Opinion
By Dave Scott, 12-16-22
The suppression of the Biden scandal and the federal government’s and media’s blatant participation in it was highlighted this past Sunday evening, December 11, by Federalist senior editor and Fox News contributor, Mollie Hemingway, who spoke to a crowd of almost 400 at Amelia Island’s Omni Hotel.
Hemingway, who was a guest of Nassau County’s U.S. Constitution Scholarship Foundation, explained that the “public square” is controlled by social media companies and detailed how they have become a threat to free speech. She credited Elon Musk for revealing just how bad it is.
She explained that she experienced suppression by Twitter and how, since Musk’s purchase of the company, she has realized a large uptick in followers, that now number more than one million. She told the audience that the Federalist’s CEO, John Davidson, had been locked out of his account for many months and was shadow banned.
She said the “number one threat in the U.S. today is that the First Amendment is under attack and the government and media are jointly participating in the suppression of free speech.”
Musk as much as confirmed that last Saturday, December 10, when he said: “Twitter is both a social media company and a crime scene.”
Since The New York Times and Washington Post both won Pulitzer Prizes for their “reporting” of the phony Trump-Russia collusion “Russiagate” allegations without uncovering a single misdeed or lie it seems appropriate that Musk should get one for his current efforts exposing Twitter and media collusion with the government.
Or maybe Musk should share the Pulitzer with The New York Post that uncovered and published the “Biden Secret Emails” exposé based on the contents of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop. Twitter took extraordinary steps to suppress the Post story, removing links and posting warnings that it may be ‘unsafe.’ They even blocked its transmission via direct message, a tool reserved for extreme cases, e.g., child pornography. White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany was locked out of her account for tweeting about the story.
The government’s and media’s frantic and sham investigation of former President Trump turned out to be as fake and empty as FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s company ledgers, bank accounts, bookkeeping procedures and lame excuses.
So, doesn’t it make sense then that someone who in reality unveiled the most egregious and dangerous scandal in the history of this country should be a shoo-in for the Pulitzer?
Musk, who isn’t even a reporter but now owns Twitter, is continuing to reveal the massive lies and coverups of one of the worst scandals in the country’s history, a scheme that makes Watergate, Clinton’s sex scandals, Teapot Dome and the Pentagon Papers combined pale in comparison.
Musk’s revelations of the corrupt media, large corporations, and the government colluding to interfere, lie, coverup, and deny the Hunter Biden laptop mess and Joe Biden’s corruption and sellout of America to China is unprecedented.
Former left-wing journalist and author Glenn Greenwald tweeted: “The list of prominent conservative US/Western elected officials, journalists, authors, etc. banned by Big Tech is very long. To deny that Big Tech censorship targets conservatives requires pathological lying.”
There’s enough material here so far to put Musk in the Pulitzer Hall of Fame by accomplishing a feat that will probably never be equaled in journalism. With the exception of the Post and FOX News, the so-called journalists in the mainstream media are either so ashamed or frightened they aren’t covering this story. Or maybe it’s because they are so deeply implicated.
However, since this same group of unscrupulous con artists, liars, thieves, and grifters run the Pulitzer program we probably won’t see Mr. Musk victoriously hoisting the prize above his head. Hopefully with a Republican Congress we will see a few of the vile criminals that Musk exposed in cuffs and behind bars.
(An abridged version of the above commentary was published in the national BizPac Review news site yesterday, December 15, at https://www.bizpacreview.com/2022/12/15/a-pulitzer-prize-for-musk-1317290/)
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The new editor at the “Blind Observer” is making a smooth transition.
The Handwringing, Moaning & Whining Begins: It didn’t take long following the overwhelming victory of Fernandina Beach City Commission traditional family values candidates, Fireman Darron Ayscue and Dr. James Antun, in the December 13 runoff election for local liberals to cry out in anguish and gnash their teeth.
One of the leaders of this shocked and unhappy left-wing chorus is Mike Phillips, new “editor” of the online blind Observer who voiced his discontent with the two conservative candidates the day of the election in a bylined piece headlined: “Do Partisan Politics Have a Place in Our Small Town Elections.”
