The insane 2,000 Mile Mexican Wall: Build It and They Will Storm It. By Geniusofdespair

I don't need no arms around me

And I dont need no drugs to calm me.

I have seen the writing on the wall.

Don't think I need anything at all.

No! Don't think I'll need anything at all.

All in all it was all just bricks in the wall.

- Pink Floyd

THE GREAT DIVIDE:

According to USA Today: A human smuggler told the USA TODAY NETWORK that a wall won't stop people from trying to cross — but it will allow him to charge more money to help them.

People Trying to Cross the Border from Mexico

The tide is turning in America. People just don't want any more immigrants. It has been changing elsewhere in the world as well.  According to the Alt-Right Brietbart, 2 out of 3 American voters say they support President Trump's plan to reduce overall legal immigration. I really think that isn't far off.

How much more polarized could the Parties be on Immigration:

Quinnipiac University Poll. Feb. 2-6, 2017. N=1,155 registered voters nationwide. Margin of error ± 2.9. 

Alternate Right folks have now morphed into culturists trying to be less offensive, if you watch the video they haven’t succeeded but they are marketing culturism as pride in your heritage instead of a clear message of racism and Xenophobia. Same white supremacists, they just don’t want people different from themselves in the United States. Do you know what culturist is? Watch this really wacky video, it sort of explained for me the polarization between the parties.  Culturism recommends an ‘America First’ style foreign policy (Sound Familiar?). DONALD TRUMP IS A TRUE CULTURIST. That is exactly why immigration will be a dead issue in this country. We won't be seeing immigrants from Muslim Countries, from Mexico and elsewhere.






You can start at 6:44 but the whole thing is fascinating. 
THEY SAY: "Using culturist rhetoric, (rather than just sadly denying we’re racist), can once again make it safe for the West to have the rational discussions about culture that it so desperately needs. Take action! Spread the words ‘culturist’ and ‘culturism’ today! It costs us nothing. And, the words could quickly go viral and, thereby, aid us in saving the West."   Specifically they mean: for White Christians.

Columnist Fabiola Santiago said today:

“And the president’s supporters? Well, they don’t bother to hide their racism anymore, confirming the findings of a University of Pennsylvania study that they voted for Trump, not out of economic anxiety but because they’re afraid to lose their white privilege and social dominance to minority groups.”

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The City of Miami Proposed Trolley Route for Coconut Grove and Brickell. By Geniusofdespair

You can see where I whited out THEIR ROUTE and added My Bird Road Connector Route

The meeting to discuss Coconut Grove Trolley route realignment was chaotic with a man in a wheelchair dominating, so I left a half hour after I got there. Order had to be restored and people needed to be civil to each other.

Also there was berating of the good people who came there by two other residents (one who is also employed by the county- from Alice Bravo’s office). This was very rude. The people did not deserve a lecture by the people speaking and they should have been stopped from lecturing. One Know-It-All lady told the people they should have gone to all the meetings, what they said today would be meaningless and it was their fault the trolley route (bus?) route they liked was cancelled (I was not there when that was discussed so I don’t know what popular route they were discussing). She said they should be going to the CITT meeting and they should be glad they have the trolley at all.  Well, lady it was a bond they are paying for so don't act like they are getting a gift from God.

Many were at this meeting to be heard about the cancellation and “sorry" doesn’t really cut it.

What more could anyone ask of these residents? I left unhappy with the new route and the treatment of the people.  One lady said she was mugged at the Douglas Station.

I personally wanted a direct route to get to the Coconut Grove Station from Bayshore down 27th Avenue -- Direct and Fast. The Coconut Grove route they proposed was ridiculous with the box to McDonald and back. There is two much doubling back to get to the station at Coconut Grove that the Douglas Park route doesn’t have.

The only reason I want to get on the trolley at all is because I do not want to get run over crossing US 1. I certainly can walk but crossing the street is very dangerous. Did anyone time this route? I would say it it 45 minutes on the trolley and I can walk it in about 12 to 15 minutes.

If you want to get people out of their cars (I will be out of mine May 30th) you have to make these routes sensible and quick.

I do like the Brickell Extension route if this is it??:

I like it if the trolleys don’t linger at city hall and Mercy which I am apt to think they will do. I am just looking for a quick trolley route to metro rail that does not have a dangerous station drop-off.

If you need a grocery store stop -- (they said as much) Milam's is very expensive, anyway if you add my third bird route it will be close enough. They can get to Publix from Coral Gables route?? or the Fresh Market from the other route to City Hall.

I would do the one down Douglas and the one down 27th and Have a THIRD ROUTE connecting the two on bird. 3 routes and the Brickell route.

Brickell route is fine the way it is. At least it takes you to the Brickell Station. But during traffic times this will be a really slow ride. Will have to get off and walk.

Sorry for all the black spots the other map was on the back of this one.

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President of Chaos Donald Trump goes haywire in Michigan ... by gimleteye

Donald Trump will never veer from the advice drummed into his ear by one of the right wing's most hideous manifestations: Roy Cohn: "when in trouble, double down". Cohn's direction served Trump as well as it did Cohn's mentor, Senator Joe McCarthy in the 1950's, when he paralyzed Washington with the House Un-American Committee (until McCarthy's paranoia and addiction dumped him into the waste bin of history).

Over time, Trump parlayed a bankrupt real estate empire into a billion dollar brand, turning himself into a latter-day PT Barnum. A sucker is born every minute, but put an asterisk next to Trump's name: he could not have been elected president but for Facebook and Moscow Center. That's a separate story.

Last week, the House Republican Intelligence Committee released its investigation of allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and found none. As political observer Seth Abramson illustrates in this damning thread on Twitter, summarizing the House minority report and concluding the opposite; there is enough in the public record now to bring impeachment charges against Trump.

