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

Happy Christmas And A Prosperous New Year To Everyone!

(Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year to all the subscribers and readers. Unless something compels me this will be the final column of 2021. Thanks to all of you for your loyal readership, comments, and article ideas this year. I wish you all a bountiful and conservative New Year. The column will resume January 7.)

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RIP Burt Prelutsky: It was with great sadness that I received the news of the sudden death of friend, west coast columnist, pundit, author, screenwriter (M.A.S.H., Dragnet, etc.) and journalist, Burt Prelutsky (82), who passed away unexpectedly last Friday, December 17 of pulmonary edema and heart disease.

Burt’s seven-day-a-week outpouring of columns were the first thing I read each and every morning. His crisp, punchy, no-holds-barred style and humor always left me wanting more, a sign of a truly gifted writer. And he amazingly cranked it out every single day. I will very much miss my occasional bantering with Burt and his daily musings and insights.

Following is the last article Burt penned. It was found in his computer by his family and sent by his good friend Steven Maikoski.

 SUCH PEOPLE ACTUALLY EXIST

Burt’s Last Article

RIP Burt Prelutsky  1940 – 2021

©2021 Burt Prelutsky

I don’t have a bucket list. Unlike other, perhaps more normal people, I don’t long to see Paris, the Pyramids, or the Great Wall of China, before I die. The way it works for me is that if I’ve seen it in a movie, I know I’ll be disappointed by the reality. That’s because in real life, the scene won’t be improved by a musical background provided by George Gershwin or Elmer Bernstein, and I won’t be strolling hand in hand with Audrey Hepburn or dancing with Ginger Rogers or even strolling and dancing with my late wife Yvonne. For the sake of reality, let’s leave it at strolling.

Whereas the temperature when I’m watching the movie will be a mechanically controlled 70 degrees or so, it could be raining or 105 degrees when I finally gazed at the Sphinx or the Eiffel Tower.

However, if I did have an item on my bucket list, it would be to meet all of you. But especially those of you who write to me so often that I feel as if I know you.

As it is, aside from a handful of old friends who do me the honor of subscribing to my articles, I have met only about nine or 10 of you when you visited L.A. and we had lunch together.

Until recently, all the encounters were very pleasant occasions. The sole exception took place the other day when one very nice couple from northern California brought a guest along.

She was an older woman, perhaps a few years younger than me, Jewish, who happened to live just over the hill, perhaps a dozen miles away in Brentwood.

In describing her, it suddenly occurred to me that perhaps this was the couple’s attempt at matchmaking.

If so, it was doomed to failure. I could no more contemplate marrying Diane, which, oddly enough, was the name of my first wife, than I could imagine tying the knot with Elizabeth Warren or Nancy Pelosi.

After being seated at a booth at my favorite haunt, Lulu’s, Steve, Fran, and I, opened the conversation by sharing our conservative take about the news of the day. After a couple of minutes, Diane piped up to let us know how hurtful we were being.

It turned out that she was not only a Liberal, but one who took differing opinions to heart. She felt that she herself was being attacked. She was actually on the verge of tears.

Since I had done most of the talking and had assumed that we were all, politically speaking, on the same page, I took pains to ease off.

Rather than grind her into the dust, which would have been extremely satisfying, I simply asked her why she was a Democrat.

Instead of answering the question, she began to attack Donald Trump. It is not an exaggeration to say that if she had been referring to Hitler, she couldn’t have been more vehement.

Since I actually wanted to know what could make a person sound so completely unhinged, I granted that even though I considered Trump the greatest president of my lifetime, I could see where people might consider him boorish and regard his tweets as juvenile and be offended by his schoolyard nicknames for his political opponents.

But, while I granted she might not wish to date him or see him installed as the rabbi at her synagogue, I challenged her to name a single thing she objected to that he had done as president.

Instead of mentioning even a single issue, such as rescuing the economy; negotiating peace treaties between Israel and her Arab neighbors; making life more difficult for Russian oligarchs; placing tariffs on Chinese imports; forcing our NATO allies to pony up their dues to NATO; moving our embassy to Jerusalem; and re-building our military; she called him an anti-Semite.

