When recently asked what my greatest failure in life has been, I realized my view of failure is different from others. History teaches us, from Thomas Edison to Walt Disney, that failure is often a necessity for sustained success. The year 2012 was a tough one for my family. I lost an election for the city commission when support from my side of the political aisle dried up upon Scott Maddox’s decision to re-enter local politics and run for the same seat. A short time later, the governor’s administration gutted the agency where I held a position for nearly 15 years. I was laid off at the same time my only sibling died unexpectedly.
Those losses and failures thrust me into two areas that were on my bucket list: teaching and writing. I published seven books on Amazon, including one on restoring public service. I learned I was good with students and taught in every grade. Today, I work with young adults in a role I would still consider mentoring and teaching.
Running for office is not for the weak. People without disposable money usually will not run nor have success doing so. Television, political consultants, and marketers want to see the system remain, yet it guarantees access for only a few and not necessarily the best and brightest.
In looking back on the year which changed so much in my life, it intrigued me to read this week’s indictment of Scott Maddox, and learn of fraudulent activities he was involved in during our campaign. In March 2012, Maddox defaulted on a loan of nearly a half million dollars to BB&T Bank, which he then convinced the bank to approve a short sell without letting them know it was being sold to his colleague. In May of the same year, the indictment states he threatened economic harm to a company doing business with the city if it refused to continue a retainer fee for his services.
While Maddox and I were sitting shoulder to shoulder at the public library, local clubs, and other events, he was busy defrauding local businesses for personal gain. These activities were not a complete shock to me and others who engage with the city. Nevertheless, I remember being booed at a Tiger Bay Club Meeting for inferring that it would be nuts to support Maddox’s return to local politics.
The failure of Scott Maddox is not just a personal one, it is a failure of all of us. Maddox was a wannabe Trump. He acted one way in public and another way in private, all for personal gain. If businesses and individuals play along with such a con, the only thing we can be assured of is further entrenchment of greed at the expense of the greater good.
I am not confident that the downfall of Commissioner Maddox will end these types of problems nor his type of candidate. This is the Deep South, home of the plantation mentality that is used to getting something for nothing. Our city administration that ensures the checks and balances of an ethical government was either incompetent or not empowered to confront the status quo. Our populace, considered the most educated in Florida, supported Maddox not once, not twice, but multiple times for office. We are either willfully blind or bereft of common sense.
The only difference between our form of government and governments around the world is that we have the freedom to choose. Educated men and women, Democrat or Republican, who go along with the con artistry of a Trump or a Maddox, play their part in this erosion of the common good. If there are no grown-ups in the room to ensure accountability, we are not much better than the countries we claim to hate. We can do better.
Daniel Parker is an author, educator, and public servant. His book on public service leadership may be purchased on Amazon at: http://bit.ly/DanielParker. He may be reached at 13scribes@gmail.com.
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Politicians like Maddox created the conditions for Trump, that’s the saddest part.
Mr. Parker has anyone asked if there is a conflict of interest between Walker and Dobson?
Thanks, Daniel, for proving my point about the term “settled science” being a political term and not a scientific term. Using/misusing it over and over doesn’t make it correct.
To your point, I don’t know anyone that disagrees with the statement that climate is changing, except perhaps a grammarian that equates it to the redundant and inaccurate exclamation that “metamorphosis is changing” (referencing the word’s definition, not its application). But again, science doesn’t consider it settled. As long as the models are so drastically different in their conclusions we shouldn’t pretend to know more than the scientists and improperly declare it “settled”.
The earth has been here, evolving, for about 4.5 billion years. It’s been hospitable to human life for less than 1% of that and occupied by humans for a fraction of that. Just the blink of an eye on a cosmic scale. From its early days where the atmosphere was filled with methane to the nitrogen based air of today there have been many changes. From a single continent to 7 (6 from a geographical viewpoint), meteor strikes, earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, fires, etc. All have been a part of what the earth is today.
