The Republican Race For Governor, Rick Scott, and Donald Trump ... by gimleteye

The online blog -- Florida Politics -- has coyly tracked Big Sugar's talking points in the past. Peter Schorsch, publisher and founder of Florida Politics, wrote yesterday from an insiders' perspective of a weekend meeting in Orlando, "At confab, Adam Putnam supporters asked to raise more money, game out Trump involvement." We offer the following comments as "outsiders".

"... If the election for Florida governor was to be decided by the candidates taking a pop-quiz about the Sunshine State’s history, people, and geography, it’s very likely Putnam would not only win, he might just ace the test...

Unfortunately for Putnam, whichever candidate can give the best directions through Florida’s agriculture belt is not how the Republican nominee for Governor will be decided. Instead, it will be fought in the dens of of Florida television viewers who seemingly must make a choice between the candidate they see on all the commercials on Fox News (Putnam) and the candidate they actually see on Fox News (Ron DeSantis)."

So far, so good. Putnam, the favored choice of Florida polluters and industry associations, has raised a fearsome amount of corporate campaign cash, with direct contributions heavily spike by dark money pools. DeSantis, a Congressman from North Florida, has emerged as one of Trump's fiercest defenders in the House and, for that -- at least so far as we know -- earned Trump's early endorsement. So Putnam buys the commercials on Fox. And Fox pundits fluff DeSantis for the networks' intractable and unpersuadable viewers.

It is verboten within Putnam’s circle of influence to describe the Polk County Republican’s gubernatorial campaign as the 2.0 version of Jeb Bush’s failed bid for The White House. This circle is the rear guard of Florida’s establishment, which has been forced to kowtow for the last seven-and-a-half years to Rick Scott and saw its hopes of invading Washington D.C. flummoxed by Donald Trump‘s filleting of not just Bush, but Florida’s other favorite son, Marco Rubio.

Here, Schorch's analysis skews off-track. The forces behind Putnam are not the "rear-guard of Florida's establishment". They are the front line and are not only well-known as such, they advertise their political muscle with swinging cudgels whenever and wherever it suits their interests. Since Citizens United, their actions have been mainly served by superPAC's and other dark money channels. But that's not "rear-guard". That's what the GOP calls "mainstream".

The notion, moreover, that these major forces in Florida have been "forced to kowtow for the last seven-and-a-half years to Rick Scott" and Trump's "filleting of not just Bush ... but Marco Rubio" is plain wrong. In fact, Rick Scott has done an expert job of recruiting Florida's Republican establishment to his side, accommodating their interests even more neatly than either Bush, when he was governor, or Rubio, when he was a state legislator.

So why paint the picture of special interests as "flummoxed"? Here is a good guess: it plays right into Scott's campaign to defeat Bill Nelson for US Senate.

Schorch's: "In 2018, the establishment — scarred by a decade of political water-treading, but flush with a booming influence economy — is determined not to let another interloper defy its well-laid plans" is plain ridiculous. Political water-treading? Polluters and industry associations and well-funded political action committees have NEVER been as anchored and secure as they are today in Florida.

There has never been a question that Adam Putnam was carefully cultivated to be the Republican candidate for governor. It's happening the same way for Representative Matt Caldwell, who is now running for Putnam's job as Agriculture Secretary. Caldwell, an accountant in Lee County, lives in an area heavily afflicted by pollution from Big Sugar. Seven years ago, he was assigned by Big Sugar to "take down" a local county commissioner, Ray Judah, who had been the lone Republican voice in Florida politics to call for Big Sugar to shoulder the costs of cleaning up Florida's badly damaged rivers and estuaries. US Sugar Corporation funneled nearly $1 million into the campaign against Judah, and after its victory, Caldwell was promoted to do heavier lifting for Big Sugar in the state legislature. He was a primary driver behind efforts to turn the 2017 Everglades Reservoir Plan into Big Sugar's Trojan Horse. Now, he has been lined up for political advancement.

