SCANDAL #8
⚡️In 2014, 75% of Floridians voted OVERWHELMINGLY to pass Amendment 1, AKA the FL Water & Land Conservation Initiative, a state constitutional amendment to allot a projected $21 billion over the 20 years of the measure to buy & preserve land. They approved this:
▶️75% of the voters is 4.2 million people.
▶️When 75% of #Florida voters voted to approve Amendment 1 to the Florida Constitution, they approved "the largest land conservation measure ever approved in a single state."
ℹ️The exact amount of money is “projected” because—according to the amendment that was passed—it was to come from 33% of Florida’s existing excise tax. An Excise tax is a “documentary stamp tax” paid when real estate is sold, typically 70 cents per $100 paid for the property.
ℹ️The #Florida tax also is levied at 35 cents per $100 for certificates of indebtedness, promissory notes, wage assignments, and retail charge account agreements. So 33% of the excise tax is a variable number and the same amount is not collected each year.
💰💰However, projections from the #Florida Office of Economic & Demographic Research show that $21 billion is expected to be collected from the document stamp taxes to be earmarked for land & water preservation purchases & deposited into the Land Acquisition Fund.
💥But something has gone awry. Florida Forever, the largest land acquisition program in the nation, has suffered the most. Used to an annual budget of $300 million for 20 years, between 2009-2014, they only amassed $20 million total (vs. $1.2 billion).

news-press.com/story/news/201…
Coincidentally, #Florida is one of those states that has a trifecta—has since 2014—in which the Governor, the House & the Senate are all controlled by the GOP. A rogue Republican legislature has approved taking funds earmarked for the Land Acquisition Fund for “general expenses.”
💥So, as you might imagine, environmental groups in #Florida are upset. Jim McCarthy, president of North Florida Land Trust:
💸And he's not the only one: The Florida Wildlife Federation, the St. Johns Riverkeeper, the Environmental Confederation of Southwest #Florida and the Sierra Club have all sued the state of Florida for improperly diverting portions of the money.

fwfonline.org/site
👨‍⚖️In June 2018, Leon County Circuit Judge Charles Dodson ruled that the legislature “defied” the initiative voted on by the super majority of the #Florida residents.

tampabay.com/florida-politi…
👨‍⚖️Judge Dodson said that the #Florida governing group used these funds for staffing—which should not be allowed—as the money was intended to be earmarked for buying & preserving land.
Furthermore, Judge Dodson referred to the history of the Land Acquisition Trust fund, which the legislature created under the Outdoor Recreation & Conservation Act of 1963 & the LONG-STANDING PROHIBITION AGAINST RAIDING THE FUND TO SUBSIDIZE THE GENERAL FUND OR ANY OTHER FUND.
💥According to the Ledger, there is also talk of using the Land Acquisition Trust Fund to “help pay for public works projects to develop more water sources to subsidize future development.”

theledger.com/news/20180811/…
🏝️For developers? Land preservation and land development are diametrically opposed ideas: the Land Trust Acquisition Fund was created to PROTECT the land from developers.

🔗Link to North #Florida Land Trust:
nflt.org/a-big-win-for-…
👨‍⚖️Furthermore, the Ledger accentuates the point that this lawsuit must be heard & decided by the Supreme Court as soon as possible. Legislators need this information to complete the budget for the upcoming fiscal year and...
😡Rick Scott has made a “threat” to take advantage of his lame duck position and “pack” the #Florida Supreme Court “on his way out.”

Rep. Matt Caldwell (R-North Fort Myers) insists that that budget & spending issues shouldn't be mandated to lawmakers. (source: news-press above)
💥In other words, the Republicans in charge should be managing the money, not the 75% of the people who voted for this.

📜"I think this is evidence of why we shouldn’t legislate through the Constitution," Caldwell said.

⁉️Say what?
👨‍⚖️Rep. Caldwell (cont'd): "These are political questions that need to be solved through the political process. The courts aren't equipped to handle these issues."

💥Wow. Judge Dodson?
‼️The Governor and the Legislature used funds intended for land preservation for: vehicles for staff members, office personnel, in fact, a “whole laundry list” of general operational & management costs presented by the plaintiffs—items that should come from the General Fund.
🙌This a “100% victory," said Florida Wildlife Foundation attorney David Guest, "The people of Florida voted with a firm, clear voice. And the court said today that counts. The Legislature has to comply with the law like everybody else."

orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/…
👨‍⚖️Florida legislators continue to deny they misused the funds & continued to do so 2014-2018. Fred Piccolo, a spokesman for House Speaker Richard Corcoran, called the ruling a "clear abuse of judicial authority” and that they were confident it would be overturned on appeal.
😝The state filed an appeal in July.

🏝️But also strengthening the case of environmental groups—& really the people of #Florida—is the fact that the #Florida Supreme Court unanimously approved the title and ballot summary in 2013 before it went to vote.

tinyurl.com/yan3ka27
📜We have Constitutions, laws, rules, regulations, etc. in this country & they were meant to be followed.