Even when I pointed out his pro-Israeli stance and the fact that his son-in-law is an observant Jew, his daughter is a convert to Judaism, meaning his three grandchildren are Jewish, she refused to be budged. She simply repeated the insult.

Clearly, she had heard some idiot at CNN or MSNBC say it, and that was good enough for her.

To tell you the truth, I didn’t mind the lunch at all. It provided me with a first-hand experience that I had previously only had vicariously when watching dodo birds like Joy Reid, Don Lemon, Rachel Maddow, and Juan Williams on television. But those people are paid to speak those foolish lines, like actors in a bad movie. I had always assumed that nobody in real life truly believed that nonsense.

It seems Diane did and does.

It left me wondering how someone as intelligent as Mollie Hemingway can remain married to Mark Hemingway, who is, politically, in perfect sync with Diane. He even despises Donald Trump with a similar fervor.

So how is it that those two are still married after 15 years, and I could barely make it through lunch with the deplorable Diane?

⦿    Somehow, I had missed the news about G. Gordon Liddy’s death this past March. I always considered him the most interesting member of Nixon’s inner circle and once spent a pleasant half hour being interviewed by Liddy on his radio show.

It was only recently, though, that I heard he had made two of the more quotable remarks on the topic of the Second Amendment. The first: “I believe in gun control. Hold the gun steadily and hit what you aim at.” The second: “I can no longer own guns due to my conviction for conspiracy, burglary, and illegal wiretapping. But Mrs. Liddy owns 27 guns, some of which she keeps on my side of the bed.”

⦿    Speaking of guns, I have never understood why the NRA never made a stronger case for themselves and for the Second Amendment by producing TV commercials showing compelling enactments of private citizens using guns to protect themselves and others from those who ignore all gun laws. Or, perhaps even better, they could have the heroes, who come in all ages and both sexes, describe the scary event in their own words.

Instead, they rely on press releases and a single page in The New American to report those instances when regular Americans successfully thwart those scumbags intent on robbery and rape by taking advantage of their constitutional right to blow the head off any putz out to harm them or their loved ones.

⦿    Arthur Lourea passed along a meme that shows the multi-acre facility Australia maintains for the incarceration of the un-vaccinated. The caption reads: “Stop calling it a concentration camp! It’s just a facility run by the Australian government where you’re relocated by the military, detained and kept without a trial, and pursued and arrested if you manage to escape…all in the name of public safety.”

⦿    Janet Hooper shared a meme that suggests that “If you ever feel useless, remember it took 20 years, trillions of dollars and four U.S. presidents to replace the Taliban with the Taliban.”

⦿    It took a while but I finally recognized that Faucism is just another way of spelling Fascism.

Burt, you will indeed be missed but not forgotten.

***

Man Of The Year? It’s too late, but to me it seems inevitable that had Time Magazine waited until the end of December to announce its Person Of the Year, it would not have been Elon Musk, but Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV). His emphatic “No” saved America from the inflationary spending,  taxation, and endless entitlements of the Biden regime’s Build Back Better catastrophe. Thank you Senator Manchin for that wonderful Christmas gift to America .

***

Speaking Of BBB: When’s the last time you saw anyone wearing a BBB cap? Yeh, me either. I thought I saw one once, but it was a guy who works for the Better Business Bureau.

***

Makes Cents! A California store owner who’s going broke because of all the repeated thefts says he’s increasing prices on all items in his shop to $951.

***

Burn Baby Burn! Liberal media continues to crash and burn. In the latest rating report, Fox News yet again wiped the floor with its competitors CNN and MSNBC. FNC boasts of having 14 of 15 top cable news programs in total viewership for the month of November and according to Nielson Media Research has 71 of the top 100 telecasts in all of cable.

The Daily Wire reports last month, more viewers chose to watch Fox News Channel than MSNBC and CNN combined — for the fourth month in a row. MSNBC scored one show in the top 10; CNN’s highest-rated show ranked 24th.

