Five independent reviews of available data by the American Statistical Association -- all verifying rare pediatric cancer clusters in Florida -- have been ignored for years. Why isn't the Miami Herald pursuing this story in the courts, with the same zeal as with the location of Zika cases?
Help Eye On Miami ask the question! Demand answers.
Vote out of office those elected officials who do not make this issue an urgent priority in November and who are silent. It is not enough to go on corporate runs and wear pink ribbons to show your affinity: cancer is political, and there will be no action until you demand it.
Fact-based readers ought to follow this blog on climate change: Robertscribbler.com
"Approaching the First Climate Tipping Point — On Track to Hit 1.5 C Before 2035
July 2016 was the hottest month ever recorded. That record lasted for all of one month as global temperatures remained at record-high levels through August, resulting in a tie with July during a period when the Earth typically cools."
While "Rising Greenhouse Gasses Steadily Rearrange How the Earth Balances Heat", Donald Trump yells: "Earth, you're fired!" (click, read more)
In the New York Times, Tom Friedman writes: "Donald Trump's Putin Crush": "Can you imagine the damage Trump could do to the fabric of our democracy if he had the White House pulpit from which to preach his post-truth politics — how it would filter down into public discourse at large and infect every policy debate?"
Actually, in Miami-Dade we know all about post-truth politics.
Post-truth politics is a good way to describe our various ills: how traffic became so bad in Miami-Dade, how quality of life degraded under the disguise of low-cost water, low-cost conversion of wetlands to sprawl, and so forth.
Voting for Trump is like putting a magnifying glass to a dry leaf to watch it burn.
Donald Trump can lead post-truth politics; his business career is based on a changeable relationship with contracts. That's the best way to describe serial business failures that he claims to be "the greatest": post-truth.
As more than one observer pointed out; Donald Trump would be wealthier today if he had taken his nest egg and invested in an index fund. That's one reason he won't release his tax forms.
Putting a CEO in charge of the world's most important economy, whose only achievements come on the back of broken contracts, is insanity.
Here is the NY Times OPED: "Donald Trump's Putin Crush":
Yet another example of Mayor Gimenez meeting with unregistered lobbyists to discuss county business. Why were these individuals not cited? Are we naive to believe a veteran lobbyist such as Brian May did not know his group was violating established county guidelines that restrict lobbying activities? Why did the COE not cite the individuals or the mayor? Does anybody in the Mayor's Office bother to check if lobbyists are registered? Another example of internal corruption. I say this is yet another example because the mayor was investigated by ethics in 2015 for doing the same thing with Donald Trump on the Key Biscayne Public Golf course fiasco. Of course, ethics never finds any violations. They are fluff in our Government always finding some nitpick technical excuse not to do anything.
Look who Brian May was representing in this instance, (in my opinion) it is the evil Las Vegas Sands' Sheldon Adelson, worth about 30 billion. He is the Koch brother of the Casino World. According to Forbes:
Sheldon Adelson makes billions running Las Vegas Sands, America's largest casino company, and he uses that money to buy influence in the Republican Party.
This is how leadership of the County should work (G.o.d.) :
Many employees in the public service are interested in knowing what to expect after I am elected mayor of Miami-Dade County, an office that is responsible "for the management of all administrative departments of the County government.” For the thousands of talented and dedicated employees who choose to work in public service out of a desire to serve the community, I say better days are ahead.
Because we can do better. And, together, we will.
In my administration, there will be opportunities for advancement based on merit and accomplishments. Innovation will be encouraged. Our community has many challenges, and no one person has all the solutions. As an attorney who is accustomed to a collaborative work environment, I will always seek the input of professional staff. Subject matter experts in the departments should be prepared to offer ideas and suggestions, knowing that they will be considered and respected. Front-line employees delivering services to the community will be encouraged to provide feedback on their experiences. It is my contention that every position in county government is created to address a specific need for our citizens. Every position is important, and every position has a purpose.