But let’s move into the bigger issue, that of the selfishness of mankind to over manipulate his surroundings. The earth doesn’t care what we do. It just doesn’t. We can light off the total of every nuclear arsenal in the world and a million years from now, less time than earth has been hospitable to humanity, the earth will still be here and again habitable by most forms of life that we know. (That’s not a claim that all species will return in a million years, only that barring other major events, the earth will return to a natural state that supports known life.)
One can argue against the burning of fossil fuels but one can also argue the immorality of not using them. What is the point of burning them? To make life better/easier for everybody alive today. Can you find anyone that will seriously claim that technology today would be just as advanced had we never drilled for oil?
So then, what’s the point of not burning them? It wouldn’t “save” an earth that will be here anyway. It would extend human misery in today’s world and perhaps alter earth’s evolution to expand the human population until we’re done in by an over populated world instead of one that warmed by less than 1C in 120 years.
I’m much more concerned with the people that are here today than the people that MIGHT be here in 100 years. To exacerbate human suffering today with the hope that we can manipulate climate even more in the future seems to be the more immoral approach.
Thanks Dan, great work…
Thank you for reading. Much appreciated.
Wow….I am very impressed with feedback Mr. Parker’s column generated. Very impressed with the knowledge exhibited in so many of the responses. I was insulted more than once with Mr. Parker’s writings here and even muttered “what the Hell?” a few times. Then I recalled, unlike other local media, Tallahassee Reports invites and tolerates differing opinions.
I certainly enjoyed the repartee and factual corrections to the point I felt vindicated. It is good to know the practical, fairminded and tolerant are many in numbers in our community in spite of being the illiberal bastion we are infamous for.
Thank you Steve, for the opportunities for everyone in our community to be heard – even for those with attempting to hide the obvious Trump bashing.
I mutter the exact same phrase a few times myself. Thank you for reading!
Hi Daniel. On the topic of climate, people that throw around the term “settled science” are simply expressing a political wish as fact. Science grows and evolves with each new discovery. It is NEVER settled. We may have settled on 1,2,3,4,5,… being our numbering system and the basis of our math and settled on a,b,c,d,e,… as our alphabet, but these aren’t science. (And let’s ask the Chinese, Hindus, Arabs, and Russians about “settling” on the Roman alphabet.)
The biggest flaw in this “settled science” is that there’s no observable direct link between the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and temperature. CO2 levels were higher during the last ice age than they are now. When CO2 levels were twice or even 10 times what they are now the earth wasn’t a desert.
Your “settled science” takes temperature observations and tries to understand them. It’s clear to me that either science doesn’t yet understand them or it is using them as a political tool. The reports on change threaten or promise gloom and doom scenarios that show no signs of being reality. The numbers that are released on a regular basis resemble the economic numbers during the Obama years in that they get a certain headline when they’re released, but the more accurate “final” number that’s release 6 weeks later barely gets a mention on page 9.
Want to know more about the real science? Ignore the U.S. based models. There’s a model out there that has been much more accurate than any of the popular U.S. models. It’s Russian. Want a better understanding of hurricane forecasting? The U.S. models trail there, too. The UKMET model has consistently shown a better forecast track of U.S. bound hurricanes than our own.
It’s time for science. Real science. This “settled” stuff is just a political tool intended to manipulate the masses. Were it real, our coastlines would have been under 3′ of water 15 years ago….
Thank you for reading. Much of science is based on theory and hypothesis before it becomes settled science. Even in settled science, there are still outlier scientists that do not agree for whatever reason. Trends in climate change have been well documented now for several decades. Among scientists that spend a lifetime studying this particular area of science, there is no debate that climate change is occurring. The debate is only to the extent that human activity is influencing it. No area of science that considers a potential harm waits for 100% agreement before acting, whether that be smoking, radiation, the use of chemicals, and so on. Countries that have signed on to the Paris Accord understand that climate change is occurring and despite not knowing exactly how much is related to human activity, agree to take action to reduce adverse actions, such as the burning of fossil fuels. It is only in the United States that this area of science has been politicized to the point of taking little to no action. Thank you for reading.
