Leadership change needed … by gimleteye

Frank asked on his Facebook page the other day: with all the news about climate change and deniers, where are the twenty and thirty somethings? He noted, how most people attending meetings on the environment are over 60. That is a fact.

The argument can be made, that demands of work and commuting are so severe that the urban young can't afford to participate in our civic life.

Also, young people feel hopeless. Political leaders financed by the oil, coal and gas industries -- like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) -- are running around the country opposing President Obama's initiatives at every step.

"Why do anything?" neatly coincides with a status quo that insists "government can't do anything". Gridlock is destiny. Why vote, Americans ask, when voting achieves so little?

On the other hand, what dread awaits today's ebullient children of young parents when they are my age? Within the lifetime of today's young, climate change will have turned national security upside down and inside out. Everything is at risk.

Climate change is not just the elephant in the room: it is the room.

Why aren't young parents rising in outrage?

President hopeful with his BFF and Roommate David Rivera. By Geniusofdespair

 

Marco Rubio and David Rivera's Tallahassee home is up for sale. They also shared a home for two years in Washington D.C.

Marc Caputo:

Now, the three-bedroom property stands as a stubborn symbol of both a politically problematic friendship and lingering questions about Rubio’s personal finances, which dogged him on the campaign trail in 2010 and may do so again. The friendship has frayed in recent years, friends say, as the fortunes of Rubio, 43, and Rivera, 49, have diverged. Last week, they put the 1,228-square-foot house up for sale. The list price is $125,000 — $10,000 less than what the two men paid for it a decade ago.

But chances are the home won’t sell before April, when Rubio says he’ll decide whether to seek the presidency. Rubio’s critics are waiting to make hay of any revelations that may come of the federal investigation of Rivera and to point to their status as roommates during the years when Rivera allegedly engaged in illegal campaign activities.

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You can start contibuting now to Raquel Regalado's Campaign for Miami Dade County Mayor. Be the First! By Geniusofdespair

Raquel Regalado Registered to Run for County Mayor ---Easy on the Eyes and Smart as a a Whip.

You can start to contribute to Raquel Regalado for County Mayor. She is registered with elections (see above - these are the only candidates registered for 2016 that you can legally give to). Carlos Gimenez may NOT get campaign contributions but he is taking donations through his PAC and has $500,000 or thereabouts in the PAC. PAC money is NOT campaign contributions and have no limit.


Here is her website for County Mayor. See the video.

Here is her Facebook Page.

Also try this in a couple of days Raquelregalado.com

SO ACCORDING TO THE ELECTIONS WEBSITE, YOU LEGALLY CAN SEND CAMPAIGN DONATIONS NOW IF YOU WANT, TO RAQUEL REGALADO'S CAMPAIGN TREASURER:

Raquel Regalado Campaign
1985 NW 88th Court - Suite 101
Doral, FL 33172

This is not an ad for the campaign, it is just me talking to my readers alerting them to a candidates registration as a candidate.

The GOP state legislature and Gov. Rick Scott in Fortress Tallahassee: a bubble filled with poli-psychotropic, bobble-headed fools … by gimleteye

So, Florida: a couple of questions.

How did Miami-Dade Carlos Gimenez ever believe he could jam a uranium merchant from western Canada into the county commission chambers to pitch and get approval for the largest mall in the United States, wedged up against the dying Everglades in northwest Dade?

How are Miami-Dade rock miners -- who have paid a tonnage fee to the state for decades -- weaseling out from their guarantee to fund critical infrastructure to prevent poisons in west Dade rock mines from seeping into our (your!) drinking water?

Why are 78 percent of Florida voters in November 2014 who voted to fund an amendment to purchase environmentally sensitive lands -- like those needed to save coastal real estate wrecked by pollution from Lake Okeechobee -- silent while the legislature, Gov. Rick Scott, Agriculture Secretary Adam Putnam et al. run off with billions in order to fund their water project infrastructure for the benefit of insiders like their campaign funders?

And another question: how does Gov. Rick Scott and the GOP legislature ignore the thousands of Republican voters and taxpayers on both Florida coasts, clamoring for the completion of the option to buy US Sugar lands for water treatment, completely omitting its appearance in the state budget?

How does Gov. Rick Scott -- arguably the worst governor in modern Florida history -- who won reelection by barely 1 percent now believe that he could be elected to the US Senate?

Let's take these questions, one by one.

Mayor Gimenez invited a nightmare of a mall into our county because the state of Florida killed the regulatory framework -- then known as Growth Management and now, "anything goes". All the foxes are in all the henhouses. Who committed the crime of opening the treasury to the thieves? Your GOP legislators and your governor, Rick Scott who killed off regulatory reviews that might have given county commissioners a reason to hit the pause button.

How -- after nearly a decade of federal litigation on rock mines -- is Florida's wealthiest and most secretive industry sneaking out from under its obligation to fund critical water infrastructure and the liability if poisons seep from their rock pits into our (your!) water supply? Your GOP state representatives and Gov. Rick Scott see nothing wrong at all with that equation.

How are Amendment 1 funds being hijacked by insiders, despite 78 percent voter approval -- a majority that not a single state legislator or elected official could achieve? Guess.

