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.

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.

Please get out and vote for our Senior Sane Senator: Bill Nelson. by Geniusofdespair

Bill Nelson Cares Deeply About the Environment.

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.

As 2018 approaches, Florida voters should decide whether incredible climate change should steer their votes away from the deniers ... by gimleteye

In Miami, the hottest July on record with other signs that climate change is marching on Florida.

Yet, state voters have twice elected a Governor, Rick Scott -- who aspires to succeed Bill Nelson in the US Senate. Then, there is Agriculture Secretary Adam Putnam -- who aspires to succeed Scott. Both Scott and Putnam are Republicans who demonstrated, through their voting records, that they are willing to sacrifice science and fact on the altar of political expediency. Both are strong supporters of President Donald Trump, who has literally taken an axe to climate change mitigation efforts.

We attach to this blog post the 1988 testimony of Jim Hansen, one of the most informed critics of government inaction on global warming, and decide for yourself -- 30 years later -- whether it is in fact time to elect public officials based on their commitment to care for creation like your tax dollars and job depends on it. Not to mention, our moral values and American exceptionalism.

Think about this: the state of Florida is committing billions of taxpayer dollars to "fix" the result of phosphorous and nitrogen pollution that is destroying state water resources, yet denies climate change which is compounding the impacts of algae blooms. In "Climate Change Means More Fuel For Toxic Algae Blooms", Climate Central writes that "... policymakers will need to rethink some of the ways they combat nutrient pollution and society will also have to develop technological solutions to reduce nutrient pollution, from implementing more efficient agricultural practices to potentially recycling various forms of nitrogen in sewage into animal feed, according to a commentary piece also published in Science."

Yet when it comes to nitrogen, the focus of a recent commentary in Science Magazine, the state of Florida is limping along with grossly inadequate measures to protect taxpayers and citizens.

Your elected officials are "running out the clock", counting on passing the buck to the next generation. They should be so lucky.

1988 Hansen Senate Testimony by Alan Farago on Scribd

Do I follow the law or do I follow the boss? ... by gimleteye

How did we arrive at this desperate state? It is easy enough to see, through the political  life of Florida Gov. Rick Scott.

Scott has systematically eroded environmental rules and regulations in Florida, something no one wants except developers and polluters like Big Sugar. It's all under the catch-phrase of "creating jobs". Scott's ambition is to be the next US senator from Florida -- he will take on incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson.

Bruce Ritchie, for Politico, recently wrote a revealing piece about the wicked decline of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection under Scott. It's well worth your time, reading.

DEP employee suspended in 2012 speaks about her experience — and the future
By BRUCE RITCHIE 03/03/17 05:22 AM EST

TALLAHASSEE — Now that she's retired after 30 years with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Connie Bersok says she can finally talk about her long career — mainly her controversial 2012 suspension after she wrote a critical memo recommending against a development scheme.

Big Sugar Has A Political Problem In Florida, For First Time ... by gimleteye

Big Sugar has operated as a shadow government in Florida for decades, using the heavily protected sugar subsidy in the Farm Bill to buy off incumbents and candidates for public office. The formula has worked extraordinarily well. Legislatures protect Big Sugar's domination of the water supply infrastructure in Florida in return for campaign cash and predictable employment as lobbyists or in the Big Sugar supply chain once they leave office.

For the first time, this election cycle Big Sugar oligarchs like the Fanjul family and descendants of Charles Stewart Mott, owners of US Sugar Corporation, face political uncertainty in Florida. The trigger for its Florida problem began with massive winter rains -- unprecedented -- that exposed the deep flaws in the state's flood control infrastructure supervised by political appointees of the Rick Scott administration at the state's taxing authority; the South Florida Water Management District.

In essence, the huge property tax base on Florida's east and west coasts is being held hostage to pollution caused by policies that favor a single industry: Big Sugar. Put even more simply, taxpayers, residents and visitors supporting Florida's tourism based industries, that depend on clean water, were sacrificed to keep Big Sugar's fields dry. Sugarcane would not be grown in Florida but for corporate welfare cemented into the Farm Bill ("Cronyism in its undiluted, inexcusable majesty", is how GOP leader Grover Norquist describes the sugar subsidy).

Severe flooding caused the worst toxic algae blooms in Florida's history. The algae blooms animated a multitude I've called Florida's Arab Spring. The character of the multitude is qualitatively different from any opposition Big Sugar has faced in the past. For the first time, the opposition to Big Sugar is broad-based and diverse, drawing from the millions of residents and visitors to Florida and not just environmental groups who proved over time to be both limited in terms of diversity and easily marginalized by standard divide-and-conquer tactics.

Groups like Bullsugar.org, Captains for Clean Water, and the SWFL Clean Water Movement used social media to reach hundreds of thousands of viewers, bypassing advertising driven media whose content and opinions largely reflected the interests of Big Sugar.

