Family Faith and Food; Nick is a single, Italian-American living the life of a modern young professional in New York City, with his parents retired and moved to Florida, his loving grandparents never let him forget where he belongs... in Jersey, In fact, he sees both sets of his tenacious, tenderhearted, loving, loud and always eating/feeding you, Italian grandparents every Sunday for dinner, who live two doors down from each other in Hoboken, and who lavish all of their affection on their last unmarried grandchild. Faithfully, Nick goes “over the river” to Grandma’s house every week for a Sunday family dinner. (Which reminded me of my paternal grandparents home except a B&W picture of JFK would have been behind the dining room table) This is his routine until he visits unexpectedly one Thursday…. he has to tell them something important…. He’s been offered a great promotion! But everything is about to change because his dream job and promotion is in Seattle, Washington. His grandparents, Frank, Aida, Emma, and Nunzio are heartbroken at the prospect of their beloved grandson raising a family all the way across the country, Over five decades ago, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It established standards to protect the voting rights of all qualified U.S. voters. Contrary to liberal psychosis, the Voting Rights Act applies to every voter equally. It set parameters for each state to engrain within its voting laws. To ensure equality, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed to protect the rights of ethnic minorities. But its core provisions, like the Voting Rights Act, protects the civil rights of all Americans equally. Contrary to leftist logic, neither of these gave more rights to one group and less rights to another. Five decades later, many Americans don't know the Civil Rights Act protects all citizens from age, gender, ethnic and religious discrimination, in addition to minority groups. Government cannot give any form of preference to one group, without abridging the same rights that others are entitled to. As Boomers began to feel the pinch of age prejudice, many forgot that age discrimination is a key provision in the Civil Rights Act. And very few seniors ever filed complaints with the Department of Justice about this. Even fewer Americans know why our states were obliged to update their voting laws after the last election. All states laws must comply with provisions in the Voting Rights Act to protect "all voters." In response to the mayhem during the 2020 election, when blue states made up new laws as they went along, 43 states updated voting laws to prevent a repeat of the insane bedlam that took place in 2020. Citizens asked state lawmakers to ensure that nobody could ever question how anybody who couldn't get elected dogcatcher in his own state get the most votes in U.S. presidential history. Since the Constitution obligates states to enforce the Voting Rights Act, after the last election they reviewed all mail-in voting, counting ballots received after Election Day, and ballot drop-boxes. All these issues truncated the intent of the Constitution and Voting Rights Acts. Yet in the woke world, if you don't win the brass ring or can't hijack it, you bellyache that your voting rights were violated! By law, states are responsible for updating existing election laws when they do not comply with the Voting Rights Act that From Island to Bay, News at Sea Level Volume 7 Issue 15 Production@sunbaypaper.com www.TheSunBayPaper.com January 21, 2022 - January 27, 2022 Right... All Along Cont. pg 15 Omicron spreads. The media say, "Governments must act!" Many have, bringing back mask mandates and closing schools. Do these rules work?.........No !! Gov. Ron DeSantis ended pandemic restrictions last spring and refuses to impose new ones. "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result," he said. Lockdown states let "hysteria drive them to do really damaging things." The media hate him for saying things like that. "Some governors are putting their own political gain ahead of children's lives," said CNN anchor Don Lemon. If you watch most TV news, you'd think the rules, Choose to Live Free Know Your Rights and How to Protect Them A Hilarious Comedy About the Three F’s Get free at-home COVID-19 tests! at: www.covidtests.gov Cont. pg 27 Every home in the U.S. is eligible to order #4 free at-home COVID-19 tests. The tests are completely free. Orders will usually ship in 7-12 days. Order your tests now so you have them when you need them Get Free at-home COVID-19 Tests Cont. pg 16 20,000+ Free Testing Sites No-cost antigen and PCR COVID-19 tests are available to everyone in the U.S., including the uninsured, at more than 20,000 sites nationwide: https://www.hhs.gov/coronavirus/communitybased-testing-sites/index.html
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The Sun Bay Paper Page 3 January 21, 2022 - January 27, 2022 Do you have a cat? Here’s a useful tip to make double-duty of kitty litter at home. Smelly trash and recycling bins can be hard to clean and deodorize, but you can make the job easy by simply pouring new kitty litter into the bins and letting them sit inside. The porous nature of litter will absorb the odor quickly and make the bins smell much more fresh. When it’s time to refill your cat’s litter box, just use the litter from the bins. Ever wonder why it’s so important to stay on designated hiking trails when visiting parks? It’s simple: Soil compaction has a major impact on the environment. When thousands of people step on the same soil, it compresses the soil and reduces space in between particles. Un-compacted soil is living soil, where microbes thrive and water and nutrients are held for plants. The less compacted the soil, the healthier the environment. So sticking to a trail path helps preserve the biodiversity of whatever park you’re visiting. If you think about it, bath towels are designed to absorb excess water to dry just-washed skin, so they really aren’t dirty when you put them in the washer. The musky smell actually comes from mildew that grows on towels if they are too damp and don’t air-dry quickly enough. To wash towels, use half the amount of laundry detergent you normally would. Too much will linger in the towels and eat