For Dems to win Latino vote, watchful waiting is not a strategy ... by gimleteye

On the airwaves, there has been a lot of chatter recently about accelerating demographics that favor the fortune of Democrats in the upcoming presidential election despite evidence that the GOP is solidifying gains in state legislatures and office of governor.

With the chance African American voters will not turnout in 2016 in the same numbers as earlier elections, the Latino vote looms with even greater importance.

For the GOP, Koch Brother investments in Libre Initiative projects are making not-so-quiet inroads in Latino communities in key electoral states. It is not clear how many tens or hundreds of millions the Koch's Libre and related organizations are making, or just how far Democrats are falling behind in a comprehensive strategy to meet the needs of Latinos at the community level.

The well-funded Libre Initiative is not a covert operation. It is a long-term strategy that aims to turn Latino voters to the GOP. It is a mistake to believe that sitting back while GOP presidential aspirants fumble over immigration policies is a strategy. In this case, watchful waiting is wishful thinking.

County Commissioner Rebeca Sosa the Enigma. By Geniusofdespair

Rebeca Sosa

County Commissioner Rebeca Sosa: I like her. She is complex and has been incredible on some issues that face the County. Not so good on others. She after all, elevated Lynda Bell to Vice Chair and also gave her a Committee Chairmanship. Unheard of. Lynda Bell milked the Vice Chair title for all it was worth. Do you know who the Vice Chair is now? I do but that Commissioner is quiet as a mouse. Rebeca was an incredible Chair of the Commission, very good to the public she serves, polite and patient. The high point of her Chairmanship for me was when she shut off the microphone when Developer Lobbyist Jeffrey Bercow wouldn't stop talking after his time was up.

Rebeca championed wiping out absentee ballot fraud and took the lead, adding a penalty so that the illegal collection of absentee ballots could be prosecuted. There was a law on the books without a penalty. You need a penalty to prosecute. That was a major act that led to the arrest of many for fraud. Too bad we have such crappy prosecution.

She did vote to lift the Brown application 30 year deed restriction after only 5 years. But for the most part, she votes right on UDB applications.

This is a woman who cares about her constituents but I feel she cares about County issues as well. She was torn and upset yesterday, trying to help her constituents with the Ludlam Trail, not knowing the money pot would be hurting agriculture because she was improperly briefed. She was visibly upset being placed in that position: Damned if you do, damned if you don't. I really felt her pain on this.  She did the right thing and withdrew her resolution after she listened to the farming community. Mayor, you had better find her some Ludlam Trail money,  and not by robbing another account.

Rebeca Sosa took the lead on Climate Change and Sea Level rise for the County. This was a courageous stand for her, because she is the mentor of "Climate Change Denier" Marco Rubio. I really give her credit for being the one to address this for the County under those circumstances.



This video does not give you a fair portrait of her beautiful voice. I once heard her sing at a League of Cities meeting years ago and her voice is beautiful. You can get some idea from listening to her sing off the cuff in this video but it doesn't do her justice.



Anyway, you never get 100% of what you like from a County Commissioner but I think Rebeca is fair to us and she listens to the public. I just can't figure out that Lynda Bell blunder. Maybe one day she will explain it to me. She knows perfectly well how I feel about Marco Rubio, who is like a son to her, but she is always very nice to me. She doesn't hold grudges towards the people. That is a good thing for a politician.

As I age and watch this group of 13 govern, I know how difficult it is for them to please everyone and if I had to listen to snarky lobbyists I might vomit right there on the dais. The Commissioners take my jabs in stride, but I hope that my blogs make them think and become better public servants because I, and my readers, are EVERYMAN, Joe Public - representing the people who can't get to meetings and follow local politics. Some Commissioners are unreformable but not the 5 on the dais yesterday. I am glad we have term limits so we can get the unreformable like Barreiro, Jordan, Souto and Diaz out of there.
 

Picture of the Week. By Geniusofdespair

Marco Trump

Not everyone could pull off that doo.

I am at the stupid County Commission. By Geniusofdespair

Look at my post earlier today.

