First Underhill "Town Hall" Goes Over Like an Exploding Dragster at the Starting Line.....

Commissioner Underhill's first town hall last night went off about as well as an exploding dragster on the starting line....

Not unlike the infamous explosion at the starting line suffered by Doug Herbert 22 years ago at Pomona--Commissioner Doug Underhill's first "Town Hall" on redistricting last night in Myrtle Grove blew up at the starting line.

Boom.

Nobody showed up, just a smattering of staff, several citizens that challenged Doug's assertions about redistricting (rightfully so) The PKA guy, Doug's compliant secretary and intern, Doug's sister-in-law, a couple of Escambia Hate Watch regulars, Flood Defender man, an angry Beulah resident, and maybe four or five others tops? Maybe a half-dozen truly concerned citizens--not insiders??

The stream was shaky and unsteady, and the whole affair lasted about an hour and a half.  Painfully off-topic rants and inaccurate statements about the process of redistricting-and an insinuation that the latest approved map rendition from the school board and the BCC was the "Bergosh" plan were part of Doug's soliloquy.  Saying the BCC's approved map is "Bergosh" plan is straight up lie.  It was actually a compromise that built on D2 School Board member Paul Fetsko's very rational map--and it was voted upon unanimously by the school board members subsequently and it received a 4-1 vote from the BCC as well.  Only Doug voted against it.

So yes, 9 of 10 elected officeholders voted for the map that Doug inaccurately portrays as the "Bergosh Plan."  (He wants people to believe he is right, and the 9 of us are wrong, I suppose.....)  Good luck with that.

Notably--during this event:

--he glosses over the fact he missed the first, all important and once per decade redistricting meeting yet he does not say why he didn't at least call in on "zoom" for the meeting or at least submit a map for our consideration before he left town.  Nope, no explanation on that.

--he bemoans the fact that "we didn't do town halls first"----- when he could have held town halls anytime after he got back from the jet ski races in Arizona and before the second joint meeting --But he didn't.  Why not?

--He makes a point to attempt to make the process a racially divisive wedge issue--knowing full well the direction from FAC and our attorney has been that we must work within the spirit of the McMillan decision and not water down the minority majority district--lest we face civil rights lawsuits/challenges to the map.

--He laments the fact that the time is running out for this process---yet he doesn't mention the fact that he wanted to rush this and finish it this year (even though we do not and did not have to).  He also conveniently does not disclose the fact that I was the commissioner, me, who warned against rushing; I wanted to wait until 2023 to do it right.

--He disregards the wishes of currently serving ECUA board members Vicki Campbell and Lois Benson who preferred NOT to be redistricted out of their seats and requested this reasonable, well established practice and accomodation from the group putting these maps together.  Doug wanted to knock two of them out of their districts...

--He neglects to mention that his first map was bad, but his most recent one is actually worse...

Maybe 5 or 6 citzens spoke total during the meeting--other than that it was a nonstop barrage of

A Conversation with Dr. Myhuong Nguyen....Part I

This email, above, was sent to all commissioners yesterday morning by local physician Dr. Myhuong Nguyen.  At first, I thought it was a hoax job.  I was wrong though...

Board members received the innocuous looking email, above,  yesterday morning from a "Dr. Myhuong Nguyen."

It was fascinating, and had an attachment that held interesting, intriguing yet controversial opinions and data about COVID-19, vaccinations, Ivermectin,  Hydroxychloroquine, India, Africa and Israel within it.  

A lot of it looked like some conspiracy theory email strings I've received in the past.   I was natually skeptical 

Could this be real--could this be the real opinion (s) from a real local Doctor?

For a minute there, I thought I was falling for some kind of a prank job like the crass, yet iconic scene from 1980's coming of age comedy "Porky's."  But it wasn't a prank.

I looked her up on Google.  Yes, this is a real doctor in Pensacola.

But could someone  be throwing out information and just using her name?  Well, maybe.  So I emailed her back--and she responded.   She emailed me her contact information  and then we spoke.  At length.

WOW-what a bombshell conversation and an extremely intelligent individual!  (I've asked her and she has agreed to be my guest on my December Coffee with the Commissioner)

She got her medical degree from Johns Hopkins and she has spent the last 18 years as an emergency medical physician in the Ascension Sacred Heart Emergency room in Pensacola.  She left in September to start her own practice as she felt she could be doing more to help more patients in a different setting.

But the bombshell claim she makes is very intriguing:

The media is not telling the truth about the vaccines, ivermectin and alternative, yet less expensive and equally effective treatments for COVID-19.  They (the media) are not telling the story of ivermectin's success in places like sub-saharan Africa and in India.

