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.

  • Hope Agent Orange gets a new Suit…

    Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

    Let’s hear it for justice. Trump has not been able to wiggle out of the charges in DC. He will keep trying and the Supreme Court is probably trying to figure a way to help him. When he loses this election the justices may find themselves on the receiving end of sentencing and their title of little tin gods will go away.
    6 of the 9 seem to have the wrong take on who or what they are there to uphold. Three are definitely in the pocket of Trump. Two more are very much leaning in that direction and one is just thinking his position will keep him out of harm’s way. They have lost sight of the true force behind their appointments in favor of supporting a felon.
    He is also having difficulties and identifying Jan 6 as a “Day of Love” is just one of them. He has also said that the rioters that are being held are like the Japanese that were interned during WWII. The Japanese only crime was to be different and that is the cause of their being locked up. Needless to say, they are different so it would be justification for him to lock them up today.
    The entire world needs to heal the wounds that are causing so much grief. When you look at the basic cause it is the fact that people believe differently and everyone of them is convinced that the way they believe is the only correct way. If anyone is looking to Trump to lead the way on this issue they need to go back to the drawing board. The only thing he knows about the bible is that the ones with his name sell for $60 each.
    The idea that one power put all the world together and that power watches over all the people and critters on earth 24/7 seems implausible to say the least. There might be a bit of help offered from Santa Claus but that is about it. This being has created all these separate faiths to do what, confuse things like the tower of babble.
    These faiths all have their little quirks. There are requirements like praying multiple times a day, or donating 10th of your wealth to the church. The various churches have pastors, or inman, or priests. All seem to have a figurehead that has communications with the all mighty, or at least that’s what is said. This all powerful deity has got to have a massive headache most of the time listening to all the nonsense mankind puts out for why we are doing what we are doing to each other instead of looking out for each other. Think about it.

  • Why is Autumn called Fall

    The Etymology of the Word “Fall” Refers to Falling Leaves

    Prior to the terms “fall” and “autumn” making their way into the common lexicon, the months of September, October, and November were generally referred to as the harvest season, a time of year for gathering ripened crops. Some of the first recorded uses of the word “fall” date back to 1500s England, when the term was a shortened version of “fall of the year” or “fall of the leaf.” The 1600s saw the arrival of the word  “autumn,” which came from the French word automne and was popular among writers such as Chaucer and Shakespeare. By the 18th century, “autumn” became the predominant name for the season in England, though over the following century, the word “fall” would grow in popularity across the Atlantic. But while some proper British English linguists consider fall to be an Americanism, the term actually originated in England, and both “autumn” and “fall” are used interchangeably today.

  • Quote that defined Patriotism

    Photo credit: Bettmann via Getty Images

    “Ask Not What Your Country Can Do for You” (1961)

    President John F. Kennedy assumed office during a tumultuous time in America’s history. But right from his inaugural address, he conveyed a spirit of hope and idealism in a resonant quote that went on to define his presidency. “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country,” he famously said. 

    JFK’s inauguration, the first to be broadcast in color, was watched by some 38 million people. The speech, although credited principally to Kennedy, was also written by Kennedy’s longtime aide (and later, principal speechwriter) Ted Sorensen. Kennedy wanted a speech that would “set a tone for the era about to begin,” and he got just that. America was on the precipice of great social change, and the inaugural address encapsulated the country’s need for unity and the civic engagement the moment would call for. 