I got out of bed on unlucky Friday the 13th to go to this meeting. 5 of my favorite commissioners are on this Committee: The X man- Xavier Suarez, Rebeca Sosa, Audrey Edmonson, Dennis Moss and Daniella Levine. so I am hoping for some sanity. Too much to ask?

I am here to support agriculture. I am not against Ludlam Trail -- let them find another friggin' pot of money. PDR money is not sitting in a fund for the taking. It is there to give farmers incentive to sell their development rights so the land can be kept in farming. You have to be patient with the farmers. They are just now starting to file for this money. What is it with the county? They have to spend every damn penny? This is BOND MONEY. We voted for it to be spent a certain way. We didn't vote for it to be raided for beach sand, a trail or whatever else they can think of.

I just read the above as my statement. Other farmers are speaking. Not many. My friends are picking their fruit and vegetables. Oops, Barriero showed up. Can't include him in favorites for sure.

Commissioner Sosa was upset she was not briefed correctly on the item. She withdrew it and planned to have town hall meetings with the Ludlam Trail people. Thank you Commissioner Sosa. I know there will be money found but let's not look at the agriculture pot. Get that Moon lady to work some magic without her raiding bond funds. Agriculture is always short ended. We need viable agriculture.

BREAKING STORY: County Commissioners: Please Vote No to Theft of Agriculture Money. By Geniusofdespair

I was ushered into a County Conference room with a small group of Environmentalists years ago, was it 2007? When was that stupid bond issue? We were there to get money in the bond issue for the PDR program, farmers were working their own front (county website describing the PDR Program):

Purchase of Development Rights

Miami-Dade County's agricultural lands are a unique and economically important resource. On September 20, 2007, the Board of County Commissioners adopted a resolution creating the County’s Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) Program. The PDR Program implements the will of Miami-Dade County voters by utilizing General Obligation Bond funds to preserve agricultural land. This program serves as one mechanism for farmland preservation by providing the County with the ability to purchase residential development rights from willing property owners, ensuring that the related properties remain undeveloped and available for agricultural uses.

I went down to the county to beg for money all those years ago. I think this was the only time I did beg the County for money. Between the environmentalists and the farmers, we got the money in the bond, $30 Million. Good.

Now my farmer friend reported to me that at today's meeting of the Economic Prosperity Committee they want to take $6,000,000 of that money for Ludlam Trail, he said:

Transferring funds from the Purchase of Development Rights program to fund the Ludlam Trail is a theft that cannot be allowed to happen! Myself and many others worked hard and convinced many others to vote for this bond issue. At a time when open space, natural areas, and rural agricultural lands have been systematically reduced in the county it is beyond reason to approve this transfer.

Agriculture in Miami Dade is constantly under pressure due to suburban sprawl, rising costs and regulations. Now, we are faced with a Oriental Fruit Fly quarantine which is having a devastating economic impact on growers. This proposed transfer of funds is a slap in the face to the many citizens who voted for this program and will hurt those farmers who work hard to maintain viable agriculture which is a major part of our county.

Please consider voting this proposal down.

He is too polite. I say NO NO NO. Although Ludlam Trail is worthy, this is like taking money from Everglades National Park to give it to Biscayne National Park, it is liking choosing to clean water or clean air, Peter to pay Paul (you get it?). This PDR money is to be held to buy development rights. If it is sitting there it is waiting it should be. The farmers were waiting for the downturn to pass, now there are applications pending for the money from a few farmers. So it is working and it is one of the only ways we have of saving farmland. It is so important. We need to preserve this land. It has to be there when farmers apply for it. KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF IT COMMISSIONERS. I think the meeting is today at 2. Do I have to drag myself downtown. Really? On a Friday? To go home in rush hour? Shame on whoever thought this up for torturing me. I should be under my covers on Friday the 13th.

