Truth is, I fell for it at first too. It's totally believable given the rest of the stuff going on.
I believed it, though it baffled me when I saw the painting, until I read to the end. If billy.pilgrim had posted it on 4/1 I would have swallowed it whole.
A clown with a flamethrower still has a flamethrower.
-- Charlie Sykes on MSNBC
1312. ETTD.
If Republicans keep this up they will lose in the general election by even more than Trump did in 2020. Do they know that women now have the right to vote?
A women rarely knows if she's pregnant after 6 weeks. This makes absolutely NO sense.
Our country is becoming the humanitarian crisis we used to fight against.
Republicans love the government all over their citizens' lives. Can't do this, can't do that. Ban this, ban that. Whatever happened to small government?
Florida, once known as "God's waiting room".....now better known as "The toilet next to God's waiting room".........
A clown with a flamethrower still has a flamethrower.
-- Charlie Sykes on MSNBC
1312. ETTD.
Florida’s state education board voted Wednesday to ban teaching students about sexual orientation and gender identity through high school, expanding the scope of a contentious state law that last year thrust Gov. Ron DeSantis to the forefront of the cultural clash over classrooms.
The law DeSantis signed last year prohibited the instruction of these topics from kindergarten through third grade or in a way that was not age appropriate for all other grades. The decision Wednesday by the State Board of Education clarified that outside of health or reproductive courses, such instruction is not appropriate at any grade level.
Teachers who violate the new state policy could be suspended or have their teaching licenses revoked.
Good, kids shouldn't learn about such things in school but rather from TikTok and PornHub.
... Florida lawmakers were already considering legislation to extend the prohibition to eighth grade, which also prohibited teachers from using students’ preferred pronouns and banned schools from requiring a student be called by a sex that differs from what is on their birth certificate. It’s one of several bills related to LGBTQ topics that is quickly moving through the state legislature this session.
Later Wednesday, lawmakers will consider a bill that allows the state to fine, suspend or revoke the license of an establishment that allows children into an “adult live performance,” widely interpreted by LGTBQ advocates as a crackdown on drag shows. The Republican-controlled legislature is also expected to take up a bill that would ban gender affirming health care for minors.
Time for an organized Florida boycott.
A clown with a flamethrower still has a flamethrower.
-- Charlie Sykes on MSNBC
1312. ETTD.
Ya know, if Florida was a real foreign country, the US would probably slap sanctions on it for human rights abuses. I wouldn't be surprised if the feds start making noises about cutting federal funding for the school system. Florida is rapidly turning into a Taliban-style banana republic. As much as I used to love the place, I'm not likely to step foot there again.
Florida’s state education board voted Wednesday to ban teaching students about sexual orientation and gender identity through high school, expanding the scope of a contentious state law that last year thrust Gov. Ron DeSantis to the forefront of the cultural clash over classrooms.
The law DeSantis signed last year prohibited the instruction of these topics from kindergarten through third grade or in a way that was not age appropriate for all other grades. The decision Wednesday by the State Board of Education clarified that outside of health or reproductive courses, such instruction is not appropriate at any grade level.
Teachers who violate the new state policy could be suspended or have their teaching licenses revoked.
Good, kids shouldn't learn about such things in school but rather from TikTok and PornHub.
... Florida lawmakers were already considering legislation to extend the prohibition to eighth grade, which also prohibited teachers from using students’ preferred pronouns and banned schools from requiring a student be called by a sex that differs from what is on their birth certificate. It’s one of several bills related to LGBTQ topics that is quickly moving through the state legislature this session.
Later Wednesday, lawmakers will consider a bill that allows the state to fine, suspend or revoke the license of an establishment that allows children into an “adult live performance,” widely interpreted by LGTBQ advocates as a crackdown on drag shows. The Republican-controlled legislature is also expected to take up a bill that would ban gender affirming health care for minors.
Time for an organized Florida boycott.
I love boycotting. I started boycotting fast food over 50 years ago and I think it’s beginning to work.
Poor pitiful me can't eat fresh out of season strawberries harvested.by abused contained immigrants. Oh well, fresh frozen, self picked will.have to do.
Trump: “We had the safest border in the history of our country - or at least recorded history. I guess maybe a thousand years ago it was even better.”
I love boycotting. I started boycotting fast food over 50 years ago and I think it’s beginning to work.
Poor pitiful me can't eat fresh out of season strawberries harvested.by abused contained immigrants. Oh well, fresh frozen, self picked will.have to do.
"abused contained immigrants"?
A clown with a flamethrower still has a flamethrower.
-- Charlie Sykes on MSNBC
1312. ETTD.
In Sri Lanka wild elephants don't eat tea plants because of the bitter alkaloids, but they were destroying other nearby vegetation including trees. So, the farmers quit applying herbicides to their tea. The elephants do the selective weeding for them, while also dropping fertilizer in the fields. Now, the tea is 100% organic.
A clown with a flamethrower still has a flamethrower.
-- Charlie Sykes on MSNBC
1312. ETTD.
In Sri Lanka wild elephants don't eat tea plants because of the bitter alkaloids, but they were destroying other nearby vegetation including trees. So, the farmers quit applying herbicides to their tea. The elephants do the selective weeding for them, while also dropping fertilizer in the fields. Now, the tea is 100% organic.
I love elephants.
Eamus Catuli~AC 000000000101010202020303010304 020405....Ahhhh, forget it, it's gonna be a while.
I love boycotting. I started boycotting fast food over 50 years ago and I think it’s beginning to work.
Poor pitiful me can't eat fresh out of season strawberries harvested.by abused contained immigrants. Oh well, fresh frozen, self picked will.have to do.
