Illegal aliens cost American taxpayers a staggering $134.9 billion annually, according to a detailed analysis of federal, state and local programs that include education, medical care, law enforcement, and welfare. U.S. citizens, particularly those of us in Nassau County, are on the hook for that tab. And it’s only going to get worse.

Conducted by the Federation of for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a Washington D.C. nonprofit organization dedicated to studying immigration issues, the in-depth probe reveals that state and local taxpayers like us get stuck with an overwhelming chunk — $116 billion — of the burden. State and local expenditures for services provided to illegal aliens total $89 billion and federal expenditures $46 billion, the analysis found.

Florida taxpayers are some of the hardest hit with the top four spenders providing illegal aliens benefits being California ($23 billion), Texas ($10.9 billion), New York ($7.5 billion), and Florida $(6.3 billion).

This defies a myth, long promoted by open-border groups including most Democrats, that illegal aliens pay their share of taxes. They don’t. Government figures show only $19 billion recouped by Uncle Sam.

And that’s not all says the study.”Illegal aliens present significant national security and public safety threats to the United States.”

For example California’s tax payers, caught between its staggering number of Silicon Valley billionaires and indigent legions, are getting hammered by that state’s economic decline that illegals pouring through America’s porous border are exacerbating. They are attracted by that state’s generous welfare offerings and the promise of sanctuary status created by a sclerotic Democrat left-wing government that offers no solutions and only more misery for its citizens.

According to the nonprofit journalism organization CALmatters, California’s poverty rate is the highest in the nation. And, according to Forbes, California is also home to 124 billionaires. Ironically the state looks like something out of a developing world even though the products of its economy flow around the world to help develop it.

Today California has the same number of manufacturing and agricultural jobs as it had 50 years ago. And its population has doubled since then to 40 million.

The Tijuana border leading into California was the first to get hit a by the wave of illegal aliens and their invasion caravan coursing through Mexico and headed here. They didn’t walk, they arrived in buses.

Bob Lonsberry, a journalist, columnist, radio and TV commentator and author, says of the invasion caravan: “There’s just nothing in any of this that makes sense.”

In a recent article he asks some probing questions such as: “The Hondurans in the caravan, the 7,000 people walking north to America, where do they go to the bathroom? And eat and sleep and store their clothes? And how is it that after a week on the road they are clean and their hair and clothes are well kept? How is any of this possible? And why do these people, supposedly fleeing intolerable conditions in their homeland, carry flags from their homeland and break into its national anthem when the TV cameras show up?”

“And speaking of which, for oppressed people, they all seem to be pretty well fed, well groomed and well dressed. Their hair is neat and newly cut, their clothes are clean and in good repair, and they are built like people who have had ample nutrition all their lives, being well developed and, many of them, overweight. And none of them look dirty or unkempt, like they had been sleeping on the ground for the last week.”

Lonsberry is highly critical of the media covering the invasion caravan saying a lot of big questions remain unanswered and ignored by the press. “Who organized this? Who is paying for it? How have they covered 500 miles in a week?” he asks.

“Any number of American ‘reporters’ have walked beside a sympathetic walker and talked about how this particular woman and her children had trekked half a thousand miles over the last week or so. That’s 71 miles a day. The best soldiers through history have been able to march 25 miles a day.

“Provisioning such an army of people – the equivalent of 10 combat battalions in most of the world’s militaries – is a large task. Transporting and distributing the food and water necessary to keep those people moving is a massive chore which the press says nothing about. The entire enterprise, as a spontaneous ad hoc event, is implausible.”

Lonsberry concludes saying: “If Democrats and progressives want open borders and believe all the world’s people have a right to live in the United States – as they say they do – then they should adjust immigration law accordingly. But until then, if they are to keep their oaths of office, they must stand for the law and the border.”

Unless something is done soon the entire country will be suffering like the majority of Californians.