As a postscript: Mayor Gimenez took a loan of $10,000,000 from this PDR pot to put sand on a beach (beach renourishment program or as I call it the climate change denial program).  BUT, THIS IS NOT A LOAN. THIS LUDLAM TRAIL IDEA TAKES THE MONEY. The Ludlam Trail people did not ask for this and knew nothing about it. This was a bad idea by the mayor. Leave the money pot alone. I bet the Mayor will never repay it. As for Commissioner Sosa, she said it was not her idea, it came from the department -- she said further "It was me looking and working with the employees of the departments looking for alternative funding to prevent construction in all residential areas next to the line with the hope to make it green and a real trail." The Mayor is saying, according to his office, he knew nothing about it, it came directly from Sosa, Charles LaPradd said the same. Jennifer Moon had to find the money for Rebeca. Is Rebeca being thrown under the bus? The Mayor's Departments had to alert him on what was going on.

Postscript 2: Did the citizens committee in charge of changes to these bond funds approve the change? I called Nan Markowitz, in charge of  GOB to find out. Waiting to hear back. This story isn't over.

Big Sugar and Corporate Welfare: finally in the spotlight? ... by gimleteye

In Florida's political circles, criticizing Big Sugar is about as popular as whining about coal in Kentucky. It never happens. Suddenly, though, the tectonic plates are shifting around Florida. It is because of a GOP presidential primary completely scrambled by outsiders who are topping the charts.

A month ago, front runner Donald Trump bumped up against Big Sugar when he condemned the closure of a midwestern candy factory and the loss of jobs to Mexico. He didn't quite get the reason, right, or the outrage.

The one who does get it right isn't even on the stage: Grover Norquist. Earlier this year, my eyebrows lifted when I read that Norquist, arguably the most effective conservative firebrand in American politics, declared that ending the sugar subsidy in the Farm Bill was his top priority, after cutting taxes. Norquist called the sugar subsidy, "cronyism in its undiluted, inexcusable majesty."

The reason my jaw didn't drop is that for decades, the sugar subsidy has been lambasted as the worst form of corporate welfare from conservative news organizations like the Wall Street Journal to conservative foundations like the Cato Institute and the American Enterprise Institute. And nothing changed.

Big Sugar's perks amount to legalized corruption of the campaign finance system. In Florida, Big Sugar money influence is so great that the industry acts in the state capitol as a shadow government. What Big Sugar wants, it gets. These days, a solid GOP majority in the state legislature, Gov. Rick Scott, and Adam Putnam -- the agriculture secretary aiming to replace Marco Rubio in the US Senate -- are so deep in Big Sugar's pocket, you can't even see them. Not that Floridians are looking.

So it comes as a shock, at least to this jaded observer, that the rest of the nation is suddenly looking at Big Sugar. It is almost as though Donald Trump has served the purpose of Indiana Jones in the Raider of the Lost Ark, showing the treasure hunters -- the rest of the GOP field -- that you won't disappear off the face of the earth if you challenge Big Sugar.

It is Ted Cruz, the Senator from Texas, who pushed through the door first.

In Tuesday’s Republican debate, Ted Cruz pointed to sugar subsidies as a prime example of crony capitalism — a semi-subtle dig at Floridian opponent Marco Rubio, the sugar industry’s man in Washington. Rubio argued yesterday that doing away with our subsidies would mean surrendering American jobs, but neither liberal nor conservative commentators are buying that defense. “It’s hard to credibly criticize the welfare state without trying to take down the corporate welfare state first,” the conservative American Enterprise Institute’s Tim Carney tells Greg Sargent at The Washington Post’s Plum Line blog. “The argument for free enterprise doesn’t have a foundation if you also tolerate corporate welfare.” (Bill Moyers and Company)

It is a sign of desperation that Jeb Bush, trailing his dispirited exclamation point like a wet blanket, has called for the end to the sugar subsidy that keeps domestic sugar at nearly twice the price of world markets and provides profits to sugar billionaires like the Fanjuls of Coral Gables and Palm Beach with seed for next season's crop of political hopefuls. In eight years as governor, Jeb Bush was as unfailing a friend to Big Sugar as Mitch McConnell to Big Coal in Kentucky.