"Ivermectin is extremeley effective at treating COVID-19 and I have been prescribing it for patients here locally, in Colorado, and Atlanta---but pharmacies are not filling the prescriptions!"  she stated flatly...

"HOW can they do that?  How can they tell a doctor what she can or cannot prescribe for her patients?" I asked.

"I had my hippocratic oath taken from me" she exclaimed angrily.

I asked her about all the media ganging up on ivermectin to poke fun at it as a horse dewormer and quack science-- which she explained as follows.  She went into great detail describing the paste form of Ivermectin that is pre-measured for animals that are 1200 pounds.  "It simply cannot be dosed accurately for humans--so people have made errors in taking this and ended up seizing and needing intubation" she described.  The media then pick these stories up and report them."

She continued:

"They [media]  know it  [Ivermectin]has been around for decades and has an impeccable safety record; it is used for river blindness and is known to have antiviral properties as well--but there is a push to downplay Ivermectin in favor of the experimental vaccines!"

"Is this all about money?" I asked.  "I'm afraid it looks like it is" she stated dryly.  "I absolutely do NOT support the vaccines for children either" she offered

I told her one of my best friends, Brad Crager, died of COVID-19 and that event led me to getting the shots.  I have had two Moderna shots.

"Are the shots effective" I asked her bluntly:  "They are experimental, and we have seen a lot of patients, even locally, harmed by the vaccines.  And we are seeing in Israel, for instance, that even with vaccination rates exceeding 87% they are having patients who are vaccinated getting sick and dying.  It is very concerning what is happening there"  She continued "And then you have parts of India where there are millions of residents and they have flattened the curve TWICE using ivermectin early in a patient's diagnosis"

Curiously--I asked her if I was a patient who had recently contracted COVID-19--what would she prescribe for me.  She asked me for my weight, 200 pounds.  

"So for you I would prescribe 18 mg Ivermectin once daily for five days, along with Zinc, D3, Vitamin C.  If after 7 days you didn't improve, I would add the hydroxychloroquine."

"I guarantee you, your friend who died last January, if he had been given these medicines, he could have survived."

Wow.  Talk about interesting.  I want to know more.

I can't wait for our follow-on conversation and our discussion on December's Coffee with the Commissioner.  Should be very interesting.

"I will bring several more doctors on the show if that is alright--two of whom are the best in our area and who are now no longer working because of the vaccine mandate"  she stated.

"By all means, bring them. The more the better--I'll send you the Zoom invitation"    

What Could Possibly Go Wrong with This Plan?? Marlette Manipulation 33

 

Andy Marlette's cartoon in this morning's PNJ attempts to draw parallels between Republican leadership in Florida and locally with the acceptance of anarchy and lawlessness in Blue cities like Seattle and Portland.  To do this, he pictures the Pensacola I-110 under the bridge homeless encampment and tent city.  Of course, his equivocation on this misses the mark like most of his cartoons do consistently.  Cities like Seattle that allowed entire chunks of downtown areas to be occupied by lawless criminals had nothing at all to do with homeless individuals desperately clinging to existence in Pensacola Florida.  Out west, it was all about ideology and certain quasi-political groups like Antifa flexing their muscle, showing what they could and would do in cities run by like-minded politicians in places like Portland and Seattle.

The homeless encampment in Pensacola under the I-110 bridge, by contrast, is not a political statement being orchestrated by partisan activists---and that's the huge difference between what is happening here and what happens in Seattle and Portland.

Insidiously--Andy conflates the two issues even as he knows they are different.

The issue under the bridge in Pensacola is about folks who are truly down on their luck and are homeless and desperate.  Sure--there is dysfunctional behavior and some criminal activity taking place in the encampment.  Yes, much of it has not been discussed publicly for political expediency as the city desperately tries to make the problem disappear by dispersing it out to the county---which is a disastrous plan nobody supports and for which nobody has even bothered to properly plan for.

But the Seattle "CHAZ" debacle is nothing like what's happening in Pensacola, and Andy knows it.

Nope-- this issue is about the city attempting to move a stubborn eyesore problem out of their viewshed.  And meanwhile--noone has reached out to the county to obtain permits or permission.  The city hasn't attempted to explain this plan to county residents in Bellview who ABSOLUTELY do not want this homeless camp in their neighborhood.

They are just planning on doing it--which I will not support and which I will actively oppose.

So the picture, above, is much more apropos than what Andy presented.  He's making a political attack out of the desperation of the homeless whereas my rendition, above, is a humorous jab at the folks who are naive and believe they can just move this camp next to an existing neighborhood and such a move will not have devastating consequences on the area surrounding such an encampment.

