Sunday, March 10, 2013

I've had enough of the circus this week. I am sure others have as well. It has been mostly disappointing again. I don't believe for one minute there is going to be a new Republican path for their party. I just know too much to believe they could be anything that resembles America.

Power brokers are not America. The Republicans have lost their way and are not engaged in governance.

Have a good evening.


The relationship between Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio has been established for a long time.

By Manuel Roig-FranziaPublished: March 8
In the spring of 2002, (click here) a young Florida state representative named Marco Rubio sized up one of his mentors, Jeb Bush.

“He’s practically Cuban, just taller,” Rubio quipped to a journalist. “He speaks Spanish better than most of us.”...
I have to disagree with Senator Rubio about that assessment of Jeb Bush being nearly Cuban by birth. Not really, but, he has a lot of reason to appear that way. The primary driver behind Bush's enthusiasm for the Cuban identity begins with  Florida Crystals Corporation (click here for Bloomberg Business).

Website of Florida Crystals Corporation (click here)

Jeb Bush has many, many supports and when he promises to come through for them he means it.

Pepe Fanjul, Jr. serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Foundation for Florida’s Future. (clck here)

Pepe Fanjul, Jr. is Vice President of Fanjul Corp. and Executive Vice President of Florida Crystals Corporation, where his responsibilities include government relations, corporate communications, land development and real estate investments.

See, Jebby has been planning on being the third Bush in the Oval Office for a long time. He has been founder and chairman of more political organization than the GOP. They all benefit political donors to his campaigns and the campaigns of George W., too.

The Foundation for Florida's Future is as much a political action corporation than any PAC Rove has organized. It doesn't specialize in sabotaging campaigns of Democrats through ads, it actually brings in people to a CABAL to insure his election and their success regardless of the people in the USA. 

Jeb Bush is Founder and Chairman of the Foundation for Florida’s Future. He served as the 43rd governor of Florida, from 1999 through 2007.


This is an article that specifically spells out the level of power the Fanjul operations have in the farming sector. It is an investigative journal article. The sugar kings in Florida pollute, use land that should be classified as wetlands and enforce poverty in the far reaches of Florida where most people don't even know the sugar industry exists.
No one really innocent of catering to generous political donors, but, considering the supports for the sugar industry are federal, it doesn't really explain the strong political ties between Bush and the industry in Florida, or does it? For someone never having any interest in the federal government until 2016 it would seem as though this is political ambition planning spanning a lifetime.
Keria Smith, 20, lives in a two-bedroom, one-bathroom Belle Glade house with her mother, her mother’s boyfriend and her 3-year-old sister.  In Belle Glade and neighboring Pahokee, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates unemployment and poverty rates at 45 percent. (Photo by Amy Green.
It works like this. If the Cubans can come to the USA and be billionaires then why are their so many African Americans too lazy to do the same thing? Right? No bothers to mention the Cubans that arrived after Castro came into power came with fistfuls of US$$$$. There was no doubt they would find wealth in the USA and no doubt they would seek corrupt ties to politicians and no doubt they would want to punish Cuba at every turn.
By Amy Green
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
BELLE GLADE, Fla. — Behind every candy bar (click here) and can of soda is a complex government program of import tariffs and farmer loans establishing the price of sugar. The program, which has been in place in one form or another since shortly after the founding of the United States, is responsible for the success of Florida’s $1.3 billion sugar industry, the nation’s largest producer of sugar cane.
That success, according to government and independent studies, comes at a cost to consumers every time they shop at grocery stores. The studies, including a report by the Government Accountability Office, conclude the sugar program inflates the U.S. price of sugar, costing consumers about $2 billion annually in increased food prices. (food prices have less to do with oil so much as ingredients such as sugar)
Despite its adverse impact, the sugar program survives on the political largesse of sugar growers, who are among the most generous in the agribusiness industry. This election cycle, sugar growers spent $3.6 million in campaign contributions, outpacing the tobacco industry’s $2.8 million. Big Sugar is as big as ever, spending millions to preserve a price support program that inflates the cost of groceries including bread, fruit juice and ketchup.
The sugar program is part of the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act, or the Farm Bill, which shapes U.S. policy on agriculture, rural development, environmental conservation, food aid and more. The Farm Bill comes up for renewal every five years, and is set to expire this year on Sept. 30. Several high-ranking politicians are now trying to put an end to the program. At stake for Florida is a sugar industry responsible for 33,000 jobs....
...The Fanjul brothers have maintained their influence through the years. Today, the Fanjuls, nicknamed Alfy and Pepe, are known for their wealth and political connections. Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American and tea party-backed politician who rails against government overreach, wrote about the Fanjuls in his autobiography, An American Son, and described their role in his 2010 Senate campaign.
“The end of August saw a slight uptick in our fundraising,” Rubio wrote. “We were collecting more envelopes at my speeches. Some of our midsized events were raising as much as $20,000. The mail was starting to make money. The crown jewel of the quarter would be the fundraiser in New York in late September, hosted by the Fanjul family, a Cuban American family that owns a large sugar and real estate conglomerate. It sounded unbelievable, but if the event hit its target, we stood a good chance of posting a million-dollar quarter.”...

