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.
Associated Press
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.