“Tucker Carlson Tonight” reclaimed its mantle as the most-watched show in cable news, which it lost last month to “The Five.” Carlson’s interview with Kyle Rittenhouse drew a whopping 5.05 million viewers when it aired on November 22. Tucker Carlson’s 8 p.m. show averaged 3.67 million viewers last month.

The network’s ratings dominance proved even greater among young viewers. Fox News owned 15 of the top 16 spots among the highly sought-after 25- to 54-year-old demographic. Rachel Maddow came in at 28th place. CNN’s top-rated program with young adults, “Erin Burnett Outfront,” attracted 181,000 viewers — or 28% of Tucker Carlson’s 651,000 young adult viewership.

Notably, Greg Gutfeld’s 11 p.m. comedy show “Gutfeld!” remains the number one show on all of basic cable in its time slot, also beating ABC and NBC’s late-night “comedy” shows. “Additionally, all FNC weekday shows are up month over month in all categories,” Fox boasted in a press release.

***

Getting Her Kicks In: Following Urban Myer being kicked out of as head coach of the hapless Jacksonville Jaguars for kicking the kicker, his daughter, Gigi, kicked in her two-cents worth declaring “war.” In addition to kicking the kicker winning just two games in his brief tenure was probably brought up during former Coach Myer’s exit interview.

His daughter, Gigi Meyer, posted a message on Instagram saying: “The spirit of the enemy is in full force battle mode in this world & in people. This is war. We all know who wins in the end.” She added another message: “The enemy (aka the world) REALLY doesn’t wanna see good people win.”

Last Sunday in their first game without Coach Myer at the helm, the Jaguars lost to the Houston Texans, 30-16. To illustrate how awful the Jacksonville team is, Houston is a team that lost 11 of its past 12 games and was giving up 27 points a game. They had seven starters out and were a five-point underdog, boasted the league’s worst offense in yards and points, worst run defense and second-worst passing offense.

The Jacksonville Jaguars and their owner, coaching staff, and frustrated sad sack fans would make a hysterically funny reality TV show.

***

Overheard at PJD’s Beer & Wine Garden: “Day 12 without a beer…lost hearing in my left eye.”

***

Wait! What? Stacey Abrams says she’s running for Governor of Georgia again. But wait, she travels all over the country saying she already IS governor of Georgia even though she lost the 2018 election.

Her new bid for the state’s top job is ridiculed by pundit and author Candice Owens, who asks: “So what, exactly, has Stacey Abrams done to help Georgia since she lost in 2018? She led the crusade to push the Major League Baseball All-Star game out of Atlanta, that’s what! This cost the majority-black city of Atlanta up to $70 million in lost business,” Ms. Owens remarked.

“Georgia, this isn’t even a close call,” says Fox News host Laura Ingraham. “Why on earth would you want to sink into the decline and decay we’re seeing in blue states across America?” she asks. “Georgians don’t need Abrams to ride to the rescue, they need her to ride into the sunset – and for good.”

***

Do They Protest Too Much? Of the 25 comments posted here last week 10 (40 percent) were contributed by reliable and prolific left-wing blog critics Richard Norman Kurpiers (6) and Coleman Langshaw (4).

Their initial  comments last week voiced annoyance with my observations but steadily progressed into criticism  of those who dared agree with me or disagree with them.

Unless comments are profane or vulgar I never comment or delete them. I enjoy a healthy, factual debate. However, despite the fact they aren’t profane these two display the intellectual persuasion of a couple of screeching leg-kicking toddlers sprawled on the kitchen floor demanding pre-dinner cookies. Did they change any minds or cause readers to pause and reconsider their positions?

Their monotonous far-left critiques confirm that they haven’t really thought through the topics, just spout off what they hear from others. They make it clear that they consider dissenters from their opinions racist boobs, fascists, sexists, bigots and haters. Their comments indicate that they  scorn secure borders, a strong military, less regulation, lower taxes, smaller government, education reform, the right to bear arms, drilling for oil and gas, voter ID, etc. Their comments are always humorless and reflect views that most folks abandon in adolescence.

