“We need to love the oppressed more than the oppressors. We need to see the world through the eyes of the most vulnerable people, and demand the same from every single one of our leaders.”

—Maxwell Alejandro Frost

Your newest favorite hooters girl? Maybe? 😜

1. A very accurate Florida T-shirt

2&3. Two nerdy mugs, would have bought the Jurassic park if I had kids

4. Weed shirt

5. Demonic pig that played pop goes the weasel then a fart noise when squeezed

Good afternoon daddy

Matt Gaetz is facing an investigation for underage sex trafficking and has had fundraising slow down to a drip. Now he’s been deemed ineligible to practice law in Florida.

This is one bar tab Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) may regret not paying.

Faced with an onslaught of accusations that he engaged in underage sex trafficking—and bracing for criminal charges—Gaetz allowed his license to practice law in his home state of Florida to lapse this month.

On Friday, The Daily Beast revealed that Gaetz had not paid the fees he owes to The Florida Bar, which regulates lawyers there. That mistake prompted the organization to deem him “delinquent” and “not eligible to practice law in Florida.”

The Real Florida

 Blowing Rocks Beach - Jupiter Island, Florida 1946 State Archives of Florida

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"Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous to be understood. How grass can be nourishing in the mouths of the lambs. How rivers and stones are forever in allegiance with gravity while we ourselves dream of rising. How two hands touch and the bonds will never be broken. How people come, from delight or the scars of damage, to the comfort of a poem. Let me keep my distance, always, from those who think they have the answers. Let me keep company always with those who say ”Look!” and laugh in astonishment, and bow their heads." Mary Oliver, “Mysteries, Yes” from Evidence

Yes, he did!! Go Ron! 🇺🇸

Everybody shut the HECK up and look at this

S H O R K

Little devil 😜

The above “Legislation Alert” from Democracy Docket ( founded by attorney Marc E. Elias) is truly disturbing. It appears the GOP “Big Brother” is  twisting the concept of “diversity” to try to interfere with academic freedom and to force universities to: a) either hire more conservative faculty and/or b) to force the widespread teaching of conservative political, social and economic theories on campuses. The courts should strike this down. 

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS (Please read)

1) SURVEYS WILL BE VOLUNTARY AND ANONYMOUS. Some time after posting the above “Legislative Alert” on my blog, it was brought to my attention that Politifact reported that although it will be mandatory for state higher education institutions to do these surveys, it will be voluntary for faculty, staff and students to complete them. They are also saying that the surveys are anonymous. 

Yet, according to the Tampa Bay Times, there is no guarantee in the Florida law that the surveys must be anonymous and no clarifications regarding who has access to “the data and for what purpose.”

2) THE POSSIBILITY OF SKEWED RESULTS. Still, according to  Clay Calvert, a University of Florida  free speech professor interviewed by Rolling Stone:

They’re mandating the survey, they’re not mandating that people fill it out. Those who are going to be motivated to fill it out are going to be the ones who feel aggrieved. Most students get tons of surveys every day and are just going to say, “Forget it, I’m not going to fill it out.” The middle kind of drops out. I think that’s going to skew the results. [emphasis added]

So, even if it is voluntary, the results might be skewed because they are more likely to be filled out by conservative students who are angry about progressive ideas discussed on campuses.

3) REGARDING ASKING ABOUT POLITAL VIEWS. The Florida Dept. of Education “spokesperson” told Politifact that they won’t be asking for the political views of respondents. HOWEVER, Politifact also said that the benchmark surveys (that “inspired” the Florida law) from the University of Colorado and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ask respondents about their political views/ “leanings”. So until the Florida surveys are completed (they haven’t even been written yet), it seems to me this last assurance should be taken with a grain of salt.  

4) DEFUNDING THREATS: There are other reasons to still be concerned about the bill. According to Rolling Stone:

In announcing the bill, DeSantis threatened to defund universities found to be “indoctrinating” students with what he described as “stale ideology.” What exactly is “stale ideology”? It’s up to Republicans and the state’s Board of Education, whose chairman doesn’t believe evolution should be taught as fact. [emphasis added]

According to constitutional law scholar Laurence Tribe:

5) NO PROTECTIONS FROM HATE SPEECH/ OFFENSIVE  SPEECH.  According to the Tampa Bay Times:

In addition to the survey, the measure DeSantis signed into law will bar university and college officials from limiting speech that “may be uncomfortable, disagreeable or offensive,”

What this suggests, according to The Oracle, is that hate speech/ offensive speech on Florida college campuses will now be allowed, including arguments in support of racism, sexism and homophobia. In addition, hate organizations like the KKK will be allowed to assemble on Florida campuses.

6) STUDENTS CAN TAPE RECORD PROFESSOR’S LECTURES WITHOUT CONSENT TO BE USED IN COMPLAINTS. According to an article in The Oracle: 

The bill would also allow students to videotape in class without consent if they feel it would aid them in a civil or criminal case, an act which is currently illegal under Florida’s Title XLVII wiretapping laws passed in 2016.

Here is the actual wording in the law:

In other words, it seems to me that many Florida professors may now be worried that anything they say could be audio or videotaped without their consent (or knowledge--it is easy enough to do so with a phone in a large lecture hall without a professor seeing it) and used against them in complaints and court cases by conservative students who are offended by any progressive ideas they express.

[ Posted 06.25.21; updated/ revised 06.28.21 and 07.04.21 ]

Giant hermit crab (Petrochirus diogenes)

This specimen is relatively small. P. diogenes is the world’s second-largest hermit crab species, growing large enough to inhabit a full sized queen conch shell and beaten only by the terrestrial coconut crab, which is a hermit crab that stops using shells when it matures.

I can only assume that the the “diogenes” in its name comes from some parallel drawn between the hermit crab’s shell and the philosopher’s habit of sleeping in a large jar.

(Florida, 2/27/21)

slavery exists today in commercial agriculture, with several cases just in Florida affecting 1200 people in the past 15 years

it’s important to acknowledge the domestic enslavement living through prisons and the police, but this system absolutely includes the borders and immigration laws, which exist to produce a slave class of workers who are quite literally non-citizens with no rights so that capitalists can exploit them and retaliate with deportation, often to homelands torn by war or poverty because of the U.S./the West.

there’s a book here, Fields of Resistance, that’s really informative. I’m in the middle of it but it’s been great so far

tldr: borders exist to enslave people

Abolish borders, abolish prisons, abolish ICE, abolish the police. They’re different machines of the same system

A late evening thunderstorm on the Overseas Highway from Homestead to Key West

Taken June 2021

Am I doing this right, dad?

This is a juvenile Sandhill crane (one of my favorite species!) learning how to forage from a very caring parent. Adult breeding pairs raise their babies together and these little chicks will stay with mom and dad for about 10-12 months. What a joy it is to see them learning how to be birds from their parents! As you can see from that cute little flop, it’s sometimes hard work.

Please be vigilant about your vote, especially so in battleground states like Florida and Georgia with Republican governors who have explicitly shown that they have no compunction about suppressing the vote.

Source

Florida Girl Saves The Day!