Now, if this isn't just as disgusting as it gets, now the Fanjul family wants to continue to pollute large tracts of land and prevent wetlands (Everglades) restoration.

U.S. Sugar is not the Fanjul family at all. The Fanjul family sells their sugar cane to U.S. Sugar in Wisconsin for distribution into the nation's food supply. 

October 12, 2011|By Andy Reid
One year after Florida’s $197 million land deal (click here) with U.S. Sugar Corp., the 26,800 acres of farmland that was supposed to mean a new direction for Everglades restoration remains citrus groves and sugar cane.
The South Florida Water Management District on Oct. 12, 2010 overcame two years of economic hurdles and legal fights to acquire farmland from U.S. Sugar that had long been off limits to Everglades restoration.

Imagine that, a major corporation having enough remorse regarding land use abuse they wanted to return it to the USA government and restoration. Nice. Right?

Alfonso (Alfy) and José (Pepe) Fanjul, owners, Flo-Sun (Florida Crystals) (click here)

Jan 5, 2009, 12:00am EST


...The Fanjul family, which owns Florida Crystals, has been relatively quiet about the land deal, but the company filed an objection in the state’s quest for bond certification to buy the U.S. Sugar land.
Alfonso Fanjul Sr. left Cuba during the Castro revolution. He led the effort to re-establish sugar cane in South Florida in 1960.
His sons, Alfy and Pepe Fanjul, grew the company into one of the world’s biggest agriculture groups. The company – which has operations in Florida, California, Louisiana, New York, Maryland, Canada and Mexico – says it produces more than 4 million tons of sugar a year.
In a news release, Florida Crystals said it was not opposed to the state’s concept of buying land and restoring the Everglades.
But, it said the specifics of the deal reached in November would actually delay Everglades restoration for years and “put farmers in the Everglades at a competitive disadvantage by allowing U.S. Sugar to lease back the land … at below-market rates and with a right of first refusal.”
It is true, restoration of a vast track of land does not happen overnight, but, that doesn't mean it should not happen at all. And if it weren't for those lousy judges, the corruption might even be complete.


Judge approves financing of Florida plan to buy US Sugar land for Everglades restoration (click here)

August 26, 2009
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - A Florida judge has ruled that the state can move ahead with a $536 million plan to buy land from U.S. Sugar Corp. for Everglades restoration.
Palm Beach County District Judge Donald Hafele says in his order Wednesday that the South Florida Water Management District proved the proposal has a "valid public purpose."
South Florida water managers plan to buy 73,000 acres of farmland from the company to construct reservoirs and water treatment marshes.
The deal also leaves open the option for the state to purchase more land from the nation's largest cane sugar producer.
But U.S. Sugar's main rival, Florida Crystals, and the Miccosukee Indians had argued the deal was an irresponsible use of taxpayer dollars and could further delay Everglades restoration efforts.