With US Sugar ferrying top GOP legislators to the King Ranch in Texas for "hunting expeditions" far from prying eyes, with Ag Secretary Adam Putnam slamming the door in a reporter's face for the temerity of asking questions, you can guess why no mention of the option to purchase has been mentioned in Tallahassee.

Why does Gov. Rick Scott believe he can be elected to the US Senate after skating past a criminal investigation of the company he founded, resulting in the largest civil fine in US economic history at the time?

Think I'm crazy for asking these questions? Well, on the crazy front: if you were a Florida agency staffer and recently used the term "climate change" in a public forum, you would have been suspended and before returning to work would have been required to submit a psychiatric evaluation, guaranteeing your psychological state conforms with acceptable political practice.

Some readers recommend that if my hope is to persuade, then honey is a better way to attract those opposed to my point of view. Why? Tallahassee is a fortress, filled with bobble-headed, poli-psychotropic fools.

For that, thank unlimited campaign contributions. Thank, corporations who are have the same rights as people. Thank your Chamber of Commerce, the lobbyists you allow to stand at the gates, and your Associated Industries of Florida.

The high walls around Tallahassee were built by your legislature and governor. That shouldn't be news.

OIG Complaint--Bibler--3-18-2015 by Alan Farago

Climate change denial: even Idaho is mocking Florida … by gimleteye

The editorial from the Idaho Mountain Express arrived with a note, "My God, even Idaho is mocking Florida."

The issue at hand: reports that Florida Gov. Rick Scott prohibits the use of climate change in state policy documents or discussions by government agency staffers.

That Idaho, home of the anti-environmental Wise Use Movement, is chiding Florida is remarkable. The Wise Use Movement began in the American West during the Ronald Reagan presidency and promoted the destruction of laws protecting the environment.

Then, in states like Idaho, the allure of wide open wilderness ignited the same passion as mineral resource exploitation on federal lands by private corporations. But not just Idaho. In Florida, Big Sugar tag-teamed its support by welcoming the rebels and their bandwagon of bug-eyed crazies.

Scarcely three decades later, the West is singing a different tune. The Wise Use Movement morphed into another tool of corporations: the Tea Party. But even the Tea Partiers can't paper over the fact that snowpacks are vanishing in Idaho and other western states whose snowfalls provide drinking water for millions of people the rest of the year.

According to a recent statement by scientists in California, the state has only about a year of potable water supply before systems break down.

The best medicine may be mockery, because climate change deniers in Florida like Gov. Rick Scott, Agriculture Secretary Adam Putnam, US Senator Marco Rubio, presidential hopeful Jeb Bush and Florida legislative leaders, could be barred from office if enough voters get the point.

Yesterday PEER, a Florida whistler-blower organization called Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, announced that a state worker had come forward complaining that not only was he reprimanded and suspended for using the term "climate change" at a public meeting, he was also required by his supervisor to obtain a medical release before returning to his state job. Seriously.

A lot of Florida voters who stayed home from the polls in November 2014 need to reassess what the hell they were thinking when they re-elected Rick Scott by barely 1 percent of the vote.

And a lot of Republican voters need to explain what the hell they have been thinking by electing public officials who deny that our national security is severely at risk. Here is the OPED from the Idaho Mountain Express, followed by the Tampa Bay Times report of the PEER announcement:

Banning the words won’t stop climate change

Two feet of snow in Anchorage. A record 106 inches in Boston. Barely enough snow in California’s mountains to cover the ground. This winter’s strange weather will generate conversation and debate about the earth’s changing atmosphere—except in Florida.

It’s not that Florida’s conservation leaders think snow isn’t their problem. It’s that they aren’t allowed to talk about climate change at all.

In the state where rising sea levels as a consequence of melting ice in Antarctica could flood 30 percent of the land, employees of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection have been ordered not to use either “global warming” or “climate change” in any official communication.

That directive, according to the Miami Herald, went into effect after the 2011 election of Governor Rick Scott, a longtime climate denier.

Climate deniers used to argue that the earth’s atmosphere was not getting warmer. Recent events like the warmest 10 years in recorded history, drought across the world, and the loss of sea ice millions of years old have made that position unsustainable. Now the denial centers on the core issue, which is whether the warming of the earth’s climate is being caused by human activity.

Those who would do nothing argue that the changes we see are the result of natural cycles. Scientists know better. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported in 2014 that the evidence is indisputable. Greenhouse gases produced by human activity began to spike upward in the industrial revolution. Now, they have reached the highest levels in history.

Those gases produce increasing temperatures in the upper atmosphere that then warm the oceans. That changes the world’s weather patterns. Over time, less than a heartbeat in geological time, the warming climate produces catastrophic weather events and increasingly warm, dry patterns.

A new video, produced by Conservation International and narrated by Julia Roberts, gives us the earth’s point of view. To put it bluntly, the earth doesn’t need us. The earth is 22,500 times older than humans. The earth really doesn’t care if humans exist or not. The earth coldly asks the simple question, “I am prepared to evolve; are you?”

If humans produced the gases that warm the atmosphere, humans can do something to stop doing so. There is a question whether the warming can be reversed, but we can at least try.

Climate change is the most critical issue facing humanity, but those who prefer business as usual have banned even the term. Too bad they can’t also ban reality.

