Musings, opinions, observations, questions, and random thoughts on island life, Fernandina Beach and more

Musings, opinions, observations, questions, and random thoughts on island life, Fernandina Beach and more

If You Enjoy Looting, Rioting, Arson & Killings Then Vote For A Democrat On November 3rd

In Portland, Oregon  “peaceful protestors” are free to demolish federal buildings, set fire to a Police Association Headquarters building, and destroy and bankrupt that city’s downtown businesses.

The idiot Democrat mayor of Portland and the equally dim Democrat governor of Oregon told the federal government to get their police out of town, they didn’t need or want them there. How would you like to live in that hellhole?

Democrat-run American cities have been in rapid decline as Democrat politicians, Marxist BLM and Antifa rabble, consisting of black Communists and young white ignoramuses have joined forces in an attempt to destroy the country.

Most of the blockheads rioting in the streets, have no idea why they are doing it. These mobs just know it’s a lot of fun to break, burn, and steal other people’s stuff, especially when the cops are told to just stand by and watch. A mob, by definition, is a large body without a brain, much like the Democrat politicians that run those hapless cities and the states they’re in.

Forget Black Lives Matter. It’s a Marxist organization that doesn’t give a hoot about black lives. If it did it would get to work in its own community. In 2018, 45 percent of all murder victims in the U.S. were black, 89 percent of then killed by another black person. A disproportionate number considering that blacks only make up just 13 percent of the U.S. population.

Black Wall Street Journal columnist Jason L. Riley (“The Full Truth About Race and Policing”, June 10, 2020) summed it up writing: ”So long as blacks are committing more than half of all murders and robberies while making up only 13% of the population, and so long as almost all of their victims are their neighbors, these communities will draw the lion’s share of police attention. Defunding the police, or making it easier to prosecute officers, will only result in more lives lost in those neighborhoods that most need protecting.”

It’s happening already. An Amelia Island friend of mine who just returned from a visit to his hometown of Pittsburgh told me: “My good friend who has been a Pittsburgh City Police Officer for about 30 years was telling me how idiots were throwing bricks and batteries at him during the peaceful protests downtown. He and many of his fellow officers have decided they will only respond to crimes they witness first hand. They are slow walking everything and not even responding to a lot of the criminal behavior throughout the city.”

As a result of the defunding the police nonsense and out of control rioting and looting condoned and encouraged by Democrats, thousands of law-abiding African Americans who depend on the police for basic safety will continue to be the victims.

What Democrat run cities like Portland, Chicago, Atlanta, New York, etc. need is another Teddy Roosevelt, who as a no-nonsense police commissioner in the late 1890’s cleaned up a corrupt New York City police force, exposed crooked politicians, and cracked down on rampant crime to protect its citizens, not a jerk like New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, and others who gleefully cheer the demise of once great cities.

***

The Number You Called Has Been Disconnected: Thanks to the Democrat party the burning, looting, and rioting is only going to get worse as it busily empties jails, using the pandemic as an excuse to release convicted thieves, rapists, and pedophiles, while not even bothering to arrest looters, violent vandals, and arsonists. If Joe Biden is elected President you’d better load up on ammunition and ensure that all your weapons are operating properly, because law and order will be a thing of the past. Call 911 and you’ll get either a disconnected number message or a social worker.  The left has made it clear it wants to abolish police departments and replace them with —well, they haven’t made that clear yet. Maybe middle aged apron-clad women wielding large wooden spoons.  Who in their right mind wants fewer cops other than criminals? Democrats are the reason there is a Second Amendment.

***

Heil Nancy! Adolph Hitler would have admired House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, perhaps the nastiest most vile woman in America next to Hilary Clinton.

Last week she refused to condemn protestors in her home town of Baltimore when they toppled a statue of Christopher Columbus and tossed it into the city’s harbor, instead saying: “People will do what they do.”

I can imagine her response if she had she lived in Hitler’s Germany in 1938 following “Kristallnacht”, or the Night of Broken Glass, a violent pogrom against Jews when German authorities looked on without intervening. Pelosi would have casually proclaimed: “People, vill do vat zay do.”

***

Things I Wish I’d Said: “Now let me get this straight. There’s no cure for a virus that can be killed by hand sanitizer and soap.” — anonymous.