This deal was a Governor Charlie Christ initiative. It would never have occurred under Former Governor Jeb Bush. Never.


..."We don't see (click here) that there's a public purpose," said Gaston Cantens, a spokesman and vice president for Florida Crystals. "Just land ownership in and of itself is not sufficient."
Crist, the water district and a contingent of powerful environmental groups want to use the U.S. Sugar land, which forms a loose belt south of Lake Okeechobee to clean the lake's polluted water and send it to the parched Everglades....


...In an e-mail, water district spokesman Gabriel Margasak said, "The strategic location of these thousands of acres of land provides water managers with the flexibility to store and clean water on a scale never before contemplated to protect Florida's coastal estuaries and better revive, restore and preserve America's Everglades."
Supporters of Crist's plan say Florida Crystals is using the courts to gain negotiating leverage when it vies for some of U.S. Sugar's land.
The state will need to swap U.S. Sugar land with Florida Crystals to link Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades.
Cantens denied an ulterior motive.
"If we prevail on the hearing then there is no deal. There's nothing to leverage," Cantens said.
The Everglades Restoration is probably one of the legacy projects of the Crist governorship. He was more than correct in seeking to make the Florida Everglades once again an area to be proud of and protect. It is a remarkable venture to bring back vitality to the waters of Southern Florida. I am quite confident any funding has been under attack since Governor Crist left the governor's office, but, it remains a great accomplishment.

Florida Department of Environmental Protection Everglades Restoration (click here)

This is the kind problem that Jeb Bush promotes. He would be worse than George "W" in every way and would return a nightmare to the USA. Not just on the environmental front, because he would encourage oil exploration off the Florida Gulf Coast, but we'd be back into Afghanistan and Iraq and confronting aggressions with Russia again.


The Bushs have too many personal entanglements by their own making. Big Pharma, China and it's economy and demands for owning the oil supply of the world. The Star Wars missile system sitting at Russia's border is not at all about Europe's security, it is about Russian oil.

Jeb Bush has methodically BUILT an alliance of power brokers and brought along a Hispanic Florida Congressman to prominence as an example for his loyalty to the ethnicity in the USA. I have never witnessed such a purposeful groups of political entanglements in my life. Not even Joe Kennedy had this many allies.

The anti-humanitarian agenda delivered every week by Jeff Sessions, the immune Christian legislator.


...I fear...

...I fear...

...I fear...it will destroy the country...

Anti-immigration because it will destroy American jobs and create new rules and regulations that destroy jobs.

According to Jeffy we need a leaner and meaner USA budget to empower Americans and not the government (especially when it comes to guns, I suppose.). He wants to promote family and not bureaucracy because the evil government is attempting to raise your children and not the parents. Some of that might even be true within the working poor that have less parenting time than they would like and where religious extremism can breed fear and guilt about what the children are being taught in public schools.

And to finish his love for all Americans, the country must create the central bonds to lives and not government rules for the love and loyalty we have for one another. Flag waving at it's worse where government is the enemy and god is our best friend. He says god alot without saying god at all. After all our deepest fear for our children is that prayer is taken out of their lives in the public schools.

Sessions never adequately addresses what is going in on in Washington, what the issues are that are being legislated and he always addresses the sales pitch.

Now, why would President Obama ever believe this disaster of a party will actually see anything his way when he seeks to empower Americans to change their lives.

Food stamps feed people, they don't make them dependent. Any social subsidy including Medicaid doesn't prevent people from working. The current welfare system rewards work, so why does the rhetoric continue? 

Social subsidies of any kind extend the monies lower and middle income families already have to improve their quality of life for their children and even themselves. There is crime in that somewhere? There is laziness in that? There is lack of seeking a better life in that?

Social Security and Medicare are earned benefits. They always have been and always will be, but, somehow that is crime, too? Why? Because for over four decades Republicans have borrowed against the trust funds and would rather purge the national debt than pay it?

It is a pity, actually, for a President to be so defamed and so demeaned in his intent. It should be a crime. But, after all the subsidies to the lower income American are African Americans and we all know how lazy they are. Hell, they weren't even good slaves without a whip.