Celebrating the marriage of corporate welfare and crony capitalism in the US Farm Bill: Alfie and Pepe Fanjul

Marco Rubio owes his political existence to Big Sugar. He carried the industry's water in the 2003 attempt through the state legislature to up-end the Everglades settlement agreement, helping Jeb Bush in passing a new law that was subsequently over-turned through federal litigation by environmentalists, derided as "The Everglades Whenever Act". After Gov. Charlie Crist tried to buyout more than 130,000 acres of US Sugar lands, the Fanjuls threw their full weight (and money) to Rubio -- then fighting Crist for the US Senate.

So it is no surprise that Marco Rubio will parrot whatever Big Sugar lobbyists feed him. Most recently, their line of defense was that protectionism is necessary on grounds of "national security". Rubio complained, "We will not unilaterally disarm"; meaning surrender profits to Brazil. For the first time, though, blowing Big Sugar's smoke doesn't seem to be holding.

Rubio's specious argument is not just an easy target for Cruz. Conservatives who fund political campaigns are being asked -- through this disruptive GOP presidential primary -- to take the litmus test themselves.

Although we have been saying for a long, long time -- Big Sugar poisons people, poisons democracy and poisons the Everglades -- the only way to describe what it feels like in Florida to have the sugar subsidy in the spotlight is: OMG.

How to tie up a boat. There will be a quiz. Amazing! By Geniusofdespair

watch on YouTube

Those of you who go boating will be very impressed. Others, no so much. The Will Rogers of boat lassoing.

On the economy, GOP presidential candidates have their facts wrong ... by gimleteye

With the recent GOP presidential slugfest, the week's take-away is that nothing is settled. That's good for Jeb!, a candidate who has looked lost as a passenger stuck on a car roof in the middle of a flood, caught by TV cameras on the verge of being swept away.

The bad news, as Mike Grunwald details for Politico, is that when it comes to the economy and President Obama's record, the candidates are mostly wrong. In Politico, Grunwald offers a sober corrective on the "Everything is Bad Party". Here is an excerpt from "The ghosts of 2008"
he writes:

... the other reason Republicans don’t like to talk about the crisis is that it muddles their message about Obama-era malaise. “We’re not simply going through an economic downturn,” Rubio said last night. “We’re going through an economic transformation.” In fact, we’re not going through a downturn at all; we’ve had 68 consecutive months of private-sector employment growth, producing 13 million new jobs. The GOP wants to focus on modest wages and modest growth today. It doesn’t want to remind Americans that economy was shedding 800,000 jobs a month and contracting at an 8 percent annual rate in January 2009, and that the housing market, stock market and auto industry were all in the tank.

In an earlier piece on an earlier debate, Grunwald wrote about the "oddly imaginative" world of GOP candidates:

In fact, the federal deficit is shrinking. And both Washington Republicans and Obama administration can claim some credit. They’ve battled far more than they’ve conspired, but thanks to spending cuts demanded by congressional Republicans, the president’s tax hikes on the rich, and a growing economy that the candidates seem to think is collapsing, America’s fiscal position has improved dramatically since 2009. If deficits are really “endangering America’s future,” as Chris Christie warned last night, they’re endangering that future a lot less than they were six years ago.

The CNBC debate was hyped as an opportunity to hash out financial and economic issues, but it devolved into a kind of fiscal alternative reality where, as Rand Paul put it, “the right and left are spending us into oblivion.” In fact, the $3.5 trillion budget has grown at the slowest rate since the Eisenhower administration, a direct result of spending cuts engineered by the very GOP congressional leaders that Paul dismisses as drunken-sailor fake-conservatives. Paul actually complained that “we should use the debt ceiling to force budgetary reforms,” which—in case he missed it—is exactly what Capitol Hill Republicans already did when they forced the president to accept the “sequester” that reined in spending in the 2011 Budget Control Act.

Overall, the deficit has plunged nearly $1 trillion under Obama, from a catastrophic 9.8% of GDP when he took office to a manageable 2.5% of GDP today.

This is what one gets, when one tries to channel a party base's inchoate anger, stimulated by an extremist message machine, and a persuasive argument for the return of moderates to leadership of the Republican Party.

Miami Dade County Chair Jean Monestime Dismisses his Chief of Staff as of Nov. 20th. By Geniusofdespair

Gone November 20th but don't come in immediately:

 No explanation from Gerard or Jean on what happened -- just this letter. Hmm, anyone have the scoop?