Worse, for Big Sugar: since the Jeb Bush era -- beginning in the late 1990's -- Big Sugar has doubled down on its political bets on the GOP and its leadership. The oligarchy has spent millions cultivating a Republican majority in the state legislature and in the Florida delegation to Congress. Under normal political circumstances, its bets would continue to pay off. But maybe not this political year.

Big Sugar's first problem is Marco Rubio. Rubio's role in the Big Sugar political alignment is well-documented. As a leader in the state legislature in 2003, he proved his mettle by shepherding a new law to delay Everglades restoration, supported by Jeb Bush. He was called by the oligarchs to run against former Gov. Charlie Crist, who infuriated the Fanjuls by cutting a deal to buy US Sugar lands south of Lake Okeechobee. Rubio's senate seat was bought and paid for by Big Sugar.

Big Sugar's second problem is Donald Trump. The oligarchs locked up not one, but two Republican candidates in the March presidential primary: Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush. Trump badly defeated both, exposing the same deep divisions in the base that had been triggered in key constituencies on Florida's east and west coasts. Although another of Big Sugar's allies is racing to Trump's rescue -- Gov. Rick Scott heads the superPAC supporting Trump -- the GOP nominee is a wild card.

In some ways, Hillary Clinton would be preferable to Big Sugar as president. She is a known quantity: her husband has a enduring, close, and affectionate relationship to Big Sugar through the Fanjul oligarchy and has, in particular, connected through Clinton to Florida's African Americans who really don't need persuasion to vote for Hillary in 2016.

The third problem is the most vexing: US Senator Bill Nelson and Congressman Patrick Murphy. Until this year, Big Sugar could always count on Bill Nelson to walk a centrist line that protected Big Sugar's privileges and authority. By betting so heavily on Gov. Rick Scott -- the most tone-deaf politicians to ever hold the executive office -- Big Sugar gave the Democrat no choice but to deal with his 2018 opponent -- Scott -- now. Senator Nelson recently endorsed the call for eminent domain proceedings to begin, to legally take and compensate Big Sugar for enough lands to finally save the Everglades and the coastal estuaries that have been devastated by this year's toxic algae catastrophe.

Congressman Murphy, who recently signed the NoworNeverglades declaration urging land acquisition where sugarcane is farmed, will defeat Alan Grayson in the upcoming primary and face Rubio in November. Rubio, who will not sign the declaration and only received 15% of the GOP vote in the March presidential primary, a few months ago expressed his determination to leave the US Senate but reversed himself and now supports Trump who belittled him. Marco Rubio is turning into Big Sugar's political death star.

Big Sugar's latest tactic is hedge its bets by currying favor with Florida's African American Democrats. The hedging is not going to play well with the state's Republican leadership either. The tactic worked for Big Sugar in the past. In 1996, Big Sugar effectively killed off the effort by environmental groups to levy a penny-a-pound tax, through a state constitutional referendum; by funding and enlisting Bill Clinton's key African American allies during his re-election campaign.

Big Sugar is attempting to conflate the "Black Lives Matter" movement with "Glades Lives Matter"; pitting coastal residents who number in the millions against poor communities surrounding Lake Okeechobee who have been oppressed by sugar oligarchs for decades. Deploying this tactic, though, is so patently transparent that it could force Donald Trump into the anti-sugar camp. All of Big Sugar's options this election cycle look like parachutes that won't open. And it is all because of the industry's pollution and its refusal to bear the costs in its product pricing of cleaning up the mess it's made.

The bottom line: this election cycle all of Big Sugar's bets are high risk. Still, no one will shed a tear for the industry if it changes course. Big Sugar has banked billions in profits and stands to make even more by selling its lands.

Florida's shadow government has had a long winning streak, but past performance is not a guarantee of future results.

Hillary Clinton Has A Sugar Problem ... by gimleteye

Hillary with Pepe Fanjul, Florida Crysals

History is a bummer. My experience along these lines was deeply imprinted by the 2000 presidential election and its aftermath. In Florida, Democratic candidate Al Gore, campaign manager Donna Brazile, and top Florida advisors steered the candidate away from taking a position on an environmental crisis I helped elevate to a fever pitch: the apparent intent of the Clinton administration to turn over the Homestead Air Force Base to a group of Miami-Dade lobbyists and insiders.

During the summer of 2000, the air base issue percolated through the presidential campaigns the same way that toxic pollution of Florida's estuaries has bubbled to the surface in this election cycle. Then, like today, powerful, monied insiders sought to suppress the visibility and priority of the issue. Then, it was powerful Cuban American businessmen who persuaded Democrats that Miami-Dade County was in play. Today, it is one of Florida's most powerful insider players, Big Sugar.

