Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Historic Preservation Racism COVERUP CONTINUES: St. Johns County PRIDE Complaint No. 2304407. (May 28, 2023)

Coverup of historic preservation racism continues.

The facts are irrefragable. 

Let justice be done.    

No response or acknowledgement from St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners as of 5:05 PM today.  

Martin Luther King Jr. points to a bullet hole in a glass sliding door of a home he was scheduled to stay in on Atlantic View in Butler Beach, south of St. Augustine, after it was shot at in 1964. King was not in the home at the time.





On Sunday, May 28, 2023, 01:19:10 PM EDT, Ed Slavin <easlavin@aol.com> wrote:


Dear Chairman Whitehurst, Vice Chair Arnold, and Commissioners Dean, Joseph and Alaimo: 

I have today filed St. Johns County PRIDE Complaint No. 2304407, stating: 

1. Our St. Johns County Clerk of Courts and Comptroller Brandon J. Patty fired SJC Inspector General Ms. Nilsa Arissa, C.I.G., C.I.G.I, preventing our SJC Inspector General from doing her job, without adequate investigation or oversight by the Board of County Commissioners or County Attorney. 

2. This firing prevented investigation of pending cases, including one that had languished for six months -- the complaint of Mr. Trey Alexander Asner, Cultural Resources Coordinator, whose resignation was forced under false pretenses by Growth Management Director, who said it was at the behest of Administration.  There has still not been an investigation. The coverup continues.

3. This firing and coverup threaten any possibility of accreditation of or respect for our nascent neglected St. Johns County Inspector General 

4. Clerk of Courts told the ethical former employee whistleblower -- who was pressured to resign in retaliation for protecting civil rights sites -- that our County let him down by not responding to his Inspector General complaint within the requisite 30 days.

5. Clerk of Courts claims it has no jurisdiction over complaints by non employees, referring him to HR.

6. HR washed its hands, not unlike Pontius Pilate, and did nothing. 

7. Three (3) Commissioners met with retaliation and discrimination victim, though the Chief Depity County Attorney ran interference and discouraged meetings with Commissioners.

8. County Administrator refused to meet with the whistleblower.

9. Please place on the agenda of a future County Commission meeting. 

10. There has never been an investigation. 

11. Therefore, please refer to FBI, USDOJ Public Integrity Section and FDLE Executive Investigations. 

Thank you.

With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085
www.edslavin.com
(904) 377-4998 







ANNALS OF DeSANTISTAN: DeSantis Brags About Florida Budget That Includes Billions in Federal Funds He Opposed (Peter Wade, Rolling stone, June 3, 2021)

Once again, an example of a bantam rooster claiming credit for the sun rising.  

Our bragging bully Boy Governor in elevator cowboy boots, whiny RONALD DION DeSANTIS:

o Annoying cloying Governor opposed federal ARPA funds.  

o Took ARPA funds.

o Gave legislature kudos for financial wizardry in balancing the budget during COVID.  

o Ignores the facts that federal funds made it possible and Florida state budgets must be balanced under Florida's law and Constitution.

o That's been mandatory long before deeply deceptive RON DeSANTIS was born, or hatched.  

There are suckers born every minute.  

Is this goofy lugubrious goober the biggest exhibitionist since P.T. Barnum?

You tell me.

From ROLLING STONE, June 3, 2023.  


POLITICS

DeSantis Brags About Florida Budget That Includes Billions in Federal Funds He Opposed

Without funds from Biden's American Rescue Plan, the state was facing a budget shortfall

FLORIDA GOVERNOR RON DeSantis approved Florida’s $101.5 billion budget, which includes a large chunk of Covid-19 federal relief funds from the American Relief Plan, which DeSantis once described as “Washington at its worst.”

Most of the approximately $9 billion federal relief funds will go to police, teachers and first responders, including $1,000 bonus checks for teachers, principals and first responders. Florida was able to increase its budget from last year by more than $9 billion, in large part due to the federal funds, combined with additional revenue the state generated beyond what state economists had predicted. Before the federal funds were allocated, the state was facing a crisis with its education budget and an overall budget shortfall of $3 billion.

