The big story in Florida that's gained the attention of everyone except Rick Scott of late has been the toxic algae blooms that are swallowing South Florida, along with a good part of the fishing industry, property values, and tourism.
But just because Scott's been ignoring the problem doesn't mean he isn't focused on water quality in Florida. No sir, because while Floridans were distracted by the encroaching toxic guacamole oozing into their waterways, Scott took advantage of the absence of members in his Environmental Regulation Commission to move up a vote to green light new water quality standards that would increase the amount of carcinogens in Florida's water.
Under the proposal, the acceptable levels of toxins will be increased for more than two dozen known carcinogens and decreased for 13 currently regulated chemicals. DEP, however, touted the part of the plan that will impose new rules on 39 other chemicals that are not currently regulated, including two carcinogens.
Critics say this is paving the way for tracking in Florida, which members balked at. But why would they move the vote up several months to take advantage of a less than full ERC?
As usual there are more questions than answers, yet the governor can't be bothered.
Yesterday Progress Florida delivered petitions signed by more than 6,000 Floridians asking U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to investigate Pam Bondi over what they refer to as a "bribery scandal" between her and Donald Trump over Trump University.
Bondi sought and received a hefty donation from Trump and subsequently looked the other way instead of looking into complaints from Floridans over Trump U.
This morning Progress Florida electronically delivered a petition to the office of U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch signed by more than 6,000 Floridians urging Lynch to investigate the Pam Bondi–Donald Trump bribery scandal and other instances of “pay to look away” by the Florida Attorney General. The petition reads in part:
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has demonstrated a consistent pattern of "pay to look away"…We, the undersigned, urge you to launch an official investigation of Attorney General Bondi regarding her campaign contribution from Donald Trump and similar instances where campaign contributors had potential cases against them dropped by the Florida Attorney General's office.
“Pam Bondi has shown a disturbing pattern of siding with powerful lobbyists and campaign contributors over the citizens of Florida she is sworn to protect,” said Progress Florida Executive Director Mark Ferrulo. “The timing of the Trump donation and Bondi’s decision to let Trump University off the hook for apparently defrauding consumers is a clear red flag and warrants investigation – as thousands of Floridians are now demanding,” he added.
Editorial boards across the state including the Orlando Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, Miami Herald, South Florida Sun Sentinel, Gainesville Sun and others have also called for a probe. So is the nonprofit ethics watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), and an attorney has also filed complaints with the state and U.S. Attorney General.
“If Bondi did nothing wrong, she should welcome a full investigation to clear her name and reassure Floridians that the office of Attorney General is not for sale,” said Ferrulo.
Last night at the Republican Convention, Bondi gave a speech throwing her full endorsement behind Trump, talking of her love for the "rule of law" while saying she loved the calls for Hillary Clinton to be "locked up" because she claims Clinton thinks "laws don't apply to her."
Clinton, of course, was found to have done nothing wrong after years of taxpayer funded investigations and witch hunts at the hands of Republicans. Still, Bondi, Florida's chief legal officer is just giddy at the thought of locking up Clinton, just because.
One might say to Bondi, as she makes her projections on Hillary Clinton, "be careful what you wish for."
If awards were given at the RNC Convention this week for shameless hypocrisy, Florida Republican politicians surely would have been competing for the trophy, and two of the biggest contenders would have been Rick Scott and his faithful fixer, Attorney General Pam Bondi, who dropped in to support Donald Trump while speaking of their love for the "rule of law" and the need for firing politicians who don't follow it.
Yes, really.
Scott, the man most famous for a company that can be found in textbooks under Medicare fraud before he purchased the governor's seat in Tallahassee while hiding his wealth and investments from taxpayers in a blind trust, said that it was time to fire politicians, and that voters should place the country in the hands of a man famous for a reality show where he "fired" people. A man who also made money off of unsuspecting dreamers signing up for "courses" in Trump University and subsequently lost their life savings.
And speaking of Trump University, Pam Bondi, recently becoming famous for ignoring complaints from Florida victims of the very same after seeking and receiving a sizable donation from Donald Trump, made the claim that Hillary Clinton thinks "laws don't apply to her."