You know, it is amazing to hear Republicans attempt to promote immigration even though that is not the case for Sessions. It only proves how deep the bigotry runs. Why aren't they seeking the African American vote? Republicans figure Hispanics are the next big boom for their rhetoric. They are 'natural' conservatives. And after all, if the Republicans actually sought the African American vote they couldn't manipulate the voting rules.

The President is not going to win over Republicans. Nothing personal, except, his legacy.

Paul Ryan's hate laced talk today is directly related to a very real agenda of Republicans.

One of the priorities of extremists is destroying President Obama's legacy. That is fact. So, while President Obama is seeking reconciliation with Republicans and some of the more establishment Republicans can appreciate that, he isn't going to get it.

He has been dancing around the issue since the beginning of his Presidency. Some of the attack on him as a person and a President is racism, but, it is also an agenda of destroying his legacy.

One of the deepest held beliefs of extremists is their WORLD VIEW. That world view of folks in the Tea Party is as extreme as they are, but, they profoundly believe at the deepest of their core VALUES there is a "World View" that is more important than politics.

So every time President Obama states it seems as though anytime he agrees with Republicans it drives the ability for bipartisanship further from achievement, he is correct and there is sincere reason for it. The reason Mitch McConnell has a retreat from any bipartisanship founded in filibuster, it is to destroy President Obama's legacy. It taints their 'World View.'

FDR is the "anti-world view" of Republicans. They believe if they can have an Anti-FDR that it will create a new world view the country will never depart from. So bipartisanship is out of the question. Completely out of the question. The extremists, like Ryan, don't care they have no real successful plans for the country so long as they can create a new IDOL.
American Idol Season 12 Winner Prediction: Year Of The Ladies (CLICK HERE)
Wouldn't it just be the best thing that could happen, but, to find a REAL LIFE and REAL WORLD Idol to lead the country in the World View the Republicans are seeking?

No government.

A military to rule the world.

Domestic tranquility at the business end of a gun.

People dying of poverty rather than Earned Benefits like SSI, Medicare and Obamacare.

People dying because they are undeserving of 'grace' JOB.

The extremists believe that 'grace' will bring about a higher order USA. They are willing to allow the 'extremes' of a populous to fall away through early deaths. Grace alone was a priority with the Bush White House. We witnessed job choices made within the Bush Administration based in 'You are a Bushie.' Don't tell me this is an exaggeration. It isn't. It has been 'going on.'

So, the reason there is sincere hatred of the Obama Legacy and his 'attitude' to correct racial discrimination and uplift of our minorities is in direct relationship with a world view held by extremists.

When Paul Ryan states the House is going to defund Obamacare as a means to reducing the National Debt it is because it does not 'fit' the world view. They don't care. It is time to realize extremism within the Republican Party is real and based in ideology. 

There is no way the Republicans view a benevolent culture in the USA as a way to a sustainable economy. They hate artists, philosophers, dependency, anything other than their egotistical religious zealotry. They never admit their economic policies are a failure, it is always the lazy American that is the problem.

In no way will President Obama CO-OPT Republican ideas as his own when making policy, that is contamination. 

Do I think it was nice of President Obama to ask the Senators to dinner and Ryan to lunch. Sure. If he likes their company at a party. But, do I think there will be a renaissance of governance in the USA? Do I think McConnell will allow judges to be confirmed? Real governance? 

AIN'T NO WAY, HONEY. Nice try though.

The mission for China that Secretary Kerry has before him is to break the cycle of spiritual distress.

Exiled Tibetan Buddhist (click here) monks carrying Tibetan flags shout slogans during a protest march in Dharmsala, India, as they mark the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule, Sunday, March 10, 2013. Police in India prevented a Tibetan man from setting himself on fire as hundreds of Tibetan exiles gathered to mark the anniversary in Dharmsala, the home of Tibet's government in exile.