Phillips, who was handed the “Blind” Observer’s white cane baton by outgoing sight-impaired editor and Fernandina Beach City PR Bureau Chief Susan Steger, wrote the following piece of drivel voicing his disapproval of the newly elected City Commission candidates:
“A couple of weeks before Dec. 13, a river of expensive direct mail pieces started flowing into the mailboxes of registered Republicans, promoting the idea that only two Republicans were running, and that’s who should get the homeowners’ votes. I got five in about 10 days. Whoever was financing this (and I’m pretty sure I know who) must have run out of money after $20-30 thousand bucks, because people then started getting texts with the same message. (A much cheaper form of communication that I appreciated because it didn’t require a trip to the junk mail bin.)
“So here is my question to the community: Do you want partisan politics to be injected into our non-partisan, totally community-oriented elections? Think about it. Do you? Either way, I think we should have a community discussion about this.”
So here’s my questions to Phillips to “think about”: Have you ever taken a course in journalism? Do you have the slightest concept of balanced news? Obviously the two Republican candidates you referenced are Antun and Ayscue. The mailings came from a Republican Political Action Committee (PAC) out of Tallahassee that was not coordinated or under the control of either of the two winning candidates. If you were actually a journalist and had checked you would know that.
So, using your own words Mr. Phillips you should “Think about this”: Why did you fail to mention that the losing candidates – California transplant and Black Lives Matter (BLM) supporter Mike Lednovich, and Genece Minshew, founder, and head of Fernandina Pride, who has said she wants to make Fernandina a “gay vacation destination”, were both enthusiastically endorsed and supported by the Fernandina Beach Democrat Club. This Democrat party organization went online and blatantly offered signs and other campaign material to support their favored candidates. You conveniently didn’t mention that in your “no partisan politics here” blather.
Phillips also failed to mention the County Citizens Defending Freedom (CCDF) questionnaire that all other candidates but Lednovich and Minshew answered. Apparently Phillips thought that the liberal Lednovich-Minshew duo ignoring media questions to explain why they refused to answer the questionnaire wasn’t newsworthy.
In addition to Phillips’ sad, misleading and amateurish commentary the “usual suspects” of local liberals are keeping bemused locals entertained on social media with their shrill and frantic cries of imminent impending doom.
Minshew says she lost because of “hate and culture wars” refusing to believe that folks hereabouts simply don’t share her vision for the city. I haven’t heard what Lednovich thinks or if he tossed his Black Lives Matter sandwich board into the trunk of his car and is headed back to California.
And speaking of local news outlets, the bi-weekly print Fernandina Beach News Leader layout guy or gal performed an apt juxtaposition of “City Sidebar” columnist Cara Curtain’s musings next to sad sack Ron Sapp’ s weekly grump Wednesday, December 14. Curtain’s fitting headline proclaimed: “No talent? No problem” in a piece appropriately placed right next to another Sapp “Get off my lawn you little bastards” screed headlined: “I don’t know this place anymore”.
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Speaking of the CCDF: Folks wanting to know more about the Nassau County chapter of the County Citizens Defending Freedom (CCDF) organization will have two upcoming opportunities next month. People in West Nassau can meet and talk with organizers at The Pig Bar-B-Q in Callahan at 5:30 pm Tuesday, January 10. Another session is scheduled Thursday, January 26 at the Surf on Fletcher Ave. at 5:30 pm. Go to [email protected] to RSVP and CCDFUSA.com to learn more about the organization.
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Ross & Martin Outnumbered: A number of people have told me that they heard Chip Ross say he would resign his City Commission seat if Dr. James Antun and Fireman Darron Ayscue were elected.
When I emailed Ross and asked if he had said that, and if so would he follow though, he responded saying: “Not to the best of my knowledge. What is the source of your information? He said he is not resigning and added: “It will be a pleasure to serve with the two new Commissioners who campaigned on decreasing taxes and improving City services at the same time. If they can pull it off they will have my support.”
So, Ross remains, but surrounded by four reasonable folks (Bradley Bean, David Sturges, Ayscue and Antun) that should curb City Manager Dale Martin’s and Ross’s insatiable appetite for hiring additional staff, buying all kinds of new and shiny things, as well as a passion for purchasing more non-productive properties to add to the city’s estimated $100 million real estate holdings.