⚡️Just because you have the majority in Congress or a state legislature, doesn't mean you don't have to follow them.

💥If you don't like them, change them.
💥You change laws by voting in the right people for the job.

🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️And if you still don't like the job they're doing, you run yourself.

#FlipTheHouse
#FlipTheSenate

#FlipEveryStateSenate
#FlipEveryStateHouse

#FlipEveryCounty
#FlipEveryCity

#VoteBlueNoMatterWho

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More from @AliAdair22

Oct 8, 2018
#California Congressional District 48: #Democrat Harley Rouda @HarleyRouda or Russian Candidate Dana Rohrabacher?

Tough choice.

An asset to Russia...or
🗳️Many positive reasons to vote for Harley Rouda @HarleyRouda!

🇷🇺On the other hand, Dana Rohrabacher: The Kremlin Likes Him So Much They Gave Him a Code Name

ℹ️Refresher course: Putin kills people. His enemies. Journalists. Innocent people. He wants Democracy to die in every country lucky enough to still have it.

nytimes.com/2017/11/21/us/…
Read 5 tweets
Oct 8, 2018
🔥🔥🔥MOB RULE!

💥Friday, August 11, 2017

🔥White supremacist protesters—White nationalists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members—brandished torches and marched onto the UVA campus in Charlottesville, VA.

👉Photo Credit: Evelyn Hockstein/@washingtonpost via Getty Images
🔥🔥Saturday, August 12, 2017 a similar, bigger rally called "Unite the Right" held at noon erupted in many brawls. Alex Fields, a reported Nazi sympathizer drove a Dodge Challenger blindly into the crowd and killed 32-year old Heather Heyer.

Trump: the violence? "Many sides."
🧚‍♀️MOB RULE?!?!

🧚‍♀️10/6/18 ▶️Women—upset with the inevitability with a Supreme Court nominee getting sworn in—a nominee who clearly lied, had multiple credible sexual allegations against him, had a surly demeanor and was blatantly partisan, protested peacefully.
Read 5 tweets
Oct 8, 2018
💬"The history is exactly what I told you."—Mitch McConnell

🤥🐢An hour after Judge Antony Scalia died: "The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president."
🤥🐢"We simply followed the tradition in America, which is if you have a party of a different—a different Senate of a different party than the president, you don't fill a vacancy created in the presidential year. That went all the way back to 1888."
🤥🐢Will McConnell fill a SCOTUS vacancy in Trump's last year? "The answer to your question is, we'll see if there's a vacancy in 2020."

💬No answer.

▶️Mitch, you didn't attack Merrick Garland because you couldn't.
▶️You never mentioned "opposing party" caveat in 2016
Read 6 tweets
Oct 5, 2018
h/t @dnvolz @WSJ

🏃‍♂️Think Russian trolls & bots have gone away?

💥Here's an update on the activity of 600 Twitter accounts linked to Russian influence efforts online.

🇷🇺The Russians aren't coming, they are already here.
🇷🇺Russian bots & trolls seem really interested in hashtags: maga, kavanaugh, us, qanon, confirmkavanaugh and unilever.

🔗Link to website:

dashboard.securingdemocracy.org
🌍Unilever just recently announced it was abandoning plans to move its headquarters from the U.K. to Holland after the Brexit vote (the U.K. leaving the European Union) as many other companies have done.
Read 5 tweets
Oct 4, 2018
On July 16, 2018, Concord Management and Consulting LLC filed a motion to dismiss Robert Mueller's indictment against the company.

Attorneys for the Russian company listed 4 reasons to dismiss. What judge was cited 9 times...and another 2 times?

#KavaNo
courthousenews.com/wp-content/upl…
🔥🔥Yes, Brett Kavanaugh. The judge cited twice=Gorsuch. Is this a coincidence?

▶️One of the 4 reasons Concord's lawyers moved to dismiss was that they claimed Concord had no knowledge that the crime they were committing was actually a crime. Kavanaugh supported this theory.
9⃣Yes, Brett Kavanaugh's opinions are cited NINE times by a Russian company seeking to get Mueller's charges dropped.

Mueller charged Concord, 2 other Russian companies and 12 foreigners associated with Russia for illegally using social media platforms to SOW POLITICAL DISCORD.
Read 17 tweets
Oct 3, 2018
⁉️If Kavanaugh was innocent, why:

▶️couldn't he answer so many simple "yes" or "no" questions?
▶️didn't he ask for further investigation by the FBI?
▶️did he try to destroy evidence?
▶️is Trump mocking his accuser at his "rally?"
⁉️If Kavanaugh was innocent, why:
▶️is Trump fabricating this war against young men?
▶️does he claim all his friends refuted Dr. Ford's claims when Dr. Ford TOLD NO ONE FOR DECADES?
▶️did he say "Devil's Triangle" was a drinking game?
⁉️If Kavanaugh was innocent, why:

▶️did he say "boofing" was flatulence?
▶️did he claim no prior knowledge of Deborah Ramirez' claims before the @NewYorker article?
▶️did he evade Patrick Leahy's question about being called "Bart?"
Read 14 tweets

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