"Red Tide" Rick Scott needs a demotion not a promotion ... by Alan Farago

Photo courtesy of John Moran

In a world blasted by twitter storms, one fears it is difficult to hold any voter's attention for longer than 140 characters. But the Nov 6th election is critical and so attention is deserved especially in Florida, where "Red Tide Rick" Scott is trying to unseat incumbent Bill Nelson.

For eight years Rick Scott has served as a governor of Florida. During this time, we have gotten to know virtually nothing about the man.

The public record is clear enough: he is very wealthy. His public disclosures do not accurately capture his assets. He lives in a mansion in a secluded Port Royal section of Naples. He thought well enough of this isolation to support a new law restricting the rights of Floridians to public beach access.

Still, from the low tide line if you peer closely enough, it is relatively easy to see that Rick Scott's embrace of crony capitalism not only enriched him personally while in office, it is having massive impacts on the balance between federal and state interests where the outcome is defined by what major campaign contributors want. I'll get to these in a minute.

Scott's fortune derived from skirting the edges of federal health reimbursement regulations. He narrowly escaped the indictment that encumbered his business with the largest civil fine ever levied at the time; about $1.7 billion. Scott claims his assets are in a "blind trust". While governor, his net worth has skyrocketed, including from lucrative private investments that may have been made through contacts he established while governor. In July the Miami Herald reported that a single deal netted Scott more than $500 million.

It is all a little gauzy. A little hazy. But that's exactly how Rick Scott likes to keep it. The Sun Sentinel reported in September, "Gov. Rick Scott's mockery of a "blind trust":

Since he raised the subject, it’s fair game. The giant hole in his rags-to-riches story is the $1.7 billion that his hospital company, Columbia/HCA, was fined for defrauding Medicare and Medicaid. Scott left the company with a golden parachute four months before the federal inquiry became public. He has claimed he had not known about its systematic overbilling and other frauds.

Throughout his two terms, Scott has frustrated the intent of the Florida Constitution’s “full and public disclosure” requirement. On occasion, he has briefly disclosed the trust’s assets long enough to appear to comply with disclosure and to persuade the courts to dismiss litigation over the issue. He has always chosen the alternative disclosure that allows him to withhold his income tax forms and submit a statement of assets instead. In one of those cases, though, Judge Brad Thomas of the First District Court of Appeal warned that the law “may likely be incompatible” with the Constitution.

You see, Rick Scott has excelled at a version of political life that has crystallized during the Donald Trump era: it doesn't matter what you do as a leader. What matters is what you seem.

Rick Scott has seemed the role of governor without serving the public interest very much at all. His appearances are carefully staged and scripted. He abhors being captured on camera where critics somehow pierce the veil his team has created. He does not answer reporters' questions but sticks to talking points. He tightened down on public disclosure law in part to reduce his exposure to public scrutiny.

The most common time to see Rick Scott is during weather-related emergencies. Then, he is all over cable television news, always wearing a Navy baseball cap, and seeming to be an expert on big storms. But in the aftermath, Scott is carefully hustled from place to place without giving journalists much of a chance to squeeze through the scrum. It's all gloss. It is all appearance.

As an environmental leader I've had substantial exposure to the way Scott's top appointees -- his capos -- act in relation to Florida's significant environmental crises: ones that are imposing immense costs on citizens today like the blanket of toxic red tides threatening the state's tourism and real estate based business sectors.

It turns out, contrary to his staff's assertions, Rick Scott is a micromanager when it comes to the environment. Here are few examples of his fingerprints.

First, his appointees to the governing board of the South Florida Water Management District -- beginning with his decision to appoint Peter Antonucci, his personal counsel, as chairman -- were meant to strictly follow his guidance on the balance of interests between private industry (ie. campaign funders) and environmental resources. His guidance? To throttle civic and conservation voices plain and simple.

Shortly after his first election in 2010 (he had never served in any elected capacity, before that time) Scott killed the deal to buy US Sugar and its 130,000 acres of land in the Everglades Agricultural Area. He not only killed the deal, he personally reached down into the staffing of the South Florida Water Management District and imposed massive cuts on the agency's science capacity. If you don't ask good questions of science, you will never get answer you don't want to hear.

It was a key point of support of Big Sugar for his 2010 campaign, at a time when he had very few supporters beyond his investment advisors and the accountants who cut checks from his personal account to his campaign. Seven years later, the public got a "deal" for an Everglades reservoir that will cost at least twice as much as the US Sugar land acquisition would have. Its main benefits will not accrue to the environment. Will not relieve the damaged rivers and estuaries and Florida Bay. Its main benefits will be to provide guarantees of drought-protection for Big Sugar.

Getting to this point, where taxpayer interests have been so baldly and badly damaged took a lot of work. Part of that load was carried by the political appointees of the water management district who routinely criticized, derided, and otherwise insulted members of the public and environmental groups trying to inject fact and science into the public arena. That's not what Rick Scott wanted. His order to ban agency staff from using the words, "climate change", is along that same line. So was his tolerance for governing board members' support of crisis actors, paid by the sugar industry through Roger Stone, to oppose environmental protesters at governing board meetings.

One of Rick Scott's claims to environmental stewardship was his 2012 announcement of a state investment of $890 million in Everglades related protection and infrastructure. He never said, and mainstream media reports largely failed to report at the time, that the state was forced to invest at the point of a major loss in federal court. Even today, Rick Scott is appealing that decision alongside the Fanjul billionaires. And it is worthwhile understanding why his staff are appealing.

Scott believes, with Big Sugar, that the federal court "overreached" in its decision supporting environmentalists and the Miccosukee Tribe, whose Everglades have been gutted by polluted runoff from sugar fields. The right to externalize the costs of pollution are considered, by Scott, to be allowable under states' rights. Period. When Scott and the GOP state legislature, including electeds like Adam Putnam and Matt Caldwell (now running for Agriculture Secretary), condemned the effort by the US EPA to regulate nutrient pollution of Florida waters, they did so with the identical argument: leave us alone, let us pollute or regulate the way we want to.

So there you have it: this is not a matter of "seeming" after all. As governor, Rick Scott actively and deliberately pushed for measures that imposed huge, even unlimited liabilities, on taxpayers. "Red Tide Rick" really is "Red Tide Rick". And he wants to be Florida's next US Senator. Floridians will see, on Nov. 6th, how that goes.

For the calm version of how Gov. Rick Scott and a Republican majority lead to Florida's destroyed environment, read Margaret Good ... guest blog

Miami, it is time for voters to rise up. Vote for electeds who will protect your drinking water and not protect polluters' profits. The following, from Florida's west coast ...

Water issues have long history
By Margaret Good
Guest Columnist

You can see it, smell it and feel the frustration mounting. Every day one of my constituents asks me what I am doing to help with the effects of red tide.
I get it. I am just as frustrated that my walks on the beach are limited and that businesses I frequent are facing economic hardships. I, too, feel a deep need to take immediate action to prevent more sea life from dying.

While I understand the urgency, our water issues were decades in the making and the course correction will take time and sustained effort. We cannot move forward until we have looked back and analyzed what brought us to this point.

Here is some of the harmful environmental legislation passed and decisions made in the last eight years: In 2011, the Legislature passed the Community Planning Act (HB 7207), which minimized state oversight of local governments’ comprehensive planning, essentially abandoning state oversight of landdevelopment decisions.

The Legislature that year also passed SB 2142, which limits the amount of revenue water management districts can collect through property taxes, crippling their budgets and resources. This undermined state monitoring of our water quality and our water supply.

2011 also saw Gov. Rick Scott’s appointment of new Department of Environmental Protection and water district heads. Both came from the private sector and have a history helping large companies get permits.

In 2012 the DEP laid off 58 employees, making enforcement of regulations more difficult. In 2010, the DEP had handled 2,289 environmental enforcement cases; that number plummeted to 799 in 2012.

Also in 2012, the Legislature repealed SB 1738, a 2010 bill that required septic tank owners to have their tanks inspected every five years to prevent sewage leaks.

In 2013 the legislature passed HB 999, which ratified the governor’s decision to continue 30-year leases of public lands in the Everglades to sugar companies. The bill also prohibited local governments from banning fertilizers, accelerated permitting for gas pipelines, and forbid environmental groups from suing to overturn the Everglades leases.

