Eye on Miami Saturday Editorial Page. By Geniusofdespair

...Only too happy to fix the Miami Herald's bad decision, to do away with their Saturday Editorial Page.

Homestead has regained its title of most Dysfunctional Entity in Miami Dade County.  Congratulations Homestead. Palmetto Bay was vying for the title but Homestead has it hands down with its phony petition and because Homestead x-Mayor Lynda Bell has been appointed by Governor Scott to the Florida Communities Trust Board (under the Florida Department of Environmental Protection). They oversee land grabs grant funds.  Never can get rid of those bad pennies in Homestead. It must be a paid position, she needs money bad or else she will turn it into a money-maker.

Yep, that is just where Lynda Bell does not belong. This is a slap in the face by Governor Scott. Remember, she is vengeful so forget getting anything for Miami Dade County. The other members don't sound very good, one works for WCI development.

The Florida Communities Trust has a five-member governing board chaired by Jon Steverson, Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection. The other members include the four public members appointed by the Governor of which Bell is one.

Florida Communities Trust assists communities in protecting important natural resources, providing recreational opportunities and preserving Florida's traditional working waterfronts through the competitive criteria in the Parks and Open Space Florida Forever Grant Program and the Stan Mayfield Working Waterfronts Florida Forever Grant Program. These local land acquisition grant programs provide funding to local governments and eligible non-profit organizations to acquire land for parks, open space, greenways and projects supporting Florida's seafood harvesting and aquaculture industries. The source of funding for Florida Communities Trust comes from Florida Forever proceeds.

Parks and Open Space Florida Forever Grant Program
The Parks and Open Space Florida Forever grant program assists the Department of Environmental Protection in helping communities meet the challenges of growth, supporting viable community development and protecting natural resources and open space. The program receives 21 percent Florida Forever appropriation.
Stan Mayfield Working Waterfronts Florida Forever Grant Program

The creation of the Stan Mayfield Working Waterfronts Florida Forever grant program by the 2008 Florida Legislature acknowledges the importance of the traditional seafood harvesting and aquaculture industries in Florida. The program receives 2.5 percent of the total Florida Forever appropriation.
Florida Communities Trust projects play a significant role in improving the quality of life of Florida's residents. The local and regional parks funded by the Trust's Parks and Open Space grant program also help to promote economic growth and revitalization in local communities through nature based tourism. To learn more about Florida's industries and how Florida Communities Trust fits into the state's economic fabric, please visit the Enterprise Florida website.
Florida Forever

The Florida Forever Act provides for land acquisition to protect environmentally significant lands, to protect ground and surface water, to provide high quality recreational opportunities in urban areas, and to help local governments implement their comprehensive plans. Florida Communities Trust is one of several state agencies that receive money from the Florida Forever Program.

 Proposed Annexation District for Commission District 11:

 

It includes large developments waiting in the pipeline: Parkland, Ferro and Green City Miami. Oh to have super density out there when traffic has never been worse. Sounds like a happy mix for District 11, Gridlock and more people to build shopping centers for. We would have to redistrict wouldn't we? Too many people in one District.

Big Sugar, pressing forward to privatize Florida's water supply … by gimleteye

For Big Sugar, the exploitation of Florida taxpayers is a ceaseless enterprise. Its success is measured in hundreds of millions of dollars. However much money Big Sugar earns for shareholders -- dominating Florida -- it is never enough.

With profits virtually guaranteed by federal farm bill policy, Big Sugar freely seeds Florida with disinformation campaigns through skilled and well-paid message machinery.

More and more, the 2010 deal between US Sugar and the state of Florida to sell its lands to the state of Florida looks like a tactic to politically neuter then-Governor Charlie Crist. Why? Because now, five years later, after Florida voters took to the polls and passed by 78 percent a measure to "guarantee", tamper-free (by the legislature) funding for land acquisition, Big Sugar has mounted its own campaign to discredit the option to buy that its top executives negotiated, themselves.

Crist made the deal with one of the Big Sugar behemoths, US Sugar. The 40,000 plus acres of land is necessary to begin the process of assembling adequate surface water storage -- from other sugar barons -- to protect the rest of south Florida from Big Sugar's pollution, generated by the outflow of excess fertilizer and toxic byproducts.

As soon as the 2010 deal was announced, the other Big Sugar giant, the billionaire Fanjuls of Coral Gables and Palm Beach, harshly objected, galvanizing an impenetrable political morass.