away at the fibers. You can even skip using detergent once in a while; the warm water will be enough to freshen the towels and keep them clean. Kitty Kitty Hiking Trails Bath Towels Buying secondhand clothes at thrift stores or consignment shops isn't just good on the wallet, it is also 95 percent more efficient than buying new. The amount of energy used to make new clothes is obviously significantly more than the energy used in reselling clothes. A bonus tip: When you shop at a consignment store and find a pair of pants, a jacket or other tailored item that fits you perfectly, ask the store to hold items for you the next time that seller brings in clothes to sell. This seller is a perfect match for your body size and type, so future items should fit you perfectly, too. Thrift Stores Another reason to ditch wasteful paper towels: They can harbor germs. A study by the Laval University in Quebec City showed that bacteria can thrive even on unused towels! The pulping process itself at factories that make towels can often be contaminated, spreading germs like the Bacillus spore right onto the towels. While no illness has been linked to paper towels, this is just one more reason to skip singleuse towels and go with reusable ones. Who Knew When shopping for pet toys, there are no added health benefits when choosing organic vs. conventional cotton toys. But there is comfort in knowing that no harmful herbicides, fertilizers or pesticides were used to grow the cotton when you do choose organic. One thing to avoid is toys made with polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which can be harmful to pets if they tear apart the toys and accidentally ingest small pieces. Look for natural rubber or recycled plastic "indestructible" toys Pet Toys Did you know conventional chewing gum is made with a plastic base to keep it chewy? This makes it non-biodegradable and a threat to wildlife who mistake it for food when your chewed-up gum ends up in the trash or on sidewalks. If you like gum, look for a natural alternative instead. More brands are returning to plant-based ingredients like vegetable-based glycerin, chicle (a tree sap) and rice flour to make all-natural and fully biodegradable gum Danny Seo Bubble Gum Bad
Once, during a meeting with then-presidential candidate Donald Trump inside Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York, we discussed energy policy. I told Trump that if we went all out to produce America's abundant supply of oil, gas and coal, the United States could be energy independent in four years. Trump looked at me from behind his desk and shook his head. "I don't want America to be energy independent. I want America to be energy dominant." There are few issues where Trump and President Joe Biden have differed more broadly on policy than on energy production. Trump went full speed on fossil fuel production. He lifted drilling restrictions, especially in states such as Alaska and on federal lands in the continental states. He gave the green light to vitally needed pipelines. He blocked new extreme environmental regulations that were intended to choke off our oil and gas supplies. He recognized the shale oil and gas revolution as an unparalleled opportunity to reduce reliance on foreign oil. The Trump energy policy was an astonishing economic success story. By January 2021, exactly a year ago and Trump's last month in office, for the first time in nearly 50 years, the U.S. was producing more oil than we were consuming. We imported no net oil from Saudi Arabia and the OPEC cartel nations. We were also producing more oil and gas than the Russians and the Arabs. Free at last !! Biden has come into office, and after one year, we have seen a 4% surplus of domestic oil and gas production fall to a 4% oil and gas deficit. We have gone from energy independence back to energy dependence. This is because Biden has declared war on American energy. He has killed pipelines and reversed almost all of Trump's prodrilling policies. In early January, Biden stopped drilling on hundreds of thousands of potentially prime oil fields in Alaska. He is obsessed with climate change, so he loves wind and solar power and electric cars that don't use gasoline. But under even the most optimistic assumptions, we will be getting the majority of our electric power, heating oil and transportation fuels from fossil fuels for at least the next 25-30 years. The only question is whether we will get our fossil fuels to keep the lights on and the cars running from states such as Texas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio, or whether we will get it from the Arabs, the Russians, the Iranians and the Mexicans. Since the U.S. has much stricter environmental standards than these other oilproducing nations, any move to lower U.S. production and import the fuels from abroad adds to greenhouse gas emissions. It's lousy economics, a danger to our national security, and isn't even green. The economic cost of moving away from energy independence is already about a $1 billion loss of economic output each week and about $50 billion a year down the drain. What is worst of all (and a pitiful and embarrassing turn of events) now that oil production has fallen due to Biden edicts, this president goes to the Saudis and the OPEC nations and begs them to increase their output. It is a black eye for America. It makes us look weak, and it has made us weaker. The two biggest winners from Biden's war on American energy have been Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. These leaders of nations that are clearly enemies of the U.S. cannot believe their good luck that Biden is president. He has made western and northern Europe dependent on Putin for reliable energy. Meanwhile, in China, Xi pats Biden on the head and pledges that he will reduce the Chinese pollution levels while building scores of new coal plants that burn dirty, not clean, coal. Does any of this make even one iota of sense? Does any of this strategy put America first? And by the way, the consumer price index numbers just came out for Biden's first year in office. Gasoline prices at the pump are up 52% in 12 months. Thanks, Joe....... Stephen Moore The Sun Bay Paper Page 4 January 21, 2022 - January 27, 2022 Remember US Energy Independence?