In 2015 the Legislature passed SB 552, The Florida Springs and Aquifer Protection Act. Don’t be fooled by its name. This bill eliminates many regulatory checks by allowing agricultural operations to self-monitor using “best management practices.” This bill also made it difficult for water management districts to deny consumptive-use permits.

In 2015 the governor instructed the DEP and other agencies to avoid the term “climate change.” More important, the South Florida Water Management District’s board voted against a deal to purchase almost 47,000 acres of U.S. Sugar land critical to Everglades restoration. Had the deal gone through, that land would have been used to store additional water from Lake Okeechobee.

In 2016, the Environmental Regulation Commission weakened standards on chemical dumping, resulting in 80-plus chemicals having less restrictive dumping standards than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends. Benzene, a chemical carcinogen used in fracking and linked to leukemia, had its dumping limit nearly doubled.

We stand astonished by what has happened to our shorelines, but when we look at the systematic deregulation of our environmental protections, the picture becomes clear: Our government has not protected our natural resources and we are all paying the price.

The losses of sea life and livelihoods are daunting, but change can happen. We must support septicto- sewer programs, better regulate pesticides and fertilizers, fully staff inspection agencies and fund land preservation.

Moving forward, we must make better choices and forge a path that prioritizes our land and water. We do this by holding our elected officials accountable — at the ballot box.

Margaret Good, D-Siesta Key, has represented Florida House District 72 since winning a special election on Feb. 13.

John Moran: "Remembering Rick Scott: Farewell, My Muse" ... guest blog

Remembering Rick Scott: Farewell, My Muse
by John Moran, Sept. 2018

As the Rick Scott era in Tallahassee winds down, I’ve been reflecting on the pivotal role the governor has played in my life.

Turning back the clock, the year was 2010. I was a photographer working the bliss and beauty beat, peddling my pictures of pristine Florida to audiences across the state.

Rick Scott was running for governor and riding high. Me? I was nagged by the growing awareness that my relentlessly pretty pictures of flawless Florida were feeding a false narrative.

I’d been watching our waters head south for years but I wanted nothing to do with bearing witness to the changes I’d seen. In the quiet triumph of denial, mine was a dysfunctional love affair with Florida.

Fortunately, when I needed him most, Rick Scott was there for me. The deal was sealed on Earth Day 2011.

That’s the day the new governor boldly put the federal government on notice and told the EPA to back off. To paraphrase, “We don’t need your stinking clean water regulations here in Florida.”

This was a shot across the bow, a powerful statement from our fearless new Deregulator-in-Chief, telling the bureaucrats that we’ve got this covered in Florida—no need for Washington’s meddlesome “numeric nutrient standards.”

The letter from Scott’s environmental protection chief, Herschel Vinyard Jr., continues: “As clearly demonstrated…the State of Florida, including its citizenry, local governments and businesses, is very committed to addressing excess nutrients pollution.”

The governor proclaimed, “Florida continues to lead the nation in developing innovative programs to ensure the health of our state’s waterways.”

Smelling a skunk on that fateful day, my life was transformed. Freed from the shackles of shooting only attractive pictures of my beloved Florida, I headed to the nearest spring and I dove into the task of photographing the ugly truth of the rampant slime I’d been avoiding for a decade or more.

I never used to think of my pictures of beautiful Florida waters as documentary moments frozen in time. Many were “protected” state waters and would remain forever so, or so I believed. Rick Scott’s arrival was my wake-up call.

Thus reborn with purpose and passion, I joined the growing community of dedicated Florida water defenders.

In fairness to the governor, he didn’t create Florida’s water problems. He just made them worse.

Rick Scott’s environmental legacy reflects a policy of purposeful neglect; the details of which have been much discussed in the public arena in this, our 2018 Toxic Summer of Slime.

Slashing and burning his way through the infrastructure of environmental protection four decades in the making, his record reveals a regard for Florida—the real Florida—as just another commodity to be exploited for profit.

And how has the governor responded when confronted with the slime-encrusted consequences of his actions? Can you say, Stand Your Ground? Rick Scott blames the Feds, and the man whose job he covets.

I ask you, tell me an issue more important to Florida’s future than protecting our waters. Look around. Do you see evidence of a state committed to getting the water right?

The governor offers the fig leaf that red tide is “naturally occurring.” But here’s the punchline: we have super-charged our toxic algae outbreaks with lifestyle choices and business practices that have sacrificed our public waters on the altar of personal choice and financial gain.

When it comes to Florida’s waters, fertilizer is Public Enemy No. 1. But have you ever once heard Governor Scott speak the word “prevention”? As in, “let’s stop this pollution at its source.”

Here’s what occurs naturally: We the people resist dealing with the hard stuff even when it’s clear the problems will only get worse.

That may be human nature but wise politicians don’t pander, and they don’t pass the buck. Wise politicians understand that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and they govern accordingly. It’s called leadership.

Thomas Jefferson cautions us from the grave, “The government you elect is the government you deserve.”

If you believe that Rick Scott is the governor we deserve, then the message to our children is they deserve no better than to inherit a state in which our pristine waters can be found only in old pictures and fading memories.

History will judge whether Rick Scott is the worst governor we’ve ever had. In the meantime, he’s earned my vote. The man has done serious damage to Florida—and the Florida brand—and it’s time to end the abuse.

We need our next governor to be Florida’s Cheerleader-in-Chief for real conservation and civic water education, delivered from the heart. For the measure of a civilization is not merely what it creates but what it refuses to destroy.

You can go home to Naples now, Governor. Your work here is done.

———

John Moran is a photographer and water advocate based in Gainesville.

"Red Tide Rick": the nickname sticks ... by gimleteye

"Red Tide Rick" bet on killing environmental rules as governor.  Look what he did.

In his eight years as governor, Rick Scott axed the state capacity to effectively regulate and enforce against pollution of Florida's waterways. Now the toxic waters are wreaking havoc across the state and he wants your vote for US Senator.

His latest gambit is to call for the creation of research center for red tide. My God, man!

2013, 2015, 2018: Lake Okeechobee has been gushing billions and billions of gallons of toxic waters in serial calamities and NOW Rick Scott is paying attention?

He didn't paying attention as governor, or, better to say: he was ONLY PAYING ATTENTION TO POLLUTERS. His signature achievement: lax enforcement of environmental rules. Another achievement: putting hacks and polluter-friendly cronies into important positions on the governing boards of the state water management districts. From those perches, environmentalists have been attacked, marginalized, and ignored.

When environmentalists protested at the South Florida Water Management District, Big Sugar hired actors from Fort Lauderdale to counter protest, organized through dirty tricks huckster, Roger Stone.

In July Florida PEER wrote: "During the seven years under Governor Rick Scott, environmental enforcement has hit a modern nadir, with 2017 registering some of the most anemic results on record, according to a new analysis released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The upshot is that not only is Florida’s environment bearing a greater pollution load, but also its Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is losing revenue as well as its capacity to monitor--let alone deter--eco-offenses. Apart from the 2017 results in isolation, the Scott record shows a deep, across-the-board nosedive in Number of Cases in virtually every enforcement category. As seen by these tables, new cases opened, penalties collected, and other enforcement measures are all down more than three-quarters since Scott took office."

This is exactly the outcome that Scott's transition team outlined in 2010: eliminate "excessive regulation" and especially regulations protecting the environment. Red Tide Rick has done a better job representing toxic algae than people.

And he wants your vote.

Under Scott's watch, pets are dying awful deaths from exposure to toxins, residents and visitors are getting sick, and Florida's iconic beaches are turning into no-go zones for tourists; preventable nightmares if Rick Scott, Adam Putnam, and Matt Caldwell -- the GOP candidate for agriculture commissioner -- had done their jobs. They didn't, because they were too busy being ideologues on behalf of polluters. Of the Toxic Trio -- Putnam, Caldwell, and Scott -- one is gone, two remain and they must be voted down.

There are going to be fewer and fewer weddings in Naples -- Scott's hometown -- because of all the gagging, coughing, and watery eyes from wedding guests sickened by air borne effects of toxic algae. Some of the aerosol algae carried aloft has been linked to serious, irreversible brain disease in humans.

There's a lot we don't know about Florida's water catastrophe.

What we do know: Rick Scott does not deserve your vote for US Senate. Not now, not ever.


Sierra Club Blasts Rick Scott's Red Tide Plan
For Immediate Release: September 20, 2018

More Studies Won't Cure State's Catastrophic Red Tide and Green Slime

St. Petersburg, FL – Sierra Club Florida responded to Florida Governor Rick Scott's letter today to the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission asking it to create a Center for Red Tide Research.