But during a press conference Wednesday, DeSantis tried only to give credit to the Republicans in the legislature (who largely opposed the federal funds) and himself for reopening the state economy.

“Part of the reason we’re here is because we’ve had good stewards in the legislature who spend conservatively; and responsibly, but also the fact that Florida has schools open, businesses open and people having the right to work,” DeSantis said. “That has made all the difference.”

The Florida GOP even tweeted last week, trying to give DeSantis credit for the bonuses that were part of the federal relief. “Thank you for going the extra mile to keep our kids in the classroom!” the party wrote.

Democrats were quick to correct DeSantis. “You wouldn’t know it from [the governor’s] press conference, but Florida’s budget was bolstered by billions of dollars from the American Rescue Plan passed by Congress and signed into law by [President Biden],” Florida Democratic House co-leader Bobby DuBose tweeted. “That money, and the additional billions sent to local communities, avoided a potential budget crisis and will help jump-start Florida’s recovery. It’s unfortunate that more of those dollars won’t go directly into the pockets of Floridians to aid our state’s recovery.”

Republican Rep. Charlie Crist, a former Florida governor who is running against DeSantis for the position in 2022, also criticized him for taking credit. “While Governor DeSantis will try to claim credit today, the truth is that he opposed the American Rescue Plan,” Crist said in a statement. “He opposed the funding that is providing bonuses to teachers and first responders. He opposed the funding that is helping cities and schools recover from a challenging year. And he opposed the direct relief checks that were a lifeline as our economy recovers.”

DeSantis also vetoed $1.35 billion in federal relief funds as well as $900,000 in funding for programs that serve the LGBTQ population in Central Florida — included in those vetoed funds was $150,000 for a mental health services program dedicated to survivors and family members of victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting.

As one survivor, Brandon Wolf, tweeted, “Here’s [Governor DeSantis] in 2019, standing on hallowed ground, promising me that he would always support those of us impacted by the Pulse nightclub shooting. Today, he vetoed mental health services for us. I will never forget.”

ANNALS OF DeSANTISTAN: Like a rooster taking credit for the sunrise!

People have some to Florida for the weather since the time of Henry Morrison Flagler.  Thus Boy Governor RONALD DION DeSANTIS claiming that people come to Florida because of him is silliness, like a rooster claiming credit for the beautiful sunrise.



Monday, May 29, 2023

Memorial Day 2023






The First Amendment, in its majesty, protects our fundamental rights to freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press and the right of the governed to assemble peaceably and petition for a redress of grievances.  

On Memorial Day, we honor the millions of war dead and wounded who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms.  

My dad machine-gunned Nazis on two continents in three combat jumps with the 82nd ABN DIVN, F. Co., 505th PI.R., the last of which took place when he was nearly 32, parachuting into Sainte-Mère-Église in Normandy, France at 1 AM. 

Our American and Allied paratroopers took the town, defeating the Nazi Reich before the sun had risen on June 6, 1944, liberating the first of some 10,000 towns from Hitlerism.  

On Memorial Day 1963, 60 years ago, my dad bought flags for every home on our block in Pennsauken, N.J., and a photo of the two of us putting up a flag on a window mount appeared in the Catholic Star-Herald newspaper.  

Never forget that freedom is not free.  

My dad taught me, as JFK's dad taught him, that you have to stand up to people with power, or they walk all over you.   Let us dedicate ourselves to that.  

It's our time, our country and our place to speak out against injustice and bigotry.  

We honor our dead and wounded as we vindicate the rights of the living.

Let justice be done.

Be not afraid.


Friday, May 26, 2023

ANNALS OF DeSANTISTAN: DeSantis appears to back woman who led Amanda Gorman poem school ban. (The Guardian)



It takes a vicious varmint.

So one (1) extremely bigoted parent complained about Amanda Gorman's poetry at the Bob Graham  School in Miami Lakes.  Is she a pestilential Proud Boys supporter who shared Big Lies, including the Protocols of the Elders of Zion?  Is she worth catering to by schoolmarms and our Governor?

Governor RONALD DION DeSANTIS, who is always up for a bigoted remark to arouse rebarbative reprobates, showed his sinful sinister nature and  lack of character today, May 26, 2023, a date that should live in infamy.  

From The Guardian: