New sign of global warming: fish species native to Florida migrates to Indiana ... by gimleteye

Researchers erred this week believing they had discovered a brand new species of cave-dwelling fish in Mammoth Cave's southern Indiana regions. A fish with an anus on its forehead -- endemic in Florida -- has migrated from Florida waters to Indiana. Read about it here.

Florida anus-headed man-cave fish

The Hoosier cavefish displays an anus on its forehead just like the endemic Florida man-cave fish. Unlike the "walking" catfish which is evolving human-like motor skills, Florida's anus-headed man-cave fish is adapting toward reasoning skills.



Researchers will now be examining man-caves in other Southern states for signs of global-warming induced migration. Eye On Miami will be setting up a hot-line to report any anus-headed creatures found in the region.

Eye on Miami Saturday Editorial May 16th. By Geniusofdespair

Eat your heart out Miami Herald, we took over your glaring oversight: Saturday

JUDICIAL EXEMPT FROM LAW?

You need a tree removal permit to cut down a tree in Miami Dade County. Is ignorance of the law an excuse? I don't know, lets ask Judge Antonio Marin of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court since it is his tree. I am told there were other trees as well. Good mulch, good fine.

A tree removal/relocation permit is required for the removal or relocation of any tree within Miami-Dade County not specifically exempt under the Environmental Code of Miami-Dade County.

HOMESTEAD:

What is a week without news from Hudstead? Got any?

This is really not Hudstead news but since Lynda Bell is Chairman of the Board of National Right to Life, I thought you might find this choice of their email address, for their PAC, amusing:

LITTLE KNOWN FACTOID:

Did you know Florida Right to Life President (On their website) Carrie Eisnaugle is married to Eric Eisnaugle who serves in the Florida Legislature?
Here are the ORLANDO area Representative's Committee assignments:

Rules, Calendar & Ethics Committee Vice Chair
Agriculture & Natural Resources Subcommittee
Justice Appropriations Subcommittee
Local & Federal Affairs Committee
Rulemaking Oversight & Repeal Subcommittee

I wonder how he votes on all those wacky Anti-Abortion bills? This is a link to his sponsored bills.

A bad week for Jeb Bush ... by gimleteye

It was a bad week for big GOP financial donors trying to assemble an unassailable war chest for their unannounced candidate for president: Jeb Bush.

Jeb inadvertently admitted that he is a GOP presidential candidate -- violating federal election law -- although there is slim chance he will be prosecuted. He also made another big mistake when he told a group of Manhattan financiers that his top adviser on US-Israeli policy is George W. Bush.

That lead Fox News, "fair and un-balanced", to help clarify. Jeb also says "he is his own man", but he has embraced much of his brother's White House foreign policy team. In February, his campaign released a list of 21 foreign policy advisers; 17 of them served in the George W. Bush administration including the architect of the Bush Iraq policy, Paul Wolfowitz.

When Jeb told Fox News this week that he would have committed the US to war in Iraq based on what we know now, he committed the political Freudian slip of admitting his advisors are the very same ones who ignored evidence on Iraq and Afghanistan and paved the way to outcomes that are breaking the back of taxpayers and families of those who served.

The cost of ill-advised wars to American taxpayers for mistakes embraced by Jeb's team of advisors? At least $3 trillion.

Jeb's errors on the campaign trail can't be chalked up to inexperience. They are forced by trying to make reality conform to imaginary story lines. The further problem for Jeb: while he was governor in Florida, that strategy for dealing with the media actually worked.

Jeb's two terms as governor were defined by zealously pursuing predetermined outcomes on social policies. Although he is keeping public distance from his brother's political svengali, Karl Rove, today; Rove was at the heart of Jeb's political career.

Instead of being inclusive of diverse opinions and points of view within his administration, he was intently focused on separating out those he judged to be his political enemies. "My way or the highway" defined the Jeb Bush governing style in Florida, teed up by Rove in the early 1990's when Jeb was being groomed to be the next Bush to be president.

Although Jeb looks better than he has in years, fit to compete against a younger crowd in the primary marathon, his mistakes this week won't heal with time. Big money donors who are telling each other there's eight months to primary elections and time heals all wounds are "all-in" with Jeb the same way W. was "all-in" with Iraq.

If I were a Rich Man.... Dickhead Rich People: Sandy Batchelor and Norman Braman. By Geniusofdespair

Sandy Batchelor, very rich herself as Chairman of the Batchelor Foundation, said the Sugar Land is too expensive, nixing the deal Environmentalists wanted so badly. When she was reappointed  by Rick Scott to the South Florida Water Management Board, stupid Audubon celebrated (she is on their board too).