The same happened with Putnam. As a Congressman, Putnam vehemently opposed the effort by the US EPA to impose limits on nitrogen and phosphorous standards in Florida to protect the state's badly damaged fresh water resources. He opposed the Crist plan to buy US Sugar lands -- as did Gov. Scott -- a deal that could have helped to mitigate the agony of the planned massive reservoir, to cost taxpayers at least $2 billion. As a cabinet member, Putnam supported outrageous lease extensions of public lands to Big Sugar; another measure that solidified Big Sugar's chokehold on Floridians. So, yes: "The plan for Adam Putnam to eventually occupy the Governor’s Mansion began long before Trump and long before Scott. In fact, it was before Putnam was elected Agriculture Commissioner that a small group of key advisers began to meet in Boca Grande to plot out the then-Congressman’s path to the Governor’s Office."

From Schorch's report, it is clear that Putnam supporters want this story line to reach the White House.

Among those in attendance were Former House Speakers Dean Cannon, Steve Crisafulli and Will Weatherford, former Senate President Mike Haridopolos, Disney lobbyist Adam Babington, Miami real estate developer Rodney Barretto, Ballard Partners’ Brad Burleson, U.S. Sugar executive Robert Coker, The Rubin Group’s Chris Finkbeiner, Florida Chamber board member Sonya Deen Hartley, Smith Bryan & Myers’ Jeff Hartley, Anheuser-Busch exec Jose Gonzalez, Publix’s Clayton and Beverly Hollis, Greenberg Traurig lobbyist Fred Karlinsky, insurance lobbyist Robert Hawken, Justice Reform Institute president William Large, lobbyist and former state Rep. Seth McKeel, Comcast government affairs VP Brian Musselwhite, Mosaic government affairs VP Eileen Stuart, and AT&T Florida president Joe York.

Schorsch continues to expound on the storyline:

If there was one defining takeaway several of the Putnam supporters wanted to share it is that they are surprised by DeSantis’ less-than-spectacular fundraising efforts.

“It doesn’t look like the cavalry is coming,” said one lobbyist supporting Putnam.

In April, DeSantis political committee raised less than $500,000. What the Ponte Vedra Republican raised in hard dollars during April won’t be known until later this week. Whatever it is, he will have not kept pace with Putnam, whose Florida Grown political committee had another $2 million month in April. Overall, Putnam has raised $28.88 million between his campaign and committee.

Although Schorsch gives a DeSantis spokesperson the benefit of comment, it is clear that the purpose of the article is to attract to the audience of one: Donald Trump.

"... if he (Putnam) is to win — and fulfill the ambitions of his dedicated supporters — it would appear that Putnam’s best bet is not to raise more money or expound on the history of Florida, but to make sure the only place Donald Trump visits in Florida is his home at Mar-a-Lago."

That's probably a message that Gov. Rick Scott is also carrying to conversations with President Trump. As a US Senator, Rick Scott can be of more help to Trump than Ron DeSantis. And the Republican campaign fat cats will be more inclined to support Trump in 2020 than if he upends the carefully laid plans of Florida polluters.

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:

Republican Party In Palm Beach Lauds GOP Anti-Environmental Crusader ... by gimleteye

Alfie Fanjul (l) and Pepe Fanjul (r), top Palm Beach County Republican donor. The brothers head a billionaire dollar empire carved out of federal subsidies and corporate welfare programs protecting Big Sugar, the primary polluter of Everglades wetlands

The Republican Party of Palm Beach County has invited James O'Keefe to be its keynote speaker at its mid-summer event.

A press release describes O'Keefe as "an award winning journalist". In fact, he is better known as a right-wing activist who infiltrated ACORN and an office of Planned Parenthood and also invites legal action against himself.

In 2010, O'Keefe was convicted of breaking into the offices of Sen. Marie Landrieu:

Conservative filmmaker James O’Keefe was sentenced to three years of probation, 100 hours of community service and a $1,500 fine after he pleaded guilty on Wednesday to misdemeanor charges stemming from his involvement in a break-in at Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-La.) office. In January, O’Keefe and three others were arrested by federal authorities at Landrieu’s office on allegations of phone-tampering. Prosecutors initially said they caught four individuals in the process of committing a felony, but the charges were later reduced to misdemeanors."