The Sun Bay Paper Page 5 January 21, 2022 - January 27, 2022
The Sun Bay Paper Page 6 One of the first impressions we get when we first arrive to Fort Myers Beach is the incredible view as we travel over the Matanzas Pass Bridge, I remember my first visit, it was very early in the morning, just after 6am and the sky was all lit up on the eastern side of the bridge on my left as I was driving up the bridge ramp, I stopped and pulled over at the top and got out to take it all in, it must have been a half hour before I returned to my car and proceeded down the other side… these days, that is the best time of day to go to the beach as the traffic can be backed up as soon as 9am. A plan to hopefully change the landscape leading to the Matanzas and Hurricane Pass bridges to relieve some of that traffic is in the works. The Florida Department of Transportation, District One, has prepared the design of improvements along San Carlos Boulevard from Crescent Street on Estero Island, to just north of Buttonwood and past Hurricane Bay Bridge on San Carlos Blvd. Last Thursday, the Fort Myers Beach Town Council heard the results of an environmental study looking at the impact of the proposed changes to the bridge. At the meeting, town council heard the department’s plans to modify the existing bicycle and bus lanes on Matanzas bridge into a general purpose lane and expand existing sidewalks on the east side of the bridge. The department is also evaluating a potential option to expand the bridge via a cantilever that would allow the state to expand the bridge for pedestrian traffic, but has not received the go ahead for that yet. The proposals have raised some concerns…. This view (above right) is of one of the proposed changes to Matanzas bridge, seen here with 2 lanes coming onto the beach, you’ll notice the trolley bus/bicycle lane is gone creating the probability of a bottleneck happening all day long at the base of the bridge as only some of the traffic coming onto the beach will want to turn north towards Lynn Hall Park/Bowditch Point. Another possible concern is the additional weight that a second lane of bumper-to-bumper cars sitting in traffic on the bridge would create. And still another is that these plans were drawn up in 2018, and well... much has changed since then. The project is still in the planning phase, and the Department of Transportation wants to hear your opinions about the project. You will have an opportunity to see and say more at a public hearing that will be held on the Matanzas Pass Bridge project on Thursday, Feb. 3 by the Florida Department of Transportation. It will be held at Chapel by the Sea on 100 Chapel St. Presbyterian Church on Fort Myers Beach from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Matanzas Pass Bridge Project: Public Hearing February 3rd January 21, 2022 - January 27, 2022
Dear Doctor: My wife does calligraphy, but she’s having trouble because her hands have started shaking. She’s worried it’s Parkinson’s disease. What else could be the cause? Dear Reader: Uncontrolled shaking, trembling or quivering, which is known as a tremor, occurs as the result of sustained and involuntary muscle contractions in the affected area. A tremor can range from something so slight that the person barely notices, to more pronounced movement that interferes with daily activities. Although tremors mostly involve the hands, they can affect virtually any muscle in the body, including those in the head and neck, vocal cords, legs, feet, arms and torso. The movement may occur at irregular intervals with periods of stillness in between episodes, or it can be constant. And while the condition becomes more common as people enter their later years, it can occur at any age. There are two major types of tremor -- resting and action. In resting tremor, which most often involves the hands and fingers, the affected body part shakes or trembles when the muscles are relaxed and at rest. An action tremor occurs when the muscles are engaged. This can happen during general movement, like when you pat a dog or pass a plate; while bracing a body part, such as holding out an arm; when engaging in a fine motor task, such as writing; or while zeroing in on a specific target, such as touching the tip of one’s nose. Tremors can occur without a discernible cause; may be a symptom of a physical, medical or neurological condition; or can result from medical treatment. Many of us have experienced the shaky hands that can accompany fear, anxiety, anger, anticipation and exhaustion. Substances like caffeine, alcohol and nicotine can contribute to tremors. So can a range of drugs, both legal and illicit. Medications that may cause tremor include those used to manage asthma, certain antidepressants, some types of blood pressure drugs, thyroid medications, weightloss medications, anti-inflammatory drugs and antivirals. It’s true that tremor can be a symptom of a neurological disorder, including Parkinson’s disease. In your wife’s case, it is likely an action tremor because it occurs while she is writing. Parkinsonian tremor falls into the category of the resting tremor: A person with Parkinson’s disease will notice that their fingers or hands tremble while at rest, and that as soon as the muscles are engaged in activity, the tremor disappears. However, since any type of tremor can be a symptom of an underlying condition, it’s a good idea for your wife to speak about it with her family doctor. Diagnosis entails a comprehensive physical and neurological exam, a detailed medical history, performance tests and certain laboratory tests. Imaging tests such as CT scans or MRI don’t diagnose tremor, but may be used to rule out other conditions. There is no cure for tremor at this time, but with medication and, in some cases, surgery, the condition often can be successfully managed. Eve Glazier, M.D., MBA, and Elizabeth Ko, M.D. Many of us are at our most vulnerable in the days following a family member's death. Unfortunately, some debt collectors try to prey upon this grief by contacting these same family members in an attempt to obtain the money they are owed. In some cases, these collectors may try and convince family members that they can be held personally responsible for the debt. But that is not the law. To the contrary, unless a family member is a co-signer on the debt in question, such as a loan or credit card, they are in no way obligated to satisfy their relative's debts. A debt collector may contact a relative to obtain the name, address, and telephone number of the decedent's spouse or personal representative, but that is all. In fact, it is the personal representative of the estate who is responsible for paying any valid debts owed by the decedent. Note that the personal representative is only required to pay these debts from the assets of the estate itself. The personal representative is not personally liable for such debts. Additionally, the personal representative can tell a third-party debt collector to cease contacting them directly about a debt. This does not mean, however, that the debt collector cannot take legal action. The collector may file a creditor claim against the probate estate or file a lawsuit when appropriate. Understanding the Priority of Estate Debts Another thing to consider: Even though you are not responsible for paying a family member's debts, their creditors will