Langshaw appears perpetually angry and his comments display the spittle-flecked angst of a snarling contrarian. Kurpiers, on the other hand, comes across as a member of the chin-jutting “I’m better than you” faculty-lounge class proclaiming moral superiority. Both appear fired up by the left’s fashionable scorn for traditional American values and they appear to have found common ground with the far-left’s thuggery and anti-American rhetoric.

They are a synecdoche for a broader tendency – a set of far-left-liberal Democrats who are relentlessly focused on Trump and Trumpism, January 6th, and their incorrect belief that this is an unprecedented threat to the country.

Despite the fact he hasn’t been in office for a year, everything evil, they believe, leads back to Donald Trump. Their comments are resolutely retrospective, seeing in Trump the epitome of all that is wrong with America. (See Burt Prelutsky’s column above).

They are part of a contingent of people who are obsessed with Trump hatred, an irrational Trump hatred based on his personality and what he MIGHT do but has not done or given any indication that he would do. It’s easy to rail against Trump, especially in view of the wreckage the Democrats have caused in the short time they’ve held power even though it has been detailed daily, even now to some degree by some in the main stream media.

I’m not suggesting this prolific duo discontinue their postings here. These two contrarians and their fatuous protests provide readers a garish form of entertainment. I’m suggesting they might want to reflect and do some actual fact-finding and research in the future, then attempt to condense their thoughts into one or two factual responses weekly. Convince me where I’m going wrong using verifiable facts and reason.

Merry Christmas guys. May you two go to sleep tonight with visions of America’s continued  freedom, prosperity, and religious liberty dancing in your liberal heads and wake up Christmas morning thankful for being able to pursue happiness and freely express yourselves in the freest and most prosperous nation the world has ever experienced.

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Something To Think About:  Some 1,921 American military personnel died in actual combat in Afghanistan in 20 years. In Cook County including Chicago in 2021 through November, 1,009 were murdered. And 524 were murdered in Philadelphia. So in just 2021, 1,533 people were murdered in just those two American cities compared to 1,921 soldiers dying in combat over 20 years. Most of the murders were young black males. Why aren’t the media reporting on the fact that a young black male was safer in the military in Afghanistan than in Chicago or Philly?

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A Christmas Gift:  Finally, no matter your political persuasion this one-minute video will cheer you up if you have the blues. It’s Nancy Pelosi’s actual comments and voice.  https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/nancy-pelosi-impersonation-is-brilliant-vodka-skeletor/

  • Comment (36)
  • Merry Christmas to you and yours Dave
    Keep up the great work you do – this week no exception!
    Still laughing – your much too logical for left wing crazies 🙂

  • Merry Christmas Dave,thanks for all the wit filled stories this past year. I have to agree with your friend Burt,and his conversation with Diane. I have had similar interactions, with the same results,just hate,hate,the former president,without any stated justification. The idea of having a discussion with these individuals is impossible..

  • Much of what I post Dave is factual. But due to Trump’s indoctrination of his base, undoubtedly blue-printed from his copy of “My New Order” which he kept bedside while married to Ivanka, many on the right – including you – eschew facts in favor of that which aligns with their irrational fear-based biases. You want me to “condense” my thoughts to convince you where you’re wrong with facts and reason. Mission Impossible Dave. You’re so often wrong the word “condense” becomes an oxymoron. But I’ll briefly indulge you, given it’s Christmas and I’m in a giving mood.

    1. Your rants on illegal immigration is hypocritical in that it focuses solely on the southern border where people of color are attempting to apply for asylum. Why ignore the northern border? It’s a rhetorical question, Dave. It’s easy to see you don’t care about people that look like you despite, by your definition, they’re illegals. I’ve been restoring a sailboat in a DIY yard for the last 6 years. In that time, I’ve yet to encounter one illegal Mexican or South American immigrant. On the other hand, I’ve lost count of how many illegal Canadians are living in the yard with long-expired visas. No one cares though, because they’re white.