The Miami Herald reported:

“There are really and truly constraints out there. For me, the biggest one is financial,” said board member Sandy Batchelor.

 So Audubon, your Rich Board Member took a very bold move for the Environment,  a Dickhead move.

Norman Braman, of course he is a dickhead extraordinaire for his mega support of Marco Rubio, that is a given, but he is also a dickhead for meddling in the historic neighborhood of Buena Vista. He wants to build his Institute of Contemporary Art (to house works from MOCA dispute) in the  Buena Vista hood (he bought a few houses bordering the design district). The neighbors are up in arms and do not want the zoning changed.  How can he demolish historic homes anyway? His wife Irma needs the museum I suppose but the Design District was perfect. Braman has property there for his museum, why encroach on a neighborhood? Make it compact, lean and mean Norman, instead of being a Dickhead to your neighbors.

Buena Vista Historic Home

I spoke to  Buena Vista resident Basil Binns, He has no beef with Norman Braman, he said he respects the man. He just wants his historic neighborhood to remain intact. He loves where he lives with his family. Norman, talk to Basil and his neighbors. North Miami is already perplexed about the art from MOCA, now you want Buena Vista to be angry? You don't want to be a local Dickhead, isn't being a National Dickhead enough? By the way, all that money you are wasting on Rubio...find another site. Why should Jorge Perez have a better museum than you?

Buena Vista Homeowner Basil Binns with Baby Binns

Come on Norman Braman, I am pulling on your heart-strings. Do you have any? Look at this fine dad to baby Binns.

"Every day you can grow sugar is a great day for Florida" ... by gimleteye

News Summary for May 15: Tom Brady, the NFL star, will lose four games because of his complicit role in deflating footballs to his team's advantage. Johnny Depp faces jail time in Australia for smuggling his two Yorkshire terriers into the country by private jet. Kim Kardashian and Kanye West argue over the taking of selfies. Andy Borowitz reports Jeb Bush says what he thinks about Iraq in unimportant because he will never be president. In New Smyrna Beach, a woman with four kids in the car claimed she had eaten four "hamburgers with whiskey on them" and that's why she failed a sobriety test after being pulled over by police while breast-feeding a 2-month-old child. Three other children, ages 1, 3 and 4 were in the back seat of the car. Political appointees to the governing board of the South Florida Water Management District rejected the option to buy US Sugar lands, despite appeals by environmental groups and citizens despairing over Big Sugar's domination of the state legislature and the industry's non-stop effort to subvert democracy. Sugar spokesperson Judy Sanchez said every day you can grow sugar is a great day for Florida. Gov. Rick Scott wonders what it will take to get noticed by @_FloridaMan.

Judy Sanchez

Clusters of Adolescent and Young Adult Thyroid Cancer in Florida Counties ... by gimleteye

From the Study (below in this post)

The thyroid gland is the small butterfly-shaped gland at the front of the neck just below the Adam’s apple. It produces thyroid hormones that regulate the body’s metabolism.

Thyroid cancer has captured the interest of epidemiologists because of its strong association to environmental factors. According to statistics, there is a lot more thyroid cancer in South Florida than there should be.

"The main environmental risk factor for thyroid cancer reported in the literature is exposure of the thyroid gland to radiation." That's according to a 2014 statistical paper by Raid Amin and James J. Burns published in a medical journal, BioMed Research International.

In South Florida, FPL's controversial Turkey Point facility is the major radiation generator in South Florida.

In the early 2000's, the Tooth Fairy Project established that children's exposure to radiation was significantly higher in Miami-Dade compared to the rest of the state and compared to other states.

In March, 2001, the Radiation Public Health Project (RPHP) released a Special Report on the Florida Baby Teeth Study, entitled Environmental Radiation from Nuclear Reactor’s and Increasing Children’s Cancer in Southeastern Florida, (the "Florida Report") which noted that:

The Turkey Point 3 and 4 nuclear reactors located approximately 25 miles south of Miami have been operating since 1972 and 1973, respectively. From 1972 to 1993, Turkey Point reported the emission of 6.69 trillion picocuries of radioactive chemicals (including Sr-90) into the air, nearly half of the total released during the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island. The highest average Sr-90 concentration in five U.S. states has been documented in 86 baby teeth from persons born after 1979 in Miami-Dade County. For persons born in Miami-Dade during the period 1988-94, the average Sr-90 level in baby teeth was 21.5% greater than the average for the seven previous years.