get priority over the estate. In other words, even if you are a named beneficiary of your relative's will, the personal representative is always required to pay the decedent's debts first. Florida law actually specifies the order in which a personal representative must pay an estate's expenses and obligations. The costs of administering the estate itself always take top priority. Debts then have priority over distributions to beneficiaries. But not all debts are treated the same. Some debts take priority over others. For instance, tax debts usually outrank all other debts, followed by medical bills, back child support, debts related to the decedent's business, and finally any unsecured debts such as credit cards or civil judgments. If there is not enough money to satisfy all of the debts, then some creditors may simply walk away empty handed. When there are two or more competing debts with the same level of priority, the personal representative may need to apportion the remaining estate assets accordingly. That is to say, each creditor may end up walking away with less than the full amount owed to them. Again, the critical thing to remember is that just because you were related to someone who died– or even a person named in their will – that does not make you responsible for paying off their debts. If you have further questions or concerns and would like to speak with an experienced Fort Myers estate planning attorney, contact the Kuhn Law Firm, P.A., today at 239-333-4529. Family Member’s Debt ASK THE DOCTORS Not All Tremors Point to Parkinson’s Disease Sun Bay Paper Available Do you like this News Paper? Interested in having your own Franchise in your hometown or in taking over this one? Call Bobby at: 239-267-4000 Low Tide High Tide Fri, Jan 21 Tide Set One 02:13 AM 2.36 ft 09:50 AM -0.52 ft Tide Set Two 04:12 PM 1.44 ft 09:10 PM 0.72 ft Sat, Jan 22 Tide Set One 03:02 AM 2.13 ft 10:21 AM -0.30 ft Tide Set Two 04:36 PM 1.61 ft 10:16 PM 0.56 ft Sun, Jan 23 Tide Set One 04:00 AM 1.84 ft 10:52 AM -0.03 ft Tide Set Two 05:05 PM 1.77 ft 11:30 PM 0.36 ft Mon, Jan 24 Tide Set One 05:12 AM 1.51 ft 11:24 AM 0.30 ft Tide Set Two 05:37 PM 1.97 ft -0---- --- Tue, Jan 25 Tide Set One 06:51 AM 1.18 ft 12:51 AM 0.10 ft Tide Set Two 06:15 PM 2.17 ft 11:55 AM 0.66 ft Wed, Jan 26 Tide Set One 09:17 AM 1.05 ft 02:16 AM -0.20 ft Tide Set Two 07:01 PM 2.33 ft 12:19 PM 0.95 ft Thu, Jan 27 Tide Set One 07:56 PM 2.49 ft 03:37 AM -0.52 ft Tide Set Two ----- --- ----- --- Tide Chart
The Sun Bay Paper Page 8 January 21, 2022 - January 27, 2022 Letters To The Editor Guest Editorial A disciplined life will not only have rules, but will follow them, and in the spirit of such things, allow me to introduce you to Anthony Fauci’s rules. I call these, collectively, The Rule of Two. And note that I no longer refer to Anthony Fauci as ‘doctor.’ I do not deny that he is a doctor, but when he is acting out of political ideology rather than medical science – he is not acting as a doctor, and we should stop referring to him as one. The Rule of Two: Two weeks to flatten the curve. Two months to flatten the economy. Two masks to flatten the truth. Two years to flatten your expectations. Two injections to flatten your freedoms. Two boosters to flatten your hope. Two mutations to flatten your future. Two elections to flatten our Republic. I’ll add to The Rule of Two the following two questions: 1 Have you had enough yet? 2 How much longer will you comply? These two questions will become increasingly important as our Federal Government extends the pandemic – admitting that cloth masks were nothing but political theatre while starting to mandate medical-grade masks to enter society under the threat of spreading a virus that is less dangerous than the flu. We are not in a pandemic anymore, but Fauci told us just the other day – and repeated the following day – that though Omicron may be mild, that does NOT mean we can relax restrictions, so like the Little Engine that Could (Not), we just keep chugging up the mountain, knowing we will never reach the top. The Biden Administration, in the meantime, tells us to grow up and manage our expectations – Build Back Better means empty shelves are the new normal, and the good days are never coming back. The Biden Administration has a strange definition for the word ‘Better.’ The Democrats accuse the Republicans of vote suppression, and there are, in fact, two groups that Republicans really do try to suppress. These groups, incidentally, are the two most loyal voting demographics the democrats have. The first group is the dead voter. Dead voters have been voting Democrat for as long as there have been Democrats, and the votes of dead voters have always been an important part of the Democrat base. A newer demographic has become even more important to Democrats than dead voters, and that would be the non-voting voter. It is the nonvoting vote that vote harvesting is designed to capture. The Democrats are absolutely adamant that the voices of dead voters and non-voting voters will be heard. Democrats are equally adamant that they – and no one else – knows how dead people and non-voting people would vote, if dead people could vote, and if non-voters did vote, so by casting votes for these people, Democrats claim to be strengthening our democracy. There is, of course, a distinct difference between ‘count every vote,’ and ‘count every voter.’ ‘Count every vote’ includes counting the fraudulent ones cast by dead people and non-voters, which is exactly why the Democrats focus on counting every vote, and not every voter. The truth is that fraudulent votes disenfranchise everyone by taking the choice of who will lead the country away from the people. To the Editor, Wanted to send a little heads up to all my friends who do not want to be vaccinated and are afraid of being fired because your company is requiring it….. If your employer requires you to get vaccinated, ignore the request. If your employer asks if you are vaccinated, tell them that asking that question is a violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA). If your employer fires you, SUE them for violating your rights under HIPPA. HIPPA is a Federal law, passed by Congress and signed into law by the President of the United States. An executive order does not override a law, and it is ILLEGAL for your employer or anyone else (including the government) to inquire into your health records, which includes your vaccination status. You do not have to disclose whether or not you have been vaccinated, and your employer cannot legally fire you for not answering that question, so don’t answer it. Hey NEWYORK! The same thing is true about bars, restaurants, concert venues, and other places where the state mandates proof of vaccination. Ignore them – they all violate HIPPA. A private business is not allowed to ask about your vaccination status. If you are denied service or are arrested, sue. Hey NY business owners…. If you own a business, make sure that any rules or regulations you are following are legal. If a state does something that violates Federal law, the Bill of Rights, or your State’s Constitution, ignore it. Make the government enforce illegal laws, and then take them to court for doing so. The Supreme Court is conservative – the courts are our friend. We need to take back our country… following and obeying laws is a good way