Opinion
By Dave Scott, 9-6-24
This past Labor Day Monday, September 2, a fleet of some 65 boats took off from Amelia Island’s Dee Dee Bartels Boat Ramp on the North end of the island to enjoy a day on the water and display their support for Donald Trump as shown by a few of them in the picture above. Unless I missed it, the only media outlet in the area that covered the event was the online Citizens Journal https://www.citizensjournal.net/fernandina-trump-boat-parade/.
Speaking Of Missing The Boat: During a recent Fernandina Beach City Commission session Commissioners Chip Ross and his equally annoying shadow, James Antun, a pair of medical professionals, diagnosed the city’s proposal to name the Main Beach skate park after Poe Pinson, as dead on arrival. The city’s objective was to honor her as the city’s first Olympian and passed on a 3-2 vote.
This dim doctor duo said they opposed naming the park after Pinson because she was still living and that they believe that such an honor should await until a recipient has passed away.
How does this dullard doctorial duo explain the fact that they didn’t hesitate a moment to vote to name Egans Creek after former commissioner, mayor, local school teacher, and activist, Ron Sapp on March 21, 2023? Sapp certainly deserved the tribute, and it may startle the two dopey docs to realize he’s still among the living.
The two local docs, Antun a chiropractor, and Ross a MD, operate in lockstep consistently annoying tax payers and fellow commissioners. To borrow Antun’s professional terminology they are both “pains in the a_ _.”
Ross is term limited and after this election the city will see his south end heading elsewhere to harass other unsuspecting folks. Antun is running for mayor against a competent, highly qualified, and articulate Darron Ayscue. Voting for a doctor as mayor who can’t distinguish between the living and the dead is not be the most logical choice. I’ll go with amicable firefighter Ayscue, whose job is saving lives.
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Football Fever: College football has started and fans all across the country congregate every Saturday to cheer their favorite teams and players.
This gridiron season will be interesting not only because of the traditional pageantry and excitement, but the recent transition of the conferences and fans wondering if their team’s star player will hop to a rival school next year as a “free agent..”
On a lighter side college teams this year boast some of the most interesting names I’ve seen since the heyday of professional wresting in the 1950s. Except those were fake. These names are real says the Washington Examiner’s podcast producer Jim Weber, who compiled the list.
Here’s my favorite starting lineup plucked out of Weber’s 22 names:
QB General Booty (Louisiana-Monroe)
WR Phat Watts (Tulane)
WR Squirrel White (Tennessee)
TE Rowdy Beers (FIU)
OL King Large (SMU)
OL Tiger Shanks (UNLV)
OL Hannes Hammer (Virginia Tech)
DL Thunder Keck (Stanford)
LB Memorable Factor (Duke)
DB New Zealand Williams (San Diego State)
DB Pig Cage (Louisiana Tech)
The above names are allegedly real as opposed to the pro wrestlers. My favorite phony wrestler names are: Grizzly Redwood, Brutus Beefcake, Amish Roadkill, Sugar Dunkerton, Gorgeous George, and Bastion Booger. For me “Amish Roadkill” tops the list!
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Speaking Of Football: This first pro football Sunday, September 8, beginning at noon, PJD’s Beer & Wine Garden at 12 South 2nd Street will conduct a tailgate party featuring local BBQ team “Smoke N Da Cockpit”. Italian beef, Wisconsin style beer bratwurst, Polish-dogs and hotdogs will be on the menu as well as hundreds of beer selections and plenty of wine.
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Guilty Of Being Not Guilty? Hunter Biden’s guilty plea wasn’t a surprise to America Spectator writer, political observer and my long-time Tampa pal, Larry Thornberry, who sent an email observing: “I prove right again. As I predicted months ago, Hunter will be taking one for the team by pleading guilty to tax charges, lest he be forced to testify about the family’s influence-peddling scam. This move protects many scofflaws, including the Capo dei Capi (aka The Big Guy), currently luxuriating at the Rehoboth Beach White House, enjoying his afternoon pick-me-up, a Metamucil smoothie and a nap. (“Do we have any more sun screen, Jill? Oops, sorry, Dr. Jill.”) Hunter risks little by this move. If the judge in this case follows Biden DOJ guidelines, Hunter’s punishment will likely be less severe than a regular person would receive for a week-overdue library book.”
