Steve Crisafulli says it’s amazing “anything” gets passed in GOP-led Legislature
“The intense divide between the Florida House and Senate this year was so intense that House Speaker Steve Crisafulli led his members out of the chambers three days prematurely this past April, leading for the first of a series of special sessions in 2015.
His other top issue is tackling water policy, where he invoked the drought in California as a reason why the Legislature must act this year. When the House broke early from session in April, they failed to pass a water bill, though the Senate companion was approved on a 39-1 vote.”
Amazing how hindsight is BS and this guy has no problem spending money on special sessions while people have no food.
I think for everyone special session we have a portion of the money spent should be donated to our local food banks. An idea so horrid if it really did happen the GOP would make sure they agreed rather than make sure there was food.
Humane Society Florida director Kate McFall called the name exemptions “fishy,” but said it makes sense considering the widespread opposition.
“One hundred and three is a lot. It sounds strange,” McFall said. “(The hunt) is being painted as a small group of trophy hunters, so it makes sense for them to not want their names out there. It has hit a nerve with a lot of people.”
“And even though it may seem counter-intuitive, anti-intellectualism has little to do with intelligence. We know little about the raw intellectual abilities of Dylann Roof, but we do know that he is an ignorant racist who willfully allowed irrational hatred of an entire demographic to dictate his actions. Whatever his IQ, to some extent he is a product of a culture driven by fear and emotion, not rational thinking, and his actions reflect the paranoid mentality of one who fails to grasp basic notions of what it means to be human.
What Americans rarely acknowledge is that many of their social problems are rooted in the rejection of critical thinking or, conversely, the glorification of the emotional and irrational. What else could explain the hyper-patriotism ) that has many accepting an outlandish notion that America is far superior to the rest of the world? Love of one’s country is fine, but many Americans seem to honestly believe that their country both invented and perfected the idea of freedom, that the quality of life here far surpasses everywhere else in the world.”
So if your frustrated just understand YOU have better critical thinking skills.
One can hardly imagine a better case of inconsistent thinking and misapplied brain power in the public arena today. Carson, a successful brain surgeon and Yale graduate, is obviously intelligent and well educated. Yet he continually says things that any clear-thinking high school kid would cringe at.
He mocks the Big Bang Theory as absurd. (Like all theories, the Big Bang Theory is a work in progress, of course, but it is based on solid scientific evidence.)
A state of Florida website laconically refers to the project known as “Mod Waters” this way: “The Modified Water Deliveries Project project is a federal ecological restoration project in south Florida designed to improve water delivery to Everglades National Park. The completion of Mod Waters is required before the implementation of portions of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. Mod Waters is being implemented by the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.”
“Revealing analysis of national trends and local news you won’t find in Miami’s mainstream media. Dedicated to ethical government, saving tax dollars and a healthy environment. We aim to TRY to break the chokehold of Miami’s developers and lobbyists on local government and the public commons.”
Two extremely knowledgeable people who show us all the things you won’t see on the tv or even in a regular newspaper.
This week there are some incredible photos of the flooding in Miami. Have I seen this on the news? no
Go! Scroll through!
Thank you GenuisofDespair and Gimleteye
My Next Blog I love belongs to my friend, fellow WordPress blogger and future Martin County Commissioner
I was introduced to Jacqui thru my friend Bryna Potsdam who I have known for years. Bryna was a long time supporter of Golden Retrievers and my rescue. Her son adopted a golden and named him Piper. He was wicked this dog. But he was loved until the day he died.
Jacqui and I sat in rain and she explained to me everything she knew about the Indian RIver Lagoon.
“Jacqui is journalism graduate of the University of Florida, and an education master’s graduate of the University of West Florida. She went on to teach English and German and later after a serious accident of breaking her neck, started selling real estate. Later, she ran for public office having served on the Town of Sewall’s Point Commission since 2008, and is former mayor. During this time she saw the opportunity to help showcase the work of a locally formed river group, the River Kidz, and this has been her passion ever. She incorporates youth/river education into her political work for the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon.
Jacqui is the treasurer/secretary of the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council; has chaired the Florida League of Cities Environmental and Energy Committee; was chair, and a six year member of the Treasure Coast Council of Local Governments; is an alternate for the Water Resources Advisory Commission for the South Florida Water Management District; and is a board member for Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute Foundation, in St Lucie County. She also serves as a board member (ex-officio) for the Rivers Coalition Defense Fund, and is head administrator for her beloved River Kidz, now a division of the Rivers Coalition.
Jacqui’s reach involves not only local, but state and federal government. In 2013, she served on Senator Joe Negron’s panel for the Select Senate Hearing on the Indian River Lagoon and Lake Okeechobee. In 2014, she actively supported the elections of both Senator Joe Negron and Congressman Patrick Murphy who have both been strong supporters of Indian River Lagoon issues. In 2015, she is part of the Florida League Cities Treasure Coast Advocacy team to influence and educate Tallahassee. Jacqui received the Everglades Coalition’s 2015 “John V. Kabler Award” for “Grassroots Activism” working to organize and educate the public about Everglades restoration. Most recently she has been recruited as a fellow by the University of Florida/IFAS’s Natural Resources Leadership Institute Class XV. The institute focuses on teaching leaders how to facilitate participatory decision making in the most controversial of situations.”
Jacqui’s husband Ed has a place and they frequently go up and take photos and document the Indian River Lagoon. Some I forget who dubbed her “The Plume Chaser.”
Jacqui comes from a place of love of our lagoon and love of Martin County so I consider her a trusted source.
So a wonderful blog filled with information from a person who truly in her heart loves the Indian RIver Lagoon.
This is my favorite Twitter Feed. Not only is Craig Pittman an award winning reporter for the Tampa Bays (My second favorite newspaper), he is an author, an obvious fan of the truth and stinkin funny. I try not to go every day because I don’t want him to think I’m stalking him.
