many others in Massachusetts, has remained on the books.

  • Crowds

    Are there any activities or hobbies you’ve outgrown or lost interest in over time?

    I’ve lost interest in any event that requires being in the middle of a large crowd, concerts parties anything like that I no longer wish to participate in.