The online Fernandina “Blind” Observer reached an apex of awfulness this week with an article that was so exceedingly tasteless and inappropriate it’s hard to know where to begin. It inexcusably and unjustifiably attacked a local resident for reasons it can’t explain.

The Observer, which traditionally serves as a mindless and harmless word-for-word mouthpiece for the City of Fernandina Beach and City Manager Dale Martin, and prints announcements of local knitting club meetings, has stooped to shaming local citizens that stray from its left-wing orthodoxy.

What little credibility this wretched, laughable hodgepodge of daily blather had left was totally obliterated when journalist wannabe Susan Steger, who calls herself  “editor”, authorized the printing of a disgraceful word jumble February 20 headlined: “Local residents helped fund protesting truckers” (https://fernandinaobserver.com/2022/02/20/local-residents-helped-fund-protesting-truckers/ ).The story identifies or “doxes” a local resident. It identifies him, his residential area, where he was employed, his job title and the amount of money he contributed to protesting Canadian truckers.

Why? What’s the local angle? Did the Canadian truckers pose a threat to Fernandina Beach? Did they threaten Fernandina residents? Are the truckers headed our way? Is the local guy’s money funding armed insurrection? Did Publix run out of Poutine? None of that was addressed in the Observer’s absurd claptrap.

The Observer never reported on the Black Lives Matter and Antifa rioting in the U.S. while they were looting, shooting, shouting profanities, and breaking and burning things in American cities the past two years. Just the opposite. Steger, who is taking hypocrisy to new heights,  triumphantly covered the local Fernandina Beach BLM parade as if that event were a fund raiser for the Sisters of Charity. Did the alleged “journalists” at the Observer make an effort to trace BLM contributions for that Marxist organization back to local Nassau County residents and then “dox” them? No. Why not?

Last summer when local News Leader columnist Steve Nicklas and I accurately reported the late-night flights of illegal aliens to this area from Texas by the U.S. government the Observer was silent and has remained silent. It’s printed nothing even after the national media picked up the story and reported that one of the illegals murdered a Jacksonville father of four. It’s still as quiet about that issue as the vacuum in their heads.

Who are these crack Observer staffers that revealed the alarming breaking news story about contributions to truckers in Canada by a local resident?

Doxing? What’s that?

Anne H. Oman wrote the nasty piece of swill about the local contributor. She preposterously admitted she had never even heard the word “doxed” before. “Reporter” is not a suitable title for this woman, a Washington D.C. transplant who admitted she has no idea what she was writing about as she feebly attempted to respond to the Observer’s numerous angry online comments that attacked her sloppy, inaccurate, and uncalled for attempt to smear a local resident.

What about the locals that contribute to BLM and Antifa Ms. Oman? Or would doxing them require some hard investigative reporting and alienate your left-wing pals? For Oman it’s easier to copy material directly out of the Washington Post, the far-left newspaper that initially reported the names and amounts of those who contributed to the Canadian truckers.

When confronted by outraged Observer commenters Oman’s blubbering defense was: “I looked up the word ‘doxing,’ which was new to me.” WHAT? That word has been all over the Canadian trucker issue for weeks, has been used thousands of times in journalism the past few years, and is in the Associated Press Style Book. It means publicly revealing private information about an individual with malicious intent. She wouldn’t have to know the word’s meaning to realize that is exactly what she did, and what Steger endorsed.

Oman apparently is a graduate of the “Close Cover Before Striking School of Journalism and Screen Door Repair,” Steger’s alma mater. Her frantic attempt to backpedal from the reeking stench of her Observer rubbish confirmed that journalism to her is an alien concept. She has no clue about the issue or what she’s writing about. She’s so incompetent and ignorant she’s dangerous. She was obviously taken aback by the massive volume of criticism justifiably heaped on her, the stumbling Observer, and its bungling amateur editor, Steger.

The Blind Observer’s journalism style guide.

Editor Steger staggered to Oman’s defense, and her efforts were as successful as moving deck chairs from the Titanic to the Lusitania. Following is Steger’s feeble excuse for the slanderous mess as she unsuccessfully attempted to stem Observer readers’ anger:

“From Anne H Oman: ‘I tried very hard to get in touch with the individual named, and we held the story for several days awaiting his reply. I wanted to ask why he contributed. Had he responded and asked me not to include his name, I would have given his comments anonymously. I found it interesting that a former Commerce Department official helped fund people who were disrupting commerce. Out of consideration for his privacy, we did not publish his address.”’