to start!Executive orders do not override LAWS! I target NY because I’m originally from there.. but this is true in every state.... STAND UPAMERICA... TIME FOR GETTING RUN OVERIS JUST THAT ....OVER! Phil Abbey ED. Note: Phil, I wish that were true! We have had similar letters in the past and our research finds the opposite to be true, we print it again here so all can be better informed, for the record, we agree America needs to stand up, but not this way, in this matter... from https://www.fisherphillips.com/ and multiple others: “Bottom Line: Can We Ask Whether Employees and Customers Are Vaccinated? Yes, HIPAA does not prevent employers and businesses from asking their employees and visitors whether they have been vaccinated against COVID-19 and for proof of such vaccination. Once you have the information, it must be treated as confidential, meaning that it is not shared with others except under limited circumstances and as noted, is not even kept in an employee’s personnel file. In the absence of state or local laws to the contrary, businesses can ask visitors to show proof of vaccination upon entering their facility without having to store the information at all. You should, however, consult your FP attorney regarding any state-specific constraints before acting in this manner.” Quote of the Week “America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.” - President Harry S. Truman PHONE: (239) 267-4000 MAIL: 16970 San Carlos Blvd. #160, Ft Myers, Fl 33908 E-MAIL: production@sunbaypaper.com WEBSITE & DIGITAL VERSION: http://www.sunbaypaper.com The Sun Bay Paper
* ASK ABOUT OUR SPECIALS Sunse t Photo Contest Photos taken in the highest resolution will look sharper, so they will have a better chance of winning. If you are using your phone, use the highest resolution! We are receiving many GREAT pictures that we can not use due to low resolution! Winners will be awarded Bragging Rights, knowing they won amongst all the entries that week, if you didn’t win, you can submit your photo again or take another! Simple contest rules: 1) Photo must be taken in Florida 2) Photo can be landscape or protrait and should include: location where the photo was taken from. Include your full name & phone # in your email. 3) You can only submit photos you yourself have taken and have full rights to, it must be previously unpublished & by submitting any photo, you are giving Sun Bay Paper full rights to publish in print and on the internet. send to:production@sunbaypaper.com This week’s photo was taken by Patrice Moreau at Matlacha Pass - Pine Island
The United States is experiencing an economic crisis. Nobody could’ve predicted COVID-19 and the strain it would place on the global market, but the pandemic is only partly to blame. The current crisis is also the result of incompetent leadership and failed economic policy. First and foremost on working families’ minds today is the fact that inflation is through the roof. The shocks to supply and demand caused by COVID, together with literally trillions of dollars of government spending, are increasing prices at the highest rate since 1982. Prices for staples like food and fuel are rising even faster, and wages can’t keep up. This was not an accident. From the moment he assumed office, President Biden made the decision to pump free money into our economy under the pretense of “COVID relief.” He wasn’t using the funds to save small businesses or keep workers on payroll during a public health lockdown, as my Paycheck Protection Program did. Rather, the Biden administration wanted to fill people’s wallets so they could keep buying things and grow the gross domestic product. And the Federal Reserve Board, led by Biden appointee Jerome Powell, made an intentional decision to let inflation creep ever higher. Meanwhile, the global supply chains scrambled in 2020 have yet to recover. As a result, certain manufactured materials are in short supply across the country. Even as companies ramp up their production, shipping backlogs are leaving American citizens unable to buy cars, household appliances, and other important goods. This isn’t just the fault of the coronavirus, because supply chains were unnecessarily vulnerable from the beginning. Why? For decades, our nation’s elites have prioritized efficiency and corporate profits above all else. Over the past 20 years, efficient markets boosted the stock market and rewarded shareholders. But these gains have been at the cost of millions of American manufacturing jobs, as well as the resilience of our economy. Back in February 2019, I pointed out how an emphasis on short-term gains had made us dependent on foreign producers and weakened our supply chains. I made the case that a renewed industrial policy was critical to protecting the national interest. The last two years have borne that out. What can we do to avert the ongoing crisis? The first step toward halting inflation is to stop doing the very thing that’s causing it. It doesn’t matter how big the GDP is if real working Americans can’t put food on the table for their families. The president and the Federal Reserve need to stop flooding the market with free money and restrict government spending to targeted programs that actually help businesses stay open and become more productive. To address our supply chain problems, we need to bring production closer to home. We can work with allies in Latin America and the Caribbean to move critical industries away from China and back into our hemisphere. Moreover, we can use tax incentives to push businesses to reinvest in their workers and products rather than profit off financial speculation. The government can directly incentivize innovation and development in key industries, too. Operation Warp Speed is proof that properly targeted government incentives can pay dividends for our nation. Consider the alternative: Without federal intervention, pharmaceutical companies would have eventually created a coronavirus vaccine. But Washington’s reward system sped up the process, saving countless lives and bringing us closer to recovery from COVID-19 in a matter of months. We should take a similarly aggressive approach to promote development in rareearth minerals, advanced robotics, artificial intelligence, and other key industries that the Chinese Communist Party seeks to dominate. Policies like these represent departures from the bipartisan economic consensus that has ruled our elite institutions since the end of the Cold War. But they will ultimately be healthy for American capitalism. It is true that market forces teach us a lot about how to run our economy. However, markets were made for people, not people for markets. The last two years have taught us that our leaders’ economic policies are misguided and dysfunctional. In their shortsighted drive to grow the national economy and maximize market efficiency, they have brought us crippling inflation, fragile supply chains, and a dramatically insufficient manufacturing base. Turning the corner from this crisis will mean changing course – adopting a new fiscal policy and placing far more value on domestic industry. This won’t be easy, but when it comes to building up our nation’s resilience, we have significant ground to make up – which means we cannot get started soon enough. Marco Rubio FL. Senator The Sun Bay Paper Page 10 January 21, 2022 - January 27, 2022 True 'COVID