Remember--they are not telling the truth about the dysfunctional activities going on right now around the current site under the I-110.  They don't want you to know about the problems assiciated with this tent city.  This way, they can pat you on the head, tell you everything is alright, and mollify you into accepting this campsite in your neighborhood.  See the way this works?

Unfortunately I see right through them and their plan.  Others do, too.

Tallman McKay Circles the PNJ "Wagon" with Fake News

Andrew "Tallman" McKay ignores and does not support the real reason I strongly support depriving the PNJ of legal ad revenue.  He lies by omission.  But why?  Why does he fail to report the main reason I never want to spend a nickel with the PNJ again is because of the racist cartoons of their cartoonist, Andy Marlette.  Why circle the wagons around the PNJ and cherry pick my blog post and fail to mention the MAIN reason this is happening?  Fake news fecklessness

I'm out of the county for a couple of days, attending a conference, relaxing, getting some tennis and golf in, and enjoying beautiful weather in the 80's in south-central Florida.

It's great to get away from time to time.

But I've now heard that Andrew "Tallman" McKay on AM 1620 is making hay over the county's new practice of no longer spending tens of thousands of dollars yearly on legal ads in the PNJ.

He is really, really uptight about it, according to some folks who have reported he's talking a lot about it during his radio shows.  And apparently he did a facebook post on it as well.  (Interestingly, a majority of commenters on this topic on the other hate site SUPPORT this move by the county.  Even folks that would love nothing more than to see me drawn and quartered support this new protocol, LOL)  

That must mean something to Tallman, if he is as smart as he wants us to think he is?

Why are people negative about the PNJ and lining up in disagreement with Andrew Tallman Mckay on his own site?  

Because they know Marlette, Savage, and the PNJ are corrupted, biased, and controlled--that's why.  

Their editorials are garbage, their cartoons are horrible, and they don't cover important stories, and the stories they do cover are slanted.  This is a known fact of reality.

But here's where Tallman really gets shifty and FAKE.  He posts selected snippets from my first blog post about this new practice of depriving PNJ of revenue----but he totally ignores the main reason I support this boycott----the racist cartoons that Andy Marlette has drawn where he uses the "N-Word."  

McKay cherry picks some of my post--but ignores the most important reason why I dislike the PNJ and support yanking their revenue.  Racist cartoons by Marlette where he uses the N-word.

I havn't edited that post---read it for yourself and see for yourself.  It is my main reason for supporting the pullback of ad revenue from PNJ.

So why is Tallman so afraid of reporting this?  It was the centerpiece of my blog post that he quoted.

It's why he isn't a real journalist, he's an entertainment/talk show guy.  Because to compliantly run to the defense of the PNJ while ignoring important aspects of the story is what Fake News is all about.

Weak.

You want to quote my posts--tell the whole truth about them--otherwise you are biased, partisan, feckless and fake.

Redistricting Moving Forward--Despite One County Commissioner "Objecting"

The BCC is moving forward with final approval of our redistricting maps which 5 School Board members and 4 of the 5 County Commissioners worked diligently to finalize in a compressed timeframe. One Commissioner, one out of 10 elected officials that put these maps together, is "unhappy..." 

Tuesday the Board made a statement, approved our final redistricting map for advertising, and will advertise what was approved twice over the next four weeks. And on December 2nd, we will have our final public hearing before the BCC at which time we will vote to make the advertised map official.  That's how I see the process unfolding over the next three weeks (which will go by fast--with the Thanksgiving Holidays sandwiched between now and then.....)

Importantly--I believe in this same time period the Escambia School Board will advertise and approve an identical map so the voters will have all local offices (School Board, Commissioner, ECUA Board) running in the same geographic districts.  This will maintain a long established practice of doing this locally in Escambia County in order to assist the Supervisor of Elections and in order to diminish any voter confusion.

Now, I've heard from a smattering of diehard Underhill supporters that do not approve of the map as we voted, 4-1, to advertise for final passage.  A small number of folks who proclaim they do NOT support Underhill also have sent the same sorts of emails to me.

I have received multiple emails supporting the proposed redistricting map, too.

But---- by and large--the overall process has just not garnered a lot of public interest.  It just hasn't.

Most likely it is because folks are busy living their lives, running their businesses, going to their kids' sporting events, planning for the holidays, recovering from the last 20 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, returning to in-person events, going back to Church Services in person, travelling abroad, planning for the future,  etc., etc., etc......