“Adrian Wyllie, chairman of Florida’s Libertarian Party, resigned his post Thursday to protest the party’s U.S. Senate candidate, accusing the rival of supporting eugenics and for being expelled from a cult group for “sadistically dismembering a goat in a ritualistic sacrifice.”
The Senate candidate, who goes by the adopted name Augustus Sol Invictus, counter-accused Wyllie of spreading “half-truths and lies” for political gain”
Mr Augustus even responded to the story written by Marc Caputo.
Witness ye the glory of my life at 29 years of age: I have four children, each of whom should be the envy of every parent in the world; I have attained a Baccalaureate Degree in Philosophy with honors; I have attained a Doctorate in Law, cum laude; I have acquired licenses in the profession of law in the States of New York, Illinois, and Florida; I am scheduled to acquire two more such licenses in North Carolina & Massachusetts; I am Editor-in-Chief of a poetry journal; I run an independent publishing company; I have opened my own law office in downtown Orlando; I am an MBA candidate; and I have accomplished a few other things that will remain off the record for now.
I am of genius intellect & cultured, well-educated & creative, well-mannered & refined. I am God’s gift to humankind where the English language is concerned, and I also happen to have a basic knowledge of Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, and Italian. I am musical & artistic; I am athletic & possessed of militant self-discipline; and I am many other things. I have a Cadillac & a poodle, multiple computers & a personal library; I live in an apartment downtown, right across the street from the courthouse; I have been to Paris & Vancouver, to Cairo & Dubrovnik, to Mexico City & Siracusa. I dress better than all of you, pronounce my words perfectly, and have a winning, professional handshake. I am everything you ever wanted to be.
I challenge any of you, then, to accuse me of being a failure in this artificial civilization of yours. For it is beyond dispute that I have played your petty game, and I have won.
But your game no longer holds any interest for me. Your architecture is vapid & worthless, as is your decadent culture, the mindless drivel you call music, the filth you call democracy. You waste your lives watching pure excrement on television, shopping at the strip malls, planning your vacations to resorts & theme parks. The Internet, with its infinitude of information, is used for reading celebrity gossip & watching sitcoms. You have begun to reduce argument to memes & human communication to trite sound bites. Life has become trivial – and if you cannot feel the human spirit decaying, you are already dead.
The vague threats of violence continue at the end:
HEAR YE MY FINAL WORDS IN PEACETIME:
I have prophesied for years that I was born for a Great War; that if I did not witness the coming of the Second American Civil War I would begin it myself. Mark well: That day is fast coming upon you. On the New Moon of May, I shall disappear into the Wilderness. I will return bearing Revolution, or I will not return at all.
War Be unto the Ends of the Earth,
Augustus Sol Invictus
Orlando, Florida, USA
XX Aprilis MMXIII Satvrnvs”
I gave you the link. Read the article make up your own mind.
There one more mention of people I read. Unfortunately because you have to have subscription most of you can’t read. But you can read her twitter feed.
I was watching “Meet the Press” and I just had to change the channel. It’s very frustrating to have such a partisan host who really is not that good. Last week he did an interview with Donald Trump and was totally loosing it and you could see his disdain for the Donald. You want to be a host of a national news show learn how to not be such a girly boy. UGG
This has been and will continue to be a long week as I’m working my two jobs and am covering for one of my coworkers. Last week was wicked. I totally understand why people can’t pay attention. Almost every night I didn’t finish up until 9 pm. I ate while I charted.
For one job my computer needs to be live I gave up my cherished unlimited data so I could have a hot spot. I’m having issues with my wifi in the house. Some day’s its fine some day’s it’s not. My hotspot doesn’t work in the field most of the time. It does however work great in my house when my wifi isn’t working. I have to pay for the hot spot data. It’s very frustrating. I am attempting to finish my charting in the field so I don’t have to do it when I get home and have all kinds of interruptions. I was trashed. I think most people are at the end of the day.
And it’s hot. July BTW was the hottest month ever recorded on earth.
Is it winter yet?
The point that I’m trying to make is that we are all busy trying to pay our bills and perhaps we don’t have time to be endlessly computing and we depend on the the news to tell us the news.
We love our news guy but are we under some kind of delusion that they are the same news guys we see in the movies?
“All the Presidents Men
(1976)
Reporters: Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman), Bob Woodward (Robert Redford)
This is a hybrid between a political crime documentary and a biopic on the two famous Washington
Post reporters who dug into the infamous Watergate burglaries that occurred prior to the 1972
presidential election, and that were eventually traced directly to the White House where all fingers
pointed to Richard Nixon and his staff. This is the kind of movie
reveals how important solid journalism is to a free society, and the immense peril that true freedom
faces today as newspaper circulation declines and people get “news” from non-authoritative sources
that lack resources and professionalism to do serious investigative journalism.”
This was my news yesterday.
So yesterday I DVR’d the local news morning show. This is what they showed us.
The Kickoff between South Ford VS Palm Beach Gardens.
Hurricane Danny Update. (Weakening)
Next up was Athletes Learning Cardiac Arrest signs.
Hurricane Danny update.
Breaking News out of Delray Beach- a shooting investigation
Hurricane Danny update
Deadly Shooting investigation
Man on Flakker breaks into woman’s home and the woman get’s to thank the dispatcher
Advocates call for reform of Juvenile Facitly
Human trafficking Suspect in Custody
Ashley Madison Hack attack
Hurricane Danny update and other possible hurricanes that may form
A list of Whacky Baby names
American’s Stop Gunman from attacking more people
Florida Veterans vow to fight ISIS
New Foundation for Austin and Perry
Hurricane Danny and weather update
Coming up on today
Something about a museum in Riviera Beach
Turn up a smile
Hurricane Danny Update
A few things. Apparently there was nothing happening in the Treasure Coast. Or was there?