Statement of Frank Jackalone, Sierra Club Florida Chapter Director

“Rick Scott's call for the creation of a Center for Red Tide Research is nothing more than a self-serving publicity stunt. He is desperately diverting attention from his failure over his two terms as Governor to address the pollution problems which have fueled massive toxic red tide and green slime all across the State.

"We're horrified that Scott is offering a half-baked, ineffective plan to Florida's ongoing water crisis at the end of his stint as Governor. Where has he been for the last eight years as devastating toxic algae blooms have repeatedly devastated the state's coastal waters, inland lakes, rivers and springs?

"While 'Red Tide Rick' fiddled, Florida's waters burned with toxic algae. As a result, our coastal communities are plagued by the smell of millions of dead fish on their beaches and a devastated tourism industry.

"Scott's proposal for more research won't cure red tide and green slime. The only way to reduce the occurrence, size and severity of harmful algae blooms is to stop the pollution that is feeding it at its source. We need prevention, not more studies.

"Rick Scott is the person most responsible for Florida's growing, catastrophic toxic algae problem. Over his two terms as Governor, Scott has put state enforcement of pollution laws in reverse by eliminating mandatory inspections of septic tanks and slashing enforcement of clean water regulations. His plan for reducing dirty water releases to Florida's Gulf and Atlantic coasts has been to spend billions of dollars over the next decade to store more polluted water in Lake Okeechobee and to build a 23 foot high reservoir in the Everglades over the next 10 years and fill it with more dirty water. His new plan today asking the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission and the next Governor to do more research should make every Floridian mad as hell."

Florida Gov. Rick Scott's Recklessness Is Putting Your Health, Your Property, And Your Jobs At Risk. Don't Give Him Your Vote ... by gimleteye

The viral video shows angry Floridians shouting at "Red Tide Rick" as he scurries out the back door of a restaurant into his armored SUV, hoping to deny an unscripted media moment when his rapidly declining popularity is revealed.

For eight years as governor, Scott was obsessed with preventing such unscripted moments. Every photo op with Scott seemed airbrushed as a Clairol commercial.

At the same time, Scott helped erode protections for Florida's waters, cutting hundreds of millions from agencies and stifling law enforcement against polluters. With Florida's waters filling with toxins that can lead to severe neurological disease -- as in Alzheimer's -- , Rick Scott can't hide.

Scott can't hide the fact that he caused state environmental protection to dissolve at the same time his lawyers argued in federal court that the state can do whatever it wants, even if it means condemning natural resources like the Everglades to a long and tortured death.

The pro-Tea Party, anti-regulatory agendas were cynically organized to mesh with the needs of his big campaign contributors -- from the state's agricultural polluters, like Big Sugar, to the political action committees where big business mingled millions in contributions to funnel to its mostly Republican stars.

Florida environmentalists have been crying for the “precautionary principle” — first, do no harm — for decades. No one in political office listened, not Democrats or Republicans, because that's not how polluters make money. Wherever in state law the precautionary principle pops up, the polluters do their best to lop its head off.

The toxic waters in Palm Beach and Martin Counties, and Lee and Collier, are killing pets and threatening people. In the Scott early years, public health officials downplayed or ignored the threats because it cost money and angered polluters when public attention was shifted to the sorry state of Florida waters. Kind of like the clusters of rare pediatric cancer the Scott administration has ignored.

Telling these stories around a dinner table recently, a friend told me about a wedding he attended last year in Naples where the entire party had to move to the hotel indoors. Outside by the water and the sunset, people began coughing and wheezing because of the air drifting over the fouled waters.

There are going to be a lot fewer weddings in Naples because of Rick Scott.

There is evidence that breathing around some of Florida's toxic waters can expose people to brain disease. With warming temperatures, (note Scott’s ultimatum to state agencies to eliminate “global warming” from state communications), and no changes to the way Florida manages growth and industrial agriculture, this year's red tides could turn from chronic to permanent in certain waters.

And Rick Scott wants your vote to be next US Senator from Florida? Read this scathing OPED from the Palm Beach Post:


Editorial: Scott must answer for environmental malpractice
OPINION By The Palm Beach Post Editorial Board
Posted: 7:28 a.m. Sunday, September 16, 2018


With a horrific red tide killing marine life and tourism on Florida’s southwest coast, and with toxic green algae bringing misery to the Treasure Coast and Fort Myers area on a now-annual basis, it’s understandable that Gov. Rick Scott would want to run away from his environmental record.
Voters shouldn’t let him.

From the moment the health-care multimillionaire swept into office on 2010’s Tea Party anti-tax, anti-regulation wave, he began slashing the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), cutting budgets, skilled staff and inspections.

The SFWMD, which had a $1.4 billion budget in 2007, is now an $814 millionagency. Scott’s administration cut $700 million out of all the state’s water management districts after his first year and crippled their ability to levy taxes. His justification — giving average property owners tax relief — is a sick joke; the state’s 15 biggest industries, like Florida Power & Light and the Walt Disney Co., got to pocket a combined $1.2 million annually, but homeowners save less than $3 per $100,000.

What got slashed? The state’s network for water monitoring shrank from 350 monitoring sites to 115, according to Florida International University’s Southeast Environmental Research Center. Enforcement of anti-pollution regulations slowed to a crawl. The DEP pursued almost 1,600 enforcement cases in 2010, but a mere 220 in 2017, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

In 2012, Scott repealed a law requiring septic-tank inspections. Now, only 1 percent of Florida’s 2.6 million septic tanks get inspected, and scientists say that pollution from leaking septic tanks adds fuel to toxic algae blooms.

The result: nitrogen and phosphorus loads are on the rise in Lake Okeechobee. Combined with agricultural run-off, this is the root of the toxic blue-green algae — and almost certainly a contributor to the unusual endurance of the red tide, the worst of which is occurring near Fort Myers at the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River, one of the exit points of Lake O’s waters.

Yet Scott is trying to fool voters into thinking that Sen. Bill Nelson, the Democrat whom Scott is trying to unseat on Nov. 6, is to blame for the algae blooms. A Scott ad released Friday contends Nelson has done “nothing” for “Lake O.” It’s supposedly Nelson’s fault that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hasn’t limited water discharges or fixed the Herbert Hoover Dike.

This is nonsensical double-talk. The dike’s condition and the rate of discharges have nothing to do with the pollutants in the water in Lake Okeechobee. Letting all that phosphorus and nitrogen into the water to begin with — that’s the problem. And that’s on Scott.

The same Scott, by the way, who didn’t buy an available 153,200 acres of U.S. Sugar land, which would have given that water someplace else to go. Backing off that deal, in 2015, was a blow to Everglades restoration.

Sign up for The Palm Beach Post weekly Opinion newsletter: Text Opinion to 444999

The list goes on. In 2011, Scott abolished the Department of Community Affairs, which protected the state from bad development and gave the environment a vote in land-use decisions. He slashed funding for land conservation under the Forever Florida program, and later joined enthusiastically in the Florida Legislature’s nickel-and-diming of Amendment 1, the wildly popular ballot measure that is supposed to be generating hundreds of millions of dollars each year for environmental protection.

Most egregiously, the governor of the state most endangered by sea-level rise allegedly barred the very mention of climate change (although the climate denier denies that, too).

In sum, Scott “has regularly put the wishes of corporate polluters above the needs of Florida’s environment and families,” states Kevin Curtis, executive director of the Natural Resources Defense Coalition Action Fund.

“He’s sided with a fringe group of climate change deniers, defunded popular and bipartisan conservation programs, and undermined the enforcement of air, water and climate protections.”

This governor should not escape judgment for these past eight years. And any Floridian who cares about the environment — or simply gags from the stench of the algae blooms — should demand answers for such a putrid environmental record.

Any Floridian who cares about the environment — or simply gags from the stench of the algae blooms — should remember who has been in charge.

It's Election Season, And Rick Scott Republicans Are Running From Pollution Woes Fast As They Can ... by gimleteye

Rick Scott was smart enough to be Florida governor for two terms and steadfastly avoid direct interaction with voters that could make headlines on TV news and social media. But he didn't expect severe, unremitting pollution to trip up his campaign for US Senate.

Last week, Scott ducked into the St. Lucie River for a quick photo op then disappeared faster than you can say, Houdini.