The single significant result of the 2010 controversy? It propelled millions of dollars into the campaign coffers of Crist's political opponent, Marco Rubio. (Florida already knows where Jeb Bush stands: he is Big Sugar's golden boy and proved his worth in 2003, when he undertook to dismantle the federal/ state agreement on numerical pollution standards, resulting in ten years of Clean Water Act litigation.)

Today, the state legislature is acting as a political division of Big Sugar's shadow government. Big Sugar billionaires have now set loose their disinformation campaign through various public relations outlets; from the Tea Party ("Don't buy more land") to the Sunshine State News/ Pravda. Their strategy is to drown out -- or at least to compete -- for public attention and against the thousands of coastal residents who are desperate to have their shorefront real estate and quality of life protected from the outrageous pollution spewing from Lake Okeechobee.

This year's issue would seem to be whether the will of Florida voters -- to purchase more environmentally sensitive lands through the measure, Amendment 1 -- will be hijacked by Big Sugar and Ag Secretary Adam Putnam who is angling to be Florida's next governor or senator.

As usual, the controvery-of-the-moment provides cover for even worse from Big Sugar. Craig Pittman, the intrepid reporter at the St. Pete Times, got to the point this week without elaboration: Big Sugar is seeking to revolutionize Florida's water policy in order to mine profits from water. Pittman, by the way, reported last October on the secret, private-jet trips taken by state GOP leaders to the hunting preserve in Texas owned by the King Ranch, not only the largest land owner in Texas (a state where "ownership" of water goes along with land rights) but a significant owner of land in Florida's Everglades Agricultural Area.

The failure of the reported scandal to make a dent in voters' perception emboldened Big Sugar. Now is the time to strike. There will never be more favorable politics. Steal Florida's water.

Read Pittman's: "Florida taxpayers pay ranchers millions to hold water back from Lake Okeechobee."

"For generations, Florida's farmers and ranchers have used their land to grow oranges, sugar, tomatoes and beef cattle, among other things. But now they've added a highly profitable new crop: Water.

A state agency is paying large agricultural operators millions in taxpayer dollars to hold water on their property, treating it as if it were a crop. The agency sees it as a way to create a series of "reservoirs" without the expense of building anything permanent."

Once it is a "crop", it becomes "private property". Remember: the Fanjul's Miami colleague, George Lindemann, is litigating against Maggie Hurchalla -- former Martin County Commissioner -- in a SLAPP suit alleging Hurchalla's interference caused Lindemann from losing an opportunity to sell tens of millions of dollars of water to the municipality of West Palm Beach from a rock pit he owns adjacent to Big Sugar lands.

Whose water is Lindemann planning to sell? It not his to sell! How does the Tea Party -- funded by Big Sugar -- feel about that? It is clear enough: being used by corporate funders, whether by the Kochs or Big Sugar billionaires, is what Florida's Tea Party does best.

Sorry to hear that Penny Townsley will be leaving. By Geniusofdespair

 

The head of Miami Dade County Department of Elections, Penelope Townsley, is leaving June 2016 when her drop takes effect. I will be sorry to see her go. Her departure date is BEFORE the 2016 election. I have always gotten 100% response, even on weekends, from Penny. I believe she truly cares about voters. But remember, she is not elected she is appointed by Mayor Carlos Gimenez and has to pass everything by him or his staff before she does anything. Do we want an Election Supervisor beholden to anyone? The rest of the State of Florida has elected Election Supervisors. That doesn't guarantee a good supervisor. Remember Broward's wacky Miriam Oliphant who was suspended? This is from Wikipedia (which means it could be true) on Miriam Oliphant:

Government investigators found that not only had her office neglected to perform some of its most essential tasks, but it had gone almost $1 million over budget. Among other findings was that Oliphant fired many experienced staff members, and replaced them with an all black and less (in some cases not-at-all) experienced friends and associates with significantly higher rates of pay. She hired a college admissions representative who didn't even know what a primary election was and put her in charge of registration and absentee ballots. She promoted a computer specialist, whom she'd met in her condominium building, to deputy supervisor.

Manatee Drinking From Hose in Miami Beach. By Geniusofdespair

(direct to video of Manatee grabbing a hose with a flipper and drinking from it)

This is not a good thing. Manatees should not feel so safe around people and boats. It does show how smart they are. Smarter than a lot of the Homestead voting public.