Gore, throughout the campaign, was silent on the air base issue. It was a tragic miscalculation, as Ralph Nader pointed out. Nader, running an independent campaign, not only stated his opposition to the insider deal, he also featured the issue in Florida campaign stops.

Gore was stunned and inarticulate on questions drawing contrasts to his mantle of leadership on the environment. When asked, later, about the impact of the air base on the outcome -- the victory of George W. Bush over Gore by only a few hundred votes -- Nader quipped it was one of a dozen banana peels Gore haplessly mistook for solid ground.

Hillary supporters are hoovering campaign cash from South Florida. This strange election cycle issues have taken back seat to the cult of personality. That will change once the party conventions are over, and when it does change, there is one issue where Hillary will have to take a stand. Hopefully, Hillary won't screw it up like Al Gore did with Homestead Air Force Base.

The Bill Clinton affair with Big Sugar is a strong enough factor to sway a significant part of the Florida electorate: taxpayers outraged how Big Sugar uses corporate welfare to buy off Congress and the state legislature while dominating water management practices and policies and enforcement in the state.

In Florida, Big Sugar --  the Fanjul billionaires and U.S. Sugar Corporation, controlled by the Charles Stuart Mott Foundation based in Flint, Michigan -- gets what it wants, when it wants it. Coastal real estate property owners, tourism-related businesses, and anyone who treasures the state's estuaries, rivers, Everglades and bays, are Big Sugar's sacrifice zone.

Last week, U.S. Senator Bill Nelson called for agencies to start eminent domain proceedings to legally take significant acreage in sugarcane production for the purpose of storage and treatment marshes that would eventually stop the toxic discharges from Lake Okeechobee and deliver clean, fresh water south. Nelson's statement was extraordinary. It was the first time a senior Florida politician had uttered the words. Nelson's 2018 reelection campaign is likely to include a challenger -- Gov. Rick Scott -- who is fully bought and paid for by Big Sugar.

Where does Senator Nelson's support for eminent domain in the EAA leave Hillary in Florida this November? We don't know. What we do know is that the Fanjuls have courted the Clintons over many decades.

Have the Clintons been entertained, separately or together, by the Fanjuls at their Dominican Republic hideaway, Casa De Campo, a convenient off-shore base for entertainment and recreation of politicians tired of scrutiny in the United States? Does Hillary Clinton support eminent domain proceedings against Big Sugar in the Everglades Agricultural Area?

Hillary should support eminent domain. After all, it will make the beneficiaries even richer than they are today, and everything for them is a question of money.  Hillary should support eminent domain because nothing else has worked to protect Floridians and the natural resources that are the foundational base for the economy. Not the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, championed by Bill Clinton's environmental chief, Carol Browner, and not billions of dollars of taxpayer investment while Big Sugar manipulated the Farm Bill.

Where is Hillary Clinton on the sugar program in the Farm Bill, what Grover Norquist calls "cronyism in is undiluted, inexcusable majesty"? Hillary should support reform, too.

Hillary Clinton has to address her Big Sugar problem. She has to step away from her husband's record in the Everglades. She must speak clearly and block out insiders whispering in her ear the way Al Gore's did in Florida to history's consternation.


MIAMI HERALD
ENVIRONMENT
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article88992067.html#storylink=cpy

JULY 11, 2016 7:53 PM

Sugar’s decades-long hold over Everglades came with a price
The industry spent more than $57 million over 22 years to influence Florida campaigns
Records show Big Sugar was consistently one of the largest contributors to both Republicans, Democrats
Industry’s clout helped it to transfer clean-up costs and postpone deadlines

BY MARY ELLEN KLAS
Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE
Fifteen years after Jeb Bush and Bill Clinton reached a landmark accord to revive the Everglades, billions of dollars have been spent but not much marsh has been restored, and the River of Grass continues to cycle through the same familiar struggles.

Disastrous algae blooms foul coastal estuaries. Seagrass die-offs plague Florida Bay. High water threatens the Lake Okeechobee dike. Everglades marshes drown under too much water or wither under too little. All the ecological crises of this summer are just déjà vu, all over again.

Now or Neverglades Declaration Generates Thousands Of Signatures In Just A Few Hours ... by gimleteye

A declaration for the Everglades and clean, fresh water is being circulated online by supporters of bullsugar.org, a group of citizen activists, fishermen, taxpayers and residents unaffiliated with Everglades environmental groups.

"Kicking the can down the road" describes ineffective, inadequate policies designed to fail taxpayers. These are the legacy of disastrous commandeering by Big Sugar and supported in full by Gov. Rick Scott, Agriculture Secretary Adam Putnam, US Senator Marco Rubio and a compliant state legislature.