I am being elected to change the course of the county, so, naturally, there will be changes during the first-year to reorganize county government. The bulk of the work will be reorganizing, streamlining and refocusing departments and procedures so that county government works. During this process, career staff may be reassigned to positions better suited for their talents. That said, the outcome of this election should not be a concern for the professional public administrators and public servants of Miami-Dade County. Administrators with institutional knowledge are very much in demand and will be valued by my administration. Many people have retired or separated from county service for more stable employment in recent years. To counter this personnel challenge, department directors -- as part of their new accountability paradigm -- will be required to submit quarterly succession planning reports.
When I am mayor, we will work together to strengthen the administrative capacity of county government and regain the trust of our citizens. Trust in county government has eroded under the current mayor due to his reckless budgets, his hostility toward citizen initiatives, and his spiteful comments about county workers. To restore respect for county government, every county employee must renew their commitment to serving the citizens openly, honestly, and fairly. Working together, we can not only earn the trust of the public again but also establish a positive working environment for all of our employees.
A reorganization of county government to unstack the vertical, authoritarian nature of the current administration is a must. As a regional government, Miami-Dade has a wide variety of distinct service lines that all require uniquely qualified, skilled leadership. My table of organization will be much more horizontal. Communication and engagement with stakeholders will be key to improving the responsiveness of county government. There will be no deputy mayors in my office. I will be accountable to the voters, and department directors will be accountable to me.
Directors will have wide latitude to manage their operations. To the greatest extent possible, operational authority will be delegated. Department directors are executives, so I expect them to be fully responsible for the management of their departments. Directors will be subjected to annual performance evaluations to ensure the expectations of the citizens are being met. Similarly, there will also be open and honest communication with my office so that necessary changes are made before a crisis arises.
The elected office I seek has been granted broad powers by the citizens, as they truly want an individual who is directly accountable for all the actions of county government. I am prepared to be accountable to the citizens, and will appoint a team of the best and the brightest to deliver quality services to our residents. Fair and open competition for county positions will be a hallmark of my administration. Rebuilding the administrative capacity of the metropolitan government is crucial to our success. I am not interested in yes men and yes women. I am interested in innovative, courageous and skilled individuals that will aid me in charting the course for the future of Miami-Dade.
True success is never achieved in isolation or through brash arrogance masquerading as leadership. Organizational success emerges when every worker contributes his or her skills and talents toward the common goal. Our overall goal will be to provide the best services possible, utilizing the most efficient means, in order to win the confidence and trust of our citizens. I am confident that the workforce of Miami-Dade County is anxious to show they are the best in the business. When I am elected mayor, the employees of the county will be given every opportunity to shine.
Now more than ever, I need the support of the hardworking men and women of Miami-Dade County government, first with your vote on November 8th and then during the transition from November 9th to my swearing in on November 22nd. You have my word that, unlike the current mayor, I believe in and will support you. I will protect the public sector from privatization and forge a working environment that will make you proud to be an employee of Miami-Dade County.
Raquel Regalado ON ZIKA:
In the fight to protect our residents and visitors from the Zika virus, it is important to understand the role of county government. Miami-Dade has countywide responsibility to control the mosquitoes that spread this disease. The focus is on a domestic mosquito known as Aedis Aegypti. Until a vaccine is available, county government clearly needs to focus all its energy on controlling the population of these particular disease-carrying mosquitoes.
In November, as your newly elected Mayor, I will restore Mosquito Control operations to a fully-functional division with scientists, laboratory technicians, mapping specialists, and qualified field inspectors. The control of mosquitoes is not emergency response work to be conducted by short-term hired contractors. With so much at stake, and so much unknown about the consequences of exposure to Zika, our residents and visitors must be assured that qualified public service professionals are fully engaged in proactive, sustained, multi-year efforts to control the spread of Zika by these mosquitoes.
