Opinion
By Dave Scott, 9-27-24
Seven Florida Congressional Democrats where among the 158 that voted against a U.S. House bill last week to deport and make inadmissible criminal foreign nationals convicted of domestic violence and sex-related offenses, including sex crimes against children.
Fortunately the bill passed despite the majority of House Democrats, 158, voting against it. All of Florida’s Republican representatives voted for it.
Why would anyone object to a bill that protects children from sex offenders, illegal ones at that?
Those Florida Democrats who voted against the bill deporting sex offenders, Sept. 18, 2024: (HR 7909, Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act), were: Kathy Castor, 14th District, including Tampa; Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, 20th District, SE Florida; Lois Frankel, 22nd District, West Palm Beach; Maxwell Frost, 10th District, Central, Florida, Lake & Orange County; Darren Soto, 9th District, Orlando; Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, 25th District, Southern Broward County; and Frederica Wilson, 24th District, parts of Miami including “Little Haiti”.
The lone Democrat voting for it was Jared Moskowitz, District 23, of Parkland in the Northern Miami area.
The bill will amend the Immigration and Nationality Act “to provide that aliens who have been convicted of or who have committed sex offenses or domestic violence are inadmissible and deportable.” This includes stalking, child abuse, child neglect, child abandonment, violation of protective orders, including credible threats of violence, repeated harassment, and conspiracy to commit a sex offense as grounds for deportation, according to the language in it.
The bill also includes crimes defined in the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006: child sex offenders, sexual predators, child sex traffickers, using minors in a sexual performance, soliciting a minor to practice prostitution, producing, or distributing child pornography, transporting with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, among others.
Why do these Florida Democrats protect such vile, despicable people? And why would any Florida resident vote for a candidate that advocates for and protects any predator that preys on children?
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Speaking Of Deception & Lies: Fernandina Beach City Commission candidate Genece Minshew, the former head of the local Pride group hereabouts and two-time Commission candidate loser, responded to a question on a local social media site called “Amelia Island Fernandina Beach Network” asking her why she switched from the Democrat to the Republican party.
It’s the first time I’ve seen her respond to this question as she ignored me when I asked. She said: “…it is clear that having an R behind your name is important if you are to be successful in working with the county and the state, so I changed parties so that I can better represent all the citizens of the city.” Really Ms. Minshew?
She has now publicly admitted she has no scruples and does whatever is expedient in an attempt to brazenly mislead voters and get elected. She doesn’t believe in the conservative values of the Republican party and will say and do anything to generate votes.
This gal is a fraud, a liar, and a phony and publicly admits it. If folks thought Chip Ross and Mike Lednovich were disasters, it could be worse. Party switchers Minshew and lefty activist party switcher Joyce Tuten {Democrat to NPA} would make Fernandina the laughingstock of Florida and be a nightmare for city residents and local businesses.
Don’t let a tiny and loud minority of phony radical leftists on area social media sites and spouting nonsense in local media outlets fool you…this deceptive duo would be deadly dangerous for Fernandina.
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Truth-Telling Trucker: Recently, while sitting in a local seaside pub sipping a beer overlooking the ocean the guy next to me struck up a conversation.
He was a pleasant, well-spoken fellow who told me he was here overnight due to his job as a truck driver. I asked if he was a member of the Teamsters Union, and he admitted he was and added that he was fortunate to have such an organization supporting him. Without prompting he voluntarily shared his enthusiasm for his union’s refusal to endorse Democrat presidential candidate, Kamala Harris.
He explained that his increasing costs of doing business the past three years are an example of what most U.S. citizens are experiencing. “My growing fuel and maintenance costs are passed on to the businesses I serve, and they in turn pass them on to their consumers,” he explained. “The average voter doesn’t understand how the high price of fuel negatively impacts the prices of all necessities such as food, clothing, and housing. It’s all dependent on fuel-driven transportation to get where it needs to be, whether by truck, train, ship, or plane.”
He said oil is the lifeblood of the country and we’re a very, very long way from solar or wind power dependency. He said he doesn’t particularly like Donald Trump, but loves his policies, particularly making the U.S. oil independent again and lowering the prices of fossil fuels. “It lowers the prices of everything,” he added. “Drill baby, drill,” he emphasized.
He left for his hotel just before I exited and when I went to pay my bill, the bartender said: “The guy next to you paid it.” WOW! Words of wisdom and a free beer. It doesn’t get much better than that.
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Unintended Compliment: Fernandina City Commissioner, fireman, and mayoral candidate, Darron Ayscue, was unexpectedly and surprisingly presented a campaign endorsement from an unforeseen source.
One of Fernandina’s dimmest characters, failed politician, bogus journalist, activist, and BLM supporter Mike Lednovich (pictured here), labeled Commissioner Ayscue “the Trump of Fernandina.”
“Left Coast” Lednovich a California transplant, and failed one-term City Commissioner, who comically masquerades as a journalist for the pathetic online Observer — the Chicago White Sox of the area’s media — labeled Darron “The Trump of Fernandina” apparently thinking it was an insult. It was just the opposite.
The next week Lednovich, who as a commissioner, played the befuddled sidekick to crotchety City Commissioner Chip Ross, the most obnoxious and irascible commissioner in memory, called Commissioner Ayscue a “cyberbully,” a title that both Lednovich and Ross equally share. Even the Jacksonville media took notice of this duo’s incompetent arrogance a few years ago as depicted in the editorial cartoon below. Lednovich takes the term “projection” to a whole new level.
