Shifting Sands

The power brokers are people who weld their power over The People. They are authoritarian, elitist, politically connected and wealthy (or work for the wealthy). They have disconnected from The People because in their beliefs The People are losers and failures and always want something for nothing. They have effective methods of controlling the people and resources. On this forum they started posting this summer taking every advantage of fear tactics propaganda to gain support for private beaches. They do not want anyone to know who they are. Harrymurry could be right and it could be one person with several screen names. They rile people up to the point of emotional outburst which they use against them. I admit it is effective because well we are all human.

I understand your concerns about how this forum operates. I have been disrespected a plenty on previous threads (unrelated to this subject) by many of these people who support customary use. I will not call out names because they know who they are but I try to be respectful to everyone including the power brokers. The moderators have their reasons for their control over the forum. If you support an issue that the moderators may not agree with I do believe they will allow you to have a voice. Really that is a good thing so I would move on from perceived unfairness.

Back to the power brokers. Their math is always that The People are "less than" their perceived value. We should all be aware of anyone who abuses power. I really do not envy their success but I do not want anyone telling me or my family that we are "less than" because we have not worked as hard or achieved as much to earn the same rights as they have to our beach resources. Wealth already owns most of this planets most beautiful natural resources. Take notice of our beach disappearing behind bigger and bigger buildings. I think The People need to push back on this abuse in the distribution of our beach resources. We may have already waited too long because these power brokers are going to use whatever power it takes to keep people off parts of the beach. Those parts will grow and grow until we the people will have less and less access. Is that something that you want for future generations?

Do these "power brokers" have names?

Lloyd Blue, Mike Huckabee, DWI Gaetz. Among a host of others. Don't be naive.

All I know is their fake names:

Reggie Gaskins
FloridaBeachBum
StoneColdJ
SupView


That is all I can remember but I think there are a few others. BTW I would like to be wrong about these people. All I am going on is my instinct since they "hide" behind these fake names. Yes, I believe that when you have a consistent and continuous vitriolic message with no intentions of compromising I call it "hiding an agenda". It never was about our property rights. It was always about a desire to have power over a beautiful resource. They are probably lawyers or political agitators based on the content of their message.

Very interesting and disappointing if you are right about the names of these power brokers. Our elected representatives and the developers who support them. Both working against the interest of The People. Both using Capitalism as if it is their duty to control resources and people and deceiving us with who is to "blame" for the problems in our communities. The disappointment is in myself as I may have even voted for these people to represent me. No, naive is not the right term to describe how we "allow" these power brokers to ruin our communities and our democracy. We are ignorant because we want to believe they represent us but they don't. Their words in this forum reveal who they are and who they represent: Money and Power. Not me. Not you. Definitely not "our" property rights.

New bumper sticker: America: A United People against the abuse of power! Yes, that is my new agenda...

OK, OK, go ahead, drag me into yet another cool kids playground huddle. Tried to stay away, but blasphemy gets me every time.

Look Scooter, you're conspiracy theory of "Power Brokers" is akin to Bernie Sanders, the multi millionaire, always crying about the 'Rich". This CU thing is about incompetence of Podunk "Lower Alabama Like" government not capable of managing the massive money and decisions before them. And.... class envy fear mongering at it's best. For us "Aliases" here, we watch these punks publicly call out the productive and successful folks lucky enough to have acquired the American Dream, aka - a house on the beach. Outside of Walton County, that's a good thing, not bad. (And btw, was good INSIDE of WC before 2016!)

We simply believe that the law is the law. That's it. Done. Sell me property, I own it. Don't come back and say "Just kidding". FBFA is directly lying to folks about quiet titles, privatizing beaches, and history of public beach. They are playing on class envy emotions. We think simply that it's disgusting and manipulative of the unarmed public, busy with our daily lives, and then some believing the propaganda.

We all got along fine til this CU thing threatened and harassed private property owners. The signs and chains have been here since early 90's. The a'holes have been kicking people off their beach since before that. We all learned where they were and stayed clear. We all got along fine. Read my first post on the REAL thread.