***

Speaking Of Vile Politicians: Falling all over himself to pander to the far-left, Joe Biden, has promised to raise taxes, eliminate coal, oil, and natural gas, and flood businesses with massive regulations if he’s elected President. He’s also got the Little Sisters of the Poor in his sights, saying he’ll roll back conscience protections for Catholic nuns and other religious employers who object to providing contraceptives.

Maybe whoever’s advising this basement dwelling birdbrain thinks that harassing nuns for four more years will take our minds off all the other damage a Biden Administration would do to the country.

How bad is Biden’s antipolice program? Earlier this week one of this empty vessel’s staffers – a woman named Sara Pearl – who is the supervising video producer for Biden’s presidential campaign, tweeted anti-law enforcement messages that were supportive of defunding the police and against people referring to cops as “pigs” because that would be disrespectful to the animals. “[P]igs are highly intelligent and empathetic animals who would never racially profile you,” she said.

In addition, Biden recently released a position paper this week that promises his administration will end cash bail, across the country. That means criminals will be released on their own recognizance with the promise of returning for their day in court. We’ve seen how well that works in New York City and with the illegal aliens who promised to return to be interviewed by a federal judge who would determine their status.

Since Biden doesn’t even appear capable of finding his way in or out of the men’s room by himself, it’s crazies like Ms. Pearl, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Bernie Sanders, etc. who will be running the country if this pathetic man is elected. It comes as no surprise that The National Association of Police Organizations came out in support of Donald Trump, despite traditionally supporting Democrats.

***

Meanwhile Back At The Ranch: A very smart man who knows all about such things sent me the following chart earlier this week comparing common Fernandina Beach City and Nassau County 2019-20 Property Tax expenditures by function:

Function                          City                        County

General Govt.                    23.6%                    9.0%

Public Safety                     49.4%                    22.1%

Transportation                   7.8%                       9.4%

Culture/Recreation           18.3%                     2.0%

It seems that for a population of roughly 13,000, compared to a county population of roughly 92,000, city taxpayers are financing excessive services in three major areas.

City residents pay 2.6 times more for General Government services……that seems excessive.

City residents pay 2.2 times more for Public Safety……again why so much more? Is the island less safe than the mainland? Do the beaches need that much more protection?

City residents pay 9 times more for Culture/Recreation…………amazing. Sure, the city has many amenities the county does not, so this should be higher, but 9 times higher?

He said he was asked recently what he was getting for his county taxes. He responded saying: “A more reasonable balance of services.”

(NOTE: Data from 2019-20 Budget Book page III.8 and June 2, 2020 budget briefing by Megan Diehl to BOCC.)

***

“Fat? What fat?” ask Tweedlee Ross and Tweedlee Martin

City Confused By Logical Advice: Following an extraordinarily successful career managing half a billion-dollar budgets for major corporations and working as a corporate turn-around expert Mike Creed retired to Fernandina Beach. He knows budgets, how to balance them and where to find fat to cut. He recently wrote to the Fernandina Beach City Commission and City Manager Dale Martin bluntly telling them they don’t know bupkis about budgeting, suggesting they do their jobs by cutting waste.

He received the same lame knee-jerk response we all get from the self-appointed, arrogant city spokesperson Commissioner Chip Ross asking Mr. Creed how many of the city’s policemen, EMT employees, and firefighters he’d like to see fired.

Mr. Creed was having none of Ross’s gasbag tactics and responded saying: “You are inviting the wrong guy to the table. What I was calling for was for the budget to be aggressively challenged, and the fundamentals of sound, lean management to be followed. That need is my perception as Joe Taxpayer, a concerned citizen without full knowledge of the inner workings and hidden mechanisms of our city government. With respect, you should be inviting people with such knowledge to the table and challenge them. Invite Dale Martin to the table, challenge him to challenge his department heads, and their supervisors, and their people, to work off any fat. Separate needs from wants. Make no mistake, they know where it’s at much better than either you or I do.”

Mr. Creed, who earned a living by challenging the status quo as a corporate turn-around consultant told Ross:  “What I did for my money was to do for companies what they could have done for themselves. All they lacked was the professional courage to challenge everything within their own walls.” He suggested that instead of shoveling their fiscal responsibilities off on others,  Ross and Martin turn inward.

He didn’t hold back.

Fernandina Beach City Commission creed

“As a Fernandina Beach resident, homeowner, and, of course, taxpayer, I find myself dismayed by the apparent imbalance between city revenues and city spending. From my perspective, the fiscal behaviors of our city leaders appear seriously dysfunctional, inefficient, reckless, and irresponsible, to the point that I no longer trust our City Manager to manage our resources, nor do I trust your Commission, on the whole, to maintain fiscal stewardship in the most basic and fundamental fiscal responsibility of balancing city revenue streams with ever-bloating city payables and staff expenses.”

