The following, from Delaney's Blog: Miami Sea Rise
Sleight of Hand: Florida�s Magician Governor Rick Scott
October 5, 2018
Delaney Reynolds
I love a good magic show and have been fooled by some of the best. When street magician extraordinaire David Blaine made � of a deck of cards disappear in front of my eyes just prior his show here in Miami last year, I was stunned. By any measure, David is an amazing artist and makes his craft look, well, like real magic.
But as wonderful as he is, you know that he�s an expert at deception, at sleight of hand, of making uncomfortable, often impossible things appear normal. Right before your eyes.
The longer I follow Florida�s Governor Rick Scott the more I become convinced that he�s also a world class necromancer, a magician of sorts (apologies to real magicians). In fact, David Blaine has nothing on our Governor and if you were to wonder why I think this, you need only to consider a few of the tricks he�s pulled on Floridians and our environment in recent years.
Houdini would blush at how Governor Rick Scott made our climate crisis and phrases like �climate change�, �sea level rise� and �global warming� disappear from state records and reports during his terms in office as was widely reported in the media and press (click here to learn more).
Rather than deal with the issue in a direct, decent way, the Governor has insisted that those who work for him should avoid using these terms and others as if the problem does not exist. You can learn more about his tricks and even see him perform by watching the short video produced by Ahead of the Tide entitled Chapter Three: The Political Climate.
Conjurer, I mean Governor, Scott pulled an especially big rabbit out of his hat in Broward County last month by making a long-expected vote in support of a gigantic new power plant disappear. Scott�s largest corporate donor (giving a reported $ 500,000 to his U.S. Senate campaign), Next Era Energy�s Florida Power & Light (FPL) plans to build the new power plant in Dania, a facility it describes as world class. Unfortunately, we�ve also learned that the planned �Dania Beach Clean Energy Center� plant will produce a �net increase from some pollutants�.
The Governor did not, of course, use his magic to require his friends at FPL make the pollution disappear. Doing that would have been rude considering the price they�ve paid ($ 500,000) for tickets to his �show�.
No, what he did was postpone the long-planned September 11th hearing to approve the plant until after the upcoming election, likely deciding it better that news of the plant, its vote, his support and especially the news that it will actually increase pollution disappear until after the polls close. It�s like watching that age-old trick where the magician asks you to find where the ball is hidden under a set of cups, reliant upon the notion that the hand is quicker than the eye.
And that leads me to this week�s long planned legal Hearing in Tallahassee for the climate change lawsuit that seven other Florida children and I have brought against the State, our Governor and others. We filed our case (Reynolds v. State of Florida) in April (you can read about it here).
Late Monday, just three days before the October 4th Hearing and many months after the Judge was assigned the case, Judge Cooper announced that he was recusing himself due to a conflict of interest, turning the case back over to the Chief Justice and, thus, requiring that a new Judge and Hearing date be set. You can read about the Judge�s recent decision in the article from Politico below:
Read more �
Sleight of Hand: Florida�s Magician Governor Rick Scott
October 5, 2018
Delaney Reynolds
I love a good magic show and have been fooled by some of the best. When street magician extraordinaire David Blaine made � of a deck of cards disappear in front of my eyes just prior his show here in Miami last year, I was stunned. By any measure, David is an amazing artist and makes his craft look, well, like real magic.
But as wonderful as he is, you know that he�s an expert at deception, at sleight of hand, of making uncomfortable, often impossible things appear normal. Right before your eyes.
The longer I follow Florida�s Governor Rick Scott the more I become convinced that he�s also a world class necromancer, a magician of sorts (apologies to real magicians). In fact, David Blaine has nothing on our Governor and if you were to wonder why I think this, you need only to consider a few of the tricks he�s pulled on Floridians and our environment in recent years.
Houdini would blush at how Governor Rick Scott made our climate crisis and phrases like �climate change�, �sea level rise� and �global warming� disappear from state records and reports during his terms in office as was widely reported in the media and press (click here to learn more).
Rather than deal with the issue in a direct, decent way, the Governor has insisted that those who work for him should avoid using these terms and others as if the problem does not exist. You can learn more about his tricks and even see him perform by watching the short video produced by Ahead of the Tide entitled Chapter Three: The Political Climate.
Conjurer, I mean Governor, Scott pulled an especially big rabbit out of his hat in Broward County last month by making a long-expected vote in support of a gigantic new power plant disappear. Scott�s largest corporate donor (giving a reported $ 500,000 to his U.S. Senate campaign), Next Era Energy�s Florida Power & Light (FPL) plans to build the new power plant in Dania, a facility it describes as world class. Unfortunately, we�ve also learned that the planned �Dania Beach Clean Energy Center� plant will produce a �net increase from some pollutants�.
The Governor did not, of course, use his magic to require his friends at FPL make the pollution disappear. Doing that would have been rude considering the price they�ve paid ($ 500,000) for tickets to his �show�.
No, what he did was postpone the long-planned September 11th hearing to approve the plant until after the upcoming election, likely deciding it better that news of the plant, its vote, his support and especially the news that it will actually increase pollution disappear until after the polls close. It�s like watching that age-old trick where the magician asks you to find where the ball is hidden under a set of cups, reliant upon the notion that the hand is quicker than the eye.
And that leads me to this week�s long planned legal Hearing in Tallahassee for the climate change lawsuit that seven other Florida children and I have brought against the State, our Governor and others. We filed our case (Reynolds v. State of Florida) in April (you can read about it here).
Late Monday, just three days before the October 4th Hearing and many months after the Judge was assigned the case, Judge Cooper announced that he was recusing himself due to a conflict of interest, turning the case back over to the Chief Justice and, thus, requiring that a new Judge and Hearing date be set. You can read about the Judge�s recent decision in the article from Politico below:
