Girl Scout cookie sellers as young as 5 are being harassed for selling unhealthy food and a conspiracy theory about cookie money funding abortion

https://www.insider.com/girl-scout-cookies-harassment-planned-parenthood-abortion-unhealthy-palm-oil-2022-2

Girl Scout cookie season is upon us, and young saleswomen in uniform are everywhere: holding court in office boardrooms for an afternoon, manning booths outside the local grocery store, or posting cheery video messages on social media, offering door-to-door shipping. You may even have a Girl Scout under your own roof, filling your garage with cases of the chocolatey, caramelly, peanut-buttery goods.

But Girl Scouts, and the women who lead their troops and volunteer with them during cookie season, say that the organization's tradition of face-to-face sales is increasingly accompanied by customer harassment.

From 5-year-old Daisies to 16-year-old Senior Scouts, girls are often forced to bear the brunt of angry tirades from adults who want to lecture them about healthy eating, moan about price hikes, or rant about the group's rumored (and false) link to Planned Parenthood.

In interviews with Scouts, Scout leaders, and parents, no form of cookie-related harassment appears to be more pervasive than that related to the healthfulness — or lack thereof — of the product.

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I wish this was just anti abortion Q loonies, but apparently the worst offenders are Palm Oil nuts and the anti-sugar brigade, which fit a different bracket of nut.

And for the record anyone who yells or screams at a girl scout selling cookies is a nut. I don't care how passionate you are or what your fucking cause is. Grow up.

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-60514388


Russia will be allowed to participate in this year's Eurovision Song Contest, despite launching a military assault on neighbouring Ukraine.

Organisers called the competition a "non-political cultural event" and said they were "currently planning" to host entrants from both Russia and Ukraine at the event this May.

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I see at least one European institution is not reading the room.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/severely-disabled-washington-woman-28-left-abandoned-towed-car-9-days-rcna17577


Police said the woman was last seen on Feb. 5 when her mother parked her car at a gas station in Kent then walked away, leaving her inside.

A woman described as “severely disabled” was left abandoned inside a towed car in Washington amid freezing temperatures for nine days, after she was left in the vehicle by her mother, police say.

The woman’s sister called the Kent Police Department on Feb. 14 saying her adult sister, who she described as "severely disabled" had not been seen since earlier in the month, police said in a news release Tuesday.

The investigation found the woman was last seen on Feb. 5 when her mother, 45, parked her vehicle at a gas station in Kent then walked off, with the daughter still in the car.

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I have no words

https://www.fox13news.com/news/florida-bill-would-require-students-to-take-financial-literacy-course-in-order-to-graduate


Florida bill would require students to take financial literacy course in order to graduate

A half-credit course in personal financial literacy and money management would be added as a graduation requirement.

The financial literacy course would have to include instruction on types of bank accounts and how to open and manage accounts, completing loan applications and computing federal income taxes.

"Basic principles of money management, such as spending, credit, credit scores and managing debt, including retail and credit card debt" also would be required as part of the curriculum, the proposal said.


A similar Senate bill (SB 1054) was approved unanimously Tuesday by the Rules Committee and is poised for consideration by the full Senate.

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Once again, Florida is out of control, forcing students to learn how to use credit cards and apply for a mortgage. Where will the madness end.

https://www.theroot.com/black-lives-matter-kicked-off-amazon-charity-platform-1848575175


Amazon’s charity platform AmazonSmile has suspended Black Lives Matter Tuesday for failing to meet eligibility requirements because of their financial disputes with some states, per a Washington Examiner investigation. BLM reported by the end of summer 2020 that they had raised $60 million. However, states have threatened to take legal action against the organization because they didn’t indicate where their donations went to by the end of summer 2020.

BLM voluntarily shut down its online fundraising on Feb. 2 after California and Washington issued legal threats to the group for its failure to report what it did with the millions it received during the second half of 2020. BLM published a report in February 2021 claiming to have ended 2020 with $60 million in its coffers.

BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors said the donations that went unaccounted for came from “white corporation guilt,” via the Washington Examiner. “People have to know we didn’t go out and solicit the money. This is money that came from white guilt, white corporation guilt, and they just poured money in,” said Cullors.

According to the Washington Examiner’s investigation, other companies have also decided not to follow through on their BLM contributions including Intel and Cisco.

