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

Florida Residents Feeling Financial Impact Generated By The Illegal Alien Invasion

Illegal aliens cost American taxpayers a staggering $134.9 billion annually, according to a detailed analysis of federal, state and local programs that include education, medical care, law enforcement, and welfare. U.S. citizens, particularly those of us in Nassau County, are on the hook for that tab. And it’s only going to get worse.

Conducted by the Federation of  for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a Washington D.C. nonprofit organization dedicated to studying immigration issues, the in-depth probe reveals that state and local taxpayers like us get stuck with an overwhelming chunk — $116 billion — of the burden. State and local expenditures for services provided to illegal aliens total $89 billion and federal expenditures $46 billion, the analysis found.

Florida taxpayers are some of the hardest hit with the top four spenders providing illegal aliens benefits being California ($23 billion), Texas ($10.9 billion), New York ($7.5 billion), and Florida $(6.3 billion).

This defies a myth, long promoted by open-border groups including most Democrats, that illegal aliens pay their share of taxes. They don’t. Government figures show only $19 billion recouped by Uncle Sam.

And that’s not all says the study.”Illegal aliens present significant national security and public safety threats to the United States.”

For example California’s tax payers, caught between its staggering number of Silicon Valley billionaires and indigent legions, are getting hammered by that state’s economic decline that illegals pouring through America’s porous border are exacerbating. They are attracted by that state’s  generous welfare offerings and the promise of sanctuary status created by a sclerotic Democrat left-wing government that offers no solutions and only more misery for its citizens.

According to the nonprofit journalism organization CALmatters, California’s poverty rate is the highest in the nation. And, according to Forbes, California is also home to 124 billionaires. Ironically the state looks like something out of a developing world even though the products of its economy flow around the world to help develop it.

Today California has the same number of manufacturing and agricultural jobs as it had 50 years ago. And its population has doubled since then to 40 million.

The Tijuana border leading into California was the first to get hit a by the wave of illegal aliens and their invasion caravan coursing through Mexico and headed here. They didn’t walk, they arrived in buses.

Bob Lonsberry, a journalist, columnist, radio and TV commentator and author, says of the invasion caravan: “There’s just nothing in any of this that makes sense.”

Not exactly starving masses

In a recent article he asks some probing questions such as: “The Hondurans in the caravan, the 7,000 people walking north to America, where do they go to the bathroom? And eat and sleep and store their clothes? And how is it that after a week on the road they are clean and their hair and clothes are well kept? How is any of this possible? And why do these people, supposedly fleeing intolerable conditions in their homeland, carry flags from their homeland and break into its national anthem when the TV cameras show up?”

“And speaking of which, for oppressed people, they all seem to be pretty well fed, well groomed and well dressed. Their hair is neat and newly cut, their clothes are clean and in good repair, and they are built like people who have had ample nutrition all their lives, being well developed and, many of them, overweight. And none of them look dirty or unkempt, like they had been sleeping on the ground for the last week.”

Lonsberry is highly critical of the media covering the invasion caravan saying a lot of big questions remain unanswered and ignored by the press. “Who organized this? Who is paying for it? How have they covered 500 miles in a week?” he asks.

Who supplied and paid for the transportation?

“Any number of American ‘reporters’ have walked beside a sympathetic walker and talked about how this particular woman and her children had trekked half a thousand miles over the last week or so. That’s 71 miles a day. The best soldiers through history have been able to march 25 miles a day.

“Provisioning such an army of people – the equivalent of 10 combat battalions in most of the world’s militaries – is a large task. Transporting and distributing the food and water necessary to keep those people moving is a massive chore which the press says nothing about. The entire enterprise, as a spontaneous ad hoc event, is implausible.”

Lonsberry concludes saying: “If Democrats and progressives want open borders and believe all the world’s people have a right to live in the United States – as they say they do – then they should adjust immigration law accordingly. But until then, if they are to keep their oaths of office, they must stand for the law and the border.”

Unless something is done soon the entire country will be suffering like the majority of Californians.

***

Speaking Of An Impending Economic Disaster: “Those who believe that ‘basic necessities’ should belong to people as a matter of right ignore the implication – that people are to work only for amenities, frivolities, and ego. Will that mean more work or less work? And if less, where are all those ‘basic necessities’ coming from that the government is supposed to hand out?” – Thomas Sowell via Georgia Public Policy Foundation.

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They Went To Work Instead: The day after the Republicans lost the House of Representatives last week, there were no riots, no conservative celebrities threatening to move to Europe or Canada, no damage to private or public property, no cars turned over, nothing set on fire, no people sobbing uncontrollably, no grief counselors sent to schools, and no protest marches. Imagine that.