Because impeachment charges will not happen until control of Congress reverts to the Democrats, the most bizarre phase of US presidential history (Queens NYC version of Beverly Hillbillies meets Dallas mashed up with Homeland) will equally condemn a morally bankrupt Republican Party and Trump.

While the White House Correspondents Dinner was ridiculing the aberrant behavior, Trump made a campaign stop in Michigan where he threw out the script again, engaging the crowd in full-throated performance art in which he conjured Leni Riefenstahl, the Nazi ingenue who painted the Third Reich in video for the world to see, and Josef Goebbels, Hitler's master of propaganda. He belittled his enemies (all Democrats and all journalists except Rupert Murdoch's stable at Fox), he ridiculed conspiracy theories about Russia collusion (without noting his rise to political visibility was entirely dependent on conspiracy theories), and he personalized the persecution against him and his audience.

Working in this White House must be an absolute nightmare because Trump is an unguided missile. The only certainty: that Trump will wake up, watch Fox & Friends, take whatever medication he is on, then tweet and frame the rest of his day around whatever fuels his instinct for self-preservation. Everyone else is there in court, on pins and needles, to cater the instant demands of a mad king.

Fortunately the madness reigning the White House and among Congressional Republicans is not contagious. American voters have a chance to put a corrective fix in place this November -- and in special elections leading to November. A blue wave is coming.

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Alex Steffen: Sobering, accurate analysis of what climate change means to economic prosperity ... by gimleteye

For the twitter thread by Alex Steffen: click this link. It is well worth reading ... a friend of mine called the phenomenon of global warming a "delamination" of civilization. It happens slowly. The linkages we depend on for industrial economies are not as durable as they seem. Steffan has another metaphor: "the brittleness bubble".

It is an excellent analogy, because climate change -- slowly, but now with accelerating speed -- is introducing brittleness to the stability and elasticity of predictable seasons and rainfall cycles we require for food production, across the globe. Steffen writes, "There are many vectors for brittleness." He's right, and that's why his analogy captures the impacts of global warming better than "delamination".

For more, read Steffen's thesis on his Twitter thread.

I've been talking about the brittleness bubble for a long time now.

We're starting to see it rupture as extremely vulnerable coastal real estate begins to drop in price.

But here's the thing to remember: There are many vectors of brittleness.

Thread...https://t.co/a6V9EwRnXV

— Alex Steffen (@AlexSteffen) April 25, 2018

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Bullsugar.org: Weekly Newsletter ... in Florida Governor's Race, Big Sugar Money May Finally Be Toxic And That's A Very Good Thing

Pensacola News Journal/Andy Marlette: Big Sugar Buys Both

Please consider contributing to Bullsugar.org

Thursday, April 26, 2018

Dear Friends of Bullsugar,

Florida politics changed this week, quietly but profoundly.

Candidates for governor have declared--on the record--whether they will accept donations from the sugarcane industry. That makes sugar money a statewide election issue in 2018, pushing two billionaire families and their sprawling businesses into the public spotlight along with their roles in the collapse of the Everglades and Florida Bay… and the destruction of the Caloosahatchee and its massive Gulf coast estuary... and the St. Lucie and Treasure Coast beaches. And the cancer, neurological disease, and liver failure epidemics linked to toxic algae... And the developing threat to Miami-Dade’s water supply... And the theft of huge swaths of public land... and taxpayer money.

In 2018 voters will know which candidates owe their careers and loyalties to Florida Crystals and US Sugar. And there’s a chance Florida’s next governor won’t owe them anything: Only longtime ally Adam Putnam is comfortable acknowledging his campaign’s mounting debt to sugar.

Fellow Republican Ron DeSantis hasn’t pledged to turn away sugar donors, but he’s been on the industry’s hitlist since voting for subsidy reform in 2013--also siding with scientists against the industry by agreeing the EAA reservoir needs more land didn't win him any sugar cash. Democrat Andrew Gillum says he hasn’t gotten any either. Meanwhile Democrats Gwen Graham, Chris King, and Philip Levine refuse to accept sugar money.

Bullsugar was founded for this moment, when voters pressure candidates to openly confront sugarcane’s influence. When Floridians whose livelihoods, lifestyles, and lives depend on clean water can clearly see who the industry funds.

We’re not naive enough to think that means we’ll win. Government handouts and Soviet-style price controls net these families billions--plenty to fund high-powered campaigns and cover up the financing; set up phony activist groups and protests; buy anonymous attack ads… whatever it takes to get elected. Although the landscape is shifting there, too: DeSantis publicly called out US Sugar for secretly funneling nearly $1 million into a smear campaign, which was pulled off the air this week.

Change happens slowly, and we don’t always recognize turning points when they happen. But this is one: The year sugar money became a litmus test in statewide elections.

And to virtually every voter, sugarcane candidates should be toxic. Like the killing of Everglades National Park. And three legendary American fisheries. And the jobs that rely on them. And the home values and local economies and cancer victims that die with them.

Sugarcane candidates should be tied to the industry’s corruption. Like embedding lobbyists to rewrite government reports and pollution standards. And using public resources to intimidate taxpayers. And slave trafficking.

Whatever happens in November, 2018 will be the year that politicians were forced to tell us where they stand on all of this, in one clear statement: I refuse sugar money.

Bullsugar.org
http://www.bullsugar.org/

P.S. THANK YOU to everyone who donated to Bullsugar Alliance this week through Great Give--your generosity made a huge impact! If you missed it, please click here to join Bullsugar.org and help us reshape Florida politics for a clean water future.

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All You Need To Know About EPA Pruitt Hearing In Congress Today (C-SPAN) ... by gimleteye

EPA Scott Pruitt, who has turned into a symbol of the Trump Administration, is being grilled by Congress for transgressions that would be disqualifying but for the conversion of the Republican Party into a tool of Donald Trump.