Again, really.
And that wasn't all. Bondi took a brief pause in her Hillary hate-fest rhetoric to point to a sign in the audience that said "Lock her up," (meaning Clinton, of course) and said "Lock her up. I love that!"
Yes, this is a woman who is the state's chief legal officer, saying she loves the idea of locking up someone for doing nothing more than being despised by the Republican Party, a political opponent who threatens the GOP's power grab.
This is today's GOP in a nutshell, and who better to prove what a disaster the nation would become in the hands of Donald Trump than Rick Scott and Pam Bondi, the poster children for everything that's wrong with running a state or country like a business where millionaires turned politicians, and politicians turned millionaires treat themselves as shareholders at the expense of taxpayers when they come into power and begin "governing?"
Rick Scott, the typical Tea Party scammer, is calling for politicians to be fired. Never mind that he became exactly what he campaigned against, a politician going to bat for special interests, the largest special interest being himself. And never mmd that he went to the RNC to boost his political profile as he prepares to take his political ambitions nationwide when his term runs out.
Then there's Pam Bondi, whose idea of the rule of law is skewed to favor those same politicians rather than the Floridians she is supposed to be serving. She's fought to take away their health care, women's health choices, regulations for clean water, the rights for same sex couples to marry, and on and on. She's famous for courting lobbyists with a close circle of other GOP AGs. And now she's gone to bat for Trump, first when she sought the donation he gave her and suddenly had no interest in pursuing cases of Floridans against Trump U, and now endorsing him at the convention, smiling for the cameras from the Trump family box, even as they were all visibly angry as Ted Cruz made fools of them during his non-endorsement. Because that's typical Pam Bondi, who is always "on" when the cameras roll, always putting on her holier than thou act as the ever faithful legal eagle for the little guy, while the little guy looks on in amazement as she commands everyone to suspend their disbelief.
Florida under governance of people like Scott and Bondi should serve as a warning to voters who might be thinking that someone like Trump being president is a good idea. Because placing government in the hands of people like them has real life consequences.
People in Florida who should have benefitted from Medicaid are dying because of them.
Our highways and waterways are choking to death literally because of them.
Everyday taxpayers are becoming poorer while millionaires and businessmen get richer at their expense, one being Donald Trump, who refuses to release his tax returns that would prove it.
These people are dangerous.
Enriching themselves at citizens' expense while saying things like "Lock her up, I love that!" about people who simply don't agree with their ideology.
These people pretending to be patriots should never be in power, much less in the White House, and they need to be defeated before they destroy the country.
Marco Rubio, the political opportunist and absentee Senator who decided to go ahead and run again after he didn't get a call from Donald Trump to become a VP pick, dropped in at the RNC Wednesday to endorse the man he said was unqualified to get his hands on the nuclear codes and should never become president because he was an unstable man who refused to denounce support from the KKK.
Rubio didn't appear in person of course, because he prefers to have it both ways, keep his distance from Trump while endorsing him on the off chance that he throws Rubio a bone should he win (God help us), and oh by the way, seize the opportunity to drop a self-serving campaign ad on the masses calling for the incarceration of Hillary Clinton simply because they don't like her. In other words, a crowd ripe for a snow job and who might give Rubio a second look when he decides to run again instead of doing his job as Senator if he wins his seat back, thus turning around a rerun of his political career in Washington so far.
We've seen this script before.
Little Marco has no backbone, nor principles. He's just the same old opportunist playing the same game over and over again hoping that no one will notice.
But hey, "let's dispel this notion that Marco Rubio doesn't know what he's doing. He knows exactly what he's doing."
It just doesn't work anymore, as we saw in the primaries and especially in Florida where voters in his home state gave him a huge thumbs down.
We can only hope they do the same and send him packing for good during his last ditch effort to stay politically relevant with a second absentee Senate term.
Last week the RNC announced that Rick Scott would be among the speakers at their Donald Trump hate and bigotry-fest convention this week. Now Scott has mysteriously gone missing from the speaking schedules and it's unclear from various reports if he'll be speaking at all.
