America - The Official Thread

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ryzno
We do not! TYVM!
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Egg salad or Pimento?
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Your government certainly does. However, outside of that, Georgia is a really nice state. I went with my grandpa on a golf trip there years and years ago, besides the humidity which was laughably bad, it was fantastic, particularly Savannah and Brunswick. I've been to some island off the coast too, Tybee maybe? A buddy lived in South Carolina and we went to some beachfront place there that was own by someone in his family. All I remember is paying way too much for crab. I didn't really like Atlanta all that much since it's just another concrete jungle that looks like every other city and is more or less a place to change planes, but seeing all the Olympic stuff was pretty neat.

Really, given the choice, I'd rather go to Georgia than Florida if I was taking a trip to that area of the country.
 
Joey D
Your government certainly does. However, outside of that, Georgia is a really nice state. I went with my grandpa on a golf trip there years and years ago, besides the humidity which was laughably bad, it was fantastic, particularly Savannah and Brunswick. I've been to some island off the coast too, Tybee maybe? A buddy lived in South Carolina and we went to some beachfront place there that was own by someone in his family. All I remember is paying way too much for crab. I didn't really like Atlanta all that much since it's just another concrete jungle that looks like every other city and is more or less a place to change planes, but seeing all the Olympic stuff was pretty neat.
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The best part of Georgia is definitely the coast, like Savannah and Brunswick as you highlight. [Edit: I should say my best experience.]

I've been to Savannah, Decatur and Athens. I've technically been to Atlanta by way of ATL and visiting briefly before the return trip, and Athens was pretty limited to UGA.

R.E.M. and Guadalcanal Diary are out of Georgia (both Athens, as it happens), so that's something.

Joey D
Really, given the choice, I'd rather go to Georgia than Florida if I was taking a trip to that area of the country.
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I'd rather go to the proctologist than Florida.
 
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The only reason that I can think of that I would visit Florida would be to see Cape Canaveral. Otherwise I think I'll pass on the oppressive humidity and risk of becoming an alligator's lunch.
 
TexRex
R.E.M. and Guadalcanal Diary are out of Georgia (both Athens, as it happens), so that's something.
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Georgia had an amazing music scene back in the ‘80s. The B-52s, The Swimming Pool Q’s, Pylon and Love Tractor are just a few more I can think of off the top of my head.

TexRex
I'd rather go to the proctologist than Florida.
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I do want to ride a motorcycle the length of the Florida Keys before they disappear completely. I might even be able to do that this year if I’m careful.
 
Populuxe Cowboy
Georgia had an amazing music scene back in the ‘80s. The B-52s, The Swimming Pool Q’s, Pylon and Love Tractor are just a few more I can think of off the top of my head.
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Athens was huge for alternative; Widespread Panic and Matthew Sweet are a couple of other notables.

I'd all but completely forgotten about Swimming Pool Q's.
 
NotThePrez
some cool races
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jawdrop.gif
 
Nothing damning for Gaetz, but certainly shows off his disgusting nature.
Gaetz allegedly showed off to other lawmakers photos and videos of nude women he said he had slept with, the sources told CNN, including while on the House floor. The sources, including two people directly shown the material, said Gaetz displayed the images of women on his phone and talked about having sex with them. One of the videos showed a naked woman with a hula hoop, according to one source.
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https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/01/poli...content=2021-04-01T22:33:46&utm_source=twCNNp

Literally a frat house for him I guess.
 
McLaren
Nothing damning for Gaetz, but certainly shows off his disgusting nature.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/01/politics/matt-gaetz-photos-women/index.html?utm_medium=social&utm_term=image&utm_content=2021-04-01T22:33:46&utm_source=twCNNp

Literally a frat house for him I guess.
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Jeez, is this for real?! Never have I wished more for the date of this article to be relevant...

Objectively, however, I think the story about whether his alleged extortion for twenty-five million dollars is true is way more important.
 