O'Keefe and the Florida GOP meant to time his visit to Palm Beach County -- where virulent anti-environmentalism is coordinated through the Fanjul & US Sugar Corporation cartel -- with revelations of his incursion into the League Of Conservation Voters; an attack rebuffed yesterday by LCV with the California Attorney General.

The local GOP press release crows, "O’Keefe was ultimately credited with having a significant impact on the 2016 presidential elections for his October Surprise video series."

In "Has James O’Keefe Accidentally Stung Himself Again?", New Yorker writer Jane Mayer -- who chronicled influence peddling of the nation's largest polluters in "Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right" -- writes:

In the latest chapter of his strange career, the League of Conservation Voters, a national environmental-advocacy group, has filed a complaint against three individuals who infiltrated its operations, at least two of whom, the group alleges, “could be associated with” O’Keefe and have past ties to him. The group’s leaders recently began to suspect that they were being scammed, and decided to go to the authorities before O’Keefe or his alleged associates released any material on their own.

The timing of the Florida GOP conspiracy with O'Keefe occurs within context of a massive erosion of environmental rules and regulations by the Trump White House.

It is the identical strategy Florida polluters are planning to blend into the important 2018 political races where Big Sugar's main apologist, Agriculture Secretary Adam Putnam, is poised to be the GOP candidate to replace Gov. Rick Scott.

Scott, who counts on campaign financial support from Big Sugar, will likely aim for the senate seat held by incumbent Democratic Bill Nelson.

Overshadowing Florida's nasty, anti-people and anti-environmental politics is a recent report by federal scientists to the Trump administration calling climate change a greater, current threat to economic and national security than earlier estimates. According to the New York Times:

The average temperature in the United States has risen rapidly and drastically since 1980, and recent decades have been the warmest of the past 1,500 years, according to a sweeping federal climate change report awaiting approval by the Trump administration. The draft report by scientists from 13 federal agencies concludes that Americans are feeling the effects of climate change right now. It directly contradicts claims by President Trump and members of his cabinet who say that the human contribution to climate change is uncertain, and that the ability to predict the effects is limited.

The Trump White House has not released or commented on the report and was hoping, perhaps, that a titillating "explosive" revelation against LCV would help its cause in climate change denial.

Governor Rick Scott has prohibited state agencies and staff from using the words, "climate change", although Florida's economy, real estate and tax base is most vulnerable to its impacts in the nation. Recently, the US Department of Agriculture ordered "climate change" to be similarly deleted from its communications.

In the New Yorker report, Mayer contacted O'Keefe for comment. He responded:

“I don’t comment on investigations real or imagined, or work with mainstream reporters who operate in bad faith,” he told me. In 2016, I wrote an article for this magazine about O’Keefe’s bungled attempt to sting George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, a liberal nonprofit group that O’Keefe had targeted.

O'Keefe, in his role feeding the beast of disinformation through channels like Fox News, Breitbart, Infowars and Rush Limbauch, will dine on lobster tails at the Palm Beach GOP anti-environmental love-fest at the Polo Club of Boca Raton, 5400 Champion Boulevard, Boca Raton at 6:30PM on August 17.

An Adult Conversation About Medicare For All ... by gimleteye

NOTE: What the hell is going on with Republicans in Congress? The GOP is spending itself on health care like waves on a beach; a great surge then slide back out to sea.

GOP leadership believes that its base is motivated by only one idea: overthrow Obamacare. What was a popular net to corral voters turns out to be much less popular, and not at all effective, as a matter of protecting people, jobs, family and income.

It would be far better for sober adults in the GOP majority in Congress to look at the outcomes of health care in the U.S. As Dr. Carol Paris and many others report: the United States lags health care metrics compared to nearly every other industrialized nation. "Compared to ten other wealthy countries, the U.S. ranks dead last for life expectancy, and access to care. We even have the lowest number of hospital beds per capita, a way that health experts measure the capacity of a nation’s health system. It’s as if our system was designed to deny care."

