Millions in Dark Money Funding Climate Change Denial: Report | Common Dreams

Millions in Dark Money Funding Climate Change Denial: Report | Common Dreams

2013 Post of the Year and Winner of the First Annual Eye On Miami "Sand in Your Eyes Award"

Eye On Miami conceived the "Sand In Your Eyes Award" in response to the "Sand In Your Shoes Award", the jovial tip o' the cap by the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce to community leaders we are more likely to lump in our category of "Great Destroyers".

Our readers'  award recognizes a person, an agency or corporation whose actions have substantially added to the incredulity that goes along with observing Miami. Readers, by a large margin, conferred this dubious distinction to District 8 County Commissioner Lynda Bell.

Bell comes from the most corrupt little city in America: Homestead. In just her first term in county office, Bell swept aside the public service legacy of her predecessor -- Katy Sorenson -- and blew in a pro-development arrogance with no regard for history or balance. Because Bell is also capable of smarmy virtue-on-her-sleeve, she makes a perfect first recipient of our first annual "Sand In Your Eyes Award".

Among our readers, Bell did have competition. Mayor Carlos Gimenez and Kathy Fernandez Rundle, Miami-Dade State Attorney, won strong support from our readers.

Our Best Post/s of the Year link to Commissioner Bell. Genius of Depair, my co-blogger, knocked the ball out-of-the-park with disclosures (picked up afterwards by the mainstream press) about the connection between Commissioner Bell and her family, a fencing ordinance that could have benefited a business run by her daughter (she neglected to disclose to the other Commissioners that the business was housed at her own home). That story leap-frogged to the shady involvement of a Sweetwater tow truck service (a city on the edge of the Everglades where Bell's daughter is a "law enforcement officer"  and fence contractor, using the Former Mayor's equipment. That subsequently triggered even further investigation by law enforcement agencies for its connections to the Sweetwater Police Department).

Here are the EOM links to our best posts of the year: The Chain Link Fence Saga and Sweetwater Connection:

Part 1: Investigative Report on Lynda Bell

Part 2: The Chain Link Saga continues with Sweetwater

Part 3: Do as I say, not as I do 

There is an aroma from these reports that drifts toward the King of Sweetwater: County Commissioner Pepe Diaz. As a member of the county commission's "unreformable majority", Diaz has already been the target of one federal investigation. In other words, Lynda Bell fits into -- ineptly -- the tradition we celebrated in yesterday's official new slogan for Miami-Dade County: "so close to the United States".

In 2014 we cross our fingers that Miami-Dade County will welcome new candidates for public office (good-bye to Bell!) and new initiatives by federal and state law enforcement to root out corrupt public officials and elected officials asleep at the switch. Some of these will certainly be candidates for our 2014 "Sand In Your Eyes Award"!

2013: The Year of the Canaries In The Climate-Change Coal Mine … by gimleteye

For my final post of 2013 I am going to (again) write about climate change. This seems to be the year of the canaries in the climate-change coal mine. "Seems", because at the risk of repetition I have been on that metaphor from the moment I started on the environment.

Back in the late 1980's I wrote about serial algae blooms in northern Florida Bay. Although the scientists were scratching each other's eyes out at the time -- on the cause --, it was clear that nothing could stop these amorphous, amoeba-like blobs from overtaking a vast, extraordinary piece of the Everglades ecosystem.

Nothing but government action to reverse decades of water mis-management that accrued to the benefit and upstream profits of Big Sugar. But the deniers controlled the levers of government: it was Ronald Reagan, James Watts and the Wise Use Movement that mobilized through its Florida Keys branch, the Conch Coalition.

Even the scientists have stopped arguing. Florida Bay is, for all intents and purposes, converted to a blighted remnant that is host, mainly, to scavenger species. There are still a few trophies left, bewildered stragglers. Just go to a few restaurants in the Keys to see the photos on the walls -- like the Square Grouper on Summerland Key or Stouts on Marathon Key -- to see what was.

As those early algae blooms were canaries in a coal mine to the fate of Florida Bay, so is the degradation of our coastal waters in Florida a canary in the coal mine for land-based natural resources. We are awash in a sea of pollution -- the toxic form of mercury flows in the middle of the Everglades in degrees that make it one of the world's hot spots. In other words, the canaries in the coal mine are everywhere.

Superstorm Sandy. Ice storms, now, through much of the nation depriving millions of electricity while serial cold fronts sweep through. And in Miami? Just yesterday I had the AC repair out: the humidity just busted my air conditioner: in December! I asked the repair guy had his business ever been so good in December? He just shook his head. The other day I asked a motel owner in the Keys, have sea levels been rising? He just shook his head and confided, I'm a climate change denier until I sell my property.

Yesterday, the New York Times published an important story, "Spared Winter Freeze, Florida's Wetlands Are Marching North". "(Dr. Gruner) said that scientists needed to start considering changes beyond just average temperatures as they analyzed the environmental consequences of climate change. More surprises are likely in store, he said. “I don’t like to think about it, quite frankly,” he said. “It’s a little scary.”

"Patrick Gillespie, a spokesman for Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection, offered no specific comment on the new paper. By email, he said the agency had indeed “seen an increase in mangrove habitats to the north and inward along the Atlantic coast. It’s difficult to determine whether this is good or bad for the ecosystem because it’s happened over a relatively short period of time and may be a result of many factors." Tell that to the insurance industry, Mr. Gillespie, your boss, Gov. Rick Scott, and Senator Marco Rubio-who-will-not-meet-with-climate change scientists.