The manifestation, since historic January rainfalls caused water managers to flush billions of gallons of fertilizer laden water into the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Rivers, is massive, toxic algae that has turned billions of dollars of real estate, recreational areas, and tourism-related businesses into Big Sugar's sacrifice zone.

Social media is linking and engaging people and businesses, by-passing traditional press and "false equivalencies" that have obscured the facts for decades. (Facebook has been particularly effective, with groups like Bullsugar.org and the SWFL Clean Water Movement providing a way for hundreds of thousands to view photos, videos and receive information that would otherwise be diverted by advertiser-driven news.)

Last week, US Senator Bill Nelson called for eminent domain in the Everglades Agricultural Area. It is likely to take eminent domain to do what Everglades restoration has been unable to accomplish for decades, in spite of billions spent by taxpayers: secure adequate water storage south of Lake Okeechobee to eventually stop using Florida's estuaries as sewers for agricultural pollution and allow clean, fresh water south to the Everglades and Florida Bay.

Readers can sign and share the Now Or Neverglades declaration: by clicking here.

Will Senator Marco Rubio and Senator Bill Nelson vote to repeal Citizens United today? A big test for democracy … by gimleteye

The tidal wave of corporate and unrestricted private money is the shame of American democracy. Special interest money has created a shadow government characterized by cronyism and insider dealing, affecting everything from the operation of the economy to national security.

Although there is an opportunity for the US Senate to redress the imbalance -- by empowering Congress to create meaningful campaign finance reform -- the obstructionist GOP is not going to allow that to happen.

Why? For the same reason that in Florida the GOP erected burning tires in the way of Fair Districts: gerrymandering serves their purposes of unlimited control in service of special interests.

How special interests dominate Florida through the GOP was recently exposed by the Tampa Bay Times through the blatant "entertainment" of top Republican officials by Big Sugar, deploying fleets of private jets to ferry elected officials from Tallahassee to Texas to hunt. Billionaires serving billionaires.

So when Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) warns the American people that country is facing a pivotal moment in history, calling the Senate effort to undo Supreme Court decisions that gutted campaign finance laws “the major issue of our time”, he's on the money.

In July, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to approve an amendment to the U.S. Constitution reversing two major Supreme Court rulings and reestablishing the authority of Congress to set campaign finance limits. The full Senate will vote on the measure today.

So what will happen today? Will the US Senate vote, in effect, to overturn the Citizens United and McCutcheon v. FEC rulings?

The two controversial Supreme Court decisions in 2010 and 2014, respectively, wiped out limits on independent expenditures (thus giving rise to the shifting of Dark Money through superPAC's) and on the total amount a person may give to candidates and committees in an election cycle.

Talking Points Memo wrote: "Restoring the First Amendment to allow Congress and the States the authority to impose reasonable limits on campaign spending is a commonsense measure that we should all be able to support," said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the chairman of the committee. "All Americans should be able to participate in our democracy – not just billionaires and wealthy corporations."

The July vote was a victory for progressives, passing the committee by a party-line vote of 10 to 8, winning every Democrat and none of the Republicans.

The measure needs a two-thirds majority in Congress before it can be sent to the states for ratification. If the GOP gets its way, billionaires will continue to filter unlimited and increasingly untraceable amounts of money into elections.

Republicans are proud of their opposition to the measure even though polls say most Americans support restoring limits on campaign finance spending.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who is fighting one of the closest Senate races in the November election cycle, will pontificate why democracy should bend to the will of billionaires. But he won't put it that way.

If the GOP takes control of the US Senate in the November elections, Mitch McConnell will become Senate Majority Leader.

You may not like how the US Senate votes today, and one very good way to register your disapproval would be to immediately send your $5, $10, $100, $1000 contribution or more to Mitch McConnell's opponent in West Virginia, Alison Lundergan Grimes.

Pay attention to how Senator Marco Rubio and Senator Bill Nelson vote today.

Now that climate change disruption is out of the closet, what next for the intractable, extremist GOP?

Nelson Algren: “Our myths are so many, our vision so dim, our self-deception so deep and our smugness so gross that scarcely any way now remains of reporting the American Century except from behind the billboards."

The new IPPC report, coupled with the astounding warning from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, plus the US Department of Defense Quadrennial Defense Review, puts some heft to arguments we've raised from behind the Miami media billboards on the threats of climate change that are within one mortgage cycle of emerging in low lying lands. For the world's poor struggling for daily survival, climate change has already wreaked havoc. Still it is not the "threat multiplier" that the DoD predicts.

In Miami, with condos springing up along threatened coasts -- and settlement agreement/s between the federal government and local entities like Miami-Dade County still dragging their heels and breathless new plans for public spaces like stadiums at the waterfront -- it is no wonder really that US Senators like Marco Rubio and political aspirants like Jeb Bush are constantly dodging the issue. Better to attack. Call Barack Obama the "imperial president". Hah.