  • You can Lead a Horse to Water

    Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

    It is hard to imagine that almost 50% of our populus is willing to take their futures, and the futures of the rest of us, and flush them down the toilet. How are they going to do that? Simply by putting a mark beside Trump’s name on the ballot.
    These people have not listened to his rants about deportations, imprisonments, and not having to worry about voting ever again. He wants to be seen as one of his contemporaries and those are the dictators of this world. His focus is to become more wealthy than anyone else, and if put into office he will take what he wants from whomever he wants.
    There are no states in this nation that have not supplied troops to a war or conflict and he has called all those that served losers. They have gone off to protect the freedom that everyone enjoys even those that have never served, like Trump. So does the rest of the people in the states that are so solidly behind him also think of you as losers. If you vote for him then you most certainly are losers.
    We already know that this is going to be a contested election because if he loses we can expect to see the same crap as in 2020, his day of love as he described it. His transition team is supposed to have made arrangements with the White House staff in the event he wins and they have not done that. The reason is because they must stop taking money from outside sources when they sign, they don’t want to stop taking money. The main point is that rules are for others to obey, not Trump.
    So what are the reasons to vote for him? If you believe that he is religious you would be mistaken, and yet his line of nonsense seems to attract the religious. Mostly the ones that are convinced that skin color makes a difference. History tells us that that attitude is as old as the first humans. It is claimed that Neanderthal and Homosapien peoples were totally different and yet they must have been able to interbreed as there are people today with both genes in their DNA. The inability to reproduce with one another is the point of difference.
    When it comes to his having plans for the nation he has yet to express a positive idea. Do away with all social support, social security, medicare etc and ask yourselves can you really manage without these programs? How about the older members of your families, can they manage or are they all going to come live with you?
    His focus is get rid of immigrants, lock up opponents and drill baby drill. The need to extract more riches from the earth for personal gain is his real focus. What he leaves behind for your children and the future matters not, he will die with his name on as many things as he can put it on and he will be in the books as being the wealthiest and most powerful and that is all that counts.

  • Photos by Michelle

  • International Drinking Month

    One of the largest Oktoberfest celebrations in the world takes place in Ontario, Canada.

    Cooler weather, shorter days, and changing leaves are small harbingers of one undeniable truth: Oktoberfest is at hand. Most years (except 2020 and 2021) since 1810, the German town of Munich has erected massive beer tents (some capable of seating 6,000 people), tapped kegs filled with liquid masterpieces such as helles, Pilsner, and hefeweizen, and held the world-renowned beer celebration called Oktoberfest — the largest beer festival in the world. Although Germany will likely never relinquish their beer-guzzling crown, a few towns around the world hold similar Bavarian bashes that rival the original. One of the biggest is the Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest, held about 75 miles west of Toronto. Established with only $200 back in 1969, the festival has exploded in popularity in the ensuing decades, and regularly attracts more than 700,000 people — including Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who opened the 2016festival by tapping its first keg.

    While the event in Kitchener-Waterloo is a leading candidate for the world’s largest beer festival outside Germany, it does have some competitors. Its biggest rival comes from a country intimately familiar with throwing big parties: Brazil. Today, the town of Blumenau in southern Brazil is known as “Little Germany” because it was founded by German pharmacist Hermann Bruno Otto Blumenau in 1850 alongside 17 other German immigrants. Around 30% of the town is now of German descent, so it makes sense that Blumenau holds a 19-day-long Oktoberfest against the backdrop of the town’s German-style architecture. 

  • Drill Baby Drill

    Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

    The conservatives in the heart of the nation seem to be leaning in the direction of putting Trump back in office. Many in this area of the country depend on farming for a living as we depend on them to keep doing that task and keep us fed. That area of the country has been found to contain deposits of oil and one of Trump’s comments was that if he is back in office it will be “drill baby drill”.

         Along with the drilling comes the maintenance of those wells which oftentimes includes fracking and that endangers the water table which is already low. So tell me again why this is a good idea. We can use oil for a lot of stuff, but we can not eat it and the production of oil does not exceed the life of our citizens. All this production creates is more money in the pockets of men like Trump that do not give a crap about anything but getting rich.

        The drilling is to take place in public grounds, what were national parks and national forest, anywhere there may be mineral wealth to be gained. The reason to take mercury off the dangerous chemical list is because it is a quick and cheap test for gold. Everyone needs to pay attention to everything. The sleight of hand tricks to distract are nothing more than a way to keep everyone watching one thing while another thing is taking place.