So there you have it: 2013, the Year of the Canaries In The Climate-Change Coal Mine". Unpersuaded? Watch Malcolm Gladwell's "How much proof do we need", beginning with the literal coal mine and the canary. That would be, us.

Throwing around the word Xenophobic. By Geniusofdespair

Front Page of the Miami Herald Dec. 29th. Because the Herald is talking about the dirtiest years of corruption and most of those pictured are Hispanic, are they being Xenophobic towards Hispanics?

Gee, most of the people pictured in this Herald Article on Miami Dade Corruption are Hispanic. Does that make the Miami Herald Xenophobic? If they were Black would the Herald be racist? Xenophobic means: the irrational or unreasoned fear of that which is perceived to be foreign or strange.  Because the majority of those pictured are Hispanic (does that mean the Herald is afraid of them)?

Get real. News is what it is and sometimes parody is just that (our post earlier today doing a take-off on the County Slogan) (that you all voted for).

Stop throwing around words that don't mean what you think.  Blogs aren't for sissies.

Readers Deliver Official 2014 Slogan For Miami-Dade County … by gimleteye

Eye On Miami is pleased to announce the winner/s (anonymous) for the Contest To Devise A New Slogan For Miami-Dade County.

The current slogan is "Delivering Excellence Every Day".

The winner of the best descriptive phrase for Miami-Dade County goes to … (drumroll) … "Miami-Dade County: so close to the United States".

Now, the proximity of Miami-Dade County to the United States should not be mistaken for a contiguous border, as might express by crossing a geopolitical boundary on an interstate highway. We are apart in subtle ways that challenge description.

We are not separate because we are lawless. Far from it. The many people charged with prosecuting or defending our laws are vigilant and aggressive. They crowd Brickell Avenue and downtown just so long as no sacred cows are in front of them, in which case the flocks of well-shod vanish into thin air.

More to the point, on the legal, moral and ethical spectrum Miami has invented and marches to shades of gray that don't exist anywhere in the lower 48.

Many of our commenters return to the descriptive theme of the banana republic, but we think the winner -- "so close to the United States" -- expresses at least in part a yearning to be restored, genetically perhaps, to ideals of democracy that never took root here beyond Miami's billboard culture. Runner-up: "Miami-Dade County: Get Your Kicks On 836". (We don't know what it means, we know what it means.)

Deciding the outcome for the new slogan contest for Miami-Dade County was challenging. We asked for readers to hew to the action embraced by the current slogan: "delivering excellence every day".

Since our winner is "descriptive", we decided on a second award for that slogan that best approaches an "action" describing the county.  We had to carefully "step over" numerous references to excrement along the way.

But before disclosing our winner, allow us to address a question posed by an anonymous responder: "Wow, you people need to move to a better place. What are you still doing here?" Say, what?

Speaking for many of our readers, we believe Miami could be a better place if elected officials went down the list of objections and complaints enumerated in our slogan competition and began to address them one by one.

Because our elected officials only rarely approach our problems seriously, we believe that our new slogan for Miami-Dade County should aim for the greatest possible accuracy in the complaint department.

No one believes that Miami-Dade County is "delivering excellence every day". If we were, why would the outstanding infrastructure deficits (not counting, do tell, the utter lack of respect for public spaces) total more than $10 billion? Why is County Hall a revolving door between the regulators and the regulated, a fraternity of land use lawyers, lobbyists and decision makers that make a mockery of ethics in government and operate in that off-the-visible-spectrum gray zone?

So here it is: our winner. We thank our readers and our contest participants one and all! Our best wishes for a cantankerous yet healthy and prosperous New Year.

The Winner

The Waffle Caper. By Geniusofdespair

I went to the Thomas Edison Museum/home and I saw a waffle maker. I assumed Thomas Edison invented the waffle iron and was very impressed.

This morning in my hotel I got a hankering for a waffle. Apparently the waffle makers weren't heated up enough so the waffle batter got stuck to the waffle makers. I watched the whole scenario as they tried to get the waffle mixture off the waffle makers. I said to myself I don't think I'm going to a get the waffle I craved, and I had cereal instead.

Next thing I knew the waffle irons were fixed and everyone was eating waffles. I made one for myself and commented to an Italian woman on line for waffles that Thomas Edison had invented the waffle iron. She said that's not true, the waffle irons have been around forever. I looked it up and she was right 13th or 14th-century. Mortified? Yes but I was not ready to give up my wrong information.

The correction is: The waffle iron was not invented in 1911 by Thomas Edison. The electric waffle iron was invented then by him.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it, like the syrup on my fingers.

IPhone sorry for mistakes.

Miami 2014 … by gimleteye

My wife and I took a walk on the beach the other day. Miami Beach was packed with vacationers. Earlier in the week I had written about the perplexing mini-boom in construction that is gripping Miami only a few years after the worst real estate crash since the Great Depression.

The political abuses that mounted during the last building boom -- high as Mt. Trashmore -- had consequences, although it is hard to find any at all in 2013. On the other hand, for the great majority of South Florida residents, the effects of the boom and bust are still etched in cratered family finances, prospects, and to the extent that it exists, a vision of the future. What is our future?

By "our" future, I don't mean builders like Jorge Perez risen like phoenixes from the ashes of the boom. In downtown Miami, construction crews are running 24/7. The Barnum and Bailey hucksterism from the developers that accompanied the last boom is back on full display. Where is the money coming from? What does it mean for Miami that -- according to CondoVultures -- applications for more than 180 new condos have been filed in South Florida?