In 2003, RPHP followed up: "Childhood Cancer in South Florida Study Finds Cause in Nuclear Plant Radiation Emissions - Drinking Water Most Likely Source":

Miami, Florida - A South Florida Baby Teeth and Cancer Case Study, that was officially released today, finds that infants and children are especially vulnerable to cancer caused by federally-permitted radiation releases from nuclear reactors, such as the Turkey Point and St. Lucie nuclear power plants, located in southeast Florida.

The five-year baby teeth study, also known as the "Tooth Fairy Project," found a 37% rise in the average levels of radioactive Strontium-90 (Sr-90) in southeast Florida baby teeth from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. When compared with baby teeth collected from 18 Florida counties, the highest levels of Sr-90 were found in the six southeast Florida counties closest to the Turkey Point and St. Lucie nuclear reactors: Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River.

The current rise of radiation levels in baby teeth in Florida and in the U.S. as a whole reverses a long-term downward trend in Sr-90 levels since the 1960s, after President Kennedy banned aboveground testing of nuclear weapons 1963, due to concerns about increasing childhood cancer and leukemia rates from fallout.

Radioactive Sr-90 is a known carcinogen, which is only produced by fission reactions in nuclear weapons or reactors. It enters the body along with chemically similar calcium, and is stored in bone and teeth, where it can be measured years later using well-established laboratory techniques.

Significantly, the study documented that the average levels of Sr-90 found in the teeth of children diagnosed with cancer were nearly twice as high as those found in the teeth of children without cancer.

The 2014 report, "Clusters of Adolescent and Young Adult Thyroid Cancer in Florida Counties", analyzed data provided by a public registry of cancers, the Florida Cancer Data System. For the purposes of the analysis, the years 2000-2008 were matched to thyroid in young adults from ages 15-39.

Unlike the RPHP report, where Florida Power and Light strongly disputed the study, its methodology and its results, there are no similar questions associated with data.

A total of 3,526 young adult cases of thyroid cancer were identified in Florida with an incidence rate of 7.3 average annual cases per 100,000. The report concludes that in South Florida, "there is a statistically significant 26% increased risk of young adult thyroid cancer. The probability that the identified South Florida cluster is random is very small."

The study concludes, "we found evidence of spatial clustering of thyroid cancer cases for AYA (adolescents and young adults) age range in South Florida and Northwest Florida. This evidence may indicate environmental risk factors influencing these results, predisposing adolescents and young adults in these cluster regions to increased risk of thyroid cancer. Further study is needed to investigate the possible factors contributing to the elevated levels of AYA thyroid cancer rates found."

Statisticians don't deal with medicine, or, cause and effect. Oncologists provide information to the Florida Cancer Database System. Doctors on the front lines, treating patients, ordinarily don't deal with cause and effect.

Ultimately the Florida Department of Health is responsible to link cancer with causes, but the Department is impenetrable as the Kremlin with its default response, "Cancer clusters are difficult to prove", then a retreat behind its walls.

This is exactly what happened in 2012, when a group of Northwest Miami-Dade residents bitterly complained to Commissioner Jean Monestine; there was too much cancer in their midst.

In Sept. 2012, Commissioner Monestine proposed a resolution, adopted by the board of Miami Dade County Commissioners: "RESOLUTION URGING THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND THE MIAMI-DADE COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT TO INVESTIGATE AND DETERMINE WHETHER A CANCER CLUSTER EXISTS IN THE VICINITY OF NORTHWEST 36TH AVENUE AND NORTHWEST 86TH STREET IN MIAMI-DADE COUNTY; AND IF SUCH A CANCER CLUSTER DOES EXIST, TO REFER THIS MATTER FOR APPROPRIATE ENVIRONMENTAL TESTS TO DETERMINE POSSIBLE CAUSES".

Commissioner Moss stated that Ms. Renita Holmes brought up environmental concerns. He said he had seen Dr. Rivera from the Health Department earlier and an issue about cancer clusters may be raised later in the meeting. Commissioner Jordan stated she was the only commissioner who pulled this item, and she had released it so that it could pass, because Dr. Rivera had another engagement. She said the item passed and she had discussed it with Dr. Rivera privately. Commissioner Moss commented that he had forwarded a request to the Health Department to look at a cancer cluster in his district as well.

Commissioner Jordan noted for the record that the Health department had started doing assessments to verify if a cancer cluster existed. Commissioner Moss inquired whether the assessments would involve looking at current residents as well as residents that grew up there, moved to other areas, and had experienced the harms of cancer. Commissioner Jordan stated that Dr. Rivera explained that the Health Department would interview people from the community and ask others to come forward, in order to identify anyone that may have been impacted, and investigate any other issues. She said the process could take months or years depending on the level of impact.

