One more step towards the Christian Taliban theocracy. Hugs
https://onlysky.media/hemant-mehta/texas-judge-wayne-mack-coercive-courtroom-prayers/
Sent from my iPad,
Best wishes and Hugs,
Scottie
In stunning reversal, TX judge can continue his c…
One more step towards the Christian Taliban theocracy. Hugs
https://onlysky.media/hemant-mehta/texas-judge-wayne-mack-coercive-courtroom-prayers/
Sent from my iPad,
Best wishes and Hugs,
Scottie
Scottie's Playtime 
If you were not Christain you would not feel at ease in his court. Heck, as a Catholic, I wouldn’t for sure.
Glad to see you back and carrying on the good fight Scottie….sorry for the delay…Computer issues and ‘other stuff’
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Hello Roger. I understand computer issues. I went from a fully powered two computers two 34 inch monitors, back up battery powered systems to watching videos on an iPhone and trying to read news / blog / reply to comments on an old air 2 iPad. With my eye sight it is a challenge to even read the screen and it is a nightmare to navigate on. I will never be able to reply to the comments I had but I am getting caught up as best I can. I had my own large office and now I am taking a chunk of the eating table. Poor Ron went from watching his YouTube stuff on his 70 inch TV to doing it on his air 2 iPad, so I shouldn’t complain. Hugs
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Personally, from what I’ve seen in your comments, I think you guys are doing GREAT!!! I admire your resolve and patience. And ingenuity!!
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Hello Nan. Thank you. Part of it is we each have our spot in our home life built around what we are able to do and our temperament. As I am now in the kitchen / living room I do the dishes and I also help more with cooking. When the guys were spending all day out in the heat cleaning the large and small pieces of metal along with styrofoam insulation / all other crap out from around our home and others homes, and trying to fix and tarp our home stepped up and did as much of the house work as I could. I went with Ron to sit in a laundry mat so he wouldn’t have to do it all alone even though all of it was really hard on me. We all have things that hurt us the most. Ron worked hard five or six years ago to build that room and it would have survived the storm if it had not been battered by the roof flying across from the street two over and then the house next door their heavy rubber roof crashing down over our now roofless wall and eventually with the wind ripping it over and out of the house. He is worried about keeping the the generator running and paying for supplies, I am stunned at the change in my situation, and James has his own issues. But we all had to figure out how to live now, and luckily we had made some purchases in the past that really made living now possible. The generator that was bought after Maria and never even opened up. The back up battery I bought for the phones and pads that kept what we had going the first days until the generator came on line. I am using the multiple computer keyboard and until we got a decent signal on the phones ran all our stuff linked from phone to phone to get a decent signal. But like I said it is each doing what they are good at. But thank you for noticing as that makes me feel good. It has not been easy and I love that people understand that. Warm hugs
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Oh and Nan it seems the entire care of the cat has fallen to me. That may have been because James has never cared for the cat neither feed, grooming, or cleaning the cat box, Ron has done it less and less as he has gotten more overwhelmed and so I simply did more of it until now it seems all my job. But in honesty the cat has taken to ignoring them to focus on me for his emotional / physical needs. Hugs
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We’re sorry to read about those material losses Scottie.
There much said about having too many material things, but not much said about losing those which people truly rely on.
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Hello Roger. We don’t realize how important in an advance country running water and steady electric is. We are still don’t have electricity so are running what we can from the generator, and the running water is not drinkable so we are buying drinking water for our needs, especially morning coffee. We are still being asked not to shower or flush the toilets because the lift stations are not all working yet for the sewer, but we do as necessary. The fact is that the situation for the wealthy and the lower incomes is vastly different. The wealthy can leave and go to where there is the needed facilities, they can afford to rebuild without worry. We have to worry about stretching our limited resources buying things that we normally wouldn’t have to buy. We are worried about how to rebuild the damaged home, the roof over everything needs to be replaced, we have to rebuilt the from room of the home and we have no idea if the government is going to help lower income people like us? Hugs
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This will be a test not of the fortitude of the folk who have suffered they will always do the best they are able but, but it will be a test of the character of the government, federal, state and local.
We hope you and your Neighbours will be justly treated and given all the help possible.
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Determined … your reply triggered a thought. Scottie, have you made direct contract with the LOCAL authorities? Are they doing anything to help people? They should be!! And if they’re dragging their feet, I think you should nag/rag on them until you get some action!