Then the county decided to sue 5,000 citizens because they wanted their property, period. Then local jesters video ambushed the most vile jerks and emotionally charged the public. By an attorney, by the way, who publicly advertised that he processed quiet titles for a living! Oh, the irony, dripping from this page. Once BPO was identified, there were literally THOUSANDS of social media threats and slander strewn across the lives of these innocent folks in their home towns and corporate offices, including business customers of these dastardly criminals who did what? Bought a legally transferred slice of property, a long earned dream, a badge of a life of battle, the ultimate wish of every American (Outside Walton County). A H O U S E O N T H E B E A C H ! ! !

Seriously here Scooter, they attacked these people's lives and churches and jobs and neighbors many states away!!! ONLY BECAUSE THEY OWNED A HOUSE ON THE BEACH!!!!!!!!!!!

And if you can't figure out aliases on a small town, insignificant troll forum such as this, step outside the county line into the real world Scooter. I'll show you around. My alias is my business. If my words are factual and make sense, what does it matter who I am? If my words are not factual and don't make sense, what does it matter who I am?

So knock of the power broker crap. If you want to continue it, I'll be happy to help you connect the dots between business owners, developers, politicians, and true money changers that need the beach to be entirely public to increase their cash flow. Your politics are your business. Mine are mine. I don't expect you to believe mine. Don't expect me to follow yours. It works well that way. Nobody wants to take anything away from you. And yet, you are completely comfortable preaching your politics that its ok to take property from others. Sorry, that math doesn't work for us that are being taken from. It's really that simple, Scooter.

Paging Dr. Freud.... Paging Dr. Sigmund Freud. ‍⚕️

OK, OK, go ahead, drag me into yet another cool kids playground huddle. Tried to stay away, but blasphemy gets me every time.

Look Scooter, you're conspiracy theory of "Power Brokers" is akin to Bernie Sanders, the multi millionaire, always crying about the 'Rich". This CU thing is about incompetence of Podunk "Lower Alabama Like" government not capable of managing the massive money and decisions before them. And.... class envy fear mongering at it's best. For us "Aliases" here, we watch these punks publicly call out the productive and successful folks lucky enough to have acquired the American Dream, aka - a house on the beach. Outside of Walton County, that's a good thing, not bad. (And btw, was good INSIDE of WC before 2016!)

We simply believe that the law is the law. That's it. Done. Sell me property, I own it. Don't come back and say "Just kidding". FBFA is directly lying to folks about quiet titles, privatizing beaches, and history of public beach. They are playing on class envy emotions. We think simply that it's disgusting and manipulative of the unarmed public, busy with our daily lives, and then some believing the propaganda.

We all got along fine til this CU thing threatened and harassed private property owners. The signs and chains have been here since early 90's. The a'holes have been kicking people off their beach since before that. We all learned where they were and stayed clear. We all got along fine. Read my first post on the REAL thread.

Then the county decided to sue 5,000 citizens because they wanted their property, period. Then local jesters video ambushed the most vile jerks and emotionally charged the public. By an attorney, by the way, who publicly advertised that he processed quiet titles for a living! Oh, the irony, dripping from this page. Once BPO was identified, there were literally THOUSANDS of social media threats and slander strewn across the lives of these innocent folks in their home towns and corporate offices, including business customers of these dastardly criminals who did what? Bought a legally transferred slice of property, a long earned dream, a badge of a life of battle, the ultimate wish of every American (Outside Walton County). A H O U S E O N T H E B E A C H ! ! !

Seriously here Scooter, they attacked these people's lives and churches and jobs and neighbors many states away!!! ONLY BECAUSE THEY OWNED A HOUSE ON THE BEACH!!!!!!!!!!!

And if you can't figure out aliases on a small town, insignificant troll forum such as this, step outside the county line into the real world Scooter. I'll show you around. My alias is my business. If my words are factual and make sense, what does it matter who I am? If my words are not factual and don't make sense, what does it matter who I am?

So knock of the power broker crap. If you want to continue it, I'll be happy to help you connect the dots between business owners, developers, politicians, and true money changers that need the beach to be entirely public to increase their cash flow. Your politics are your business. Mine are mine. I don't expect you to believe mine. Don't expect me to follow yours. It works well that way. Nobody wants to take anything away from you. And yet, you are completely comfortable preaching your politics that its ok to take property from others. Sorry, that math doesn't work for us that are being taken from. It's really that simple, Scooter.