You will soon be receiving mailers from Consumers for Smart Solar asking for your vote on Amendment 1. Help me me set the record straight. This amendment is not pro-solar. It is largely bankrolled by the state's power companies and groups with ties to the Koch Brothers. Florida Supreme Court Justice Barbara Pariente has described it as a "wolf in sheep's clothing." It misleads voters by promising rights that already exist while paving the way for unfair fees and discriminatory penalties on solar customers.
The state's association of solar companies - Florida Solar Energy Industries Assoc. - opposes the amendment. The League of Women Voters also opposes Amendment 1 as do a host of groups across the political spectrum. I've included a brief description below of what the Amendment does and does not do.
Please help spread this information to friends, colleagues and members. Here is a link to educational resources.
If your group would like to officially oppose Amendment 1, please let me know by return email - thanks to those that have officially opposed. Thank you in advance for everyone's efforts to educate folks. The power companies are spending big dollar amounts to misinform - let's leverage our people power resources and give them a run for their money!
Thank you, George Cavros
Three things you need to know about Amendment 1:
1.Amendment 1 is funded by Florida’s big utilities to protect their monopoly markets and limit customer-owned solar.
2.Amendment 1 paves the way for barriers that would penalize solar customers.
3.Amendment 1 misleads Florida voters by promising rights and protections that Florida citizens already have
Follow the Money: Funded by Big Utilities
Amendment 1 is largely bankrolled by the big monopoly utilities, led by Florida Power and Light (FPL) and joined by Duke Energy, Tampa Electric and Gulf Power through a political committee called Consumers for Smart Solar. It’s an alliance that’s collected over $21 million – on track to be the most expensive ballot initiative in Florida’s history - to get this deceptive measure on the ballot and try to convince voters to adopt it. Why are the big utilities spending that kind of money?
Amendment 1 is entitled: Rights of Electricity Consumers Regarding Solar Energy Choice. Do Florida’s monopoly utilities really want to expand solar choice and the rights of customer-owned solar? Or are they using carefully researched wording to deceive voters? Florida voters should be skeptical. After all, the utilities profit handsomely as the sole provider of power to a large and captive customer base. FPL made $1.65 billion dollars in profit last year. Of course they want to continue that so it should come as no surprise that they helped write the amendment which contains language to pave the way for additional barriers to adopting customer-owned solar, thus keeping customers captive.
Solar power is poised to grow in the Sunshine State, which would allow customers to control their power bills by generating their own power and buying less from the electric utilities. FPL and the other big power companies want to maintain their monopoly control on profits from electricity sales and limit customer-owned solar.
Amendment 1 Paves the Way for Barriers
Amendment 1, if passed, will pave the way for additional barriers to customer-owned solar, such as the imposition of fees or discriminatory penalties on solar customers. Amendment 1 is strongly opposed by the Florida Solar Energy Industry Association (FLSEIA)– which filed a brief opposing the measure at the Supreme Court. They view it as a clear and present danger to customer owned solar in Florida. Let’s take a closer look at the text of Amendment 1.
Creating Financial Barriers to Customer-Owned Solar
The most concerning element of the amendment is found in the last provision, which sets the stage to weaken or eliminate the state’s net metering policy, or to impose discriminatory fees on customers that generate solar power. Amendment 1 states that, “consumers who do not choose to install solar are not required to subsidize the costs of backup power and electric grid access to those who do.” While this provision might sound like a good thing, it is actually based on misinformation and is an unsupported assumption. The ballot wording closely mirrors wording used by the utilities in filings before the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) in June 2015 arguing against “demand side” or customer owned solar.
Amendment 1 would create a permanent legal presumption in the Florida Constitution that solar customers aren’t paying their fair share of the utility’s costs by generating their own power and sending excess power back to the grid. Yet, the presumption has no factual basis in Florida. In fact, numerous reputable studies conclude that solar customers are providing a net benefit to the utility’s system – and therefore all customers – by self-generating solar power.