My walk on the beach provides some shade. Twenty five years ago, when we used to regularly take our children to the beach on weekends, the dominant language was Spang-lish. That was right about the time that Miami began attracting Western European visitors. Bruce Weber, Gianni Versaci and the fashion shoots that planted their flags on Ocean Drive in the background. The Van Dyke Cafe appeared like an totemic transplant from NYC's Soho on Lincoln Road.

Three years ago, we were visiting Buenos Aires at Christmas. We scheduled our return to Miami for New Year's day, guessing the airport would be empty until the revelers had shaken the cobwebs from celebrating the night before. Wrong. The airport was jammed with Argentines. All were headed on 8 hour flights to Miami for vacations or to visit their second homes.

The other day, the beach south of 5th Street was crowded with visitors. Unlike twenty five years ago, or even five years ago, there were Chinese, Japanese, Indians, Malaysians, and Russians. It wasn't Spanglish that one could hear. It was a cacophony.

In the abstract, driving through downtown Miami and viewing the recent construction, one can understand how the economy of Miami-Dade County is reliant on the inflow of foreign capital. The exact statistics on how many units and how much commercial space is owned by foreign nationals are not available. However, this point holds true: Miami has been swept up into the globalized uni-destination. We are not the sum of our parts so much as a strange amoeba grown to gargantuan size.

There are implications for 2014 that follow from that observation.

Perhaps the one most relevant to Eye On Miami concerns politics, corruption and consequences. Our government is drifting on the tide of globalization. The buyers and investors behind the hundreds of new Miami condos have no connection whatsoever to the underlying history or politics of place. They want the electricity to work. And it does. They want police on the street. And they are. They would like parks, but there aren't. They would like culture, but it is grafted on where it exists. And traffic -- one of our pet peeves -- well, it's bad in Shanghai, Bangkok and Buenos Aires, too.

Miami is warm in winter. And -- best of all to new capital from around the globalized world -- Miami is comparatively cheap. Money instantly flows to cheap, until money itself becomes more expensive.

What about protecting the environment, our waters, a quality of life that was once two generations removed but is now four generations gone and drifting away day by day? If you asked those visitors on Miami Beach, my guess is that they would look at you like a three-headed monster. In 2014, it is not that people don't know. Like so many earlier generations of Floridians, they come from somewhere else. Increasingly, that somewhere else is a place where the public good is in a strait-jacket, shoved in a basement prison cell.

In 2014, people will continue to receive information about their worlds through a fire hose. "Caring" requires a background of specific knowledge; whether you are caring for an ill relative or for a city charging off in the wrong direction because politics and law enforcement are distracted by a different set of values.

In 2014, Miami is predominantly Hispanic but what Miami is becoming is built on flight capitol -- from the Americas extended to the forces of globalization that instantly attract wealth from Asia, from Russia and Europe with just a few clicks on Google. Welcome?

From the High Museum in Atlanta. By Geniusofdespair

What could I possibly add to this? It reminds me of a Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap label.

A Love Letter To All My Hispanic Friends at Holiday Time. By Geniusofdespair

On Facebook my Hispanic friends post pictures of family parties, cousins, parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, nieces and nephews and their children too. I envy their family loyalty but not having a party with 20+ people. I have seen my girlfriend's mother more than my 2 sisters.  For the most part, I don't post anyone in my extended family on Facebook and spend very little time with them. I post things like Whitney Houston, Nina Simone and a few other things like that on Facebook. All unrelated to me. I am not very fond of most of my family (they don't read my blog so I am safe saying it), however, I guess it is time to post a family portrait of the ones I DO love:

Actually it is a painting I did of people I photographed. But they could be my family. they appear to be be fun-loving and fond of the water. I am both. I could love them...if I knew who they were.

No Time Left To Tinker At The Edges Of Climate Change … by Larry Fink

There is no time left on the clock for free market solutions to the global warming problem, like capping and trading credits for or taxing carbon dioxide emissions equivalents. That was what we should have been doing since Jimmy Carter was President, before Ronald Reagan removed the solar panels from the White House and declared a Holy War on the environment. 

Then Nature fought back with a fury fueled by millions of megatons of pent up rage.

 

Thanks to 30 years of Reaganomics, we are now at a climate inflection point where draconian measures are called for, including:

(1) Use eminent domain to pay fair market value to keep the remaining fossil fuel reserves in the ground in a perpetual Carbon Trust. 

(2) To recapture the carbon dioxide over-emitted to date, plant fast-growing trees on marginal lands that are watered with treated human wastewater and fed with treated human sludge. 

 

Both projects will be paid for with long-term Planet-Saver Bonds issued by the World Bank, with interest paid on the bonds from 10% of the profits from the sustainability-compatible commercial activities on the acquired lands from the lease-back agreements. 

 

It will cost trillions of dollars, but it will prevent hundreds of trillions of dollars in damages avoided and civilization saved over the next 100 years from sea level rise, ocean acidfication, and the increasing magnitudes, durations, and frequencies of extreme weather events that wipe out crops, spread pestilence and disease, cause mass migrations of people and wildlife, and exacerbate famine, starvation, debilitation and death.

 

Otherwise, the Atlantis myth is increasingly our reality.

 

http://truth-out.org/news/item/20751-climate-change-2013-where-we-are-now-not-what-you-think

For Person Of The Year: Edward Snowden

Back in October, Eye On Miami offered our vote to Time Magazine for the Person of the Year to NSA leaker, Edward Snowden. The Person of the Year should be someone uniquely suited, through his or her actions, to the times. Popes come and go but rarely does a Shakespearean character emerge fully clothed like Edward Snowden.