What Are Pinky Munz and Wayne Rosen Up To with this PAC? By Geniusofdespair

Munz is the $5,000 and Rosen is the $20,000 in Moving Forward PC.

Pinky Munz

Wayne Rosen

You always have to keep your eye on Homestead. If you turn your back on Hudstead you never know what will appear.

WELL NOW I KNOW WHAT THEY ARE UP TO and it ain't about the golf course unless it is the vote that this would bring them:

The first is protected under Federal Law. They aren't VOTED in as vice mayor, they just take turns. It is a meaningless difference from being a councilperson.  Why should they serve extra time? I think because Munz and Rosen want Judy Waldman, who is termed out, to stay in office. Lynda Bell would do something like this. I am shocked it is Waldman. Is she back to her old ways? For the record: I like Judy. She should have run for Mayor if she was term limited. She still can.

Also in Homestead:

Farm Share may be forced to end giving food to about 6,200 families and 250 agencies if Miami-Dade Commissioners vote to cut off funding to the nonprofit for the next budget year, which begins Oct. 1.

All they want is money for refrigeration and fuel for their trucks which deliver the perishable donated produce, about $280K. Do you think that Munz and Rosen will contribute? Them Helping??

Tom Engelhardt: Is a New Political System Emerging in This Country … by gimleteye

78 percent of Florida voters approved Amendment 1 last November. Voters thought they were providing a secure funding source for purchase of environmentally sensitive lands. At least that's what voters thought.

Amendment 1 will generate at least $20 billion in the next two decades, from the allocation of a portion of the real estate documentary stamp tax for land acquisition.

This session of the Florida legislature though, under Gov. Rick Scott's watchful eye, is proving not just that voters are wrong but that a shadow government rules one of the nation's most important electoral states.

Consider that despite 78 percent of voters approval to purchase lands -- for example, exercising the option to purchase US Sugar lands in the Everglades Agricultural Area -- the current plan is to spend less than 1 percent of available funding on land acquisition.

The rest? It would be for water supply projects and infrastructure that generate enormous campaign contributions from state sponsored cronies: billionaire sugar barons, well drillers, cement manufacturers, and -- of course -- all the King's Men building suburban sprawl in wetlands.

Amendment 1 funding -- it turns out -- is being used as a spigot for campaign money.

The blatant disregard for voters and taxpayers is occurring in the midst of a steady counterinsurgency: Tea Party acolytes are accusing the state of Florida of planning "unnecessary" land grabs. Disinformation campaigns -- such as those waged by Sunshine State News -- are standard operating procedure.

The net result is exactly what Tom Engelhard examines in "Is a New Political System Emerging in This Country?" It has already emerged.

Call it a shadow government by special interests or, as a friend wrote me this morning, "a return to the 1890s".

But there is a key difference between the Age of the Robber Barons and today. In 1890, the consolidation of wealth and power was around the opening of vast profits from natural resource exploitation through industrial processes. Today, wealth is consolidating around the closing of opportunities and scarcities anticipated by climate change.

The founders of the American republic and authors of the Bill of Rights and Constitution could not have anticipated or imagined scenarios under which operators of the economy could exploit scarcity with the same rigor and results as the opening of the American West.

Today's consolidation of power and wealth is happening under the noses of voters and taxpayers.

As many have noted, the gridlock in Congress and federal government-designed-to-fail has shifted the balance of power and struggle for supremacy to the states. For example, Florida. Engelhardt writes, "… the evidence of this (new political system), however inchoate, is all around us and yet it’s as if we can’t bear to take it in or make sense of it or even say that it might be so."

The example, above, of the Florida GOP legislature tampering with Amendment 1 to consolidate its own power speaks for itself.


Tomgram: Engelhardt, Is a New Political System Emerging in This Country?
Posted by Tom Engelhardt at 8:04am, March 19, 2015.
Follow TomDispatch on Twitter @TomDispatch.


The New American Order
1% Elections, The Privatization of the State, a Fourth Branch of Government, and the Demobilization of "We the People"
By Tom Engelhardt

Have you ever undertaken some task you felt less than qualified for, but knew that someone needed to do? Consider this piece my version of that, and let me put what I do understand about it in a nutshell: based on developments in our post-9/11 world, we could be watching the birth of a new American political system and way of governing for which, as yet, we have no name.