Houdini was the famous escape artist who succumbed to a common fatal infection with the words, "I'm tired of fighting." I don't think Scott is half the escape artist as Houdini, or, that the Republicans and Democrats and Independents of Florida are tired of fighting the rampant pollution that is destroying the "jobs" economy Scott professes to hold as his top priority.

The facts are clear enough. Scott killed the science capacity of the water management district and installed a governing board that uses millions in your tax dollars to spread fake news and propaganda. Its primary purpose is to shield the state's top polluters, Big Sugar, from scrutiny and criticism.

Under Rick Scott, enforcement actions against polluters have plunged precipitously. Scott, also, objected to the effort by the federal government to put limits on exactly the pollutants that are causing red tides and spreading marine death throughout south Florida, exposing residents and visitors to harmful algae called Cyanobacteria. It is linked to Alzheimer's. Now Scott is trying to blame the federal government for the state's pollution crisis.

Nice try, Rick, but you are no Houdini.

If you are a taxpayer, you are not tired of fighting. If you are voting age, this November you will crowd the polls like schools of fish looking for good water.

Remember the names of the polluters' friends in high office: Big Sugar is aiming Rick Scott to the US Senate. Adam Putnam, the current Agriculture Commissioner, is being promoted to governor, and Sugar's friendliest legislator, Matt Caldwell, is being pushed into the ag position being vacated by Putnam. These are the Toxic Trio and they DO NOT DESERVE YOUR VOTE.

Too bad it takes the massive pollution of Florida's waters to wake up voters. We've been heading to this perilous direction for a long, long time. Don't get tired of fighting. Get even. Vote.

Gov. Rick Scott Let Down Florida. You Don't "Fail Upwards" Into The US Senate ... by gimleteye

Environmentalists warned Rick Scott not to do it.

Now he pretends it didn't happen.

Now Florida is coated in toxic algae linked to Alzheimer's and other neurological diseases.

Rick Scott wants your vote for US Senator.

Don't give it to him.

SENATOR STEWART CALLS ON GOVERNOR SCOTT TO RESCIND EXECUTIVE ORDERS, BEGIN STEPS TO HALT MASSIVE ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION

ORLANDO, Fla. – With a large area of Florida imperiled by spreading toxic algae blooms, and as the death toll of marine life continues to mount at a staggering pace, State Senator Linda Stewart (D-Orlando) on Friday called on Governor Rick Scott to immediately reverse his executive orders issued seven years ago which allowed unfettered deregulation of critical protections once safeguarding the state’s fragile environment.

“I call on you to take the first step in halting this unprecedented destruction by immediately reversing course on your orders to deregulate the environmental safeguards once in place,” wrote Senator Stewart in a letter delivered earlier today to Governor Rick Scott. “This massive and deadly algae bloom is not a sudden occurrence. It is the culmination of almost eight years of unleashed pollution into our waterways from a number of sources, which will take years to reverse. We cannot stop the poison already in the water, but we can take steps to stop the future destruction of our environment.”

Governor Scott issued his executive orders soon after taking office, which called for, among other things, the immediate suspension of all rulemaking by any of his agencies pending a review by the Office of Fiscal Accountability and Regulatory Reform, which was established under his direct control. The office, in turn, was directed to examine whether any proposed and existing rules and regulations imposed “burdensome costs on businesses; and are justifiable when the overall cost-effectiveness and economic impact of the regulation…is considered.”

Governor Scott’s undermining of the environment didn’t stop there. He also dramatically cut the amount of funding dedicated to safeguarding the environment, stripping state oversight of local development while slashing budgets for the Department of Environmental Protection and local water management districts, and cutting critical regulatory staff including scientists.
Among the results was a nosedive in enforcement activity against Florida’s polluters and lax attitudes by the state government towards non-compliance.

“There are multiple players responsible for the damage we now see culminating in the horrible damage to our water and our sea life,” wrote Senator Stewart, who is traveling to South Florida to meet with those impacted by the deadly blooms and is examining legislative action to help reverse the destruction. “Whether it stemmed from agricultural runoff, leaking septic tanks, or irresponsible disposal of hazardous waste, none of it occurred in a vacuum. But all of it can be traced back to an executive decision that said anything goes in the name of making money.”

IMPORTANT: another report why Adam Putnam DOES NOT DESERVE your vote ... by gimleteye

It only took serial algae blooms around the state, containing Cyanobacteria that can cause long-term brain damage, to wake up Floridians about who the Florida Legislature, Gov, Rick Scott and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam really work for: Big Sugar.

Florida voters became immune to Big Sugar's influence on local and state politics -- it needs to organize the political ladder because rules and regulations can harm its profits. But the outbreak of dangerous, harmful algae for the third time in five years really rankled Floridians.

Big Sugar's candidate for governor is Adam Putnam, a Republican who has been cultivated by the industry as carefully as it tends its cane crop. (For our archive on Adam Putnam, click here.)

Remarkably, political money from Big Sugar has become toxic in this campaign cycle for the first time ever. All of the leading Democratic candidates for Governor and many Congressional candidates, including some Republicans, have signed the Bullsugar.org questionnaire pledging that they will not take Big Sugar money. That's a first, and for that, credit Bullsugar.org (if you would like to contribute to the organization, now is a very good time to do it!)

For reasons why, read this excellent report in the Tampa Bay Times.

This candidate for Florida governor is the only one taking money from Big Sugar
BY CRAIG PITTMAN
Tampa Bay Times

August 06, 2018 08:31 AM
Updated 6 hours 55 minutes ago


Florida politicians from both parties used to have a sweet tooth for campaign contributions from the state’s powerful sugar industry.

But now that Big Sugar is getting blamed for toxic algae blooms, a connection to the industry has turned into a political liability. This campaign season, only one person running for governor is still taking sugar’s money: Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam.

So far sugar companies and their affiliates have given Putnam’s campaign and his Florida Grown PAC $804,000 in direct contributions, a reward for a reliable ally. He’s also received $7.6 million from five political action committees that receive a significant portion of their contributions from the industry, or one out of every five dollars he has raised.

Putnam also is the only gubernatorial candidate defending the sugar companies from accusations that they deserve some or all of the blame for the pollution-fueled algae blooms mucking up Lake Okeechobee and threatening to ruin beach communities on both coasts.

“I support our Glades communities,” he said during an April television interview with WPTV in West Palm Beach, speaking of the areas around the Everglades where sugarcane is grown. “I support giving them the opportunities to have good jobs ... And I think they’re a viable, vibrant part of our economy, and the water that leaves sugar farms is cleaner than the water that comes on to them.”

He said the challenges facing Lake Okeechobee, the Everglades and the coastline go beyond sugar and include everyone who has moved to a state once covered by wetlands. It’s not as simple as taking out “the bad guys,” he said.

Putnam’s GOP rival, Ron DeSantis, and all five leading Democratic candidates have been painting the sugar companies as corporate greed heads who don’t care what damage they do to the rest of Florida. DeSantis, a congressman unpopular with sugar companies since he voted against giving them federal price supports, told the GOP Sunshine Summit in June that Putnam and Big Sugar are “tied at the hip.”

For once, environmental groups are on the same side as DeSantis, even though he was endorsed by President Trump, whom they dislike. Kim Mitchell, executive director of the Everglades Trust, has dubbed the agriculture commissioner “Pay-to-Play Putnam.”

Putnam’s campaign spokeswoman couldn’t explain why he’s still taking sugar money at a time when the industry is so unpopular. Instead, Meredith Beatrice pointed out that some other candidates took sugar contributions in prior campaigns, then stopped.

Now, she said, the other candidates “are fueled by out-of-state special interests.” Beatrice said Putnam is “the only candidate who isn’t controlled by the Washington swamp.”

Republican lobbyist and campaign consultant Towson Fraser said he didn’t think Putnam’s ties to sugar would hurt him in the long run because so many people who work in agriculture will still vote for him. Meanwhile, Ben Wilcox of the government watchdog group Integrity Florida said he’s glad to see so much attention being paid to who’s financing the candidates.

“So much cash flows into these campaigns that we need to hold people accountable for who their funders are,” said Wilcox. He said politicians ought to be like NASCAR drivers who emblazon the names of their sponsors on their cars.

The big question, Wilcox said, is what Big Sugar expects from Putnam in return. No one from either U.S. Sugar or Florida Crystals, the state’s biggest sugar companies, responded to numerous calls and e-mails seeking comment.