The inept editor defended the inept reporter by repeating the inept reporter’s inept excuse. Ineptness over there is not in short supply.

Who are these crack Observer journalists?

Oman’s Observer bio says she has written articles for the Washington Post (that explains a lot), the Washington Star (recipes?) and “Family Circle (more recipes?). Her photo portrays a woman who appears to have been around for a while so  “innocent youthful indiscretion” is not an excuse.

Steger was a banker before proclaiming that she’s a journalist. I have no idea how she performed in the financial industry but if she managed money the way she manages facts she should be serving time. It’s been obvious hereabouts for some time that journalism is not her strong suit. She’s managed to give “fake news” a bad name by plunging the Observer into moral and intellectual bankruptcy.

Just how awful was the Observer’s trucker article?

Last Friday, February 18, the Jacksonville-based Florida-Times Union (above) accurately reported the Post article as a straight news story writing that Fernandina Beach was one of top U.S. areas that contributed money to the Canadian truckers. It also reported that the Post material had been hacked and to its credit did not print names of contributors listed by the Post.

Oman laughingly attempted to justify identifying the Fernandina Beach resident writing: “The name of the local contributor was already published in the Washington Post, which has a much larger circulation than the Fernandina Observer.”

I’m not sure which part of her statement is the most ludicrous – the one comparing the Post’s circulation to the Observer or the local guy’s name being previously revealed. In Oman’s twisted mind the large circulation Post smeared the guy so it’s OK to pile on by seizing an opportunity to have a bit of fun by waging a local campaign of personal destruction against a Fernandina Beach resident.

The Post story listed U.S. communities that contributed to the Canadian truckers by zip code. Fernandina Beach ranked sixth in donations. The Post admitted that its information with donors’ names was hacked, e.g., stolen. The left-wing Post has a long and dubious history of printing purloined material. That’s not a concern for the Observer’s distaff stooges – Oman and Steger.

They wrote THAT?

Oman’s lame excuse for her incompetence and reprehensible claptrap was ignorance as she wrote: “I looked up the word “doxing,” which was new to me” – just like writing a balanced, accurate, unbiased news article, right Ms. Oman? If Fernandina Beach Middle School has a journalism class is there a student over there that can volunteer to tutor this pathetic woman?

Unlike the American BLM and Antifa rioters rampaging across the U.S., the Canadian truckers were a peaceful group. They didn’t spew profanities, attack police, onlookers, store owners and shop keepers, carry weapons, use force, or loot or burn anything. Instead, they waved Canadian flags, sang the Canadian national anthem, and politely and articulately expressed their opposition to the Corona virus vaccine mandates.

The truckers did block the Canadian/U.S. border disrupting manufacturers on both sides of the border. Canadian police peacefully broke that up and the truckers and cops departed after shaking hands. That was before the truckers were rewarded for their decent behavior in Ottawa by authoritarian Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with martial law, beatings by police, confiscation of their trucks and bank accounts, threats to kill their pets, arrests, and more. That doesn’t bother Oman and Steger in the least. They’ll attack in print anyone who breaks from their radical leftist orthodoxy. They’re just not very good at it.

The Blind Observer’s Steger and Oman looking for facts.

The local Observer duo openly sides with the BLM and Antifa thugs while cheering the Canadian government’s brutal attack on its protesting truckers. If that’s not true why were they silent during the BLM and Antifa riots in the U.S. and so antagonistic toward the peaceful Canadian truckers? My guess is they don’t know because they don’t know much about anything. If journalism malpractice, ignorance and stupidity were contagious these two would be in guarded quarantined lockdown.

The Blind Observer’s pretend journalists exist in a perpetual red zone of antagonism and adulation. They’re like the “cool girls” cafeteria table “oohing” and “aahing” over the high school quarterback, e.g., the Fernandina Beach City Manager, while attacking those they consider not so cool, e.g., conservatives. For example, they print anything they can get their hands on from the city including slobbering profiles of city employees while ignoring the local citizen watchdog group Common Sense’s messages.

Steger lives in a Pollyannaish bubble and both she and Oman exist in a perpetual state of phony outrage. Anything that goes against their preconceived ideological notions is ignored or poo pooed. Like “doxing”,  “embarrassment” is an unfamiliar word to this clueless duo.

It may appear to readers of the Observer’s nonstop crap that the businesses that advertise on its site endorse its garbage. Those firms may want to reconsider how they spend their ad dollars.