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This is fun.

Marjorie Taylor Greene offers bills to fire Fauci, ban vaccine passports

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) introduced two bills Thursday that would eliminate Anthony Fauci’s salary and ban vaccine passports.

Greene’s Fire Fauci Act would cut the salary for Fauci, the government’s leading infectious diseases expert, to zero. It is unclear if such a cut could be authorized even if the legislation is passed.

According to the conservative firebrand, the cut would be made until a new director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is “confirmed by the Senate.” However, that position's appointment is not subject to Senate confirmation.

The We Will Not Comply Act would “ban” vaccine passports — documents that show that Americans have been vaccinated — by prohibiting businesses engaged in interstate commerce from using them to allow patrons to access their services.

Neither bill is expected to pass the Democratic-controlled House and Senate, but the legislation marks an escalation of Greene’s criticism of the federal guidance regarding the pandemic.

Greene, who has already faced backlash for a slew of controversial remarks and support for conspiracy theories, has garnered new pushback over her criticism of health guidelines, which detractors say could curtail Americans' trust in public guidance on the virus.

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) said the new pieces of legislation are examples “of why Members of Congress need good staff.”

“Helps prevent us from introducing stupid, nonsensical bills,” he tweeted.



Greene is not alone in her criticism of Fauci and vaccine passports.

Other GOP lawmakers have slammed Fauci over what they view as missteps in the early days of the pandemic. And a number of governors have railed against vaccine passports, which could be used to grant access to certain activities, buildings or events.

Fauci most recently clashed with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) last month when the Kentucky senator said masks were “theater.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) earlier this week urged his state’s GOP-controlled legislature to pass a law forbidding the passports.

Democrats have said such remarks could further undermine trust in federal health guidance, which already appears to be low among Republican men.

Last month, a PBS NewsHour-NPR-Marist poll found that 49 percent of Republican men would not receive a coronavirus vaccine.
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The little idiot woman's inane and insane attacks on Fauci are obviously garnering the attention right now, and they're undoubtedly part of Trump's legacy, but the proposed prohibitions on vaccine passports--floated by the private sector--are peculiar. Weren't Republicans supposed to advocate for the rights of businesses to operate as they see fit? They've lost the plot. Trumpism is dominating the GOP.
 
NotThePrez
*Reads thread, tries to think of reasons to defend home state...*

We have.....some cool races, and The Keys & Everglades....

....and that's all I've got.
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No need to defend anything.
I'm on the beach down here in SWFL and love it, have for years. Born in and left NY, travelled all 50 states and 17 countries for15 years and I chose Florida. I did really enjoy most west coast locals, especially Kona. Hated Alaska. Wish there was a way to pull up all the IP addresses I've logged into GTP with.
 
NotThePrez
*Reads thread, tries to think of reasons to defend home state...*

We have.....some cool races, and The Keys & Everglades....

....and that's all I've got.
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Florida isn't bad as long as you don't go inland. When I was in Stuart a few years back, my wife went with her parents to do something I had no interest in doing so I took the rental car and went exploring. I made the mistake of wanting to go to Sebring and seeing Lake Okeechobee along the way. I stopped in some hick town for gas since I had a V8 Camaro as a rental car and I drove it like it was a V8 rental car. I'm honestly surprised there weren't banjos playing in the background when I got out of the car. The absolute best thing was the clearly teenage mom holding her baby in one hand and holding a cigarette in the other while yelling at some stoned-looking dude in redneck about getting something. It was, how do you say, methed up.

After leaving Sebring, I went to Lakeland to see where the Tigers spring training home was and that city was pretty normal, but on my way back to Stuart I had to get gas again in a place called Yeehaw Junction which was exactly how I imagined it would be.

Thankfully, you're in St. Pete and the Tampa Bay area isn't too bad. I had an uncle that lived in Tarpon Springs and my grandparents had a winter home next to Tampa Bay Downs so I've been down around that area a few times. Fun memories of my first trip too when I was like seven and my family thought an appropriate place to take a boy was to the horse track and then allow him to bet on horses. And my parents wonder where my gambling addiction came from.