I’m not necessarily a good writer, but I can definitely tell when something is poorly structured. From the title, to the opening paragraphs where Mr. Parker talks all about himself, to the conclusion of Maddox = Trump. This article is just poorly structured. Sorry.
Thank you for reading.
If you wanted to compare Maddox to other political criminals you should have referenced Hillary, Obama …… Typical TDS!
“Maddox was a wannabe Trump.”
Actually Maddox is a garden variety corrupt Democrat. Calling him Trump wannabe is just garden variety Democrat cognitive dissonance. He was your guy until he got caught and if he weasels out of it he will be your guy again. In the meantime you will use your partisan allies’ intransigence to tar your political enemies.
How about Golden Boy Andy? When he gets caught will he be a Trump wannabe too? No, because I know how the Democrat selfprotective anti-introspection script goes. He will be a “victim of a racist establishment”
You don’t know how transparent you are. RINO
Dear Comrades, many of you are missing the point. Without bringing Trump into the discussion there can be no false equivalency, and without false equivalency there can be.no point because facts alone cannot stand on their own merit. You have to invoke the feeling of truth in order to be truly enlightened.
Art does not imitate life, life imitates art. Are we not to gibble and mock the orange jabberwock?
Its like the allegory of Maddox and the little person, trapped in thar tiny hotel room in Sin City, confused and tattooed ,surrounded by developers and the police state. All they want is to love us. Love us long time.
We the taxpayer are that little person.
We are students and professor Parker is our teacher. He guides and shows us the way. Each of us owes a debt of gratitude to the establishment for our jobs, our livelihoods, our fiat currency, our climate science, our sense of purpose. They make the sun rise,the trees grow the birds sing and the very air we breath. And we owe them a million dollars for just being alive. It’s a debt we can never repay.
In the future when we realize that it’s not about material things and commerce and that wheelbarrow full of money in the corner is worth less than an empty wheel barrow, and that it won’t even buy the loaf of bread we had been saving for because there is no bread. We can thank Maddox, and Gillum. and Snipes and the educational system that taught us to count not numbers, votes, or letters but the blessings of community and shared virtue.
As we huddle in our favelas shredding the worthless currency and stuffing it into a tin can before realizing that we ran out of matches before we ran out of dope and we won’t be able to cook that last rat before it turns. We can look to the rising sun, and pull that tattered flag around us not our oc patriotism but for some semblance of warmth and then shuffle out into the snow to scrounge for garbage or some form of insect protein secure in the false equivalency of our belief that Ttump was bad and global warming inevitable.
We will not be mankind we will be some sort of pronoun,and we will worship the state with the pride that only mindless communists can feel. And then the drones will come.
Well said and 100 percent true.
Toby, that was a fine piece of writing. As much as I agree with your point, I hope you’re wrong and we turn this tide. If you haven’t already, I hope you get the chance to teach writing. In all sincerity, you have a gift.
I enjoyed your opinion, you should have left President Trump out of it, it poisoned your message.
Mr. Trump is doing a wonderful job in my eyes, he speaks bluntly and shows no fear.
Back to your opinion, only Dems can get elected in this city, due to the make up of the population and their misaligned agendas. Those who grease the palms of the media tend to have a distinct advantage.
Well said and spot on, Jeff.
Thank you for reading. A person can speak bluntly and be bluntly wrong.
Keep up the good work, Mr. Parker. Know that there are some people here who appreciate your articles and insights.
Thank you for reading.
Lots of ostriches in here. Thank you for your article, Mr. Parker.
Thank you for reading.
Ronald Reagan — ‘It isn’t so much that liberals are ignorant. It’s just that they know so many things that aren’t so.’
Can you imagine how embarrassing it must be for the little fella to be linked to Maddox.
