Has anyone read or considered responding to this goofy, gooberish page one article in the smug, superficial, sixth-rate GANNETT's St. Augustine Record? (Below)
My mom would say, "HOW TRITE!"
The folly of hedge fund owned GANNETT's destruction of our local newspaper is evident when you read Lucia Viti's asinine article about who leads the salute to the Pledge of Allegiance. Hedge fund owned, mismanaged GANNETT's few remaining sere shreds of coverage of our local governments in the incredible shrinking St. Augustine Record, are de minimus if not de micromis.
Amateur hour.
Sounds like two spoiled rotten dopey disgruntled devious developer cat's paws, uneducated former County Commission Chair SARAH ARNOLD and former County Commission Chair CHRISTIAN WHITEHURST are gaslighting us again. Neither ARNOLD nor WHITEHUST are educated. Neither matriculated. They are "typical of their types," as my Irish grandmother would say. As my grandmom would say, "They want to be somebody. ANYBODY!"
The devious developer-directed duo is even complaining about restoring non-agenda public comment to the beginning of our meetings, a complaint masked by crocodile tears at plans to move PR presentations that were placed at the beginning of meetings by stiff-necked former County Commissioner JEREMIAH RAY BLOCKER, miraculously defeated by Commissioner Krista Keating Joseph in 2022. The ancien regime in St. Johns County is annoyed and seemingly paranoid. They don't like citizen concerns being first in our meetings, a longtime customer BLOCKER ended to shut us up after January 6, 2021, when I called DONALD JOHN TRUMP a fascist in non-agenda public comment. I spoke the truth. Untethered to truth, the GQP will do anything to win cheaper debater's points.
Not unlike two wretched punch drunk prizefighters, petty pugilists in search of a fight, cynical arachnid apparatchiks looking to abuse veterans, using them as bullets in their guns.
Reminds me of the chapter in Eric Berne's popular 1964 psychology paperback book, "Games People Play," entitled "Let's you and him fight."
My late friend and mentor, photojournalist James David Pleasant, said, "If you want to keep a secret in St. Augustine, tell the St. Augustine Record." Founded by Henry Morrison Flagler's frontman in 1895, the Record was long a daily mash note to the Establishmentn and their fetid political machine.
We, the People defeated their foul, feculent, fetid, once-feared, now-furious flippant faction of developer-coddling public serpents -- other-directed by lobbyist --, two of whose candidates lost the August 20 2024 closed Republican primaries.
Their whiny childish response is a rear guard action angry at honest government, e.g., newly empowered County Commissioners Krista Keating Joseph, Clay Murphy and Ann Taylor.
Looks like a tempest in a thimble.
"Inside baseball" from the louche losers' peculiar point of view? You tell me. Distorting, not reporting, by someone never seen in the County Commission Auditorium? The St. Augustine Record needs an editor and real journalists again.
When we buy a newspaper, we're supposedly paying for reporters, not for flaks, fluffing, fluffers, flummery, dupery, nincompoopery, twaddle and Trumpery.
Lucia Viti's new coverage of the 2024 elections was PR fluffery, mocking concerns about campaign contributions while not using government documents to explore the issue. "I hate shallowness," as FBI Associate Director Mark Felt told Bob Woodward (portrayed by Hal Holbrook and Robert Redford in the. movie, "All The President's Men.")
Amateur amanuensis Lucia Viti should be replaced by GANNETT with experienced politics and government reporters. Lucia Viti's Yellow Journalism -- manufacturing a page one lurid headline out of sour grapes -- is mystifying. Cheap shots. Low class. No class.
How many women or minority veterans has the "Veterans Council" ever selected to lead the pledge?
How many veterans or others are "upset?"
The article is full of exaggerations and seeming sexism and misogyny. White male privilege, pouting?
Why complain that veterans who happen to be "paid government employees" would lead the pledge? Every American veteran is a current or past "paid government employee." As GQP pejoratives go, that one rings hollow and sounds stupid, like the ranting cant that DONALD JOHN TRUMP emits at rallies. How gauche and louche.
As a machine-gunner with the 82nd ABN DIVN paratrooper in WWII, my dad was a "paid government employee," paid $50/month to jump out of C-47s and machine gun Nazis, later receiving less than $7/month VA benefits for his disability (malaria and shrapnel in his knee).
The phrase "paid government employee" is disrespectful and divisive. It erects a false dichotomy between "veterans" and "paid government employees" who are veterans. It flunks the laugh test and the smell test.
Enough flummery,
Sounds like pompous, political pearl-clutching, haughty hateful histrionics, arrogantly affecting anger and wild indignation, in an article that twice uses the word "upset," quoting Republican apparatchik LTC William Dudley's extravagant or misleading claims, seemingly unadorned by evidence, empathy or the milk of human kindness.
Phony affectations of martyrdom are beneath the genius of a free people.
And as they say in the military, "Quit your damn bellyaching!"
Or as Rodney King would say, "can't we all get along?"
Quo vobis videtor?
(What do y'all reckon?)