Reggie, have you ever been asked to look into a mirror? I have. It works. As males we are not as entitled as we thought. You and I are just people. Nothing special. We are not kings. We are not gods. We live, we die. Money might seem to make you special and allow you to own "a h o u s e o n t h e b e a c h" but when you look into the mirror you are just one human in a finite life in a finite ball of resources. That's all any of us are. There is no god or deity in the mirror. There is no blasphemy.

You know my name because I do not hide it. BTW it has been a long time since I have been called scooter I like the name just fine because my grandpa called me that. Brought back fine memories so thank you.

I assume you do not like being called a power broker. Okay lets talk about that. Go back and read your own words. They are full of blame and shame. They complain about The People taking something from you. "Class Envy". "Mine are mine". "Long earned Dream". "Badge of a life of battle". "Property Rights" ad nauseum. Honestly, what badges have you earned that many other people have not? I promise you that many people have worked even harder than you and me put together and still can't afford a house on the beach. Many people have given their life for you and me. When you or I look into the mirror what badges do we see? NONE.

Corrupt power comes from believing that we are special or chosen to be of a higher authority than most others. Okay so you know a lot about the constitution and exclusive use in property rights but this issue is not about that. I understand why you take issue with Customary Use because in your world the constitution gives you and all of us protections. I agree. BUT those protections should not give you the right to exclusive control over this beach resource. I could explain why over and over again but I do not think you will ever understand this from The People's perspective. I believe that you just do not want to understand because in your eyes you are giving something away for free. So, in my humble opinion you have allowed your desire for power over the resource to be greater than the forces of nature that brought us all life. I know you will call this dramatic so lets go with that. Think of this as a dramatic moment in time where you suddenly see the life force of nature where humans laugh and rejoice and feel the goodness that life has given us. Then go look out the window of your exclusive building to the exclusive views of the ocean, the sunset, the sand and yes those wonderful little human scooters on the beach. The People are not your servants but they can be your friend...

Parting kiss Scooter;
My world is one where the weak and powerful work together. My world is one of charitable sharing, up and down the political, economic, health, and spiritual ladders. Servant leadership wins the day when those further along in the dollar struggle pull those up from behind, and push them over the line as they trade places along life’s journey.

Every mortgage, car payment, doctor bill, braces payment, chemo charge, each has a face. That face need not be put into a category for your shameless game of class envy. That face, and every one like it, needs champions in the community to keep it a smile and not a frown. A leadership base to support it with prideful self reliance avenues when possible, and firm community support when not.

Your black and white world of have’s and have not’s disgusts those of us who know intimately, both edges of that sword. Living paycheck to paycheck? Been there for many years, even without a paycheck or rent money with a family, and yep, clawed out and kept a foot in, so as to never forget. I’ve been lucky enough to know kings of the downtrodden, those many years when I have been there, and kings of nations, in a few of those years when I haven’t. I humbly walk among both with the pride of learning from them all.

Your petty game of division is aimed at the ignorant, with ill intent. You fail to see the logic of this mess. You refuse to look at it from the other side. From the side of humble property owners bring viciously backed into a corner. Being threatened of losing their generations of building financial security by the likes of you. I was a beach goer for decades longer than a beach property owner. I get it. I know the love of beach from afar. The healing powers of the surf. The beach is everyone’s dream. Let’s get back to enjoying it like we always have. Getting your deliberate division, and the BCC aggressive lawsuit, and the video ambush warriors, FBFA mistruths and propaganda, and the beach chair vendors, all out of our lives. That will be a great first step towards the harmony we all enjoyed prior to the CU noise.

I tried to approach you as a gentleman. Your words of servants, power, Gods, special, elite, abuse... they are cowardly used to emotionally charge the masses. Let’s spare the public further word vomit here. I haven’t attacked you for owning expensive waterfront property, have I? But here you are...