Snowden blows the doors off an issue closeted in America's consciousness: how much freedom we surrender to technologies whose reach and scope our Founding Fathers could never have imagined. Where do we draw the line on data collection? How do we dial back the national security state? but for Edward Snowden, these questions would be dormant.

There is enormous pressure now -- and it is reflected in what you hear from esteemed members of Congress -- to keep the wraps on surveillance technologies that touch our liberty and, by extension, vilify anyone with the temerity to expose the extent of data mining, collection, and storage.

From outside appearance, Edward Snowden is unremarkable. His skills sets with computers and software don't intersect with 99 percent of people his age. He would be the geek you might avoid in high school. (His detractors now harp on that story line. How he sat before his computer with a hood covering both his head and the screen.)

What makes us so uncomfortable in our celebrity-driven culture is that Snowden is an anti-celebrity. Everything about him speaks to the ordinary -- where cultural fame demands beauty, he is average looking, where our conscious attractions require of famous performers that any flaw in appearance be accompanied by a special character of voice, delivery or skill, Snowden is pallid, his stubble is average, nothing about him on film or photo sings -- and what he did was extraordinary.

His most ordinary fault is that under almost every other conceivable outcome of his interests and skills he would never be famous.  He is not an inventor. He is not a software or hardware designer. Had Shakespeare any inkling of what was to come, the great Bard or maybe Samuel Beckett might have invented him.

Eugene Robinson, OPED writer for the Washington Post, yesterday wrote that Snowden comes across as "smug and self-righteous-- an imperfect messenger, to say the least." I disagree. Think of the enormity of what Snowden did and try to imagine his actions performed by a grizzled veteran like Daniel Ellsberg or senior scientist. No. It takes someone young, reckless and idealistic to first gain access to the security state and then use keystrokes on a computer keyboard to undo the secrecy that required hundreds of billions of taxpayer investment.

Note from Quartz:

As more and more revelations emerged from the documents Edward Snowden lifted from the US National Security Agency, observers seemed numbed by the sheer scope and audacity of the agency’s domestic and foreign internet surveillance. The fallout for the tech industry has just begun: US companies must now prove, especially to foreign customers, that the move to cloud-based services, which necessitates sending all their data through the very same communication nodes to which the NSA has access, won’t put all of their secrets in the hands of US spymasters by default.

The effects are already being felt. Cisco blamed a poor quarter on deals in Russia and Brazil soured by fears about the NSA. Cisco also warned that this will affect many other US firms, and that it threatens the future of the internet of things—fitting, since the implications of a world in which every gadget is a potential mole sure are scary.

Inevitably, Snodwen's actions will drive the national security state to more inventive barriers and paranoia. With a history of lying to Congress and even to the President, now that the NSA is burying itself even deeper, who will reign in the spying? Edward Snowden might be all American voters and taxpayers ever get in terms of a single individual with the knowledge, access, and ability to publicly disclose the event of surveillance on all Americans and how the quest to find the needle in the haystack has put the tools for massive repression in the hands of a few people we trust to honor our privacy.

When Snowden says, as he does now, that the invasion of personal freedom has gone so much further than Orwell could have imagined, who can doubt he is right?

Robinson concludes:

(Snowden) was an obscure analyst working for a National Security Agency (NSA) contractor at a remote outpost in Hawaii. When he began working in the secret world, by his own telling, he was a true believer. But he became disillusioned — and then incensed — at what he considered outrageous violations of individual privacy by a surveillance apparatus that was out of control.
Snowden’s decision to leak massive amounts of information concerning some of the NSA’s most secret and intrusive spying programs has done more than embarrass officials in Washington. It has galvanized efforts throughout the world to protect what little privacy we have left.
Snowden’s revelations are devastating in their specificity. Americans know that all of our phone calls are logged by the government in a massive database. German Chancellor Angela Merkel knows that the NSA tapped her mobile phone. Brazilians and Indonesians, among others, know that their phone conversations may be listened to and their e-mails may be perused.
We know that secret court orders have forced phone companies and Internet providers to surrender private information. We also know that, unbeknown to those companies, the NSA and its partners — the equivalent spy agencies in Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — apparently tap into fiber-optic cables and guzzle as much information as they can.
These ongoing disclosures provide a detailed map of a shadow realm that spans the globe. We now know how technology is destroying privacy — and what steps governments and communications companies must be pressured to take in order that privacy survives.
I can’t think of any individual who had more influence in 2013. Edward Snowden is the person of the year."

Did you vote in our poll? By Geniusofdespair

Almost time to publish our results. Vote in the "Sand in your Eyes" poll (right side of page).  More info on our poll.

Have a Merry Miami Christmas! … by gimleteye

A Christmas Story: Genting Casino Good to Staff? By Geniusofdespair

Resorts World CEO center? "Get me the name of those union leaders" he says.

Not so in New York. The Queens casino owned by Genting/Resorts World was ORDERED by a labor arbitrator to pay its staff a living wage.  that doubled most salaries. The workers went from $20,000 average to $40,000. So this is a happy ending for workers at the New York casino on food stamps and working 2 jobs.

We are talking New York wages not Arkansas.

The new Eddie Borrego, Lynda Bell's Chief of Staff, drives a Mercedes and is said to park in Lynda's space at the county executive parking lot when she isn't there. Which Eddie went to Singapore? He doesn't have to worry about a living wage, his year to date gross is $109,713.48. Eddie what happened to Johanna Faddis? Will someone find out?