And here’s what I find strange: the evidence of this, however inchoate, is all around us and yet it’s as if we can’t bear to take it in or make sense of it or even say that it might be so.

Germanwings and Pilot Safety after 9/11 … by gimleteye

It can only mean one of two things, when one pilot is locked outside of the cockpit and the pilot inside is incapacitated at the controls. Either the pilot inside is on a suicide mission, or, he is unconscious.

News leaking out of the French Alps is horrifying. According to the NY Times, the retrieved voice recorder contains the sounds of the pilot, outside the cockpit, trying to break the locked door down -- to gain access back inside. If that is true, then the final ten minutes of life for the 144 passengers was abject horror.

Since 9/11, passenger jets have taken off and landed safely millions of times. The hardened access to the cockpit to prevent terrorists from taking over cockpits has worked. Still, in this case -- and possibly a few others -- an impregnable cockpit door was a death sentence for passengers.

Designing a fail safe system of protecting the cockpit, when the technology everywhere else on a passenger jet is 21st century, should not be rocket science. In an age when drones and cars can be controlled remotely, there ought to be a safe way to protect passengers when pilots are incapacitated.

More, the GOP Commandments on Climate Change … by gimleteye

"The GOP 10 Commandments on Climate Change", first printed here, is making its way around the web and finding a wide audience.

One by one, I'm commenting on each of the commandments (and so are some of our readers).

The second commandment of the GOP on climate change: "We are the top predator. Others must adapt to us or die."

This commandment has a literal example in Florida: the establishment of Ave Maria University by then Governor Jeb Bush right in the middle of habitat of the state's iconic endangered species: the Florida panther.

In 2007, we wrote: "After years of effort in 2006, environmental groups succeeded in litigation that stopped Scripps from the far western site called Mecca Farms, where it would have anchored massive new growth stretching toward sugar lands. But one place that Jeb succeeded was the insertion of a faith-based community and educational institution at the edge of the Everglades in Collier County."

Ave Maria was permitted by Jeb Bush's environmental agencies in prime Florida panther habitat. The faith-based educational institution skipped past environmental law when federal agencies refused to put up a fight. In sum, the sprawl that emerged around Ave Maria is a bold statement to dissenters: "We are the top predator. Others must adapt to us or die."

After all, it is in the Bible. There is no passage that better illustrates the Republican claim to legitimacy on blocking climate change regulations than the GOP interpretation of Genesis 1:26-28. It might as well be in the Republican presidential climate-change platform for 2016:

"Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth...'"

I personally don't care about Climate Change or Global Warming. By Geniusofdespair

If it doesn't happen to be true I, as a registered Republican, will be very happy. I will buy more Koch brother products like Vanity Fair Super Sized Napkins and vote to put in more  Blank Blank deniers. There are certain repercussions if Blank Blank is true (Rest of the planet, just so you know: In Florida we are NOT ALLOWED to use the words or we get fired or are forced to see a psychiatrist).

If Blank Blank is true:

1. It will thin out the Euro Trash on Miami Beach and the Hispanics pouring into our borders. That would be good for us. Just think, no more immigration issues to deal with.
2. Rubio won't win the presidential election. Bad for us.
3. Rick Scott won't become Senator. Bad for us. Love that Rick Scott.
4. Water World will be a prophecy movie instead of just a bad movie. Bad for us, Good for Hollywood.
5. All our grandchildren will be in deep shit, I mean water. Good and bad, do we really care about their future? Do we even like them? We shouldn't even be reproducing.
6. Flood Insurance? What is that? At least it will save us money when they do away with it, so that is good for us. We will have to dump our waterfront mansions, that is bad for us.
7. Ice caps melting. Photoshop.
8. Saltwater intrusion in our aquifer. Build a Desalination plant on Mount Trashmore.

While all you chicken-littles (Gimleteye being one of the biggest believers) worry about blank blank, I will be at the casino playing Texas Hold-em and smoking cigars with my Republican non-believer friends. I will have my wet suit ready just in case. You never know what those damn Democrats can do with hair dryers...like super-size them. They have super-sized their Beverages haven't they? That is why all Democrats are fat.

The true reason ice caps are melting, Democratic Plot: Unmanned Aerial Drones.

GOP Commandment 1: Climate change is like the weather: there is nothing we can do about it … by gimleteye

Although GOP leaders act as though climate change doesn't exist -- in red states like Florida even banning officials from even uttering the words (cf. Gov. Rick Scott), Republican leaders are far from clueless on the issue, its reality and threat.