The only metric where U.S. health care exceeds beyond imagination: empowering and enriching intermediaries in the health care supply chain.

I understand that this point grossly simplifies a massively complex process, but if other Western nations can effectively institute a single-payer system, why can't we?

Published on
Friday, July 28, 2017
by Common Dreams
It's Time for the Adults in This Nation To Talk Seriously About Medicare for All
Today, we breathe a quick sigh a relief. But we cannot celebrate a return to the failed status quo.
by Dr. Carol Paris

Ruby Partin, 63, and her adoptive son Timothy Huff, 5, wait for a free clinic to open in the early morning of July 22, 2017 in Wise, Virginia. Hundreds of Appalachia residents waited through the night for the annual Remote Area Medical (RAM), clinic for dental, vision and medical services held at the Wise County Fairgrounds in western Virginia. The county is one of the poorest in the state, with high number of unemployed and underinsured residents. (Photo: John Moore/Getty Images)

Hundreds of people slept overnight in cars, or camped for days in a field. They told stories of yanking out their own teeth with pliers, of reusing insulin syringes until they broke in their arm, of chronic pain so debilitating they could hardly care for their own children. At daybreak, they lined up for several more hours outside a white tent, waiting for their chance to visit a doctor. For many, this was the first health care provider they’ve seen in years.

Is this a place torn by war, famine or natural disaster? No, this charity medical clinic was last weekend in southwest Virginia, in the wealthiest country in the world, where we spend nearly three times as much money on health care as other similar countries.

"It’s as if our system was designed to deny care."

And what do we get for our money? The very definition of health care rationing: 28 million Americans without insurance, and millions more insured, but avoiding treatment because of sky-high deductibles and co-pays. Compared to ten other wealthy countries, the U.S. ranks dead last for life expectancy, and access to care. We even have the lowest number of hospital beds per capita, a way that health experts measure the capacity of a nation’s health system. It’s as if our system was designed to deny care.

America does hit the top of the list in some areas. Compared to other nations, American doctors and patients waste the most hours on billing and insurance claims. We have the highest rate of infant mortality, and the highest percentage of avoidable deaths—patients who die from complications or conditions that could have been avoided with timely care.

Clearly, this system is broken. Like a cracked pipe, money gushes into our health care system but steadily leaks out. Money is siphoned into the advertising budgets of insurance companies and the army of corporate bureaucrats working to deny claims. Even more dollars are soaked up by the pockets of insurance CEOs who have collectively earned $9.8 billion since the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010. Nearly a third of our health care dollars go to something other than health care.

President Trump recognized voters’ frustration and campaigned on a promise of more coverage, better benefits, and lower costs. We couldn’t agree more with these goals. However, instead of trying to fix our broken system, GOP leaders are acting more like toddlers, mid-tantrum, smashing our health system into smaller and smaller pieces, threatening to push even more Americans—the most vulnerable among us—through the cracks. Last night, a few Senate Republicans stood up and acted like adults, putting an end to this dangerous game.

Today, we breathe a quick sigh of relief. But we cannot celebrate a return to the status quo, a system that rations health care based on income and allows 18,000 Americans to die each year unnecessarily.

Where do we go from here?

Republicans had eight years to come up with a plan that achieves more coverage, better benefits and lower costs. Have our elected leaders simply run out of ideas?

"The good news is that we already have a proven model for health financing that is popular among both patients and physicians."
The good news is that we already have a proven model for health financing that is popular among both patients and physicians. It provides medically-necessary care to the oldest and sickest Americans with a fraction of the overhead of private insurance. It’s called Medicare, and I can tell you as a physician that it has worked pretty darn well for more than 50 years.

Not only do we have a model, we have a bill that would expand Medicare to cover everyone and improve it to include prescriptions, dental, vision, and long-term care. It’s called H.R. 676, the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act, a single-payer plan that would provide comprehensive care to everyone living in the U.S. The bill would yield about $500 billion annually in administrative savings while covering the 28 million currently uninsured. Medicare for all is gaining steam with a record 115 co-sponsors, a majority of House Democrats.