So when Pepe Diaz and Lynda Bell say, the Casino will be good for jobs, think again.  Read this story from New  York. They had to be FORCED to pay a living wage. Remember, Lynda went to visit the Genting casino in a Singapore trip she made with her sidekick Eddie Borrego (we paid for both to go). Remember this New York story when Commissioners mention "jobs". This is why unions are necessary to fight greedy companies, like Malaysia's biggest corporation.

Resorts World, which has been spectacularly successful, did not dispute its ability to pay the salaries sought by the union, the Hotel Trades Council. The casino, which opened two years ago in southeastern Queens, attracts 35,000 visitors a day. It posted revenues of $696.5 million in the year ended in March and its electronic slot machines averaged $432 each a day in September, considerably more than slot machines in Atlantic City, Connecticut or Las Vegas

My Predictions for the future. By Geniusofdespair

• Lynda Bell will lose her District 8 County Commission seat in a close election. She will lose the key to her fence and find herself locked in her house. She will miss the last 4 days of campaigning and ringing that annoying bell at the polls. Her absence will make the difference. She will lose by 362 votes.

• Frank Carollo will run for Mayor of the City of Miami...and win. He will hire his brother to manage the city.

• Erik Fresen will finally lose his State Representative seat. It will be because his dentist puts the wrong mixture on his teeth and they lose their ultra-white sparkle (the only reason he could possibly win in the first place).

• Charlie Crist will hire Erik Fresen's dentist, who actually is a Democrat, and end up becoming Governor.

• Rebeca Sosa will run for County Mayor as will Xavier Suarez. They will have a  sing-off to see who bows out.

•  Eye on Miami will make a lot of money from that NEW DONATE button on the right of your screen or retire. That is a veiled threat. Ron Book, how about a few thousand? Genting? All our friends at the LBA and U.S. Century? The Knight Foundation? The money is rolling in already!! Thank God for Christmas present guilt. I think Carlos Gimenez has donated...not really sure. Go find that button guys!

Any predictions of your own?

The Second Building Boom in Miami: how, where, why? … by gimleteye

You have to pinch yourself.  Less than four years after the worst collapse of real estate since the Great Depression, Miami is in the midst of a second construction boom. It was only two years ago I wrote an essay for the blog, "The Twelve Days of Christmas"; detailing the players and hubris of the massive boom in the early 2000's. It's a trip down memory lane …

How is it possible that so soon after the crash another boom -- and likely another speculative bubble -- has taken off in downtown Miami? 

Last night, before dark, I walked with a friend around the area of lower South Miami Avenue near Mary Brickell Village. The place was sparsely attended. Locals have taken flights home for the holidays while new buyers from the Americas and Europe are spending Christmas and New Year's at home before getting on airplanes and flying to Miami for vacation.

Millions of square feet of housing and commercial space are sprouting up. If I close my eyes, it seems just yesterday that the only restaurants were Perricones and Rosinellas. 

Is this growth real or not? Last time around, the Fed's money purse (ie. taxpayers) was wide open, and before the crash, rogue banks like US Century were handing out mortgages like paper flyers on election day. The Fed rate remains super low, but unless I'm missing something, the banks have tightened hard on mortgage requirements.

I've heard and read that construction financing has also tightened, but many of this bubble's downtown Miami projects are mostly subscribed before the construction begins. Can excess liquidity swamp the equation of supply and demand? It happened in 2002-2006. I can't say if the same is happening now.

Increasingly I ask the question of the whole of downtown, but especially of the Brickell area. To be sure, the frightful traffic and diminished quality of life in the suburbs -- thanks to horrendous zoning decisions pushed by insider lobbyists and their cohorts on the county commission -- are pushing people toward the urban center. But there are no parks, and day by day the traffic becomes more congested.

Are there enough locals -- people who live and work downtown -- to sustain the massive construction boom? And how will buyers who only a few years ago bought condominiums with Biscayne Bay views feel about their property values, now that they realize they live in a condo canyon?

Remove the investment from the Americas, and Miami's economy would be flat on its back. But as my friend said, you can't change the fact. Miami -- a center of flight capital for the Americas since the cocaine cowboy days -- never stopped taking flight itself thanks to the exodus of billions of dollars from around the world. Today European economies are in a slump. Western capitols are comparatively expensive. Miami looks like a deal from the outside, but from the inside there are signs to the contrary.

And Miami has always sold itself cheap. Not just Miami, although we perfected the formula as a way to combine personal wealth of the Great Destroyers with political power. "Affordable" sprawl was the gold dagger in the heart of the state's natural attributes; willfully and deliberately mis-priced to make the formula work. But that is not exactly what is happening in downtown Miami.

I'm really not sure how many of the thousands of units that were built in the first boom and now in the second will ever be lived in, by their foreign owners. The shuck and jive detailed in the 2011 "Twelve Days of Christmas" is still happening, with many of the same players back in charge. 

Last night, I was really sure of only one observation. The workers busy on three shift details and there for one reason. The equity owners are racing the time clock because they know what follows a Miami construction boom. They want to take some if not all of their chips off the table before the next bust. 

That's why 24/7 construction. It's all hands on deck so long as buyers flood in, or as my father used to say, you have to make hay while the sun is shining. Shining it is, in Miami.

Christmas Light Shows. By Geniusofdespair

David Suzuki and the 59th Minute … share with your friends and family … by gimleteye

Erik Fresen's Campaign Report. By Geniusofdespair

Erik Fresen has collected $113,853. Against Erik, Daisy J. Baez has collected $67,005. That is pretty good since the last candidate against Fresen, Ross Hancock,  lost by about 1,400 votes, and he hardly collected any money at all.