    2. I’ve voted for as many Republicans as I have Democrats since 1976 when I became eligible to vote. I lean left as often as I lean right. But that doesn’t give you any fodder for your verbal tirades that rely on putting people in boxes – so you carry on, oblivious to realities. Remember, Democrats didn’t put Biden in office. Independents and anti-Trumpers elected him.

    3. I can’t speak for Mr. Langshaw, but since you lumped us together as against a “strong military” I’ll correct you with “facts and reason”. My employer for 35 years was the largest defense contractor in the U.S. My work included helping to supply the military with the most advanced weapons in the world. Over the years, I had multiple offers and opportunities to work elsewhere for non-defense-related companies making substantially more money. I stuck with Lockheed Martin because I believed in the company and I believed in their mission. They now partially fund my retirement with a pension.

    You asked for me to “condense” my thoughts. So I’ll end here. Merry Christmas from afar, as I still stand by my desire to never run into you in person.

    • Dave, How is one to keep things concise, when you throw out everything, including the kitchen sink, every week. You can’t even stick to your own assertion. For example: “…they scorn secure borders, a strong military, less regulation, lower taxes, smaller government, education reform, the right to bear arms, voter ID, etc.” Jeez talk about not being concise! I don’t know where you come up with those ridiculous assertions anyway. To start, I’ll give you 1/2 point for one assertion about me “scorning” drilling for oil and gas. If that’s done in any environmentally sensitive area, then like most people with an iota of common sense, I am opposed to it. But let’s move on to the totally off-based allegation that I am opposed to a strong military. First, my grandfather served in the Great War to end All wars. my dad served on a PT boat in WWII, and along with other uncles (USN and USAAC) and aunts (WAVES & WACs) served out nation with great honor, and my brother in the Coast Guard. Some of my closest friends also served in Viet Nam, my step-dad was a 2nd Lt. during the Korean conflict. But I know, you will point out that I did not serve. How astute, Donald Trump and I did not serve in the military. I guess your logic dictates that Donnie and I are opposed to a strong military then. Hmmm. Next up, against secure borders. Wrong again Dave, I just believe that all four borders (yes, I am including the east and west coasts, where people enter our country by boat in greater numbers than you apparently choose to acknowledge). You and your ilk only think the southern border is the only one that should be tighter than a drum. There are plenty of Canadians that have come over without going through proper channels, but since they are white, I guess they don’t need the same scrutiny as other more easily identifiable and targetable interlopers. Moving on: Lower taxes, hmmm, let’s just start right here at home. I pay over $11,000 in property taxes, but I guess you and your like think I like that, and want to pay even more. That’s just a stupid assumption, not even worth going any further with that. And yes, I pay a lot of Federal taxes, just like a lot of people. That doesn’t make me giggle either, but just like anyone else, I have my preferences where my tax dollars get spent, and sometimes it is for people in need, not just for corporations that want bigger loopholes. Okay, I can’t debate or defend all your absurd and unfounded assertions, but I will end with just one more: that I am opposed to the Right to Bear Arms. I am, in fact, a fervent believer in the 2nd Amendment. I own guns and am a responsible gunowner. I do not believe that idiots and nut jobs should have the same rights, and I am more than fine with being vetted to make sure I am able to safely and responsibly own a weapon. You and your ilk whine and moan about voter registration and background checks and verification and so on, but you, in typical Hypocrite Party style do an about face on registration, and background checks and verification with gun ownership. Jeez I think gun ownership is a bit more dangerous, don’t ya think?
      Anyway, don’t worry about the facts, its so much more exhilarating to just make baseless assertions and get attaboys from those who just want to hear it and also don’t care about the truth or facts.

    • Oh and Dick, we don’t care what you have to say, because your point of view is as biased as any Leftist out there… Nice back paddling though…lol

      • Hey, “No last Name Freddie”, I believe Richard is his name not Dick, but I guess that is just another lame pseudo-witty ploy by you. We don’t care what you have to say either, because you essentially have nothing to say other than piling on with the pitiful insults, because you have nothing in your near-empty arsenal but that. But I will say you are hilarious, but not for the reasons you believe. “LOL”

    • And point proven by Dave once again… LOL Keep the comedy coming Richard (the male version of Karen).