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The Final Votes Are In: All the votes in south Florida have finally been counted and Al Gore still isn’t President.

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Tom Yankus at work smoking mullet.

A Fishy Story: Amelia Island resident, retired Georgia high school principal, and a native of St. Petersburg, Florida, Tom Yankus, alerted me that the local Winn Dixie grocery store was selling whole mullets in their seafood section so I scurried over there and bought three. The only problem is I have no idea how to smoke them and even if I did I don’t have the proper equipment. Tom solved my dilemma offering to smoke the fish at his place using a recipe he says he got from the most famous place on the planet to get smoked mullet — Ted Peters on St. Pete Beach. “The best way to spend a Friday night and great Friday night date is smoking mullet,” says Tom, whose wife Annie agrees. “This week the massive schools of mullet are off this Atlantic Ocean Coast migrating to South Florida and warmer waters and my smoked mullet tastes as good if not better then Ted Peters in St. Pete,” boasts Tom. I have to agree as I enjoyed the ones he smoked for me with a cold beer, cole slaw and a bottle of Texas Pete hot sauce. Tom’s secret recipe? He won’t tell. And I don’t care as he made a very positive impression on the Scott household this past week. Thanks pal.

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How Do They Know? To me one of the mysteries of the deep is how do we know how many right whales there are?  Articles I’ve read recently say there are there are 451 North Atlantic right whales left in the world. How do they know? It’s not like a census where they fill out a form and mail it back or send in a change of address card. And 451 is a pretty precise number. Who’s out there counting whales, how do they do that and is it a full time job?

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A Bridge Too Far: Charlie Freeman, retired AT&T employee and current Egans Creek Marina Dock Master, who lives there on his boat “No Dial Tone”, reported that last week he received a call from a boat captain requesting a slip:

Captain: Do you have dockage for a 74-foot yacht?
Charlie: Negative captain. There’s a fixed concrete bridge between me and the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway).
Captain: Are you sure you can’t fit me in? Just need two night’s dockage.
Charlie: Captain, there’s only a 22-foot clearance between my marina and the ICW.
Captain: We really could use a spot, sure you can’t find or make room?.
Charlie: Captain if you can squeeze that boat under the bridge, I WILL find you room.

The captain decided not to try it.

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The Tournament of Babble:  Last weekend’s Amelia Island Petanque Tournament, the largest on the globe, attracted  186 teams consisting of 372 players from around the planet representing 14 countries — from Switzerland to South Korea, Netherlands to New Zealand, and Canada to Czech Republic.

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Drinking, Dining & Dancing: Pajamadave Voorhees, the quirky owner of downtown Fernandina Beach’s PJD’s Beer & Wine Garden along with his pretty and level-headed fiance, Zan Maddox, got approval last evening from the approval-givers at City Hall to open his Tree House, an upstairs replica of the popular downstairs joint. This should help alleviate some of the overflow crowds that cram this fun pub daily. Rumors are plentiful that the open air Galley Bar & Grill, located at 251 Creekside Drive, in the Amelia Island Marina, just east of Shave Bridge, will be under new management beginning January 2019. The planned 239-room Courtyard/Springhill hotel and restaurant proposed for the site beside the Atlantic Avenue Lutheran Church is currently undergoing review by a variety of local agencies. This is the site that once hosted a now demolished residential health facility. The hotel should be a boon for Main Beach’s soon to be opened Salt Life and the year-old Sandbar & Kitchen.

  • Comment (11)
  • The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies FAIR as a hate group with close ties to white supremacist groups

    • The SPLC is a lavishly funded organization that peddles fear and smears political opponents—mostly conservatives—as bigots. Its “Hatewatch” list is avowedly ideological, acknowledging that it “monitors and exposes the activities of the American radical right.” Few left-wing organizations—and no Islamist groups—are branded in this way by the SPLC. The SPLC lumps together—along with the KKK, neo-Nazis, and racist skinheads—such varied groups as religious-liberty advocates Alliance Defending Freedom and Liberty Counsel; pro-family groups such as the World Congress of Families; Frank Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy; the David Horowitz Freedom Center and, separately, its Jihad Watch program; Ann Corcoran’s Refugee Resettlement Watch; and many immigration-reform groups, including CIS and FAIR as hate groups. What many of the individuals and groups condemned by the SPLC have in common is a conservative orientation. Favoring traditional marriage becomes the moral equivalent of cross-burning; opposing illegal immigration or amnesty for illegal immigrants equates to advocating genocide; resisting the spread of radical Islam invokes Timothy McVeigh; and anti-tax Tea Party groups are now indistinguishable from armed militias or Holocaust deniers. Thus, dissent is de-legitimatized, and political foes are demonized. The SPLC is itself a hate group.

