Florida surf and turf.
Pictures from my trip:
Me
Lobster, pt 2
Me
Lobster
The last Wednesday and Thursday of July each year brings the most Florida of events to the state: mini Season. Each year, thousands of people from all over the state head to the Atlantic ocean to hunt. Lobster. I usually look forward to this, and sure enough, my son and I went.
I made sure that I was not scheduled to work during mini season this year, because we didn’t go last year due to the lock downs. I packed up my SCUBA gear and headed down south with my new, $27 dollar fishing license. We managed four dives to a maximum of 95 feet and had some good father son bug hunting time. We were in West Palm Beach, within sight of Mar A Lago, about a mile and a half offshore.
The water was cool for this time of year, but there was plenty of visibility and plenty of wildlife. We had a great time, and there will be more posting later today.
economics
Spin tobacco
The CEO of Phillip Morris surprised many this week by saying the company wants to get out of the cigarette market. This doesn’t surprise me in the least. As a (former) teacher, I can tell you that cigarette smoking is almost unheard of among teens.
What is popular with teens is vaping. Vapes come in different flavors: bubble gum, Tutti Fruity, Watermelon, Cotton Candy, and other candy flavors are enticing a new generation of customers into smoking at a time when cigarette smoking just isn’t cool anymore, and that doesn’t even address the vapes that contain cannabis. Most of the kids in high school are vaping.
Two years ago, Jim Cramer did a story on how vapes were killing the cigarette industry. If you were surprised by this, you haven’t been paying attention.
Government
Twisting the facts
The press is surprised that a person making MINIMUM wage can’t afford the MEDIAN cost of renting a two bedroom apartment in Florida. This is largely because they apparently don’t understand math. The minimum of anything will, by definition, not be the same as the median.
“Right now, the University of Florida estimated in 2020 that almost 70,000 metro households in Orlando and surrounding areas earning 50% of the area median income or less are paying more than 50% of income on their housing. That is not sustainable,”
Median income in Orlando for a household is $61,876, but this includes two incomes (pdf alert). A household with one wage earner would of course earn half of that, or about $31,000. I can’t believe a college had to study this, it seems like common sense to me.
A person making minimum wage (currently $8.65, soon to be $10.00) would make half of the individual income, or a quarter of the median household income.
“If they have children, we’re talking three to four full time jobs at minimum wage and obviously that is not something a single parent can do,” Nazworth said.
They are of course ignoring two things: If you make minimum wage, don’t have kids, and those who do aren’t forced to pay rent without assistance. They are actually making more than the rest of us. Read an older post on this, and see that a woman making minimum wage gets another $40,000 a year in benefits from the government.
A single mother with four children who earns $2,500 a year in a part time job (that works out to 6 hours a week at minimum wage) gets another $40,000 in government benefits.
But landlords are the greedy ones here.
War on the Right
Propaganda
Take a few minutes to read this article and see if it sounds like propaganda to you.
They took a Klan murder case from 2017 and have twisted it into a story implicating police and Trump supporters. A quote:
During the Jan. 6 insurrection in the U.S. Capitol, “Thin Blue Line” flags flew alongside white supremacist signs and banners, and more than 30 current and former police officers from a number of departments around the nation were identified as attendees.
Then the piece goes on:
On a recent visit to the prison where the three klansmen worked, numerous cars and trucks in the employee and volunteer parking lots were decorated with symbols associated with white supremacy: Confederate flags, QAnon symbols and Thin Blue Line flag decals.
Couple this with statements that white supremacy is the largest threat to the nation, and you see where this is headed. Anyone associated with the thin blue line, Jan 6, or other people accused of racism will be enemies of the people.
This is called “othering,” a tactic where you cause people to think of those you wish to eliminate as being outside of the herd, less than human. The racism tag is how that is being done.
Presidency
Lost Biscuit
How did I miss this story? It seems that Bill Clinton once lost the nuclear codes for months. Too busy chasing pussy, I guess. Why does it seem that we always elect idiots? Things like this, more than anything, have me convinced that our government should remain powerless.
At least when the current President decides to nuke gun owners, we stand a chance of the codes being lost.
Cancel Culture
Cancel culture
A guy in Sweden was getting a BJ from his girlfriend. They were both underage. He took a picture of her blowing him, albeit without her knowledge. He then showed it to his teammates. She eventually found out and called the cops. He was arrested and had to pay a fine.
Now I am not sure what exactly was in the photo because the cops sealed the record, as both of the people involved were minors. It couldn’t have been all that bad though, because the only penalty was a fine. The charges were “Kränkande fotografering” (offensive photography constituting an invasion of privacy) and “Förtal” (defamation).
Flash forward a year, and the young man, now 18, is about to enter the NHL draft. The story of what happened hits the news, and thanks to cancel culture, he was forced to withdraw his name from the draft.
Since the records were sealed, how did this hit the news? The woman scorned decided to give an interview to the media because the young man didn’t apologize to her. So, for the crime of not being sufficiently contrite, she decides to activate her victim status and ruin his life. Note: when the young man told his friends what he did, the round heeled woman had her reputation irreparably damaged, but when SHE did it, well that makes her an innocent victim.
Who is the real victim here? The woman endured a short period of embarrassment for being a tramp. Now he must endure the destruction of his entire life’s goal of being an NHL player, even though he already paid the penalty for his crime.
Well, the Montreal Canadiens drafted him anyway. The left has gone apoplectic. The press is hammering them for daring to give this canceled pariah a job. Good for the Canadiens, and that little whore needs to just get over herself.
War on the Right
We are all terrorists now
Facebook, Microsoft, Verizon, and other tech companies are using what they call a “counterterrorism” organization that was originally intended for Muslim terrorists to go after the right. One of the pictures used is a three percenter who was at Stone Mountain as an example of “far right terrorist militia.”
Conspicuously absent is any mention of the NFAC, a violent black terrorist organization, who were also present at Stone Mountain, BLM, or Antifa, who did billions in damages and killed hundreds last summer.
COVID
Fact check
Vox Populi posted a link to a story about the passing of the CEO of UF Health, along with an insinuation that his death was related to the COVID vaccine.
Time after time, we caution the left not to attempt to spin a story about mass shootings before all of the facts are in. It appears that the same should apply to the right. The CEO of UF Health died from injuries sustained in a jet ski accident.
Police State
Avoid biometrics
Do not lock your electronic devices using biometrics. The courts are twisting the Constitution as another end run towards tyranny