Putnam grew up in the Central Florida town of Bartow, known for cultivating citrus and producing cattle — not sugar. State records show he began taking money from the sugar industry as far back as 1996. That’s the year he was first elected to the Florida House of Representatives at age 22, becoming the youngest legislator in state history.

He continued accepting contributions from sugar during his 10 years in Congress, and through his election as state agriculture commissioner in 2010 and subsequent re-election four years ago. Throughout his long career in office, he has consistently supported the same positions as the sugar companies:

Big Sugar boosters attempt whisper campaign against Bullsugar ... by gimleteye

The writer Carl Hiaasen quoted the late Nathaniel Reed in a New York Times obituary last week, "He'd say, ‘Don’t be discouraged. Get angry, show up, make your voice heard, and when they ignore you, make it louder the next time.’"

The group "making it loudest" was formed during the toxic algae outbreak of the winter of 2015/ 2016 when the state's rivers, bays and estuaries downstream from Lake Okeechobee were poisoned primarily through the influence of Big Sugar on South Florida's water management infrastructure. That group is Bullsugar, and this year -- and election year -- the slime is baaa-aaack.

Yes, the slime is back and it's dangerous. Cyanobacteria is linked to severe neurological disease. The state of Florida has been downplaying the risk, avoiding the science, and failing to protect citizens through rigorous science, effective regulation and enforcement against polluters.

One change from 2016: Big Sugar launched a whisper campaign against Bullsugar, a grass roots group founded in Martin County, calling the group "liberal" and "extreme". As if anything could be less radical or conservative than pointing out taxpayer money is being squandered as quid pro quo to Big Sugar's campaign contributions.

Rick Scott and Adam Putnam and Matt Caldwell come foremost to mind as defenders of the polluters: Scott is Florida's term-limited governor seeking to unseat US Senator Bill Nelson, Putnam being the state's Agriculture Secretary seeking to be the next governor, and Big Sugar's legislator of the year, Matt Caldwell, a state representative being offered as Putnam's successor.

Where Big Sugar sees a political ladder, bolted together with unlimited contributions, Bullsugar sees bowling pins set to be knocked down by angry voters. For Big Sugar, that's a problem.

Yes, these are all Republican, but Bullsugar doesn't shy from explaining: when it comes to accommodating the state's biggest polluters party affiliation doesn't matter: Big Sugar is an equal opportunity contributor and Florida Democrats are just as susceptible if not more so -- with a few startling exceptions -- to sugar's sticky, treacle and influence.

One of the Democrat standouts for honesty is Chris King, seeking the party's nomination to be next governor. King has made Big Sugar's corrupting influence on state politics a rallying cry of his campaign. King recently told the Tampa Bay Times:

"Sugar corporations bear clear responsibility for the billions of gallons of toxic algae water pumping out of Lake Okeechobee and threatening public health," Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris King said after campaigning in communities most hurt by algae blooms around Lake Okeechobee. Then he moved on to the corporate headquarters of U.S.Sugar in Clewiston. "After traveling deep into sugar country to call out their vise grip on Florida's environment, it's safe to say Big Sugar wasn't a big fan of our campaign today. We've led the debate against Sugar and forced the conventional politicians I'm running against to take a stand and return their sugar industry cash, and I'll continue to call out Big Sugar's abuse of Florida's environment –– even if the political establishment doesn't want to hear it."

Sugar's whisper campaign against Bullsugar seeks to negate the hundreds of thousands of Bullsugar followers on Facebook and the web.  Big Sugar has mobilized paid-for "fake news" to spread rumors and innuendos.

By throwing enough bulls** against the fan, the polluters want voters to be confused and to avoid learning how its polluting ways is putting Florida citizens directly in the path of cyanobacteria; a form of toxic algae that scientists are studying for links to severe neurological diseases including Alzheimer's.

For saying so, Bullsugar is attacked for being "impolite" and "rude" and "unreasonable". They grumble, Bullsugar won't compromise like other "more polite" groups. That is bulls**.

There should be no choice or compromise when it comes to public health. No choice or compromise when it comes to requiring the polluters to bear the costs of their pollution. It is thin-skinned of the state's political heavyweights to take offense at a small grass roots group, but that's what happens when one's fingerprints are all over the slime.

It is time for voters to reset the direction and to reject green slime candidates like Rick Scott, Adam Putnam and Matt Caldwell.

They don't like that Bullsugar is compiling voter guides because -- horror! -- taxpayer and voters might start putting two and two together and figure out that they've been voting against their best interests. So when you hear Big Sugar's whisper campaign; hold your breath, cover your ears and turn your backs. If it feels sweet and sticky, run.

Bullsugar calls out Big Sugar's rigged political system ... by gimleteye

Toxic algae bloom on the St. Lucie River, Florida

Big Sugar farms on over 400,000 acres -- roughly 800 square miles -- south of Lake Okeechobee, the liquid heart of Florida. The big players in the industry are billionaires; Florida Crystals owned by the Fanjul family and US Sugar Corporation, owned by the descendants of Charles Stuart Mott. Through its campaign contributions, Big Sugar controls the levers of government in Florida.

It needs levers. Big Sugar needs control because profits depend on micromanaging rules and regulations of water pollution (think, Lake Okeechobee and toxic algae) and the operation of the nation's most complex flood control system whose primary purpose is keeping sugar farms dry in wet season and wet in dry season. Regulatory and political capture is Big Sugar's game, pure and simple.

Oh. There is one more season that matters to Big Sugar: election season.

This cycle is exceptional because a massive toxic algae outbreak in Lake Okeechobee is focusing voters' attention on Sugar's role in ways that could upset its best laid political plans.

So Big Sugar is lashing out at the group taking a stand against a rigged system at the root of the toxic algae outbreak. That group is Bullsugar, whose purpose is to call out the fakery and to direct public attention toward real solutions to protect Florida's environment and jobs.

By its very name, Bullsugar elicits anxiety from the polluters it shadows.

In 2016, Big Sugar suffered a stinging defeat in the Republican presidential primary. It bet the farm on US Senator Marco Rubio to be the Republican nominee for president. That investment came a cropper. (By the time John C. Hotten published his A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words in 1859, the phrase has come to refer to any failure rather than the specific failure to stay on a horse: "Cropper, 'to go a cropper', or 'to come a cropper', that is, to fail badly." In the word of our president, Sad!)

Pepe Fanjul, of the billionaire Florida Crystals empire, was first to hug Rubio when he left the Miami stage after his campaign debut. From there, it was all downhill. Rubio's shellacking by Trump shocked political operatives who calibrate Big Sugar's risk. The reason Rubio did so poorly among Republicans, garnering scarcely 25% of the primary vote, was his pathetic response to a massive toxic algae outbreak on both coasts -- the same kind that is occurring today.

If the toxic algae outbreak was the wild card in a normally predictable game, what surprised Big Sugar even more was Bullsugar's role. The grass roots start-up organized in Martin County on Florida's east coast. Its staff quickly mobilized hundreds of thousands of supporters through social media.

The role of toxics in Rubio's thrashing by Trump in the GOP primary generated practically no attention in the mainstream media. Nor did Democrats wake up to the phenomenon in the subsequent US Senate race; an election that Rubio handily won.

Big Sugar did not immediately adapt to this unwelcome development in its careful communication strategy. But it has.

State Representative Matt Caldwell, campaigning to be the next Agriculture Secretary, recently attacked Bullsugar in Sunshine State News: "From the base vulgarity of your name to the harassment and abuse hurled toward fellow Floridians to the constant stream of twisted misinformation spread to the public, your organization has all the hallmarks of a hate group." (Read more about Sunshine State News, here.) Caldwell's claim is a laughable, sad commentary of our current politics.

Big Sugar picked Caldwell from the GOP bench as an up-and-com'er through his role unseating the only Republican county commissioner in Florida with the guts to call out the rigged system that permits Big Sugar to pollute Florida waterways at the expense of taxpayers. In 2012 Ray Judah, a long-serving and popular official in Collier County was blind-sided by a television ad campaign later revealed to be organized by a political committee headed by Caldwell, resident of an adjacent county. US Sugar Corporation was the sole benefactor and spent a million dollars in the dark money blitz. It worked, and Caldwell was on his way to calling Bullsugar a "hate group".