  • Thanks Sam, for reminding us all why it is so awesome to be a Progressive Lib in the USA. FAIR just put out an entire articles worth of facts, and instead of refuting a single one of them you simply call them a hate group. The old adage has never been more appropriate, or pertain more precisely to the liberals of today, “Don’t confuse me with facts, my mind is made up”.

  • David. The SPLC actually attempts to protect decent folks from your kind of vitriol – and with so much now out there, it has a difficult, important job. Sorry to upset your zeitgeist.

  • Politifact, a fact-checking website, consistently rates the anti-immigrant data FAIR distributes as “false”.

  • Dave, it would be nice if those commenting about the issue would keep the focus on “illegal” immigration. I doubt anyone sans a few hard liners have a problem with legal immigration. The issue under discussion concerns who pays for a horde of border jumpers almost all of whom have no legal authority to be here. Unless those individuals and groups who propose we adopt an open border immigration stance step up to personally sponsor them, I don’t want to hear their babble. After all, if as they say there is a benefit to having these individuals in the country, it should be their civic duty to take care of them!

    I wish to emphasize I am not talking about turning away real asylum seekers, guest workers, and those with visa credentials.

  • I love Angry White Men blaming everything from crime to coyotes on Democrats. Two years of control of the House, Senate AND the White House by the Republicans, and nothing has been done to cure all the ills and evils that the Conservatives blame liberals for. If Conservatives/Republicans spent less time whining about the Left and actually did something positive, then maybe they wouldn’t have to moan and groan like broken records…but maybe they can’t do anything because, they have no real solutions, except to blame the Dem’s who, whether you agree with them or not, actually have done things when they had the power. You may hate the ACA, but at least the liberals got what we wanted, while all the conservatives did was piss and moan. Now the House is back in Democratic control, so some ideas, be they good or bad, will at least see the light of day, unlike the vacuum of ineptitude we have had to endure over the last two years. The Righties have no one to blame but themselves. So whine on Cons, its the only thing you are apparently good at doing!

  • My score card of accomplishments during the last couple of years includes:
    * Tax reform and reductions bringing corporate America’s tax rates in line and competitive with other first world nations
    * A repatriation of US foreign profits to the tune of about $3T
    * Approval of new pipeline and drilling operations making the US the world’s largest producer of petroleum and establishing US energy independence thereby finally eliminating US dependence on Mideast oil
    * A strengthening of the US military and a more assertive US presence world wide so as to protect US global interests
    * An historically low unemployment rate particularly among folks of color
    * A significant reduction in government regulation which with tax reform has increased annual economic growth by about 50% from the prior Administration’s sub 2% growth rate to north of 3% currently
    * Withdrawal from the Paris climate eliminating a significant national liability with little significant compliance required of developing nations.
    * Withdrawal from the Iranian deal which would have allowed Iranian nuclear weapons in about another 10 years and restoration of rigorous trade sanctions against Iran to create massive disruption in their economy and permanently prevent their ever getting nuclear weapons.
    * Holding NATO nations to account for their treaty obligations to devote 2% of their GDPs to their military. That has already resulted in $30B more funding from our European allies to help pay for their own defense.
    * Restoration of our strong alliance with Israel and finally moving the US embassy to Jerusalem
    * Imposition of strong trade sanctions against N Korea while opening discussions with NK on denuclearizing. Such discussions have gone on with no relief on sanctions and with release of US prisoners in NK and Korean War remains of US troops.
    * Finally initiated a process of replacing historically benevolent multilateral trade agreements with bilateral trade deals around the world with the long term purpose of eliminating all trade tariffs.
    * Establishment of an aggressive trade and military posture with China so as to stop their predatory tariffs, theft of US IP and forced technology transfers.

    I could go on but Dave probably has a quota on the number of words.

    • Ow! Stop assaulting me with hard facts. I much prefer the soft, warm comfort of unresearched, secondary source opinions.

  • North Atlantic Right Whales swim on the surface and have enough distinguishing markings that they can count them. Wild Amelia hosts a Right Whale expert at one of our Wild Nights almost every year. They use boats and helicopters to monitor the migrations when the females come to Florida to produce offspring and the offspring are immediately counted.
    Come check out Wild Amelia.

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