It actually started a few weeks ago but I’m getting caught up.
“The lawsuit, filed in Leon County circuit court in Tallahassee, asks a judge to declare the hunt planned for late October unconstitutional and all bear hunting permits invalid.
Despite an outcry from opponents, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reopened bear hunting with a vote in June. The Conservation Commission is set to begin issuing bear hunting permits Monday.
The lawsuit by Speak Up Wekiva, named for a Florida spring and river, and Seminole County real estate investor Charles O’Neal prompted other conservation groups Friday to call on the Conservation Commission to suspend issuing bear hunt permits until the case is resolved.
“Somebody had to stand up for the bears and that’s exactly what I’m doing,” said O’Neal, 59, who is also treasurer of Speak Up Wekiva and vice president of the League of Women Voters of Florida.”
“On October 10th, 2015, the small Central Florida town of Umatilla, on the southern edge of the Ocala National Forest, is scheduled to hold its annual Black Bear Festival. The event, organized by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), has traditionally been aimed at educating young and old alike about the area’s wildlife, featuring presentations and guided eco-tours of the nearby forest. For a town that used to label itself “The Gateway to the Forest,” the event was a wholesome family activity and entirely fitting. This year’s event promises to be extra-special, for it will mark the two-week countdown to the resumption of bear hunting after a twenty-one-year hiatus, affording Florida’s families a wonderful new way to interact with their natural environment. It remains to be seen whether the organizers will set up bear-shaped targets for youngsters to aim at in Cadwell Park, or will hide the reality of the coming bloodbath behind their fraudulent and authoritarian claim of managerial responsibility.”
Got caught up on my “Eye on Miami.” This is really important stuff you’ll never hear on the news. Day after day our Mista Gimleteye and Genuisofdespair go after the bad guys. We learn from these two. They keep us honest.
Then I headed over to Craig Pittman, award winning journalist, who has the best twitter feed ever.
So my question for you guys today is how do YOU like your news and what would you like to see more of. Please comment here on the page so I can share it with some of the news guys.
When will our medical community step and do something about people getting sick and dying in the Indian River Lagoon?
I just want to say THANK YOU to our TC Palm reporters and also to Eye on Miami for actually paying attention to this issue and being a supportive voice and advocate for our Indian River Lagoon.
Three years ago we were talking about this. Before I even got involved in the water but doing research for a potential documentary I read reports about people going into the water and getting sick and dying. Then when we got organized and starting talking to each even more information came forward. One of our local citizens has been collecting data but there is really nothing that is out there and a part of our hospital system and health department.
Here is Robert Lord from Martin Memorial talking about our unhealthy water at our rally last year.
Our friend, Cliff Barnes suggested we called it Lagoon water born flesh rot disease after Gov. Scott. I said “Rick Rot.” Some people said “Rick Scott Rot.”
Bill Benton went swimming in the Indian River Lagoon on a Saturday afternoon. He was dead by Tuesday, a rare fatality from Vibrio vulnificus bacteria.
The bacteria occurs naturally throughout the lagoon year-round, but infections increase in summer, according to researchers at Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Fort Pierce.
Benton was among seven people who died from Vibrio vulnificus in Florida in 2014. It’s unknown whether Vibrio vulnificus is to blame in the July 20 death ofPort St. Lucie resident David Trudell, two days after a fin fish punctured him while fishing in the lagoon. Doctors attributed his death to the incident, but did not determine what type of bacteria it was.
“A 65-year-old Port St. Lucie man died Monday, two days after being stuck by a fish fin while fishing in the Indian River Lagoon.
David John Trudell died from a blood infection as a result of a bacteria that entered his body because of the fin prick, said Treasure Coast medical examiner Dr. Roger Mittleman.
The type of bacteria could not be determined, Mittleman said.”
Why were there no blood cultures drawn at the time?
Then it happened to one of our own River Warriors. Because our friend Gayle posted the above article our friend Barb took her husband Bruce to the ER.
Took Bruce to the ER yesterday for an infected left leg. He had a sore on his knee on Monday, went in the IRL on Wednesday. We took several church families out on our new catamaran and anchored off Sailfish point (near the Walgreen house). Of course they all jumped into the IRL from the deck of the boat.
Yesterday Bruce’s knee and leg was black and swollen, hot to the touch and oozing. He had a fever. He NEVER complains of pain but I forced him to the ER. GOOD thing. The doctor thinks it is a blood infection from the bacteria from the IRL water on Wednesday. We will get the culture back on Monday to see what the bacteria actually is.
Gayle Ryan’s link to the TC Palm article regarding the local man who died within two days of a fish fin puncture bringing in bacteria from the IRL into his system, probably saved Bruce’s life. I wouldn’t have taken a closer second look at Bruce’s knee had I not read her article link. The doctor lanced and drained the “volcano” the size of a grapefruit on his knee. His whole leg was swollen and hot to the touch.
Today Bruce’s leg ‘s swelling is down and it is not throbbing anymore. He is on Bactrim and Keflex. Doctor said he was so correct to come into the ER when he did, could have become so dangerous to Bruce. Thank you Gayle Ryan.”
It looked like this.
Here’s is a great piece from our friend at Eye on Miami.
“This post on Face Book should remind Miami that the current water crisis is not just one in a series of crises: it is a cumulative event where impacts are compounded. The mismanagement of fresh water resources in South Florida is mainly to benefit the big campaign contributors to state legislators and to Gov. Rick Scott. Big Sugar.
In a just world, state legislators would be made to swim in the Indian River Lagoon, then see how much they like gambling with people’s water to benefit their patrons.”
You got that right Mista Gimleteye!
A friend of mine asked me if I would go on the news. I said no. This is not about me. What I will say is our local Health Department and People running the hospital need to read the newspaper. Then they need to come up with a plan to alert the physicians in the area and come up with some sort of tracking system and people need to be warned before they go in the water. I know that everyone has a lot on their plates but this is something we have to do. What if I didn’t know any of this and my grandson had a cut and I took him in the lagoon and he died?