Now that Republican senators have finally worn themselves out, Sen. Bernie Sanders plans to file his own single-payer Medicare for all bill. Senators from both parties will be asked to choose a side: Do you support the current system of health care rationing, medical bankruptcies and unnecessary deaths; or a program proven to work both here and in every other developed country?

A majority of Americans now believe that health care is a human right, and that it is our government's responsibility to achieve universal coverage. We’ve tried everything else except Medicare for all. What are we waiting for?

More evidence that climate change deniers in Trump White House and GOP Congress intend to push people off the life rafts ... by gimleteye

Fascinating how the Trump administration is racing away from the reality of climate change and severe threats to national security at the same time evidence accumulates that Trump and the GOP are wrong.

Unless one happens to be in the fossil fuel supply chain, or, an electric utility that depends on centralized, mass market power distribution, you are in fact being pushed off a life raft as civilization heads toward the climate change rapids.

Exactly a year ago, I was on my second visit to Greenland by small plane. Our photos clearly showed the darkening of the Greenland ice cap. At the time I attributed the darkening to industrial soot and wildfire ash from continents away. That's what scientists had concluded.

Now a new BBC report offers important additional information: it is not just contamination that is darkening Greenland ice. Fast growing algae is also to blame.

The most alarming part of this disclosure is that the potential influence and impact to the ice sheet melt from rapid growth of algae is not even considered by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report that represents the scientific consensus on global warming.

In Miami, scientists have predicted up to a three foot rise in sea level by the end of the century. (Florida Power and Light is using a 6 inch sea level rise in its plans for new nuclear reactor plants at Turkey Point!)

As we have pointed out time after time on EOM, the reality of emerging climate change is exceeding every metric laid down by peer reviewed science. In other words, climate change impacts are happening much, much faster and with greater consequence than conservative scientific inquiry has predicted.

All the more reason to be furious that a GOP Congress, the US EPA under Scott Pruitt, and Trump White House is determined to hold and protect the privileges of insiders and cronies at push the rest of humanity off the life rafts. Florida, under Senator Marco Rubio, Gov. Rick Scott and Ag. Secretary Adam Putnam, is no help.

How will you vote in 2018?

Science & Environment
Sea level fears as Greenland darkens
David Shukman
Science editor
24 July 2017

The Greenland ice sheet covers an area about seven times the size of the UK

Scientists are "very worried" that the melting of the Greenland ice sheet could accelerate and raise sea levels more than expected.

They say warmer conditions are encouraging algae to grow and darken the surface.

Dark ice absorbs more solar radiation than clean white ice so warms up and melts more rapidly.

Currently the Greenland ice sheet is adding up to 1mm a year to the rise in the global average level of the oceans.

It is the largest mass of ice in the northern hemisphere covering an area about seven times the size of the United Kingdom and reaching up to 3km (2 miles) in thickness.

This means that the average sea level would rise around the world by about seven metres, more than 20ft, if it all melted.

The Ten GOP Commandments On Climate Change ... by gimleteye

I went back to review the 10 GOP Commandments On Climate Change after learning about the worst forest fires in Portugal's history. And more:

1) "Rick Perry just denied humans are the main cause of climate change."

2) and a massive heat wave in the Southwest where, in Arizona, temperatures will top 120 degrees. American Airlines is cancelling flights in and out of Phoenix as a result of the heat.

3) and in the Washington Post, a report of rapid melting in Antartica, now, including the first ever report of rainfall. ("Scientists stunned by Antarctica rainfall")


So here are the 10 GOP Commandments On Climate Change. My Republican friends, tell me where I'm wrong:

1) Climate change is like the weather: there is nothing we can do about it.

2) We will adapt economic behavior to climate change as it happens, not before.

3) Dissenters will be isolated from decision-makers.

4) We know what is best for you.

5) Man is top predator: adapt, die or engineer.

6) If some part of climate change is man-made, whatever happens is God’s will.