===

Thinking about defending your state, outside the natural beauty of Utah I can't think of many redeeming qualities. I mean the natural beauty is fantastic though. So it's a great place to visit but not really live.
 
TexRex
Other GOP lawmakers have slammed Fauci over what they view as missteps in the early days of the pandemic.
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I made a post on Reddit comparing the results of Ohio and Florida in response to a stupid article comparing states like Idaho to New York. Because density is key in disease spread, I chose Ohio and Florida for their similar makeup but very different initial Covid policies, and their similar choices later on in the year. The data is clear.

I like how they're directly comparing the least densely populated states where every aspect of the population is suburban density at most, to states where an average mid-size city has as much population as those entire states, and where population density is an order of magnitude higher. Population density is one of the most important factors in disease spread.

The data is clear when you compare similar states. Ohio and Florida have similar densities, but Ohio was one of the earliest adopters of Covid restrictions. Ohio also had a very slow rise in cases and deaths throughout 2020 - we did a pretty good job of managing things and our reasonable density and suburban population helped with that.

But Florida was not an early adopter of restrictions. They resisted strongly, and despite their marginal density increase over Ohio (mostly thanks to Miami) they suffered an enormous boom in Covid cases in June and July, with several weeks of over 5,000 new cases per day and several days of near 15,000 per day while Ohio at the time had only several hundred per day rising to about 1,500 by the end of July. This was about the time Florida enacted their restrictions. Despite that, FL never achieved levels as low as Ohio - we averaged about 1,000 new cases per day all summer long until October, while Florida had a minimum of 1,500 per day during the same period, averaging over 2,200 per day for the lowest week during that period, more than double, despite having less than double the population and a similar density. And their cases climbed steadily all summer long while Ohio's remained low and stable, until both states lifted restrictions in October.

Ohio and Florida did an equally bad job over winter, Ohio's weekly average being about 9,000 while Florida's was about 15,000 which is a good comparison given population differences with similar density. However, this spring Ohio's new case weekly average has dropped back down to 1,500-2,000 while Florida's hasn't dropped below 4,500 and is currently climbing over 5,000 per day, considerably more than double despite less than double the population. And that's during vaccine rollouts with very similar vaccination rates, 29% single-shot in Ohio and 27% in Florida.

So now the results are in. We've got two Republican-led states with similar densities and Covid restrictions which at some points were vastly different and other points were very similar. Throughout most of 2020 Ohio did a considerably better job at managing Covid while Florida was one of the worst in the country. When restrictions were lifted too early in October, we found out that both states had similar results for similar densities. Ultimately, Ohio's total results have handily outperformed Florida's even after correcting for population differences.

And unemployment differences are marginal: In Feb, 4.7 in Florida and 5.0 in Ohio. In fact, while Ohio's unemployment rate has historically been slightly higher than Florida for several years, and it did peak higher than Florida's in April 2020 as expected, for the most part the two states have equaled each other throughout the pandemic, trading places several times with Florida actually taking a notable lead in July 2020. So, Ohio enacts faster and harder restrictions in spring 2020, suffers an initial unemployment hit, but throughout 2020 it stabilizes and matches Florida who had very little employment advantage but an enormous spread of Covid cases which Ohio didn't have.
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...

Joey D
Florida isn't bad as long as you don't go inland. When I was in Stuart a few years back, my wife went with her parents to do something I had no interest in doing so I took the rental car and went exploring. I made the mistake of wanting to go to Sebring and seeing Lake Okeechobee along the way. I stopped in some hick town for gas since I had a V8 Camaro as a rental car and I drove it like it was a V8 rental car. I'm honestly surprised there weren't banjos playing in the background when I got out of the car. The absolute best thing was the clearly teenage mom holding her baby in one hand and holding a cigarette in the other while yelling at some stoned-looking dude in redneck about getting something. It was, how do you say, methed up.