From Saintpetersblog:

Rick Scott ‘climate change’ gag order claims first victim, enviro group says
By Peter Schorsch - Mar 18, 2015

Gov. Rick Scott’s prohibition on the term “climate change” has now claimed its first casualty, says an environmental responsibility group.

On March 9, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) suspended a state employee for speaking about climate change at an official meeting, which made its way into the record of the meeting, according to a complaint filed today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

Barton Bibler, a long-time DEP employee, received a letter of reprimand ordering him to take two days personal leave. The agency also instructed Bibler not to return without medical clearance.

Bibler currently serves as Land Management Plan Coordinator in DEP Division of State Lands.

On February 27, Bibler attended a Florida Coastal Managers Forum, where a number of attendees discussed climate change and sea-level rise, among other environmental topics.

Bibler’s official notes reported all of that conversation.

DEP superiors directed Bibler to remove any “hot button issues,” such as explicit references to climate change. The letter of reprimand, dated March 9, accused Bibler of misrepresenting the “official meeting agenda (so it) included climate change.”

Bibler was instructed to take two days off, which was charged against his personal leave time. He later received a “Medical Release Form” requiring his doctor to provide the agency an evaluation of unspecified “medical condition and behavior” before being allowed to return to work.

“Bart Bibler has fallen through a professional looking glass in a Florida where the words ‘climate change’ may not be uttered, or even worse, written down,” said Florida PEER Director Jerry Phillips, a former DEP attorney.

Phillips pointed out that Bibler currently has “no idea” whether he will ever be allowed to return to work.

“If anyone needs mental health screening it is Governor Rick Scott,” he added, “and other officials telling state workers to pretend that climate change and sea-level rise do not exist.”

PEER is calling on the DEP Office of Inspector General to open an investigation, to determine the propriety of handling Bibler, including forced leave and the directive to waive privacy rights to allow the DEP to review a physician evaluation.

Philips is also asking for the agency to explain on what basis are they banning the use of the terms climate change,” “sustainability” and “sea-level rise.” He also claims the orders to censor meeting summaries is a violation of Florida law forbidding alteration of official records.

“Not just the employees but the citizens of Florida should demand a full investigation into what the heck is going on inside DEP and whether we can expect more cases like this,” Phillips said. “Under Governor Scott, the Department of Environmental Protection functions like a gulag where those in servitude who show any spark of honesty are simply made to disappear.”

Tax Sugar, Save the Planet … by gimleteye

Tax a Cola, Save the Planet
By Jeffrey Ritterman, M.D., Vice President of the Board of Directors, San Francisco Bay Area chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility
Posted: 03/26/2014 2:43 pm EDT

(Huffington Post) The Soda Tax is most clearly a health issue. Science now has shown that sugary drinks kill by causing diabetes (amputations, blindness, kidney failure), heart attacks and cancer. We now know that you do not need to be overweight or obese to be at risk.

But the Soda Tax is also a social justice issue. Big Soda's advertising targets poor and minority communities, where residents suffer both high soda consumption and high rates of type-2 diabetes.

Wet dreams - You can't go back on them, Miami Dade County Commissioners. By Geniusofdespair

 It was moved by Commissioner Seijas that all applicants requesting to develop outside the UDB line be instructed to meet with the Miami-Dade Water & Sewer Department prior to CDMP meeting scheduled for April 2006 to develop a specific, alternative water supply plan for their projects and that the proposal be included in the applicant’s final application. This motion was seconded by Commissioner Heyman; and upon being put to a vote, the motion passed by a unanimous vote of 13-0.

(Special Item Number 2 was adopted on November 30, 2005.)

 Both of us were at the County Commission during the 2005 CDMP cyle hearings. They said they would allow the Urban Development Boundary to be moved for Application No. 5, ONLY if they could find a water source for the application. It was agreed in a settlement agreement that the Hialeah and the County would build a desalination plant for the application so they would have their own water source for the plan.

Today, according to water and sewer, we are flush with water because of conservation. At the County Commission meeting today the question was what would be the water source for the American (wet) Dream Mall Miami.  Think about it, snow for the slope, water park etc. They will be using a lot of water. Stupid idiot Lester Sola, now the department head, said the County could give them water. Well, stupid idiot Lester Sola, once you give them water you can't go back. It is a one way street and we already had a bargain that they would not get aquifer water. Why would you get up there and make such a promise? Because you are a stupid idiot. We the public had our promise this wouldn't happen. The commission goes back on promises to us all the time - remember the 20 year deed restriction in Kendall they lifted in less than 5 years? We don't sue like this little guy will sue you. He was the most obnoxious of developers. He warned, don't give me a hard time. All the Commissioners giggled and passed the land deal with no caveats 11 to 2. Marlins all over again. Eskandar Ghermezian wasn't being funny, he was serious. Seriously scary. If you go back on a promise to this guy the County will be in lawsuits forever. He made no concessions at all.



Triple 5 Group - Ghermezian family
Watch on YouTube
What if we have a drought? A lot more development? What if we have more saltwater intrusion? Why would we offer our precious water as if were endless? I was playing good citizen conserving water for this? Most of the Commissioners did such a good job groveling. Commissioner Moss, this isn't going to help your theme park. Commissioner Sally Heyman was the only one who wanted to add water source to the agreement. You can't go back on your promises....Source was important as Sally said.