“Water quality sensors in the lagoon and its tributaries can’t detect the deadly bacteria’s presence, but the salinity level is a good indicator of whether there’s Vibrio. The bacteria can’t live in saltwater, but thrives in stagnant, nearshore, freshwater — particularly near rainfall runoff discharges.”
Really so the millions of gallons of freshwater discharges have nothing to do with that? Really?
SFWMD and ACOE you need to be aware. After all we have begged you to fix the issue with the discharges. It comes down to one thing: Salinity of the water. So besides all the other damage that you do we can add killing people to the list.
“Healthy people who boat, fish and swim in the Indian River Lagoon are not likely to get a potentially deadly bacterial infection, especially if they take certain precautions, according to a researcher conducting a premier study of Vibrio vulnificus.
It’s people with cuts and weak immune systems like the elderly, infants, alcoholics, diabetics and those with other long-term illnesses who are at most risk and need to take the threat most seriously.”
HEALTHY PEOPLE ARE NOT LIKELY TO GET AN INFECTION! NOT LIKELY.
But
“The people most likely to get it — in this order — are: lagoon fishermen, seafood processors and waders or swimmers.”
And the longer this vacuum persists, the greater the threat to Treasure Coast residents who swim, boat, wade, paddleboard and fish in the waterway.
“The bacteria, which is also found in estuaries like the St. Lucie and St. Sebastian rivers, occurs naturally and is not linked to pollution, Barbarite said. Quantities vary depending on climatic conditions.”
But it is connected to the Salinity of the water which also is what kills everything else like our oysters. So by forcing millions of gallons of fresh water down the river into the lagoon the salinity is changed.
“Most likely in spots near freshwater discharges.”
“29.5 percent of cases resulted in deaths (2004-13)”
People affected: Those with Alcohol Abuse, Liver Disease, Diabetes, Heart Disease
I can’t wait to see the spin. Because just two years ago we were assured there was nothing wrong with the water.
“and the longer this vacuum persists, the greater the threat to Treasure Coast residents who swim, boat, wade, paddleboard and fish in the waterway.
Two recent incidents — one fatal — have ratcheted up the importance of identifying the microbial culprits, case by case, and establishing cause-and-effect relationships between exposure to tainted lagoon water and bacterial infections.”
“Health officials and health care providers need to get ahead of the issue. Given the fact doctors don’t have a protocol for testing or reporting waterborne illnesses, it’s easy to see why so many questions remain unanswered.”
It should be standard procedure for doctors to report all suspected cases of waterborne illnesses to the Florida Department of Health.
Moreover, this information needs to be collected in a database. Over time, this knowledge may reveal trends that prove beneficial in protecting lagoon aficionados and treating those who contract waterborne infections.”
To protect, promote & improve the health of all people in Florida through integrated state, county, & community efforts.
VISION :
To be the Healthiest State in the Nation
VALUES (ICARE) :
I nnovation: We search for creative solutions and manage resources wisely.
C ollaboration: We use teamwork to achieve common goals & solve problems.
A ccountability: We perform with integrity & respect.
R esponsiveness: We achieve our mission by serving our customers & engaging our partners.
E xcellence: We promote quality outcomes through learning & continuous performance improvement.
” Salt is the key to safe water.” by Tyler Treadway
I’ll post the link when I can find the article. According to Gabrille Barbarite death are rare but how do we even know this if no one is reporting or logging water born illnesses? So I would refraise that to ” We have no earthly idea how many people have gotten sick from the Indian River Lagoon.”
But keep in mind salinity can change with rain or out going tide.
What do we need now?
Our local lawmakers need to all talk to our health departments and our hospitals and doctors and urgent cares and come up with some kind of reporting system.
Warnings need to be posted for people with immune system disorders, alcoholics, people with liver diseases, diabetes, heart disease , the elderly and infants etc. We have this information now. We have a duty to warn people.
Our wonderful Dr Edie Widder from Orca said in this piece that she suspects these cases have gone unreported for years. She also said she does not think that clinics and doctors are not taking the time to culture the bacteria. How hard is that? One Agar plate zoom zoom zoom done! Or a blood culture. 2 second blood draw.
The world has gone a little wild and we have seen it up close and personal this past year with our legislators. Lets not let this happen with the people are suppose to be taking care of us. I’m sure there is a grant out there that someone can get to do what needs to be done and there are plenty of volunteers in the medical field that would be willing to help.
If we don’t speak up nothing will be done.
Where do we start? Please add your suggestions to this blog post!
Sea Level Rise in Miami and Politics. Let’s just say no to the “deniers.”
The last election was the first election I participated in a long time. I felt very disenfranchised and I realized how important it was to get people out to vote. I put together a list of clean water candidates because I thought it would bring us together and it did. It did in a way. In a way it didn’t. We really really need to do this all together.
Now we need this more than ever. Miami is floating away.
When Michael Grunwald was here he talked about the tides comes up to his house.
What’s going to happen? What’s going to happen is what has happened. People are going to stick their necks in the sand and its going to get worse and our fellow citizens are in danger. Please go talk to your party and tell them they need to start paying attention to the infrastructure. Even Libertarians believe in infrastructure. What is up with the denying this? What is the end game of that. Are we selling Miami at a good price? Will Miami be on sale if it gets destroyed? Why is no one helping? There has got to be money involved. Why else would all these people deny that the water is rising in Miami?
Texas Republicans have a new policy on climate change: There is no climate change.
While traditionally the state’s GOP has focused on abolishing the Environmental Protection Agency while ignoring climate change, this year’s temporary policy platform is taking it one step further, calling for party members to explicitly dismiss it, too.