"abused contained immigrants"?
It's much better than it was even 10 years ago, but there are still pay and sexual assaults. Leaving ain't always easy.
Trump: “We had the safest border in the history of our country - or at least recorded history. I guess maybe a thousand years ago it was even better.”
I love boycotting. I started boycotting fast food over 50 years ago and I think it’s beginning to work.
Poor pitiful me can't eat fresh out of season strawberries harvested.by abused contained immigrants. Oh well, fresh frozen, self picked will.have to do.
"abused contained immigrants"?
It's much better than it was even 10 years ago, but there are still pay and sexual assaults. Leaving ain't always easy.
"contained" confused me, as does "pay" now.
Edit: Ah, O Really cleared up the "pay" reference for me.
Last edited by Vrede too on Sun Apr 23, 2023 6:01 pm, edited 2 times in total.
A clown with a flamethrower still has a flamethrower.
-- Charlie Sykes on MSNBC
1312. ETTD.
Interesting (somewhat dated but probably still true) 2019 article about California farmworkers. Current minimum wage for farm workers is $15.50, and average actual earnings is about $28,500, reflecting the seasonal aspect of the work.
“The farm labor supply is declining, and farmers are responding by changing their production practices,” said the study’s co-author, Zachariah Rutledge, a doctoral student in the UC Davis Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. “These results are important because they show how big of a problem this is for California farmers, and they suggest that the problem is not going to go away in the near future.”
...
In the recent survey, 56 percent of respondents reported that they were not able to hire the number of workers they desired at some point during the previous five years. Of those reporting recent labor shortages, 70 percent said they had more trouble hiring people in 2017 and 2018. Among the survey’s other findings:
86 percent of farmers responding to the survey said they had raised wages in efforts to hire enough people
61 percent reported they had hired a farm labor contractor to recruit employees
37 percent said they had adjusted cultivation practices by, for example, reducing or delaying weeding and pruning
31 percent of farmers reported changing the acreage of their main crop, and some of this group reported switching acreage to less labor-intensive crops
In California alone, farmers and ranchers hire nearly 473,000 employees during peak season. Experts calculate, according to the survey, that 50 to 70 percent of the hired workers are not authorized to work in the United States.
Ya know, if Florida was a real foreign country, the US would probably slap sanctions on it for human rights abuses. I wouldn't be surprised if the feds start making noises about cutting federal funding for the school system. Florida is rapidly turning into a Taliban-style banana republic. As much as I used to love the place, I'm not likely to step foot there again.
... In a Saturday press release, the civil rights organization better known as the NAACP said the travel warning comes as Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, “attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools”.
“Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color,” the advisory said....
Other groups have also warned against travel to Florida. Equality Florida, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, issued a travel advisory in April because of laws targeting LGBTQ+ rights, the Washington Post reported.
In a separate advisory, the Florida Immigrant Coalition said “traveling to Florida is dangerous”, warning that people of color, international travelers and those with an accent faced a higher risk of racial profiling and harassment....
Numerous police officers lured to new jobs in Florida with cash from Governor Ron DeSantis’s flagship law enforcement relocation program have histories of excessive violence or have been arrested for crimes including kidnapping and murder since signing up, a study of state documents has found.
DeSantis, who is expected to launch his campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination this week, has spent more than $13.5m to date on the recruitment bonus program, which he touted in 2021 as an incentive to officers in other states frustrated by Covid-19 vaccination mandates.
COVIDiocy, figures.
“This will go a long way to ensuring we can have the best and the brightest filling our law enforcement ranks,” Florida’s Republican attorney general, Ashley Moody, said in April last year as DeSantis announced one-time $5,000 bonuses for new recruits.
However, among the almost 600 officers who moved to Florida and received the bonus – or were recruited in state – are a sizable number who either arrived with a range of complaints against them, or have since accrued criminal charges, the online media outlet Daily Dot has discovered.
an officer with the Miramar police department fired for domestic battery and kidnapping; and a former member of the New York police department (NYPD) who was hired by the Palm Beach police department having once been accused of an improper sexual proposition.
That officer, named by the Daily Dot as Daniel Meblin, was also part of a $160,000 settlement by the NYPD for violence at a 2020 protest against the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in which officers were accused of beating Black males without provocation....
For its report, the Daily Dot matched information from the 50-a and NYPD databases, as well as published media reports, to officers’ names listed by the state.
It says it uncovered “an exodus” of officers to Florida law enforcement agencies from the NYPD in the wake of a backlash against the department for its brutal handling of racial justice protests in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.
Among them were at least two dozen officers whose names matched those on the NYPD’s civilian complaint review board database, including some who, according to those complaints, “unlawfully pepper sprayed, assaulted, and pointed their firearms at suspects, as well as used chokeholds and offensive language regarding race and ethnicity”.
Racist abusers, also figures.
... Another former New York officer now employed in Florida was involved in two deaths, one of which led to a $100,000 civil settlement, the Daily Dot reported. And in October 2022, the Apopka police department hired as an officer Justin Burgos, 19, the son of a retired NYPD deputy inspector, who a year earlier was charged with reckless endangerment, reckless driving and obstruction of governmental administration for driving his car into protesters in Manhattan calling for the firing of an officer accused of beating a Black suspect....
Florida's "finest".
Tennessee, you're up.
A clown with a flamethrower still has a flamethrower.
-- Charlie Sykes on MSNBC
1312. ETTD.
I wondered if you fell for the April Fools joke or if you were sarcastically thanking O Really for being a spoiler. Always read to the end:
You go, greasy nude Florida man.
, I've been watching NatGeo's 
.
.