Here is a timeline for the 2005 cycle:

City of Hialeah applied to amend the County’s Comprehensive Development Master Plan (CDMP), in the April 2005 Cycle, to:

• Move the 2015 Urban Development Boundary (UDB)
• Change designation from “open lands” to “industrial and office”
• Application included 1,140 gross acres (between NW 97th Ave and the Turnpike and between NW 154 St and NW 186 St (the Annexation Area)
• April 19, 2006, the BCC approved application and transmitted to the State of Florida.
• June 22, 2006, the State issued Notice of Intent to find the amendment “not in compliance”. The main objection to the application was “non-availability of potable water supply”.
• July 6, 2006, the BCC approved resolution (R-847-06), authorizing execution of a Settlement Agreement, which required the adoption of a “Remedial Plan Amendment” within 75 days.
• August 24, 2006, the BCC adopted Ordinance (Ord-06-116) providing disposition of Remedial Amendment, which included “a funded commitment for a new reverse osmosis water facility, the Floridan Aquifer Water Treatment Plant, in the Capital Improvements Element”.
• July 24, 2007, the BCC approved resolution (R-918-07) entering into a Joint Participation Agreement (JPA), between the City and the County, to provide for a reverse osmosis water treatment plant to meet future water supply needs in northern Miami-Dade County.

Here are the minutes 8/24/2006 (they always do important things in the summer);

Chairman Martinez called the meeting to order at 11:40 a.m. He noted the purpose of today’s meeting was to take final action on the remedial amendment application to amend the Comprehensive Development Master Plan (CDMP). The remedial amendment application, he noted, was filed by the Department of Planning and Zoning (DPZ) on behalf of the County Manager as directed by this Board in Resolution Number R-847-06; and approved the settlement agreement with the Florida Department of Community Affairs (DCA), which resolved a pending dispute relating to Application Number 5, (AKA the “Hialeah Application”) of the April 2005 CDMP amendment cycle. Chairman Martinez noted the remedial amendment application was consistent with the remedial plan amendment described in Exhibit B of the executed settlement agreement, and was the subject of today’s public hearing as it pertained to Application Number 5 only. The Board was scheduled to take final action today on Substitute Special Item No. 1, by either adopting, adopting with change, or not adopting the amendment application. Chairman Martinez noted the procedure for the hearing would be as follows: Department of Planning and Zoning (DPZ) staff would summarize the content of the remedial amendment application; speakers, if any, would be called in order of signing in; written statements would be accepted, summarized and submitted for the record. Assistant County Attorney Joni Armstrong-Coffey read the foregoing proposed ordinance, Substitute Special Item No. 1 into the record. Chairman Martinez relinquished the chair to Vice Chairman Moss. DPZ Director Diane O’Quinn Williams introduced herself and noted that Mr. Mark Woerner had distributed a summary of the remedial amendment. Mr. Mark Woerner, Metropolitan Planning - Long Range Planning Section Chief, Department of Planning and Zoning, advised that the Board would be taking action on the Substitute Special Item No. 1, Legislative File No. 062315. He noted the DPZ Director’s remedial amendments application; the stipulated settlement agreement executed between the County and the Department of Community Affairs (DCA); the Resolution Number R-847-06 enacted by the Board on July 6, 2006, and pertaining to the proposed settlement agreement; and the June 21, 2006 Interlocal agreement between the City of Hialeah and the County regarding the operation and maintenance responsibilities of the proposed plant, have been provided for today’s hearing. Mr. Woerner indicated the reason the remedial amendments were before the Board was because the DCA found the amendments to be in non-compliance during their final review process of the Board’s final actions on the comprehensive plan amendments. He noted the primary issue was that the County did not demonstrate it was able to provide adequate water supply to serve the demand created by those Land Use Plan (LUP) map amendments, therefore, today’s remedial amendment only addressed Application No. 5. Mr. Woerner proceeded to provide an overview of the settlement agreement and the requested changes outlined in the “2006 Remedial Amendments Application Requesting Amendments to the Comprehensive Development Master Plan.”

The Angry Bees need to ignite a swarming strategy: the "take no money from Sugar" pledge is a place to start … by gimleteye

Florida's top GOP officials are tight lipped and indignant that civic activists and environmental leaders continue to press for the purchase of lands owned by US Sugar. Call the protesters, the Angry Bees.

The politicians and governing board appointees for the South Florida Water Management District have offered up a thousand excuses, why there is no fix to relieve the pollution spewing from Lake Okeechobee by using lands for storage in sugar production south of the lake, in the Everglades Agricultural Area.

But the biggest excuse they have is a political one: Gov. Rick Scott won re-election in November 2014: to the victor, go the spoils.

It is a curious assessment, given that Scott won by barely one percent. Yet it is one that prevails. For Big Sugar, there has never been a political climate more favorable to its interests than today's.

If the Angry Bees had managed to persuade 1 percent of voters that their cause was truly Florida's future, the result would have been vastly different for Big Sugar.