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Speaking Of An Impending Economic Disaster: “Those who believe that ‘basic necessities’ should belong to people as a matter of right ignore the implication – that people are to work only for amenities, frivolities, and ego. Will that mean more work or less work? And if less, where are all those ‘basic necessities’ coming from that the government is supposed to hand out?” – Thomas Sowell via Georgia Public Policy Foundation.

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They Went To Work Instead: The day after the Republicans lost the House of Representatives last week, there were no riots, no conservative celebrities threatening to move to Europe or Canada, no damage to private or public property, no cars turned over, nothing set on fire, no people sobbing uncontrollably, no grief counselors sent to schools, and no protest marches. Imagine that.

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The Final Votes Are In: All the votes in south Florida have finally been counted and Al Gore still isn’t President.

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A Fishy Story: Amelia Island resident, retired Georgia high school principal, and a native of St. Petersburg, Florida, Tom Yankus, alerted me that the local Winn Dixie grocery store was selling whole mullets in their seafood section so I scurried over there and bought three. The only problem is I have no idea how to smoke them and even if I did I don’t have the proper equipment. Tom solved my dilemma offering to smoke the fish at his place using a recipe he says he got from the most famous place on the planet to get smoked mullet — Ted Peters on St. Pete Beach. “The best way to spend a Friday night and great Friday night date is smoking mullet,” says Tom, whose wife Annie agrees. “This week the massive schools of mullet are off this Atlantic Ocean Coast migrating to South Florida and warmer waters and my smoked mullet tastes as good if not better then Ted Peters in St. Pete,” boasts Tom. I have to agree as I enjoyed the ones he smoked for me with a cold beer, cole slaw and a bottle of Texas Pete hot sauce. Tom’s secret recipe? He won’t tell. And I don’t care as he made a very positive impression on the Scott household this past week. Thanks pal.

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How Do They Know? To me one of the mysteries of the deep is how do we know how many right whales there are? Articles I’ve read recently say there are there are 451 North Atlantic right whales left in the world. How do they know? It’s not like a census where they fill out a form and mail it back or send in a change of address card. And 451 is a pretty precise number. Who’s out there counting whales, how do they do that and is it a full time job?

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A Bridge Too Far: Charlie Freeman, retired AT&T employee and current Egans Creek Marina Dock Master, who lives there on his boat “No Dial Tone”, reported that last week he received a call from a boat captain requesting a slip:

Captain: Do you have dockage for a 74-foot yacht?

Charlie: Negative captain. There’s a fixed concrete bridge between me and the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway).

Captain: Are you sure you can’t fit me in? Just need two night’s dockage.

Charlie: Captain, there’s only a 22-foot clearance between my marina and the ICW.

Captain: We really could use a spot, sure you can’t find or make room?.

Charlie: Captain if you can squeeze that boat under the bridge, I WILL find you room.

The captain decided not to try it.

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The Tournament of Babble: Last weekend’s Amelia Island Petanque Tournament, the largest on the globe, attracted 186 teams consisting of 372 players from around the planet representing 14 countries — from Switzerland to South Korea, Netherlands to New Zealand, and Canada to Czech Republic.

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Drinking, Dining & Dancing: Pajamadave Voorhees, the quirky owner of downtown Fernandina Beach’s PJD’s Beer & Wine Garden along with his pretty and level-headed fiance, Zan Maddox, got approval last evening from the approval-givers at City Hall to open his Tree House, an upstairs replica of the popular downstairs joint. This should help alleviate some of the overflow crowds that cram this fun pub daily. Rumors are plentiful that the open air Galley Bar & Grill, located at 251 Creekside Drive, in the Amelia Island Marina, just east of Shave Bridge, will be under new management beginning January 2019. The planned 239-room Courtyard/Springhill hotel and restaurant proposed for the site beside the Atlantic Avenue Lutheran Church is currently undergoing review by a variety of local agencies. This is the site that once hosted a now demolished residential health facility. The hotel should be a boon for Main Beach’s soon to be opened Salt Life and the year-old Sandbar & Kitchen.