Fire and I.C.E. in South Florida-- literally: Week ending May 15, 2026
Introduction
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington DC in February of 1968.
Another week, Florida is on fire, but that isn't stopping ICE even if the fires (along with figurative fires and trucks of human excrement) are probably shutting down the so-called Alligator Alcatraz.
Table of Contents
Finite
Disappointment
Black cemetery in Florida vandalized, 'Trump' spray-painted on graves
I don't have words to express how horrifying, depressing and enraging this is.
Miami-Dade Commission's Chair is Stonewalling the Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery
While it may seem like a Florida only sort of thing, the Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery is such a good idea its already shaping policy around the world–and it hasn't even opened yet
And, as you'll see in this 3:30 video, the one man blocking it from opening, Chairman Anthony Rodriguez, isn't impressed, especially if anyone in California or New York is impressed. Literally. Watch the video.
And read the title cards to learn that A-Rod, as he likes to be called, apparently doesn't understand what an academic journal is, how they work and even if he did, the most relevant one has no editors in California or New York.
Finally, watch until the end to see how much a man of the people A-Rod is. The entire meeting this is taken from can be found here.
Fire & ICE in South Florida
Philip Cardella
Florida ranks dead last in reading
Kerry Sheridan
The Big Unit?
The Bone, The Big Unit, Junior, Edgar and A-Rod. If those names sound familiar, you're either a baseball fan who watched the Mariners rise to prominence in the late 1990s early 2000s (only to be deflated by their historic 216 win season that ended in post season misery) or you're aware men like to give nicknames to their genitalia.
Men and their silly nicknames for their units aren't exactly business appropriate so it is weird that Commissioner Rodriguez calls himself A-Rod, which is almost certainly a reference to the baseball player, Alex "A-Rod" Rodriguez, whose nickname is almost certainly consistent with the other juvenile nicknames from that Mariners team.
In fairness, Edgar, while it fits the pattern, is the famous Mariner DH, Edgar Martinez's, given name.
Florida
Gonna Florida
Florida pastors outraged by Christian leader's defense of golden Trump statue
Tiago Ventura
The Time piece is the national picture on Trump's golden statue of himself. I thought Lauren Costantino did a good job getting reactions from local pastors–and I know some of these pastors and love them!
Historic
Interlude
40 years ago as the fires of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster were still making front page news, the above the fold story in the Miami Herald was an early taste for South Florida in its role in what is known as the Iran-Contra Affair.
Ronald Reagan is an icon down here–there's a statue of him with a horse not far from the Ronald Reagan Turnpike. Yet, if you read even the Wikipedia breakdown of the Iran-Contra Affair one has to wonder how the Gipper didn't spend his post presidency in a prison. Or how Oliver North, one of the architects of the whole thing (who said he was just following the President's orders on the few things he could recollect), is almost as well known for his role in the NRA and runs for office as he is for selling weapons to * checks notes * Iran, for use by soldiers, including children, in Nicaragua after congress ordered the Administration ordered to stop giving money to these "Contras."
Shady business deals, Iran, the President ignoring Congress and subverting Congress's authority over the purse, malfeasance in the Americas in the name of stopping Communism–all sounds familiar.
Infinite
Hope
Justo Betancourt, Arianne Betancourt's father, is finally out of ICE detention
Wednesday night, the same day as the interminable and eye rolling Committee of the Whole meeting where A-Rod accused the audience of being children who didn't understand English (you didn't watch the video–I told you to watch the video, it's short!), I got a phone call from Arielle Betancourt that her father was going to be released imminently. Several hours later she sent me a photo of her and her father!
Justo Betancourt, who was a convicted felon who served his time and finished the parole process was a legal resident in the United States until a few minutes before ICE picked him up at the end of a routine immigration hearing he willingly attended on October 29, 2025.
That's 6 months and 14 days in ICE Detention for a man who has significant health problems, so significant that when they tried to deport him to Mexico (he's Cuban) Mexico sent him back.
Before Arianne picked him up he told her to be prepared and to not be too shocked by how skinny he was, that he wasn't this skinny in Cuba, his home country where, in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union in a time called "The Special Period", the population nearly starved to death, when the average caloric intake per person plummeted by over 1,000 calories per day.
The South Florida Detention Center (aka racist nickname Alligator Alcatraz) is probably closing before June
Citing the million dollar a day price tag, the largest portion of which is going to Doodie Calls, a port-a-potty company hauling the facility's waste water away, the coming hurricane season and the plethora of wild fires throughout the state, the South Florida Detention Center appears to be winding down operations, per several reports and rumors I heard before the bombshell New York Times report this week.
Questions still remain, such as what will happen to the 1400 people presently detained there? What will happen to the site? Will Florida be reimbursed the $600,000,000 Governor DeSantis promised the state would be reimbursed for expenses?
The Kids (might be) alright when it comes to A.I. They are at least right
This is a commencement at the University of Central Florida. The speaker has thoughts on Artificial Intelligence. The students do as well. 60 seconds that will leave a mark on you.
Cabel Sasser
Bear
The History Hound Finds
Heather Cox Richardson
Gus Bova
Ty Cashion
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