The Richest Man in Key West

Retired Miami Herald editor Margaria Fichtner shot this photo yesterday in Key West.

She shot it on Duval Street with a Leica Q, but other than that, this is an image that proves the best pictures need no captions.

Click here to enlarge.

Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine went to Indianapolis and got dressed up in a fireman's suit

Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine is in Indianapolis this week attending the the United States Conference of Mayors where he suddenly felt the urge to wear a fireman's suit because, as he says on Facebook, he wanted to learn of the "incredible bravery and skill our Firefighters demonstrate every day on the job."

Whatever you say, Phil.

Click images to enlarge.

Here are a few more pictures of political figures wearing hats.

Here are three videos of dogs having fun

Here are three videos of dogs having fun. You're welcome.

Donald Trump thinks allowing people to carry guns in nightclubs is a great idea

Late last year Jon Stewart noted that Donald Trump's candidacy is “like an Internet comment troll ran for president.”

Friday night in Texas, Trump validated Stewart's comment with this bizarre rant....

"If we had people where the bullets were going in the opposite direction right smack between the eyes of this maniac. If some of those wonderful people had guns strapped right here, right to their waist, or right to their ankle, and this son of a bitch comes out and starts shooting, and one of the people in that room happened to have [a gun] and goes boom, boom, you know what, that would have been a beautiful, beautiful sight, folks. That would have been a beautiful, beautiful sight."

What Trump failed to mention in his rant is that an off-duty Orlando police officer began firing at the shooter almost immediately, and other officers began arriving within minutes.

But, this, and all of the rest of Trump's unhinged behavior has Bill Maher asking, "Why, why for so long was there one set of rules for everyone who's ever run for President, and then suddenly a completely new set for this Donald Trump person?" (CAUTION: Video below contains language that some may consider offensive.)

The unraveling of Donald Trump

(Click image to enlarge)

It was a year ago today that Donald Trump announced he was running for president, saying among other things that he would stop illegal immigration from Mexico by building a "great wall" and make Mexico "pay for that wall.”

In the beginning Trump rallies drew large crowds, and his message was beamed to millions more thanks to $2 billion in free air time given to him by the cable news channels. His poll numbers soared.

But over the course of a year, Trump managed to insult scores of people including POWs, women, people with disabilities and journalists who asked him tough questions.

On Twitter, he's gone after hundreds of people calling them losers, total losers, lightweights, dummies, sad and pathetic.

But the large crowds he attracted in the beginning are now shrinking....and so are his poll numbers.

Trump's luster has dimmed....things are starting to unravel for the "Cheeto Jesus."

30 minutes till @realDonaldTrump speaks and this arena is 25 percent full at best. No line outside either pic.twitter.com/JzMjgH8E4A

— Nick Corasaniti (@NYTnickc) June 10, 2016

And the Republican leaders who initially supported him, now can't distance themselves quickly enough from the presumptive Republican nominee.

Late last night, veteran Republican consultant Rick Wilson blasted GOP leaders on Twitter, saying "you're covered in his stench."

10/ Your resumes will always read "Worked for a batshit crazy crypto-fascist who destroyed the GOP"

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) June 16, 2016

And it gets worse for Trump.

Here's a small sampling of stories that popped up just today in my Facebook newsfeed:

Donald Trump doesn't brag about his poll numbers anymore, and no wonder

Donald Trump used to love nothing more than boasting about his poll numbers: His recitation of them was a staple of his campaign speeches.

There's little to boast about now.

A new Washington Post/ABC News survey finds the share of Americans with a negative view of Trump rose sharply since last month.

Half of Americans polled by CBS News disapproved of his response to the Orlando, Fla., shootings, and just one-quarter approved.

Trump Is His Party’s Cross to Bear

[Poll] numbers for Donald Trump are unprecedented and catastrophic. Seventy percent of registered voters have an unfavorable view of Trump (including 88 percent of nonwhites), divided between 14 percent who are “somewhat unfavorable” and a whopping 56 percent who are “strongly unfavorable.”