Relief' Demands a New Economic Consensus Omicron is Stealing the Show What seems like decades ago, during the “first trimester” of this 21st century pandemic, headlines like this appeared: “Trump administration outlines audacious plan to deliver ‘hundreds of millions’ of COVID-19 vaccine doses by end of 2020.” So wrote Lew Facher in “STAT.” Facher pointed out the audacious nature of Trump’s promise and noted the silence of his bureaucratic chief scientific experts – Fauci, Brix, and Collins. Trump’s outrageously bold, non-bureaucratic style accomplished “Operation Warp Speed.” Sometime thereafter, that familiar pair who became his presidential election adversaries also distanced themselves from Trump’s vaccine development. They declared they wouldn’t trust a vaccine endorsed by Trump. Dominating my thoughts at that time was a sense of inevitability surrounding COVID. We mere humans could make a positive difference, and we did. We could make lots of mistakes, and we have. And I couldn’t resist feeling certain that the virus was going to have its way with us no matter what we did. And it has. We’ve had successes, and we’ve made some bad mistakes. Some of our faults were inevitable because we started from ground zero. With others, we’ve been too stubborn or shortsighted to adjust. For example, we’ve always had a “one-size-fits-all” strategic vision, and our COVID-zero strategy prevailed well after we learned that would be impossible to achieve. Our “one-size-fits-all” mindset unnecessarily denied healthy young people the best educational experience possible. On the other hand, relatively speaking, we ignored the truly vulnerable. We should have spent virtually all our energy and resources on protecting those groups. Our biggest “unforced error” happened when our COVID-zero strategy lured our leaders, and most citizens, to focus primarily on the “blessed event” of vaccine development. Our thoughts were narrowly focused on “keep us safe,” naïve to the fact that “safe means never.” During that “first trimester” I wrote about changing from peacetime to wartime protocol for developing medical solutions. That translates to reimagining possibilities, realigning processes, and dispensing with bureaucratic patience. Operation Warp Speed met those parameters, but we stopped too soon. As existing off-label therapeutics and medications were mentioned as possible treatments, the FDA emphatically reminded us that several off-label drugs hadn’t been approved for use against COVID. They demanded that we “stay away from them.” There was much potential in several of these drugs, and they were proven safe. But the FDA didn’t, and still doesn’t, acknowledge the potential efficacy of these drugs. Limited profit potential can be an invisible hand discouraging the pharmaceutical industry from doing the necessary testing. So, here we are without the benefit of an “Operation Warp Speed” for therapeutic treatments. American lives have been lost. Viruses seem to have a collective “awareness” that they want to survive, so they eliminate weaknesses and exploit strengths through mutation. That can also lead to lower death rates. That reality introduced the word “variant” into our growing virus vocabulary. The original “Wuhan virus” eventually begat the “Delta” variant and soon, along came Omicron. We’re finding that dealing with this latest variant is far different than earlier versions. Everything is different including resistance to vaccine and increased spread rate. Sadly, we don’t have an adequate level of therapeutics to treat those infected. Some experts and politicians still emphasize continued public health measures. The mild nature of Omicron has convinced others it’s time for private health decisions regarding vaccinations and therapeutics. And a growing number believe Omicron’s “sharp elbows,” along with its mild symptoms, will soon reduce the pandemic to endemic status. Nevertheless, much of the U.S. is entering renewed restrictions. We hear talk of “flattening the curve” by closing large gatherings, distancing, and strict masking. Getting vaccinated is still emphasized in our defensive public health strategies. It seems we’ve come full circle since these rudimentary measures were introduced almost two years ago. Omicron currently represents about 90 to 95% of U.S. infections. Our neglect in developing therapeutics is becoming more obvious. At least partially as a result, Omicron has stolen the show. In areas with the earliest Omicron infections, e.g. New York City, new infections are now plummeting faster than they had increased. Given that statistic, I’m rooting for the theory that “sharp elbows of Omicron will lead us into the endemic phase.” Let’s hope! myslantonthings.com Steve Bakke, Fort Myers
The Sun Bay Paper Page 11 January 21, 2022 - January 27, 2022 In our book "We Didn't Fight for Socialism," we warn of the left's overriding goal to control every aspect of our lives. The constitutional freedoms guaranteed all Americans are anathema to leftists. They want to control the government and use the government to control us. Their favorite tactic is fearmongering, creating panic and using it to convince Americans to give up their freedoms for the sake of security. Rahm Emanuel, the quintessential leftist and chief of staff for President Barack Obama, made no secret of the socialist's nefarious methods when he said: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before." The kinds of things Emanuel refers to include convincing naive citizens to surrender control of their lives to the government. Emanuel was honest about the left's methods if not their intentions. What he should have said but didn't was: "If there is no crisis, invent one." This is precisely what President Joe Biden and his leftist puppet masters did with the COVID-19 pandemic. The previous administration left the country in such good shape, Biden and the Democrats found themselves with no crisis to use for their scheming purposes. Lacking a legitimate crisis, Biden and "progressive" Democrats manufactured one. The COVID-19 pandemic gave the ideologues who control Biden the supposed "crisis" they needed to institute unconstitutional mask and vaccine mandates. Thankfully, the mandates are being challenged in court by Americans who value freedom more than a false sense of security offered by the government. Dissatisfied by creating unwarranted fear of the virus, the president and his cronies added losing one's job for refusing vaccinations and being attacked as an "anti-vaccination neanderthal" to their list of threats. Psychiatrist Mark McDonald, author of "United States of Fear: How America Fell Victim to Mass Delusional Psychosis," makes the following points about the vaccine mandates and the left's ongoing efforts to gain complete control over individual Americans: —The government and large corporations have for decades engaged in a systematic process of "grooming" Americans to be susceptible to irrational fears. —Without fear, the government cannot rob individuals of their constitutionally guaranteed freedoms. —The underlying intention of the left's fearmongering is to create and nurture a sense of dependency on government. If the Biden administration and far-left Democrats were interested in public health instead of government control, they would use encouragement, incentives, leadership and trustworthy data rather than