Category — Florida

The gold color is visible in the lower right. The threads are eight times stronger than steel, and some cultures actually use the webs to make fabrics.

I just started working on an apartment that has a new wrinkle in interior decoration: embedding live rounds in the grout between floor tiles. .25, .223, 9mm, etc. I’m working alone to reduce the possibility of an accident. I’ll try to remember to take some pictures.

Oh, I got pictures of my newest mosquito trap that I’ll post.

Update: I dug out enough rounds to fill a half gallon milk bottle.

In Florida concealed carry permits are issued by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. That Department is headed by Howdy Doody look-alike Adam Putnam, first cousin of Katherine Harris (Florida Secretary of State for the 2000 Presidential debacle) and they are grandchildren of Ben Hill Griffin who gave his name to the football stadium at the University of Florida, which is considered a good deal more important than Mount Rushmore. BHG was a major force in Florida agriculture and politics.

Putnam is running for governor, but currently has a bit of a problem – Report reveals Florida stopped doing gun permit checks for more than a year:

The state ultimately revoked 291 permits and fired an employee blamed for the lapse after an inspector general’s report detailing the problem was sent in June 2017 to top officials in the department who oversee the program. The Tampa Bay Times was the first to publish information about the report, which pointed out that the state failed to check the National Instant Criminal Background Check System from February 2016 to March 2017.

The claim is the fired employee was the sole problem. The employee states that she was working in the mail room, had no idea why she was assigned to do background checks, and didn’t know how to sign on to the Federal system.

The 291 permits revoked amounted to almost 80% of the permits that were approved by on a check of state records. Putnam prominently displays his NRA A+ rating for arming Florida, saying he wouldn’t have signed the recent changes to Florid laws that were approved following the Parkland shooting.

In order to generate “local excitement” [sell stuff] the chamber of commerce is once again annoying people with the Billy Bowlegs Festival. This year the unavoidable part runs from Friday, June 1^st and finishes up on Monday. The really obnoxious parade on Monday screws up traffic and sends a lot of noisy people through my neighborhood.

Almost as bad as the parade traffic jam are the Friday fireworks. I know a lot of people enjoy fireworks, but they probably have not seen what loud noises and flashes of light can do to people and aircraft – I am definitely not a fan.

With luck it will rain the rest of the week… 😈

The National Hurricane Center stopped issuing advisories on Alberto at 4AM CDT and handed it off to the Weather Prediction Center. Heavy rains from the storm are still a flood risk for the Mid-South and the Midwest.

Roseanne Barr started the day as the star of a highly rated sitcom on ABC and then posted a racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett, an advisor to former President Obama. She, the rest of the cast, and the show’s crew are now unemployed. ABC, a division of ‘The Mouse’ [Disney], dropped the show as they viewed the Tweet as a violation of network standards. Ms Barr claimed the tweet was a joke.

Invest 90L is becoming more organized and is forecast to be a sub-tropical or tropical depression over the weekend.

After spending more than $200 over the course of several months I was finally able to satisfy all of the absurd requirements of obtaining my Florida driver’s license that complies with the requirements of the RealID law. I have located my original “Certificate of Birth Registration” that is so fragile that it is subject to actually breaking if you aren’t careful and my original Social Security card, but the Certificate doesn’t have an impressed seal and the design of the Social Security card has changed, so I had to get new ones – a process that cost over $100 and took 2½ months (much of the expense was for ‘expedited handling’ and ‘next day shipping’).

Republicans don’t raise taxes, unless they call them fees so that they are free to double or triple them. 😈

Drumpf cancelled his summit after the North Koreans took umbrage over the threats from John Bolton and Mike Pence. Apparently the current administration isn’t aware of the diplomatic custom of not threatening to nuke people you are attempting to negotiate with. We are still waiting for Drumpf to actually sign a deal with anybody over anything… [Note: it is highly unlikely that the Trump-Kim ‘challenge coins’ will be delivered, or that there will be refunds for those who ordered them.]

Following the the old saw about “Even a blind hog might find an acorn”, when my Congresscritter Matt Gaetz started talking about a “cabal” at the FBI, I thought I would take a look. Now I don’t put a lot stock in the blitherings of frat bros, but something was bothering me about the Bureau.

There does seem to be an anomaly in the leadership of the FBI and its predecessors. In the 110 years of the existence of the organization there has never been a Democrat appointed to head the Bureau.

It’s time to bring in new leadership with a new philosophy and appoint someone like Eric Scheiderman, the current attorney general of New York. That would certainly refocus the Bureau on catching criminals. 😈

The NRA sues as Florida enacts its gun-control law. The NRA claims raising the age to purchase all guns to 21 and imposes a 3 day waiting period for all firearm violated the Constitutional rights of 18 to t0 20-year-olds.

You have had to be 21 and wait to purchase a handgun for years, so this is moving all guns to the same standard. Given that Pam Bondi is the Florida attorney general, the NRA might win at the trial court level but their argument is bogus. Florida isn’t the only place you have to be 21, and the biggest retailers are already moving in that direction.