Here is the brief from today's hearing: if you are a Republican member of Congress, you support the collapse of the federal environmental mission.

If you are a Democrat, you support a federal role to regulate polluters of the nation's air and water.

This is war.

It is a war with bright lines unlike the so-called culture wars where -- it now is clear, if it never was before -- that "morality" and "values" were a smokescreen for political power grabs.

For voters, there is one question: do you believe in the greater public good or not?

If you are a Republican member of Congress today, you don't. You believe that government serves no useful purpose except when it gets out of the way of private enterprise. If you are a Democratic member of Congress, you believe that government can and must protect people because corporations won't.

There is no place in the federal government where this bright line is painted with more sharply than the US Environmental Protection Agency; an agency that commands less than 1% of the federal budget but is -- in the mind of President Trump -- his proof that killing regulations is what will "make America great again."

Any regular reader of this blog will know what bullshit that is.

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County Corruption: Why we need the Miami Herald. by Geniusofdespair

I wrote about this China Trip of County Brass once already and was very suspicious of what went on. I said something was fishy with this trip In a post I wrote April 2nd and apparently the Miami Herald agreed and reporter Douglas Hanks did some more digging.  You might notice this is NOT a Miami Herald link because it is buried and I don't have time to find it on the Miami Herald Site. Why did they bury it on line but it was front page in the Newspaper?

Everyone knows that you must not destroy data but the County Information Department issued 13 phones and each one now says: "Wiped by User".  What is even more bizarre, the Supervisor of the IT Department is Myriam Marquez. Sound familiar? Her name should, she was the former top dog at El Nuevo Herald and she formerly was the Editorial Page Editor of the Miami Herald.  If anyone should know that this information should be preserved it is Myriam.  So what happened?

The trip was fishy to begin with.  There was a leg of it not on the itinerary that went to visit the Genting group...that owns the land where the former Miami Herald offices were on Biscayne Bay and they want to build a giant gambling complex there. Why did some of the members of the junket, including the Mayor and his favorite lobbyists, take this detour to Genting? What could have been on the phones to give us some answers?

Myriam Marquez speaking for the Mayor says it was a mistake to have erased the phones. This is no mistake lady. And, you know it. You are selling yourself out for your job.

In fact, the whole erasing scandal appears to have been intentional, the erasing done after the Miami Herald asked for the information and some of the phone users saying they gave it in with all the information on it:

On April 2, the Herald requested some text messages sent and received by Manny Gonzalez, director of the county's trade office, while on the Asia trip. The request identified the number of the temporary phone he had identified in email messages as the number he was using during the trade mission.

Ten days later, on April 12, Tere Florin, a spokeswoman for the department where Gonzalez works, Regulatory and Economic Resources, said a reporter could come to County Hall the following morning to review Gonzalez's phone from China and read any text messages relevant to the request.

But later that day, Florin and Marquez called to say the IT executive assigned to the mayor's office, Jose Marticorena, told them the phone's data had been deleted as part of the security precautions taken after the China trip.

"When I got it, it was wiped," Marticorena said in an interview Tuesday. He said he did not know who had deleted Gonzalez's data, but assumed it was someone else in the IT department. The county apparently has no records showing who had done the wiping. While the log says "Wiped by User" next to the county official's name assigned the phone, several participants, including MIA director Lester Sola and Commissioner Jose "Pepe" Diaz, said they turned over their devices to IT with the data intact.

Myriam Marquez, former Miami Herald big shot - Turning into a sneaky person? Lobbyist Rafael A. Garcia-Toledo in the Background

What are they hiding? This is what a Strong Mayor does. He dictates. Sorry Francis Suarez, I just can't vote for a Strong Mayor ever again. If Gimenez can turn Myriam into a sycophant, what other nefarious things is Mayor Gimenez doing? This smells so bad all I can say is: WTF?

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Thanks to Marco Rubio's Vote: Senate Confirms Climate Change Denier To Lead NASA​ ... by gimleteye

Senator Marco Rubio continues to demonstrate that he will do anything to curry favor with polluters who are his major source of campaign money. There has never been a more craven opportunist in Florida politics.

Senate Confirms Climate Change Denier To Lead NASA​

The Senate, last Thursday, narrowly confirmed Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.), a former Navy pilot with no scientific credentials and who doesn’t believe humans are primarily to blame for the global climate crisis, to lead NASA.

Bridenstine will become the first elected official to hold the NASA administrator job. He joins a Cabinet already loaded with people who question the near-universal scientific consensus that climate change is real and that human activity is the primary cause.

The final vote ― which was 50-49 along party lines ― came one day after the Senate narrowly advanced Bridenstine’s nomination, thanks to an about-face from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and a key vote from Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.). Rubio, who in September told Politico that he worried about Bridenstine’s nomination “could be devastating for the space program,” said in a statement Wednesday that he decided to support the nominee in order to avoid “a gaping leadership void” at NASA.

In a statement following Thursday’s vote, Bridenstine said he is humbled by the opportunity. “I look forward to working with the outstanding team at NASA to achieve the President’s vision for American leadership in space,” he said.

The Senate confirmation comes more than seven months after President Donald Trump tapped Bridenstine for the post. Democrats skewered Bridenstine during the confirmation process, pegging him as “extreme” and unqualified to oversee a scientific agency with an annual budget of more than $18 billion.

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Flooding Hot Spots: Why Seas Are Rising Faster on the U.S. East Coast

Scientists are unraveling the reasons why some parts of the world are experiencing sea level increases far beyond the global average. A prime example is the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, which has been experiencing “sunny day flooding” that had not been expected for decades.
By Jim Morrison for Yale360 • April 24, 2018

Seen from a pedestrian footbridge overlooking Myrtle Park — a sliver of land that Norfolk, Virginia is allowing to revert to wetlands — the panorama of surrounding homes illustrates the accelerating sea level rise that has beleaguered this neighborhood along the Lafayette River.