Why was x-Congressman David Rivera lurking Around behind the scenes at the debate

David Rivera - Marco Rubio's Best Friend

I hope the Trump group or Bush got a photo of David Rivera and Marco Rubio at the Cleveland  Republican debate. Rubio, the big spender of other people's money is probably out buying toothpaste with campaign dollars. The Miami Herald had a good article on how Marco Rubio misused PAC money and the Party Credit Card:

Records show he was strapped for cash throughout his time in the state House, even as he landed a $300,000-a-year job at a law firm with interests in Tallahassee. He left office in 2008 with a net worth of less than $8,400 and had more than $900,000 in debt, including two mortgages, a home-equity loan and a student loan.

In 2003 and 2004, before getting the RPOF card, Rubio controlled two well-funded political committees created to boost his bid for House speaker. Typically such committee funds go to helping other candidates, a way of currying favor and showing party loyalty.

But Rubio gave only $4,000 to candidates. The bulk of the $600,000 the committees raised went to office and administrative costs — costs that helped enhance Rubio’s stature. He spent nearly $90,000 on political consultants and $50,000 for credit card payments.

Marco Rubio can't wash the sugar off his sticky hands ... by gimleteye

The conservative American Enterprise Institute tees off on a topic familiar to Eye On Miami readers: Marco Rubio's cozy relationship with Big Sugar: "Marco Rubio is a conservative senator with a record of opposing corporate welfare in all corners of the economy, except one. That would be in the swampy fields of South Florida, where they grow sugar cane."

Big Sugar has shadowed Rubio's political career from the first days in West Dade where the Fanjuls -- Cuban American billionaires on both sides of the great political divide -- cultivate new talent to rise to the occasion of protectionism. Alfie covers Democrats. Pepe covers Republicans.

The American Enterprise Institute is faithful to opposition to policies that pick winners and losers, but it doesn't go so far as to describe Big Sugar as the next Big Tobacco. Meanwhile, Rubio has actually made recent statements that protecting his Big Sugar backers like the Fanjuls is a matter of "national security".

It is no coincidence that Jeb! Bush, feeling the pressure from Rubio, recently came out against the sugar subsidy in the Farm Bill despite having been deathly still on the issue during his eight years as Florida governor. No coincidence, either, that the first person to greet Marco Rubio off the stage in Miami when he announced his bid to be the next GOP candidate for president: Big Sugar's billionaire Pepe Fanjul.

Big Sugar poisons people, poisons democracy, and poisons the Everglades.

On Public Integrity, State of Florida gets a D - ... by gimleteye

At the end of the Center for Public Integrity's latest corruption report card, readers are invited to send an email to their elected state legislators based on address and zip code.

The Florida Sunshine Law, as open records and meetings regulations have come to be known, has long been a source of chest-thumping in Tallahassee. “Florida is proud to lead the nation in providing public access to government meetings and records,” brags the Office of the Attorney General on its website.

But for some, the law seems not to apply.

Over the past several years, the rich and powerful in Florida have seemed far less accountable to open government laws than the drug-addled and hapless. So while the public is welcome to read about how a spring breaker bit off a hamster’s head, nobody was supposed to learn about how Gov. Rick Scott ousted a top law enforcement official behind closed doors, potentially violating the state’s open meetings law.

When somebody got stabbed during confusion involving harmonicas, it was everyone’s business. Meanwhile, public figures are free to hide hundreds of millions of dollars in blind trusts and dodge public scrutiny over conflicts of interest.

Who is surprised?

In 2014, 75% of Florida voters approved an amendment to the Florida constitution in order to provide a dedicated source of funding -- immune from tampering by the governor and legislature -- to buyout lands in private ownership like Big Sugar's, critical to restoring the Everglades and protecting the drinking water of millions of South Floridians. What did the legislature do last year to reflect the will of the people? Nothing. NADA.

