Just Wow

[orange87]

2 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

@jrs2 and @orange87, how ‘bout that Perdue race in GA last night? Did the MAGA machine run low on gas? A 50-point loss to The Orange One’s sworn enemy is impressive!

It was a thing of beauty. Hopefully this makes other GOP members realize that Dump isn't invincible. Unfortunately, lunatic Marjorie Taylor Greene won her primary.

[spenser1058]

4 minutes ago, orange87 said:

It was a thing of beauty. Hopefully this makes other GOP members realize that Dump isn't invincible. Unfortunately, lunatic Marjorie Taylor Greene won her primary.

I’ve been to Rome before and know sanity isn’t one of their strong points. My mom tried to talk me into a college (Berry) up there and I was like, not in this lifetime.

The only way for MTG to be pushed out is for the GOP to grow a backbone.

Edited May 25, 2022 by spenser1058

[spenser1058]

@dcluley98, was South Gate Shopping Plaza in Sarasota ever one of your go-to malls?

[dcluley98]

34 minutes ago, spenser1058 said:

@dcluley98, was South Gate Shopping Plaza in Sarasota ever one of your go-to malls?

No. Too far south. (I have been there a couple of times, but was not a go to).  Our mall in my neck of the woods was DeSoto Square Mall when I was a kid. (not a very good mall, but that's where we went.) I mostly shopped for a lot of stuff at the Ellenton Prime Outlets because I worked there in HS and summer breaks of college/after college and you could get a lot better prices, lol.  Later on, just before I moved to O-town, they opened a new mall called "The Mall at University Town Center" which was quite nice and I shopped there and at the adjacent plaza with Tarjay for a bit, but it was one of those hoighty toighty expensive Sarasota/Lakewood Ranch places, so didn't buy much there ever. I was always a bit expense-challenged during that time.  

Edited May 26, 2022 by dcluley98

[spenser1058]

Oh boy, @orange87, Joe Lieberman’s going after Turkey. Connecticut roars!

[AmIReal]

A very nice piece written for the United Nations Foundation re: Orlando's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Some good interviews, with a lot of focus on Chris Castro, Orlando’s Director of Sustainability and Resilience. Per Castro, “Our ability to influence the rest of the world is probably greater than any other because of the amount of tourism happening here,” Chris told the U.S. Green Building Council. “It’s a unique opportunity. We want to understand how to leverage those 75 million visitors to learn about sustainability, resilience, and inclusiveness so they can take that knowledge back to their own communities and make it a part of their culture.”

https://unfoundation.org/blog/post/how-orlando-is-building-a-model-city-around-the-sdgs/

Worthwhile read to see the type of creative thought going into the City.

Edited June 2, 2022 by AmIReal

[spenser1058]

53 minutes ago, AmIReal said:

A very nice piece written for the United Nations Foundation re: Orlando's Sustainable Development Goals (SGSs). Some good interviews, with a lot of focus on Chris Castro, Orlando’s Director of Sustainability and Resilience. Per Castro, “Our ability to influence the rest of the world is probably greater than any other because of the amount of tourism happening here,” Chris told the U.S. Green Building Council. “It’s a unique opportunity. We want to understand how to leverage those 75 million visitors to learn about sustainability, resilience, and inclusiveness so they can take that knowledge back to their own communities and make it a part of their culture.”

https://unfoundation.org/blog/post/how-orlando-is-building-a-model-city-around-the-sdgs/

Worthwhile read to see the type of creative thought going into the City.

lol That’s pure corporate-speak more than creativity. You might also notice he seems more interested in the 75 million tourists than the community. Both are signature problems for us. No wonder this administration thinks they’ve built a “Creative Village” when in fact it is neither.

It’s also instructive you’re quoting the UN, we’ll known  as being one of the world’s largest bureaucracies. Hardly the stuff of creativity.

[AmIReal]

1 hour ago, spenser1058 said:

lol That’s pure corporate-speak more than creativity. You might also notice he seems more interested in the 75 million tourists than the community. Both are signature problems for us. No wonder this administration thinks they’ve built a “Creative Village” when in fact it is neither.

It’s also instructive you’re quoting the UN, we’ll known  as being one of the world’s largest bureaucracies. Hardly the stuff of creativity.