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Intersting Story

https://lims.dccouncil.us/Legislation/B24-0660

With this legislation, the District would build on its legacy of improving nutritional requirements in institutional settings by requiring hospitals to serve healthy foods and beverages to patients, staff, and visitors. Meals available at the hospital would need to include a variety of healthy foods, including vegetarian and 100% plant-based meals, and meals that are low in saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars.

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Really... is this the kind of thing we ought to be focused on? Regulating vending machines in hospitals and outlawing pork products for hospice patients (and thier visitors)?

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/feb/13/february-sucks-st-louis-local-tv-news-reporter-viral

April may be the cruelest month, but February straight up sucks. This is the “news” that was broken by local reporter Kevin Killeen of St Louis’s KMOX, in a 2016 video segment declaring February “an honest month” because it is one that “doesn’t hold up life any better than it really is”.

The segment mixes Killeen’s straight-faced, deadpan local news delivery with an almost avant garde absurdity. At one point, Killeen stands atop a parking garage in St Louis, gesturing at the dark office buildings behind him and says, “Something great happened here but it’s over with.” In a voiceover describing images of the city’s downtown, he declares, “This looks like a place where people who are being punished are sent.”

When the camera cuts to a shot of bare trees against a gray sky, things get a bit weird – and existential. “The trees that once cheered us, they’re hard to look at this month,” he intones. “It’s as if there is some awful truth out there in the trees. It’s hiding in the branches. Look at them. Something that’s been bothering you for a long time is out there. What is it? You can almost see the shape of it when all the color is gone and life is stripped down to the starkness of February.

In the video, the busted green and pink floral umbrella that has been abandoned, still opened, atop a garbage bin in the parking garage, becomes a totem for February. “This says it all,” Killeen remarks to the camera. “Somebody on this February day has abandoned it with its broken shaft like a desperate flinging off of something that’s not true any more. The expedition is getting desperate. People are throwing things aside.”

https://twitter.com/samsanders/status/1489404104375869441?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1489404104375869441%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fmedia%2F2022%2Ffeb%2F13%2Ffebruary-sucks-st-louis-local-tv-news-reporter-viral


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He points out at the end that his dad used to say if you can make it through February you will live another year. I lost both my dad and wife in this month. Perhaps a bit of truth.

Some surprises in the top ten. No real surprises in the bottom ten though (Mississippi has risen to 48 Woo-hoo)



50. Louisiana
49. Arkansas
48. Mississippi
47. Alabama
46. Alaska
45. New Mexico
44. Oklahoma
43. West Virginia
42. Michigan
41. Nevada
40. Kentucky
39. Indiana
38. Ohio
37. New Jersey
36. New York
35. Missouri
34. South Carolina
33. Arizona
32. California
31. Wyoming
30. Illinois
29. Rhode Island
28. Montana
27. Texas
26. Maine
25. Tennessee
24. Kansas
23. Hawaii
22. Oregon
21. Pennsylvania
20. Delaware
19. Connecticut
18. Maryland
17. Colorado
16. Georgia
15. North Dakota
14. Iowa
13. South Dakota
12. North Carolina
11. Vermont
10. Florida
9. Idaho
8. Virginia
7. Massachusetts
6. Wisconsin
5. Nebraska
4. Minnesota
3. New Hampshire
2. Utah
1. Washington

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/09/health/mask-rules-cdc.html

But the slow deliberations, within both the C.D.C. and Mr. Zients’ team, are putting the White House in a tough spot. As officials examine the science and chart a careful course, they run the risk of making the Biden administration look irrelevant as governors forge ahead on their own.

“The administration needs to read the room and see that nearly all elected leaders are moving on without them,” said Dr. Leana Wen, a former Baltimore health commissioner who has often been critical of the administration, adding, “No one is expecting the C.D.C. to say that everyone should go maskless right now. What they are looking for are clear metrics on when restrictions can be lifted and when they may need to return.”

Governors have said so themselves. Last week, after a bipartisan group of governors met with Mr. Biden, Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, a Republican, told reporters he had emphasized to the president that the nation needs to “move away from the pandemic” and asked him for “clear guidelines on how we can return to a greater state of normality.”

It is now clear the states have decided not to wait. On Wednesday, the governors of New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Illinois joined a growing list of Democrats who have dropped either a general statewide mask mandate or one that applies to schools.

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I posted about this earlier in the week (https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216327912) . The White House is trailing both the states and the public on this issue. It seems to be an unnecessary own goal.