      • Ahhh Fred, how witty, resorting to name-calling when nothing else suffices. Par for the course.

    • You are way off on your “people of color” comment. The illegal immigrants are coming from all over the world:

      “CBP statistics indicate that 57,690 of the 342,673 illegal crossers who were apprehended at the southern border in March and April of this year were not from northern triangle countries or Mexico. At this rate, the yearly total of aliens from other countries will likely be more than 346,000, which would be almost three times as many as in fiscal 2019.

      The diversity of the illegal crossers is reflected further by the fact that at least 40 different languages were spoken by the nearly 30,000 asylum seekers who were waiting in Mexico for an asylum hearing as of the end of March 2021.”

      • You neglected to define what countries are non-Mexican and non-Northern Triangle countries. That’s ok, CBP defined them in this May report:

        “In May, the non-Mexican, non-Northern Triangle countries whose citizens Border Patrol “encountered” most were Ecuador (11,655 May encounters, up 110 percent since March); Venezuela (7,371, up 213 percent); Brazil (7,366, up 85 percent); Nicaragua (4,354, up 126 percent); Haiti (2,704, down 12 percent); Cuba (2,611, down 54 percent); and Romania (1,203, up 214 percent). The Romanians are mainly members of the oft-persecuted Roma ethnic group, as Reuters reported in late May.”

        But in case you missed it, it was Dave, not I, who wrote about Mariachi bands being the only thing missing from the alleged secret dumping of illegal immigrants at the Jacksonville airport. Ergo, your argument appears to be with Dave, not me.

    • 🤶🏻 Just as I do with c.l., I always scroll past your comments r.n.k. I never read them. 🎅
      Merry Christmas 🎄 to you Dave Scott. Thank you for your spot on insight and wisdom.

      • Hello MA, are you my mother? no, that can’t be, she’s deceased. Keep scrolling past Mom, I mean MA, don’t even try to listen to another point of view, it might fill your noggin with all sorts of confusing things like another perspective or, god forbid, facts. I am sure the ostrich next to you will share their hole with you, but it does tend to cut of the oxygen supply to the brain.

      • Get a life?!? Wow, how long did it take you to come up with that brilliant and well thought out retort? I guess you just want people of differing opinions to vacate the premises, because you have no room or tolerance for any opinion that does not fit into the razor-thin view of the narrow-minded, A/K/A the Hypocrite Party- you know the one’s who always scream about their own Constitutional Rights, but deny that same right for the rest of us. No wonder this country is in such trouble. I would say the same thing to you: Get a life! but it was moronic the first time, and I don’t want to have a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent using the same ridiculous tactics.

        • I would hardly call Mr. Timmerman an “unarmed opponent”. If you debated him, he would rip you to shreds and leave you crying in a crumpled heap on the floor.

          • Oh Betsy, did you get your name from your parents or the flag? I apologize for being sarcastic, if that is truly your name, but knowing that you are a Right-Winger, I’m just going out on a limb that its a pseudonym…and if so, just another Righty who remains anonymous while swatting the hornet’s nest in safety, unlike we weak-minded, foolish liberals who put our full name out there. Anyway, if Mr. Timmerman wants a debate, he has to do a whole lot better than “get a life”, that is akin to nananabooboo. More to the point, it appears that Mr. Kurpiers has “gotten a life” for a long time, and his impressive work resume speaks volumes. Just sayin’. Do you want a mulligan and give it another go?

  • As usual Dave you hit it out of the park great message. At times I almost feel sorry for
    those poor folks on the extreme left. They never seem to have a good thing to say about
    any subject or person what a pity.They are so lucky to live on this earth and in the greatest
    country in the entire world yet you never see them laugh or crack a smile.It takes much more
    energy to frown than to smile.Try it you might like it.
    Merry Christmas to all and a safe and happy new year.

  • Merry Christmas Dave!

    Great last article from Burt, how appropriate.

    2022 is the year to make left crazies know how we feel by being more selective about whom we do business with.