In this election cycle, Big Sugar's political plans are clear. It is spending hundreds of thousands -- if not, millions -- to push term-limited Gov. Rick Scott into the US Senate seat held by the Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson. Although Nelson has always been respectful of Big Sugar, Scott is an energetic ally who proved his chops by bending state authority even more closely to Big Sugar's will. Scott, of course, is a friend of Trump. To succeed Scott, Big Sugar is pushing Adam Putnam -- now Agriculture Secretary -- to be governor. Big Sugar never had a better friend than Putnam, whose family wealth derived from a land sale to the state at an inflated value compared to its appraisal. To succeed Putnam, Big Sugar has thrown its weight behind Caldwell to be the next Agriculture Secretary.

Whether Big Sugar's election plans are a golden ticket or a trap door depends on Florida voters in November. Informed voters should take a close look at the results of the Bullsugar candidate questionnaire, the one that is getting Matt Caldwell and Sunshine State News all hopped up, because the only way out of this rigged system is to loosen the grip of the polluters who refuse to clean up their pollution at the source and instead force taxpayers to pay and pay and pay.

Bill Nelson: Our Choice for Senator. By Geniusofdespair

I have heard Senator Bill Nelson speak a number of times. He is not a great speaker. He has that laid back Florida twang as a Northerner, I don't quite get.

I have also heard his evil Republican opponent speak and he is worse. That is why Rick Scott is just running negative ads against Bill Nelson. Scott can't speak at all without stuttering through his speech. I guess that is why he pleaded the 5th amendment 75 times. He is just not a speaker.

Rick Scott can claim victory for his two runs for Governor by running more ads. Effective ads. Is that what you want? A Senator who relies on his own money (that he got dubiously) to run ads?

Bill Nelson was born in Florida and has lived here his whole life. Is he smart? What do you think. You have to be damn smart to be an astronaut and in great physical shape.

Rick Scott, born in Illinois (the evil opponent) was pressured to resign as chief executive of Columbia/HCA in 1997, amid a controversy over the company's business and Medicare billing practices. During his tenure as chief executive, he oversaw the company while it defrauded Medicare, Medicaid and other federal programs. The Department of Justice ultimately fined the company in what was at the time the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history.

Now Florida is facing one of its biggest catastrophes with the Algae blooms on both coasts. How does Rick Scott have anything to do with that? He made appointments to all the Water Management District Boards. Here is the mission of the Board:

To manage and protect South Florida's water resources by balancing and improving flood control, water supply, water quality and natural systems.

Here is the background of some of Rick Scott's appointees - as you can see they are NOT uniquely qualified to make the decisions based on the Mission:

• Member, Florida Farm Bureau's Statewide Equine Industry Advisory Board, Member, Florida Farm Bureau's Young Farmer and Rancher Leadership Program, Board Member, The Children’s Healing Institute, Former Member, Western Palm Beach County Farm Bureau Board of Directors... Appointed By: Governor Rick Scott

• Director of Community and Government Relations for Lipman Family Farms...Appointed By: Governor Rick Scott

• Attorney Partner: Reed, Griffith & Moran...Appointed By: Governor Rick Scott

• Co-founder and Vice President of Entic, Inc (Real Estate Firm)....Appointed By: Governor Rick Scott

• Title Agent, Attorney's Title Fund/Old Republic National Title Insurance Company ...Appointed By: Governor Rick Scott

And with the crew he appointed - supporting the polluters of Lake Okeechobee - here is what we have now on the coasts:

We have a Governor who cares more about the Sugar Industry, ignoring their pollution, than he does about Florida water so people can safely recreate in and around it and for fish to flourish. Don't vote for Rick Scott.

On Transit And The Environment, In Miami-Dade It Is Always A One-Way Conversation ... by gimleteye

Why do we have the same "dialogue" about transit and the environment, every few years in Miami-Dade? Because it is not a dialogue. A dialogue is between parties. What we have in Miami-Dade are dialogues for "show" and to maintain appearances.

In fact, this critical policy area affects everyone's life here. Every single day, commuters are confronted with the consequences of poorly planned transit and the constant shifting of goal-posts where it comes to our quality of life.

Transit and the environment is a one-way conversation. Between big sprawl developers, large-scale farmers, and their industry associations, supply chains and the politicians they support.

Although there is citizen resistance to the one-way conversation, every time there is an issue like the extension of a major highway (in this case, SR 836) it needs to regenerate. Gov. Rick Scott and the state legislature made sure that citizen resistance to growth and transit plans had minimal traction through the administrative courts. And over time -- especially after the Citizens United decision by the Bush Supreme Court in 2010 -- developers and their attorneys turned to challenging protesters and imposing significant costs like counter-lawsuits against the resistance.

Moreover, among protesters -- from neighborhood associations to civic groups and environmentalists -- there is no institutional connection between one generation of opposition and the next. Because there is no institutional connection, there is no funding or money to fund the resistance beyond the indignation against the next tranche of assaults against the environment and quality of life through zoning decisions at the county level.

The Knight Foundation -- which has the funding capacity to provide that institutional connection -- could have chosen to assist this critical area of public policy in the past. There were many, many chances. But the Knight Foundation leadership never had an appetite for conflict with developers, their downtown law firms and lobbyists. The celebrity culture has not been kind to Miami's natural environment or to the cause of middle-class commuters from distant suburbs to downtown jobs.

On the other hand, the connection between electeds and the developer class is hard-wired. The money is always there. It is used to exploit the profit formulas of converting low-cost farmland (former Everglades wetlands) into suburban sprawl. Citizens are fragmented. Finance and insurance is united to a single goal: build as much, as fast, and as profitably as possible. Advocates for sprawl have perfected marketing pitches that include paid-for local crowds to support more of everything that is bringing traffic to a crawl and closer and closer to the Everglades.

Next week, the county commission is poised to approve a major roadway extension using the argument -- long known as a lie -- that expanding highways relieves traffic congestion. Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who is term-limited, and retreaded county commissioner Joe Martinez are leading the way. Gimenez and his staff, in a meeting with environmentalists, asked for an "alternative" to widening SR 836. The invitation was a baited trap.

Citizens have had victories along the way, but these are skirmishes in a battle that has defined our political culture.

On June 19th, there is a landmark opportunity for one county commission district to change direction. In District 5, voters will elect a new county commissioner. Eileen Higgins is challenging the wife of Bruno Barreiro who resigned his seat to run for Congress. Barreiro had been a charter member of the unreformable majority who rubber-stamped zoning changes and expansion of development beyond the urban development boundary.

Electing Higgins would send a message, if voters have enough sense to give her a chance on the county commission to change the one-way conversation.

How Gov. Rick Scott Crapped In Florida's Water Future: the case of George Lindemann v. Maggy Hurchalla ... by gimleteye

We've written exhaustively about the lawsuit and its implications: that Maggy Hurchalla (nee Reno) -- born and raised in what is now Kendall -- finds herself on the tip of a spear used by Big Sugar and its proxies to privatize Florida's water supply.

Tampa Bay Times journalist Craig Pittman adds to the record of a dismal case: George Lindemann v. Maggy Hurchalla.

Hurchalla and her legal team, including Sandy D'Alemberte's firm, are appealing on first amendment grounds.

The case is Kafka-esque, (read our archive for more detail), and here is a key take-away: the lawsuit and its outcome against Hurchalla would NEVER have happened if the South Florida Water Management District stood up for taxpayers instead of special interests who control the state.

This is on Gov. Rick Scott. The governor appoints the board of the South Florida Water Management District. Throughout eight years in the executive office, Scott used his authority to turn the District into a cudgel against civic leaders with the temerity to push back against distortion of fact, science and policies intended to deliver safe, affordable water to Floridians and to protect the environment.

The weapon was freely wielded at public meetings of the board, led for most of Scott's tenure by his former counsel: Peter Antonucci. Antonucci had plenty of assistance from other Scott appointees, culled from the regulated communities. ie. Big Sugar.

During Scott's terms, any pretense of fair and equitable management of Florida's water future was abandoned. (What Scott claims as his major accomplishment -- $900 million for Everglades restoration projects -- was only the result of a Clean Water Act lawsuit by the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians and Friends of the Everglades.) One had to be among the community of civic activists -- like Hurchalla, today -- and environmentalists who attended District meetings in West Palm Beach to experience the Kafka-esque story unfold.