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CONVOY! The Blind Observer staff will probably be busy attempting to smear/dox more locals as American truckers fed up with the unscientific and unconstitutional government overreach endured the past two years, are headed east and requesting donations to fund their cause. A “Freedom Convoy” driving from California to Washington, D.C. is scheduled to begin rolling March 2.

Money collected will go directly to paying for fuel and food for the truckers in the convoy. With gas prices skyrocketing fuel for the cross-country trip is expected to be $5,000 per rig.

Some of my pals and I will contribute so the Observer sad sacks don’t have to dig deep to dox/smear us. They can stop by Pajama Dave’s Beer & Wine Garden at downtown 12 South 2^nd Street any afternoon after 5 pm and if there’s any of us there we’ll happily introduce ourselves.

To contribute go to https://secure.anedot.com/great-american-patriot-project/atff_don_om_fnt_tru-fre_rs_20220221/?utm_campaign=20220222&utm_content=fnt

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Hide The Women & Children – The Canadians Are Coming. In an announcement guaranteed to terrify inept scribblers Susan Steger and Anne Oman at the Fernandina Blind Observer, Canadian visitors to Florida reached 359,000 in the last quarter of 2021, nearly three times as many as in the previous quarter.

The Canadians were among the highest number of Florida visitors to arrive than any other year in recorded state history – nearly 118 million people the newsgathering organization Center Square reports. It reported that Florida’s total hotel revenue also reached its highest level in state history — $17.3 billion, a 2% increase from 2019.

Travelers “flocked to Florida as a refuge from lockdown policies,” said Florida’s no-nonsense Governor Ron DeSantis when he announced the numbers released by VISIT FLORIDA, the state’s tourism agency.

“In Florida, we put freedom first, and as a result people are choosing to vacation in our state from across the country and the world to escape lockdowns, including the politicians who advocated for those reckless policies and who are often spotted vacationing here,” he said. “While tourism in other states is only just beginning to recover, Florida is at the front of the pack – now we are surpassing pre-pandemic levels and setting new visitation records.”

Those of us living in Florida are indeed fortunate that Ron DeSantis is in Tallahassee. Living in states governed by Democrat clowns such as Gavin Newsome (CA), Gretchen Whitmer (MI), Kathy Hochul (NY), Tim Walz (MN), and Phil Murphy (NJ) must be wretchedly miserable. Maybe that’s why we’re seeing so many of those states license plates hereabouts.

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Way To Go Joe! Joe Biden’s speech Thursday, February 24, announcing sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine raised more questions than it answered.

Biden stammered on about trade and monetary penalties the Russians will face but failed to discuss the most obvious issues.

If his administration is attempting to financially strangle Russia then why is the U.S. buying some 500,000 barrels of oil a day from Russia providing Vladimir Putin the cash to fund his military aggression?  Maybe because the loons running the White House eliminated oil and gas exploration in the U.S., cut off our pipelines, and placed unnecessary environmental regulatory restrictions on the U.S. energy industry. Remember, before Biden America was energy independent, exporting oil.

Biden’s sanctions also do nothing more than drive Russia into the arms of China, providing America’s number one enemy with even more cash flow from enemy number two and cementing their relationship. Nice work Joe!

Joe Biden has demonstrated he is the most dangerous person in America. The next three years are going to be terrifying.

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Hometown Hero:  I was alerted by his daughter, Mary Jane, that my good friend and local Amelia Island resident Francis Lott (pictured above), has been honored by his hometown of Douglas, GA, and Coffee County for his many endeavors to encourage economic development in Georgia’s Coffee County. The Community Foundation of Coffee County recognized its founding board member and community champion Lott by renaming the Douglas-Coffee County Economic Development Fund in his honor. The newly named Francis Lott Community Economic Development Fund will make grants to projects in Douglas-Coffee County that either support the county’s economic development activities or enhance the quality of life in Coffee County. Folks can read more about Lott’s impact on Coffee County and the state at https://bit.ly/3gQB4IZ

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Drinking, Dining & Dancing: Tomorrow evening, Saturday, February 26, tuxedo-clad piano man John Springer will take requests along with his drummer sidekick, Rob Taylor, as they perform at American Legion Post 54, at South 3^rd Street and Gum, beginning at 5 pm and running until 9 pm. The event is open to the public and a $15 per person special Italian dinner of chicken Parmigiana, fresh green beans with sliced almonds, Caesar salad, garlic bread and Italian cookies is available until 7 pm or until it is sold out.