A grey house, among the first raised in the area, is slightly elevated on cinderblocks, standing 2 feet off the ground. Nearby, owners of a white-sided house with black shutters have lifted their dwelling about 4 feet above ground level. And on the right, a brick house resting on cinderblocks rises incongruously 11 feet above the street.

The roads circling Myrtle Park are cracked and disintegrating due to frequent flooding. Tidal grasses like Spartina are springing up. The boulevard a block away, which leads to the world’s largest naval base, floods several times a year and the frequency is increasing.

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These Aberrant Politics: Nothing is Normal in the Age of Rick Scott and Donald Trump ... by gimleteye

"For a time, we created exceptional value for shareholders."

Trump just appointed a new head of NASA, the space agency, that has a primary role in science disclosing global warming. The head of NASA is a climate change denier.

The drool starts from the top.

In Florida, the South Florida Water Management District has turned into a paranoid place where science is being forced to the shape of political outcomes.

This didn't happen overnight. For decades, conservatives who spouted anti-regulatory nonsense -- in order to fatten their profits -- tilled the fields of misdirection so that, eventually, something entirely awful and exotic could grow there: Rick Scott, as Governor, and Donald Trump.

Of the two, Scott is a smoother operator. He answers only the questions from the public that he wants to, and always has a frame for his response that reinforces his talking points. Incredibly, Scott and his spokespersons claim that no one has done more for the environment than he has. What Scott did, in fact, was to make science subservient to the demands of big agricultural industries, like Big Sugar.

As extreme as Scott is, it would never have happened without the continuous push and momentum created by his predecessor, Jeb Bush. Jeb had no use for environmental regulation and held the core belief that anything government could do, private industry could do better. That's exactly how "self-regulation" first became a mantra and then provided the fuel to gut government agencies and missions that had already been weakened from within, by allocating budgets and priorities away from science and away from fact.

Florida is an outlier state. That is one reason Trump feels such affinity with Scott. They are both wealthy as a result of skating the edges of the law. They both occupy center seats of power. They both understand their jobs to undermine "the administrative state" that suppresses private profits. Both deride the concept of a "public good".

Science and fact-based regulations to protect public health and the environment instead serve political  ends: to accumulate more power and wealth. That's why, for Trump and his backers like the Koch Brothers and fossil fuel supply chain, it is important to have a head of NASA who doesn't believe in global warming and isn't a scientist. That's why citizens protesting the South Florida Water Management District and its hired-gun governing board are facing the full wrath of the state.

There is nothing normal with what is happening in Florida and the nation. There will be a very steep price to pay, eventually, for those who scavenged rewards from these aberrant politics.

Trump is breaking the environment beyond repair
By Linda J. Bilmes FEBRUARY 20, 2018
Boston Globe

HUMPTY DUMPTY famously cannot be “put back together” again. For those who care about the environment, every day since Donald Trump took office is a Humpty Dumpty day —with something being broken beyond repair.

The federal government has started selling off parcels of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments to anyone who hammers four poles into the ground and pays a $212 fee. The Trump administration has also slapped a 30 percent tariff on imported solar panels — making it more expensive for Americans to go solar and crippling the domestic solar panel installation industry. Additionally, the administration suspended the “Waters of the United States” rule, a key Obama-era regulation designed to reduce pollution in 60 percent of the nation’s lakes, rivers, and streams. The president’s 2019 spending plan would gut the Department of Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, and especially NOAA — where his budget would force the agency to stop protecting coastal estuaries, Pacific salmon, and marine mammals.

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Lying Donald Trump's Approval Rating. By Geniusofdespair

Lying Trump is so concerned with his approval rating, I decided to see how it averages out:

 

90% of all polls are expected to fall within the lighter color.

Rubio's Trump Score:

Even Ted Cruz didn't rate this bad: His Trump Score was 91.3%

Go to the source...

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GOP: God's Odd People. By Geniusofdespair

I always thought GOP stood for a misnomer. And it does, now that the party is run by a bunch of lunatics and has wacko's vying for office. In order to be accurate I have changed what GOP stands for to: God's Odd People.  Who could be odder than this guy:

or this GOP guy:

Steve Bannon

Or this guy:

Roy Jones

Worse GOP guy:

GOP  Nazi Candidate Arthur Jones voted for by 20,000 GOP'ers

More ODD GOP guys:

Watch the damn video as I prove my point that the GOP now stands for: God's Odd People. The video also nails the Democrats to wall on having no policy, only focusing on social issues:

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The November Amendment-Palooza. Guest Blog by Ross Hancock

 Amendment 5 is a poison pill, crafted by Republicans to ensure that any future Democratic majority will be fiscally powerless 

Putman

Maybe it’s just me, but for all the talk of a Blue Tsunami in November, I’m more fired up to vote on 13 state constitutional amendments than most of the races for office. I’m just not feeling the Bern for Donna Shalala and Bill Nelson. And the leading Dem gubernatorial candidates have put everyone in the State to sleep.  Adam Putnam, a lightening rod attracting enormous ire, is a candidate on the Republican side who is the stuff of nightmares, not sleep. Even the race that I’m personally in, for State House 114, probably won’t set the world on fire, since there is an election for that seat every couple of months or so, and everyone knows they can always just catch the next one.

That’s why a ballot laden with a record 13 constitutional amendments has me so excited that I just can’t hide it.