I feel their efforts are creative toward their Sustainable Development Goals guidelines.  I also feel sustainability goals are an essential element to government planning. The fact the City is working on the issue and has received significant credit for that (not just from the UN Foundation) I feel is a positive thing. I would have thought we could all agree that was a good thing, but maybe it is of lesser value to you.

The tourists' angle was just one of the many aspects mentioned in the story and if interested you could see others here-  https://www.orlando.gov/Our-Government/Departments-Offices/Executive-Offices/CAO/Sustainability-Resilience

Maybe you can provide some input as to how they can do better. 

[orange87]

North Carolina is expected to legalize medical marijuana and to expand Medicaid by the end of the week. North Carolina already decriminalized marijuana a couple years ago. There are now 11 states that still haven't expanded Medicaid.

[spenser1058]

15 hours ago, orange87 said:

North Carolina is expected to legalize medical marijuana and to expand Medicaid by the end of the week. North Carolina already decriminalized marijuana a couple years ago. There are now 11 states that still haven't expanded Medicaid.

Those are the ones where GOP legislatures prefer to “let them have cake”. Marie Antoinette may be gone but not forgotten by that bunch.

[HankStrong]

On 5/18/2022 at 6:18 PM, spenser1058 said:

Woohoo! Time to send @HankStrongand @AndyPok1, our two former Ohio lads, off to Kings’ Island for a huge new 50th Anniversary nighttime spectacular. The fireworks will be four times longer and there will be 200! drones.

What a summer in Cincinnati!

https://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/202205/8955/

From Theme Park Insider 

I absolutely love King's Island.  It's a great park.

[spenser1058]

It’s of course been traditionally difficult for unions to organize in Florida, as a “right to work” state (that’s one of those euphemisms the right likes to use, not unlike calling FOX News “fair and balanced”).

As has been noted before, however, the winds of change are blowing in a different direction in the region as workers in an MSA whose wages are 50 of 50 in the nation demand a fair deal.

So it’s nice to note that the Starbucks in Oviedo(!) will become the second in the chain to vote for union representation. Even more fun is that the third with a vote coming up is on Park Ave. in tony Winter Park.

A journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step and there’s a long way to go. Nevertheless, it’s instructive that workers in Central Florida of all places are the ones to say they’ve had enough, rather than in much more union-friendly locales. Did we mention union workers are also much likely to participate in political activity? The times they are a changin’.
 

[dcluley98]

On 5/11/2022 at 11:23 PM, dcluley98 said:

Interesting things happening right now in the economy. 

One thing that is under the radar right now, but should be paid attention to is the "Crypto-Bust" going on right now. BTC just dropped below $30k, and Tether de-pegged.  

Now, why does this matter? Well, apparently, Miami went "all in" on Crypto and trying to get these companies and creators to move there. Apparently, there were "financial institutions" backing loans and construction projects in South Florida with this idea.  Now, how much of that is there? Who knows, but it only takes a couple of dominoes to start the chain. Inflation is one. Rising interest rates and lack of capital availability is two. Crypto is three.  Stock market and "wealth effect" is four. . . 

Hmmm. 

Tick-tock, Tick-tock, Tick-tock. 

Welp, here we go. Could get "interesting". . . 

Edited June 13, 2022 by dcluley98

[spenser1058]

54 minutes ago, dcluley98 said:

Welp, here we go. Could get "interesting. . . 

There’s a reason Carl Hiaasen finds endless material for his novels in South Florida and it seems little has changed. The sad part is that the transience and impermanence engendered by our overreliance on the tourism industry is sending us in the same direction.

Edited June 13, 2022 by spenser1058

[spenser1058]

It seems the next Target coming up in the middle of the state will be in Bradenton Beach. It will give @dcluley98 something to look forward to on a future visit.

I, otoh, didn’t even know there was a Bradenton Beach (the Atlantic side from the Space Coast to the First Coast are my stomping grounds) so Bullseye taught me something when I got latest email…

 

[spenser1058]

One of the larger cryptocurrency “banks” is freezing all withdrawals:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/13/celsius-crypto-bank-withdrawals-freeze/

From The Washington Post 

Thank goodness for the FDIC! Oh, wait…

Oh well, it couldn’t happen to a nicer group of folks. Tulip mania with a conspiracy theorist tinge all aided and abetted by the libertarians.. I’m sure Steve Bannon will bail them out, right?