“While we all strive to be good stewards of the earth, ‘climate change’ is a political agenda which attempts to control every aspect of our lives. We urge government at all levels to ignore any plea for money to fund global climate change or ‘climate justice’ initiatives,” the platform writes.
So funny I just wrote the above and then I found this. This article is from 2010. Like most things American until we actually feel the pain we’re not interested.
“However! It does seem to me that the right’s climate denialism hasn’t been properly linked to the larger phenomenon of epistemic closure on the right. When Jim Manzi, everyone’s favorite sensible conservative, criticized fellow conservative Mark Levin for peddling intellectually shoddy skeptic arguments in his bestselling book Liberty and Tyranny, Levin went nuts, joined by a half-dozen other NRO writers. How could they not? The very same skeptic talking points in Levin’s book appear in thousands of blogs and comment sections across the interwebs. If they are intellectually bankrupt, a whole lot of people are going to look stupid.”
We are sick of talking points. You put them out. The news picks them up and repeats them over and over until you believe it.
This has got to stop.
“The right’s project over the last 30 years has been to dismantle the post-war liberal consensus by undermining trust in society’s leading institutions. Experts are made elites; their presumption of expertise becomes self-damning. They think they’re better than you. They talk down to you. They don’t respect people like us, real Americans.”
And you thought these people just wanted to keep your taxes lower. I don’t think so
“The decline in trust in institutions has generated fear and uncertainty; where there are fear and uncertainty, there are reactionaries to exploit them. Stress reinforces in-group bias — tribalism, nationalism, and xenophobia. Today’s conservative movement has created a self-contained, hermetically sealed epistemological reality, a closed loop of cable news, talk radio, and email forwards, meant to stoke in-group anxiety and reinforce group identity.
Consider what the Limbaugh/Morano crowd is saying about climate: not only that the world’s scientists and scientific institutions are systematically wrong, but that they are purposefully perpetrating a deception. Virtually all the world’s governments, scientific academies, and media are either in on it or duped by it. The only ones who have pierced the veil and seen the truth are American movement conservatives.”
They don’t care about us. That’s for sure.
I was told recently that one of our State Rep Marylynn Magar said at a forum that with the ten bucks we’re saving on our cell phone tax a small family could treat themselves to a Pizza. Where Marylynn is this ten dollar pizza? What does each child get? Here’s a half a slice honey. Eat it and praise RIck Scott!
Or Gayle Harrell saying that people who are sick can go to free clinics and then those free clinic’s funding was taken away.
Sorry rant.
You get the picture. OUT OF TOUCH WITH REALITY.
So what do we do when the people running are OUT OF TOUCH WITH REALITY? Do we vote for these people even though they are in your party? Don’t we help our own friends that are out of touch with reality?
How about this? How about YOU take control and not let people run who are OUT OF TOUCH WITH REALITY.
So here’s REALITY so you can be IN TOUCH WITH REALITY.
Climate change is here and residing in Miami.
I’m going to post some articles and you can read them. Reading them will put you back in touch with the present and with reality.
Maybe you could send to the people who are running for things like President who live in Miami but have no clue the people will drowning soon and clue them in so they can be IN TOUCH WITH REALITY!
“Climate change is no longer viewed as a future threat round here,” says atmosphere expert Professor Ben Kirtman, of the University of Miami. “It is something that we are having to deal with today.”
Every year, with the coming of high spring and autumn tides, the sea surges up the Florida coast and hits the west side of Miami Beach, which lies on a long, thin island that runs north and south across the water from the city of Miami. The problem is particularly severe in autumn when winds often reach hurricane levels. Tidal surges are turned into walls of seawater that batter Miami Beach’s west coast and sweep into the resort’s storm drains, reversing the flow of water that normally comes down from the streets above. Instead seawater floods up into the gutters of Alton Road, the first main thoroughfare on the western side of Miami Beach, and pours into the street. Then the water surges across the rest of the island.
The effect is calamitous. Shops and houses are inundated; city life is paralyzed; cars are ruined by the corrosive seawater that immerses them. During one recent high spring tide, laundromat owner Eliseo Toussaint watched as slimy green saltwater bubbled up from the gutters. It rapidly filled the street and then blocked his front door. “This never used to happen,” Toussaint told the New York Times. “I’ve owned this place eight years and now it’s all the time.
Today, shop owners keep plastic bags and rubber bands handy to wrap around their feet when they have to get to their cars through rising waters, while householders have found that ground-floor spaces in garages are no longer safe to keep their cars. Only those on higher floors can hope to protect their cars from surging sea waters that corrode and rot the innards of their vehicles.”
Hence the construction work at Alton Road, where $400m is now being spent in an attempt to halt these devastating floods – by improving Miami Beach’s stricken system of drains and sewers. In total, around $1.5bn is to be invested in projects aimed at holding back the rising waters. Few scientists believe the works will have a long-term effect.”
This is from the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
I mean really what do you know? Maybe you should call Rush Limbaugh on the phone.
Call the Rush Limbaugh Show Program Line
Between 12 noon and 3pm Eastern Time: 1-800-282-2882
This is from the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
“The mean sea level has risen noticeably in the Miami and Miami Beach areas just in the past decade. Flooding events are getting more frequent, and some areas flood during particularly high tides now: no rain or storm surge necessary. Perhaps most alarming is that the rate of sea level rise is accelerating.
Diving Into Data
Certified measurements of sea level have been taken at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School on Virginia Key since 1996 (Virginia Key is a small island just south of Miami Beach and east of downtown Miami)[1]. Simple linear trends drawn through annual averages of all high tides, low tides, and the mean sea level are shown below, and all three lines are about 3.7″ higher in 2014 than they were in 1996.”
We have a senator in who lives in Miami who apparently can’t even find the time to go to leading academic oceanographic and atmospheric research institutions in the world?
Just say no.
This is the “World Resources Institute.”