It will be fun to observe Chiropractor James Antun perform a much needed economic “adjustment” on a Commission with emergency room doctor Chip Ross and City Manager Martin as reluctant patients, while Fireman Ayscue pours cold water on their financial fantasies.
The city manager and his minions have demonstrated over the years that they can’t efficiently manage a budget, operate a marina or a golf course, control an extortionist building department, and want to continuously add more private assets to the city’s non-productive, non-taxable portfolio at tax payer expense.
With a four to one City Commission stacked against Martin and Ross, this nonsense will hopefully come to an end and public-private partnerships will be explored in the future to right this sinking ship. But more about that at a later date.
If I was Martin I’d be fine-tuning my resume.
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What The FTX? How could any rational person or investment firm make a decision to put money into an organization like FTX that was run by a pot-bellied 30-year-old that looks like an unmade bed and speaks like his underwear is too tight?
And why, just one day before he was scheduled to testify before Congress, was this larcenous loser arrested? Apparently $70 million in political contributions, mostly to Democrats in an election year, buys a lot of influence.
This pathetic twit babbled on to anyone who would listen revealing himself to be either an idiot or a psychopath, possibly both. Just in the nick of time, the Democrats made sure nobody hears anything more that he has to say.
He might spend the rest of his miserable life in prison and should since he cost so many gullible and naïve people their life savings and pensions.
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Speaking Of Shams? Why is Brittney Griner being labeled a “basketball star” by the media?
I never heard of this woman until Biden, who ironically is demanding strict gun control in the U.S., traded an international arms dealer responsible for the deaths of U.S. soldiers, and innocent women and children around the world, for this woman who refused to stand for the U.S. National Anthem.
She played basketball for the Women’s Basketball Association (WBA), an organization as popular as a curling club, and less exciting than watching paint dry.
My good friend and American Spectator writer Larry Thornberry said to me in a recent email that this was the worst trade since baseball’s 1965 Cincinnati Reds swapped National League MVP and All-Star slugger Frank Robinson to the Baltimore Orioles for pitcher Milt Pappas.
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A Christmas Story: It has been reported that a library in Massachusetts isn’t putting up a Christmas tree this year because some people were uncomfortable looking at it.
How many people are “some people? It didn’t say. But I’m not comfortable looking at grown men in lingerie called drag queens calling Bingo, reading to kids, or riding on floats down Centre Street, but I’m sure the library and the LGBTQA+ crowd don’t care about my feelings regarding that.
Yep, the Liberal War On Christmas continues, at least in Massachusetts.
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Hey Grand Parents, Dad & Mom! If you’re looking for a unique and impressive Christmas gift for young teenagers give them Amelia Island author Pat Keogh’s most recent book: “Hey Kid! Wanna Own Great American Businesses?”
It’ll teach children easy to read and understand practical lessons in economics and capitalism that will stay with them for life. The concept is simple. When granddad or Uncle Charlie, etc. give junior a cash present, the book will explain how he can buy shares of stock rather than a sack of McDonald’s burgers. When his pals are munching their burgers and swilling their sugar-laden Cokes, junior can thank them for buying from his company and earning him some of the best paying dividends available.
In fact, give the kid a share of stock and the book and watch him or her suddenly take an avid interest in the stock pages or Morningstar, Inc. online.
The book is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble or Pat’s website at www.makeyourfamilyrich.com. It’s a good investment of a few bucks. Mom and dad might also learn a few things.
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Things I Wish I’d Said: “If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do. So whenever you find yourself getting angry about a difference of opinion, be on your guard; you will probably find, on examination, that your belief is going beyond what the evidence warrants.” — Bertrand Russell.
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Poll Results: The last poll on this site asked if folks hereabouts thought the Fernandina Beach City Commission and School Board candidates owe it to voters to respond to the CCDF questionnaire or issue a statement explaining why they refuse? A total of 179 people (86%) said they should while just 30 (14%) said “no”. A new poll starting today asks Fernandina voters is they expect to see cost cutting and budgetary restraint following the recent election?
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Republished with the author’s permission. Read The Dave Scott Blog– subscribe Free
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal Florida.