Talk about a dedicated undercover special agent. She probably was happy to take a break from being Hillary’s body double at Quantico. Bill refers to her as the one that got away.
Maddox should have known something was afoot when they introduced her as Lil J Edgar.
Along the lines of failure being the result of a lack of sustained success.
Did you hear the one about the Florida Man who got his picture taken with Maddox, a tatted up sex midget with what appears to be a scrub brush and about a half dozen undercover gmen.
https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2017/09/20/what-happened-vegas-picture-emerges-maddox-undercover-fbi-agents/685099001/
Leave it to Maddox to hail Satan on camera while he’s getting a reach around from the mayor of munchkin land.
You know the whole cast of criminal masterminds must be singing like they’re auditioning for Hamilton.
I’m hoping for an encore. Perhaps a sequel starring our.beloved ex-mayor belting out classic DNC show tunes like.
“Blame it on Trump”
“Orange Man Bad”
“Donald Trump Go Away.Racist.Sexist. Anti-Gay.
“No Borders No Walls No USA at all”
“Hands Up Don’t Shoot’
“Global Warming”
“Don’t meme me, I’m not an NPC.”
“#Me Too”
or my personal favorite “Lock Her Up”
I must have missed it, where did the article addresses the question in the title?
Please investigate Rocky Hanna for his “hit list”, using his work email to settle his child support non payment for 10 years, intimidating voters by threatening their employment, filing false documents with state and federal authorities.
What unadulterated dreck.
Maddox and Trump are about as alike as Oprah and me.
Now, comparing Gillum to Maddox – THAT would have been an editor’s assignment I would make.
And another thing:
If a national con-man political target was ever to be compared to Maddox, the clear choice would have been Mr. Gorebal Warming.
Thank you for reading. Climate change is settled science. The only debate has been the degree to which human activity is influencing it. A good book on this is called, “Doubt Is Their Product.” Thank you again for reading.
Mr. Parker, the Earth’s climate is changing – and has been changing long before the first man picked up a stone and used it as a tool. There have been eon’s-long periods of warming and cooling, and times where the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide differed widely from the present. And the Earth’s climate will go on changing, as long as Earth exists and long past man’s existence. There is no “settled science” except the liberal insistence that everyone accept their word on the subject.
If “global warming” is so unassailable and inarguable, then why has academia and the UN tried to suppress any climatologist scientists and reports that dispute the global warming put forth by Gore and the Left? Again, let the science on all sides be seen and published. That is, if you truly value science as it’s intended to be, not as a political tool.
Thank you for reading. Climate science is settled science. There is almost universal agreement among actual climate scientists. Again, the debate has been to what degree human activity is impacting. As an analogy, smoking causing cancer is almost universally accepted science, yet there is an occasional person who tries to debate it, including scientists who work for big tobacco. Thanks again.
Tobacco and nicotine is a patently false analogy to the processes of Earth’s climate, there is no congruency with a human-invented (and abused) substance vs. the multitude of solar, lunar, and Earth-cyclical processes affecting our climate. I may as well compare alchohol abuse with tidal variations. The climate involves a vastly wider sphere of sciences and forces (astronomy, geology, et al). While I won’t dispute that smoking causes cancer (there is sufficient evidence for that), I can’t agree there’s any possible parallel for a “settled science” decree on “climate change”. (It’s changing, has been for many eons, and always will, with or without man’s presence) As long as liberals keep mental blinders on and repeat the political mantra of “settled science”, they will be mentally blocked from any conficting scientific input on the subject, much like a primitive tribe that has a mental block to any beliefs or explanations other than their own tribal lore. The liberal recitation that there’s “universal agreement” among climate scientists is simply an expression of liberal group-think and has no basis in fact. American academia and the UN work hard to suppress any “occasional” conflicting climate studies, because it won’t further their globalist agenda.
Ok – Here’s a start at: The Maven Editor’s Assignment Challenge:
1. Both Maddox and Gillum were pictured front page and center traveling with the FBI;
2. Snidely?
3. Mr. Parker….?
4.