I’ve said it before, but folks hereabouts need to be reminded that Lednovich is as rational as a belligerent five-year-old’s kitchen-floor tantrum when denied a pre-dinner cookie and his silly scribblings bear a greater similarity to a psychological disorder than persuasive or coherent arguments.
Lednovich has never once called out Ross who has earned a reputation exceeding that of the unredeemed Ebenezer Scrooge and Silas Mariner combined. Lednovich has never acknowledged any of Ross’s transgressions including the suit that drove John and Teresa Sauer, and their special needs son, John Jr., out of their Fernandina home during the Thanksgiving holidays forcing them to take shelter in a local hotel, costing them thousands of dollars. Until the suit was settled the Sauer’s were denied a certificate of occupancy on a house they spent tens of thousands of dollars to renovate.
Similar Ross antics in his former Solomon Islands, Maryland residence are detailed here in very bizarre reports of his activities. They can be found by going to: http://www.thebaynet.com/articles/0906/prominent-tiki-bar-foe-charged-with-intoxicated-endangerment.html. A Washington Post article can be read in the May 28, 2011 Washington Post (At the famed Tiki Bar in Southern Maryland, it’s the … – Washington Post ). All are ignored by “crack” reporter “Left Coast” Lednovich.
Fernandina Commissioner Darron Ayscue is running for mayor against Commissioner James Antun, who has mysteriously become an ally of Commissioner Chip Ross the past few months. Why? He won’t say.
Antun’s anti-impact fee, pro-business advocacy when he initially ran for office vanished once elected. The local chiropractor has become mute except when siding with the belligerent gasbag Ross, and he’s become a massive pain in the electorate’s collective butt.
On the other hand amicable fireman Ayscue has his finger on the city’s pulse and displays his genuine sincerity in public and private.
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Set ‘Em up Boys, Have A Round Of Bioethanol! Bioethanol is an alcohol produced by RYAM from fermentation and distillation of lignocellulosic materials, i.e., pine tree residue or waste material.
This is the same process used by Mocama and all the other breweries hereabouts. They make an alcohol called beer. RYAM makes an alcohol called ethanol.
If RYAM gets the air rights license they have the green light. Like Mocama, RYAM knows the rules, does its homework, and abides by the laws. So, at the end of the day, will the extreme irrational screamers who hang out at Mocama, sipping coffee and locally brewed beer while plotting their RYAM opposition, get their way?
Like Mocama, RYAM is a terrific corporate citizen. It has a strong “green deal” argument in its favor. They are replacing a fossil fuel and eliminating a toxic residue by selling it profitably and not burning it, thus causing air pollution. Further, the state, county and city governments should support it for economic reasons. Also, RYAM has a fiduciary duty to its shareholders as well as its obligation to create and maintain a safe environment for its employees and the community?
If the Tuten-Minshew extremists want to ban tanker trucks carrying ethanol off the island shouldn’t they object to the gasoline tankers coming onto the island to service area filling stations. Can’t gasoline cause fires and explosions?
These local delusional cartoonish extremists need to remember where they are—on an island that supports two paper mills and an active seaport and their employees—not Martha’s Vineyard or the Hamptons. However, thanks to the solid corporate citizenship of Rayonier, folks hereabouts are as safe if not safer than those in those hoity-toity places.
The Rayonier management team is as skillful and professional as any I’ve ever observed. During a recent community open house the company’s management confidently and politely fielded citizens’ questions and allayed safety concerns with ease and confidence. They explained how they will convert a waste product currently being incinerated here and turn it into a viable commodity, safely, productively, and profitably.
Activists disguised as reporters don’t want to hear that. That’s why hacks such as Mike Lednovich and the dreadful leftist editor of the News Leader, Tracy Dishman, are so dangerous to solid corporate citizens and local employers like Rayonier. Based on his last two editorials, Publisher Foy Maloy, is scrambling to catch up with these two extremists. Sad. Maloy’s background is in advertising sales, not journalism and it shows. You need to get out more Foy.
It’s pathetic that these outlets, particularly the News Leader, deprive the community, its readers and advertisers of honest, balanced coverage and turns their personal biases into what the Wall Street Journal’s Bill McGurn calls “media malpractice”.
Thankfully the community is fortunate to have Matt Davis’s print and online www.yuleenews.com, and George Miller’s digital news outlet www.citizensjournal.net.
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And One More Thing! A reader sent me a comment saying: “Explain to me like I’m five years old how anybody can look at how bad things have gotten in just over three and one-half years and say: “Yep, I’m voting for more of this.”
Even Democratic strategist James Carville this past Thursday suggested that Harris stop attempting to persuade voters that the economy is doing well.
Apparently, Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s running mate, agrees with my reader, as during a Pennsylvania campaign rally Saturday, September 21 he shouted: “We can’t afford another four years of this!”
The bellowing, bouncing, arm-flapping Minnesota Governor, must have momentarily forgot he was Harris’s VP pick, when he bumblingly attempted to encourage his audience to continue supporting the same Harris leadership that resulted in the last four years of failed economic, border, and crime policies. Maybe he failed to close the deal because he forgot to mention that she grew up as a member of a middle-class family living in a neighborhood with nice lawns.
Republished with the author’s permission. Read The Dave Scott Blog– subscribe Free
The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal Florida.