By late October, Miami New Times reported the county and state investigation was over: "When asked whether the health department would look further into the cancer issue, Rivera emphatically stated that the investigation was over. "I think this is it for us," she says. "This is where it stops. We have all we need." That's not good enough for (community neighbor) Shelton, who says that she and the Broadmoor residents want more answers." Justice will prevail," she says. "Whatever has been done will come forth."

Justice might not prevail, but presumably when it comes to cancer, the facts and data will.

Citizens have a right and a responsibility to their children to press elected officials: how much money is the State of Florida investing to determine why cancer rates are abnormally high in South Florida? And what about Miami-Dade County?

Even before the issue of money -- often cited as a cause for failure of government agencies to act -- citizens have a right to know exactly what zip codes and areas of Miami-Dade County are showing statistical deviations in cancer rates. This data is available. There is no good reason for county and state health department officials to obscure the facts and for the media to report the facts.

Even the children of journalists and news reporters can get cancer. No one is exempt. So, is the media silent on cluster cancers in South Florida? Pick up the phone and start asking questions. Don't take "no" for an answer.

Clusters of Adolescent and Young Adult Thyroid Cancer in Florida Counties

Miami Dade Waterfront Only for the Wealthy? Guest Blog by Gregory Bush

Late one night in December 1902, after returning to his home overlooking Biscayne Bay in downtown Miami, Judge George Worley was shocked to see that Henry Flagler’s FEC company had constructed a large barbed wire fence for several blocks along the waterfront. He was so upset at his lost access to what he considered to be the public’s waterfront that he went to Budges hardware store, got a barbed wire cutter and tore down the fence. The FEC promptly put it up again and Worley cut it again and again until he was arrested. His case eventually wound its way up to the state Supreme Court that ruled in 1905 that the original plat dictated a public park along the waterfront. He won - but in recent decades battles for the public waterfront have gotten far more complex and the public understanding of the issues has gotten far more cloudy as wealth trumps public access.

Today, waterfront development in Miami has generally been forged through manufactured crises devoid of coherent long term planning. Miami Dade residents face multiple threats to what is left of our public waterfront. The issues remain complex and obscure to most residents. Yet this is a critical hour.

Look around our beautiful Biscayne Bay (if you can): Watson Island, Skyrise and Parcel B (waterfront of the American Airlines Arena) as well as the Marine Stadium basin at Virginia Key are all in the throws of complex development schemes that are taking away public waterfront land and access to beautiful Biscayne Bay – each to benefit a narrow set of wealthy or favored interests. Multiple lawsuits have been filed in the name of the public interest but the issue of standing by plaintiffs has been repeatedly used to thwart challenges towards government actions.

The loss of our public waterfront has been due, in large part, to the power of varied commercial interests – and their legions of consultants - who seize the initiative for land deals behind closed doors alongside government officials. Campaign contributions follow, public cynicism ensues, and public space is effectively lost. Years ago, for example, Miami passed the Carrolo Amendment, mandating public referenda on waterfront leases, but city officials established elaborate patterns of evasion such as using the Miami Exhibition and Sports Authority and “licensing” agreements.

The Marine Stadium area is a classic case in point.

Someone Shot the Sherriff... (or car thief?). By Geniusofdespair

All we know is that a lot of shots were fired in Aventura. The newsman didn't know what was going on. Anyway, someone was shot and it appears it happened in the Aventura Mall Parking Garage. Stolen car? The guy at Aventura Mall, maybe there to shoplift, got shot in the arm. I don't know, I plead the 5th on the whole thing. He might not have been armed. I was hoping to go to Starbucks. Not today.

Bloomingdales Parking Garage at Aventura Mall

Outside Aventura Mall

Newsman that didn't have a clue but either did I.

Lynda Bell's Graduation Photo Making the Rounds on Facebook. By Geniusofdespair

Looks like all of Jose Luis Castillo's Clients from Palmetto Bay and Cutler Bay. And I suppose that is his wife on the right? Congratulations on your College graduation Lynda.Is that Vice Mayor of Palmetto Bay John Dubois holding on tight to Another Palmetto Bay Councilwoman ?. These former clients stay very loyal to Jose Luis Castillo.

Lizette Alvarez and @_FloridaMan: how to account for his popularity? ... by gimleteye

The tweets of @_FloridaMan made the New York Times. Lizette Alvarez explores why the sublime minimalist is more popular (by far) than similar feeds from other states. She obtains pithy observations from some of our renown humorists, but the heart of his popularity remains as occluded as the water flowing out of Lake Okeechobee. So let us explain it all for you.