    Here is an example that will raise eyebrows:

    P5 Productions on 14th Street, has a sign on their door giving the holiday hours of their shop. The sign reads “Happy New Year” and omits completely Christmas.

    This is no surprise as it is owned by two registered leftists. P5 Productions collects $$$ from the city of Fernandina every year (read our tax Dollars) for all that it makes for the city, from Police uniforms to Shrimp Festival supplies. I spent over $2,000 last year in this shop for my business, but I haven’t spent a dime there since the stollen elections.

    That because it’s no longer politics we are dealing with, it’s war on our culture, rights, freedom and sovereignty. It makes me sick.

    Be selective is easy! You can check anyone’s voting registration at this site https://voterrecords.com/voters/fl/1 and spend your Dollars with a business that is not trying to enslave you.

    IMAGINE! A world where all the people you work with, buy from and sell to are conservative! That’s probably what Heaven feels like!

    Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to ALL!

  • Wishing you and yours and very Merry Christmas and a prosperous, healthy, and safe New Year. Really enjoy your weekly blogs, please keep it up. I enjoyed Kurpier’s reply to this week’s blog. As a sailor working on my sailboat in a DIY boat yard, I found his comment about Canadians amusing. The reason you he hasn’t found any of the massive invaders from the south, in the boat yard, is that the government is making it easier for them to be elsewhere in our country. The boat yard Canadians are trying to stay warm and out of their socialist country and living a cheaply as possible on old boats.

    • I don’t begrudge the illegal Canadians, no more than I begrudge illegal immigrants of any nationality. In other words, I mind my own business. However, I’d like to point out that it is estimated that 75% of illegals that have entered via the southern border pay into Social Security and Medicare – to the tune of billions – of which they will never collect a penny. Canadians, not so much. They’re not here to work as much as they’re here, as you pointed out, to escape the cold and a government they don’t like. It is also estimated that should every illegal immigrant that has entered via the southern border be deported all at once, there would be over $20 billion less in benefits to pay from SSA and Medicare trusts. You can verify all of this on your own if you have the desire.

      So rather than the liberal bleeding heart I’ve been labeled with, I’m a guy more concerned with self-interests. There is plenty of research to demonstrate that illegals crossing the southern border that wind up staying pay more in taxes than they consume in services. To be fair though, this is more on a national level than a state level. Food prices have gone up, and farmers will tell you it’s due in large part to a labor shortage. The Dept of Agriculture estimates that half the farmworkers are comprised of illegals – or at least they were until Trump waged war on immigrants of color. A significant number of construction workers are also illegals. So here I sit, with an appetite for vegetables and fruits, along with plans to build in Old Town in the coming months, and holding off on collecting social security until I’m 70. I’m too pragmatic to be fooled by the Right’s dehumanization of illegals for political reasons that mirror Hitler’s treatment of Jews.

      • Ooooh !! I understand now. You want the illegal aliens to slave away for your benefit. You want your vegetables picked, your construction completed and your social security paid. Cheap slaves to do the dirty work. Now I see !!

        • Perhaps you’ve heard, or maybe you haven’t, but undocumented immigrants have contributed significantly to our economy – and have for quite some time. Also, maybe you’ve heard, or maybe you haven’t, that there’s a labor shortage that is driving inflation. Now, hold on to your hat because you probably haven’t heard this. Undocumented immigrants face hardships, starvation, and sometimes death just for the opportunity to come to the U.S. to take jobs you describe as slave labor (paraphrasing here). Silly people. Why work farm jobs, construction jobs, and other menial jobs here in the U.S. when they can stay in their own countries and live the life of Riley?

          According to the New American Economy (a bipartisan research and advocacy organization):

          The vast majority (96.7%) of Mexican undocumented workers are working and contributing to the economy and are vital to critical American industries including agriculture (11.5 percent of the workforce), construction (6.7 percent), and the tourism and hospitality sector (3.4 percent).
          Given their productivity and their numbers, Mexican undocumented immigrants are significant economic contributors to the American economy. In 2019 alone, they earned almost $92 billion in household income and contributed almost $9.8 billion in federal, state, and local taxes.
          Mexican undocumented immigrants held more than $82.2 billion in spending power, money that often goes back into local economies as they spend on housing, consumer goods, and services.