Fees Matter
The large monopoly utilities are looking for ways to limit access to customer-owned solar and will use this false claim as a justification to implement unfair fees and discriminatory penalties for solar customers. Restrictions and discriminatory fees would make solar more expensive, limit the expansion of solar, and hurt consumers by denying them a cost effective way to lower power bills - particularly impacting underserved communities.
No New Rights, No Additional Consumer Protection
The first provision in the summary establishes a right under the Florida constitution for “consumers to own or lease solar equipment installed on their property to generate electricity for their own use.” The fact is, the right to own or lease solar equipment already exists in Florida statute and in the net metering rule.
The second provision states that “state and local governments shall retain their abilities to protect consumer rights and public health, safety and welfare ….” Yet, if state and local government retain power, where is the additional protection in the amendment? Current consumer protection laws would remain in place, regardless if the amendment passes or not.
These false promises of additional rights are simply campaign slogans designed to gain support for the Amendment and will do nothing to add to consumer protections or consumer rights in Florida.
Do Not be Mislead: Get the Facts
The stark fact is that there are only 11,626 customer-owned solar systems out of a possible 9 million. This is a fraction of 1% of electricity customers in Florida that currently have customer-owned solar. That is many times lower than customer-owned solar penetration in other less sunny states. Shouldn’t the Sunshine State be embracing a clean energy future and expanding access to the economic benefits of customer-owned solar power to more customers – including underserved communities?
Don’t be fooled. Amendment 1 will continue to move customer-owned solar out of reach for many of Florida’s families and businesses and drag state solar policy backwards. Amendment 1 Blocks the Sun.
Here's what you'll see on the ballot:
Rights of Electricity Consumers Regarding Solar Energy Choice
This amendment establishes a right under Florida's constitution for consumers to own or lease solar equipment installed on their property to generate electricity for their own use. State and local governments shall retain their abilities to protect consumer rights and public health, safety and welfare, and to ensure that consumers who do not choose to install solar are not required to subsidize the costs of backup power and electric grid access to those who do.
Big Sugar is in the midst of a multi-faceted counterattack against the civic uprising in Florida triggered by massive pollution of Florida's waterways in the winter of 2016. It took the results of the GOP presidential primary -- and the dismal showing of its key spokesman, Senator Marco Rubio, who garnered scarcely 15% of the Republican vote -- to kick the billionaires into gear. Today, they are most certainly revving all their engines in anticipation of the November election where protecting Marco Rubio and down-ballot hirelings like state representative Matt Caldwell is Big Sugar's primary concern.
The context for the upcoming elections is different this election cycle than perhaps ever before. In 2015, through its control of the Florida legislature and the South Florida Water Management District, Big Sugar succeeded in stopping the effort by environmentalists to acquire through an early option to purchase more than 45,000 acres of lands owned by U.S. Sugar Corporation. It was a classic battle where Big Sugar prevailed through sheer force of campaign contributions. Environmentalists had been buttressed by a 2014 constitutional amendment they had promoted to secure a dedicated funding source that will generate billions of dollars of revenue for land acquisition. The point of the amendment was to do what the Florida legislature has refused: create enough spatial extent for water treatment and cleansing marshes out of Big Sugar lands to solve the riddle of restoring the Everglades and Florida Bay. For its part, Big Sugar isn't opposed to selling its land so long as it can achieve the maximum possible profit by doing so. Although certain parcels have been put into public ownership over the decades, Big Sugar continues to hold out for its biggest payday from taxpayers. In other words: not yet.
In 2015, the Florida legislature -- under the guidance of Gov. Rick Scott, deeply beholden to Big Sugar -- firmly rejected the intent of the referendum that passed with 75% of the popular vote. In the past, Big Sugar always complained that money wasn't available to purchase its lands. Now the money was available -- totaling billions of dollars -- but Big Sugar still prevailed in delay. Political backs were patted all around, and then -- in December 2015, normally dry season -- the rain began to fall.