Florida is not just an incubator of the bizarre, it is -- contrary to Chamber of Commerce literature -- the manifest example of a state that actively promotes lowering the bar of cultural normative values.

Ours is not just a trailer park state populated by Kardashian wannabes at both coasts and run by characters out of Breaking Bad in the middle: it is the state that birthed conservatives masquerading as "compassionate" whose only guiding principle is that a car sold in parts is more valuable than the whole. Florida is the chop shop state.

Like FloridaMan, we @EyeonMiami observe a culture where everything is for sale, every manner of depravity can be observed as though holding a mirror to face of the unconscious for signs of breath on its fogged surface.

Florida Man Tries to Walk Out of Store With Chainsaw Stuffed Down His Pants.

Florida Man Falls Asleep During Sailboat Burglary With Gift Bag on His Head; Can’t Be Woken by Police.

Florida Man Arrested For Directing Traffic While Also Urinating.

Florida Man Impersonates Police Officer, Accidentally Pulls Over Real Police Officer.

Florida Man Says He Only Survived Ax Attack By Drunk Stripper Because “Her Coordination Was Terrible.”

What is your explanation for the success of @FloridaMan?

U.S. | MIAMI JOURNAL
@_FloridaMan Beguiles With the Hapless and Harebrained
By LIZETTE ALVAREZMAY 10, 2015

MIAMI — Dangling into the sea like America’s last-ditch lifeline, the state of Florida beckons. Hustlers and fugitives, million-dollar hucksters and harebrained thieves, Armani-wearing drug traffickers and hapless dope dealers all congregate, scheme and revel in the Sunshine State. It’s easy to get in, get out or get lost.

For decades, this cast of characters provided a diffuse, luckless counternarrative to the salt-and-sun-kissed Florida that tourists spy from their beach towels. But recently there arrived a digital-era prototype, @_FloridaMan, a composite of Florida’s nuttiness unspooled, tweet by tweet, to the world at large. With pithy headlines and links to real news stories, @_FloridaMan offers up the “real-life stories of the world’s worst super hero,” as his Twitter bio proclaims.

Gimleteye made a dreadful error on Monday. By Geniusofdespair

THIS IS ALL ABOUT A PUPPY NAMED SMOKEY...(MY NAME FOR ALL PETS)

He overwhelmed us all and he had no cute puppy pictures. I looked at his post and said to myself, I am not watching 3 f--king videos. WTF, is he crazy. Really Gimleteye. And you don't even write anything that makes us want to watch them. BORING.

Well, I was clearly bored having just lost a Words with Friends game and I had watched all the Penny Dreadful shows I taped, so I started to watch Gimeleteye's videos.

When I saw the second one and saw it was about Miami exclusively and I saw Hal Wanless, Philip Stoddard and Dan Kipnis, I said to myself WHAT?? Why didn't Gimleteye tell me. I love these guys.

So I am NOT going to overwhelm you. Just watch the 2nd damn video. You will be glad you did. I mean it. Would I lie to my readers? Well, maybe but not in this case.



Now if you want, go back and watch all three. I highly recommend 3 as it is a continuation of this one. Laura Reynolds is in it (Tropical Audubon Society). But really this one will get you, especially when you think you want your Grandchildren to grow up here.

Miami, wake up! Not just a "day at the beach": flesh eating bacteria alert! ... by gimleteye

The following report is from Fort Myers: man loses leg to flesh eating bacteria. He's sitting a hospital room saying that his mission is now to warn people that touching beach water in Florida could cost you even more than a leg.

Meanwhile -- and at the very same time -- the GOP-led Florida legislature and Gov. Rick Scott are poised to drastically lower pollution standards in Lake Okeechobee; the liquid heart of Florida where so much pollution comes from. What's the connection?

Pollution spewing through the Caloosahatchee River to the west coast of Florida and the St. Lucie River, to the east, is so serious that it has turned Florida's outstanding water bodies into vast petri dishes for toxic algae and exotic bacteria like the one that just took a man's leg.

The particulars are depressingly familiar (cf. "Courtney Nash's Last Swim: Florida's Lethal Waters", 2011). A shadow government of big corporate agribusiness -- cattle and Big Sugar -- literally runs the state of Florida. Billionaire polluters are continuously trying to dodge responsibility for their clean up costs.

The latest indignity: persuading your state legislators to approve a new law making water quality compliance "voluntary" for Lake O polluters.

In the Palm Beach Post, Earthjustice attorney David Guest fumes, "This is like some bad dream, and it will be a forever nightmare for everyone who lives near the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers, where the pollution flows to the coasts. We know this toxic algae kills wildlife and makes people and animals sick, causing flulike symptoms, skin lesions and respiratory problems. Why on earth would we make it easier for these polluters to dump this stuff on us?"

But it is not just our northern or western neighbors who need to be alert. We do, too, in Miami and Broward. The shit hitting the fan in our waterways affects all of us. Our drinking water. Our beaches. Our future.

You -- the voters -- entrusted these geniuses in the state legislature with your votes. Think it doesn't matter to you? Ask yourself just one question: if you lost your leg to a flesh eating bacteria after an innocent day at the beach, say Miami Beach, who would you be able to hold accountable? Answer: no one. If you are lucky, you might get a prosthetic leg for free from the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce.

Watch the video. Read the report. Inform yourselves and vote accordingly.

Atlanta News, Weather, Traffic, and Sports | FOX 5

Man's message for beachgoers after losing leg to flesh eating bacteria
Updated: May 11, 2015 7:55 AM EDT


FORT MYERS, FL- A Florida man is recovering after he lost his foot and part of his lower leg.

Doctors say it was caused by flesh-eating bacteria that he contacted during a day at the beach.

Now, lying in a bed on the fourth floor of Health Park Hospital, Zachary Motal shared the shock that's still gripping him.

"It's been a hard thing to go through to wake up every morning and not see your foot there anymore," Motal explained.

He believes it started when he waded into the waters of Fort Myers Beach.

Marco Rubio: the bad press piles up ... by gimleteye

Marco Rubio and David Rivera

According to Marco Rubio, news reports and blogs Eye On Miami are part of the "media hype" denying his candidacy for GOP presidential nominee a fair shake. We infer this from a devastating Washington Post report, scratching under the smooth exterior. Although there is not much news in the disclosure we've covered for years -- Marco's relationship with former congressman David Rivera (the best quote in the WAPO report, below, is former state senator Alex Villalobos calling Rivera "a real asshole") -- what does shine through is how Republicans nationally have to decide whether to adopt a candidate for the top elected office in the world whose values of friendship and loyalty were forged in West Miami Dade gutter politics.

Marco Rubio claims that he is, today, at the same point in his political career as Barack Obama was when he launched his successful bid to be president of the United States. As observers of Miami politics, we can confidently say the comparison is not even close. Thanks to friends like David Rivera, Marco Rubio should stay right here handling auto dealership disputes for Norman Braman as recently disclosed by the New York Times. He shouldn't be left anywhere near the White House: Marco Rubio is not ready for prime time. Period.


For Sen. Marco Rubio, a question of friendship vs. politics
Washington Post
By Ben Terris May 8, 2015

As an underdog candidate for the U.S. Senate going nowhere in the polls, Marco Rubio thought about dropping out. Then his close friend David Rivera showed up at his house, armed with giant sticky notes to paste reasons not to quit all over Rubio’s living room.

But now, as Rubio pursues another audacious, uphill campaign, this time for the Republican presidential nomination, the man he has called his “most loyal friend and supporter” could be a big political problem.

More, The Ed Show on MSNBC: "The Threat of Rising Tides"

Jeb Bush does not believe in man-made climate change. "A liberal left" conspiracy. God help us all.



One mortgage cycle away, pop goes the real estate bubble.



Quote of worthy mention, Dr. Hal Wanless: "Senator Rubio has dis-learned climate change."

From: the Coalition Against Causeway Chaos

The Coalition Against Causeway Chaos printed the following over the weekend. Links are interactive on the Coalition website, but not here. To access links, click here.
Maybe some of our readers can identify who the City of Miami elected officials are/were, responsible for this utter mess.

Battle Against Watson Island Project Snowballs.
Court Decision Could Blow Case Wide Open By Exposing Lies and Illegal Behavior By Some Commissioners and City Officials.


On May 5th Judge Thomas Rebull ordered the City of Miami to show cause—by May 22nd-- why it should not be held in contempt or court or face other sanctions.

His order was triggered by the City’s failure to produce records on the Watson Island Flagstone project that should have been produced as required by an earlier court order in September, 2014.

The judge noted that the City had lied under oath when its “most knowledgeable” witness “had produced everything that they had in their possession.” Central to the case is the failure by Miami officials to disclose key information to Commissioners voting on whether the Flagstone project should be continued or stopped.

In his order Judge Rebull directed the City to provide sworn affidavits or live witnesses who under oath will testify on why this information was not disclosed and what steps that have been taken to remedy the problem on non-disclosure.

As a result of this order we will seek to compel a number of elected and appointed officials to testify under oath about what they knew, when they knew it and why was this information kept hidden.

Specifically, in Judge Rebull’s own words. “I’m saying this for the City’s benefit…find out… who knew what when, and when did you find this out, how did this request come to light...? (See page 59 of the complete hearing Transcript)

Among the questions that must be answered:

Why were the Commissioners and the public lied to when an independent appraisal of fair market value showed the City should be charging the developer $7 million per year instead of the $2 million Flagstone is currently slated to pay when the project is complete?
Why were the Commissioners and the public lied to when officials told them that all necessary permits had been in a proper and timely manner when records now clearly indicate just the opposite?
Why was the Cabinet and Governor and the public lied to that a traffic study had been done and was positive when in fact the City official who was assuring them had never even read it?
Why was the Commission and the public lied to when told the City would be liable for $58 million if the project was stopped when, in fact, there was not a shred of documentation for that statement?

All these lies and non-disclosures of highly relevant information that were denied to the Commissioners, the press and public. Information that may have stopped the Flagstone project in its tracks.

Stay tuned. As we put elected and non-elected officials under oath and bring out the true facts of the secret, wrongful actions in the Flagstone matter, you’ll see why this battle against secrecy and backroom dealing is far from over.

You can find a copy of Judge Rebull’s Order here.


ON THE SAME DAY A SECOND DECISION SLAMMED COURTHOUSE DOOR SHUT ON CITIZEN COMPLAINTS

On the same day Judge Rebull issued his contempt order against the City, Judge Monica Gordo sided with Miami and dismissed our civil action case for lack of standing.

Disappointed, but not surprised, within hours we filed a notice of Appeal.

We intend to carry this case all the way to the Florida Supreme Court if necessary.

Why? Because if this ruling is left unchallenged, it would be the final nail in the coffin that buries the public’s right to participate in government decision-making.

As the Miami Herald noted in a lead editorial on the importance of standing:

“The history of America is replete with stories of courageous citizens who waged and won important civic battles against a powerful establishment on behalf of good public causes. Often, their battles were won in the courtroom, the venue of last resort for citizens who believe they cannot get a fair hearing from elected or appointed officials who make public policy and approve the expenditure of public money.

“Now, however, the city of Miami is asking the courts to bar the door against local residents whose complaints city officials find inconvenient. If the city succeeds, it would be a significant defeat for the public’s right to fight City Hall.

We would like to think that strict regulations are in place these days to require public input at every turn when important issues arise. Increasingly, however, governments have sought to block public participation, manipulate public hearings and curtail the flow of information. And when the threat of legal action arises, attempts are made to shut the public out of the courthouse, where all parties are equal and issues can be fully exposed to scrutiny.”

Again, stay tuned because this battle in the pursuit of the rights of citizens to challenge their government's decisions is far, far from over.

You can find a copy of Judge Gordo's Order here.

The 70th Anniversary of the Haulover Beach Wade-in Yesterday. By Geniusofdespair

Community Activist Gene Tinnie who organized the event.

As part of this year’s ongoing observance of the landmark 70th anniversary of the official opening of Historic Virginia Key Beach Park, Miami’s onetime only “Colored Beach,” an informal Remembrance of the protest which started it all was held on May 9, at Haulover Beach.

It was on May 9, 1945, at this site, which was then was then called Baker’s Haulover, as the present-day beach and park were being developed by Dade County for Whites Only, that a group of courageous African Americans engaged in a bold act of Civil Disobedience, fully a decade before such tactics became the emblem of the Civil Rights movement, by “wading in the water,” with the intent of being arrested and thus bringing public attention to their demand for a bathing beach for the Colored population by having their case addressed in the courts.

Both the organization and the outcome of that demonstration seven decades ago (within the memory of some Miamians still living) reveal much about the Miami’s unique and special history, where the odious drama of Jim Crow segregation (sanctioned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1896, the same year that the City of Miami was founded, with Black men comprising approximately half of the signers of the Charter) played out very differently from elsewhere in the South, yet with some chillingly typical similarities.

The very fact that such an action was deemed necessary at all in the first place reveals that racism, discrimination, and social disparities and injustice were still very much a reality in Miami at a time when World War II was ending and servicemen, who had fought for freedom and democracy elsewhere in the world, would be returning home to a country where they would rightly expect and demand fair treatment.