“What services do you want to give up? you ask. This manner of push back reflects the usual knee-jerk reaction of city servants on the defense going directly to the easier wrong of threatening to cut meat rather than the harder right of digging for, and trimming, fat. And frankly, it appears to this experienced man that our city has plenty of fat to trim.”

Mr. Creed attacked bloated city staffing much the same way he attacked bloated corporate functions telling Ross: “The City Manager, who has lost credibility, at least with me, as a competent steward of our money, should not shield his Department Heads from this responsibility. If Department Managers cannot explain why each headcount is required, specifically in terms of responsibilities, knowledge, skills, and abilities, then that headcount gets cut.”

Preparing the meeting room for a Fernandina Beach budget session.

He singled out the FEMA-Marina fiasco as an example of extreme fiscal irresponsibility saying: “As an example of such an area calling for full investigation and accountability, I offer the Case of the FEMA Piking, where someone decided to move forward with Marina repairs apparently without FEMA funds being nailed down, as a multi-million dollar error worthy of full and complete accounting, and likely termination of the person playing fast and loose with millions of our dollars.”

He didn’t pull any punches mercilessly jabbing at Ross: “You, sir, along with the other members of the City Commission, have been gifted with the public trust. Living up to that trust is simply a matter of continually challenging the status quo, establishing, and enforcing accountability for every single penny of our money, and rightfully expecting managers to manage, supervisors to supervise, and city workers to work. Is that really happening? Hell, I don’t know for sure, but I know the signs of lob-cocking when I see it. Do we truly need 160.5 budgeted people to do the work of the City? Again, I don’t know. But to me, Joe Taxpayer, it seems excessive when I all too often see our Public Servants of Dale’s budget gathered for multiple half-hour breaks smoking in the shade, tools leaning against trees, not a supervisor in sight.”

He concluded telling Ross and the others to do the jobs they were elected to do: “It’s not my job to find and fix such behaviors, not at any level within the city government. It is yours, sir, and you are looking in the wrong direction if you are looking to change my mind. Change my mind, earn my vote, by challenging the city’s status quo, challenging Managers to Manage, Supervisors to Supervise, Workers to work, and Controllers to control.”

We need folks like Mr. Creed to run for City Commission.

Fernandina Beach residents are encouraged to show up at city hall at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday, July 28, to voice their opinions on the city’s future spending plans. A group of Common Sense members showed up at a meeting last night at Central Park and were extremely vocal about their displeasure at the city’s obvious fiscal malfeasance, particularly when we’re in the midst of a financial crisis caused by the virus pandemic.  Commissioner Mike Lednovich — who has mysteriously emerged as the city’s voice of fiscal reason — urged voters to voice their opinions. I learned yesterday from Mr. Lednovich that the city has spent a half million dollars of our tax money on plans for a downtown city park that have never been used and that 60 percent of the city’s revenue comes from our property taxes.  If you own property in the city and that doesn’t bother you, then stay home.

***

Strike Three! Baseball broke my heart this week. The game is following football and basketball into the political toilet.

I agree with my good friend and American Spectator writer Larry Thornberry, who said when he saw San Francisco Giants’ baseball players and their spineless manager Gabe Kaplan, kneeling during the National Anthem and a 254-foot “Black Lives Matter” billboard go up outside Boston’s Fenway Park he was devastated.  Like me he said he gave up football and basketball with hardly a withdrawal symptom because of the same offensive behavior.

“But this really hurts”, he admits. “I’ve loved baseball – played it, watched it, talked about it, cared about it as a man and boy. But if the price of admission now includes being accused by players, coaches, and managers of being racist scum and told that America is a racist hell hole, then these guys can shove their sunflower seeds where the moon don’t shine.”

“Baseball has survived wars, a depression, drugs, insane team owners, crackpot commissioners, gamblers, steroids, and Howard Cosell. But aggressive left revolutionary politics may kill the finest game the mind of God and man has ever devised. I’m breaking out the black armbands. There’s been a death in the family. In this case the dearly departed was truly loved.”

What do players and the league’s empty suits think they’re accomplishing with this highly offensive nonsense, other than driving fans out of sports arenas and TV viewers away from sports channels at game time? How many minds do they think they’ve changed because ultrarich players disrespected the National Anthem to imply America is a racist country?