There would have been a governor at least willing to carry the torch for land acquisition in the Everglades Agricultural Area, rather than one -- Rick Scott -- willing to use a torch to set fire to every village in the state.

This metaphor captures how Scott's policies are doing so much harm to Florida's future; but specifically, torching the hopes to fix the Everglades and the estuaries within the lifetime of anyone reading this blog. What's worse: Gov. Scott and his lieutenants and the GOP hierarchy all seem immune -- utterly oblivious -- to criticism from the press.

Nearly every editorial board in the state of Florida has clearly announced its support for purchasing more sugar lands in order to protect people, protest the estuaries and the Everglades.

The election eve disclosure by the Tampa Bay Times -- that US Sugar had been ferrying top GOP legislators to secret hunting trips on the King Ranch in Texas -- might have nudged the electorate. But voters did not have the chance to connect how King Ranch properties in Palm Beach County block the flow of water from Lake Okeechobee through to the Everglades. (See the oval and arrows, for how the King Ranch interests work: they stand in the way of any assemblage of acreage to provide a southern flow way and water storage from the Lake to the Everglades.)

For Florida's GOP, ignoring the press has been standard operating procedure for many years. The dismal conduct began with Jeb Bush whose predetermined outcomes could not be swayed by any logic by the Fourth Estate. Charlie Crist was also oblivious to outside pressure. It is a phenomenon, though, that Gov. Rick Scott has elevated to virtue.

It is not just that reporters, editorial board members, and bloggers don't count: in Rick Scott's world, they don't count at all.

This is what the Angry Bees need to factor into a new strategy: GOP leaders have concluded, based on the overwhelming influence of unlimited campaign contributors, that the public doesn't count. The only way to change this conviction, is through violent revolution, a Constitutional Convention (for real campaign finance reform), or at the polls.

Big Sugar and vested interests are overplaying their hands, swatting at the Angry Bees, and that makes one of these outcomes more likely; change "at the polls".

The area the Angry Bees need to focus is not the Indian River but the other side of the state: the counties in Southwest Florida.

These counties: Charlotte, Manatee, Lee, Sarasota and Collier mostly voted for Rick Scott with a 51 percent margin. In contrast, the eastern counties : Indian River, St. Lucie, Marin and Palm Beach -- gave Crist a 56 percent vote. Miami-Dade and Broward, the two population engines of the Florida electorate solidly supported Crist by nearly 60 percent of the vote.

The best way for the Angry Bees to turn the tide in 2016: voter registration drives based on their area of interest. The only way to overcome the shock and awe of unlimited campaign contributions is through voter awareness.

This explains why voter suppression is a key tactic of the Florida GOP. The Angry Bees -- many of whom are Republican -- have the motivation, because Gov. Rick Scott, his governing board appointees at the South Florida MAnagement District, and key GOP legislators have already made clear, to the public and to the press: we hear you and we don't give a fuck.

US Sugar agreed to sell its properties to the public in 2010. The other principal component of Big Sugar -- Florida Crystals owned by the billionaire Fanjuls of Coral Gables and Palm Beach -- opposed the strategy to put more agricultural land to the purpose of remediating its pollution. Big Sugar also complained there was no money other than tax revenue and made very certain through unlimited campaign contributions that its chosen proxies -- mostly but not exclusively Republican -- would not raise taxes for any purpose despite the fact the entire industry is supported by government subsidies.

So what did the people do? They went to the ballot, created, and passed an amendment to the Florida Constitution guaranteeing a source of funding for land acquisition for environmental purposes -- from the documentary sales revenue from real estate transactions. Big Sugar (mostly) sat on the sidelines during the run up to the 2014 vote, when 78 percent of voters approved the measure. Why? Because industry insiders knew, some day, some part of those funds -- over twenty years, a bondable net of close to $200 billion -- would trickle into their net worth statements. But that moment will only happen as the very last resort, after intense litigation should any government ever endorse the seizing of sugar lands in the EAA.

The Angry Bees who showed up to the water management district have a long way to go. But at the very least it is now established that Florida's Republican leadership will not follow the science, will not obey the facts, and will not start the process to direct Amendment 1 funds to purchase significant acreage in the Everglades Agricultural Area, beginning with the US Sugar option that expires later this year.

In Tallahassee, there is so little dissent that the Republican leadership operates in an echo chamber where all it hears are the sounds of its own voices.

The Angry Bees need to break through where the GOP is looking the other way. They could start by swarming.

One tactic: that they will not support any elected official or candidate for office who takes money from Big Sugar.

Although the "Take No Money From Sugar" pledge will elicit guffaws in the Palm Beach cozies of Big Sugar, it sends a signal. It sends a signal just like the well-attended protests at the water management district.

It takes momentum to build a movement. Thanks to overreaching by Big Sugar and its proxies in the Florida legislature and the Governor's Mansion, momentum is building.

But for 66,000 votes, Florida would have a governor who both believes in man-made causes of climate change and supports fixing the Everglades with vastly expanded water treatment marshes, to protect the estuaries.