It is nearly biblical how the 2016 winter rains drowned the celebration of political insiders who believed they had succeeded in killing off public support for acquisition of U.S. Sugar lands. If the lands had been acquired in 2011, after the purchase agreement had been signed, it is possible that the political upset of 2016 would never have occurred. As it turned out in January and February, the awful pollution of Florida's waterways magnetized public support where Big Sugar believed it had politically disappeared.
Big Sugar's chief anxiety is that urban populations on Florida's wealthy east and west coast -- more Republican than not -- will organize to challenge Big Sugar's political control of Florida. Its fear materialized in 2016 with a Black Swan event: historic rainfall in dry season.
The rainfall caused water managers, whose primary goal is to prevent flooding, to release trillions of gallons of contaminated water into waterways feeding east and west. Moreover, the rainfall might have been a consequence of climate delamination, but the energized public response was not from Big Sugar's traditional enemy: the state's environmental community dedicated to restoring the Everglades and improving water quality rules and regulations.
Big Sugar's strategy never changes: preserve the prerogatives at the local, state and federal levels that make the production of sugarcane one of the richest commodity crops in the world. Its tactics don't change either. One: to match civic unrest with pushback from minority communities in the region where sugarcane is grown, south of Lake Okeechobee.
Long ago Big Sugar perfected the art of divide and conquer among Florida's environmentalists. Some state water managers snidely refer to traditional groups pressing for change; the "green-greens", differentiated from the "brown-greens". In other words, fighting environmentalists is all a matter of message pushing. The 2016 rainfall, though, triggered a movement of citizen engagement (I called it, "Florida's Arab Spring") that drew energy from ordinary taxpayers and voters organized through social media like its counterparts in the Muslim world. In other words, Bullsugar.org and groups like Captains for Clean Water and the Southwest Florida Clean Water Movement materialized at exactly the moment Big Sugar imagined it had defeated the environmentalists.
"Glades Lives Matter", drawn from minority communities in Hendry County -- where sugarcane is grown -- emerged as a way of piggy-backing on the public outrage of police violence elsewhere against African Americans in the early summer. As a single tactic, "Glades Lives Matter", might have seemed a poor mirror reflecting the gathering of hundreds of thousands of signatories to the Now or Neverglades Declaration, but the few were matched synergistically through attachment to business and political entities at Big Sugar's beck and call. Groups like the Martin County Economic Council and the Florida League of Cities tag teamed, in recent months, to push back hard against the civic call for land acquisition in the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA).
Earlier in 2016, when protests against the South Florida Water Management District began to gain traction with the mainstream media, governing board members of the district -- one of the most significant taxing agencies in Florida -- rallied its own counter protesters, culled from actors in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. It was brazen and unprecedented, given how the District had historically adopted the posture of a neutral, science-driven state agency even when its policies chiefly served Big Sugar.
Throughout the summer of 2016, the District persisted, deploying its public relations department to attack social media and citizens directly. The new tactic paralleled personal attacks against leaders of the Bullsugar.org and its allies.