In this world, there is no more freezing over for hell. Just a slow boil.

On April 22nd, Democratic US Senator Bill Nelson will be holding a field hearing on climate change. Nelson, late to the climate change issue, is pulling even with science: "South Florida is the area that is most threatened by sea level rise in the continental US" he told Bloomberg.

Heck, in late April the CLEO Institute -- run by the most competent educator and administrator in Miami-Dade County (fired from Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden for being too competent and too good at educating the region's children on environmental threats) Caroline Lewis had to reach for a US senator from out-of-state to help local audiences understand what climate change means for us. In late April, a CLEO Institute event will feature Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. Marco Rubio ought to come sit in the audience with the rest of us, since he has steadily and consistently refused to be briefed by scientists on global warming.

Voters need to focus on what is happening, here. Entrenched political interests that mainly fund the GOP have been obstructionists for decades on climate change. Although we are being overtopped by climate change science, the bigger looming threat is if the GOP gain control of the US Senate in November. That would propel one of the key climate change deniers, Mitch McConnell, to majority leader of the Senate. A disaster.

There is something you can do. Participate. Speak out. And when it comes time to vote, mark the ballot for leaders who support pro-active measures to protect our health and safety. Turn off Fox News and turn out incumbents who are stealing our future by tying our present to a terrifying course forward. That would be the GOP.



South Florida Climate Action Rally!

Friday, April 25, 2014
Banyan Bowl, Pinecrest Gardens
11000 Red Road, Pinecrest, FL 33156
We will CHAMPION THE VOICES of our regional leaders of all ages and in all sectors who speak up for A Climate-Ready South Florida!

GUEST OF HONOR
U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (RI)

This recognized climate champion will end his multi-state Climate Road Trip in Miami on April 25.

He will serve as the moderator for the panel and as the featured speaker at the rally.
5:00PM - 6:00PM
Climate Science Briefing & Panel
Moderated by U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island
_________________________
FREE & OPEN to the PUBLIC! - Registration REQUIRED

Big Sugar poisons people, poisons the Everglades, and poisons Democracy … by gimleteye

The most perverse subsidy in the United States belongs to Big Sugar, whose influence courses through Miami and Florida thanks to hundreds of millions that falls to political advantage from the stalks of sugar cane grown in the historic Everglades.

Big Sugar disputes this. Their claim, "It's not a 'subsidy'", has put a massive toll on the state for decades. Naturally the industry fails to acknowledge the price supports and other favorable treatment in the sugar program guarantee profit the instant a starter plant is inserted in once-rich Everglades peat. The soils in the Everglades Agricultural Area are so exhausted they now require enormous inputs of pollution-generating additives.

Between guarantees, loans, insurance and import quotas, raising sugar in Florida is close to a risk free business that shifts both costs and risks to taxpayers. Big Sugar's primary concerns are acts of God. Sugar is also a de facto monopoly, with the two main producers US Sugar and the Fanjul companies working closely to maintain insider prerogatives while pushing small growers to howl that theirs is really a vital industry of small, responsible farmers.

It's smart business to use good ole boys for spokesmen or soccer moms or grandmothers, and not round Miami lawyers in expensive suits, Hermes ties and Bruno Maglis.

Give the billionaire sugar barons -- the Miami and Palm Beach Fanjuls come to mind -- full credit: they hire the best help and water boys to ensure their prerogatives are not only secure in Tallahasee (where they regularly flood Capitol hallways with more lobbyists than senators) but that constant pressure is put on county commissions and local and state zoning and environmental regulators to extend their profits in whatever business directions they can imagine: inland ports, wind farms, airports, suburban sprawl. They scatter their money judiciously like sprinkles on cupcakes.

Anything they want, just so long as their land does not end up in public ownership -- which is necessary of course to restore the Everglades.

Today news comes from the US Department of Agriculture how the perversity extends further. One of the ways that the federal government "guarantees" Big Sugar profits is by taking up any surplus production and stockpiling whatever is not soaked up by the marketplace. It is a pretty good deal, right?

Let's say you are a widget maker. Your widgets cost a lot if you can only make them on one shift, because you have to buy machinery and equipment and other capital costs. That makes your widget price relatively high.

If you can add two additional shifts, to run 24/7, then you can spread out the costs through higher production. Of course you have to have customers to make this work. If you don't have enough customers, you end up eating inventory.