Distorted article from the hedge fund owned, incredible shrinking St. Augustine WReckord:
New St. Johns Commission chair changes who will lead the pledge, upsetting the Veterans Council
Newly appointed County Commissioner Krista Joseph removes the Veteran's Council from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance before meetings to make room for others
The new chair of the St. Johns County Commission has ended a longtime practice of having a member of the county's Veterans Council lead the Pledge of Allegiance to start meetings, saying she'd like to open it up to other veterans and Gold Star families.
The decision isn't sitting well with some.
On Nov. 19, St. Johns County Commissioner Krista Joseph was voted in as chair and Commissioner Clay Murphy as vice chair of the County Commission. Ann Taylor was also sworn in as the newly elected commissioner for District 5.
One day later, the county’s administrative office sent an email to William Dudley, chairman of the St. Johns County Veterans Council Inc., stating that Joseph had decided to “implement a new plan of action for the meeting invocation and pledge.”
The email said Joseph would instead have county staff who are veterans recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
"Please note that Dennis Hollingsworth will remain as the person for the December 3rd pledge. However, December 17th will be Chuck Labonowski at the request of Commissioner Joseph,” the statement said.
Dudley, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force, told the St. Augustine Record that he had no idea why Joseph decided against having Veterans Council members perform the time-honored tradition.
“She apparently has her reason for doing it,” he said. “I have no idea what those reasons are, but I can tell you this, there's a lot (sic) of upset (sic) people in this county and a lot (sic) of upset (sic) veterans.”
In a written statement, Joseph told The Record that she considers the Pledge of Allegiance the single most important part of the meeting.
“As a Gold Star mom whose son died for his country, I made a proposal to extend the list of people who can LEAD the Pledge of Allegiance at our commissioner meetings to include staff members who are veterans and Gold Star families,” she wrote. “My goal is to be inclusive of MORE people who have sacrificed for our country.
“Saying the Pledge of Allegiance is how we honor our flag, our liberty and the unity of our country,” she said. “I certainly hope that giving more vets and Gold Star families the privilege of leading the pledge is an honor that every resident will support.”
A longtime tradition
According to Dudley, “years back (sic) the chairman at the time” requested that a veteran recite the Pledge of Allegiance instead of a commission member. The Veterans Council then became responsible for “furnishing a veteran” prior to every meeting.
“And that’s exactly what we’ve been doing,” he said.
Dudley said that at the onset of each new year, he received the County Commission meeting schedule from the county administration.
“I, in turn, reached out to members of the veterans community — which is comprised of all the veterans’ organizations in the county — to get a candidate from each organization to recite the Pledge of Allegiance,” he said.
Dudley then supplied the county with 24 veterans who would recite the Pledge following a local clergy member who recites the meeting’s invocation.
“Names include rank, military branch of service and where they served so it’s printed in the in the agenda for that day,” he said. “That’s how it’s done.
“Now a county employee who is a veteran will recite the pledge,” he said. “That's upsetting a lot of veterans. You're going to have a paid employee do what the veteran volunteers representing the various veterans’ organizations in the city or the county were doing for years?"
Dudley said that what it really “boiled down to was that a paid employee” would be reciting the Pledge.
“We’ve always had such an outstanding relationship with Board of County Commissioners,” he said. “It’s such a congenial relationship. They've always supported the Veterans Council. Support has been given willingly and overwhelmingly. There was never a rift.”
Dudley added that the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office and every St. Johns County agency support the Veterans Council.
“So, this comes as a real shock,” he said.
Other commissioners weigh in
And Dudley isn’t the only individual upset by Joseph’s position.
While Commissioner Joseph has the right to set the agenda as chair, I am deeply disappointed with her decision to remove the Veterans Council from leading our meetings in the Pledge of Allegiance,” Commissioner Christian Whitehurst told The Record. “The tradition was started not only to honor the veterans in our county, but to honor the incredible work that Bill Dudley and our Veterans Council do in serving the needs of our Veterans.
“I strongly disagree with Commissioner Joseph’s decision and pray that she will come to her senses and bring the St. Johns County Veterans Council back to our meetings where they belong,” he said.
Former Board Chair Sarah Arnold said that she was disturbed by the decision to eliminate the Veterans Council as the “organization that leads us.”
“I spoke with Colonel Bill Dudley as well as members of our community who are uncomfortable at how quickly long-standing traditions are being tossed aside given the lack of community input,” she said.
Arnold said that eliminating the Veterans Council was not the only change taking place.
“Eliminating public safety updates, infrastructure and legislative updates are extremely concerning, and take us away from the transparency I've spent the last year striving to bring to our meetings for the benefit of our residents," she said.
Taylor, newly elected to the board, expressed her support for Joseph’s measure.
“We’ll be increasing the pool of veterans and give more of them the opportunity to experience this honor,” she said in a written statement.
Murphy did not respond to our efforts for a statement.
The Record reached out to Joseph to clarify whether the Pledge would be recited by veterans and Gold Star families who are not residents of St. Johns County. As of publication, she had not responded.
Lucia Viti