Erik's PAC FLORIDIANS FOR A STRONG 67 Contributions:

07/27/12 StudentsFirst 825 K Street, 2nd Floor Sacramento CA 95814 education 5,000.00

07/27/12 United Faculty of Miami Dade Community College 11420 N. Kendall Drive, #107 Miami FL 33176 political org. 1,500.00

09/05/12 Creating Possibilities 610 S. Boulevard Tampa FL 33606 political org. 10,000.00

09/20/12 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 9205 Southpark Center Loop Ornaldo FL 32819 publishing 2,500.00

09/24/12 Creating Possibilities 610 S. Boulevard Tampa FL 33606 political org. 55,000.00

10/26/12 Paul Tudor Jones, II 92 Harbor Drive Greenwich CT 6830 investments 2,500.00

10/26/12 Building a Better Florida 610 S. Boulevard Tampa FL 33606 political org. 2,500.00

10/26/12 Florida Thoroughbred Breeders PAC 801 S.W. 60th Avenue Ocala FL 34474 political org. 1,000.00

11/02/12 Rebuild Florida 8567 Coral Way, #374 Miami FL 33155 political org. 2,500.00

02/14/13 Creating Possibilities 610 S. Boulevard Tampa FL 33606 political org. 10,000.00

02/21/13 Ronald Book, P.A. 18851 N.E. 29th Avenue, #1010 Aventura FL 33180 law firm 2,500.00

02/28/13 Job Growth for South Florida 610 S. Boulevard Tampa FL 33606 political org. 2,000.00

03/01/13 Floridians for Innovation In Education 2640-A Mitcham Drive Tallahassee FL 32308 political org. 3,000.00

03/04/13 KHSE, LLC 1210 E. Beltline Road Richardson TX 75081 communications 2,500.00

03/04/13 Bayfront 2011 Development, LLC 1501 Biscayne Blvd, #107 Miami FL 33132 development 2,500.00

03/04/13 Florida Optometric CCE 319 Belvedere Road, #1 West Palm Beach FL 33405 political org. 2,500.00

03/04/13 Building a Better Florida 610 S. Boulevard Tampa FL 33606 political org. 2,500.00

03/05/13 Florida Freedom Council CCE 2640-A Mitcham Drive Tallahassee FL 32308 political org. 5,000.00

07/30/13 Molina Healthcare, Inc. 200 Oceangate, #100 Long Beach CA 90802 health care 2,500.00

07/30/13 Mark W. Anderson 121 N. Monroe Street, #1401 Tallahassee FL 32301 govt. consultant 1,000.00

07/30/13 Dosal Tobacco Corporation 4775 N.W. 132nd Street Miami FL 33054 tobacco 5,000.00

07/30/13 West Flagler Associates, Ltd. P. O. Box 350940 Miami FL 33135 entertainment 5,000.00

07/31/13 Sunshine Gasoline Distributors, Inc. 1650 N.W. 87th Avenue Miami FL 33172 petroleum distribution 2,500.00

07/31/13 K12 Management, Inc. 2300 Corporate Park Drive Herndon VA 20171 education 2,500.00

07/31/13 The Horne Group P. O. Box 8339 Fleming Island FL 32006 govt. relations 2,000.00

07/31/13 Mixon & Associates 119 E. Park Avenue Tallahassee FL 32301 govt. relations 2,000.00

07/31/13 StudentsFirst 825 K Street, 2nd Floor Sacramento CA 95814 education 2,000.00

07/31/13 Posiventure, Inc. 9220 Bonita Springs Road, S.E., #210 Bonita Springs FL 34135 real estate 10,000.00

This was last updated 8/5/2013

Erik's PAC FLORIDIANS FOR A STRONG 67 Expenditures:

09/30/09 Robert H. Fernandez, P.A. 800 Douglas Road, #850 Coral Gables FL 33134 legal services 2,000.00

09/30/09 Dana D. Young Campaign 1807 W. Richardson Place Tampa FL 33606 contribution 500.00

10/05/09 Taproot Creative Group, LLC P. O. Box 10556 Tallahassee FL 32302 website design/hosting 1,026.09

12/09/09 Innovate Florida 610 S. Boulevard Tampa FL 33606 contribution 5,000.00

12/29/09 W. Greg Steube Campaign P. O. Box 110017 Bradenton FL 34211 contribution 500.00

12/29/09 Shawn Harrison Campaign 1010 N. Florida Avenue Tampa FL 33602 contribution 500.00

10/13/11 Taproot Creative Group, LLC P. O. Box 10556 Tallahassee FL 32302 domain renewal 18.89

12/08/11 Taproot Creative Group, LLC P. O. Box 10556 Tallahassee FL 32302 website hosting 250.00

12/15/11 Communication Solutions, Inc. 2665 S.W. 37th Avenue, #504 Miami FL 33133 consulting 3,000.00

08/02/12 Cornerstone Management Partners, LLC 17 Westminster Gate Bergenfield NJ 07621 survey 1,500.00

08/07/12 Floridians for Economic Leadership 120 S. Monroe Street Tallahassee FL 32301 contribution 500.00

09/12/12 Floridans for Integrity in Government 610 S. Boulevard Tampa FL 33606 contribution 10,000.00

09/25/12 Floridans for Integrity in Government 610 S. Boulevard Tampa FL 33606 contribution 55,000.00

10/03/12 Mike LaRosa Campaign 1002 Sandlace Court Celebration FL 34747 contribution 500.00