However, not to worry. As one of Trump's number one fans, Scott has been made available as a media surrogate who will no doubt gladly contribute to the GOP false narrative themed convention week today as they continue with "Make America Work Again" day. Scott is, after all, an expert at spinning job creation fiction, so he'll fit right in.
Whether Scott is allowed to speak at the convention this year or shunned and hidden away as he was when the GOP convention was hosted in his home state last time, Floridians should be aware that he will still be giving an assist to Trump in more ways than one.
The event will be held at Trump's golf resort in Miami and all the big names who regularly purchase rights to Florida's business interests will be there.
One name in particular jumps out, not because it's unusual, but because of the timing.
That name would be Pepe Fanjul Sr. of Big Sugar fame. Big sugar, as in the industry that is currently contributing to the environmental disaster unfolding in Florida, flooding many wealthy Republican areas down south with the stench of thick, green, festering algae goo, clogging canals, killing fish and manatees, and beaching boats as some residents flee their homes in search of fresh air and clean water.
So it seems like the perfect storm that Big Sugar would join forces with one of their biggest recipients, Rick Scott, and add Donald Trump to their donation list. Should Trump become President (God help us) just think of all the destruction he could cause in a state already ruled by developers with free reign and industries who pollute with abandon as Scott and the GOP look the other way with their hands out.
One slight problem involved here, a lot of big Republican donors down there also have to live there.
Then again, those same donors are rich enough to move somewhere else once the Everglades and the waterways in South Florida have been destroyed. Not so much the little guys who are paying the real price for Big Sugar and their puppets the GOP and Rick Scott.
The little guy in Florida's only recourse is their vote. Let's hope voters remember what's at stake this November.
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, our "chief legal officer" who rewrote her job description in order to "protect" Floridians against things like health care access, gay marriage, and a woman's right to make her own health choices among other things, has been given a speaking slot at the Donald Trump-RNC bigotry and hate-fest next week.
Bondi's most recent headlines being that she solicited a $25,000 campaign contribution from Trump and then presumably purchased a pair of blinders so as not to get caught up in complaints by Florida consumers who were soaked at the hands of Trump University.
Apparently that contribution wasn't her only reward from Trump, and amid numerous calls for an investigation into our chief legal officer's conduct, Bondi is doing what she does best, shamelessly going to bat for a Republican who makes it a point to screw over the little guy.
And speaking of screwing over the little guy, Rick Scott also will get a prominent speaking gig at the convention, because of course he will. He's another multimillionaire businessman turned politician who governs for fun and profit.
Scott being the man best known for steering a company that set a record for Medicare fraud before he was forced to leave without facing any charges himself, and then went on to become Florida's governor, where he's been making good on his threat promises to "run government like a business" and has done so at the expense of Floridians.
Scott joined Bondi in trying to kill health care access among a long list of related actions and decisions that make things worse for the average Florida resident while claiming the state is just a paradise waiting to be had for the highest bidder, all while increasing his wealth which is conveniently hidden from the public eye in a blind trust.
So while the state is currently being swallowed by green algae goo thanks to the sugar industry that lines his pockets, it makes sense that Scott would go support Trump at the convention immediately following his trip abroad to snow Londoners into thinking that Florida is a great investment for tourism and economic development at the moment. Because avoiding actual problems in Florida is what Scott does. Whenever there's a crisis, Scott is AWOL, as is Bondi.
In a sense, Rick Scott is a perfect fit for Trump. They're two businessmen turned politicians who see governing as a for-profit venture. Throw in Pam Bondi as a special counsel against Americans and you've got quite a trio.
Anyone even considering voting for Donald Trump should take a little vacation in Florida first and talk to some of the residents here to get a firsthand account of what it's like to be sold out to the highest bidder before taking that idea nationwide.
Governor Rick "Let's Get To Work" Scott has skipped out on his job altogether to take yet another taxpayer funded vacation to London disguised as a trip to promote trade and tourism in Florida.
Now, you might say to yourself, it's good to promote tourism since it's pretty much responsible for the entire state's economy, and you would be right.
But these are not normal times in Florida.
