Category — Florida

Florida Gov. Rick Scott calls on FBI Director Chris Wray to resign because the Bureau didn’t follow up on a tip in January about Nikolas Cruz. Mr. Wray has headed the Bureau for about a year. Governor Scott fails to identify the super power that the FBI has that would have allowed it to do more than make a referral to a local police agency.

Scott has been governor for 7 years, and Law Enforcement went to Nikolas Cruz’s home 39 times over that 7-year period. Scott had 7 years to do something about Cruz, but he failed.

School records shed new light on accused Florida shooter Nikolas Cruz

Only five states have laws allowing family members, guardians or police to ask judges to temporarily strip gun rights from people who show warning signs of violence. Supporters of the measures, deemed “red flag laws” or gun violence restraining orders, say they can save lives by stopping some shootings and suicides.

The situation is simple, Cruz was arrested under Florida law and is being tried in a Florida court. Unfortunately the state of Florida doesn’t provide law enforcement the tools to deal with these situations. If you can’t get someone committed to a mental health facility, you can’t disarm shooters.

One of the unique features of freezes that reach South Florida is the risk of being brained by a comatose iguana falling out of a tree. As both Mustang Bobby and the BBC note, the cold-blooded lizards react to freezing temperatures by slowing all of their life processes to a point where they seem to have died. Losing their grip on the trees they live in they fall to the ground. If they warm up in time, they will climb back up their tree leaving the concussed tourists lying on the ground.

Mustang Bobby pointed to the Tampa Bay Times annual round-up of bizarre stories from Florida.

It is heartening that only one story was from my area, and there was no mention of goats. They also avoid stories about Mar-a-Lago.

My electrical infrastructure was cut off for over an hour by another kamikaze squirrel attack on a transformer. Basically FLASH! BOOM! and a shower of toasted squirrel bits. Second time in a year.

In order to generate “local excitement” [sell stuff] the chamber of commerce is once again annoying people with the Billy Bowlegs Festival. This year the unavoidable part runs from Friday, June 2^nd and finishes up on Monday. The really obnoxious parade on Monday screws up traffic and sends a lot of noisy people through my neighborhood.

Almost as bad as the parade traffic jam are the Friday fireworks. I know a lot of people enjoy fireworks, but they probably have not seen what loud noises and flashes of light can do to people and aircraft – I am definitely not a fan.

With luck it will rain the rest of the week… 😈

Trump asked DNI, NSA to deny evidence of Russia collusion

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump called two top intelligence community figures to request that they deny in public any evidence of collusion between his campaign and the Russian government during the 2016 election, multiple current and former US officials with knowledge tell CNN.

Trump’s requests to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and National Security Agency Director Adm. Michael Rogers came after then-FBI Director James Comey publicly revealed before the House intelligence committee on March 20 that the FBI had an investigation into collusion to influence the 2016 election.

More witnesses for Robert Mueller to interview on obstruction of justice.

Meanwhile a Sinkhole opens at Trump’s Florida retreat:

A sinkhole has opened at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago golf resort in Florida.

The town of Palm Beach, where Mr Trump’s retreat is located, tweeted a traffic alert on Monday morning about the 4ft by 4ft (1.2m) road cavity.

City officials tweeted that the hole had formed “directly in front of Mar-a-Lago” and was close to a newly installed water main.

City construction crews were to carry out “exploratory excavation” of site.

Less than nice people on the Internet want to know the exact time that Trump stuffed his prayer into the Western Wall to compare it to the appearance of the sinkhole.

Ex-Florida senator who used racial slur hired Hooters, Playboy models:

The Miami Herald reports Saturday that state records show that Frank Artiles’ PAC, Veterans for Conservative Principals, had paid former Hooters model Heather Thomas $2,000 and former Playboy model Brittney Singletary $1,500. They were listed as consultants.

This guy is a former Florida state senator because he used the racial slur while talking to two black female Florida state senators. IOW: a standard issue family values Republican politician, like the recently resigned former governor of Alabama, Robert J. Bentley.

Severe Thunderstorm Warning, Tornado Watch, Flash Flood Watch, Flood Advisory, High Surf Advisory, Wind Advisory, Coastal Flooding Advisory, Rip Current Statement, and 3.27 inches of rain.

Now we have the rest of the month to double the average monthly rainfall which is rising because we have been doubling or tripling it for the last 3+ years in our new climate.

Today marks the beginning of the 60 days of lunacy and dishonest behavior known as the annual session of the Florida legislature. Their only real job is to pass a budget, but they manage to afflict the citizens with myriad types of idiocies and indignities in their quest for higher office.