fearmongering to increase the percentage of Americans who accept the vaccinations. When Franklin Delano Roosevelt became president in 1933, he inherited a nation gripped in fear because of the Great Depression. Banks were failing, tens of thousands of unemployed Americans stood daily in bread lines and the nation's top investors faced financial ruin. In the middle of this real crisis, FDR uttered the most famous line of his four-term presidency: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Had Biden quoted his fellow Democrat president in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, his words would have been prophetic. Instead, he copied FDR's actual response. In reacting to the depression, FDR ignored his own words and set the country on a course continuing to this day: respond to crises, real and imagined, by instituting new government programs and controls. We give Benjamin Franklin the final word on surrendering freedom for the sake of security. In 1755, he and his colleagues in the Pennsylvania Assembly challenged the colony's Biden-like, royal governor with these words: "Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." We agree. Oliver L. North and David L. Goetsch How the Left Uses Fear to Control Your Life
The Sun Bay Paper Page 12 January 21, 2022 - January 27, 2022 As more Americans move to lower-taxed Republican-led states, a new report by the Tax Foundation indicates that taxation levels play a direct and indirect role as factors contributing to migration patterns. Taxes often “play an indirect role by contributing to a broadly favorable economic environment. And sometimes, of course, they play little or no role,” Jared Walczak, a vice president at the Tax Foundation, writes in an analysis of 2021 U.S. Census Bureau data and inbound and outbound migration data published by U-Haul and United Van Lines. “The Census data and these industry studies cannot tell us exactly why each person moved, but there is no denying a very strong correlation between low-tax, lowcost states and population growth,” he wrote. “With many states responding to robust revenues and heightened state competition by cutting taxes, moreover, these trends may only get larger.” While the overall U.S. population grew last year by only 0.1%, the lowest rate since the nation’s founding, regional differences show population grew in certain parts of the country where taxes are lower, and regions with higher tax rates saw population declines. The South accounted for the greatest percentage of the population growth last year of 38.3%, with most lower-cost-of-living southern states reporting population increases. Northeast states reported the least percentage of the population growth last year, and experienced the greatest exodus of residents. Six states in the top third reporting population increases levy no personal state income taxes: Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas. States with the highest overall taxes saw the greatest population declines: New York, Illinois and California. Nine states that saw the most population increases last year either implemented or enacted individual or corporate income tax cuts in 2021. New York, which reported a population loss and is a top outmigration state, was the only state to increase its income tax last year. “The picture painted by this population shift is a clear one of people leaving high-tax, high-cost states for lower-tax, lower-cost alternatives,” Walczak wrote. “The individual income tax is only one component of overall tax burdens, but it is often highly salient, and is illustrative here.” In the top one-third of states reporting population growth from April 2020 to July 2021, he noted, “the average combined top marginal state and local income tax rate is 3.5 percent, while in the bottom third of states, it is about 7.3 percent.” Census Bureau data found that, “Between 2020 and 2021, 33 states saw population increases and 17 states and the District of Columbia lost population, 11 of which had losses of over 10,000 people, a historically large number of states to lose population in a year.” States with the greatest percentage increase in population were Idaho, Utah, Montana, Arizona, South Carolina, Delaware, Texas, Nevada, Florida and North Carolina, the Census Bureau reported. States with the greatest percentage decrease were New York, Illinois, Hawaii, California, Louisiana, Massachusetts, West Virginia, North Dakota, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania. United Van Lines listed New Jersey as the top outmigration state for the fourth year in a row last year, and Vermont as its top inbound state for movers. U-Haul listed California as its top outmigration state and Texas as its top inbound migration state for movers last year. The six counties with the highest median property tax bills in fiscal 2019 were in New York and New Jersey, states that have led the nation in outbound migration. All six levy property taxes that exceed $10,000 a year: Bergen, Essex, and Union counties in New Jersey and Nassau, Rockland, and Westchester counties in New York, according to a Tax Foundation analysis of FY2019 data. Even though more people have left California for Texas over the past few years, and California reported a population decline compared to Texas’ population increase in 2020, in Fiscal Year 2019, the highest median property taxes in Texas were higher than those in California. In the Midwest, Lake County, Illinois, had the highest median property taxes, averaging more than $7,500 a year, with several adjacent counties not far behind, according to the analysis. The New England states of Connecticut, New Hampshire and Massachusetts also had some of the highest median property taxes in the nation. And while more people are moving to or live in the south and pay lower property taxes compared to residents of northern states, they pay some of the highest state and local sales tax rates in the U.S. As of July 2021, four of the five states with the highest average combined state and local sales tax rates were in the south: Louisiana 9.55%, Tennessee 9.547%, Arkansas 9.48%, Washington 9.29%, and Alabama 9.22%, according to a separate Tax Foundation analysis. Five states with the lowest average combined state and local sales tax rates were Alaska 1.76%, Hawaii 4.44%, Wyoming 5.39%, Wisconsin 5.43%, and Maine 5.50%, according to the analysis. Last year, five states had no statewide sales tax: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon. Alaska allows localities to charge local sales taxes. California has the highest state-level sales tax rate of 7.25%. Four states aren’t that far behind with a rate of 7 percent: Indiana, Mississippi, Rhode Island, and Tennessee. Colorado has the lowest state-level sales tax of 2.9%. States with the highest average local government sales taxes last year were Alabama 5.22%, Louisiana 5.10%, Colorado 4.82%, New York 4.52%, and Oklahoma 4.45%. Bethany Blankley The Center Square Taxation & the 2021 Population Shift