There are now a total of 276 cases of the Zika virus in Florida, with 13 new cases reported today, and then there's that little matter of green toxic algae laden sludge turning Florida waterways into sewers killing fish, driving people from their homes and chasing tourists away in droves where it's spreading.
So at a time when the British Pound is down thanks to the BREXIT vote, Rick Scott is over there convincing people to spend what they have left in Florida amid several public health crisis' that Rick Scott is ignoring back home.
Really.
Never mind that Florida residents and business owners are suffering from massive algae blooms and paying for it while Rick Scott, Marco Rubio, and other politicians in Florida keep lining their pockets with sugar cash from the polluters in order to turn a blind eye while they regulate (wink, wink) themselves.
Never mind that Floridians voted on an environmental Amendment to fix this very problem a couple years ago that Scott and the GOP are ignoring.
Never mind that Republicans in Congress refuse to pass Zika funding President Obama asked for months ago while Scott points the finger elsewhere as he also signed a law blocking Zika research.
Nope. Scott isn't interested in doing anything about public health threats.
He's just selling his snake oil overseas now too. Just add it to the taxpayer tab.
Because in Florida, when the going gets tough, Florida's Governor gets gone.
"People are going to be deeply frustrated and the divides will grow in our country," Bush said. "And this extraordinary country, still the greatest country on the face of the earth, will continue to stagger instead of soar."
He continued: "And that's the heartbreaking part of this, is I think people are really going to feel betrayed."
Bush took issue with Trump's proposed border wall and ban on Muslims entering the United States.
"There isn't going to be a wall built," Bush told MSNBC. "And Mexico's not going to pay for it. And there's not going to be a ban on Muslims. None of that is — this is all like a, alternative universe that he created. The reality is, that's not going to happen."
Bush also accused Trump of manipulating the media to his advantage.
"Trump, you know, to his credit was very smart at exploiting these kind of opportunities," Bush said. "He's a master at understanding how the media works — more than anybody I've seen in politics. Kudos to him for, you know, kind of creating the environment and then manipulating the environment to his effect."
Republicans have never before proposed a ban on Muslims entering the country (although they certainly demonize them and use them to gin up fear to their political advantage), but everything else Bush is saying here is indicative of the Republican Party since Ronald Reagan introduced the fairy dust of trickle down economics.
Listen to what Bush says here and you hear the GOP guidelines for snowing the electorate over the past few decades. It's what Republican politicians do.
They work hard to create divides.
They make promises they never deliver, betraying voters over and over again.
They create and falsely craft an alternative universe, like the one where President Obama is the "worst president ever," where there's nothing but scorched earth left behind in America, despite evidence to the contrary everywhere you look.
They become masters at exploiting the media, by demonizing it as the "liberal media" in order to shame it into doing their bidding.
These are the reasons why Donald Trump is the epitome of the modern day GOP candidate. The Republicans can try and run away from him all they want, but, as they said famously during the 2012 election: "You built that."
Trump was years in the making as the GOP crafted fear and hate based voters, an effort that began long before the Koch brothers brought the Tea Party into the mix. Election year after election year, Republican voters are promised pie in the sky policies that go against their self interests, and every time a Republican wins office, those same voters are disappointed with the results, yet they're told by Republicans "don't blame us, blame the other party!"
Now Jeb Bush is doing the same thing with Trump. He's saying voters will be disappointed when Trump does't come through for them.
Well, spoiler alert: Neither Jeb Bush, nor any of the other GOP candidates on the clown bus who tried to take Trump out in 2016 would have come through for those voters either. They all tried to sell the same old snake oil. Rinse. Repeat.
The GOP only comes through for the richest 1 percent among them. It always has and it always will.
On the off chance that he shows up back home to campaign this week, he'll no doubt be a no-show at his Orlando office.
Protesters demanding Rubio take a stand on gun control and against discriminatory LGBT legislation are holding a sit-in at his Orlando offices in honor of the 49 Pulse shooting victims and will remain there for 49 hours.
The protest began at 10:00 am today and will continue until 11:00 am Wednesday at Rubio's office at 201 S. Orange Ave.
