Florida voters overtly threatened by Proud Boys

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Wednesday October 21, 2020 · 7:09 AM PDT

2020/10/21 · 07:09

Screenshot of the threatening email being received by Brevard County, FL Democrats

Brevard is a very red county in east Central Florida. It’s definitely a Trump stronghold, and the long-time local sheriff is a Trump pal. This year the sheriff is being challenged by a progressive lawyer/activist, who happens to be black, named Alton Edmond. Yesterday, many registered Democrats in Brevard began receiving the email posted above, allegedly from the Proud Boys, overtly threatening violence against people who vote for Democrat candidates. This is a screenshot of the email that Alton received yesterday and posted to his social media this morning. Trump’s Amerikkka, folks.

Education "reform", birdwatching, and our EPIC day at NASA

sparkysmom

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Monday November 18, 2013 · 2:28 PM PST

2013/11/18 · 14:28

High stakes testing is challenging in any educational setting, but it becomes even more so when the state and the DOE keep moving the hoops. But because I'm mellow by nature and try to see things in a positive way, my mantra for the recent trend towards more and more testing was repeating "This Too Shall Pass" softly to myself until the blood pressure medicine kicked in. However, a weird confluence of events happened during the past week, and I think it might have been that proverbial last straw for me. I believe I just became an anti- "educational reform" activist. Read below the flourish for the email I just sent to governor Rick Scott and our local state legislators. I'll let you know if I'm still employed tomorrow, as I used my real name and my school email.

Poll

20 votes Show Results

Will I get the boot for writing this email to Gov Skeletor?

20 votes Vote Now!

Will I get the boot for writing this email to Gov Skeletor?

Not a chance, he's too busy hobnobbing with the Teabaggers to read mail from teachers.

10 votes

Maybe, they have a special watch list for teachers.

3 votes

Yep, you'll be packing up boxes by the end of the day. Good luck on The Test, kiddies!

3 votes

Who cares, let's go have pie!

4 votes

NC: Julie's Dad voted!

sparkysmom

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Monday November 05, 2012 · 6:11 PM PST

2012/11/05 · 18:11

Julie was a high school friend, and we graduated together 30 years ago. A common story, we went away to different colleges and never kept in touch, until we became friends on Facebook a few years ago. We are both Progressives, and hit the "Like" button often for each other's political posts as well as family events and funny stories. But Julie's posts over the weekend inspired me and brought tears to my eyes.

sparkysmom

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Thursday October 04, 2012 · 5:45 PM PDT

2012/10/04 · 17:45

I teach science at a suburban high school in Florida. Today was a day like any other in my classes… we had a test planned, so the students wanted to discuss anything other than the test, stalling for time. Apparently teachers fall for this tactic, so they try it often. Today I played along. Each and every class spontaneously brought up last night's presidential debate, which was surprising in and of itself. I was curious to hear their thoughts, so I let them discuss it for a few minutes.

Here’s what I gleaned from the conversation:

sparkysmom

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Saturday September 25, 2010 · 2:47 PM PDT

2010/09/25 · 14:47

I have to say that when Bill Maher announced that every week he will roll out another embarrassing old clip of Christine O'Donnell from his show, I thought it was sort of funny, but not really in the spirit of "restoring sanity". The witchraft and masturbation stuff seemed silly and relatively harmless. I giggled and moved on. But the clip he rolled out last night has changed my mind. Another anti-science candidate is on the loose.

Poll

185 votes Show Results

O'Donnell's lack of science education is...

185 votes Vote Now!

O'Donnell's lack of science education is...

Appalling. I'm embarrassed for her high school Biology teacher and frighted for my country.

112 votes

Hilarious. She's just handing us a Senate seat.

37 votes

Depressing. I'm going to go drown my sorrows in some pie.

36 votes

Giving Grayson a free pass?

sparkysmom

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Friday August 20, 2010 · 4:16 AM PDT

2010/08/20 · 04:16

Yesterday I wrote a brief diary here concerning the OSHA investigation of Sea World. Next Monday marks the statutory deadline for OSHA to issue any fines or citations against Sea World concerning the tragic death of the killer whale trainer Dawn Brancheau. In my diary I speculated about whether Congressman Grayson (who represents the Florida district that includes Sea World) had spoken to OSHA or Sea World officials about the ongoing investigation. Yesterday afternoon, after numerous press inquiries, his office issued a statement confirming that they had indeed contacted OSHA on behalf of Sea World. Now I don't know about you, but where I come from we call that "interfering with a federal investigation"...

Poll

103 votes Show Results

Should the Congressman be contacting regulatory agencies during investigations?

103 votes Vote Now!

Should the Congressman be contacting regulatory agencies during investigations?

Of course, that's what congressmen do.

29 votes

Maybe, but he should be neutral as he represents his entire district.

23 votes

Absolutely not, this smacks of cronyism and hypocrisy.

38 votes

I don't care, I'm going to Sea World to get some pie.

13 votes

Is OSHA caving to Sea World?

sparkysmom

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Thursday August 19, 2010 · 7:20 AM PDT

2010/08/19 · 07:20

A few months ago I posted a diary here about the death of a killer whale at Sea World, and the Congressional hearing that followed. Specifically, my diary focused on Congressman Alan Grayson’s shameless shilling on behalf of Sea World at that hearing. For the past 6 months, OSHA has been investigating the details surrounding the tragedy and the numerous incidents involving killer whales injuring their trainers. The statutory deadline for OSHA to issue a ruling (and any fines, citations, etc) is next Monday. Since OSHA has used the entirety of their allotted window for the investigation, and since an employee of Sea World was killed in horrific circumstances, it seems reasonable to assume that something substantial will result from OSHA’s efforts. However...

sparkysmom

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Wednesday May 12, 2010 · 6:41 AM PDT

2010/05/12 · 06:41

Alan Grayson is a bit of a hero on this site for his outspoken defense of progressives and his colorful delivery. I laughed out loud when he called a Berneke advisor a "K Street whore" and his description of Sarah Palin a "wild Alaskan dingbat" is one of my favorite political quotes of all time. I admire Mr. Grayson for his progressive ideals. However, when I tuned in to a C-SPAN webcast of a congressional committee hearing last week, I couldn't believe what I was watching. I was appalled.

The hearing, held by the Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife, of the House Natural Resources Committee, was an inquiry concerning captive marine mammals, most notably Sea World parks. Sea World Orlando is in Alan Grayson's district, and I'm sure it's a big source of tax revenues there. It's also the place where the killer whale Tillikum killed his trainer a few months ago, which I'm sure precipitated the hearing. Mr. Grayson's testimony at the beginning of the hearing was an icky, fawning defense of the captive marine mammal industry. Here was Alan Grayson behaving exactly like a corporate whore. I'll add the link, in case you'd like to check it out for yourself. His testimony is very near the beginning.

And since nobody else appears to have called him out on it, here we go...

RSS

Florida voters overtly threatened by Proud Boys

Education "reform", birdwatching, and our EPIC day at NASA

NC: Julie's Dad voted!

Debate musings from the barely-too-young-to-vote crowd

O'Donnell has entered Palin-ville

Giving Grayson a free pass?

Is OSHA caving to Sea World?

Open letter to Alan Grayson