Ya, I'd say they need that bucket and not just a hat...

I had an English teacher that complained several times to the people at a tavern called The Oak'en Bucket.

Agreed. That's why, in my estimation, a bucket of pebbles would make a better space weapon than the most powerful explosives.

So much for keeping temperature rise below 2 degrees above preindustrial averages (or even the Paris 1.5 degree goal) being "safe". We're at 1.2 degrees and rising last year, and it seems like Ragnarok is upon us.
This is pretty good evidence that the anthropogenic extinction event is well under way, not something to fear might happen in a dystopian future. Both the natural food web and agriculture are dependent on insects. A 3/4 reduction is probably at or beyond the tipping point.
This business is going to get out of control, and we'll be lucky to live through it.
Fuck. We all better call up Jim Bakker for some apocalypse food buckets quick.

A lot of people probably don't remember that this guy was convicted of fraud and conspiracy by a federal grand jury in 1989 and sentenced to 45 years in prison, not to mention the allegations of drugging and rape by Jessica Hahn. This is the man whom Jerry Falwell (another televangelist crook) called "the greatest scab and cancer on the face of Christianity in 2,000 years of church history."

And yet here he is today, sitting in his white satin throne surrounded by sycophants and fellow charlatans, peddling salvation from a fake apocalypse to the poor and gullible one $175 survival bucket at a time. Chris Hitchens was right... "you can get away with the most extraordinary offenses to morality and to truth in this country if you will just get yourself called 'reverend'."

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28 buckets of dumb.

While the editing does set things off, sadly, Bakker, Pat "what's this mac and cheese, is that a black person thing" Robertson, Jack Graham, and all their ilk are far from Poe's Law, and well into they truly believe this stuff. And so do the people who watch it, and remember they are FAR more reliable voters than any other group, and their numbers are legion. There's a reason why near 46% of American's believe the Earth to be 6,000 years old in accordance with the Bible, and among the white evangelicals that this ilk appeal to, it's 60%.

Now Mark Biltz (the guy who said he knew what day Adam opened his eyes in the Garden of Eden) is generally rejected even in most evangelical circles, so not sure why Bakker is giving him space to spread his message... though if it scares enough people into buying buckets....

What's scary is that Bakker still has a huge audience that trusts his teachings, even though we were just hours or days from a collapse whereby you wouldn't be able to buy food for six to twelve months way back in 2015... The things Bakker and Robertson have said to defend Trump and blast Obama over the years...

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If the world is on fire won't all my buckets melt?

21. if you're a teleworker and I'm trying to help you over the phone don't give me vague descriptions like "I can't get to my stuff. I clicked on the thing and I can't get in now." I'm not in the room looking over your shoulder for the past 5 minutes, you need to describe the steps you took to get to where you are now. And don't give me this exasperated tone when I ask you to do something the Help Desk already asked you to do, like reboot your computer. You got a cab waiting?

22. Don't present a problem like "My FAX123 program won't connect" as if was working yesterday and stopped connecting today. When more likely you have been told many times your supervisor needs to request an account for you and you haven't bothered to start the process. And you think somehow I have the magic touch and can circumvent that whole process on the spot. And even if I could do it you would appreciate it for all of 3 seconds, then come to expect it every time. And so would your colleagues sitting within earshot.

23. Don't ask me to work on something without telling me another tech is already working on it and you just haven't heard back from them in a timely manner and thought you would start over with me.

24. Not everyone in IT knows each other and can do each others' jobs and are cross-trained on account creation, purchasing, application support, etc. So the guy at the home office in Virginia hasn't created your account after a week, you want me to drive there and stand over him? There are MBA's who get paid buckets to manage this mess, you want bottom-rung techs to somehow make it all better?

25. Make sure to follow the last instructions I gave you with troubleshooting an issue, like try it on a spare computer, or reboot, or try printing from a different app, etc. Because when you don't, and a week later when I get a high priority email from your manager saying "why is nobody helping them with this issue?" I will provide a record of our last contact where the ball was in your court.

26. You wonder why it's hard to get a hold me by IM, email or voice mail now? You no doubt wasted my time with one of the previous entries above, or sounded annoyed and impatient that I can't do everyone's job or escalate your issue instantly.

27. If you see me in the building don't ask me IT questions any more, I have moved on to SQL development.

Although I don't know the specifics here, and I understand that ignorance of the law is not a valid defense, it seems flat out insane to criminally prosecute the guy.

I give him the benefit of the doubt that they are telling the truth and this at least started by bailing rainwater out of a boat. That's a very normal activity, no reason to presume that any harm could come of it.

Then, first bucket gets tossed in and he sees that big splash. It's Florida, so there could be lots of potential explanations. It might be bigass catfish. It might be alligators. Could even be dolphins, depending on where they are in Florida. ...And, it might be manatees, although that probably wouldn't be the first thing I would think of.

So, big splash. I'd be surprised. My first reaction would be: "I wonder if it will happen again after another bucket." NOT "Oh dear, perhaps I am frightening some poor defenseless little creatures and should immediately cease what I'm doing." If I came the the conclusion that it was gators (which seems more likely/reasonable than manatees to me, although I don't live there), it would even stand to reason that frightening them off would be a good thing to do -- encourage them to move away from populated areas.

Given all that, it seems very unlikely to me that the dude had any malicious intent. If he knew they were manatees and knew that stressing them out like that could negatively impact their health, perhaps punishment would be in order. But if he thought they were anything else (fish / gators / whatever), or just plain didn't know, continuing to bail the boat in an attempt to get whatever they might be to swim away seems like a very reasonable thing to do.

Educating people that "hey, if you see something like this happening, it might be manatees and you should try to avoid stressing them out" seems like by far a better and more rational option than "throw the animal torturer in the slammer!"