The hypocrisy comes in at a different level. This week, the Journal of the American Medical Association, JAMA Internal Medicine, disclosed that Big Sugar:
"... paid scientists in the 1960s to play down the link between sugar and heart disease and promote saturated fat as the culprit instead, newly released historical documents show. The internal sugar industry documents, recently discovered by a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, and published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, suggest that five decades of research into the role of nutrition and heart disease, including many of today’s dietary recommendations, may have been largely shaped by the sugar industry. “They were able to derail the discussion about sugar for decades,” said Stanton Glantz, a professor of medicine at U.C.S.F. and an author of the JAMA paper." ("How the sugar industry shifted blame to fat", New York Times, Sept. 12, 2016)
Big Sugar -- and its main components, the Fanjul's Florida Crystals empire, U.S. Sugar Corporation and the Florida Sugarcane League -- are key players in the trade association, the Sugar Association, responsible for subverting US nutrition guidelines and the impacts of excess consumption of sugar. A 2013 report by Credit Suisse estimated that excess consumption of sugar costs the US health care system a trillion dollars per year: "... 30% – 40% of healthcare expenditures in the USA go to help address issues that are closely tied to the excess consumption of sugar.” Credit Suisse Report – Sugar: Consumption At A Crossroads"
"Glades Lives Matter" is an updated version of an old tactic. In the run-up to the 1996 presidential election, Florida sugar billionaires enlisted African American church leaders and prominent representatives like Alcee Hastings and Jesse Jackson to demonstrate against a penny-a-pound tax on sugarcane produced in Florida. The tax proposal, incorporated in a ballot referendum to amend the Florida constitution, was to force Big Sugar to contribute a fair share of the costs of Everglades restoration. That sugar is a substance as addictive as cocaine was never part of the message that reached either the church goers or President Clinton. At the time, the Orlando Sentinel reported, "At a Baptist church in Eatonville ... (Reverend Jesse) Jackson urged Floridians to vote against the tax. An estimated 80 percent of sugar industry workers are minorities, and amendment opponents are targeting black voters with hard-hitting radio ads."
Today, as twenty years ago, the effect of excess sugar consumption wreaks havoc on the public health of especially those minorities by the very industry, Big Sugar, that professes concern through "Glades Lives Matter". Diabetes, according to the website, SugarScience (The Unsweetened Truth)
"... is strongly associated with coronary artery disease and Alzheimer's disease. It's also a discriminatory disease: compared to white adults, the risk of being diagnosed with diabetes is 18% higher among Asian Americans, 66% higher among Hispanics and 77% higher among African-Americans."
A 2013 report by Hendry County, the locus of "Glades Lives Matter", cited a survey by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin, finding that the County, the center of the sugar industry ranked 63rd out of 67 Florida counties in its Health Fact metric. "72.9 percent of Hendry County residents are overweight or obese. This is higher than the state rate of 65.0 percent and much higher than the percentage for Hendry County in 2007 (62.3 percent). Excess weight is considered to be a strong factor and precursor to serious health problems such as diabetes, hypertension and heart disease." According to the 2009-2011 statistics, the rate of diabetes in Hendry County is nearly two times higher than the average for the rest of the state.
Marion Nestle, the New York University scientist and expert on nutrition and the harmful effects of excess consumption of sugar consumption, told Reuters: "I thought I had seen everything but this one floored me... It was so blatant. And the ‘bribe’ was so big.” “Funding research is ethical... Bribing researchers to produce the evidence you want is not."
Sugar has always been on intimate terms with government, for without it the industry could not enjoy its current size and wealth. For example, until recently, growers like Fairbanks and the Fanjuls relied on a federal “guest” worker program for a steady supply of cheap, docile Caribbean cane cutters. And although that particular embarrassment is gone, cane producers remain absolutely beholden to other forms of governmental intervention. Nearly every acre of sugarcane in south Florida is irrigated and drained via a costly, tax-supported system of pumps, dikes, and canals that effectively prevents the Everglades Agricultural Area from reverting to swamp while keeping Lake Okeechobee, to the north, from flooding. Unfortunately, this system, in combination with the heavy fertilizers sugar farmers apply to their fields, has degraded the remaining “pristine” Everglades downstream, yielding years of litigation and an environmental catastrophe that will cost taxpayers $8 billion to fix. But not sugar. Although Florida cane farmers are footing part of the cleanup cost, their small share is all but buried under another, more pervasive government handout: a federal sugar program that keeps the domestic price of sugar some 50 percent above the world market price. This sweet protectionist deal not only adds a nickel profit to every pound of sugar produced by large U.S. cane farmers but has abetted the Everglades’ decline by encouraging farming in marginal swamplands that could not be profitably planted otherwise.