So, it is up to the Angry Bees to turn out more voters for their candidates and causes in 2016 and to take their battle from the east coast, where voters are persuaded, to the west coast of Florida where they are not. (By the way, Big Sugar already understands this reality. Look no further than the political hit job on Big Sugar's steadfast critic, Ray Judah, former Lee County commissioner and the ascent of Matt Caldwell (R-Turbinado). One of the great unanswered questions, why did US Sugar invest nearly a million dollars in a county commission election in 2012 to defeat one of the biggest supporters of the buyout that US Sugar had agreed to, with the state.)

The Angry Bees have more work to do. They cannot ask or expect -- by the way -- non-profit environmental groups to do it for them. Most of the big environmental groups cannot directly participate in elections. Many are disinclined to, and the most pernicious reason is that some of the most visible groups, like Florida Audubon, suffer from Stockholm Syndrome.

No, the Angry Bees will have to do the heavy lifting on their own.

Guayabas from the City Beautiful. By Former Commissioner Maria Anderson

Guayabas

I attended the Coral Gables Mayoral debate on Monday night, March 9 at the Coral Gables Congregational Church and am still amazed at the things that come out of Jim Cason’s mouth; same old, same old guayabas [1] of biblical proportions.

“For ten years nothing was done other than lamentations…I came in and decided we needed pension reform we could live with…” (Mayor Jim Cason, circa 2011)

“In Coral Gables before Jim Cason created pension reform, the city was formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep…” From the morass of former Commissions who had done nothing comes Jim Cason’s revisionist account of everything Coral Gables.  Pretty soon, he’ll take credit for Merrick’s vision.  Step aside George; enter Jim with his version of history.

Jim, I was Commissioner from 2001 – 2013, and in the time span before you arrived in 2011, the heavy lifting of pension reform had taken place.  Let me clarify a few facts so that voters can hear the truth you can’t seem to muster up enough courage to tell.

The City’s pension plan was non-contributory from 1989 – 2003.  In that scenario, the City paid 100% into the plan.  The employees did not pay into their pension.  The Commission in 2003 changed that, and 2 of 3 unions began to pay into the retirement plan, and by 2009, all the unions were contributing. We also capped the overtime people could use towards their retirement calculations.  Prior to then, it was unlimited.

Over the next 3 – 5 years, the assumption rate of the plan was lowered twice to allow the retirement board to re-balance the portfolio into more stable, less risky financial instruments.  The old retirement plan was also closed for new hires.

The years from 2001 – 2011 were productive ones, and in a time period of two economic downturns and 09/11, pension reform was a top priority.  Interestingly enough, we also managed to restore the majority of our historic infrastructure and also replaced an aging garbage and fire fleet.  Hmm, for your claims we did nothing, we sure did accomplish a lot.

Jim, it’s ungracious to demean predecessors who served their hometown with great pride and at substantial sacrifice.  You might grab hold of Winston Churchill’s wise advice as you move forward, “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.”

[1] Guayabas | gwa'ʝaβas| fibs; lies

Maria Anderson was Coral Gables City Commissioner from 2001-2013.  She is now an ordained UCC minister and a hospice chaplain, but still cares about what happens in her hometown.

Fracking Bills in House Committee today … by David Cullen, Sierra Club

FYI- for those of you who are concerned about Fracking in FL, here are 2 bad
bills that you may want to express your opinion about, via telephone or
e-mail. PLEASE DO IT THIS MORNING!

Two House Fracking bills will be heard in the Agriculture and Natural
Resources Subcommittee on Tuesday, March 17 at 12:30. Please call the members
of the committee Monday and urge them to vote NO!

Bills:

HB 1205 - Regulation of Oil and Gas Resources
by Rep. Rodrigues, and

HB 1209 - Public Records/High-pressure Well Stimulation Chemical Disclosure
Registry also by Rep. Rodrigues.

HB 1205 would require a permit and some regulation for “high pressure well stimulation” and HB 1209 would allow the chemicals used in fracking to be hidden behind “trade secrets” provisions. Overall, the bills are very little improved from last year and should not become law.

Regulation and permitting requirements DO NOT:

The horror of being a journalist at the Miami Herald … by gimleteye

I hope everyone read Marc Caputo's hard-hitting piece on U.S. Senator Marco Rubio. For POLITICO. Not the Miami Herald.

Caputo -- one of the paper's top political journalists -- slipped out of the Miami Herald a few months back. We often criticized his reporting, for having one (or two) hands tied behind his back. For example, on the issue of Marco Rubio and the incomplete record of his relationship with disgraced, former Congressman David Rivera -- and gal pal Ana Sol Alliegro -- if you were curious, you had to come to Eye On Miami because Herald publisher/s and editors treated Rubio with kid gloves.

Caputo is a good journalist, and what the POLITICO piece makes clear, is that hard-hitting journalism has no place at the Herald when it cuts too close to home. We've known that a long, long time but in case you have doubts, read Caputo's "Marco Rubio's House of Horrors" and ask yourself; why are Herald journalists kept chained to the stakes?

An excerpt:

The brick-fronted tract house with a satellite dish and a yellow fire hydrant in front looks like many middle-class homes in Florida’s capital, except for the two names on the deed.

Marco Rubio: U.S. senator and would-be presidential candidate.

David Rivera: Scandal-plagued former congressman under investigation in a federal campaign-finance probe.

In many ways, it has been a house of horrors for Rubio, a financial and political liability heading into the 2016 election.