7) As the party of limited government, environmental regulations are self-defeating.

8) As the party of capitalism, climate-driven policies must satisfy our donors’ interest first.

9) If one size does not fit all, then existing energy subsidies will be protected first.

10) If there is a dispute on climate change, suck it up: cry your Libtard tears. We won.

Miami Dade GOP Congressional Delegation: you will LOSE your next election if you vote for Trumpcare today! ... by gimleteye

Follow me on Twitter: @gimleteyemiami

How pathetic. Because the GOP Congress can't stand the idea of facing down constituents during the summer recess, it will now vote on an irredeemably flawed health care plan that members of Congress would never adopt for their own families, if they had to.

The idea of shifting high risk pools to the states is just another shell game/ grifter sidewalk scam. If you trust the state of Florida to protect your interests, just take a look at Citizens Insurance. Or Gov. Rick Scott's record as a health care executive who barely escaped federal indictment for healthcare fraud of his former company, that scavenged at the edges of health care reimbursement formulas.

No. Republicans are presumably the party of business, and yet the GOP Congress is proceeding on a vote today WITHOUT a review of the current plan by the Congressional Budget Office. They won't wait, because they KNOW that millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions are about to pushed into the high-speed traffic lane of the US health care insurance disaster.

Here's a message to the Miami-Dade GOP delegation to Congress: side with people, today, and your seat may be protected. Vote to support Trumpcare, and your political career is in deep jeopardy. Simple.

Republican supporters of Trump: act now to save the nation ... by gimleteye

This is a plea to GOP friends who voted for Donald Trump. Get on the phone now with members of Congress. Ask them to deliver this message to President-elect Trump: we will not support your agenda until you get your act together.

Republicans opposed Barack Obama at every single point of contact. On the issue of national security briefings, they excoriated the president, and now it is time -- if the GOP Congress is honest -- to hold the president-elect to the same burning flame.

This is not a matter of political affiliation: it's a matter of national security. Donald Trump says he doesn't have time for national security briefings -- significantly detailing subversive actions involving Russia, our principal adversary -- , and he does not trust the nation's intelligence gathering agency -- the CIA -- or its conclusions about Russia's intentions. So where is he getting his information on Russia?

From websites like Breitbart or Drudge Report? From trolls. Tweets. Or from Putin himself, through intermediaries like Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobil?

It is not right. It is so far off the chart of normal, Donald Trump has taken the nation into uncharted waters.

Quote of the Day: Trump Is Blowing Off Intel Briefings Because "I'm, Like, a Smart Person"
KEVIN DRUM, Mother Jones
DEC. 11, 2016 2:34 PM

Donald Trump doesn't believe all this nonsense about Russia interfering with the election to help him out. I guess we all expected that. But then there's this:

He also indicated that as president, he would not take the daily intelligence briefing that President Obama and his predecessors have received. Mr. Trump, who has received the briefing sparingly as president-elect, said that it was often repetitive and that he would take it “when I need it.” He said his vice president, Mike Pence, would receive the daily briefing.

“You know, I’m, like, a smart person,” he said. “I don’t have to be told the same thing in the same words every single day for the next eight years.”

Hoo boy. A few years ago we learned that President Obama only attended 44 percent of his daily briefings. (He read the material on his own the rest of the time.) Conservatives were up in arms. Marc Thiessen complained that Obama was "consciously placing other priorities ahead of national security." John Sununu called the daily brief "the most important half-hour of the day for a president who has to protect the security of the United States." The Daily Caller snarked that Obama "has spent more time golfing than he has spent listening to daily intelligence briefings." Breitbart called the news "alarming." Dick Cheney was insulted: "If President Obama were participating in his intelligence briefings on a regular basis then perhaps he would understand why people are so offended at his efforts to take sole credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden."

Now Trump is saying he's never going to take the briefing because "I'm, like, a smart person." I await the conservative response with bated breath.

POSTSCRIPT: This is hardly the most important part of this story, but I'm curious. If Trump has only received two or three intelligence briefs so far, how does he know that they're "often repetitive"?