Anything good that has happened in Tallahassee in the past decade has been the result of voter-approved amendments. Our electeds are mostly lobbyists and semiprofessional officeholders, and at the end of the day, we don’t have much to show for casting our votes for them. But amendment referenda have brought us smaller class sizes in schools, fairer voting districts, solar energy progress, and preservation of environmentally sensitive lands. At least in theory.

And there are a few really good, life-changing amendments this time. Tops is the voter-initiated Florida Amendment 4—the Voting Rights Restoration for Felons Initiative. It will bring Florida in line with most other states by extending voting rights to citizens who have served their felony sentences, except for the most serious crimes.

Also, be sure to support Amendment 12 on legislative ethics. It will prevent lobbyists from being public officials, and prevent public officials from becoming lobbyists for six years. It actually used to be illegal for lobbyists to serve in the legislature. Things have only gotten worse since we let the foxes into the chicken house. Nowadays, there are many races that don’t even have non-lobbyists running. That kinda cuts out the middleman between special interests and the government.

There are so many amendments on the November ballot that some unrelated (and potentially contradictory) issues were combined into about half of them, weirdly. For example, to vote against coastal drilling (Amendment 9), a ban on workplace vaping is included in the same measure, so you have to want both. Amendment 11 combines high-speed trains, a civil rights issue, and a rule on prosecution of repealed crimes. Amendment 6 mashes up a victims’ bill of rights with increasing the retirement age for judges.

There are other examples of bundled issues. This is just nuts. Who is running this state?

So while there are 13 amendments on the ballot, there are really more than 20 issues, but it’s like a menu of combo meals that doesn’t allow substitutions.

On the ugly side, there is Amendment 5, a poison pill crafted by Republicans to ensure that any future Democratic majority will be fiscally powerless. It mandates a two-thirds vote of each chamber of the state legislature to raise any taxes or fees forever. Oddly, our local Democratic leader Rep. Kionne McGhee broke party ranks and voted to put this monstrosity on the ballot.

Still, if I have to hold my nose for a few candidates who will be the lesser of two evils, at least I am fired up about voting rights for felons, and especially for ridding the legislature of lobbyist officeholders. Be amendment-smart and study up—and plan on spending some time in the voting booth on November 6.

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The Florida DEMOCRATIC Gubernatorial Debate. By Geniusofdespair

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Transit: Citizens Getting SCREWED by Their Own Trust. By Geniusofdespair

The Citizens Transportation Trust, over-seeing our Transit Bond Money, screws the Citizens of Miami Dade County spending money on trinkets. First of all some members are former County employees. It is supposed to be composed of citizens perhaps USING transit. It is not. I doubt that Linda Zilber or Joe Curbelo has ever been on a bus (the members are below). The Selection Committee puts the same old people they know on the Trust. I hate this waste of money group. Is anyone on there from Cutler Bay or Palmetto Bay or Homestead? All the handwritten applications of people who actually use transit are mentally discarded by the Selection Committee.

But that is another story. One to follow. It is not my beef today.

I am complaining about the waste of money for the two sided heavy metal medallions being minted for the CITT, I was told it was their budget paying for them which translates to: Our Transportation Bond Money. They have done it 3 times so far. They are 3 inches round good for utterly nothing. I am trying to find out how many they made and how much they cost. On line, in bulk, a medallion of this size is at least $2 or $3. And what are they commentating, a few long over-due projects?

What do you do with the medallion once home? Well, you can't flush it down the toilet so you have to send it to the landfill. It has no use at all. Probably with the velvet bags, they paid thousands of dollars for the three sets of coins. I have no idea how many they got. But: WHY ARE THEY THROWING OUR TRANSIT MONEY DOWN THE DRAIN? Shame on you CITT. By the way, don't blame Javier Betancourt, the new Executive Director. He has NOT done anything stupid yet.

Message to Javier: Stay away from the promotional gear. If you want to do something constructive at an unveiling, raffle off a bike. Get some money in - don't spend it on garbage.

I like Javier, and have known him since he worked for the South Florida Regional Planning Council, and I hope we have a new beginning with him at the helm.

Note to Javier: Really look through the applicants and get some regular people on it. Maybe call them, you have enough staff. I will be watching. I want it to get better. See list of Mostly elitist members:

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Florida's Environmental Failure: could voters put a state agency into "receivership"? ... by gimleteye

Today, claims of "FAKE NEWS" envelop us, but here is one undeniable truth in Florida: our waters -- which belong to the people -- are dissolving in a toxic soup of pollution. This, despite decades of environmental rules and regulations and billions invested.

Florida's Everglades, held in the public trust for future generations, is on life support after huge taxpayer investments and billions more promised to come. And people are suffering. Highly toxic algae blooms coated both Florida coasts in 2016 and persist in ecological treasures like Florida Bay; more billions lost in a state economy that depends on tourism. Some of that algae can trigger incurable brain disease.

Everything we have tried, in terms of protecting Florida's water quality, is on the order of half-measures or worse. Take North Florida's springs: once as clear as plain air and now clogged and coated with algae. Or Apalachicola Bay, where the historic shellfish industry has disappeared.

Elected officials and decision-makers tell us: there are no silver bullets. It is always someone else's fault. Georgia. Municipal waste. The shrugging platitudes are excuses. The solutions are always the same: bury the pollution in deep wells. Shift it somewhere else.

The regulatory structure within which the public frames its hopes for clean water and a safe environment for people, for the economy, and for habitats is bankrupt, overwhelmed by external costs and internal conflicts.

This set of interlocking phenomena did not happen all at once, although there are manifest examples of contributing factors like Gov. Rick Scott's decision to eliminate the powers of the Florida Department of Community Affairs -- the single state agency with a mission to balance the needs of economic development with the environment. To conservationists, DCA was never a panacea. The agency and its mission grew out of a bi-partisan consensus in the early 1980's that the state needed to take a strong role in balancing economic development with environmental protection.