99. Both Maddox and Gillum are two syllables with double consonants in the middle;
LOL, the Trumptards are so angry at having the Cheeto In Chief compared to a criminal, the irony being that the depravity of Trump’s use of power to enrich himself are light years beyond anything dummy Scott could have hoped to achieve in Tallahassee.
For crying out loud, his spokesman went on TV and hawked his daughters crappy clothing line, he intervened to get the FBI headquarters moved next to one of his hotels, his inauguration committee is under active investigation for shuttling funds directly to his businesses, and he wanted to sell his buddy Putin a penthouse in Trump Tower Moscow for pennies, his silent step son convinced him disagree with the intelligence community (again!), so as not to cheese off the Saudi Royals who are financing 666 Park Avenue, and that’s just what came off the top of my head. There are literally dozens of others.
The cognitive dissonance on display here makes 1984 look like a child’s book. The terrifying part is that it is real and these people vote.
I appreciate a different view point on this site, Daniel. I think it’s probably a lost cause, but you are doing good work.
Thank you for reading. Much appreciated.
A pity that you’re not working for Comey’s FBI or Rosenstein’s DOJ, we could have had Trump in irons already! Please make your “top of your head” findings known to the proper federal authorities quickly (that would be pretty much every long-term politician and lobbyist in DC) so that Mr. Trump can be immediately incarcerated. I’m certain once you bring these heinous Trump crimes to their attention , they’ll march forth with the evidence they’ve been holding back for the last two years.
Thanks for the spelling tip!
Earth to Mike: Comey is a lifelong Republican who happens to have some dignity. Rosentstein is a lifelong Republican who happens to have some dignity. When subpoenas start landing on Trump’s desk once a week you are in for a hard dose of reality.
In any case, the things I referred to are widely available using a tool called Google and by visiting sites that do not have the word ‘infowars’ in them.
Here is an article about it in the notoriously liberal wall street journal.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-tower-moscow-it-was-the-end-of-a-long-failed-push-to-invest-in-russia-1543532455
Here is a video of the troglodyte Kelly Ann Conway suggesting that people go buy Ivanka junk on Fox News:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sDoUtQrBRE
Here is a story regarding Trump decision to intervene in the placement of the new FBI headquarters:
https://www.npr.org/2018/10/18/658509261/trump-intervened-in-fbi-hq-project-to-protect-his-hotel-democrats-allege
Regarding Trump profiting from the inauguration, here is a link:
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-podcast-trumps-inauguration-paid-trumps-company-with-ivanka-in-the-middle
It goes on and on.
Hey, how’s it going with Mexico paying for that wall, anyways? That is about wrapped up, isn’t it?
Also, when is Trump going to release his taxes again? Real soon I bet.
Remember when Trump repealed Obamacare on Day 1 in office? That was great. Then a few months later he found the oxygen to say, ‘nobody knew healthcare was so complicated’. (I knew!)
Hey, remember when Trump didn’t pay that porn star or that Playmate? I do! Oh wait, now it was a ‘civil matter’, and had nothing to do with altering the election.
Remember how stupid someone has to be to sit in front of a Senate intelligence committee and testify they ‘don’t remember’ calling an unmarked number five minutes after meeting Russian agents to discuss dirt on Hilliary?
Hey, remember when ‘#releaseTheMemo’ happened? I bet you retweeted that one, didn’t you? What happened with that stunning memo, anyways? How come people keep taking plea deals when ‘theMemo’ got released, after all, it *totally exonerated* Trump, right? (right?)
Remember when Trump appointed Sessions, who then lied to the Senate about being in contact with Russians? QAnon was trying to tell us that Sessions was a long time Obama plant, and we just missed the signals.
Remember when Republican’s had seven congressional hearings on Benghazi gate? What happened with that again? They found her guilty of something, right? That’s why she got ‘locked up’. Weird that I haven’t seen any news about her in jail, what with all of the crimes they uncovered during those seven committees.