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Wait! What? Why is it that in every election cycle Democrats constantly wail that the Social Security and Medicare funds will become depleted if they are not elected yet they never suggest that money to support illegal aliens or welfare recipients will dry up?
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Why Democrat Policies Fail: During the Harris-Biden administration EPA guidelines issued by faceless, unelected swamp bureaucrats issued mandates that say 67% of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. will be fully electric by 2032.
According to industry experts the rule will annihilate the U.S. auto industry, result in the loss of more than 100,000 jobs, and add to the already overburdened power grid.
Ford announced last week that it will cancel production on an electric SUV and delay an electric pickup truck. As a result, it expects to take a $1.9 billion write-down. In the second quarter this year Ford lost an eye-popping $44,000 on each EV it sold and expects to lose $5 billion on them this year. Americans don’t want them.
In Europe both Volkswagen and Volvo announced the folks there don’t want them either and said they’re closing plants and cutting back on production of the electric clunkers.
Harris’s VP pick, Tim Walz, is even worse. As governor of Minnesota he signed a bill that would end all sources of electricity other than wind and solar in that state by 2040.
Everything must be electric driven, he says. The fanatical climate obsession of the administration is compounding the grid shortages and will lead to major problems that the energy industry keeps warning are coming. This administration ignores it, doesn’t care, or both.
The Biden-Harris administration also issued an edict that no federal building can be constructed using fossil fuel for energy.
The environmental regulatory flood gushing out of this administration is only motivated to try to lock in as much anti-fossil fuel nonsense as it can before the next administration takes over.
The public is poorly informed about fossil fuels and how the energy world functions. Oil, natural gas, and coal are not going away. Alternative power supplies are not yet a practical solution to these whacky dreams. Unproven and dangerous wind projects are getting cancelled all over the world, and solar currently causes more problems than is solves due to the heat it creates and the minerals needed to build them. But why let facts get in the way of the media, teachers unions, professors, and ignorant liberal’s false narratives?
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Fact Check! Kamala Harris said several times on the campaign trail and at the DNC Convention about solving issues such as inflation and the war in Gaza that: “President Biden and I are working around the clock.” Really? Biden’s staff says he only works from 10 am to 4 pm when he’s in the White House. The past few weeks we’ve been treated to photos of him on vacation in California and sleeping in a lounge chair on the beach in Delaware. I’ve also never seen a photo or video of Harris in an office doing anything that resembles work.
What exactly is involved in this “around-the-clock work” she claims they’re doing? Show us some examples or the results. Was the humiliating surrender in Afghanistan a result of “round-the-clock” work. How about “Bidenomics”?
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“Accidental Tourist”? When I read the story headlined “Detainee’s Family Plans To Bargain With Taliban,” in the Wall Street Journal Thursday, September 5, about an American being detained by the Taliban in Afghanistan I realized there had to be more to the story.
The article described the detainee as George Glezmann, a Delta Airlines mechanic, who was “touring Afghanistan when the Taliban seized him in 2022.”
Touring Afghanistan? Who goes on a tour of a hostile country in the midst of a war? Why? Aren’t you just asking for trouble? This guy’s family is frustrated that the state department isn’t doing enough to secure his release. If he is released, and I hope he is, his next stop should be a psychiatric ward.
If he wanted to tour a war zone, then he should have joined the U.S. military, which offers all-expense-paid ‘tours” of such places.
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Can Companies Refuse Cash Payment? Imagine you and a companion are in a restaurant, having dinner, a couple of drinks then, when attempting to pay the bill with cash, the waiter tells you, “No” we don’t accept cash, only credit cards.”
What if you don’t have a credit card with you? Can you demand they take the cash? If they refuse what do you do? Can they refuse cash? Will they call the police? Then what?
The Florida Legislature may soon say “No, they can’t refuse cash.”
Refusing cash payments could become illegal for most Florida businesses this year under legislation sponsored by state Sen. Shevrin Jones, a Miami-Dade County Democrat, and state Rep. Joel Rudman, a Panhandle Republican.
A growing number of businesses of all sizes are going cashless, requiring patrons to use credit or debit cards, or smartphone apps, to pay for their purchases.
It’s a big problem for many folks, including lower-income people who don’t have access to non-cash payments and some older people who aren’t proficient with app-based payments.
And it’s also alarming to those who fear moving toward a cashless society could impinge on individual freedoms if, say, technology is used by the banking system or government to prevent people from spending money the way they wish.
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.