Big Sugar doesn't have to have customers. It has the US government. Or federal taxpayer. That's because whatever Big Sugar makes, is bought by you. Here is a current example how that happens on a yearly basis, every year, year in and year out:

USDA
Monday, December 2nd, 2013

U.S. Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) announced the results of CCC's offer made on Nov. 14, 2013, to sell its sugar inventory for bioenergy production under the Feedstock Flexibility Program (FFP). CCC also announced a new invitation to sell the remainder of its recently acquired sugar inventory for both bioenergy production under the Feedstock Flexibility Program and other non-food uses. CCC successfully sold 216,750 short tons to bioenergy producers for $11.3 million under the Nov. 14 offer, but still holds 79,750 tons in inventory. The invitation reduces the minimum quantity for bids to 5,000 tons and offers sugar for both bioenergy and other non-food uses. This invitation, and all of the Farm Service Agency's actions to address the 2012 sugar crop-year surplus, can be found on the Farm Service Agency (FSA) Commodity Operations website at www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/webapp?area=home&subject=coop&topic=pas-sa
CCC acquired 296,500 short tons of sugar on Oct. 1, 2013, in lieu of cash repayments on its remaining 2012 crop year sugar loans. These sugar loan forfeitures were the result of record domestic sugar production, record Mexican sugar imports, and world prices falling below U.S. price support levels for the first time in several years. CCC is prohibited by the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (the 2008 farm bill) from selling its sugar inventory for domestic food use unless there is an emergency sugar shortage.

For information about FSA programs, visit your county USDA Service Center or go to www.fsa.usda.gov.

So look at this subsidy another way: the money you earn and spend in taxes to the federal government is going to support an industry that could not be economic but for its control of federal elected officials who are "doing good" by supporting a product that is at the root of hundreds of billions of health care costs (sugar in the food supply, a leading cause of health care costs and emergencies in the United States), that destroys the environment (sugar farming is a primary cause of the rampant pollution of the Everglades and dominates water management to the extent that it deprives Florida's coastal estuaries of sufficient water quantity and quality to survive, also impacting real property values) and poisons Democracy (sugar money funds through indirect and dark money channels political causes hostile to the public interest).

So here is one New Year's resolution for 2014: write to your elected officials or call them and demand that they take a "No Sugar Money Pledge". It is the only way to get the point across that the special treatment for Big Sugar must stop.

Bill Nelson, back in the governor's race? … by gimleteye

EOM has generally been ahead of the mainstream press on this one, so here we go again: US Senator Bill Nelson will jump in soon, in the race to be the Democratic candidate for governor.

Nelson's in-out-in-decision comes at considerable expense to candidates challenging Gov. Rick Scott, especially Charlie Crist who is in de facto campaign mode.

Polling indicates either Crist or Nelson can unseat Scott, one of the most unpopular governors in the nation. Of the two, though, Nelson has a much easier path to victory. Republicans are salivating at the chance to beat Crist, the turncoat whose chief flaw was to antagonize serious Republican money like Big Sugar. Nelson, in comparison, is easy-going and doesn't offend a soul.

But what of the US Senate seat that Nelson would leave? The governor appoints the successor Senator in the case of an abandoned seat. That's what recently occurred when Mel Martinez resigned from the world's most exclusive upper chamber. Then Republican Governor Charlie Crist appointed his former chief of staff, George Lemieux, for the interim.

Can Nelson run for governor while preserving his Senate seat? If he defeats Scott in next November's election, does he technically surrender his seat on his victory or on inauguration? And who among Florida Democrats could run and win? Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz?

These questions have preoccupied Florida's small Democratic brain trust. The uncertainty may have clouded Senator Nelson's response to the challenge of running for governor last summer. But cooler weather is here. The rains have lifted. Skies are clear and Bill Nelson will run for governor.

NPR: "Whatever happened to the deal to save the Everglades?" ... by gimleteye

There is a key fact that is missing from the NPR report yesterday, "Whatever Happened to the Deal to Save the Everglades?" The story concerns the deal made by then Governor Charlie Crist to purchase more than 150,000 acres of land blocking the flow of water from Lake Okeechobee south, towards the Everglades. The cost was high, more than $1.4 billion at the time, but many environmentalists (myself, included) believe that any steps to lessen the impact of Big Sugar on the Everglades and on our democracy are worth the price.

Putting clean water at the right times of the year has been the Holy Grail for Floridians and environmentalists ever since sugarcane began to be grown south of the Lake.

The fact missing from the NPR report is that for the US Sugar deal to work -- and restore water flow capacity through the central Everglades -- required the purchase or trade for central parcels owned by its nominal competitors, the Fanjul billionaires of Coral Gables and Palm Beach.

The only unassailable result of the US Sugar deal was to propel that Marco Rubio to the US Senate and to the first ranks of GOP leadership.

Sugar is a heavily subsidized commodity that benefits a few billionaires at the expense of the entire state. The addition of phosphorous and nitrogen to speed the growth of sugar -- combined with the recruitment of methyl mercury downstream of its pollution -- is responsible for the collapse of remnant Everglades habitats.