Trump shutdown coming this week!
Want more?
Please document the times you criticized Obama, Hillary, or any Leftist for corruption. You’re worse than a politician, you’re a hypocrite.
That is an interesting comment. I tend to be aware of hypocrisy, which is why I usually hit my side first and much harder. Real conservatives tend to do the same, which is the common ground we used to have. Thank you for reading.
Earth to Randall:
Scott Maddox was previously a chairman of the Democratic Party.
For pity’s sake, it’s “provocateur”. Even trolls should know basic spellings.
I can only say I am disappointed Steve even gave this author a forum to spew out the same type of garbage we hear constantly from most media outlets. Linking President Trump to Scott Maddox as a con artist has no basis in fact, and disqualifies Mr. Parker as a “public servant” to everyone except those with leftist views that agree with him. I ask Mr Parker to back up his claim that the President is a con artist with FACTS… not his or anyones opinion, but proven facts. I want to know where he has abused his office, or enriched himself with taxpayer money. Yes we can do better than Scott Maddox, but sadly the majority of Tallahasse voters did not want better. Maybe that will change.
RIP to Gerald Ensley.
That being said it looks like Tallahassee has found another gallant defender of all things leftist to fill the void left by Gerald’s passing.
Take a nice walk on our $7.5 million dollar Cascades bridge to nowhere Daniel and go apply for your dream job at The Democrat.
Steve will still let you have a guest article now and then!
Thank you for your comments. You gave me a good chuckle.
Self serving. We need real change at the city, not just another flavor of liberal.
This article is pretty much a joke. The only similarities that Maddox has with Trump is a both have a penis.
I learned overtime to judge a person by their actions, not by their words. Maddox was all words but his actions work deplorable. On the other hand, Trump says some controversial stuff but his actions have made America better and stronger and have provided opportunities for all Americans. He has accomplished more than any other president in their first term and he’s only halfway through his first. The people that voted for Maddox did so because of who they thought he was. It was not publicly known yet how corrupt his actions were. In typical liberal form you try to spread the blame around and then throw Trump’s name in the mix as if there’s some type of connection or similarity. There is none.
You must have been sitting on the John when you wrote this.
Maddox made his mistakes without any help from Republicans to include Trump and has been at this for many years. His political bias and animus toward those with a differing opinion has been as glaring as his criminal behavior. Except nobody wanted to do anything about it.
If Trump is guilty of wrong doing he should be prosecuted. Unfortunately we don’t have Democrat’s that feel the same way about those they elect. They deny and blame others as you have done. We have a system of checks and balances where the justice system is supposed to remain unbiased in order to keep political officials honest by keeping holding them all equally accountable for their actions. So, if you want any credibility as a writer, just try to look at it from those optics and hold Maddox accountable for what he willfully did.
Thank you for your comments. We probably agree on more than we disagree.
Mr. Parker: I am very sorry for the loss of your sibling in 2012. Losing a job isn’t easy either, although it appears you have found your “bliss” and losing your government job was a blessing in disguise. Other than that, your article is just a thinly veiled platform to bash President Trump by comparing him to Criminal Maddox. Typical snow flake tactic. You got booed at Tiger Bay because its members know better than to buy into the abundance of leftist propaganda you so avidly gobble up and peddle. And you teach? Mercy me!
Thank you for your comments and sentiments. I am still a public servant.
I think the need to infer criminal activities upon President Trump while commenting on a multi-count indictment of Scott Maddox, a prominent local Democrat, almost rises to the level of mental illness.
P.S. I think Trump is a true cad, and he has a big mouth, but he hasn’t committed crimes. If he had, the top tier of the highly politicized and left-leaning FBI would have seen to it that indictments were handed down. They haven’t because there is no evidence of a crime. Oh, and he’s keeping his promises to the base and swing voters, which is why he’ll be reelected. The need to pass a moral character test to be elected POTUS is LONG past, so let’s not pretend for a second that it is a real issue.