I won ‘t pay to go to a stadium to watch these jerks disrespect the American flag, the National Anthem, the U.S. military and the police. That’s not my idea of entertainment. Nor will I watch them on television. I love this game just as much, if not more than Larry. But, like Larry, I’ve had enough of this nonsense.

***

Something Doesn’t Add Up: The local News Leader bi-weekly newspaper has as much trouble adding up numbers as it does stringing coherent words together. Recently its front-page lead story was about the upcoming “Back The Blue”, the support the police walk through downtown Fernandina Beach. In another article he paper ran another front-page item that said the walk was expected to attract “100-200 marchers” without attribution to anyone. In actuality the walk, which was held despite two driving rain storms, drew more than 400 folks, a much larger crowd than the chanting, kneeling, Marxist Black Live Matters crowd whose participants appeared to be mostly from out of town. The more than 400 July 2 number comes from city officials, experts in estimating crowds. On June 12, the pathetic News Leader ran a lead front-page article saying the BLM group expected some 500 people. It never came anywhere close to that number. The article was a blatant piece of propaganda with editorializing in it saying that the walk would “address racial issues and the use of force, blah, blah, blah, etc.” This newspaper is a disgrace to the community it is supposed to serve. Speaking of the “Back The Blue” walk, Mayor Johnny Miller showed up in the city hall parking lot, but no one spotted him during the walk.  Maybe he was worn out from all the kneeling and laying down he did in the Black Lives Matter event. Gasbag Commissioner Chip Ross rode his bike alongside Pastor Anthony Daniel, one of the BLM speakers and BLM parade organizers. I’m willing to bet they didn’t talk about supporting the cops.

***

Church Notice: “Since the Home Depot store on State Road 200 can accommodate up to 220 people, this Sunday’s services will be held in home appliance section at 11 a.m.”

  • Comment (16)
  • Dave, your blog is spot on. Were being manipulated to think a certain way, feel a certain way and vote a certain way. There’s nothing normal about this “new normal” and frankly I never thought I would see a day when a major political party would go out of its way to tear a country down and blatantly disregard the American voter, like the Dems appear to be doing. Keep up the good work. Whether its a local election, or a Presidential election, never has it been more important to exercise that right…while we still have it.

  • Remove all assumptions when doing a Budget. Every service is divided into essential and non-essential. Start with the essential ones. Look at best practices in well run cities and counties. Fill out your essential Budget. Make value decisions on the non-essential ones and again adopt best practices. There are many of us who have developed and managed much larger Budgets who’d be willing to assist….. if our input would be valued and make a difference!

  • Half of my friends are democrats. The ones that object to all the nonsense of riots and dishonoring authorities are convinced that republicans are causing all the trouble. I read recently that our brains only allow in what we already believe, and if that is the case, no one will prove to anyone what the truth is, and who is behind all the trouble. This spells real trouble looming. Hunker down.

  • Between being home bound from the virus and excessive heat you must have consumed an excessive amount of gov’t kool aid. You made no mention of the Republican run states that have let the virus back into their states and now have hospitals over run with Covid patients.
    My feeling is that the City Commissioners should man up, do their job and vote for the Roll Back millage. Then the City Manager should do his job, make any necessary cuts and then present that budget to the Commissioners.

  • OK Dave, something is amiss in your friend’s chart comparing the allocation of budget property tax revenue between the City and County. The City numbers add up to 99% but the County’s only 42%. So where is the County’s other 58% going and how does that compare to the city? Seems like some statistical cherry-picking to me.
    As Mark Twain said “Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are pliable.”
    Stay well

  • Dave real great message
    in today’s blog about the
    fate of America. I’ve been
    on this earth for over 80
    years and have never seen
    our great nation in such a
    mess.I am afraid that it is
    destined for collapse if the
    leftist socialist democratic
    party gains control. How anyone with even a tiny bit
    of sense cannot see what is
    going on in these major
    cities that are controlled by
    democratic mayors and
    governors.How could they
    stand by and allow unruly
    rioting looting and arson with
    no intentions of allowing the
    police to intervene.I watch in
    utter shock and fear what is
    happening in places like
    Portland Oregon.Shock that
    this has been going on for
    Sixty Nights straight. Fear that no one other than the
    President is determined to
    put a stop to this awful mess.
    It is obvious that hatred and
    rage over the lefts losing the
    2016 election is the fuel that is feeding this frenzy.I often
    watch in amazement as many well intentioned pundits spout the talking points and ignore the awful
    coming results.As a born and bred southerner raised
    in a democratic family who
    would never vote republican
    am sure my forefathers are
    spinning in their graves.May
    God bless and watch over
    America.
    Artrox

  • To answer Dave Lott, the obvious elephant in the room is school taxes.