Arthur Frommer, the man behind Frommer’s Guides, blogs the news: The Travel Press is Reporting the ‘Trump Slump,’ a Devastating Drop in Tourism to the United States

As far as travel by distinct religious groups, flight passengers from the seven Muslim-majority nations named by Trump were down by 80% in the last week of January and first week of February, according to Forward Keys, a well-known firm of travel statisticians. On the web, flight searches for trips heading to the U.S. out of all international locations was recently down by 17%.

A drop of that magnitude, if continued, would reduce the value of foreign travel within the U.S. by billions of dollars. And the number of jobs supported by foreign tourists and their expenditures in the United States—and thus lost—would easily exceed hundreds of thousands of workers in hotels, restaurants, transportation, stores, tour operations, travel agencies, and the like.

It was bad enough when an oil company decided to destroy my local economy with an oil leak caused by their reckless behavior, but now we have the SCROTUS, an individual who makes his money from hotels and golf courses, destroying tourism with his misguided policies. How much is he prepared to lose?

When it comes to Congresscritters I get represented by real ‘winners’. Joe Scarborough is one of my former ‘Critters, The most recent former ‘Critter was Jefferson Beauregard Miller who, as chair of the House veterans committee held no hearings on the VA until the media began to report on problems. Before him was Earl Hutto whose most remarkable accomplishment was starring in a locally produced children’s TV show. Now I have Matt Gaetz, who Charlie Pierce highlighted:

…Meanwhile, Matt Gaetz from Florida began his one-minute oration with a Shakespearean flourish, which brought to the proceedings all the gravitas of the average middle-school book report.

“Mr. Speaker, I come to bury Obamacare, not to praise it. The evil that men do lives on after them…”

Oh, just shut up, Fenwick. Honest to god.

I ragged on former Senator Arlen Specter for years about his use of a Shakespeare quote during the confirmation hearing for Clarence Thomas. Gaetz obviously is totally unaware that Mark Antony’s funeral speech is a great piece of sarcasm. I used it with the death of Fidel Castro, and I resort to its deepest sarcasm with references to ‘honorable men’, you know, like the Republican members of Congress or the Director of the FBI.

Secure your place as a participant in one of the more insane elections in US history.

If you are a Florida voter, I would appreciate a ‘yes’ on amendment 2.

In Florida the polls are open from 7AM to 7PM local, and if you are in line when the polls close you still get to vote. There may be rain tomorrow afternoon and evening on the Panhandle.

Update: An easy way to keep up with what’s happening tomorrow if you have an IOS or Android device is with The Guardian‘s app. You can opt in to election alerts and receive them as things happen.

There are four measures on the Florida ballot this year: Amendments 1, 2, 3, & 5. Amendment 4 was passed on the primary election ballot. This is Florida, it doesn’t have to be logical.

You can read the official explanation of the amendments, which leaves out the intents of the backers.

Amendments 3 & 5 are feel good referrals by the Republican legislature to give property tax breaks to first responders who were permanently disabled while on duty, and to senior citizens. The legislature does this because they get credit for a tax cut that doesn’t affect them, since property taxes are the principle support for local governments, not the state government. The legislature doesn’t get the blame when local services are cut, and gets the credit for lowering taxes – all gain and no pain.

Amendment 1 is evil- It is written to sound like support for solar energy but it is sponsored by the utilities to block any real change to their business model.

I am only voting yes for Amendment 2 – in spite of the fact that it is titled medical marijuana. The actual citizens who are pushing the amendment have issued a statement of their intent so there is no confusion as to what they want the amendment to accomplish.

When it was grown by the founding fathers, cannabis was used to make ropes, among other products, and was often mandated as a vital crop. ‘Marijuana’ is actually an anti-Mexican slang term for the plant, but it won’t go away.

My battery was dead yesterday, so I put it on the charger so it would be ready to go later. I did it first thing because the broadband was down until 11AM CDT. When I tried to start the car after the charger said it was fully charged, I not only didn’t get the roar of the engine, the alert tone sounded like it was at the bottom of the neighbor’s swimming pool.

So I started my day without the Internet or transportation.

This afternoon I got ‘the call’: a new battery, both front tires really needed to replaced and I had a nail in one of my new rear tires. I have been replacing the tires one a month, so that came as no surprise, and it was only the battery, when it could have been the battery and the alternator. It came in under $600, which isn’t bad considering that they picked the car up and took it to the shop. They promised it tomorrow, so I can hope.

Update: Today was supposed to be the ‘equinox’ but instead of 12 hours, we had 12 hours and 7 minutes. It’s going to be two or three days before we get an equinox….