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Hello Nan. I have to give FEMA credit. We filed late because the first thing to do was keep what was left of our home functioning and to tell the truth neither Ron or. I were emotionally fit to deal the filing on my little iPad. We only filed a couple days ago, and this morning a woman was here to take our information and file our claim. it is the first part. I know there will be more to it. But that was quick. She did tell us she would be trying to see more people but most are not answering her phone calls, which we did last night. Ron contacted the electric company that has been adding a extra fee of 80 to 120 more dollars to our electric bill for extra fuel costs. They only offered an automated voice thing to tell them we were still in outage. No way to talk to anyone, guess they are tired of being yelled at. Don’t really know who to even call at this point. Ron found two office workers in the rec hall becasue the office is still closed, when he started to ask why the office was closed one of them went off on him. He took her name and said he would talk to the manager about the way she talked to the park people. The park has not even passed out information, we keep getting told they leave notes on facebook, but we don’t do facebook. Nothing is posted anywhere. So I am in limbo. The FEMA contractor that took our information and looked over the damage said that we could file for reimbursement for the cost of the gas, but we have been getting at it at a cash only place with no receipts. Ron is going to see if he can get the guy to hand write him one. She also said she put us in for needed other place to stay while our home was fixed, including the floors, releveling the home that has shifted, reroofing, and interior or damage. I told her that all my electronics were out there in the destroyed room and she said we could file for them after we found out if they worked. Hugs
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That’s good to hear about the FEMA rep. At least you know something is moving forward. But I was referring to LOCAL authorities like city or county government agencies. Surely they should be playing a role in all this!
A bit depressing to read about the gas rebate for the generator … and not have receipts! Hopefully this can be remedied so you can get reimbursement from this point on.
Curious about the Park government situation. Are these people paid or is it voluntary? If the former, then yes, they should definitely be playing a role and advising residents about what’s going on.
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Hello Nan. Paid. The park maintenance people started working this week. But nothing is really being done. Two contractor crews came in one to cut trees out of the road and the other is here now with small loaders, big wagons, and a crew to pick up all the debris and trees. They can not pick up trash because there is no power to their trash compactor so everyone is taking their trash up to the RV section and leaving it at the dumpsters there. The park was bought out about 8 or 10 years ago by an investment fund. Al they really care about is the rent. It was a rather nice reasonable place until then. This was the unwanted property they had to take with the larger ones they wanted. We only have about 190 homes and a large RV / park model section. The first thing they did was transfer all the assets including park equipment out and transfer company debt to us, justifying the need to quickly raise rents and fees. They then tried for five years to sell the place. Once they realized no one would buy it under those conditions they started putting money into the place to repair it, fix roads, improve the rec hall and pool area. But each year comes with a large jump in rent. This year we got hit with a $60 dollar increase. At this rate Ron and I wont be able to live here for the rest of our lives. Social Security is not keeping up with the large cost in living. As to what the county or town is doing I am not sure where to look or for what? Hugs
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Where to look would depend on whether the park is located in the City or the County. Once that is determined, there should be some type of Emergency Management department within either one. No doubt they’re overwhelmed right now, but maybe you can get your name “on the list” for future assistance. (You should be able to Google to get phone number/address/etc. for your particular area.)
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Hello Nan. I am afraid I answered before this comment came in or something. I was asking James about your question. He claims we are in county not city / town territory. But we are in North Fort Myers so I wonder if he is correct. It wouldn’t be the first time he insisted he was absolutely correct on something he was wrong about. At this point we have electric and running water, and I am not sure what more to ask the government for? Hugs
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Hello Nan. I really don’t know what to ask local officials to do as we don’t live like in a city or a municipal space. We live in a privately owned park with land owned by a private entity and we are in the county but the county don’t handle the issues we have. I know that is confusing but it is like we are a step child no one wants to claim. If I call the county they tell me to call the park management, if I call the park they simply refuse to acknowledge or tell us to contact the county. And the park is owned by an investment firm, so we have been through a new manager like every 6 months. No it was not like this before when we bought in here, but it has been a nightmare since the investment firm bought the place. The outside workers are great working people, for the most part the office people during season that live here are also good to work with, but the manager and the owner ship country is a nightmare. As I said we normally have such a quick manager turn over I stopped even paying attention to them. They don’t want the park, they only want the profits, they don’t want to put money into it, and the only reason they are using the contracted companies they already employed to clean things up is they can bill all of it to the federal government due to the disaster declaration of the hurricane. Hugs
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Since you are in a multiple-resident area, I suppose you’re correct that it would need to be the landowner who contacts the county offices for assistance. And since park management people don’t seem willing to help (probably overwhelmed and don’t really know what to do), I have to agree with you that you’re screwed. 😕
Nevertheless, it seems at some point the owners should be accountable for at least some of the damages. Surely they have some sort of insurance in place to protect their assets … ??