Guest Blogger: Misguided idea at the county: MetroMover Fare … by Juan Cuba

Commissioner Jordan is sponsoring an ordinance to permit a fare on the Mover, and if approved we are probably looking at a 50 cent charge. In her Herald op-ed this Saturday, Commissioner Jordan framed this issue as one of fairness and income inequality. She starts by posing this question: why are Miami-Dade County taxpayers providing free Metromover service to the well-heeled business people, professionals, condo dwellers and tourists who make up most of the riders on the downtown rail system?

Commissioner Jordan should probably take a ride on the MetroMover and ask riders where they work and where they live. I spent my afternoon yesterday doing just that. The people I met riding the Mover were from all walks of life and lived all over the county: construction workers, valet drivers, accountants, seniors, students, security guards, residents from Downtown and Brickell and Overtown and Little Havana and Miami Gardens and even Miramar.

The real issue here is not fairness, it's keeping your promise to the voters and math.

Keeping the MetroMover fare-free is one of the few promises from the 2002 People's Transportation Plan that our County Commission has kept thus far. How can they expect voters to believe them if they do not keep their word? They should stand by their promise!

Moreover, the math simply doesn't add up. According to the County's own analysis, we won't see any revenue for 5-10 years. That's because they have to spend anywhere from $2.4 to $9 million installing a fare-collection system and another $450,000 annually to maintain it. Meanwhile, revenue generated from 50 cent fares is expected to bring $600,000 a year. You do the math.

At a time when we're growing rapidly and traffic is getting worse, we should be making transit easier, more convenient, and more reliable. And we need to fight for more transit funding, but the Mover is not the answer. Thankfully, a few of our Commissioners get it. Commissioner Bovo wrote a Herald op-ed yesterday suggesting we examine ways to direct MDX to invest in transit and look toward the tourist tax (aka bed tax) as possible sources of revenue.

Currently MDX is only focused on building more highways toward the UDB and increasing our tolls to finance their construction. Meanwhile, the tourist tax can only go to fund convention centers and stadiums, which was the argument the Dolphins used to push for their $375 million sweetheart deal before Tallahassee derailed it. Now, changing the tourist tax is an issue of inequality that deserves Commissioner Jordan's attention.

Florida GOP weasels away from US Sugar lands purchase: false arguments are common as kudzu … by gimleteye

So here is one obvious downside to term limits: young, ambitious politicians who know nothing but what is whispered in their ear by unlimited campaign contributors and their cash, ascending to leadership positions in the state legislature without knowledge and history of precedent. In this case, the issue is protecting, preserving and restoring Florida's natural heritage.

So much bipartisan consensus, stretching back decades, has been shattered on the issue of saving Florida from overdevelopment (including growth management) by Gov. Rick Scott and the eager Great Destroyers.

We are living in a time when the most base motivations of greed and self-interest are wrapped in mild platitudes and demagoguery, surrounding Floridians with toxics and pollution.

So now, House leader Steve Crisafulli (R-Big Sugar) says we need to "take better care" of state lands before buying any more. It is such a crock of s@#t.

The reason we are not taking better care is due to slashed budgets and willing GOP enablers. The point is, if you shrink government to the size it can be drowned in a bathtub (GOP eminence gris, Grover Norquist's contribution to the American polity), you get exactly this: agencies that CANNOT fulfill their mandates because of strategically withered budgets.

It has happened in state prisons, care for the young and disadvantaged, in public education, and on and on. The environment, surprise, turns out to reflects our tolerance for polluted politics better than any mirror.

When Floridians voted for Amendment 1 -- 78 percent of Floridians approved the Nov. 2014 constitutional amendment -- they expressed their conviction that a dedicated source of funding for environmental lands purchases needed to be secured, far from the grasping hands of state legislators or the cunning of their campaign contributors.

This is an enormous pot of money: over 20 years, it is estimated to generate around $20 billion of revenue for what the people wanted. Secured by municipal financing, the amount could be 10x more. In other words, there is finally a source of money to buy sufficient lands from Big Sugar to protect the Everglades and real estate owners whose home equity has been trashed by pollution from Lake Okeechobee flowing to both Florida coasts.

Here's the Tampa Bay Times: "Floridians pushing lawmakers to buy U.S. Sugar Corp. land south of Lake Okeechobee got a boost from a University of Florida study last week. But key legislators still seem lukewarm on the land buy, and most support a water policy bill that offers less protection to Florida’s springs, the Everglades and Lake O. The UF Water Institute’s report, noting Florida has an option to buy the 46,000 acres at market prices until October, said plainly that the state should consider buying the land. The report also calls for “enormous” increases in storage, for treatment of water both north and south of the lake and for the purchase of lands from other sellers south of the lake."

Whoever elected Steve Crisafulli (and this goes for Agriculture Secretary Adam Putnam, too, and Representative Matt Caldwell (R-Turbinado), next time you have the chance, please return them from whence they came and remember, our help doesn't cometh from the Lord. It comes from more people voting better candidates to public office.


(ContextFlorida: "Manage state lands AND buy more … it's not either/or", by Bruce Ritchie)

Rep. Steve Crisafulli suggests the state needs to take better care of its land before buying any more with Amendment 1 money.