Most of the more than 130,000 citizens that live in Escambia County's District 1 and District 2 are not hyper-focused on local (or even national) politics.  They are busy living their lives--catching some news at 10PM on WEAR, reading NorthEscambia, and listening to WCOA.  Some (a diminishing number) may even read the PNJ.  But they are not hyper-political; their entire lives and existances do not revolve around what happened at the County, or what the school board did, or what neighborhood is going to be reunited in this redistricting, or what 8 people on a Facebook Hate Site think. Or what Jeff Bergosh says, or What Doug Underhill thinks  They don't live it, they don't care, --they tune out the noise.  In short, they have lives.

So I understand outgoing Commissioner Underhill will plan a "rapid-fire" series of town hall meetings next week to denounce the work of the 5 members of the school board and 4 members of the BCC.  He'll likely attempt to convince folks that the nine of us got it wrong, but he is right..........uh,.... okay. 

Neighbors Are Frustrated, Concerned, and Angry

 

Neighbors are concerned that more homeless allowed to camp near existing neighborhoods will create more blight, lowered property values, more crime, and more trash including shopping carts full of feces and trash dumped in yards...How does such a plan make neighborhoods and communities better?

My phone has been blowing up about the city's proposed homeless campsite in the County, in District 1 on Houston Avenue.

Anger, frustration, concern.  Those are the adjectives I'd use to describe what I am hearing.  I'd also add hopeless and dejected to those three words.

They don't want the camp 15 feet from their homes.

In short, they feel that if this happens, they are being used to shoulder a problem the city has right now under the  I-110 bridge.  

Thankfully--the city council put this plan on the back burner by a 5-2 vote last night.  That was a smart vote.  And they all know I am vocally and actively opposing any such plan.

Some individuals who are familiar with the issues of the existing camp in the city say a lot of the problems of the existing camp are not being shared with the public.  According to one source who is intimately familiar:  "The PPD have been called out to the camp dozens and dozens of times.  There are drug users, there have been sexual assaults, and all kind of other criminal activities in this camp.  If they get put in the county--all those calls for service will now fall on the Escambia County Sheriff's Office to handle.  Do we really need to do this?  was the rhetorical question this individual asked.

The answer is NO we don't have to.  Take them to the woods--not to suburbia.

Meanwhile--the residents in the general area of the proposed county site, with whom I have communicated, express real concern for the homeless who are down on their luck.  I've not heard one of them say anything disparaging about these folks.  They simply don't believe putting this camp right next to their neighborhood is prudent.  The below email sums up the feelings of these neighbors, perfectly.

"Commissioner Bergosh,

 My name is XXXXXXXX  XXXXXXXX and my family and I live at XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, Pensacola, FL 32526 on the corner of XXXXXXXX  and  XXXXXXXXXX Avenues.

 Our property is across Houston Avenue and a few dozen feet from the proposed location to set up a homeless camp. We have serious concerns with this proposal.

 In the four years we have lived here, we have seen several unnerving activities on Houston Ave., including an abandoned car set on fire, a motorist driving on the grass attempting to run over her significant other, homeless individuals smoking what appeared to be illegal narcotics, intoxicated individuals screaming obscenities at the top of their lungs while dancing down the middle of Houston Ave., and countless tons of littering. All of these instances occured with 15 feet of our property.

 Since several homeless individuals already live at times in the proposed camp location off Houston, we have found needles and drug baggies in our lawn and have had a shopping cart full of human feces, rotten food, clothes, and trash dumped in our yard. This has occurred with only a few people living there, let alone hundreds of individuals.

 Since purchasing the house, we have worked hard to improve the neighborhood and build strong

On Pensacola's #1 Rated Morning Drive Radio Program "Real News with Rick Outzen" Later this Morning, at 8:00

I've once again been invited to appear on Pensacola's #1 rated Morning Drive Radio Program, "Real News with Rick Outzen" on the area's preeminent and highest rated radio talk station, AM 1370 WCOA.

I look forward to the discussion(s) which I believe will center on the Board of County Commissioners' soon to be completed redistricting efforts--and a couple of horrible concept drawings/plans brought by District 2 in the 11th hour, 59th minute, and 59th second of the process--both non starters--described here and here in more depth.  

Also on tap--a couple of disastrous ideas from downtown on bringing the city's homeless camp out of the city and into District 1------an idea I certainly do not support.  It's an idea nobody I have spoken with in District 1 supports.  It is a disastrous idea that I do not think will come to pass and for which I have posted a couple of Blog entries, here and here where I've proposed alternatives that are less burdensome on local neighborhoods.

Once Rick posts the podcast--It will be linked here.