You make a keen observation on the moral compass, though we must be able to judge our leaders on some scale. If we judge a leader by their wealth without considering how they made their money, then Al Capone or Don Corleone would be Presidential timber.
Mr. Parker, you need to get off your high horse; I don’t know if you can hold yourself up to the standards that you expect of others. You may have been the most qualified candidate each of the times you ran for public office. Sadly and unfortunately, it is seldom the most qualified candidate who gets elected in Tallahassee-Leon County.
Trump has nothing to do with the failures or successes of Scott Maddox. How can you blame Trump for Scott’s indiscretions? Trump is a shrewd businessman who has saved America. Whatever he has done that is questionable (and he has done many things) is only a tip of the iceberg of what the greed of the Bushes, Obamas and Clintons have done to destroy America.
None of the city or county commissioners have other private sector jobs and rely on their salaries as the primary means to make a living. Those salaries are not high enough to live comfortably on and there is the temptation to make irresponsible choices in order to keep being voted in office and, in the worst case scenario, possibly do illegal and immoral things to gain greater income. Maddox was the most competent of all the city commissioners but was also the most greedy, a person who apparently would do questionable things to increase his income. In days past, it was men and women who had successful business that ran for commission offices; everyone else had to work for a living. They had the background to make good decisions because they had to make good decisions for their businesses to survive and thrive.
When it comes to voting for the most qualified candidate, Tallahassee will never get it correct. There is a good chance that Scott Maddox would be re-elected again if he beats the charges leveled against him. You failed to mention Andrew Gillum. Don’t think for one minute that if Gillum chose to run again for city commissioner he would not be elected, even with the multitude of charges against him.
Because of the makeup of the electorate, Tallahassee will continue to vote poor candidates into office.
Tallahassee is the most educated city in the State of Florida. Many who are highly educated are very liberal and often make poor choices when casting their votes. Add a student population of 40,000 and a large number of poor black voters-who sometime will vote for any candidate who promises something free, and too that a large number of those who are underpaid and employed by local, state, and federal government depending upon government to get pay increases, you have a disaster in the making when it comes to voting the most qualified candidates in office.
Thank you for reading.
The column here… is a problem. scott maddox looked to enrich himself at by the use of tax $$$ and his position as Mayor and City Commissioner as his main leveraging tools and in the process has harmed our town…in the same way as andrew gillum has done. Don’t think for one minute that gillum did not get some of the ‘maddox $$$’. Audit Ben Crump’s office and you may find some of it. President Trump is not drawing a salary as President and is not looking to enrich himself. His time in office has been used to overthrow much of the obama train wreck by taking away from government a lot of the $$$ that rightfully belongs to the tax paying citizens of The United States and returning it in the form of tax reductions. To compare the success of President Trump to the abject failure of scott maddox is pathetic. (Where upper case is appropriate but lower case is used…that is intentional.)
Thank you for reading, and for the comments.
Mr. Parker, I agree with your observations that it’s a mystery and a shame that Tallahassee elected Scott Maddox repeatedly. Anyone in Tallahassee who is “surprised” by the indictments is “either willfully blind or bereft of common sense.” Tallahassee also elected others who engaged in corruption and I hope the FBI is just getting warmed up with these first indictments.
However, I fail to see any justification in referring to Maddox as a “Trump wanna-be” or Trump as being a practitioner of “con artistry”. While I don’t agree with all of Trump’s personality behaviors or his immoderate tweets, he’s accomplished more solid benefit for America than any president since Reagan. Just a few of Trump’s accomplishments:
(1) Vastly improved our economy and available jobs and created historic unemployment lows for for both majorities and minorities.
(2) Brought back significant American manufacturing to our shores, ended countless restrictive and dictatorial government regulations, and set America on a path of Energy Independence.
(3) Strengthened our international position and asserted American Exceptionalism.