The BBC reports Florida shooting: State lawmakers pass gun control measures.

Actually the Florida senate passed several measures: the age to buy any gun was raised to 21 and there is a 3-day waiting period for all guns; the sale or possession of “bump stocks” is illegal; and teaching personnel are exempt from the new armed school marshal program. The marshal program requires local school board approval.

This still has to pass the house and be signed by the governor. Marion Hammer is probably having a fit, but this is a tiny move in the direction that the legislature needs to take.

A Susie Madrak post at Crooks & Liars is the first place I saw this: Dick’s Sporting Goods Announces It Has Stopped Selling Assault Rifles. It counts as a “Hit”, but not for the reason the headline indicates. Dick’s stopped selling them at their flagship stores after Sandy Hook. They extended the ban corporate wide, including their Field and Stream stores that had continued to carry the weapons.. They got rattled because they discovered they sold Cruz a shotgun. The local store that sold Cruz the weapon he used has been closed for weeks with no indication if or when it will reopen.

The real story is the legislative agenda that Dick’s has endorsed – a ban on assault weapons, high capacity magazines, and bump stocks; fixes to the background check system including elimination of the prevate sale and gun show exemptions. Having a major sports equipment retailer backing reform is a serious boost to the efforts of the Parkland students.

Update: Now Walmart has raised the age to 21 to buy ammo or weapons.

As for Misses, Miss Hope Hicks will be missed at the White House as she has resigned her position as Communications Director to spend more time with her attorneys. This was after she spent the day before a Congressional committee and has the merry souls of the Mueller team to look forward to in the near future.

The KFC stores in Britain have been having supply problems caused by a change in vendors. Hundreds of locations have had to close because chicken wasn’t being delivered. Their published apology is how you do it. [I love British humor]

Stephanie Ruhle interviews a teacher who is a former Marine on the proposal to arm teachers. The teacher works in a middle school in Panama City [about 60 miles East of me]. Her bottom line – it’s a horrible idea.

Even Rick Scott, Florida’s governor, thinks it’s a bad idea.

Another bad idea that Marco Rubio still hasn’t figured out is: you diss the students of Parkland at your own peril. Teenagers aren’t going to put up with all of the tricks of politicians: “We should change the names of AR-15s to “Marco Rubio” because they are so easy to buy.” Sarah Chadwick.

Army Awards Medal For Heroism To 3 JROTC Cadets Killed In Florida Shooting

Peter Wang, a 15-year-old member of the Junior ROTC who was killed as he tried to help fellow students escape a mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., last week, has been posthumously admitted to the U.S. Military Academy.

Peter and two other freshman cadets, Martin Duque and Alaina Petty, both 14, were also awarded the Medal of Heroism — the highest medal given to Junior Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps cadets.

15-year-old student shot 5 times protecting Parkland classmates from gunfire

PARKLAND, Fla. – A 15-year-old student who was shot five times during last week’s massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is credited with saving the lives of at least 20 other students.

A fundraising site said Anthony Borges was shot in both legs and his back while attempting to close and lock a classroom door last Wednesday. Seventeen people were killed.

Donald Trump hosts White House ‘listening session’, says arming teachers could prevent school massacres. Fortunately Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel has a better idea: deputies will now carry AR-15 rifles on school grounds.

As for the power of guns to stop massacres: Florida school officer waited outside building for 4 minutes as killings happened, sheriff says

A Marjory Stoneman Douglas school resource officer has been suspended without pay after Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said video shows him taking up a defensive position during the shooting but never entering the school.

Israel announced Thursday that the decision to suspend Deputy Scot Peterson was made after reviewing video from the shooting and taking statements from witnesses and Peterson himself, Israel said.

“He should have went in, addressed the killer, killed the killer,” Israel said.

Peterson was armed and on campus during the shooting Israel said. Since he met the requirements for retirement, Peterson opted to resign after he was told he was being suspended, Israel said.

Having a gun doesn’t bestow magical powers and is no guarantee of safety.

CNN reports that students across Florida have walked out of class in support of the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who are lobbying in Tallahassee, Florida’s capital.

Someone should explain social media and cell phones to the rightwingers, because they don’t seem to understand the ability of students to organize. There are state-wide student organizations that reach from Key West to Jacksonville to Pensacola at the speed of light.

Update: Florida Republicans think that they can placate the MSD students by wearing a colored ribbon rather than doing anything about guns. Neither the students or parents are buying it.

CBS complied a list of 5 things that are more complicated than buying a gun in Florida.

There is no limit on the number of rifles you can buy at one time, so if you need to supply a couple of infantry regiments, this is the place to come to place your order. If you want to buy the original Sudafed, OTOH, you will want to go somewhere else.

We had a constitutional amendment approved to allow the dispensing of cannabis for medical purposes, and there has never been a death associated with the use of cannabis in the state, but be prepared to get a lot older while getting a prescription authorized and then filled at one of the few legal stores. Guns can be bought at Walmart, pawn shops, and sporting goods stores.