Look, I’ve politely repeatedly asked Dave for a public forum to cover these lies once and for all, with no censors or edits, or bought off media tools. Mano y Mano, me and him, politely and quietly sitting down like gentlemen, even charging admission to go to charity. Why do you think he refuses? The courts shall justly dispatch this thing down the road. My attempt to draw intelligent discourse here with a true and personal history piece about 30A Legacy has merely brought out the online dredges I had only read about in business articles. Interesting breed. Later Scooter. Sad day on 30A.

Reggie the Great, you now attack me with vile words with the same power of authority that I am referring to. It is not just an attack on me but everyone who you call weak. Your own words divide people into two groups: "the weak and the powerful". I admit that some will follow you to the ends of the earth and even myself may have at one time. This is a major flaw of our political system. But, you have opened my eyes to what power does to people. I don't take offense to your attack of words. My grandmother taught me about words and why people say them to hurt or control. She said that I must forgive people like you. Done grandma.

You are wrong in that I am myopic. I hear you and understand your position. I only ask you to see it from the perspective of The People. You can't. It's okay. Does not make you a bad person but it does not make you a good person either. Community good will is just not your thing. You believe you have achieved great things with powerful people and that is your ticket to believing in your power. Just no time for the weak little people I guess.

I am not taking sides between you and Dave and who has the message of truth. I believe in compromise. I don't know Dave at all except what he has written about some of your concerns regarding vending, density and behavior. You offer no compromise sir. Only more preaching about your authority in intelligent discourse. You may be surprised about how many people are "intelligent" enough to say no to your message.

Apparently your logic leaves out an important element of life: only take what you need and give something back. Please sir, explain why this is so hard. My logic is simple: we are all in this together and we need to protect each other from the abuse of power.

You say that people disrespected you and other BPO's. I agree with you. I called it out just like you. How do you justify your disrespectful behavior? I don't believe that I have disrespected you or your principle. Don't confuse my message. I only believe in solving the problems that exist on our beach and bringing attention to the reasons why an abuse of power works against The People. Your inability to compromise on exclusion creates a wall between BPO's and The People. How intelligent is that really?

I want to believe that you and Dave could sit down and work this out and save everyone a lot of money not to mention hard feelings in the community. Solve problems thru compromise. Isn't that democracy?

At the risk of sounding dumber than most of you think I am, how do you establish the "mean high tide line"?

A surveyor is generally considered the expert to determine MHWL. Every few years or after major storms it changes. Reggie might tell you that his constitutional legal team are the experts. Just kidding Reggie. We all need to relax a little!

A surveyor is generally considered the expert to determine MHWL. Every few years or after major storms it changes. Reggie might tell you that his constitutional legal team are the experts. Just kidding Reggie. We all need to relax a little!

Then the county decided to sue 5,000 citizens because they wanted their property, period.

Most accurate sentence of the issue and easy for all to understand.

Thank you.

Most accurate sentence of the issue and easy for all to understand.

Thank you.

The County is just following the Procedures set forth in unfair, arbitrary House Bill 631 designed to create a process for beach counties wishing to affirm Customary Use. A Bill beachfront owners supported rather than letting the current court cases continue. They can't have it both ways....support the Bill then cry foul and say they are victimized when the County follows the procedures set forth in the Bill.

The Customary Use Ordinance should have held and been decided in the courts but the Florida Legislature at the urging of powerful political forces unfairly overreached against the home rule our County.

Customary Use should have held until Judge Green ruled in this case but the Florida Legislature, by starting the law on July 1, 2018 denied the people the full use of our beaches as they have always used them. This start date, empowering beachfront owners to exclude good people from the sands they have played and relaxed on with their families for hundreds of years. Let the Judge decide or as it will be, Judges.

NO, the County did not just arbitrarily decide to sue the 1200 + properties, they were following orders from the Florida Legislature and reacting to the outlawing of our County’s lawfully passed County Ordinance. The County was put into a box; it was either lose the use of the beach for it's citizens and visitors or follow the HB631 procedures to reinstate Customary Use.

The county had no choice; follow the procedures set forth in house bill 631 or just rollover and let our beaches become a patchwork of private and public beaches. I admire and applaud their conviction by taking measures to preserve the public use of all of our beaches for us and future generations. And if this lawsuit is won the rest of Florida and The Nation can thank them for taking this first important and essential step.