Miami-Dade County, Florida has more people living less than 4 feet above sea level than any U.S. state, except Louisiana.
This fact sheet provides information specific to Miami-Dade County, Florida including the local impacts of—and near future vulnerabilities to—sea-level rise and extreme weather events.
Here is Eye on Miami. You have to go and listen to the audio.
Sea level rise in Miami: Dr. Harold Wanless on podcast, “This Can’t Be Happening” … by gimleteye
Harold Wanless, a leading climatologist and geologist based at the University of Miami, returns to the “This Can’t Be Happening!” program after a year to revisit his claim that global warming and sea level rise are going to be much more dramatic than the consensus predictions of the UN Climate Committee, NASA, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and other groups. With recent reports of faster melting on Greenland and in both the Eastern and Western Antarctic, Wanless tells host Dave Lindorff we are now facing a catastrophe that could see sea levels rising by more than 20 feet by the end of the century, and perhaps, if methane begins seriously erupting from the Arctic seafloor, even reduced oxygen levels that could threaten mammals, including humans.
Are you sick of me yet?
Here is some video. Excellent and well done and also talks about the Biscayne Aquifer and salt water intrusion. Richard Grosso also in this.
This is here. We cannot have anyone running for President who ignores this. Either address it or we will just say no.
The Fanjul brothers’ were born in Cuba and are descendants of the Spaniard Andres Gomez-Mena who immigrated to Cuba in the 19th century and built up an empire of sugar mills and property by the time he died in 1910. In 1936, his descendant Lillian Gomez-Mena married Alfonso Fanjul, Sr, the heir of the New York-based sugar companies the Czarnikow Rionda Company and the Cuban Trading Company. The couple’s holdings were then combined to create a large business of cane sugar mills, refineries, distilleries, and significant amounts of real estate. Due to Fidel Castro‘s 1959 MarxistCuban Revolution, the family moved to Florida along with other wealthy, dispossessed Cuban families. In 1960, Alfonso Sr., the father of the current CEO of Fanjul Corp. Alfonso Jr., bought 4,000 acres (16 km2) of property near Lake Okeechobee along with some sugar mills from Louisiana and started over on the US. Alfonso Sr. and his son Alfy Fanjul got the firm off its feet and Pepe, Alexander and Andres joined in the late 1960s and 1970s.[1] Pepe Fanjul Jr. joined the sugar firm in 2002. As of 2008, the company owned 155,000 acres (630 km2) in Palm Beach County.
Here are some great articles and blogs on the Fanjul’s.
But managing water is a state responsibility; Big Sugar’s interest in counties goes deep into the bread and butter of local politics: land use zoning. While Big Sugar wages water use and water quality battles on many levels of judicial review, fighting tooth and nail to dictate every last term of its water pollution control measures, it wages war on the land use zoning front by ensuring complicit county commissioners are well funded. If not sugar cane, then rock mines and inland ports and shopping centers and subdivisions strategically placed to thwart the aims of environmentalists to protect the Everglades and our rivers and streams and estuaries.
Jose “Pepe” Fanjul, one of four brothers who control a sugar empire that includes Domino and Florida Crystals. Fanjul and his family have held at least two fundraisers for Rubio at Florida properties this year, while donors associated with Florida Crystals have given Rubio at least $81,100 since 2009.
(also some money from the Koch Brothers. Koch Industries, the conglomerate run by conservative activist brothers Charles and David Koch: $37,200. (Koch has donated $17,000 to Sen. Paul since 2010.)
Now, contrary to what almost anyone could have imagined, the 76-year-old Fanjul has begun to reassess old grievances and tentatively eye Cuba as a place for him and other U.S. businessmen to expand their enterprises. Quietly, without fanfare, Fanjul has started visiting the island of his birth and having conversations with top Cuban officials.
“If there is some way the family flag could be taken back to Cuba, then I am happy to do that,” Fanjul said in a rare interview, publicly discussing his recent visits to the island for the first time.
Here’s an early story on the Fanjul sugar interests well worth reading: “The power and wealth of the Fanjul family is enormous, so much so that they can quietly control their public image. But behind that image lies a family with a reputation for ruthlessness whose riches were made on the backs of migrant laborers and at the expense of America’s public resources and tax dollars. Without the artificial federal price supports of sugar, their industrial advantage and wealth would collapse.
The Fanjuls of Coral Gables and Palm Beach are among the richest farmers in America. The family interests own Florida Crystals/ Flo Sun in lands formerly of the Everglades.
I wouldn’t care except that the Fanjul’s sugar growing interest in the Everglades Agricultural Area is a home-grown Florida polluter whose influence in the political sphere has contributed to the destruction of millions of acres of publicly owned property and irreplaceable natural resources. What adds to my ire is that in the execution of its business strategy, Fanjul lobbyists and attorneys take maximal positions in defense of the last dime of profit– even when lands like the 50,000 acre Talisman Farm have been committed to public ownership– causing years and years of delay.
Sugar growers in this country, long protected from global competition, have had a great run at the expense of just about everyone else — refineries, candy manufacturers, other food companies, individual consumers and farmers in the developing world. But now the nation’s sugar program, which guarantees a domestic price for raw sugar that can be as much as three times the world price, needs to be terminated. It has become far too costly to America’s global economic and strategic interests.
The less defensible a federal policy is on its merits, the greater the likelihood that it generates (or originates from) a great deal of cash in Washington, in the form of campaign contributions. Sugar is a sweet case in point. The Fanjul brothers, Florida’s Cuban-American reigning sugar barons who preside over Palm Beach’s yacht-owning society, were alone responsible for generating nearly $1 million in soft-money donations during the 2000 election cycle. Alfonso Fanjul, the chief executive of the family-controlled Flo-Sun company, served as Bill Clinton’s Florida co-chairman in 1992 — and even merited a mention in the impeachment-scandal Starr report, when Monica Lewinsky testified that the president received a call from him during one of their trysts. Meanwhile, brother Pepe is equally energetic in backing Republicans, so all bases are covered.
