Chris Spangle

“A political party without a higher purpose is nothing more than a cartel, a syndicate. No one asks what is the greater good OPEC is trying to achieve. Its purpose is to sell oil at the highest prices possible. So it is with today’s Republican Party. It is a cartel that exists to elect Republicans. There is no organized, coherent purpose other than the acquisition and maintenance of power.”
― Stuart Stevens, It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump

“The American species (to the extent that there really is such a thing) is, of course, populist rather than conservative—and for a very forceful reason: America happens to be the only society in creation built by conscious human intent…and developed, by Europeans tired of Europe’s ancient commitments, and determined,…each in his own way, on a “new beginning.”
― Stuart Stevens, It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump

“Surprisingly, a number of old-timers from distinguished families had a different opinion. Under the landladies’ control (and with the cooperation of city and county government), prostitution had been properly regulated. The girls were healthy, received regular medical attention and had few illegitimate births resulting from their work. St. Augustine residents who were interviewed in the late 1970s and early 1980s said the girls who worked in these brothels were mostly well mannered and well dressed and were not considered “low-class.” With the closing of the brothels, however, prostitution moved into the streets, well outside of the city proper and its environs. It became associated with drug use, violent crime, increased incidence of sexually transmitted diseases and increased numbers of children born out of wedlock. In the opinion of one matron, closing the brothels was the worst thing that ever happened to the moral and social condition of St. Augustine. The rejoicing that came with the end of that form of immorality came at a high cost.”
― Ann Colby, Wicked St. Augustine

“One of St. Augustine’s most famous rumrunners was William McCoy, who was also the purported inventor of the ham sack. McCoy operated a boat taxi service for the Jacksonville–St. Augustine area and a boatyard where he built yachts for Andrew Carnegie, the Vanderbilts and others. When Prohibition hit, he recognized the opportunity for a new, more lucrative business enterprise. He sold the taxi service and the boatyard and bought a schooner, which he named Tomoka. McCoy would sail Tomoka (and later six additional vessels added to his fleet) to the Bahamas, fill it with the best rye, Irish, and Canadian whiskey he could purchase and then sail back to St. Augustine and anchor just outside the three-mile limit. The locals would then sail their own vessels out to the Tomoka and purchase what they needed, a perfectly legal transaction on McCoy’s part. Bill McCoy became famous for the quality of his product and the fact that he never “cut,” or diluted his liquor. When you bought from Bill, you were getting the “Real McCoy,” and that is how we remember him today.”
― Ann Colby, Wicked St. Augustine