Trump’s relationship with RNC sours

In recent days, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus has privately grumbled that his advice doesn’t seem welcome with Trump, according to one RNC insider. Other party officials have expressed frustration that Trump’s campaign is trying to take too much control over a pair of fundraising committees with the party while adding little to the effort, according to campaign and party officials familiar with the relationship.

While Trump had promised Priebus that he would call two dozen top GOP donors, when RNC chief of staff Katie Walsh recently presented Trump with a list of more than 20 donors, he called only three before stopping, according to two sources familiar with the situation. It’s unclear whether he resumed the donor calls later.

Trump’s campaign hits a wall

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) told reporters on Tuesday that he had been “discouraged by the direction” of Trump’s campaign and by his Monday address. “I did not think yesterday’s speech was the type of speech one would give who wants to lead this country through difficult times.”

Lessons of Hiroshima and Orlando

Trump is shooting from the hip, spraying insults 360 degrees, telling lies, stoking fears and making threats that many in our military and the F.B.I. would refuse to implement. If you Republican senators and congressmen support Trump for president, he will own you — and you will own everything he does. —Thomas L. Friedman June 15, 2016

Republicans Run From Donald Trump's Orlando Response

Senator Tim Scott, R-S.C., paused a moment after being asked by NBC News whether he had any thoughts on Trump's response to Orlando.

"You know…hmm," he said.

Then without another word, he walked onto the Senate floor.

Trump Is Looking for a Way Out

Donald Trump loves winning and hates losing, while Don Trump knows that running a smart campaign and beating Hillary Clinton means he’d inherit a job he has neither the qualifications nor the temperament to perform successfully. Don Trump wants to lose. He wants this campaign to be over so Donald Trump can go back to doing what he’s good at: promoting his personal brand and counting his money.

To me, that’s the best explanation for the loony “Mexican” judge comments and other unforced errors Trump has made since clinching the Republican presidential nomination. A man who wanted to win this election wouldn’t make these mistakes.

President Obama on Donald Trump: 'A politician who tweet[s] and appear[s] on cable news shows'

Via The New York Times:

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Tuesday angrily denounced Donald J. Trump for his rhetoric in the aftermath of the shooting massacre in Orlando, Fla., saying the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was peddling a “dangerous” mind-set that recalls the darkest periods in American history.

"The men and women who put their lives at risk and the Special Forces I ordered to get (Osama) bin Laden and are now on the ground in Iraq and in Syria -- they know full well who the enemy is," Obama said. "So do the intelligence and law enforcement officers who spent countless hours disrupting plots. And protecting all Americans, including politicians who tweet, and appear on cable news shows. They know what the nature of the enemy is.  So there's no magic to the phrase 'radical Islam.' It's a political talking point." -Barack Obama, June 14, 2016

Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine to announce roll out of City's new tourism marketing campaign

Click here to enlarge.

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Media Contact:  Verónica Payssé E-mail:  vp@mayorphiliplevine.com

Attention Media:

On Monday, June 13, Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine will be available to provide additional comments on the May 16 Miami Herald story that reported Miami Beach's pumping system was flushing massive amounts of human waste into Biscayne Bay. But rather than dispute the Herald's story, Mayor Levine is now willing to admit the Herald was 100% correct and he's ready to apologize to the paper for questioning its fine reporting.

Also on Monday, Mayor Levine will reveal details on the roll out of Miami Beach's new tourism marketing campaign that will center around the theme, "Miami Beach...Why not come down and take a bite of our big sh*t sandwich?"

Finally, Mayor Levine will announce the renaming of Ocean Drive to Fecal Drive.

"During my short time in office I've allowed this once beautiful street to become a toilet, so it seems the natural thing to change its name," Levine will say at Monday's press conference.

Mayor Levine will be available Monday, June 13, at 2:00 p.m. at Miami Beach City Hall.