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Hello Nan. There was great news that we found out about Saturday. We filed our claim on … Wednesday and a person arrived on Friday. She was pleasant, knowledgeable, and explained stuff to us as she took all the information. Saturday morning Ron needed to go get supplies and I checked our dwindling bank account. Imagine my surprised high pitched “Ron, we got money”! In our account FEMA had deposited a lot of money. $ 700 for emergency expenses. Almost $3,000 for evacuation / hotel / emergency food / other stuff. And over $18,000 for rebuilding expenses. Also there was links and instructions on how to file for more as we started to rebuild and how to keep receipts and other stuff. Don’t get excited, it sounds like a lot, but the house also got knocked out of being level as the storm kept raising and lower the home. Also we have a lot of floor damage. Just to relevel the home and redo the insulation and vapor barrier Ron thinks will cost $10,000. But hey they came through enough to get us started. Plus we filed to stay elsewhere while the floors and other repairs are done so Fema will keep reimbursing us expenses needed for that as we go forward. I was looking stuff up yesterday but Ron called a halt, he wanted a day with no talk about any of it, he needed a mental health day. So we gave him that. Tomorrow we will look at all we need to do and the things that we can get assistance with. So that is GRAND wonderful news as now we have some small bit to help us rebuild with. Hugs
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Oh Scottie!!! That is WONDERFUL … FANTASTIC … EXHILARATNG news!!! Even though it most likely won’t cover everything in the long run, it’s FAR, FAR better than trying to do it on your own, right???
Renews one’s faith in the government! Well, at least a little bit anyway. 😊
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Hello Roger. I doubt we will be? We seen a bunch of electric company trucks gathering in the church parking lot behind our home. We got excited because one of the workers said to give us power all they needed to do was redo the electrical connections to the transformer. But several hours later we checked and all the trucks were gone and we are still with out power. It is costing us $500 dollars a week to run the generator. I am starting to worry about their commitment to getting our power on. Hugs
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This is very unfair and shameful.
Not turning up is one thing. Turning up and no action being taken is inexcusable
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Hello Roger. We just had a huge truck with a very long boom show up. They reached over and cut the trees off the lines. They said they would try to get us power but to do so they need the pole upright. So they were going to try to use the boom to upright the pole, but then they realized there was no way to keep it upright once the boom went. So we got our hopes up and now dashed. But then another crew showed up. And they are trying, but they are fighting an electrical / thunderstorm moving in. We can not seem to get a break. But if they can not do it tonight then maybe we will first in line tomorrow. But I will give these guys credit it is a hard rain and they are still out there working. Why no one until now came I don’t know. They took one bucket truck and pushed the pole up and others started putting bags of gravel down in the hole to hold it up. We may have full power, but if not these guys really tried and I wouldn’t blame them a second for putting it off until morning. Hugs
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Why no one until now came I don’t know. — Maybe because there are a few hundred other places that need them??? 😈
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It is of some comfort Scottie to know that folks on the ground are working for you.
I hope as I write this (13th October 8.08 BST) things are looking better for you.
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This. Is. Outrageous! But of course, it’s what this nation is slowly but surely moving towards.
And this remark: “It’s the sort of thing that would never be permitted if we weren’t talking about Christianity.” is spot-on! No-way no-how would any other religion be allowed to demonstrate their faith in this courtroom!
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Hello Nan. Just like the post you did it shows a clear problem we have to address. But I am not sure how? There has to be a way to stop this sudden surge towards a theocracy. Yes trump put in to government a lot of Christian nationalist but they are still a minority and a smaller minority at that. If people would just look at what is happening in Iran right now where the people are trying to get their government / way of life back from a religious take over / theocracy that is openly firing real bullets killing as many protestors as possible to stop from losing control. These religious leaders are willing to kill as many as it takes to stay in charge. Do the people here really want to fight that to regain their country once lost? Hugs
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