The do-nothing legislature has tied itself in knots avoiding the will of the people expressed through another constitutional amendment, supported by more than 60 percent of voters: Fair Districts. Despite special legislative sessions and endless litigation strategies costing taxpayers tens of millions, has the GOP majority come even close to meeting a roadmap established by multiple state supreme court decisions? Nope. NOPE.

The Miami Herald recently reported on the public corruption associated with Dade Medical College and the litany of elected officials who groveled at its campaign finance spigot. Dade Medical College was a scam operation that exploited hundreds of Miami-Dade families and aspiring young people. Have any of the elected officials who took money from the college for their political campaigns stood up and apologized to voters? Nope. NOPE.

When Gov. Rick Scott and his cabinet, including sycophants Ag. Secretary Adam Putnam and Atty General Pam Biondi, had a chance to side with people against FPL's plan to site two new nuclear power plants at Turkey Point -- to cost customers over $20 billion if they are ever built -- they put on blinders and took sleeping pills. When they awoke, did they recognize the public's valid arguments and evidence of fiscal insanity in the plan for new nuclear at sea level in the region of the nation most vulnerable to climate change? Nope. NOPE.

When the state legislature had the chance to nix early cost recovery, through which FPL earns hundreds of millions -- enriching top shareholders and executives -- the legislature voted, "Of course we will help you, FPL, continue to rake in profits from planning nuclear reactors that may never be built." It also became state policy to deny global warming.

The Center for Public Integrity organized an online email response to Florida's dismal rating. At the click of a submit button on the keyboard, it sent my email appeal to two elected officials squarely in the middle of overt and covert forms of political corruption: Erik Fresen, a Republican, and Gwen Margolis, a Democrat. For many years, Senator Margolis was a leader of the unreformable majority of the Miami-Dade County Commission, on the side of developer friends and family. Fresen, only a few years ago delegated by the casino industry to change state law, is also haplessly tied to the same for-profit educational disaster that turned the promise of charter schools into yet another of Florida's wealthy, insulated industries inclined to manipulate the public interest for private gain.

Where there is hope, it lies with a new generation of activists who are unafraid of confronting the status quo in Miami-Dade. They need to quicken the pace of recruiting competent candidates for elected office and back up their choices with enthusiastic organization and follow-through. It is tough, difficult work but evidence is on their side. The FBI calls South Florida the corruption capital of the United States. Voters know it is true. Younger voters need to mobilize and send packing every elected official who looked the other way, during a time when shifting the cost of public corruption to taxpayers became institutionalized.

From a FORMER Student at Dade Medical College. By Geniusofdespair

 Read it here or there.

I have made the decision to withdraw from this school after having been enrolled for 8 months in the Ultrasound program. I foolishly chose to ignore the poor reviews that I had read before enrolling, assuming that because the school will enroll anyone with a pulse, the reviewers did not have much experience being students and weren't necessarily pulling their weight - I was quickly proven to be mistaken.

I attended the Homestead campus, and began to have reservations as soon as I began my first pre-requisite class, which was College Math Principles. Though the Professor was qualified and dedicated, he could only do so much with a 2-week curriculum and we were forced to skip several chapters at a time and were assigned random pages and sections for homework. The syllabus was written so that it would be rather difficult to fail the course, and attendance and participation were weighted more heavily than actual course work or tests.

This 2-week nonsense is how nearly all of the pre-requisite classes are structured, and I really don't know how the College gets away with it. The Professors for these courses are talented and dedicated, but it is a waste. On more than one occasion, I would walk into the bathroom and see a nursing student confiding in one of these individuals about their misgivings regarding the school and the quality of instruction in their core program. I knew something further was amiss when I one day counted the students in class with me and realized that there was over $750,000 sitting with me in the room that the school was collecting from our loans, and shifted uncomfortably in my small, folding metal chair and gazed somberly at the unfinished floor beneath my feet, reflecting upon the fact that the bathrooms were in a state of disrepair and were usually not stocked regularly with toilet paper or paper towels. Where exactly was our money going?