Today, the price of sugar is roughly double what the cost would be on the free market, and the incidence of diabetes is twice in Hendry County than the rest of Florida, where Glades Lives Matter except when they don't.
The appropriate context for Glades Lives Matters is as a tactic, combined with others; deforming water policies, hiring elected officials, creating false news outlets to parrot their lines, all with the same chilling effect: to protect their profits at the expense of public health and to shift the costs of cleaning up pollution to the taxpayers whenever possible and to the maximum extent practical.
The hypocrisy of Big Sugar is blinding. It is as blinding as the effect of pixie dust cast by Big Tobacco, that invested millions of dollars to deter citizens from the scientific fact that smoking kills. Sugar also kills, but that's a message that will take a long time to filter into the communities fearful of losing jobs. Just like in coal country, Glades lives matter except when they don't.
The administrative law judge ruled THE SEMINOLE TRIBE OF FLORIDA; CITY OF MIAMI; FLORIDA PULP AND PAPER ASSOCIATION ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS,INC.; AND MARTIN COUNTY had no standing to object to the rule change for water quality standards as they missed the deadline. What crap. You might wonder why Pulp and Paper is there. They want even more lenient toxic chemical standards and would like time to argue for that. (Link to yesterday's post). Excerpt from yesterday's post (unfortunately the outcome was not good):
The hearing on DEP’s efforts to dismiss all four petitioners who are
challenging the proposed human health based toxics criteria was held
last Wednesday and did not disappoint us in any way. Judge Canter with
the Division of Administrative Hearings did his best to get all the
legal arguments and factual information out on the table so he can go
off in a quiet corner of his office (I’m guessing here) and try to sort
it all out and make some sense of it.
After three hours of mostly intelligent discussion, the judge ruled that
the case is on hold (abated) until he issues a written order on DEP’s
motions to dismiss.
Here is how the judge summed it up:
Judges order of dismissal
In the judges footnotes he noted this...was this a flaw in the petitioners argument that could have changed the outcome?
Four term President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had Polio. He died while still in office. Roosevelt was diagnosed with Polio at 39 years old. He learned to use iron braces and a cane and was careful not to be seen in a wheelchair. but the public did know of his illness before and during his presidency.
Could Franklin Delano Roosevelt be elected today? I doubt it. Same with, John F. Kennedy. He took pain killers and steroids, he had Addison's disease among other ailments.
All those who are talking about Hillary Clinton's brain function should watch the 11 hours of the Benghazi hearings. Or those with shorter attention spans, should watch the 1/2 hour Matt Lauer interview. I don't care about her health unless it affects her brain function. Although her brain function is impaired to be giving those horrific stump speeches.
Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.
If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships - the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace.
Gimleteye note: By "pulp and paper industry", read: Koch Brothers' industrial enterprises in Florida. Read: Gov. Rick Scott, who is micromanaging the effort to weaken protections due all Floridians. Believe it:
From Linda Young, Florida Clean Water Network:
... in short, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection has fumbled (this) rulemaking so badly, that there is no precedent. Our state agency, which we all pay for through our taxes, has either purposely or accidentally created a tangled web around a very important issue – whether or not our state government will be allowed to significantly increase the amount of toxic chemicals – many of them carcinogenic – that big polluters (such as the pulp and paper industry and many others) can dump in our water. Whether through incompetence or deliberate deceit, our governor and his agency are doing everything in their power to force these chemicals on us, our wildlife, and our future. THIS IS WRONG!!!
Florida Clean Water Network -September 12, 2016
DEP’S RATS NEST
Dear Friends of Florida’s Waters –
The hearing on DEP’s efforts to dismiss all four petitioners who are challenging the proposed human health based toxics criteria was held last Wednesday and did not disappoint us in any way. Judge Canter with the Division of Administrative Hearings did his best to get all the legal arguments and factual information out on the table so he can go off in a quiet corner of his office (I’m guessing here) and try to sort it all out and make some sense of it.