After leaving Sebring, I went to Lakeland to see where the Tigers spring training home was and that city was pretty normal, but on my way back to Stuart I had to get gas again in a place called Yeehaw Junction which was exactly how I imagined it would be.

Thankfully, you're in St. Pete and the Tampa Bay area isn't too bad. I had an uncle that lived in Tarpon Springs and my grandparents had a winter home next to Tampa Bay Downs so I've been down around that area a few times. Fun memories of my first trip too when I was like seven and my family thought an appropriate place to take a boy was to the horse track and then allow him to bet on horses. And my parents wonder where my gambling addiction came from.

===

Thinking about defending your state, outside the natural beauty of Utah I can't think of many redeeming qualities. I mean the natural beauty is fantastic though. So it's a great place to visit but not really live.
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My problem with Florida is that the whole state looks like a bad neighborhood. Here in Ohio, you can instantly tell what kind of neighborhood you're in by looking at people's yards, the grass in particular. The entire state of Florida has Trotwood grass and that makes me uncomfortable. @Omnis
 
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Liquid
Don't be silly, rich white guys love coke.

Oh, you mean the drink...
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image.png


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New GOP-led voting restrictions move forward in Texas

Texas Republicans advanced a slate of proposed new voting restrictions Thursday that would reduce options to cast ballots, limit polling hours and hand more power to partisan poll watchers.

All those efforts are rolled into a single bill that cleared the GOP-controlled state Senate — a key marker in a campaign by Republicans, including Gov. Greg Abbott, to impose new restrictive measures over elections in America's biggest red state.

A first vote on the Senate bill was slowed by hours of questioning by Democrats that spilled overnight into early Thursday morning. The measure eventually passed 18-13 in a vote along party lines.

It comes after an elections overhaul was signed into law last week in Georgia, where opponents have already filed lawsuits and are calling for boycotts of corporations that are silent on restrictive voting measures. Critics of the Texas legislation say the efforts particularly target expanded access put into place during last year's election in Harris County, which is home to more than 2 million voters, controlled by Democrats and a key Texas battleground that includes Houston.

One measure would eliminate drive-thru voting, which more than 127,000 people around Houston used during early voting last year. More than half of those voters were Black, Latino or Asian, said Sen. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston.

“Hearing all of that, who are you really targeting when you're trying to get rid of drive-thru voting?" she said.

Republicans rejected accusations that the bill was designed to suppress turnout.

“None of what we've discussed is voter suppression. And none of what we've discussed is Jim Crow,” Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston.

A similar measure in the House chamber could advance toward a full vote as soon as Thursday.

The bill is one of two major voting packages in Texas that mirrors a nationwide campaign by Republicans after former President Donald Trump made false claims about election fraud.

Voting rights groups say the measures would disproportionately impact racial and ethnic minority voters. In Texas, which already has some of the strictest voting laws in the U.S., the proposed legislation grants more power to partisan poll watchers and eliminates the option to cast a ballot via drive-thru. The bill also includes a provision requiring a doctor’s note for people with disabilities who want to vote by mail, although Republicans signaled during the debate that language could change.

Trump won Texas but by fewer than 6 points. It was the closest victory by any GOP presidential nominee in Texas since 1996, underscoring Republicans' loosening iron grip on the state.

The Senate bill cleared a committee last week following hours of testimony by voters. Some said the ongoing coronavirus pandemic is forcing them to choose between their health and their right to be heard by their government after weighing the risk of testifying on the bill in-person at the Capitol, where masks are not enforced.

Ofelia Alonso, 25, a volunteer with civil rights advocacy group Texas Rising and volunteer deputy registrar, said Friday she drove hundreds of miles from Cameron County along the U.S.-Mexico border, which has been hit extremely hard by COVID-19, to testify in Austin for the members of her community who couldn't afford the health risk.