Vanuatu photos, October 2014 … by gimleteye

Only a few months ago I visited the outer islands of Vanuatu, just destroyed by one of the fiercest Pacific super cyclones ever recorded.

News photos of the damage, so far, are from Port Vila, an island capital where most tourists begin their visits unless they arrive by sailboat. Port Vila felt like the Caribbean port in the 1960's. Like most remote places these days, technologies allow development to skip decades. Port Vila still bears traces of colonial palm oil plantations, but a cruise ship pier invites industrial-strength tourism. As our taxi passed by -- en route to a sailboat to the outer islands -- a pop-up crafts market stood in a parking lot to greet passengers, mostly from Australia and New Zealand.

The outer islands of Vanuatu have a different feel. Although only separated by twenty or thirty miles, these are very remote places. The coral reefs are spectacular, nourished by cold water circulating from immense, volcanic depths scarcely a stone's throw from shore. Islanders still fish from dugout canoes, shaped by hand, with outriggers to balance. 

To the extent it exists, Western culture (t-shirts sporting Nike logos) feels recently grafted to tribal customs based in superstition and violence. 

It is an uneasy mix. The people are warm and friendly -- English is widely spoken -- and local agriculture is mostly sufficient for daily life. Still, the islanders reminded me of indigenous populations where the imposition of western economic life (whether mineral extraction, commercial fishing, or tourism) has resolved, in best case scenarios, grudgingly. 

That uneasy balance between spiritual life, material possessions, and poverty was shattered by the cyclone. Islands are only accessible by sailboat, inter-island ferry, or small plane to grass and dirt runways. It is a sign how remote these islands are, that days after the storm there are still no first hand reports of damage. All communication was lost to small villages like the one below.

In one village, I asked a leader how he liked the cell phone dangling from a holster on his hip. He shrugged and said, not so much. There were only four or five people with cellphones and he tired of speaking to the same people. (Why were cell phones there? Probably for western or Chinese geologists scouring the region.) The cell phone towers were the first, to go, in the storm.

On this island, the church and school were the only buildings with a chance of passing through the storm. I asked one village leader why he preferred thatched roofs to corrugated metal. He said that in big storms, corrugated roofs are too dangerous. If the 180 MPH did not scrape this entire village down to cement pads, it would be a miracle.

What's wrong with this picture? … by gimleteye

Congress’s Approval Rating No Longer Detectable by Current Technology

BOROWITZ REPORT

MARCH 13, 2015
Congress’s Approval Rating No Longer Detectable by Current Technology
BY ANDY BOROWITZ - The New Yorker

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) – After a challenging week for the legislative body, the approval rating of the United States Congress has shrunk to a point where it is no longer detectable by the technology currently available, a leading pollster said on Friday.

Davis Logsdon, who heads the highly regarded Opinion Research Institute at the University of Minnesota, said that his polling unit has developed highly sensitive measurement technology in recent years to gauge Congress’s popularity as it fell into the single digits, but added that “as of this week, Congress is basically flatlining.”

“At the beginning of the week, you could still see a slight flicker of approval for Congress,” he said. “Then—bam!—the lights went out.”

Logsdon said, however, that people should resist drawing the conclusion that Congress’s approval rating now stands at zero. “They may have support in the range of .0001 per cent or, say, .0000001 per cent,” he said. “Our equipment just isn’t advanced enough to measure it.”

Logsdon said that the swift descent of Congress’s approval rating below detectable levels has surprised experts in the polling profession. “A couple of years ago, when they shut down the government, I wondered, What could they possibly do to become less popular than this?” the pollster said. “Now we know.”

BOROWITZ REPORT

MARCH 10, 2015
Iran Offers to Mediate Talks Between Republicans and Obama
BY ANDY BOROWITZ - The New Yorker

TEHRAN (The Borowitz Report)—Stating that “their continuing hostilities are a threat to world peace,” Iran has offered to mediate talks between congressional Republicans and President Obama.

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, made the offer one day after Iran received what he called a “worrisome letter” from Republican leaders, which suggested to him that “the relationship between Republicans and Obama has deteriorated dangerously.”

“Tensions between these two historic enemies have been high in recent years, but we believe they are now at a boiling point,” Khamenei said. “As a result, Iran feels it must offer itself as a peacemaker.”

He said that his nation was the “logical choice” to jumpstart negotiations between Obama and the Republicans because “it has become clear that both sides currently talk more to Iran than to each other.”

He invited Obama and the Republicans to meet in Tehran to hash out their differences and called on world powers to force the two bitter foes to the bargaining table, adding, “It is time to stop the madness.”

Hours after Iran made its offer, President Obama said that he was willing to meet with his congressional adversaries under the auspices of Tehran, but questioned whether “any deal reached with Republicans is worth the paper it’s written on.”

For their part, the Republicans said they would only agree to talks if there were no preconditions, such as recognizing President Obama’s existence.



C.I.A. Cash Ended Up in Coffers of Al Qaeda
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG
MARCH 14, 2015
New York Times

"The C.I.A.’s contribution to Qaeda’s bottom line, though, was no well-laid trap. It was just another in a long list of examples of how the United States, largely because of poor oversight and loose financial controls, has sometimes inadvertently financed the very militants it is fighting."