Using public funds to help people.

I know the original source is Faux News, but bear with me here. 

A judge has paused payments to families who were receiving $500 a month in a universal basic income program.  For reference we're talking about $10s of thousands of dollars. 

The reason for the pause is that the constitution in the state says that money may not be used for individuals or corporations. 

But yet, various sports teams get public funds ALL THE TIME. On the order of millions of dollars. 

Something is very, very wrong here…

https://www.yahoo.com/news/judge-puts-pause-st-louis-000020068.html

https://missouriindependent.com/2024/03/05/if-voters-ok-taxes-for-a-ballpark-royals-will-ask-city-and-state-for-up-to-700m-more/#:~:text=The%20proposed%20renovation%20of%20that,go%20toward%20the%20new%20stadium.

Polluting our world

Here's a story that breaks down the problem with PFAs appearing in our food chain and drinking water. 

I'm glad someone isn't least studying it. But when will it be time to actually take action? And who will actually take that action?

https://www.thecooldown.com/green-tech/pfas-pollution-drinking-water-food/

That says a lot doesn’t it?

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/how-much-do-different-countries-trust-institutions/

Chaos at “the rock”

Hard rock stadium was the site of the copa America final, matching Colombia against Argentina in soccer. 

The game sold out, so 66,000 fans were expected. 

Only, it would appear that the stadium itself was not ready for that crowd, or their general behavior. As you can see in the attached articles, people had plans to go to the game, whether or not they had tickets. 

There were many instances of people trying to get in - from just rushing security, to climbing over a ticket booth to jump onto a ramp, to breaking an AC duct and climbing in that way - they were determined. 

By some estimates, more than 7,000 people made it into the stadium through those breaches. 

But the police and stadium security didn't know how to respond. So they simply shut the gates, trapping fans in a potentially dangerous crowd at the entrances. Oh and that didn't stop the determined people - only those that were following the rules. 

When they did let people in again, the chaos resumed. A bunch of people never had their tickets scanned, and there are reports of people being pushed, though not trampled or crushed. 

At some point, the stadium management made a decision that they were "at capacity" and closed the gates again. But this time, you had people on the outside with valid tickets who weren't allowed in.  

The game itself was delayed for about an hour and a quarter, while they sorted this all out. 

Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt. And there wasn't anyone looking to cause other sorts of mayhem. But you can see how easily that kind of thing could have happened. 

This is a failure in the stadium. It reflects badly on soccer, and Miami. And there are future large scale events (including a World Cup in 2 years time) that now need special attention. 

While you can blame very many failures on many people and groups, at the end of the day the stadium is owned by Stephen Ross. He gets public money for events that are hosted at the stadium. The failures and any subsequent fallout should be directed at him. 

For whatever reason, plans were not made to host this event or provide adequate security and safety measures. And that should be all on him. 

Of course, to this point, he hasn't been mentioned and is keeping quiet. Shame on him. 

https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/copa-america-final-delayed-hard-rock-stadium-breached-by-ticketless-fans-before-argentina-vs-colombia/

https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/jul/15/fans-receive-medical-treatment-at-copa-america-final-after-issues-outside-ground

https://www.local10.com/sports/2024/07/14/copa-america-final-in-miami-colors-of-flags-from-argentina-and-colombia-take-over-stadium/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-13634019/Colombian-fans-Copa-America-chaos-Argentina.html

Freedom is never really free

Setting aside the silliness of the agenda and the absurd rhetoric that comes out of Tallahassee (and one particular idiot specifically), I find this a little amusing. 

Recall that during antebellum period, there were "slave states" and "free states."  Florida was squarely in the "slave state" category (and proud of it!). 

And keep in mind that while the Florida state flag purports to evoke the Spanish imperial flag with the red lines crossing on a white background, the fact that the jagged parts are missing suggests that Florida also wanted to (however subtly) recall its own past as a "slave state" and being part of the south. 

So to put up signs that refer to Florida as a "free state" is, in fact, quite funny. 

http://www.northescambia.com/2024/07/florida-announces-free-state-of-florida-placed-on-all-welcome-signs

Props to TSwift

I admit, I'm not a huge fan of her music. But I am a fan of her giving back to communities that she visits while on tour. 

She donates to food charities in every city to help with food insecurity as she believes it's the right thing to do. There shouldn't be this many people going without food. 

Props to her. 

That's simply awesome. 

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/13/business/taylor-swift-food-bank-donations/index.html

SpaceX Suffers Engine Failure

This was an interesting turn of events. As far as I can tell, there was a leak of some kind (perhaps liquid oxygen?) and it built up as ice and caused the engine to fail. 

The video says "catastrophic" and that's not 100% accurate. 

The mission still was counted as a success in a way, as the satellites were deployed into a lower orbit, and they will use the thrusters to try and push them into the correct orbit. 

But the bigger issue was the rocket itself, which couldn't be disposed of in the "typical way" and is now more space debris. 

So there is a mission review ongoing, to see what happened and how to prevent it. And SpaceX can't launch starlink satellites for now. 

https://youtu.be/I2klvDvmtFc?si=kL6YvIE277y9aLoP