    Most places I’ve lived, state and local school taxes accounted for +/- 50% of my property tax bill. If you leave out school taxes and just compare city/county budgets as a percentage of “everything else”, you effectively double the county percentages that your friend quoted.

  • Dave:
    Terrific issue. The “secret” to high quality, low cost services is the same as in most things people buy; competition! Everything the City does is available across the street, literally. As part of the budgetary process the City should compete sources of supply from among competitive contract providers including Nassau County. That way, County residents would take better advantage of the economies of scale and City residents would get better, more competitive pricing. Because folks in the City are also County taxpayers they would get a double benefit of competition. As the data may show, the current City monopoly on public services does not work to the benefit of anyone other than those who run it. Check out the very prosperous town of Weston FL where virtually all services are either contracted with Broward County or contractor-provided through competition.

  • Consolidation of functions and substitution of “contracted out” services is a canard used by often “self interested parties” to get rid of responsible planning and competent oversight by decimating responsible personnel in critical departments. Predatory exploitation – usually by those squealing the loudest about oversight – is the result. In a more immediate and critically dangerous context, Trump is using “unidentifiable, contracted out services” under an unconfirmed, Acting Head of DHS (whose temporary statutory authority has expired) as a cover of anonymity to now get rid of responsible and accountable civil American government – without oversight of any kind. One might call it an attempted coup d’etat. Criminals thrive in a chaotic environment whenever and wherever it can be created. Now is not the time to change horses in mid stream.
    https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-22-2020, https://www.lawfareblog.com/dhs-authorizes-domestic-surveillance-protect-statues-and-monuments.

  • Bob, does your canard commentary about contracting out services extend to the democrat run cities cutting back on police services?? Seems the BLM and Antifa crowd are pushing for such which would imply cutting back on police services is being proposed by self interest groups, no?? Obviously having un-quelled rioting and mayhem is their plan so they want as few police or law enforcement personnel present as possible.

  • Are you single? I would love to go on a date with you. You are absolutely fresh, candid, awesome and fabulous!!

  • Dave, so sorry I Haven’t had time to correct some of you personal facts till now. To start with no Federal buildings in Portland have been, as you put it, demolished. You did forget once again to mention the Navy vet who was pepper sprayed while doing nothing, the kid shot in the face while holding a boom box and the young lady who stood there with her cell phone with a gun pointed point blank to her head.
    You also never mentioned that these para military, unmarked uniform men are a step away from going to North Korea or China and doing their bidding.
    I am glade to see your rants about sleepy Joe however, the more you rant, the better we know he is doing.
    Hoping to see your next blog defend the fact our President wants to postpone the election. That would be like putting a protest in on a game that isn’t going to be played till next week.
    You also mentioned AOC, did you see the way she surgically removed Rep Yoho’s most private parts in front of the whole world for calling her a , well you know what he called her. Poor guy had to resign from the board of a Christian organization due to his hissy fit on the steps of the Capital.
    You know I give you credit, those who are not peacefully protesting should, and hopefully will be held accountable for their criminal behavior, something I think we can all agree with. The funny part is, when a bunch of ballplayers take a knee in ” peacefully protesting” there seems to be a problem. Not sure if you are going to watch any type of sports this year as every sport from Nascar, to baseball, to basketball to football to dice games in the back alley are having more and more players peacefully protest by taking a knee. Oh, that is still allowed under the Constitution the last time I read it. I think I read somewhere a hotdog vendor or two at Fenway took knee as well, wonder if it hurt their sales, oh wait, what sales?
    Rather than worry about these players in MLB taking a knee you should be complaining about cardboard fans behind home plate and canned crowd noise. Canned crowd noise is like going to a your friends wake and when you kneel at the gasket a tape comes on thanking you for stopping by to see the him one last time. There are no crowds and there should be no noise. There are no fans, so there should be no cardboard. Let us all hear what these multi-million dollar players are actually saying to each other during a game and see if we can pick up some basic high school mistakes.
    Once again as away, stay safe, stay well and wear a mask. Someday you will buy me a beer

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