The failure of the US Sugar deal is constantly spun by sugar's paid-for mouthpieces in the media. (In the past, Joanna Wragg carried the torch for sugar. Wragg had been a senior editor at the Miami Herald for many years. These days, sugar's POV is on-demand service by Nancy Smith for Sunshine State News.)

The stated objection to the US Sugar purchase was first, its cost and second, that putting more water into the central Everglades is unworkable. But the first was a red herring then, as it is today. The money has always been available; either through the water management district or through the state. The second point -- that more water storage in the central Everglades is unworkable -- is often repeated by Big Sugar, ignoring the inevitability of geography.

Big Sugar is fiercely opposed to any tranche of public funding that could take their lands off the table and assents only to the least extent possible. Any work-around is acceptable, so long as it is not their money.

The billionaire Fanjuls were apparently furious with Crist for initiating a deal with US Sugar without obtaining their blessing. The Fanjuls not only withheld cooperation, they funneled huge amounts of campaign cash to Rubio; Crist's opponent in the 2008 US Senate race.

So, why did US Sugar put its lands on the table in the first place? Was the US Sugar deal was a set-up, from the first?

It makes sense that Big Sugar would strive to flush out and then to ruin the political fortunes of any and all appointees or politicians opposed to its control of the levers of power. It is the only interpretation that makes sense. It is also an interpretation that has never been examined by the mainstream press.

On wrecked water quality in Florida and damage to coastal real estate, Senator Bill Nelson joins the tide of bullshit ... by gimleteye

Two points about an excellent letter to the editor re-printed from the Palm Beach Post. First, Big Sugar does not want to fix its pollution of the Everglades even though the Florida constitution says it must, and second, Congress tells agencies with environmental missions what to do. In other words, the view of Florida's wrecked coastal real estate due to water pollution is the equivalent of watching cartel drug lords working openly from estates in Mexico City overlooking its Congress and judiciary.

We do not have an elected official, from US Senator Bill Nelson to Senator Marco Rubio to any member of the Florida Congressional delegation who will speak truth to the powerful sugar industry. There is only Ray Judah, a former county commissioner of more than two decades who was targeted in the last election cycle by unregulated PAC money from Big Sugar and its proxies in the radical GOP right.

Judah, a Republican, was cut out of his district in Lee County by his own party. In the Fort Myers News Press, Judah recently wrote: "Florida Sugar Farmers are currently spending millions in media advertising in a stealth propaganda campaign to convince the public that recent amendments to the Everglades Forever Act have created a partnership between Everglades restoration advocates, sugar farmers, and policy makers to put the final phase of Everglades restoration effort in place. In fact, Florida lawmakers, including Governor Rick Scott, teamed up with Big Sugar to deceptively give the appearance that the sugar industry’s funding commitment to Everglades restoration pursuant to recent legislation would culminate in “saving” the Everglades."

According to an August 14th media release, Senator Bill Nelson said, “The Indian River is part of our livelihood and it’s an important part of our state’s economy and environment. As someone who grew up on this river, I am here to tell you: I will not let it be ruined."

Note to Nelson: it is ruined. The only smell stronger than the algae blooms plaguing billions of dollars of coastal real estate is the smell of bullshit from the sugar industry. Let's find one elected official to say so to voters, unequivocally.

Letter: State, federal involvement needed to curb estuary pollution

Posted August 15, 2013 at 4 a.m.
Palm Beach Post, letter to editor
John Poggi, Okeechobee

Letter: State, federal involvement needed to curb estuary pollution

As an environmental professional, I am compelled to set the record straight on the pollution of the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries. Several key points are being omitted from the media’s present discussion.

First, the pollutants to the estuaries are freshwater, phosphorous and nitrogen. The source of the phosphorous and nitrogen is agricultural runoff originating in Central Florida and the Kissimmee Valley.
The polluted water flows from the Kissimmee River to Lake Okeechobee. It then enters the estuaries, lowering salinity and providing fertilizer for algae to bloom, stressing fish and wildlife in the estuaries, killing many of them.

Second, there are presently no alternate routes for this freshwater when managers need to lower the lake. The sugar industry and other agricultural interests south of Lake Okeechobee do not want to do their part, and the polluted water is by federal law not allowed into the Everglades system until it is cleaned up.

Everglades restoration plans are necessary to clean this water and allow it back into the Everglades natural system.

Funding by government has been sporadic, and restoration efforts have been slowed or stalled. Finally, Lake Okeechobee is managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for flood control, agriculture, navigation and recreation, in that order. The Corps serves at the request of Congress and receives its orders to lower the lake when certain approved conditions are met.

The Corps doesn’t decide when or where the water should go; our congressmen do.

If we want the pollution stopped and the route of the water changed, Congress and the state of Florida, which matches funding with the federal government, must come through.

The state must also address the sources of the pollution north of Lake Okeechobee to provide the long-term solution.