          But yeah, how dare I take advantage of these poor hapless souls for my own benefit. Better I should eat foreign imported produce (putting U.S. farmers out of business), live in hotels (forgoing property taxes to fund schools and local governments), and kiss my social security goodbye despite contributing to it for 50 years.

  • When I hear about migrants pouring through the southern border, I don’t think of them as “people of color”, only as people. People who were convinced that the USA will pay for everything they want. Why do they want things handed to them? Why won’t they fight for their own rights and freedom in their country? Why is the majority young males? We have too much poverty and suffering here yet we work to get out of it (speaking from experience). Do we have thousands of Canadians crossing illegally? I also just think of them as people. What do you think would happen to people walking into China or Russia. They would be either executed or put into concentration camps and/or used as slave labor. I don’t have a problem with immigration. What is wrong with the thousands of people that applied legally to come to the US, the ones that assimilate and the people who have become citizens? Some people just don’t understand that the “Max Headroom” “news reporters” have been programmed to spew propaganda about conservatives. All you have to do is to listen to a montage of the “reporters” using the exact same phrases and words on every station and outlet. Anyways, have a wonderful new year, it’s going to be interesting.

  • If you have heard one Lib thought about everything…you’ve heard all! And could actually write the script. Diane. Your new acquaintance…spouted it perfectly. It never varies. They have no answers…simply are deeply and totally offended by anything conservative and even centrist. No doubt their dartboards have Trump in the Bullseye!

  • Great column, Dave. Your re-write of the Dos Equis commercial is really funny. My guess is most Jacksonville football fans would rather have a cold case of Dos Equis that Jaguars season tickets. (Perhaps the team should be called the House Cats.)
    Watching the Jags would probably give me flashbacks to 1976 when the new, expansion Tampa Bay Bucs went 0-for-fall. 0-14 (14 being the regular season game total in the NFL back then). The offensive line that doleful season was really lame. I didn’t see it but was told that the entire O-line appeared on “What’s My line,” in uniform, and no one could guess what they do. Fan interest was high early in the season when having an NFL team was new. But it dropped off quickly when it became clear how dreadful the team was. By the time there was a chill in the air, ticket sales were less than brisk. A local radio station held a contest. First prize was two Bucs season tickets. Second prize was four Bucs season tickets. People who had purchased game tickets before knowing the ’76 Bucs would do an impressive impersonation of the ’62 Mets were reduced to putting their tickets on their neighbors’ front steps, ringing the door bell and running. You may recall that after one game a sportswriter asked Bucs head coach John McKay what he thought of his team’s execution. The sometimes acerbic and always amusing John replied, “I’m in favor of it.” Them were dark days, which Jacksonville football fans are going through now. I feel your pain.
    Speaking of pain, I’m sorry about you pal Burt. An able writer and a fine, red-blooded patriot. RIP.

  • Dave:

    Finally Richard Norman with a reason the Administration has for not enforcing our immigration laws. It’s good economics! All these folks are money makers for the rest of us. Why do we have immigration laws at all; they impede economic progress? All those cayotes are really engines of US economic growth. Oh, and enforcement is dehumanizing just like Hitler with the Jews. Does a lefty ever say anything without accusing the folks he disagrees with of being racist, antisemitic etc. Thanks Richard Norman for clearing it all up.

    Merry Christmas all.

  • Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Dave – looking forward to your 2022 musings, wit, and logic. Here, here !

  • Smart man, your friend Burt! I am sorry he has passed. We need more like him, not less. I am continually amazed at how NASTY and ANGRY the Left is. They do not enjoy discussion – they just want to attack, and annihilate. And forget actual information or examples of what they tout as FACT. I agree with so many of your readers – it is not worth our time or aggravation to engage in any type of conversation with them. They seem to be deaf to reason, and blind to the truth starring them in the face. Sad state of affairs.

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