DCA was hacked to death, piece by piece, by politics steered by unregulated campaign contributions and dark money pools from industry associations, Big Agriculture, and the development supply chain that minted billions from construction at the shoreline and through the conversion of low-cost farmland and wetlands into suburban sprawl.

With DCA, though, at least civic activists had a platform; a legal framework to challenge political decisions. They could petition in state court when they believed local government permitting violated the intent and spirit of state growth management laws.

Now, there is no platform and growth management is a hollow shell.

The hollowing out of government agency and missions is a successful tactic of the anti-government AltR. Its apotheosis at the federal level is President Trump, blithely ignorant of facts and dismissive of science. Trump and his agents like EPA chief Scott Pruitt are torching federal authority to protect the nation's air and water. For instance, Trump has said that he can't wait to dismantle the Clean Water Act.

The states can do a better job, he says, without apparently understanding that Florida can't. Hasn't. Won't. In Florida, the life rafts are designed to sink.

A lawsuit filed yesterday against the State of Florida by a group of children, alleging that the state has failed its responsibilities under the public trust doctrine and constitution to proactively address climate change and its impacts points in the same direction. In that case, Delaney et al. v. Florida, we know that the solution is based in sound science; we must stop and reverse the combustion of global-warming emissions as soon as possible.

Isn't that the same case in Everglades restoration, and isn't the injury by state government in the case of climate change denial the same as the denial of science embedded in the state legislation that emerged, after two years of controversy, to place a huge man-made reservoir south of sugar plantations and Lake Okeechobee? Carl Hiaasen described it this way in a recent OPED:

At 10,500 acres, the reservoir will be relatively small and so deep (23 feet) that some scientists don’t think it can do the job. The design was chosen over better options by the board of the South Florida Water Management District, which under Gov. Rick Scott functions as a policy arm of Big Sugar.
As one example, TCPalm reporters exposed how the water district in 2015 allowed a U.S. Sugar lobbyist named Irene Quincey to “edit” and weaken planned regulations on harmful phosphorous pouring out of Lake O.

Among her contributions to the final draft was deleting the word “enforceable” from three key passages.

So it’s no shock that the water district bowed to the corporate cane growers this year, too. The original reservoir proposal by Sen. Joe Negron, a Stuart Republican whose tourism-dependent district gets slimed hard by the green algae blooms, called for a 60,000-acre project.

That would have been big and shallow enough to deal with much of the fouled lake discharges. However, sugar producers didn’t want a larger reservoir because they opposed taking any cane acreage out of production, even if the state paid them for it.

Just like a corporation, a state agency should be held to be bankrupt when it fails to uphold its mission to protect individual liberties and rights. In the case of the Everglades reservoir, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection claims it is following law and the balance of taxpayer interest and property rights, but it has manifestly ignored the parts of the law that inconveniently conflict with the aims of the state's powerful campaign contributors: Big Sugar. FDEP does the bare minimum. But the bare minimum has the further effect of allowing mission creep and the goal posts to shift further and further away from protecting people and the environment. Surely, the Florida constitution is being violated.

When a corporation goes bankrupt, its business is put into receivership. Why shouldn't receivership apply to state agencies like FDEP, as well? Who would "receive" a failed state agency? It could be a special master of the court, supervising the work and recommendations of a science panel comprised of experts who are independent of Florida's regulated communities. They wouldn't be able to legislate of course, but if the state legislature refused its recommendations at least the destruction would be more highly visible. A special master, moreover, could be a brake on further agency backsliding.

The status quo cannot hold, because if it does, the verge we are on will reveal even more nasty surprises.

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Mayor of Miami Francis Suarez wants to be a Strong Mayor. By Geniusofdespair

HOT OFF THE PRESS1

Francis Suarez has filed for a change to City of Miami Government to a Strong Mayor. It is an Executive Mayor form of Government right now.  What the change would mean, he would be the City Manager and the Mayor.

Not a good idea. No more strong mayors. After watching Carlos Gimenez destroy the County as a strong mayor, bulling around everyone in County Government, putting in horrendous Department heads, handcuffing transit fixes, hiring people like Alive Bravo and giving favors to long time friends, I would never vote for a strong mayor again.

He is doing a petition drive, no recall provision in paperwork. He has hired a bevy of lawyers to help him. Huge power move.  Also a salary raise for the Mayor is involved.

What is with the armed guards at City Hall during Commission? What is the deal. Maybe the Commissioners should all carry guns and shoot each other.

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Florida Kids Sue Gov. Rick Scott On Climate Change ... by gimleteye

NOTE: For 7 years, Gov. Scott used his executive authority to trash state environmental rules and regulations, using agencies like the South Florida Water Management District as political cudgels against conservationists. Now that he's running for Senate, Scott claims no one has done more than him, for the environment. Voters: be informed.

Florida Kids Sue Gov. Scott Over Climate Change: You Have 'Moral Obligation' to Protect Us
The case, connected to the federal Our Children’s Trust climate lawsuit, is one of nine pressuring states to take action on global warming and fossil fuels.
Apr 16, 2018

Eight young Floridians, ages 10 to 19, sued their state and its climate-policy-averse governor on Monday for failing to protect residents from the impacts of a warming climate.

They say they already see signs of climate change around them—from powerful hurricanes to extreme heat waves to tidal flooding that now regularly washes into coastal roads and parks as sea level rises—and they want the state to do something about it.

The lawsuit filed Monday is the latest in a wave of legal cases filed by children against states and the federal government that accuse government of depriving them of the fundamental right to a stable climate.

The Florida plaintiffs accuse the state of violating their constitutional rights by "perpetuating an energy system that is based on fossil fuels."