Bernie Sanders seems determined to prove himself to be the most egotistical, hypocritical loser in the history of political campaigns, and he's not above helping Republicans burn down the country to do it.
Sanders returned to Washington today and refused to say he will endorse Hillary Clinton, while offering nothing more than his usual tiresome platitudes. Democrats have lost their patience with him, and he was rightfully booed:
With the Democratic convention just weeks away, Sanders still hasn't endorsed one-time rival Hillary Clinton and dodged questions about when he would during a tense meeting Wednesday morning with House Democrats.
After delivering his opening remarks — which touched on Sanders’ favorite issues including campaign finance, Wall Street reform and trade — lawmakers inside the meeting pressed Sanders during a tense question-and-answer session on whether he would ultimately endorse Clinton and help foster party unity.
House Democrats including John Garamendi of California and Joyce Beatty of Ohio asked Sanders for specifics on when he would ultimately get behind Clinton — questions that were accompanied by some cheers and clapping from other House Democrats, sources inside the room said.
Sanders didn’t give them a clear answer, according to attendees. Instead, the Vermont senator emphasized that elections are not necessarily about winning, multiple sources said, but about transformations — an answer that was met with some boos from lawmakers, one person inside the room said.
"Elections are not necessarily about winning" says the man who lost, but vowed to overthrow the will of the voters in this country by trying to get Democratic super delegates to back him instead of Hillary Clinton.
"Elections are not necessarily about winning" says the man who refused to lend a hand to help down ticket Democrats until late in the primaries and only then helping a few in exchange for their endorsement of him.
"Elections are not necessarily about winning" unless Bernie Sanders is the winner, and if he isn't the winner, the rest of the country can just take a hike.
“My message was a simple message: We have got to fight for the needs of the middle class and working families of this country,” Sanders said as he left the caucus meeting. “We got to get people involved in the political process, we got to get a large voter turnout, and if we have a larger voter turnout, Democrats will regain control of the Senate and I believe they’re gonna take the House back.”
This "message" illustrates the problem many have had with Bernie all along. His promises are really just a lot of words that don't make sense. After all, how exactly are you going to win back the House without helping House Democrats get elected? How are you going to help working families, the middle class, get people involved in the political process, and increase voter turnout while saying "Elections are not necessarily about winning?"
And how in particular is Bernie going to do all these things while inspiring his supporters with the false belief that Hillary Clinton lacks judgment, is corrupt, and doesn't deserve his endorsement? Because that's largely what his so-called "revolution" has done to a majority of his supporters, young ones in particular who are new to the political process. He's spent his entire campaign telling them the "establishment" Democratic Party can't be trusted, that they "rigged" the election against him, and that he and only he can "transform America" even though his plans never held water and he showed he had no idea how to fulfill many of those promises in the first place.
Guess who else wants to "transform America?" Donald Trump. Yet Bernie has sowed such a pessimistic view of elections among his supporters that many of them have vowed "Never Hillary," vowed to just sit out the election, or vowed to teach Democrats a lesson by actually voting for Trump.
Bernie, who's had 30 years as an elected official to bring about the change he speaks of, yet hasn't bothered, seems more than happy to help the Republicans by refusing to embrace the reality of elections and their consequences.
Bernie refuses to help Democrats win in 2016, largely because of his ego. After all, what kind of person stays in a race after he lost while continuing to cost taxpayers $40,000 a day for Secret Service protection (that will climb to $2 million if he stays in the race through the convention), demands concessions after losing, tries to negotiate the terms of his exit from the race, and holds a "victory rally" outside the convention while Democrats nominate the winner inside?
A con man, that's what kind.
Because if Bernie truly wants to bring about the changes he's been talking about in his stump speech for a year now, he's not going to get them from the Republicans and Donald Trump.
But he's ignoring the elephant in the room while instead attacking Hillary Clinton and the Democrats, the only people who are actually working toward those goals and have been for decades.
If Bernie's only goal left is to hurt the Democrats chances in this election, and there's no indication at this point he truly has any other goal, he should just stop "helping" and go home.
And since "elections are not necessarily about winning," let's hope he stays there after losing his next one.