Reggie, SupView, etal your attempt to divide the people on the issue of who caused the lawsuit is not working. Blaming the county after you have your exclusive buildings that block the public from the resource (views, access) on this beautiful resource (The Gulf of Mexico, Sand Dunes, Dune vegetation) by using waivers and variances and all that your wealth and power allows you is placing you further and further from the truth. With every post you are getting further from the truth of who is to blame and who is to be shamed. If I were you I would stop posting. I realize that is not what powerful people do and so just keep on trucking as we like to say. IMO you should take this moment in time and reflect on something much more important than controlling The People and this resource. Be Happy and rejoice in the rewards that our economic system has rewarded you.

House Bill 631 was politics. Yes, we all know how well you are connected to politics. You won. The People lose. You have money and power. The People don't. Politics will always bend toward money and so you got what you wanted. So here we are posting in this forum about who is to blame and who is to be shamed. I think both sides has plenty of room to improve in behavior and respect. We all have said stuff over and over and it is getting old so I propose something that I am sure you will laugh at but here it goes. Why not cool this down to a squirt gun fight on the beach between you and Dave. You know like a duel between rivals. Afterwords we will have a good ole fish fry. I will furnish the fish and maybe Dave will cook them. This community needs something fun to get behind and be proud of instead of all this back and forth. Should we start another thread for support on the Beach Duel?

On the Beach Duel I would like to reach out to Steven Rinella who is an author, conservationist, conservative and host of the Meateater show to officiate. He is a pretty good chef also so this could be really fun. I think the community needs something like this right?

I was not expecting my attempt to brighten up the mood to be struck down so fast. Oh well back to the lawsuit, blame and shame I guess.

I support public beaches, property rights and respectful behavior. It is amazing to me why we can't have all three. I don't want to blame anyone or any ideal or any political side. So frustrating that our political division keeps us from compromise. Since we are back to blame and shame, I blame and shame this deep divide that we have gotten ourselves into.

If I were you I would stop posting.

Funny, I’ve been thinking the same thing....about you. Your general attacks on phantom adversaries as well as your delusional ideals are growing really old. As a matter of FACT, you claimed a previous post was your last post on the subject. So much for your word.

You have money and power. The People don't.

Mighty presumptuous, don’t you think?

Why not cool this down to a squirt gun fight on the beach between you and Dave. You know like a duel between rivals.

I think Reggie’s invitation of a public debate between him and Dave where the proceeds of admission are donated to charity is a much better one.

Dave Rauschkolb and you insistently call out those on SoWal who do not use their real names. WHAT BETTER WAY TO UNCLOAK A MASKED BANDIT THAN TO ACCEPT REGGIE’S CHALLENGE TO A DEBATE?


Dave, I fully expect you to ignore the debate challenge as you have done in the past. You’re good on “stage” when there’s only a one way conversation.

I couldn't help but notice that not all those who don't use their "real" names are infidels. Right, Papa?

I couldn't help but notice that not all those who don't use their "real" names are infidels. Right, Papa?

Katie I would love to use my real name, but my son who is better known than I am shares it and I refuse to put him in a situation where some idiot will confuse the two of us.
Having said that I hope not using my given name will continue to annoy you.

BMBV, your words are hypocritical regarding my posts. You sound like a groupie for Reggie, etal.

I agree with you and Reggie about a debate. Since Reggie is a polished political figure whose personal identity is unknown I believe I can come up with a worthy opponent whose identity is also "unknown" until the debate. That is the only fair way to stage this debate for public vs private beach. We can work out the details but I believe it needs to be behind one of those large buildings on the beach, should be televised and you can be the moderator. How is that for fair and equal? Yes it is much better than a water squirting duel and you can be right there in the middle of it and on the big screen. My suggestion was only to try and get both sides to laugh a little but as you keep pointing out this is way too serious for that and the only responsible thing is for you and Reggie to look into a camera and state your case. You game?

Kathryn, who called whom an infidel? I certainly haven't. May I point out that in a fair debate that all parties know the identity of who they are debating OR neither party know the identity of who they will debate. I know you understand why that is fair and appropriate. Neither party in a debate should have an advantage of information. Those are not my rules but the rules of debate.

My point is that CU seems to have become a religion. If you're not a believer, you're wrong.