POPULATION
Approx: 111,170 in exile. India 85,000; Nepal 14,000; Bhutan 1,600; Switzerland 1,540; Rest of Europe 640; Scandinavia 110; USA and Canada 7,000; Japan 60; Taiwan 1,000; Australia and New Zealand 220; (Based on Tibetan Demographic Survey of 1998, Planning Council, Dharamsala)


THE STATEMENT (click here) OF SIKYONG DR. LOBSANG SANGAY ON THE 54TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TIBETAN NATIONAL UPRISING DAY

On this day in 1959, thousands of Tibetans from all walks of life and all three regions of Tibet (U-Tsang, Kham and Amdo) converged in Lhasa to resist and protest the Chinese invasion and occupation of Tibet. We are the children of this tragic yet historic moment in Tibet’s rich, unique, 2,000-plus year history. Today, we are gathered here to re-dedicate ourselves to the brave struggle started by the selfless elder generation. We pay tribute to all those who have sacrificed their lives for Tibet. The yearning for freedom that moved our elders to undertake the epochal events of March 10, 1959 is a beacon that guides our present-day struggle to secure our basic freedom, dignity and identity.....


The continuing vicious cycle of repression and resentment...Tibetans setting themselves on fire. Since 2009, 107 Tibetans have self-immolated including 28 in November 2012 just before and during the 18th Party Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. Sadly, 90 of them have died....their ranks include the full spectrum of Tibetans – nomads, farmers and students – from all three Tibetan regions of U-Tsang, Kham and Amdo including the capital city of Lhasa....

Peace for the Tibetans is not difficult to achieve. They are not armed. They do not kill so much as self-destruct. They are no threat to China.

My opinion is that communists seek stable states of government through quiet and cautious revolution. Capitalism found it's way into China. It was a revolution no matter what the Chinese want to deny about that reality. Spirituality was a very high commodity in China. There are many cultures within China today that cling to their ancient past, so providing peace to Tibetans is somewhat of an extension of that spiritual basis of China's people.

Self-immolation results from spiritual distress. It is not a minor problem. When a people are dedicated to peace and thought and physical strength it is a good culture. There is nothing threatening about that. It is a good culture for a country to allow to exist. This is not a culture that will seek destruction of other peoples.

The Tibetan Monks are benevolent people. They seek spiritual elevation as their commodity. That is their monetary exchange. People from all over the world seek the spiritual guidance of these people. They have perfected the spiritual strength of the human condition. 

Buddhism. The Four Noble Truths could be consider the transition of suffering.

The truth of dukkha (suffering, anxiety, dissatisfaction)
The truth of the origin of dukkha
The truth of the cessation of dukkha
The truth of the path leading to the cessation of dukkha

That is not a minor dedication of these Monks. Ending suffering on a global basis is what their spirituality seeks. Ain't a bad idea.

They have a disciple in their lives that lead to this advanced state of spirituality. It is called the Eightfold Path. 

Wisdom
- Right view
- Right intention (that is a big one, try to tell capitalists they have the right path to end suffering)

Ethical Conduct
- Right speech
- Right action
- Right Livelihood (that plays into right intention with capitialists)

Concentration
- Right effort
- Right mindfulness
- Right concentration 

The Buddists are a threat to the third world when people are told their conscience is lacking when engaging the idea of growing wealth to establish a stable government state. So, while the Tibetan Monks are never a direct military threat, the communists view them in a very bad light. Infiltrators is probably a good description of how they are viewed. Ultimately, subversives. But, heck, I am sure by now the Republicans have insisted I be listed with any anticipated drone list as a subversive. Needless to say it is a badge of honor.

But, to the Tibetans there has been an uptick lately of self-immolation with the approaching anniversary. I believe the leadership among the Buddhists are sensitive to the spiritual distress these basically benevolent people experience. To that end they also try to bring a perspective of modernization and civilized awareness to alleviate their distress. But, it doesn't work well because their homeland is always under siege.

I would ask Secretary Kerry to advocate for their peaceful allowance in the world. It is important. It is at the center of these people and as a world in appreciation of their benevolence we cannot ignore their profound need.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/03/10/3905490/india-police-stop-immolation-bid.html#storylink=cpy