The utility companies have thus far had little to say about the alarming cost projections to operate electric vehicles (EVs) or the increased rates that they will be required to charge their customers. It is not just the total amount of electricity required but the transmission lines and fast charging capacity that must be built at existing filling stations. Neither wind nor solar can support any of it. Electric vehicles will never become the mainstream of transportation! Besides the obvious reasons of being too expensive, too unreliable, relying on materials mined in China and other unfriendly countries, and require more electricity than the nation can afford. Here we like to address other factors that will make any sensible reader avoid EVs like the plague. EV Charging Insanity In order to match the 2,000 cars that a typical filling station can service in a busy 12 hours, an EV charging station would require 600, 50-watt chargers at an estimated cost of $24 million and a supply of 30 megawatts of power from the grid. That is enough to power 20,000 homes. No one likely thinks about the fact that it can take 30 minutes to 8 hours to recharge a vehicle between empty or just topping off. What are the drivers doing during that time? ICSC-Canada board member New Zealand-based consulting engineer Bryan Leyland describes why installing electric car charging stations in a city is impractical: “If you’ve got cars coming into a petrol station, they would stay for an average of five minutes. If you’ve got cars coming into an electric charging station, they would be at least 30 minutes, possibly an hour, but let’s say its 30 minutes. So that’s six times the surface area to park the cars while they’re being charged. So, multiply every petrol station in a city by six. Where are you going to find the place to put them?” The government of the United Kingdom is already starting to plan for power shortages caused by the charging of thousands of EVs. Starting in June 2022, the government will restrict the time of day you can charge your EV battery. To do this, they will employ smart meters that are programmed to automatically switch off EV charging in peak times to avoid potential blackouts. In particular, the latest UK chargers will be pre-set to not function during 9-hours of peak loads, from 8 am to 11 am (3-hours), and 4 pm to 10 pm (6-hours). Unbelievably, the UK technology decides when and if an EV can be charged, and even allows EV batteries to be drained into the UK grid if required. Imagine charging your car all night only to discover in the morning that your battery is flat since the state took the power back. Better keep your gas-powered car as a reliable and immediately available backup! While EV charging will be an attractive source of revenue generation for the government, American citizens will be up in arms. Used Car Market The average used EV will need a new battery before an owner can sell it, pricing them well above used internal combustion cars. The average age of an American car on the road is 12 years. A 12-year-old EV will be on its third battery. A Tesla battery typically costs $10,000 so there will not be many 12-yearold EVs on the road. Good luck trying to sell your used green fairy tale electric car! Tuomas Katainen, an enterprising Finish Tesla owner, had an imaginative solution to the battery replacement problem—he blew up his car! New York City-based Insider magazine reported (December 27, 2021): “The shop told him the faulty battery needed to be replaced, at a cost of about $22,000. In addition to the hefty fee, the work would need to be authorized by Tesla… Rather than shell out half the cost of a new Tesla to fix an old one, Katainen decided to do something different… The demolition experts from the YouTube channel Pommijätkät (Bomb Dudes) strapped 66 pounds of high explosives to the car and surrounded the area with slowmotion cameras…the 14 hotdogshaped charges erupt into a blinding ball of fire, sending a massive shockwave rippling out from the car…The videos of the explosion have a combined 5 million views.” We understand that the standard Tesla warranty does not cover “damage resulting from intentional actions,” like blowing the car up for a YouTube video. EVs Per Block In Your Neighborhood A home charging system for a Tesla requires a 75-amp service. The average house is equipped with 100-amp service. On most suburban streets the electrical infrastructure would be unable to carry more than three houses with a single Tesla. For half the homes on your block to have electric vehicles, the system would be wildly overloaded. Batteries Although the modern lithium-ion battery is four times better than the old lead-acid battery, gasoline holds 80 times the energy density. The great lithium battery in your cell phone weighs less than an ounce while the Tesla battery weighs 1,000 pounds. And what do we get for this huge cost and weight? We get a car that is far less convenient and less useful than cars powered by internal combustion engines. Bryan Leyland explained why: “When the Model T came out, it was a dramatic improvement on the horse and cart. The electric car is a step backward into the equivalence of an ordinary car with a tiny petrol tank that takes half an hour to fill. It offers nothing in the way of convenience or extra facilities.” Our Conclusion The electric automobile will always be around in a niche market likely never exceeding 10% of the cars on the road. All automobile manufacturers are investing in their output and all will be disappointed in their sales. Perhaps they know this and will manufacture just what they know they can sell. This is certainly not what President Biden or California Governor Newsom are planning for. However, for as long as the present government is in power, they will be pushing the electric car as another means to run our lives. We have a chance to tell them exactly what we think of their expensive and dangerous plans when we go to the polls in November of 2022. Dr. Jay Lehr and Tom Harris americaoutloud.com Dr. Jay Lehr is a Senior Policy Analyst with the International Climate Science Coalition and former Science Director of The Heartland Institute. He is an internationally renowned scientist, author, and speaker who has testified before Congress on dozens of occasions on environmental issues and consulted with nearly every agency of the national government and many foreign countries. After graduating from Princeton University at the age of 20 with a degree in Geological Engineering, he received the nation’s first Ph.D. in Groundwater Hydrology from the University of Arizona. He later became executive director of the National Association of Groundwater Scientists and Engineers. Tom Harris is Executive Director of the Ottawa, Canada-based International Climate Science Coalition, and a policy advisor to The Heartland Institute. He has 40 years experience as a mechanical engineer/project manager, science and technology communications professional, technical trainer, and S&T advisor to a former Opposition Senior Environment Critic in Canada’s Parliament. Ed Note: We love the idea of electric cars, but as we take a closer look at it, it becomes painfully obvious that the possibility of completely replacing our combustion engines with electric ones seems more likely to be science fiction than actual reality. A probable/likely solution is the hybrid vehicle, we even own a hybrid, a Toyota Prius, this makes sense because the electric batteries are recharged as the vehicle is driven, perhaps the best of both worlds as mileage is considerably increased while the need to charge for hours is eliminated. Page 13 Environmental The Electric Vehicle Scam
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