Office of Miami Beach Mayor, 960 Alton Road, Miami Beach, FL 33139

A boy and a dog

This will make you smile.




[via]

Miami Beach Commissioner Mike Grieco accuses Miami Herald of using Miami Beach's sexy name - and stories about poop - to sell more papers

Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine calls yesterday's
commission meeting to order.

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After watching parts of yesterday's Miami Beach City Commission meeting, and the one held last May 18, I'm reasonably certain that neither Mayor Philip Levine nor any of his colleagues at city hall have ever heard of Mark Twain's advice to anyone who's considering going mano a mano with the press:

"Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel." —Mark Twain

I'm guessing the commissioners got some business accomplished yesterday, but a great deal of their time was spent beating up on the Miami Herald.

The mayor and commissioners are pissed that the Herald had the audacity to use their newspaper to report news and facts.


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Fred Grimm: "That stink Phil Levine smells isn't a conspiracy, it's fecal runoff"

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And after listening to comments from two commissioners and the mayor, I'm 100% sure they don't know much about the current state of the newspaper business...or how journalism works.

Listen below as Commissioner Mike - aka DJ Esquire - Grieco says that anytime the Herald prints a story with a "sexy" Miami Beach headline, more papers are sold.

Grieco is apparently stuck in some 1940s time warp where grimy newsboys are standing on street corners yelling "Extra, extra, read all about it, Miami Beach is floating in sh*t!"

It's evident, also, that Grieco has been watching too much Donald Trump, as he uses Trump's favorite catch phrase, "hit piece."
 
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"It's a hit piece, it's exactly what it was. I don't know where it came from. I don't know what the story is. It's real sexy because anytime that the Herald runs any article on the cover that has the words 'Miami Beach' in it, they sell more papers." - Commissioner Michael Grieco, May 18, 2016

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And here's Commissioner Ricky Arriola at yesterday's meeting saying that the Miami Herald sets out to make Miami Beach "look bad" in order to sell papers. No, Ricky, that not how it works. That's not how any of this works.



The mayor and commissioners have their panties in a twist over a May 16 Miami Herald story that reported massive pumps installed to "flush floodwater from Miami Beach into Biscayne Bay during seasonal king tides are dumping something else into the bay: human waste."

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That awkward moment when politicians confront science they don't like. @jenstaletovich explains Bay pollution https://t.co/VJV65rJJho

— Curtis Morgan (@CMorganHerald) June 9, 2016

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Mayor Levine, who once bragged he made more money in his first year in business than the Miami Herald has made in ten years, last month directed Miami Beach's city attorney Raul Aguila to send a letter to the Herald demanding a retraction of the May 16 story.

On May 31, Herald executive editor Mindy Marques responded to Aguila's letter, writing:

First, to be clear, there will be no retraction of the story. As you know, the Miami Herald published a letter to the editor from City Manager Jimmy Morales in regard to this story on May 18.

Your request for a retraction fails to point to a single factual error in the May 16 article — and in fact your letter itself includes errors. For a city that rightly prides itself on a pioneering response to sea level rise — efforts that have received extensive coverage from the Miami Herald — the letter also displays a surprising lack of understanding of the basic science process and water quality issues.

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Note to Mayor Levine and Miami Beach commissioners...in case any of you still aren't sure what the role of the press is, please take a moment to watch this great scene from 1952's "Deadline USA."

Muhammad Ali - Made in Miami

Film by Gaspar Gonzalez.

Here's a video of a monkey and a kitten

Female Canadian police officer shows it's possible to arrest an armed suspect without shooting him

Via citynews.ca:

Waterloo Regional Police Chief Bryan Larkin tells 570 News the video demonstrates the unpredictability of policing.

“Prior to the video starting, what is not seen is obviously the officer disarms the individual, uses tactical communication…There’s a resistance, an unwillingness to be handcuffed and the officer does not resort to any other use of force or tools, uses different techniques to try deescalate and ends up grounding the individual.”

Larkin adds it’s a reminder of the challenges police officers face every single day. [via]