Florida Gov. Rick Scott, best known for impersonating a childhood nightmare and trying to have the term “climate change” struck from government correspondence during his tenure, is running for the Florida U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Bill Nelson. One of the many consequences of Scott’s policies and actions over the past few years is that anyone who knows anything about our environmental woes knows that Scott is not a friend to living things. Children have sued him over his environmental policies. Over the past couple of months, Scott’s team of nightmare-makers has been working hard to paint the anti-environment governor with a green brush. Floridians have responded with protests.
One of the Scott administration’s easiest failures to see and understand is the red-tide poisoning of parts of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean surrounding Florida. A red tide is an overgrowth of algae, which can be made worse by human activity, including the poisonous run-off from sugar industry waste, with dangerous environmental and health impacts. Deregulation has combined with Scott’s cutting of over $700 million from the budget for agencies tasked with policing, curbing, and handling environmental issues, resulting in a worsening of events such as red tides. So when candidate Scott decided to go have a photo op at Mojo’s Real Cuban restaurant in Venice, Florida, protestors were there in force.
Protesters jammed the sidewalk and spilled into the street around Mojo’s Real Cuban, forcing Scott to enter the restaurant through the back door and leave the same way after just 10 minutes as members of the crowd shouted “coward.”
Inside the restaurant, Scott and his fan club tried to pretend everything was going smoothly.
But a triumphant front-door exit was not in the cards for the walking night-terror creator.
Daily Kos-endorsed Andrew Gillum is trying to reverse two decades of Republican control in Florida, as he runs for the term-limited open governor’s seat.
If you can, chip in a dollar or two to support Democrats trying to save Florida this coming November.