 

Edited June 14, 2022 by spenser1058

[spenser1058]

A while back, there was some discussion about the proposed route of I-4 through Winter Park. I had always been aware that a recently constructed state office building was used to waylay the road, along with a law created in Tallahassee which was later used to derail the Central Connector from downtown to OUA. 

At that time, some questioned my information and I had nothing to refute it. By happenstance, I ran across an old article from Winter Park Magazine that confirms what I believed to have occurred:

“In the late 1950s, Winter Parkers came together to fight a proposed Interstate 4 route that would have paralleled Orange Avenue and then crossed U.S. 17-92 before it turned north toward Maitland.

This route would have destroyed the motels lining the east side of U.S.17-92 from Fairbanks Avenue to Lee Road, colloquially known as the Million Dollar Mile, and would have sliced through property where locals hoped a shopping mall would be built. In addition, many residents feared that an interstate highway so nearby would impact the city’s tranquility.

Winter Park voters strongly rejected the proposed route in a 1958 referendum, much to the consternation of some Orlando movers and shakers, such as William H. “Billy” Dial, executive vice president of First National Bank and a major proponent of the route.

In a letter to Winter Park Mayor J. Lynn Pflug, Dial wrote that interstate highways should be built “not on the basis of popular vote or referenda, but on traffic and engineering standards by qualified persons with consideration for the needs of the traveling public, the effect the location might have on existing businesses and residents and by the accessibility of the facility to those who, in their daily lives, require its use.”

Greene, the former mayor and developer of Greeneda Court, is credited with effectively scuttling the proposal by convincing the Florida Cabinet to approve construction of the Dan T. McCarty State Office Building, the now-vacant Y-shaped structure at the corner of Morse Boulevard and Denning Drive, directly in the interstate’s proposed path. A second route was also scuttled before a third, well to the west, was chosen and approved in 1963.“

https://winterparkmag.com/history/
 

Edited June 14, 2022 by spenser1058

[spenser1058]

Have you ordered your gopher tortoise specialty license plate yet? You know you want one!

[spenser1058]

Woohoo! I’ve gone from a Megalopolis here on UP to a Gigalopolis!

Thanks, @Neo!

[spenser1058]

Some good news to report  - smoking on Florida’s beaches can now be prohibited at long last, subject to passage by local governments. Smokers are the biggest litterbugs on the planet as they dispose of the butts which support their filthy, disgusting habit and, in addition to being just plain gross, cause all kinds of environmental issues. We won’t even get into how the habit affects not only the health of the smokers but the rest of us as well thanks to second-hand smoke.

Sadly, politics got into it and unfiltered cigars are excluded from the ban, but thankfully those are a small fraction of the problem.

Kudos to everyone involved in getting this passed. Cleaner beaches are on the way.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/politics/fl-ne-nsf-beach-smoking-bans-20220617-w5kdvody3nb7no6zzoxpqdpph4-story.html

From The Sentinel 

Edited June 17, 2022 by spenser1058

[dcluley98]

On 6/13/2022 at 12:59 PM, dcluley98 said:

Welp, here we go. Could get "interesting". . . 

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3849674-crypto-lender-genesis-liquidates-collateral-of-counterparty-who-failed-to-meet-margin-call

[spenser1058]

Meanwhile, Americans are starting to pull back on travel and restaurants:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/18/consumer-spending-slowing-economy/

From The Washington Post 
 

[spenser1058]

For those interested in politics, some very sad news. Columnist and commentator Mark Shields, perhaps best known as the longtime progressive sparring partner each Friday with conservatives like David Brooks , Paul Gigot and David Gergen on the PBS NewsHour, has died at 85.

What you may not have known is that he was a chief organizer for Bobby Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign, which many believe RFK may well have won until he was assassinated in Los Angeles after that year’s California primary.

Perhaps unusually for someone in his profession, Mark was respected and admired by the public and on both sides of the aisle. He will be missed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/06/18/tv-political-commentator-mark-shields-dies/

From The Washington Post
 

Edited June 18, 2022 by spenser1058

[spenser1058]

Here’s hoping all our dads had a Happy Father’s Day and, to everyone in the USA, a splendid Juneteenth! 
 

*sings “Galveston”*

[spenser1058]

The “Most American Form of Architecture “ isn’t going anywhere, no matter how many times we pronounce it dead:

https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2022/06/meet-me-by-the-fountain-malls-book-review/661340/

From The Atlantic 

Where were you a mall rat as a teenager?