Saturday, September 17, 2022

The Jokesters

A Belgian Man Has Been Pranked with Pizza Deliveries for 9 Horrible Years


https://www.foodandwine.com/news/pizza-delivery-prank-9-years-belgium


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Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott are real cards—producers of laugh-a-minute knee slappers, they have you rolling in the aisles. They also happen to be governors of two states of our union, Florida and Texas, respectively. Lately, when they need a rest from limiting women’s control over their bodies, banning textbooks, and other primary activities deemed necessary for the head of a backward political entity, they metamorphose into red state gagsters. Their shtick is to prank residents of other states by sending them unordered pizzas people. 


Abbott literally had two buses deliver immigrants to the doorstep of Vice President Harris. (There was no word whether they came bearing pepperoni or meatball pies.) DeSantis went one better (or worse) by chartering two planes to fly immigrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. (Does any resident of Florida wonder why DeSantis is spending that state’s taxpayer money to transport people from Texas to Massachusetts, or are they all in on the gag?) 


Supposedly, the purpose of the stealth transportations was to produce a kind of neo-Candid Camera moment, in which the pranked liberal residents of the District of Columbia and of the Vineyard would be caught losing it over the arrival of the Latin American strangers. “Smile,” Greg and Ron would exclaim, “you’ve been revealed as hypocrites!”


Except things didn’t happen that way. To take the example of the Vineyard residents: they rushed to welcome the incomers bearing their meager belongings. According to the Vineyard Gazette,

A coalition of emergency management officials, faith groups, nonprofit agencies and county and town officials were organizing food and shelter for the migrants, who spent Wednesday night at St. Andrews Church in Edgartown. The Salvation Army, among others, was providing food. . . .

As word spread of the migrants' plight, a crowd of people — many eager to offer assistance — gathered outside the church. Edgartown Police Lt. Chris Dolby urged people not to deliver additional donations.

Speaking outside the parish hall Thursday morning, state Rep. Dylan Fernandes said the situation was under control “with local law enforcement jumping into action.”

“People were served breakfast this morning by the parish and served lunch by the school system. We are a community that helps one another and you can see that here,” he said.*


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Perhaps the best summation of the transportation stunt is this headline in New York magazine:


DeSantis Tries to Prove Liberals Hate Immigrants As Much As He Does, Fails


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I have two final points to make:


1) When I finish this post, I’ll be writing a check to HIAS, whose motto is:

Welcome the stranger.

Protect the refugee.

2) For my next pizza, I won’t have it delivered; I’ll pick it up myself.


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*  https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2022/09/14/planeload-venezuelan-refugees-arrive-marthas-vineyard-airport

 

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