(4) Championed our national security by insisting on strong borders and a border wall, and getting more spending to rebuild our military. We can’t have a strong country without strong borders and military, despite all the vacuous words of pundits who lack common sense.
Unlike Washington or upper East Coast Elites who feel they’re far better and smarter than us vast unwashed masses out here in America, I don’t pay attention so much to Trump says or his manner, I pay attention to what he actually gets done. And he’s accomplished an enormous amount of good for America with nearly all of the Washington Swamp and mainstream media fighting him and trying to railroad him into destruction with corrupt investigations and false charges. For all the conceit and narcisissm that Washington elites confer upon themselves, Trump runs constant circles of actual accomplishments around all of them.
Summarize Maddox and his local ilk, they earned their reputations and charges with their own actions. But your attempt to link Trump to their kind lacks any validity.
Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts. In regards to your points, (1) Trump in his second year has very little sway on these numbers. He is more the benefit of trends already in motion. (2) This is not true. (3) This is not true. (4) This is more of an opinion. I will say that if Trump supports the criminal justice reform bill moving through, which he says he will, I will be happy to give him credit for passing something truly needed and bipartisan. Thanks again.
Mr. Parker, as the saying goes, you’re entitled to your own opinions, you’re not entitled to your own facts. Numbers 2 and 3 are inarguably and incontrovertibly true as are 1 and 4.
Any possible assertions that obama is somehow responsible for America’s present economy are ridiculous on their face. You may assault Trump in your writings all you want, as most of the DC Establishment and the MSM does, but it is inarguably true that America is vastly improved over any time in the last 8 years of the obama-Dem-Socialist reign. Widely reputed TV pundits and print media pronouncers undersestimated Trump during every facet of his 2016 campaign, and they were all proven dead wrong – Trump won in 2016, decisively. Anyone, including yourself, who underestimates Trump now is just as wrong. When the DC Establishment and the media think they have him beaten, Trump defies their every prediction. As one columnist already predicted in 2020, mainstreet America will respond to the present forces arrayed against Trump in 2020 – by reelecting him. By the way, unlike Dem-Socialist politicians and organizations, I do not wish voices from the Leftist side to be silenced as they decree those on the Right must be. Let the marketplace of American ideas determine how America votes, and if you lose, then come up with ideas that work in that marketplace.
I agree completely with yourlast couple of sentences. Thanks again.
He will not be the last one as long as liberals are in charge. Remember all liberals lie, cheat and steal.
Just another pile of stinking donkey dung.
Thank you for reading. No one group has a lock on lying, cheating, and stealing.
Mr. Parker you sir are as big a problem as Scott Maddox!! You wrote a book on leadership I hope nobody read it. I am sorry that Tallahassee Reports would even run such foolishness. Maddox is getting what many more deserve….
Thank you for reading. I sure hope that is not the case.
“Educator” and “public servant” synonymous with “leftist” tells me all I need to know about this “author”. The needless digs at Trump and the “Deep South” take the cake.
Attacking Maddox is fine but you and your Democratic friends put him in office Mr. Parker. I never voted for him.
Thank you for reading. I try to hold my side accountable first, though I hold all sides equally accountable when it comes to public service.
My late husband had a witticism he shared with our young great grandsons to their glee: “Never pass up an opportunity to p€€!” Mr. Parker must find similar amusement is the slogan “Never pass up an opportunity to bash Trump!”
Thank you for reading. I see many similarities in the futures of both Maddox and Trump.
Your late husband sounds like someone I would have loved to meet! Thank you for reading.
What a load of c r a p! Maddox has nothing to do with Trump, and his indiscretions are no one’s fault but his own. Its not my fault Mattox defrauded the people, oh hell no!
I was never boo’d at a Tiger Bay Club, you know why? Because I am not a member of the politically connected, at least not like this idiot, Danny, who wants to blame EVERYONE for Scott freaking Maddox, but Scott Maddox!!!!!
I hope he rots in jail.
Thank you for reading. I see many similarities in the futures of both Maddox and Trump.