        If the predictions of a 100 year drought are real then we need to protect the water we have and learn to use it sparingly. A lot has been said about global warming and since this is halfway through Oct and the Phoenix area still has temperatures above 100 there could be some truth in the theory. 

        The idea that we need fossil fuel to produce electric power is not true. We have spots in the country that have lots of natural geothermal heat and we can use that for power production along with solar and wind. Tapping into that heat source may help us regulate the potential destructive power that is there, like YellowStone. That heat is present outside the park so we need not detract from that, but there is very little reason to not utilize the natural power that is there. If places like Iceland have managed to live with and prosper from having active volcanoes under foot we can do the same.

  • Bet you didn’t know, probably didn’t care…

    Bananas are curved because they grow toward the sun.

    Considering most fruits have a spherical or ovate shape, the average banana’s long, curved appearance is something of an anomaly. This unique curvature is due to a scientific concept called negative geotropism, where the stem flexes upward as the plant grows, rather than being pulled straight down by the forces of gravity. While most fruits simply absorb sunlight and grow downward toward or into the earth, bananas begin to curve as they strive to find sufficient sunlight to fuel their growth. This has to do with the unique presence of photosensitive hormones called auxins, which influence how bananas react to light. 

    Some bananas grow in lush rainforests with dense canopies, which can obscure the fruit from getting enough light. In these cases, bananas will grow toward the sky to break through the light-blocking canopy. But negative geotropism still occurs even in other environments where there’s plenty of direct sunlight. The auxins are distributed unevenly along the side of the banana facing the sun, triggering accelerated growth on that side and causing the fruit to curve away from the earth’s gravitational pull. 

    In the very early stages of development, bananas actually grow at a straight downward angle, only developing their signature shape later on. As the fruit matures, it will begin to flex upward in search of additional sustenance. But even as this happens, gravitational forces will continue to pull the banana down toward the ground and away from the sun. This combination is what ultimately gives bananas their distinct curve.

  • Photos by Michelle

    Autumn in Bloom
  • Incongruency

    Dwain Northey (Gen X)

    There is an incongruency with our system that is blaring to me but is ignored or accepted as part of capitalism. The problem I see is that as a consumer based, capital driven system why have been putting processes in place to consolidate wealth, i.e. capital, in the hands of a very few privileged people or families. The system only survives if the consumer base meets or exceeds the demand of products and services offered in a marketplace. That to me is Econ 101.  

    Warren Buffet one of the wealthiest men on the planet has made an argument for this inequity when it comes to taxation, “Why should someone of great wealth have a significantly lower tax burden by percentage than a middle or lower wage earner?” That is a great question and the answer, as always, comes down to greed and those with unlimited resources have the means to manipulate the systems so that they get to keep what they have while still taking advantage of the infrastructure, usually on a greater scale, that all our taxes provide.

    The tax issues are off topic from what I am attempting to address… When the group that are the primary consumers do not have the available income to purchase goods and services the monolithic capitalism system collapse. Warren Buffet has made the comparison that he only owns a few pairs of jeans, a few pairs of shoes, a couple suits, just like most everyone and the fact that he has more money does not increase his need for those items. The point being that he and other like him are not actively putting money back into the marketplace and their collective hording of capital does not help the economy at large.

    Notoriously ignored fact for example, SNAP is good for local economies – each dollar in federally funded SNAP benefits generates $1.79 in economic activity. Census Bureau data also show the crucial importance of federal nutrition programs and other supports for low-income families. Every dollar that a multi-millionaire put into the bank or into stock only benefits themselves. The government COVID relief kept our economy alive, most individuals saw the money from the stimulus check as replacement of this lost income, and thus, used it to pay for expenses, such as food, that would typically be bought using their regular income. That meant that most of the relief money went right back into the economy, wealthy individuals that received those funds just looked at it as another boon to their personal wealth.

    So, I will pose the question again; How can we maintain a consumer based economy if the vast majority of the consumers do not have the expendable income to consume?