Their spin doctors provoke red meat voters; what a cold winter it's been in the Northeast, "Little Ice Ages", but these points of misdirection are to keep the Republican base boiling. GOP leaders can't avoid either the science or evidence of climate change.

Doing "something" about climate change is directly opposed to the interests of the GOP's key funders: polluting industries that depend on externalizing costs; whether damage to the atmosphere or using public waters as their sewage outfalls.

The problem for Republican leaders on climate change is the mismatch between the premise of limited government against the real, unlimited liability from climate change.

Apple Lets Me Buy the Songs...By Geniusofdespair

My password is good enough to buy the songs but to put them on my phone so I can listen to them...nope. I got locked out of my ITunes account for 8 hours for being bad, entering my password too many times.  What a waste of time.  This is all I am doing today and last night: trying to fix it. I do what the box says and I loop back to it about 4 windows later. Did all again today, this time with tech support. We both got locked out for 8 hours. I don't know the answers to my personal security questions. The only one I knew: My first job was taking pictures of Santa Claus and the kids. Got fired for too many double exposures.  Did you ever get tech support...it takes hours, sometimes days.

And all you damn trolls, we know you are commenting on the previous post.

Revealed: The GOP's Ten Commandments on Climate Change … by gimleteye

In public, GOP leaders are climate change deniers. In private, they understand climate change perfectly well. The difference is that disclosure doesn't serve the party's purposes. Climate change denial -- against the backdrop of accumulating science and fact -- is like an electrical charge stimulating the Republican base.

Here are the GOP's ten commandments of climate change.

1) Climate change is like the weather: there is nothing we can do about it.

2) We are top predator. Others must adapt to us or die.

3) It doesn't matter if climate change is man-made: whatever happens is God's will.

4) Since our God in the only God, we know what is best for you.

5) As the party of limited government, any effort to strengthen environmental regulations is cutting our own throats.

6) As the party of capitalism, we are against any climate-driven protectionism unless it serves our interests.

7) If climate change requires subsidies, existing subsidies will be protected, first. Any additional subsidies will have to adapt to ours.

8) Dissenters on climate change are psychological deviants, to be dealt with and isolated from decision-making.

9) If there is a dispute on climate change between constituencies the GOP represents, the leadership will side with that person who concentrates our political power.

10) We will adapt our behavior to impacts of climate change as they happen, not before.

Eagles' Nest in North Miami Area. by Geniusofdespair

It is on a cell phone tower on the West side of Biscayne Blvd. Around 152th Street NE, behind a strip mall. They are preparing the nest at the moment. Nothing is there but twigs.

The Nest is it on the right of the photo.

The Passion Play: Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and Florida … by gimleteye

Whoever is editing for the New York Times on the relationship between Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio is missing the historical fact of their relationship: superior to subordinate.

This morning's front page story portrays Jeb Bush, strategists and loyalists "locking up" donors against a Marco Rubio run for the GOP presidential primary in Florida as though Marco is a credible challenger. He is not.

The piece the Times gets right: Jeb Bush can't win the general election in 2016 unless he wins Florida.

Marco Rubio will be in the primary but not to win. His role -- funded as it may be, by Norman Braman -- is to "walk point" for Jeb in primary season against the GOP freak show.

Jeb will be the elder statesman. Marco will sound like an acolyte to show his chops; ready to be president … but not this time.

For Jeb, Marco will blunt the impact of the carnival acts -- whether Ted Cruz or Rick Santorum. Marco will blunt the attacks against Jeb from the right wing nuts. Elsewhere, I described Marco as being leader of a roller derby team who organizes the train to whip the fastest to the front.

The Republican primary is shaping up to be a Passion Play and not a real competition.

The Yourth Fair: The Full Page Ad War against FIU Continues. By Geniusofdespair

Save the money from the ads Youth Fair's CEO Robert Hohenstein and use it to sue FIU. Nothing else will work. This is the second full page ad in the Miami Herald. It is a waste of money. Here is an excerpt:

First ad I saw was March 10th.

Norman Braman and Marco Rubio. By Geniusofdespair

Marco Rubio must have done some serious ass kissing when he was in Israel with  Norman Braman a few years back. Although on local issues Braman usually is on the right side, on National issues he doesn't have a clue especially if he is going to fund Marco. Give Me the money Norman, I will spend it right.

RUBIO LYING:

h