Bullsugar primary candidate questionnaire and endorsements ... by gimleteye

The advocacy group Bullsugar has tapped into public focus on the massive pollution of Florida's rivers, bays, estuaries and Everglades as a result of mismanagement of the state's water infrastructure, primarily to benefit Big Sugar.

Repetitive toxic algae blooms are triggering enormous damage to the state's prestige, to its tourism-related and fishing industries and to public health. Cyanobacteria is linked to severe health risks including neurological disease like Alzheimer's. USA Today reports: "Eighty-six percent of Floridians are concerned about the toxic algae blooms plaguing the state’s east and west coasts, according to a university poll released Wednesday. Among the 800 registered voters polled July 20-21, 53 percent said they are "very concerned" and 33 percent said they are "somewhat concerned," the Florida Atlantic University Business and Economics Polling Initiative said in a news release."

Bullsugar's endorsements come as primary season approaches. Notably, for the Democratic primary in the governor's race, Bullsugar favors four out of five candidates who affirmatively responded to the Bullsugar questionnaire.

Candidates were asked to respond to five questions including one on Big Sugar money campaign contributions.

Bullsugar favors Congressman Ron DeSantis in the Republican primary for governor. In the polls, DeSantis leads a well-funded (Sugar) campaign of Ag. Secretary Adam Putnam.

In the non-partisan District 8 county commission race, Bullsugar endorsed Daniella Levine Cava.

On the Democratic side, in Miami-Dade County, Bullsugar endorsed:

Debbie Mucarsel-Powell in Congressional District 26
Matt Haggman in Congressional District 27
Julian Santos, Florida Senate District 36
Jason Pizzo, Florida Senate District 38
Ross Hancock, Florida House District 105
Joseph Dotie, Florida House District 108
Ryan Torrens, Attorney General
David Walker, Agriculture Commissioner

For the Republican primary:
Denise Grimsely, Agriculture Commissioner
Michael Ohevzion, Congressional District 27
Ronda Rebman-Lopez, Florida House District 115

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

Toxic algae bloom on the St. Lucie River, Florida

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Bullsugar: Snakes On A Plain ... by gimleteye

The South Florida Water Management District excels in distraction and diversion. These serve a purpose: to deflect attention from the multi-billion dollar engineering model that is gradually turning a public resource -- clean, fresh water -- into a privatized commodity benefiting the state's biggest campaign donors. Big Sugar, for example.

The rebuttal refrain is familiar: "we have the lowest water rates in the nation" or "the cheapest electricity for Florida". It is as if taxpayers have become numb and lulled to sleep by repetition.

The upcoming elections might reveal, as we have hoped in the past, a better path forward.

As criticism of SFWMD’s political corruption and horrific water management echoes from the Keys to Tallahassee, taxpayers are paying attention. The district has responded with a unique twist on a time-honored internet diversionary tactic: Instead of distracting people with a barrage of cute animals, their social media team is distracting people with a barrage of things that eat cute animals. Well played, SFWMD.

Make sure you “Get the Facts” about SFWMD’s Python Elimination Program: A single adult python can distract thousands of taxpayers from asking why SFWMD lets the sugar industry flood nearly half-a-million acres of cane fields during a severe drought!

SFWMD: SNAKES ON A PLAIN!
POSTED ON MAY 26, 2017
And now for something completely different...

SFWMD has the cure for "bad news" fatigue. It’s the python channel! All pythons, all the time.

Research linking cyanobacteria to liver failure ignited a recent wave of alarm as more evidence surfaced connecting toxic algae to health risks in coastal communities. But the South Florida Water Management District came through as usual with a welcome diversion on its electronic sidestage -- more pythons!

Although Florida faces another round of deep budget cuts, and federal funding for natural resource management programs may zero-out entirely this year, SFWMD somehow found the money to invest in a social media initiative dedicated largely to pythons.

Huge snakes are helping SFWMD break up the monotony of managing water (ABC News image)

The scorned pets, of unrestrained appetite and nasty attitude, have spread rapidly, grown to outrageous lengths, and wreaked havoc on South Florida. Almost daily, harrowing encounters are given enthusiastic coverage on SFWMD’s Python Channel, feeding an unparalleled public interest and inspiring an important state initiative.

The Elimination Will Be Televised

$175,000 Florida tax dollars are being allocated through the district to rid us once and for all of the deadly nuisances. SFWMD has hand-picked 25 professional python hunters in an effort to get these %@+#$%&#*&!% snakes off this %@+#$%&#*&!% plain.

In a flood of social media updates, Facebook live recordings, and headlining news releases, the powerful state agency responsible for managing waterways and drinking water for millions of Floridians has dedicated immense resources to making The Python Channel as entertaining and distracting as it can possibly be.

Since the inception of the Pilot Python Elimination Program, the district announced that 117 pythons have been successfully removed from the estimated population of 300,000.

Unfortunately more pythons have been hatched than hunted during the SFMWD elimination program

So at this rate, South Florida could be python-free in less than 100,000 years… assuming that no more snakes hatch during that time. Then it will take longer.

A recent SFWMD news release boasts that roughly $17,000 in bounties and $18,000 in hourly fees have been paid out so far, for an average cost of less than $300 per snake.The two-month hunting spree ends June 1st, so if the python elimination rate remains constant, the district will memorialize another 15 pythons before the game is up. Maybe more if the holiday weekend factors in.

In truth, the python program is brilliant. As criticism of SFWMD’s political corruption and horrific water management echoes from the Keys to Tallahassee, taxpayers are paying attention. The district has responded with a unique twist on a time-honored internet diversionary tactic: Instead of distracting people with a barrage of cute animals, their social media team is distracting people with a barrage of things that eat cute animals. Well played, SFWMD.

Make sure you “Get the Facts” about SFWMD’s Python Elimination Program:

A single adult python can distract thousands of taxpayers from asking why SFWMD lets the sugar industry flood nearly half-a-million acres of cane fields during a severe drought

With the pilot program funded all-in for only $175,000, the per-snake cost works out to less than $1,500. That means the district could fund the removal of all 300,000 pythons for less than half-a-billion dollars...again, unless more snakes hatch. Then it will cost more.

There are almost as many SFWMD-accredited python hunters as there are SFWMD employees publishing articles in Treasure Coast newspapers to attack the science behind sending water south

St. Patrick (pictured below), the fifth century “Apostle of Ireland,” famed for banishing all snakes from the Emerald Isle, was not among the applicants qualifying for cash prizes in the district’s python elimination program

Would legendary snake elimination specialist St. Patrick have contributed to the SFWMD's python program?

BONUS Python Encounter Tip: Never ignore a Burmese python! Immediately photograph any python you see and alert SFWMD. The district’s Facebook team will post an update on the snake’s awesomeness right away to help taxpayers direct their attention away from fatal disease, economic disaster, and habitat destruction related to South Florida’s water management policy.

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