03/21/13 Citizens for Effective and Effective Leadership 8306 Mills Drive, #374 Miami FL 33183 contribution 2,500.00

03/21/13 Penton Consulting, LLC 350 4th Avenue, S., #3 St. Petersburg FL 33701 consulting 5,000.00

04/05/13 Discover P. O. Box 6103 Carol Stream IL 60197 food & beverage 1,137.29

05/20/13 Mike Hill Campaign P. O. Box 16229 Pensacola FL 32507 contribution 500.00

05/22/13 Lucie M. Tondreau Campaign 1005 N.W. 128th Terrace North Miami FL 33168 contribution 500.00

05/29/13 Steven Bateman Campaign 3150 Fairways Drive Homestead FL 33035 contribution 500.00

06/06/13 Taproot Creative Group, LLC P. O. Box 10556 Tallahassee FL 32302 domain renewal 10.16

06/14/13 Discover P. O. Box 71084 Charlotte NC 28272 food & beverage 1,041.10

07/31/13 Bank of Tampa P. O. Box 1 Tampa FL 33601 service charge 15.00

07/31/13 Bank of Tampa P. O. Box 1 Tampa FL 33601 service charge 15.00

08/16/13 Penton Consulting, LLC 350 4th Avenue, S., #3 St. Petersburg FL 33701 consulting 3,450.00

08/29/13 Robert Watkins & Company 610 S. Boulevard Tampa FL 33606 accounting services 5,465.67

09/05/13 Discover P. O. Box 71084 Charlotte NC 28272 travel 812.23

08/29/13 Robert Watkins & Company 610 S. Boulevard Tampa FL 33606 accounting services 5,465.67

09/25/13 Robert Watkins & Company 610 S. Boulevard Tampa FL 33606 accounting services 750.00

09/27/13 Floridians for a Strong 67 PC 95 Merrick Way, #250 Coral Gables FL 33134 contribution 65,458.57

 This was last updated 9/27/2013

I like the contributions to Lucie Tondreau and Steve Bateman. What do you think of that Lynda Bell? The only thing I don't understand is he listed an expenditure to his own PAC from his CCE for $65,458.57. That makes no sense to me.  What did he spend it on?  And I looked up Floridans for Integrity in Government and could not find the contributions on their site.  He changed it to a PAC from CCE 9/27/2013.

Sunday Rant: Charcoal Barbecue Grills … by gimleteye

I don't have high barriers for choosing a charcoal barbecue grill. I don't want a shopping cart positioned over a wood fire. On the other hand, why are barbecue grills so poorly made?

I cover my grills faithfully and clean them out. But I've burned through so many grills over the years, why don't the manufacturers don't just label the grill: "this is a disposable product. After three years, discard."

Here is what I want. I want a charcoal grate to be adjustable, preferably by a lever; to raise and lower the heat. I want the air flow to be controllable. Is this too much to ask? I want thick enough metal in the key places where corrosion occurs; not skinny sheets.

If you have $2500 to spare, you can find a charcoal grill to do exactly what I want in terms of controlling heat. But even these grills you have to treat like an exotic car: put them in a garage after use or risk the fate of all grills stored outside: destruction.

Webers are fine, so far as they go.  The one with a bubble cover. But I wanted a grill is more capable of controlling heat. I found several. But they all were built like s@#t.

There are several grills out there that have adjustable height charcoal grates, costing from $300-600. I've had better success with lower priced models, from $100-$200, except for the fact they only last a couple of years. Sure, they have spare parts catalogues and departments. I called one the other day. Gave him the part number and model of the grill I bought at Home Depot three years ago. He said he'd get back to me, never did. How many people are going to first take the time to call the part department, then dismantle a grease caked grill to slide a new part in that may or may not fix?

As I scanned the web to replace my 3 year old Brinkmann, I'm considering going back to the basic Weber. There is nothing out there that doesn't look like a waste of money. Really, how hard can it be to build an affordable charcoal barbecue grill with an adjustable grate that isn't built for obsolescence?

Poll on Toxic Politicians. By Geniusofdespair

Who do you think is the most important politician for the Democrats to get rid of in order (I have them in order of their position):

Mayor Luigi Boria (Doral)
Lynda Bell County Commissioner
Pepe Diaz County Commissioner
Erik Fresen State Rep.
Rick Scott Governor
Marco Rubio Senator

The big question is: Do the Democrats have anyone to run against them?

Ron Book and Kris Korge - across a crowed room.

Democratic Lobbyists like Ron Book could help the local Dem picks raise money if he really cared about the community. However, I don't think he really does care about anything but his own pocketbook. He did help to get Monestime in office.  Step up to the plate Ron and Chris Korge. We need some money for the local races.

(You may add your own least favorite politician to this list).

Mark Bell's Campaign Report. By Geniusofdespair

During his losing campaign for Homestead Mayor, Mark Bell (County Commissioner Lynda Bell's husband) had a lot of expenditures from his restaurant in his Redland Hotel.  In his campaign report, his expenses for food were: $1,618.34, $31.59, $450.09, $200.00, $52.70, $38.21 and a $1,409.82 Whistle Stop (reimbursement for stamps).

So how does this work? Should these donations from his campaign account to his restaurant have been treated as "in-kind"?  Should he be paying for stamps from his restaurant account?

I don't know exactly what is wrong here but --- commingling is going on. Will we see Lynda Bell's campaign having galas at this hotel as well? Even though she claims she doesn't own it (not on the corporate papers) she admits on a video about the hotel that it is her hotel as well (5:14).

