Update: Extremist party. Not covered by incredible shrinking St. Augustine Record. But thanks to estimable PR person Nicole Crosby, we have coverage from extremist Flagler County publication, complete with photos of Commissioner Krista Keating-Joseph and her handler, Nicole Crosby.
Ready for some laughs and irony, and conflicted crummy political reporting? Here's a one-sided PR-driven article about extremist Arizona election denier KERI LAKE being feted by St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee. The writer, Ms. Danielle Anderson, is a former Flagler County Republican Executive Committee Chair who once reported for the Daytona Beach News-Journal, exposed by Flagler Live here: https://flaglerlive.com/danielle-anderson-gop/#gsc.tab=0 and here: https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2023/09/danielle-andersons-dual-role-as-flagler.html
To our Republican friends greenwashing in St. Johns County, your sins have found you out. See photos below, including Nicole Crosby, who helps Dull Republicans organize right-wing fundraisers, then portrays herself as an environmentalist opposed to overdevelopment.
Except, she writes paens to Nocatee on NextDoor, while arrogantly saying it would waste her time to help Democrats running for local office. Nicole and Krista once asked me to run for County Commission, as a Republican. Sorry, ladies, no time for homophobes or anti-LGBTQ+ organizations like Moms for Liberty, or other faux conservatives who know not that they know not that they know not about our Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Dull Republican propaganda, from apparatchik writing for something called Flagler News Weekly:
SJC Republican Party Ignites 2024 Enthusiasm with Founder’s Day Dinner
BY DANIELLE ANDERSON, FLAGLER NEWS WEEKLY
PONTE VEDRA, Fla. (September 10, 2023) – Election season is in full swing and politicians are making the rounds. Welcoming a fiery trio on Saturday evening the St. Johns County Republican Party Founder’s Day Dinner featured U.S. Congressman Michael Waltz (FL-6), U.S Congressman Byron Donalds (FL-19), and potential Arizona U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake.
Speakers started with warm and fuzzy family stories, from working class America to everyday life as a dad and underdog sports coach, to a foundation rooted in faith, before getting to the red meat of the speeches.
While not alarmist, the speeches were clear reminders of the challenges the nation faces as it tries to balance homegrown social issues with fundamental American values and rights, and global priorities ranging from national security to the economic impacts of climate change.
Red Meat on the Menu
Addressing what he considers internal and external threats to the American Dream, Waltz was blunt about China’s military developments and relationship with Russia, while still addressing the critical situation at the southern border.
“I am a 27-year Green Beret, just retired as a Colonel, no longer jumping out of planes but between China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and the weakness of this White House, they’re all on the march,” said Waltz.
“I’m just as worried about the internal threats facing us. They’re like termites eating up the foundation. Between Critical Race Theory, the indoctrination in our schools, men in women’s sports, the fundamentals, our values, are under assault. We need fighters in D.C., and I think we’ve got them tonight in Byron Donalds, Kari Lake and me.”
“I just got back from India. There’s no coincidence that Xi refuses to meet with Biden. He’s cancelling on institutions like the G20, that the west has historically run and then enhancing organizations like BRICS where the Chinese and Russians have a greater influence. They fundamentally want to replace the United States as a world leader, replace it with their vision, and that’s not a world I want our grandkids growing up in.”
A strong economy and dollar are important to helping retain the United States’ place as a global leader.
“First and foremost we’ve got to get government spending under control, our debt under control. It’s weaking the dollar and weaking confidence in the dollar,” he said.
Congressman Donalds brought the discussion closer to home with a bone-chilling message for all Americans, discussing the double standards and current state of investigations at the highest levels of the U.S. government.
“You want to know why the right and the left continues to protect Joe Biden? They are accomplishing more of their agenda through him and that is the reason why they’ve not gone after Joe Biden.”
“The future of our country is on the line,” he said stoically before introducing the evening’s keynote speaker.
Rumors have swirled around Kari Lake’s political future after a brutal 2022 gubernatorial race in Arizona. The staunch Trump supporter has been a topic of discussion as a potential vice presidential pick on a Trump 2024 ticket and as a contender to take on Arizona Senator Krysten Sinema in 2024.
“When you speak out and you speak the truth, they want to take you down,” said Lake.