“Honestly, because we all work doing voter registration, we know how nonsensical this bill is," Alonso said. "It makes absolutely no sense to criminalize people for wanting to participate in democracy, which should be our goal. It is almost like Texans get punished for coming out and voting in large numbers.”
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The sheer notion that Texas could go purple at some point scares them. They lose Texas, they lose a major stake in winning an election.

Edit*
Gaetz communications director resigns and reports claim Gaetz & ally Greenberg (who is also under a serious sex trafficking investigation) were seen on surveillance sifting through IDs.

A senior staffer in embattled GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz’s office resigned on Friday following reports the Florida Republican is under investigation for an alleged inappropriate relationship with a minor and a possible violation of sex trafficking laws, according to a GOP source.

Luke Ball formerly served as Gaetz’s communications director.
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https://thehill.com/homenews/house/546170-gaetz-communications-director-resigns

CNN reported overnight that an employee at the tax collector’s office once saw Greenberg and Gaetz on an internal surveillance video, looking through driver licenses on a weekend evening.

The Daily Beast and The Orlando Sentinel, meanwhile, reported that surveillance camera footage showed Greenberg and another man in the Lake Mary branch of the tax collector’s office at night.

An employee at that office reportedly arrived on Monday morning to find driver licenses scattered on the desk, instead of in a disposal basket. She told her boss, who asked Greenberg what had happened in a text message. The text, which the Daily Beast said was dated April 16, 2018, was shared with federal investigators last January, the outlets reported.
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As part of the 33 counts — spread across four indictments — against Greenberg, a grand jury alleged that he “used his access to the Seminole County Tax Collector’s Office to take surrendered driver licenses before they were shredded.”

Greenberg also used his access to a state database, the Florida Driver and Vehicle Information Database (DAVID), to run searches that weren’t for any permissible use, the grand jury alleged of the former tax collector.

What’s more, Greenberg is alleged to have obtained and used the personal information about individuals with whom he was engaged in “sugar daddy” relationships, according to the indictments.

And, in addition to allegedly using the information from others’ discarded licenses to make fake IDs with his own face on them, Greenberg is also accused of using DAVID records to facilitate his efforts to engage in commercial sex acts.
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/...-surveillance-vid-with-alleged-sex-trafficker
 
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One of the officers succumbed to his injuries from reportedly being stabbed allegedly*. :guilty:

Edit* Cause of death is uncertain, earlier reports said a stabbing, now he may have passed from being hit.
 
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NotThePrez
*Reads thread, tries to think of reasons to defend home state...*

We have.....some cool races, and The Keys & Everglades....

....and that's all I've got.
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Jimmy Buffet!

Corsa
No need to defend anything.
I'm on the beach down here in SWFL and love it, have for years. Born in and left NY, travelled all 50 states and 17 countries for15 years and I chose Florida. I did really enjoy most west coast locals, especially Kona. Hated Alaska. Wish there was a way to pull up all the IP addresses I've logged into GTP with.
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Does Kona qualify as West Coast? :lol: (I did really enjoy the Hawaiian locals, though I've only been to Oahu).
 
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McLaren
Cause of death is uncertain, earlier reports said a stabbing, now he may have passed from being hit.
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I'm seeing reports that the driver appeared to have a knife upon exiting the vehicle and was shot and killed.
 
Jezza819
The Major League Baseball Players Association executive director says he is open to moving this years All Star game that is supposed to take place in Atlanta after the Georgia GOP enacted their ridiculous voter restriction laws. There is precedent for this as the NBA moved their 2017 All Star game out of Charlotte, NC after that state's GOP legislature enacted laws that limited anti-discrimination protections for the LGBTQ community.

https://sports.yahoo.com/mlbpa-open...restrictions-passed-chief-says-162446933.html

This is something that should happen immediately.
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MLB has now officially moved the All Star Game out of Atlanta.
 

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