"The plaintiffs are asking the state of Florida to adhere to its legal and moral obligation to protect current and future generations from the intensifying impacts of climate change," the group said in a statement.

Their lawsuit asks that state officials "prepare and implement an enforceable comprehensive" plan to phase out fossil fuel use and "draw down excess atmospheric CO2 through forest and soil protection so as to stabilize the climate system."

Gov. Rick Scott and Climate Change

The lawsuit names the state, Republican Gov. Rick Scott, state agencies and the heads of those agencies as defendants.

In 2015, journalists in Florida reported that Scott had placed a gag order on the terms "climate change" and "global warming" within state's Department of Environmental Protection—an especially notable move, given the state is among the most vulnerable to climate change, with 1,000 miles of coastline and millions of people living in low-lying areas.

Scott has also ducked questions about climate change, using the response: "I'm not a scientist."

The governor's office responded to questions about the lawsuit in an emailed statement: "The Governor signed one of the largest environmental protection budgets in Florida's history last month—investing $4 billion into Florida's environment," said McKinley Lewis, a spokesperson for Scott. "The Governor is focused on real solutions to protect our environment—not political theater or a lawsuit orchestrated by a group based in Eugene, Oregon."

Florida Teens Fight for Their Future

Delaney Reynolds, 18, a fourth-generation Floridian who has become a prominent advocate and is a plaintiff in the lawsuit, wrote to the state's environmental regulators in 2014, asking what the department was doing to address climate change.

She said the agency response was: not much.

In a blog post Monday, Reynolds wrote that the response was "unacceptable" and a reason she decided to sue the state.

"Our climate change crisis is the biggest issue that my generation will ever face, and it's up to us, today's children, to fix this problem," Reynolds wrote. "It is my hope that the court will rule to require that Florida enact and enforce laws to reduce and eliminate carbon emissions so that our state and citizens can have a future here."

Kids' Federal Climate Case Gets a Court Date

Our Children's Trust, a group that advocates for science-based climate policy, is supporting the federal case and other youth-led legal efforts across the country.

In 2015, Our Children's Trust and 21 young people from across the country sued the federal government on the same legal grounds, saying the government was violating the public trust by failing to protect a common resource. The fossil fuel industry has repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, attempted to keep the case from advancing. (Levi Draheim, a 10-year-old Floridian, is a co-plaintiff in that case, as well as in the lawsuit filed Monday.)

Last week, a federal magistrate judge set a trial date for the federal case: Oct. 29, 2018, in federal district court in Oregon.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Once again, thank you!

--

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

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#BlueWaveIsComing2018

The body language in this Herald photo is ... indescribable. 

As indescribable as this photo of Pepe Fanjul embracing Marco Rubio as he left the stage in Miami, after announcing his presidential primary campaign in 2015.

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Donald Trump's Approval Rating is Soaring and You are IGNORING a very important election RIGHT HERE, IN 36 DAYS. By Geniusofdespair

Yes we have about 1000 days until we can vote in a presidential election. But there is a very critical election coming in a little more than 30 days. You have to pull the rug from under him in every single race. Show your collective muscle.

Miami Beach and Brickell:

This is an election you cannot ignore. Alex De La Portilla and Zorida Barreiro, both established Republicans in a non-partisan race, think they can win because Miami Beach and Brickell will ignore the election. 

It is the County Commission seat District 5. WE NEED THIS SEAT TO CHANGE. Bruno Barreiro has held it for almost 80 years (feels like it). All of you  in the district must vote on May 22nd for Eileen Higgins. She is a Democrat. A really great activist. If I could hit you all over the head and drag you to the polls I would. We have fought too many County Commission battles over the years. PLEASE vote and put some sanity on the County Commission so we don't have to fight so hard.

We need everyone here to vote.

It isn't all about Trump. We have to vote in every election we can - local elections too - AND WIN, AND WIN, AND WIN. This is a total long shot, but if you know someone who lives in Brickell or Miami Beach get them to vote for Eileen Higgins. Word of mouth, Facebook, just get this information around.

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BIG DEAL: Here Comes Juliana v. US and states ... by gimleteye

You are going to be hearing a lot more about the federal and state lawsuits radiating around the plaintiffs' lawsuit.

"... the​ 21 young plaintiffs assert that the U.S. government, through its ​affirmative actions​ in creating a national energy system that cause climate change, has violated their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property, and has failed to protect essential public trust resources.​ The case is one of many related legal actions brought by youth in several states and countries, all supported by Our Children’s Trust, and all seeking science-based action by governments to stabilize the climate system."

While Gov. Rick Scott and President Trump fritter away our futures, the evidence is piling up -- week by week -- that the science is right and the AltR demagogues are dead wrong. Read: "Earth’s Powerful, Climate-Shaping Water Currents Are Weak and Broken and It’s Time to Freak Out: The Gulf Stream current is at its weakest in 1,600 years, studies show."

Meanwhile, the kids are doing something about it. In Florida, you'll be hearing a lot more about Juliana, very soon.

For Immediate Release: April 12, 2018
Contacts:
Julia Olson, 415-786-4825, ​julia@ourchildrenstrust.org
Philip Gregory, 650-278-2957, ​pgregory@gregorylawgroup.com

JULIANA V. UNITED STATES ​CLIMATE TRIAL SET FOR OCTOBER 29, 2018

Eugene, Oregon -- During a public case management conference today, U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Coffin set October 29, 2018 as the trial date for ​Juliana v. United States​, the constitutional climate lawsuit brought by 21 young people and supported by Our Children’s Trust. The trial will be heard before U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken in Eugene, Oregon.

Julia Olson​, ​executive director and chief legal counsel of ​Our Children’s Trust​ and co-lead counsel for youth plaintiffs said:

“We have our trial date. In the coming months there will be depositions of the parties, defendants’ disclosure of their experts, and expert depositions in late summer. We will build a full factual record for trial so that the Court can make the best informed decision in this crucial constitutional case.”