The Fanjuls harvest 180,000 acres in South Florida that send polluted water into the Everglades. (A crucial part of their business over the years has been to lobby not just against liberalization of the sugar trade, but against plans to have the sugar industry pay its fair share of the ambitious $8 billion Everglades restoration project.) The Fanjuls had been Cuba’s leading sugar family for decades before Fidel Castro’s takeover. Crossing the Straits of Florida, they bought land in the vicinity of Lake Okeechobee, which feeds the Everglades, and imported platoons of poorly paid Caribbean migrant workers. Their business was aided by the embargo on Cuban sugar. The crop is protected from other competition by an intricate system of import quotas that dates back to 1981.
The government does not pay sugar producers income supports as it does many other kinds of farmers. Instead, it guarantees growers like the Fanjuls an inflated price by restricting supply.Only about 15 percent of American sugar is imported under the quota rules, and while the world price is about 7 cents a pound, American businesses that need sugar to make their products must pay close to 21 cents. Preserving this spread between domestic and world sugar prices costs consumers an estimated $2 billion a year, and nets the Fanjuls — who have been called the first family of corporate welfare — tens of millions annually.The sugar exporters who are able to sell to the United States also benefit from those astronomical prices. The Dominican Republic is the largest quota holder, and one of the big plantation owners there is — surprise — the Fanjul family.
The sugar situation hurts American businesses and consumers, but its worst impact is on the poor countries that try to compete in the global agricultural markets. Their farmers might never be able to compete with corn or wheat farmers in the United States, even if the playing field were leveled. But they can grow cotton and sugar at lower prices than we can, no matter how advanced our technology. Our poorer trading partners bitterly resent the way this country feels entitled to suspend market-driven rules whenever it appears they will place American producers at a disadvantage.
In fairness, the United States is not alone in distorting the sugar trade, and the European Union’s massively subsidized exports of beet sugar make it the biggest culprit. The American sugar lobby uses that fact as a shield, arguing that the crop not be included in any regional trade deals until distortions are addressed by all countries at the World Trade Organization. But quotas are set between trading partners, not on a global level. Right now the United States is negotiating the creation of a hemispheric free trade area that would benefit many United States industries, including other agricultural sectors. It is ridiculous for the sugar lobby to argue — as it does vociferously — that sugar should not be included in the agreement even though it is one of the few products that some Latin American republics can hope to ship to the American market.
So far the Bush administration has rightly rejected the sugar lobby’s push to keep the commodity off the table. The danger, however, is that American trade negotiators might still prove far too deferential to sugar industries when hammering out the trade deals’ specifics. For instance, any move to phase in elimination of sugar quotas over a period longer than a decade (as was done in the North American Free Trade Agreement) would undermine any promise a trade deal might hold for poor farmers in Latin America. The strength of the protectionist sugar lobby in Washington — which unites Southeastern cane growers and Midwestern beet farmers — was apparent in the success of Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana last year in bashing Nafta’s modest sugar provision during her re-election bid.
If the sugar trade were liberalized, world prices would start creeping up and domestic prices would fall, which would benefit both the developing world and the American economy. The industry itself cites ”alarming” studies that if the United States imported an additional two million metric tons — roughly the amount Central America exports — domestic prices would be cut in half. But that is no argument for opposing trade liberalization. That is an argument for the handful of individuals who control the sugar business in this country to start thinking about a new line of work, and be grateful for the long run they had.
Harvesting Poverty: Editorials in this series remain online at nytimes.com/harvestingpoverty.
The Fanjuls are looking back to the future with Cuba
Now, contrary to what almost anyone could have imagined, the 76-year-old Fanjul has begun to reassess old grievances and tentatively eye Cuba as a place for him and other U.S. businessmen to expand their enterprises. Quietly, without fanfare, Fanjul has started visiting the island of his birth and having conversations with top Cuban officials.
“If there is some way the family flag could be taken back to Cuba, then I am happy to do that,” Fanjul said in a rare interview, publicly discussing his recent visits to the island for the first time.
This, I’m sure, will make Marco Rubio’s head spin.
U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, made the following statement on reports of Cuban-American sugar tycoon Alfonso Fanjul considering investing in Cuba:
“At a time when the democracy activists on the island are facing even harsher reprisals from the brutal Cuban regime, it’s pathetic that a Cuban-American tycoon feels inspired to trample on the backs of those activists in order to give the communist thugs more money with which to repress. The only little old thing that is standing in Alfy’s way of realizing these sleazy business deals with the devil is US law. He doesn’t talk about the arbitrary arrests of pro-freedom leaders in Cuba or the continual beatings endured by the peaceful Damas de Blanco. Oh no, for Alfy, the only hindrance to turning a profit off the suffering of the Cuban people is pesky US laws and he is working with groups to undo those laws. It is sickening to read that he brings up the separation of the Cuban family when he is doing all he can to exacerbate that problem. Shame on him..”
A little trouble in Paradise!
Despite the Fanjul family’s influence over U.S. policy and access to government officials at the highest levels of power, Alfy Fanjul has never become a U.S. citizen. He remains a permanent U.S. resident who maintains Spanish citizenship. Alfonso Fanjul served as co-chairman of Bill Clinton’s Florida campaign in 1992 and is a major contributor and fundraiser for the Democratic Party. His brother Pepe, who is a U.S. citizen, contributes to the Republicans.
Attention to all my film friends: Can you help us Save the Indian River Lagoon:
I miss all the fun.
This was the add on Facebook that was posted by a person named Karen Donahue who apparently was on her way to Michigan later that night. Probably to her new job at Fox News or some kind of great payola for selling her friends down the filthy, dirty, polluted river last week at South Florida Water Management. When I checked her out on Facebook we had 50 or so of the same friends. Since we have many mutual friends in the film industry who have watched me post about this issue for the last three years I’m sure they were quite surprised that one of their own basically screwed them and intentionally used them in a protest to hurt the Everglades.