I noticed that they had enrolled a girl who could barely read or speak properly in my Anatomy class, and she struggled badly before being forced to drop out. Many of my classmates could not speak English well enough to make themselves understood, and also struggled impossibly with the fast paced instruction and ridiculous amounts of material that were expected to be understood and mastered within one day of each other. Some of the professors, though they obviously know the material, speak English so poorly that it is almost impossible to understand them. I would look to my hispanic classmates for clarification, but they too were lost. Nearly every test that was proctored was riddled with spelling mistakes and were at times nonsensically worded - the same goes for the Powerpoint Presentations, which at times provided information that was either blatantly incorrect or outright offensive. Whomever was responsible for creating the slides would sometimes include memes that illustrated offensive examples of a scientific/medical concept with memes stating "Straight men don't cross their legs" and "Women should not drive" in the Ultrasound program to demonstrate beam steering or angling.

A huge red flag was raised when, one day, without warning, we were informed that the school had not paid the lease on the building in which we were located, and that the next day we would be expected to re convene in the building down the street where we would have to be packed in with the nursing students. Again, where is our money going? There were constant problems with the air conditioning system in the buildings (both new and old), where either they were not working and it was stiflingly hot, with students desperately fanning themselves, or you could freeze to death in there and could nearly see snowflakes.

Once I started to realize that the core Ultrasound classes were not really teaching me anything and that I hadn’t actually learned anything in months, I expressed interest in the nursing program, which is also the direction some of the professors were steering me towards. I initially agreed to switch over and pay an extra $183 per month out of pocket because the program is so expensive that the federal loans don’t cover it. Once I sat through orientation, I knew that I had made an even bigger mistake once the proctor started rattling off that it would be an extra $100 for this website, and that book, and certain things weren’t included, and that you were basically going to be unable to work at all while still expected to pay an extra monthly fee, so I finally withdrew and am running full speed back to the public colleges. With passage rates of around 13% for some of the campuses, it is absolutely not possible to justify the expenses. I can clearly picture people reading about these places in the future, reading with disbelief at the way modern Americans have been shaken down and taken advantage of by big business and deregulation. Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” comes to mind, please avoid this school and any others like it at all cost! Now they tell me that they won’t even release my transcripts until my balance of around $10,000, with ballooning interest, is paid off. What a waste of everyone’s time!

HBO "The Leftovers": best show on TV ... by gimleteye

This is a culture alert. I can't think of another long-format TV series that gained traction in its second season like HBO's "The Leftovers". The first season was a sleeper and its alternate reality seemed forced. The show's premise is based on the reaction of a small group of survivors to an instantaneous extinction of a random percentage of the living. The extinction event occurs in the near future. In a fraction of an instant, the unexplained intervention robs families of loved ones. Children disappear from the breakfast table. Cars left running in the middle of the road, with no occupants.

In its first season, the show asked viewers to accept the behavior of nihilists -- organized as a society of chain-smoking "Guilty Remnants" -- who conflicted with and contrasted against the lead characters struggling to survive the shattering of nuclear families.

The second season, though, is an astonishing payoff for viewers who stuck with the series through the first. For newcomers to the HBO series, you ought to hang in there through the first season episodes, but it gets good. Really, really good.

Apartment Hunting in Miami Dade County's Eastern Corridor. By Geniusofdespair

In Coconut Grove you had better be rich. A decent modern apartment will cost you around $5,000 a month with a water view. I went to a real estate agent in the Grove and they wouldn't even bring me out with my budget of under $3,000. They told me to look on Craig's list. Meanwhile in the Herald today they said the average rental price was $1.98 per square foot. I want 1,300 square foot -- which would put me in the $2,574 range. NOT HAPPENING!

I come from New York City. I do like walking around a city. I am adverse to living downtown even though my ideal locations would be South of Margaret Pace Park and North of Arsht (or Brickell).  Why? I don't want to hear a plane fly over all the time. I already moved once because of airplane traffic. Does anyone downtown have really good windows (Maybe triple pane) that will block out the airplane sound? What building are you in?  I looked at the MIA traffic patterns and it is alarming how many planes are flying over and they are loud. Young ears must be accustomed to the sound -- IPods full blast, etc. By the way, I haven't been to Mary Brickell Village in a while and I didn't even recognize it.  There are a few places in my price range but gee, I don't want to wake up at 5 am. with a cargo plane lumbering over my building. They fly at night, cheaper. And don't say I will get used to it. I won't. I can't believe the air traffic in Wynwood, even though that is Miami's version of Soho, I can't live there even though it has gotten trendy.