Among its ironies: in his second run for governor, Maggy Hurchalla was the only environmentalist who Gov. Scott personally reached out to, for support. He made a quiet visit to Hurchalla's home in Martin County to respectfully solicit advice, hoping word would spread that he was not such a bad guy after all.

Managing water in Florida is a multi-billion dollar industry. It is a good old boy network that Gov. Scott turned to this purpose: to maximize political power and outcomes to his own ends. That includes becoming the next US senator from Florida.

At Eye On Miami, we speculated that George Lindemann was put into the Lake Pointe deal by Big Sugar friends; formidable inside players deploying hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland south of Lake Okeechobee to whatever purpose turns the highest profit. Until he invested in Lake Pointe, Lindemann had no traffic with wetlands, with the Everglades, or with Florida politics. But he was familiar with the Fanjuls.

Selling rainfall to Floridians is part of the ultimate scam of Gov. Scott and his Republican cronies, including Agriculture Secretary Adam Putnam.

Putnam has been aiming for over a decade to be the next Republican nominee to be governor of Florida. (For further insight to Putnam, read our archive here.)

Farming water is not new to Florida, but morphing into a private right -- and socializing the risk -- has occurred with virtually no attention by the media. For example, the most recent water-future related state legislation, a 10,000 acre, 30 foot deep, $2 billion Everglades reservoir now heading to Congress for approval of its share for funding, turned into a Trojan Horse for Big Sugar through -- among other faults -- a provision requiring taxpayers to fund engineering and design for water storage and cleansing marshes owned by the Fanjuls west of West Palm Beach that could then be used to sell rainwater to Floridians. For the most part, the mainstream media missed this little poison pill.

Craig Pittman, who co-wrote the book on wetlands loss in Florida -- a massive scheme during the Jeb Bush years -- is a bright exception. Pittman and Matt Waite's 2009 book, "Paving Paradise: Florida's vanishing wetlands and the failure of no net-loss" should have won a Pulitzer and could be required reading in Florida civics classes, if the Florida legislature ever gets around to requiring them.

We are fortunate to have the Times' contribution to the public record on Lindemann v. Hurchalla.

Only in Florida: Battle over water, free speech pits billionaire vs. activist
Tampa Bay Times
Craig Pittman
Published: May 10, 2018Updated: May 10, 2018 at 05:59 PM

(Courtesy of George Lindemann Jr.) Billionaire George Lindemann Jr. says he regarded Lake Point as a way to do good while making money. When two government agencies backed away from their agreements with the company, he sued.

(Courtesy of George Lindemann Jr.) Maggy Hurchalla, a former Martin County commissioner, spoke out against the county's deal with Lake Point -- and wound up being sued by the company, which claimed she had interfered with a legal contract.
(Courtesy of Maggy Hurchalla)

This is a story about free speech, government secrecy and a fight over tens of millions in taxpayer funds. The players include a billionaire who once had a hit man kill his horse, two politicians charged with breaking the Sunshine Law and former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno’s sister.

But the most important aspect of this story is about Florida’s water supply and how a lawsuit involving a company called Lake Point Restoration may upend a fundamental rule about Florida water — namely, that water belongs to the public, not wealthy businessmen.

The Republican Race For Governor, Rick Scott, and Donald Trump ... by gimleteye

The online blog -- Florida Politics -- has coyly tracked Big Sugar's talking points in the past. Peter Schorsch, publisher and founder of Florida Politics, wrote yesterday from an insiders' perspective of a weekend meeting in Orlando, "At confab, Adam Putnam supporters asked to raise more money, game out Trump involvement." We offer the following comments as "outsiders".

"... If the election for Florida governor was to be decided by the candidates taking a pop-quiz about the Sunshine State’s history, people, and geography, it’s very likely Putnam would not only win, he might just ace the test...

Unfortunately for Putnam, whichever candidate can give the best directions through Florida’s agriculture belt is not how the Republican nominee for Governor will be decided. Instead, it will be fought in the dens of of Florida television viewers who seemingly must make a choice between the candidate they see on all the commercials on Fox News (Putnam) and the candidate they actually see on Fox News (Ron DeSantis)."

So far, so good. Putnam, the favored choice of Florida polluters and industry associations, has raised a fearsome amount of corporate campaign cash, with direct contributions heavily spike by dark money pools. DeSantis, a Congressman from North Florida, has emerged as one of Trump's fiercest defenders in the House and, for that -- at least so far as we know -- earned Trump's early endorsement. So Putnam buys the commercials on Fox. And Fox pundits fluff DeSantis for the networks' intractable and unpersuadable viewers.

It is verboten within Putnam’s circle of influence to describe the Polk County Republican’s gubernatorial campaign as the 2.0 version of Jeb Bush’s failed bid for The White House. This circle is the rear guard of Florida’s establishment, which has been forced to kowtow for the last seven-and-a-half years to Rick Scott and saw its hopes of invading Washington D.C. flummoxed by Donald Trump‘s filleting of not just Bush, but Florida’s other favorite son, Marco Rubio.

Here, Schorch's analysis skews off-track. The forces behind Putnam are not the "rear-guard of Florida's establishment". They are the front line and are not only well-known as such, they advertise their political muscle with swinging cudgels whenever and wherever it suits their interests. Since Citizens United, their actions have been mainly served by superPAC's and other dark money channels. But that's not "rear-guard". That's what the GOP calls "mainstream".

The notion, moreover, that these major forces in Florida have been "forced to kowtow for the last seven-and-a-half years to Rick Scott" and Trump's "filleting of not just Bush ... but Marco Rubio" is plain wrong. In fact, Rick Scott has done an expert job of recruiting Florida's Republican establishment to his side, accommodating their interests even more neatly than either Bush, when he was governor, or Rubio, when he was a state legislator.

So why paint the picture of special interests as "flummoxed"? Here is a good guess: it plays right into Scott's campaign to defeat Bill Nelson for US Senate.

Schorch's: "In 2018, the establishment — scarred by a decade of political water-treading, but flush with a booming influence economy — is determined not to let another interloper defy its well-laid plans" is plain ridiculous. Political water-treading? Polluters and industry associations and well-funded political action committees have NEVER been as anchored and secure as they are today in Florida.

There has never been a question that Adam Putnam was carefully cultivated to be the Republican candidate for governor. It's happening the same way for Representative Matt Caldwell, who is now running for Putnam's job as Agriculture Secretary. Caldwell, an accountant in Lee County, lives in an area heavily afflicted by pollution from Big Sugar. Seven years ago, he was assigned by Big Sugar to "take down" a local county commissioner, Ray Judah, who had been the lone Republican voice in Florida politics to call for Big Sugar to shoulder the costs of cleaning up Florida's badly damaged rivers and estuaries. US Sugar Corporation funneled nearly $1 million into the campaign against Judah, and after its victory, Caldwell was promoted to do heavier lifting for Big Sugar in the state legislature. He was a primary driver behind efforts to turn the 2017 Everglades Reservoir Plan into Big Sugar's Trojan Horse. Now, he has been lined up for political advancement.

The same happened with Putnam. As a Congressman, Putnam vehemently opposed the effort by the US EPA to impose limits on nitrogen and phosphorous standards in Florida to protect the state's badly damaged fresh water resources. He opposed the Crist plan to buy US Sugar lands -- as did Gov. Scott -- a deal that could have helped to mitigate the agony of the planned massive reservoir, to cost taxpayers at least $2 billion. As a cabinet member, Putnam supported outrageous lease extensions of public lands to Big Sugar; another measure that solidified Big Sugar's chokehold on Floridians. So, yes: "The plan for Adam Putnam to eventually occupy the Governor’s Mansion began long before Trump and long before Scott. In fact, it was before Putnam was elected Agriculture Commissioner that a small group of key advisers began to meet in Boca Grande to plot out the then-Congressman’s path to the Governor’s Office."

From Schorch's report, it is clear that Putnam supporters want this story line to reach the White House.

Among those in attendance were Former House Speakers Dean Cannon, Steve Crisafulli and Will Weatherford, former Senate President Mike Haridopolos, Disney lobbyist Adam Babington, Miami real estate developer Rodney Barretto, Ballard Partners’ Brad Burleson, U.S. Sugar executive Robert Coker, The Rubin Group’s Chris Finkbeiner, Florida Chamber board member Sonya Deen Hartley, Smith Bryan & Myers’ Jeff Hartley, Anheuser-Busch exec Jose Gonzalez, Publix’s Clayton and Beverly Hollis, Greenberg Traurig lobbyist Fred Karlinsky, insurance lobbyist Robert Hawken, Justice Reform Institute president William Large, lobbyist and former state Rep. Seth McKeel, Comcast government affairs VP Brian Musselwhite, Mosaic government affairs VP Eileen Stuart, and AT&T Florida president Joe York.