DOJ attorneys representing the Trump administration told Judge Coffin that the trial date he set “won’t work” for defendants. They claimed they needed additional time to address expert witness reports and find rebuttal experts for every one of plaintiffs’ experts, to which Judge Coffin asked: “Where am I missing something? Given your admissions in this case, what is it about the science that you intend to contest with your rebuttal witnesses?”

The Court also made it clear that it is not going to make decisions on summary judgment motions before the full record at trial, despite defendants’ intentions to move to summary judgment prior to October 29.

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Picture of the Day: Damn Immigrants. By Geniusofdespair

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ONE THOUSAND DAYS...Where is that Democratic Candidate for President? By Geniusofdespair

Why don't we have a Democratic Candidate for President yet? Really, this is taking too long. We need someone to rally around. Someone to be stumping their way across this stupid country, land of whatever it is now. If we don't get it together soon add 4 more years of agony with Trump.  You're never going to change the Christian Right. They don't even pay attention to Jesus so they won't pay attention to you.

As the Democrats dick around as only they can, you need to prepare now as you know they will pick out some creepy candidate and we need to counteract that.  YOU MUST MOVE. Here are some suggested places. We don't need more voters people, we need more voters in the RIGHT PLACES.  

Many of you retirees, find out the residency requirement, rent your house and move to one of the States that matter.  The problem in the last election: Trump got too many States.  Many of the young people in these States are brainwashed. So move your damn ass to a purple state.  Here is a map on how the States went in the last election we need to pick up a red one and not lose a blue one:

WE NEED PEOPLE IN BLUE STATES TO MOVE TO 

FLORIDA OR PENNSYLVANIA FOR SURE.

Here is some helpful information on being able to vote in Florida, think about going homeless it is in the Country's best interest:

How the country went in the last election. Florida is a good bet. Maybe Michigan can be turned?


New York Residents: Have your kids move in with Grandma in Florida.

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Help Eileen Higgins get elected to the County Commission. By Geniusofdespair

This is a campaign on steroids. The election is May 22nd.

Bruno Barreiro “resigned to run” from the County Commission so he could run for...wait for it...U.S. Congress. I think that is pretty funny. Anyway, his seat is open. Eileen Higgins is running for it and Miami Beach had better vote for her, if they don't they will get Bruno's wife.

Everyone, send a check, tell your friends about her, we NEED Eileen Higgins on the County Commission.   It would change everything, all government is local.

entire district

Do you know anyone who lives here? Make sure they vote on May 22nd.

Her Platform:

Traffic and Transit

IMPROVE RELIABILITY • EXPAND ROUTES

If you ride public transit, like I do, you know Miami-Dade needs more reliable transit options - both bus and rail. There’s too much traffic and too many unfinished road construction projects. We need local officials who demand that these projects finish on time to get traffic flowing again and that they always keep pedestrian safety and small businesses in mind.

Crossing the causeways is an ordeal. Apart from the frustrating inconvenience, our County's economy is at risk if we don't implement solutions soon. We need County leaders who are ready to act on transit on the first day of the job.

Our Economy

ATTRACT HIGHER WAGE JOBS • GROW SMALL BUSINESSES

Our district is one of the start-up capitals of the United States, but we need to help these new local businesses scale up, too. That’s why we need a commissioner who will fight to keep these new businesses in our district and connect them to resources, expanding their ability to grow. This means higher-paying jobs at the new companies themselves, and a resulting benefit to the community as we attract more entrepreneurs and fresh ideas for the County.

Housing Costs

SMART HOUSING DEVELOPMENT • HOUSING WE CAN AFFORD

Our housing costs are skyrocketing out of control. We all know someone who has made the decision to live in another part of the County or leave Miami-Dade because rent was too high. In turn, this hurts small businesses that lose potential customers.

I will work for reasonable solutions to our out-of-control rent. Affordable housing builds safe, successful, connected communities, and that’s why keeping our district affordable is a priority.

Homelessness

PRIORITIZE OUTREACH • FIND COMPASSIONATE SOLUTIONS

The sad fact that hundreds of our neighbors live on the street concerns me deeply. Chronic homelessness is not easy to solve, but our local experts all agree that we need more funding for daily, consistent outreach that assists people in finding a safe place to stay and a path out of poverty. The Commission’s current plan just isn’t doing enough.

As Commissioner I am committed to representing this vulnerable population while improving the quality of life for local residents and businesses. I want to hear from all involved stakeholders to make District 5 a safer, more friendly place.

Sea Level Rise

PREVENT FLOODING • PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE

The horrifying flooding from last fall’s Hurricane Irma was a stark reminder of what we’ve known for a long time: our district is vulnerable to rising seas. We need commissioners who take this threat seriously. From drainage to street levels, every building project must consider what we can do to keep District 5 above water.

Our Environment

CLEAN ENERGY • KEEPING MIAMI BEAUTIFUL

Miami-Dade County can’t lead in the 21st century if we continue to rely on 20th century technology. We should make smart investments that conserve our taxpayer dollars and our natural resources. I’ll promote adoption of renewable energy, electric vehicles, and energy efficiency for all County buildings. As Irma showed, FPL needs to meet its obligations to keep the lights on during severe weather and be better prepared to restore power in the aftermath. I’ll oppose any attempt to frack or drill offshore. Our drinking water and beaches are priceless public assets and I won’t allow them to be threatened for private development.

There is nothing more empowering than standing between a mother who has lost her son to gun violence and a son who is ready to make sure that this never happens to another mother again. #NeverAgain — with William J. Breslin and MJ Wright. - Eileen Higgins

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