Second, in a two bedroom in today's market, you are looking at 900 to 1,100 square feet. I went in one 1,100 square foot apartment and was shocked. I would have to get a divorce to fit. You have to be in your 20's with no stuff. I have stuff. Lots of stuff. Where would I put it all? I already pared down from a house to a townhouse of 1,600 square feet. I guess books are off limits. I don't know what to do with my inherited set of china and all the rest of my accumulated treasures. I collect rocks from my trips.  I need at least 1,300 square feet. In terms of new buildings, that is a 3 bedroom. I wonder if they count the terrace in the square footage? In the photos of  the older, larger apartments I can afford, I have actually seen the same kitchen cabinets I had in 1982, you know the ones, white with oak edges.

Why do I want to move? All my friends are down South and all the meeting I want to attend are down South. There is mass transit South. Not up here. I want to be a better  pseudo-reporter and I can't do it from my office. I need to experience it, see who is attending meetings because that is the key. I need to be where the action is and I hate driving in the God-awful traffic, now it is all day not just at rush hour. And, by now, you must all know I am lazy.

Find me a place to live where I can walk to a downtown. I would be a good tenant. I only have virtual pets, my dog Smokey and my cat Smokey.  I will only rent in a flood zone, not buy.

I just wrote my will. I said: Cremate me but make sure you put my ashes somewhere high.

Remember? Gov. Rick Scott Gives Himself An Environmental Award ... by gimleteye

Florida Gov. Rick Scott is giving himself environmental awards, instructing agency staff to hold their nose and look the other way on climate change, while down in the Florida Keys all the talk is about the stupid hot weather. It is July in November.

No one can remember such hot weather this time of year. Then again, no one can remember voting for Gov. Scott either. "Wasn't me."

Up in the northern part of Florida Bay, an awful algae bloom is brewing. What algae blooms do is kill everything in the water column that can't flee. Pristine wilderness turns into a dead zone; bringing it back takes an act of God. Our friends at bullsugar.org sent us a clip of what the water looks like these days: for miles and miles, the bay surface is coated with scum. Scum.

Death on the surface is an indicator of death beneath. Look closely, and it looks like slow-motion, microscopic boiling. A staph infection on the water. What our friends tell us is that beneath the scummy waters that go on for miles and miles and miles, nothing is alive. I knew this area in the 1970s when it was a magnificent tarpon fishery. The bay bottom then was covered in luscious sea grass meadow. The water was crystal clear. I can't forget what Florida Bay was like and, also, I can't forgive ourselves for what it has become. We did this through the mismanagement of Florida's water resources.

Bullsugar.org is dedicated to restoring a semblance of natural flow of clean, fresh water from Lake Okeechobee, where it will eventually run to Florida Bay. The only hope for Florida's bays and estuaries is clean, fresh water in adequate quantities and at the right times of year. How we get from here to there is not a mystery.

For hope to materialize, state government must use Amendment 1 funds, some $20 billion in potential land acquisition money over the next 15 years, to buyout the billionaire sugar farmers who hold the estuaries and Everglades hostage to their profits. There is simply not enough surface wetland area north of the Everglades to hold and cleanse water in sufficient quantities and quality to move toward Florida Bay. Without good water, Florida Bay has turned into a massive septic tank to benefit upstream polluters. The worst? Big Sugar.

In the last session of the Florida legislature, Florida Gov. Rick Scott and future Senate president Joe Negron failed to stand up to Big Sugar, Florida's shadow government.

A GOP majority failed to appropriate moneys that 75 percent of Florida voters chose to allocate to stop the pollution devastating Florida's environment. Big Sugar's message machinery, including the Pravda-like Sunshine State News, is on full spin cycle to wash Big Sugar's claim it is the best steward of Florida's environment.

The environment for which Gov. Rick Scott just gave himself an award. Remember?