After three hours of mostly intelligent discussion, the judge ruled that the case is on hold (abated) until he issues a written order on DEP’s motions to dismiss. The arguments were limited...
Donald Trump's, I never promised you a rose garden.
There are signs in Trump Tower inviting you to the garden area. Once there, you are greeted with dirt and a few half alive plants. So Donald Trump builds the building for $300,000,000 and the environmental part of it: Nada.
Well deserved and congratulations. Check our archive to understand the work of both, like Dr. Wanless' efforts to obtain a meeting with Senator Marco Rubio (denied) to discuss climate change.
Wanless, a geologist from the University of Miami and South Florida’s climate change Cassandra, has said for years that much of South Florida would sink; his prediction that the state’s southern tip has only a half-century left above water has earned him the nickname “Dr. Doom.” He predicts that the rate of sea-rise will be much faster than most models suggest—Miami Beach will experience 10 to 30 feet of sea-rise by 2100, he says—and that moving to higher ground will be the only real option for many residents of South Florida. For that reason, he has openly criticized Miami Beach’s program to install flood pumps as a waste of money. “Why would you put $100 million into infrastructure that won’t even survive the next foot of sea-level rise?” Wanless asks.
In the news and opinion ecosystem, Eye On Miami highlights -- free of charge -- corruption in Florida that too rarely appear in print news like the Miami Herald.
It lifts our spirits when the Herald applies its talent to stories like this weekend's, "The convicted mayor, his late wife, and the mysterious charity". The report focuses on Homestead, the municipality we've dubbed, the most corrupt little city in America.
The criminal issue with Miami's suburbs and hinterlands is that these are places where representative democracy deformed under the pressure of loose financing and fast developers. Small cities like Homestead serve the purpose of local land use lobbyists -- to turn farmland into gold -- and lift up the fortunes of opportunists like Steve Bateman, the convicted former mayor who is exposed, in the Herald article, in a form of bottom-feeding that we've never read before.
For that, we thank the Herald while wishing Miami's only daily newspaper would focus its skills consistently on scandals involving prominent figures in the business and political elite.
The convicted mayor, his late wife, and the mysterious charity
By Monique O. Madan and Carol Marbin Miller
mmadan@miamiherald.com
In life, Donna Bateman supported the Soroptimist women’s club, which contributes millions to charities that educate under priviledged women and girls, as well as the American Cancer Society and Autism Speaks, one of the leading advocacy groups for children and adults with the neurologic disorder. She also volunteered with Agape Family Ministries, a community health network, and Homestead High School’s autism support program.
If Marco Rubio and Donald Trump win Florida in November, you might as well be locked in a barrel going over Niagara Falls.
Bottom line: the United States cannot afford Marco Rubio as a senator or Donald Trump as a president. Rubio, who spurned the office of senate only to reverse course and run again, hangs by a thread overshadowed by the GOP presidential candidate who belittled him.
It is up to Miami-Dade County voters in November to show that Rubio's 15% statewide showing in the presidential primary was no fluke. No Rubio, no Trump.
What has Rubio accomplished in the Senate, other than to be a blocking agent for large corporate financiers? What has Trump done except to perfect the political campaign as a variety show, an entertainment devoid of substance?
When facts interfere with preconceived notions, as they do on global warming, Trump plays make believe and Rubio dodges and denies.
Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, if they win in November, have no plan except bluster, no policies except those that can't work for the American people, and no vision except to "kick the can down the road".
Read Nicolas Kristof in the Saturday NY Times:
SundayReview | OP-ED COLUMNIST
Temperatures Rise, and We’re Cooked
Nicholas Kristof
SEPT. 10, 2016
When the mercury surges, people die. A heat wave in 2015 melted asphalt in New Delhi, India, and caused the deaths of at least 2,500 people. ONE of Donald Trump’s 100 wackiest ideas is that climate change is a hoax fabricated by China to harm America.