I was speaking to a Black woman at this event (whose son is a lawyer) who disagreed with me and said Blacks shouldn't learn Spanish from an early age. She said "This is my country and THE HISPANICS SHOULD have to learn English." I said "It ain't going to happen (They have 60% of the population you have 20%) unemployment is at about 5% for other groups and about 20% for Blacks". I said: "See all those high rises around you, they are filled with South Americans. You have to learn Spanish to get a job to service their needs, i.e. sell them stuff, decorate their apartments, etc." Didn't register. It appears it was a big insult to this woman to admit that everyone must be bilingual and learn Spanish. It was pride. I said "Here is what you are doing" I walked into a garbage can a few times. So she was perfectly happy to stand on her principles even if it will just perpetuate the unemployment problem and hurt the future of children. If they don't learn a second language at a young age they never will, why doom children? I read the want ads today and there was a lot of: "Bilingual, Must speak Spanish."

I just don't understand. Someone explain it to me.

Enjoying Haulover Beach, most probably not knowing how he got there historically.

On Norman Braman and Marco Rubio: oligarchs and the state of American politics ... by gimleteye

The front page story in the Sunday New York Times, "Billionaire Lifts Marco Rubio Politically and Personally" is a reflection on an unbalanced friendship and the state of American politics although the deeper questions relate to the latter.

MIAMI — One day in the State Capitol in Tallahassee, Marco Rubio, the young speaker of the House, strayed from the legislative proceedings to single out a lanky, silver-haired man seated in the balcony: a billionaire auto dealer named Norman Braman.

This man, Mr. Rubio said in effusive remarks in 2008, was no ordinary billionaire, hoarding his cash or using it to pursue selfish passions.

“He’s used it,” Mr. Rubio said, “to enrich the lives of so many people whose names you will never know.” As it turned out, one of the people enriched was Mr. Rubio himself.

Eye On Miami has very strong views on both Mr. Braman and Senator Rubio. Marco, both bloggers here believe, is a kid who made good from West Dade but whose career is distinguished by his ability to deliver a telegenic face and poll-tested opinions, stretching the truth when it serves his political interests, and mainly rising thanks to Jeb Bush, who needed a strong consigliere in the state legislature when he (Jeb) was governor. Marco Rubio is the GOP analogue to Alex Penelas, if Penelas had kept his reputation clean with Democrats and not succumbed to the great chase of wealth accumulation (i.e. Homestead Air Force Base fiasco).

Braman is a different story. We have rued that more Miami billionaires haven't stuck up for civic causes like Norman Braman, even as we expressed our confusion how Braman targets some issues -- the ouster of Mayor Carlos Alvarez, for example -- so effectively, and yet is completely out of tune with other issues of civic concern where the wealth of a billionaire could be a decisive factor (taking on the unreformable majority of the county commission, for example).

The New York Times reporting comes closest to a point of view that reflects our experience: Mr. Braman has earned the 30,000 foot view from the private jet and sees the world from there as a set of sharply defined interests: local taxation, Israel, and state legislation that directly impacts his automobile empire. This is not to say that Braman is a simple person at all.

In Miami, I've watched his star power at the noon lunch crowd at Joe's Stone Crab and silently wondered if any of the lawyers, movers and shakers had even the slightest interest in diving into local and state politics, or, whether they just celebrate Mr. Braman for his wealth and servicing their cars (or the cars of their clients). Why doesn't Mr. Braman involve himself in the other powerful civic causes of Miami: the absence of parks, the inequities of a miserable public transportation system, or the area of public policy that Senator Rubio is most vulnerable on: climate change.

It's a mystery, although no more of a mystery than the way American voters have allowed a GOP-controlled Congress and GOP-selected judiciary to put oligarchs on a pedestal. Billionaires like Mr. Braman are wielding such outsized influence on American politics and campaigns today that recently the chairman of the Federal Elections Commission despaired publicly -- to the New York Times -- that she had "no confidence" federal laws could be enforced on campaign finance.

What comes through the report by the New York Times on the relationship between Mr. Braman and Senator Rubio is the portrait of a political patron and his hireling. Sheldon Adelson, the Koch Brothers, and Iowa pig farmers and Big Sugar billionaires have their own candidates and we will never know how much money is finally funneled into any of the campaigns. Some days it seems our political life most resembles Florence Italy in the 15th century.

It is not what the Founding Fathers wanted: that elections should turn into variety shows based on a Kentucky Derby format. We are in the stands, the women wearing splendid hats to mark a most fashionable annual event, while the barons and sultans and emirs sit in the gilded boxes below. Great entertainment. Lousy democracy. In fact, it is not democracy at all.