Something doesn't sit right with me about these expenses even though he had a crushing defeat, we still should have accurate campaign reports.  Any opinions?

Funny thing about the video, at the end they caught a view of someone who looks amazingly like the Mayor's best friend Ralph Garcia Toledo.  Now what would he be doing there? The video was published April 3, 2013. I do not know when it was taken.

His wife Vicky Garcia-Toledo is a lobbyist for CH2M Hill as of 9/20/2013. Ralph is not registered. This is the contract about which Lynda Bell said she was "concerned" 14 times in 2 1/2 Minutes.

Photo: Matt Alvarez, SVP for CH2M Hill. Was the contract under the cone of silence when this was taken?

Full Video:

Taking Names? Merrily we roll along … by gimleteye

I don't know how to write about Florida's idiocy, more clearly than this … from the Orlando Sentinel. If the past is any predictor, we will continue merrily along our way even as people are set adrift by the rising seas or damaged climate.

On environment, shortsightedness costs Florida big

Scott Maxwell, Orlando Sentinel OPED
TAKING NAMES
7:01 p.m. EST, November 30, 2013

Let's say you're looking for a dental plan, and I offer you two choices.

You can either pay $25 a month for preventive care.

Or you can visit just once a year — and pay $1,000 to have the dentist fix everything in your mouth that went wrong.

Unless you're a shortsighted sucker, you're going to take the first deal, right?

Basic math shows you save a boatload of money. Plus, youavoid problems in the first place.

Unfortunately, you live in Florida — where shortsightedness rules. Especially when it comes to the environment.

Rebeca Sosa's Agenda Item to combat the Hole in the Donut. By Geniusofdespair

There are many instances of hole in the donut parcels that get put within the UDB simply because they are surrounded by properties that were recently put within in the Urban Development Boundary (UDB). Rebeca Sosa has proposed not creating these orphan parcels anymore:

a)    Applications requesting amendment to the Urban Development Boundary (UDB) or to the Urban Expansion Area (UEA) boundary depicted on the Land Use Plan map, or to the land use classification of land located outside of said Urban Development Boundary may be filed only during the May period in odd-numbered years. The Director of the Department may also file applications requesting amendments to the UDB, UEA or to the land use classification of land located outside of said UDB for processing during either the May or November period following the adoption of an evaluation and appraisal report, provided that the amendments proposed in said applications are suggested in the adopted evaluation and appraisal report. >>It is provided, however, that no application to expand the area within the UDB shall be adopted where such application would result in an area of land outside of the UDB being more than seventy-five percent (75%) surrounded by land that is within the UDB.<<  (bold to be added.)

It was adopted on first reading. It goes to the Land Use Committee on January 16th.

2014: will voters punish the Florida GOP for breaking the law on redistricting? … by gimleteye

To be sure: voters are distracted. The cacophony comes from all directions, but mainly from the radical right that controls the Florida legislature and is twinned with corporate agendas and the Tea Party that believes government is the root of all evil.

A principal way that the radical right controls the Florida GOP is through district maps that routinely are drawn to favor incumbents and un-balance the playing field. Combined with voter suppression -- in other words, inhibiting voters at the ballot box on election day, the fix is in.

A Florida lawsuit by FairDistricts, based on its successful 2010 amendment to the Florida Constitution requiring fair redistricting, challenged the Florida GOP and its lobbyists to release how it redrew districts. FairDistricts, through the Court, is proving that gerrymandering districts is alive and well by the GOP in violation of the law.

Last week that the Florida Supreme Court ruled the GOP map makers had to release all documentation, including email trails, related to their efforts. Surprise: after the ruling, GOP radicals confessed that much of its documentation has been destroyed.

Now it will take forensic computer experts to pry loose what the Florida GOP wants to hide from the law. Let's hope voters keep in mind when it is time to vote in 2014: a political party that willfully breaks the law has violated its trust with the public. If that does not gain the public's attention, what will?

Mr. Mayor: You Can't Write A Letter Like This On Behalf of ALL OF US. Geniusofdespair

First of all I do not want to wish this militant anti-gay group anything good and I am sure the thousands of gay residents living in Miami Dade County don't want to welcome anyone to the Christian Family Coalition Dinner. And I am sure County Commissioners Dennis Moss, Jean Monestime and State Rep. Illeana Ros Lehtinen wish this letter was never written on their behalf.

 All Carlos Gimenez had to do was write "residents" without the number: 2.5 million.  It insults all of us who do not ascribe to the beliefs of this group. The Christian Family Coalition is Anti-Gay and hurls insults at anyone that disagrees with them - Like Dennis Moss and Illeana.

Here is a statement released by the group:

"The United States Senate voted 68-29 in favor of a so-called "hate crimes" provision part of the extremist homosexual agenda to silence Christians and people of faith and use the government to marginalize anyone whose faith is at odds with homosexuality! This legislation clearly violates the principle of equal justice under the law and infringes on the free speech rights of ALL Americans!

The passage of this bill enshrines hate, bigotry, intolerance and discrimination into federal law.

Dangerous homosexual extremists who try to manipulate public opinion by playing the so-called victims who need special legal protections are truly the VICTIMIZERS who promote HATE, BIGOTRY, INTOLERANCE and DISCRIMINATION against anyone who dares to speak up against their agenda and shares an opinion different from theirs." (their caps, not mine)

Readers: This law they are describing is to stop people from beating up on people just because they are homosexuals. The US Senate, that can't agree on much of anything, passed this law by a wide margin because it was the right thing to do.