Schorsch continues to expound on the storyline:

If there was one defining takeaway several of the Putnam supporters wanted to share it is that they are surprised by DeSantis’ less-than-spectacular fundraising efforts.

“It doesn’t look like the cavalry is coming,” said one lobbyist supporting Putnam.

In April, DeSantis political committee raised less than $500,000. What the Ponte Vedra Republican raised in hard dollars during April won’t be known until later this week. Whatever it is, he will have not kept pace with Putnam, whose Florida Grown political committee had another $2 million month in April. Overall, Putnam has raised $28.88 million between his campaign and committee.

Although Schorsch gives a DeSantis spokesperson the benefit of comment, it is clear that the purpose of the article is to attract to the audience of one: Donald Trump.

"... if he (Putnam) is to win — and fulfill the ambitions of his dedicated supporters — it would appear that Putnam’s best bet is not to raise more money or expound on the history of Florida, but to make sure the only place Donald Trump visits in Florida is his home at Mar-a-Lago."

That's probably a message that Gov. Rick Scott is also carrying to conversations with President Trump. As a US Senator, Rick Scott can be of more help to Trump than Ron DeSantis. And the Republican campaign fat cats will be more inclined to support Trump in 2020 than if he upends the carefully laid plans of Florida polluters.

Delaney Reynolds and major Florida lawsuit: here comes Juliana~! ... by Alan Farago

Delaney Reynolds and Alan Farago at first March for Science 2017, Miami

(UPDATE April 17) Juliana v. US is a federal lawsuit brought by children represented by Our Children's Trust: the most important legal challenge against the U.S. government for its affirmative acts causing the crisis through perpetuating the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels, despite acute knowledge of the dangers in doing so.

Lawsuits have been filed in state courts too, and the latest is Florida; the state with the most to lose from sea level rise. Delaney Reynolds offers the following:

My name is Delaney Reynolds and I am a college student at the University of Miami's Rosensteil School of Marine and Atmospheric Science in Miami, Florida and founder of The Sink or Swim Project (miamisearise.com). I split my time between this vibrant, cosmopolitan area of nearly three million people and my second home on No Name Key, a 1,000 acre island filled with nature and 43 solar powered homes in the Florida Keys. 

First thing tomorrow, Monday April 16th, 2018, I will be filing a lawsuit against the State of Florida, Governor Rick Scott, and members of his cabinet to demand that they and our State take action to protect us, future generations, and our natural environment from carbon dioxide emissions that have created our climate change crisis.

I am proudly joined in this effort by a diverse group of youth from all over the State of Florida who share my concerns related to our climate change crisis including whether South Florida will even exist in a future confronted by sea level rise.

On Tuesday April 17th at 3:00 PM in Downtown Miami at the Miami-Dade County courthouse steps, I will be conducting a press conference along with my attorneys from Our Children's Trust and the other Florida children who are joining me as Plaintiffs in this case.

I am writing today to not only advise you of what is about to happen but to ask you to consider promoting it to your networks and to help me get as many people as possible to attend the event on Tuesday afternoon here in Miami. The press conference will include comments from some of the children, myself included, as well as some of our attorneys.

... As you might know, Our Children's Trust is active in suing a few other states, as well as our federal government and in that case, the federal case, it is set to go to trial in late October of this year. As you likely also know, the Colombian Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of a group of children who had sued that country seeking that it protect the Amazon and climate in what is a historic case similar to the one that we are undertaking. As you have heard me say before, it is my belief that our planet's climate change crisis is the biggest challenge that my generation will ever face and thus, I feel that today's youth must take action to demand solutions despite the fact that the adults before us have overlooked or caused this problem.

Once again, thank you!

--

Delaney Reynolds
Founder & Activist
The Sink or Swim Project
www.miamisearise.com
www.delaneyreynolds.com

Rick Scott: ready, steady, go ... by gimleteye

Florida Rick Scott got there, first. Before there was a Donald Trump, Scott decided to deploy a portion of his considerable fortune to buy the office of the governor. It didn't matter than he had zero experience in public policy (like Trump). Didn't matter that his business accomplishment were deeply stained (like Trump). Or that he had nothing in common, at all, with the Tea Party and rabid right-wing that propelled him to office (Trump).

The Republican Party looked down its nose at Scott (like it did, to Trump). When he arrived in Tallahassee in 2010, he barely had competent staff (Trump).

What Scott discovered, to the great satisfaction of his mentee -- Trump -- , was that winning high elected office was a rigged game and that the winners best understood how to navigate the margins for best forward speed.

Scott's favorability numbers are very low. He is a disaster in unscripted moments before the cameras, and so his approach has been to tightly limit the opportunities for the press to catch him off guard. Within his own party, Scott's relations are frosty. But big donors from industries regulated by the state are happy to support Scott, as they are to support Trump in Washington.

Now that Scott has formally announced his intention to take on Senator Bill Nelson, the race is on. Neither party can control the US Senate without winning Florida. The race will be about Trump, Scott's best friend. That is why Scott wants to declare victory in the Everglades and why a Republican Congress will quickly move to provide the federal cost share to a new multi-billion dollar reservoir that will not work, because Big Sugar has already turned the reservoir, legislatively, to its purposes.

The Democrat's best argument is that Florida is swimming in a sea of pollution, and that sea includes toxic water and toxic politics in equal mix.

Pod Saves America Comes To Miami ... by gimleteye

A cardboard cutout of Marco Rubio spent much of last night on stage at the Olympia Theater in Miami

The popular Pod Saves America entertained a full and raucous audience at the Olympia Theater (former Gusman) last night in downtown Miami. 

Its website describes the progressive podcast, "A political podcast for people not yet ready to give up or go insane." Last night's audience was of a like mind and welcomed the "...  no-bullshit conversation about politics hosted by Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer and Tommy Vietor that breaks down the week’s news and helps people figure out what matters and how to help."

Stage managing and producing a live political conversation that holds an audience is no small feat. To a large extent, the producers can thank the Trump presidency and a terminally corroded GOP. Republicans have done wonders for Democrats by bringing the nation to the brink of chaos all by themselves.

US Senator Marco Rubio and Gov. Rick Scott took it hard on the chin last night. If they didn't have operatives taking notes, they can read the news here.

Based on the amiable fury of the Miami crowd, one had the sense if Scott or Rubio had tried to rent Olympia, even if they had paid an audience to show up, no one would take their tickets.

The Pod team didn't once refer to "FAKE NEWS" or to Fox News by name (it did, however, run a loathsome segment by Fox talking head Tucker Carlson in a game segment called, "Stop, Wait".) Clear enough that the Pod stars let the record of the Trump WH and Republican Congress,  dismally speak for itself.

The thirty-somethings -- comfortably arranged on living room furniture in a half-circle facing the audience -- started with the economy, the losers in the Trump trade war with China, and losers in Trump country.

For the most part, PSA didn't get lost in details. They stayed on the high line, particularly gun violence and inane, idiotic measures Republicans passed -- like arming school teachers -- rather than ban weapons of war on US streets.

The conversation returned to touch on the importance of upcoming elections. If last night's crowd represented the broad electorate, the GOP would lose both houses of Congress in November by a landslide. But the data doesn't lie: southeast Florida is solidly blue, but the state itself is marginally purple.

None in the audience mistook enthusiasm from the hard work ahead; registering voters, making sure they are not stopped by the GOP from voting, and running competent, capable Democrats for public office in all the states, not just where they are comfortably blue

Still, the comparison with 1968 hangs like a shadow. The energies and enthusiasm unleashed by serial marches across the nation; for women and against violence to women, for gun control, and against Trump remind of Vietnam War and Civil Rights protests. Students of American political history know that the seeds for a right wing revolt took root then. The billionaires who harvested rewards, investing in the AltR and putting John Birchers on center stage -- from the Kochs, to the Adelman, Fanjul and Mercer oligarchies -- will use every tool, including a sociopathic president who hangs by a thread, to keep the status quo intact.

Last night in Miami with Pod Save America, one felt a swell of optimism on the horizon: a #bluewaveiscoming.