In the end. Its didn’t hurt that much.
After I posted the article on Karen’s Page she said this:
“Don’t take the Bait.” This is how I know she is not innocent.
Then she posted “You know dear Karma is only a bitch if you are.”
Funny.
Then she deleted all the posts
So I guess Karma really is a bitch if you are!
Funny.
Here is the add:
“Political Rally Protesters needed!!
We could use up to 40 people for Rally Protesters this Thursday, April 2nd at 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
We will pay CASH of $75 per person at end of shoot. NO BREAKFAST
The address is: MUST BE REGISTERED and ON LIST TO GET PAID
South Florida Water Management District
3301 Gun Club Road
West Palm Beach, FL 33406
Details: Basically to stand behind fence, holding banners or signs that will be provided. Clothing is almost anything!! Use common sense and don’t wear “club” outfits or gym clothes. Just wardrobe for a Political Rally. This couldn’t be any easier…………the only down side is an early start for West Palm Beach location. That is why we’re paying so well!!
Also Jason we have many friends in common.
“I don’t know anything about people being paid! These are real protestors”
Here are some of the great articles that followed:
“Big Sugar supporters hiring actors to pretend to protest is pathetic,” said Progress Florida Executive Director Mark Ferrulo. “Someone should ask who is paying for artificial sweetener to make polluting the Everglades and our drinking water easier to swallow.”
Please see the below screen grab of a Broward Acting Group’s Facebook post offering to pay for pretend protesters to back Big Sugar’s attempt to get out of the land deal they made with the State of Florida.”
More than 50 actors from a Broward County acting group were paid $75 each to protest outside the South Florida Water Management District on Thursday about a controversial land deal they knew little about.
They were protesting about stopping the land grab! This is not a land grab. Its like opposite. If your going to be against something why not learn about it.
The protest was called by the Tea Party of Miami and Florida Citizens Against Waste, a recently formed group that has no contact information on its website and is not registered to do business in Florida.
I had a conversation with a person who was at the rally and very confused. He thought he was protesting the selling of the land because he didn’t want Big Sugar to make a profit and he was concerned about the “poor and homeless.” which as an actor in South Florida where the pickins are thin I’m sure he’s knows a lot about this. I felt badly for him but I also saw the light bulb go off in his head when he realized what a messed up thing he did.
Apparently, people pick up these jobs all the time through their group of Broward Actors. These guys need these jobs to make ends meet and I am in no way upset with them with the exception of two people.
How much of this has gone on. Is the Tea Party really a party or a bunch of hired actors? I hope so!
The big questions I have right now are these?
Who paid the Tea Party to pay these people? That needs to be investigated. Not the actors. Some of them thought they were filming a reenactment for a Tea Party Documentary.
I also think it’s important that people step forward anonymously and let it be know what else they were told about the gig.
And thirdly, I’d like to know why there was no Craft Service Table. This is very bad form Tea Party. We all know part of the gig is providing good food for all.
Feel free to email me at clenz@mac.com.
The whole thing is really pathetic but funny and very telling. For the future if you want to know how to put on a great protest we can totally hook you up.
Welcome President Obama to the Treasure Coast and welcome from all of us that have been working hard to Save the St Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon.
We have been are being decimated by the discharges from Lake Okeechobee. What once was the most diverse estuary in North America has been destroyed. Our lagoon has lost massive amounts of sea grass and it is filled with muck.
Would you allow this in your backyard?
People will tell you “It’s Complicated!” Its not. We need to buy this land. We need to do this now before the option on the land runs out.
This purchase can be funded through our Amendment 1 which specifically states that the money is to buy the land.
Florida Water and Land Conservation Initiative, Amendment 1 (2014)
The Florida Water and Land Conservation Initiative, Amendment 1 was on the November 4, 2014 ballot in the state of Florida as an initiated constitutional amendment, where it was approved. The measure was designed to dedicate 33 percent of net revenue from the existing excise tax on documents to the Land Acquisition Trust Fund.
The Land Acquisition Trust Fund was developed to acquire and improve conservation easements, wildlife management areas, wetlands, forests, fish and wildlife habitats, beaches and shores, recreational trails and parks, urban open space, rural landscapes, working farms and ranches, historical and geological sites, lands protecting water and drinking water resources and lands in the Everglades Agricultural Areas and the Everglades Protection Area. The fund was designed to manage and restore natural systems and to enhance public access and recreational use of conservation lands.
The campaign in support of the initiative was led by Florida’s Water and Land Legacy.
It passed with 74.96%
The people of Florida support this.
We got the money
Billions of gallons of polluted water have been wasted flowing into the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Rivers. All the projects that we have going now will never be complete unless we buy this land and build a reservoir and send clean water south.
This not only helps us on both coasts but will help South Florida with its drinking water which is in peril, help with salt water intrusion and sea level rise in Miami and help to save the Florida Bay which is also in peril because it does not get enough fresh water.
The Everglades is the water supply for one-third of our states Population.
Florida has negotiated a contract to purchase land, including 26,000 acres directly south of the lake. Buying this strategic parcel will provide water managers with a new option to store, move and clean water south of Lake Okeechobee before it reaches the Everglades.
We are done ask our legislators why they won’t do this. They serve themselves. The certainly don’t serve the citizens of Florida. We have done everything in our power to make this happen.
Rick Scott ignores the Science of Climate change. Rick Scott is ignoring the science of sea level rise. There are wells in South Florida filled with salt water and soon be undrinkable. This is our drinking water.
Who are you going to believe? The scientists or the Governor of Florida who has muzzled free speech by not allowing people to even say the words “Climate Change.”
cyndi lenz 