Preparing For 2024
The room was a pro-Trump crowd, and St. Johns County Republican Party Chair Dr. Blake Patterson said he was inspired to get involved in local politics after the 2020 election.
“When November of ‘20 happened and then January of ’21 happened, I felt I had to get involved for my kids’ sake, my grandkids’ sake,” he said.
“We underwent a leadership change of this organization in December of this past year, revamping the organization since the beginning of the year,” he said, building a solid infrastructure and ground game for the organization ahead of the upcoming elections.
“Our aim is to put citizen patriots in position who are really going to reflect the needs, the wants of their citizens. We think this will be very well received.”
Election integrity is of high importance to Republican voters.
“There’s a lot I think needs to be done because there’s way too much vulnerability and risk currently in our election system,” said Patterson.
Though the party faithful are currently split among a field of nominees, party officials hope the rifts will heal and conservatives will coalesce to ensure the conservate agenda is successful. Party chairmen from Duval and Flagler attended the event in a show of unity.
“I came up to listen to Kari Lake and hear the other speakers that talk about the great Republican party that we are and why we need to win in ’24,” said Flagler County Republican Party Chairman Perry Mitrano, encouraged by the speakers’ messages.
“Especially when you hear from someone like Kari Lake who flies all the way from Arizona just to share their story and to get us to jump on going forward.”
You apparently write what you wish to believe without verifying any actual facts. Your statements about me planning the event and influencing the author of the Flagler News Weekly article are pure fiction. Same with your repeated claims that Krista and I asked you to run for county Commissioner as a Republican. Why would either of us do that, given your strongly-stated hatred of Republicans? That's not even within the realm of believable. And then you slander us as homophobes. You could and should be sued for that.
ReplyDeleteAs for your accusations of local Republicans "greenwashing," your blog praising Krista for proposing 14 ways to better protect trees soundly contradicts that. You named me as a greenwasher, yet my environmental efforts have had far more results in St. Johns County than your mere complaining. You blatantly mislead by leaving out the entire point of my Nocatee post - that current developments are so bad, they make Nocatee look good. Your lies are an affront to all who oppose the pro-developer establishment that grips our county.
Ed has been to God knows how many county meetings over God knows how long and raised these issues. That's not merely complaining so that's false on its face. That and the man will be raising these issues long after you are gone from the public view. Also, I don't think Ed hates Republicans. There are far more people who qualify more for that title but Ed isn't one of them in comparison. Not enough of you stood up and fought the reactionary cancer of Trump. This is the main issue with many.
DeleteAnother problem is some of your people are still out there pushing stolen election lies, lies about history, and lies (by ommission) about science and discovery. Quick to call out Ed Slavin but not quick to clean up the all the lies that effect democracy and the nation in general. But of course the GOP aimed to profit from these lies in the first place going back at least 15 years. It only boiled over during the Trump meltdown... now you've got potential right wing and anti-government terrorism and sedition to deal with. The Democrats aren't to blame, only right wing lies. But when a non-Republican tells a lie then it's the end of the world. You can't be taken seriously.
Delete1. You may post your misleading screed below on my blog if you want to, and i will print it, but I find your lies and threats to be pathological this year.
ReplyDelete2. You even lied about me repeatedly on NextDoor, and never apologized.
3. You even lied about you and Krista asking me to become a Republican to run for Commission.
4. Support for Moms 4 Liberty and for other extremist right-wing groups, asking illegal questions about Library Advisory Board applicants' political registrations, and failure to support County Pride Proclamation, all speak for themselves.
5. There's more to environmental protection that writing an ordinance.
6. My work exposing environmental wrongdoing, 1981-date, speaks for itself. Folio Weekly in 2008 called me an "environmental hero" for exposing the City of St. Augustine's illegal dumping of a landfill, which has since been cleaned up. Attacks on me by the Establishment led to St. Augustine Record's 2006 editorial, defending me against the same sort of specious attacks you, et al. mounted on NextDoor in 2023.
7. Hence, "I wear your scorn as a badge of honor," in the words of then-Senator J. Danforth Quayle in 1988.
Thank you
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
www.edslavin.com
http://www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
http://www.staugustgreen.com
(904) 377-4998