Keystone Pipeline Sucks But Bill Nelson Sucks More for Voting In Favor. By Geniusofdespair

From Common Dreams:

"In a 62-37 vote late Friday, the US Senate passed a non-binding amendment calling for the approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.

Environmental groups and climate activists were quick to condemn the vote, but said the "symbolic vote" was valuable because it revealed which members of the Senate have received the message on the seriousness posed by climate change and which continue to bend to the demands of industry lobbyists.

A post-vote analysis by Oil Change International, in fact, revealed that supporters of the amendment "received 3.5 times more in campaign contributions from fossil fuel interests" than those who voted against it. In total, the researchers found that supporters took an average of $499,648 from the industry before voting for the pipeline, for a total of $30,978,153."

Senator Bill Nelson actually voted with Marco Rubio, and Inhofe. Bad, bad Bill! You should have followed your fellow party members.

Bill Nelson For Governor? ... by gimleteye

The news of chaos in Gov. Rick Scott's administration might hearten opponents but raises the question, again (and again and again) whether the Democrats can seize the opportunity to win the executive office in Florida in 2014.

There are a few bright newcomers in the Democratic minority. Are they ready to mount a state-wide campaign compared to the US Senate's former astronaut, Bill Nelson? And would Bill Nelson turn a Lawton Chiles; resigning the US Senate to run as governor?

The Democrats would have a very good chance of holding the US Senate seat if Debbie Wasserman Schultz decided to run. And Bill Nelson is popular throughout the state, channeling a non-confrontational line from the Georgia border to Key West.

If Nelson were to win, he could set a platform for the eventual return of Florida to the blue state column. Of course, the radical right/ Marco Rubio/ Jeb! Bush contingent is worried.

Moreover, if Nelson chose a bright, young Hispanic to be his running mate and gave his lieutenant the chance to shine, he would set the stage for Florida: Latin, socially liberal and forward-looking.

On the other hand, it is easier to find stone claws in Florida Bay than forward thinking Democrats. That's the other news of the day in the Miami Herald: the shortage of stone crab claws. I was startled by the comment of a Florida Fish and Wildlife researcher who shrugged at the shortfall, saying, "It ain't over till it's over." Slim pickings, temperatures rising.

LeMieux Announces his Miami Dade County Campaign Team. By Geniusofdespair

LeMieux said in a news release:

“South Florida is a pivotal component in Republican politics and my Miami-Dade Victory Team will play an important roll in defeating Bill Nelson(GoD: In your dreams fella), taking back the US Senate in 2012, and getting our country back on track”

The team is: Rene Garcia; Miami-Dade County Commissioner Lynda Bell; Tony Argiz, chairman/CEO of Morrison, Brown, Argiz & Farra; Lorenzo Cobiella of the Hialeah/Miami Lakes Republican Club; Carlos Curbelo, Miami-Dade School Board member; Keith Fernandez, former campaign advisor to U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami; Maria D. Garcia of the Cuban American Bar Association and SUNPAC; Nelson Hernandez – Miami Lakes town councilman; Jesse Manzano-Plaza – former Jeb Bush aide; Mario Murgado– president/CEO
of Brickell Motors; Daisy Oliveros of the McCollum for Governor Hispanic Leadership Team; Frank Pena, President of FJP Group; and Francis Suarez, Miami City Commissioner.

U.S. Senator Bill Nelson Speaks at The Everglades Coalition Meeting. By Geniusofdespair

It was chicken and pasta with alfredo sauce for lunch at the Everglades Coalition meeting January 7th with a speech by Bill Nelson, whom I endorse for U.S. Senator. The other Florida Senator, Marco Rubio, was conspicuously absent from the conference.

Republicans don't have to boycott the Everglades meetings Marco. Republican State Senator Lee Constantine gave a rousing speech about his connection to the Everglades.

Sofia Vergara of TV's 'Modern Family' Fame Running for Nelson's Senate Seat? By Geniusofdespair

Well, she isn't quite running, but her rich boyfriend Nick Loeb from Delray Beach is holding a press conference today at 2pm to announce his candidacy, or not, for U.S. Senate.

Loeb has Roger Stone (Florida Pubs' version of Carl Rove) as his adviser. Coincidentally I wrote about this political operative STONE earlier this week - CornerSTONE was involved in the Gimenez campaign. Roger Stone is bad news with all his dirty tricks. He is believed to be behind the Gimenez campaign's controversial robocall. Here is a New Yorker article on Stone: Called the Dirty Trickster.

Citizens United Not Timid, an anti-Hillary group, known for its acronym - CUNT - It was thought that Roger Stone, known for dirty tricks, was the brains behind the name.

4pm - Loeb not running and no I did not photoshop the Nixon Tatoo on Stone's back.