further adventures in the Key West and Florida Keys criminal justice system, dead coral reef and MRSA infested ocean petting zoos

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When my lady Kari called me yesterday, before she was transported from the county detention center on Stock Island to the small jail on Plantation Key, prelude to her hearing today before Judge William Ptomey, she said the main reason she took the state attorney’s offer and pleaded nolo contendre (I don’t admit or deny the charges), was her public defender lawyer Matthew Matteliano kept telling her, if she did not plead out, everything from her past would be used against her in the trial. I laughed, said that was bullshit. Maybe if she had prior felonies, which she did not have, that could be used against her. Maybe. The courts are reluctant to let the past of a person charged with a crime be used against that person at the trial, unless the person’s past is relevant to the current charges against the person. I said, I hope something perfect has been arranged for Matthew to experience, which will make a lasting impression on him. I spoke of karma.

When I woke before dawn today, I felt like kicking myself in the ass. The last thing a defendant in a criminal case wants is a lawyer who is afraid to try cases, a lawyer whose habit is to plead out his clients, a lawyer who is not really a lawyer. I knew lawyers like that in Birmingham, when I practiced law there. Always settling, never trying cases. The district attorney knew those lawyers and used their aversion to trying cases to get better deals for the state than could be gotten from defense lawyers who were ready, willing and able to try cases, and even looked forward to it. Even as the the clients of the defense lawyers afraid to try cases were unaware of what was really going on, when they pleaded out before the case was tried.

Many times, when I was clerking for US District Judge Clarence W. Allgood in Birmingham, who presided over every federal criminal prosecution in the U.S. District Court for Northern District of Alabama, I saw a US Attorney put on his case, and the defense attorney cross-examine all of the prosecution’s witnesses, and then a plea deal was struck. Sometimes, I saw a plea deal struck after the defense lawyer had put on his witnesses, to rebut the US /attorney’s witnesses. I wonder how many, if any, cases Matthew Matteliano has tried to conclusion? I wonder how many cases he has tried through the presentation of the prosecution’s case? I hate to think he’s still representing Kari.

Most of the rest of my dissection of Matthew Matteliano as a lawyer, and as a person, can be seen in the early going of this post at goodmorningkeywest.com: trial by ambush, goodmorningkeywest.com convocation .

I told Kari yesterday, that I kept having a fantasy that when she was being transported to Plantation Key, a space ship landed on US 1 in front of the van and a loud voice was heard to say, “You have one of our people aboard your van, and we have come to take her with us. Deliver Kari Dangler to us and you can proceed to Plantation Key, on condition that when you get there, you tell everyone in the jail what happened, and when you get back to Stock Island, you tell everyone at the detention center what happened. Kari asked, the judge pardoned her? I said, God pardoned her.”

I told Kari that I was telling the angels that would be a terrific thing to happen, it would make a lasting impression on lots of people. But, when Kari called me last night, she was in the Plantation Key jail, so it didn’t happen, and the lasting impression was not made in that way.

While we talked, I told Kari about my a bit heated email back and forth with Jerry Weinstock, M.D., Psychiatry, in yesterday’s while nothing is what it appears to be, ever, shit smells like shit no matter where it is, and other political and environmental heresies and atrocities, reported at goodmorningkeywest.com post at goodmorningkeywest.com, re what killed our reef and Jerry laying all the blame on cruise ships. Kari said divers touching the reef killed that part of the reef. Divers’ sunscreen killed parts of the reef. I said lots of things killed the reef, including cruise ships. No way I can indict, prosecute and convict cruise ships, but let the other criminals get off. No way.

In that regard, I was shown in a dream last night to use this below in today’s post,

email from amiga Christine Russell yesterday:

Sloan -

I am following your and Jerry’s conversation on the sad state of the Keys waters and environment, our nearly dead reef and what happened to it all! I, like Rick Scott, am no scientist - but I at least acknowledge climate change! So what is wrong with the reef and our local waters? I think it is something most of us are interested in (at least 76% from a recent referendum). Our local government does not understand it all either, a majority sided with some local fisherman and the KW Chamber to prevent further restrictions on fishing. And believe me I understand the fears of these fisherman - it is their livelihood. And in defense of some of our local politicians - they too are not scientists. But we better do something. It seems there IS a way out of this. A way that everyone can thrive, as well as our environment.

We could learn a lot from Cuba!

And we can learn through Dr. David Guggenheim, the Ocean Doctor www.oceandoctor.org

Listen below to the NPR Science Friday from January with Dr Guggenheim - he talks about much of what you and Jerry are discussing. He’s familiar the Keys and the reef now and many years ago -he dove the reef as a teenager. He was even interviewed by Bill Becker in the past! Dr. Guggenheim contrasts our reef with Cuba’s Gardens of the Queens. He discussions the slower economic growth of Cuba, less nutrient pollution, and the growth of algae that over takes the coral reef.
25% of the Cuban waters are protected (world average is 1%) Cuba has strong environmental laws! and is a good steward of the environment! contrasted with the track record for the US and “messing things up we love”. Cuba seems to understand environmental economics - the value these resources provide:-) I wish we (our government) did! He talks about Lionfish - and teaching the sharks to eat them in Cuba! He discusses overfishing and the need that protected fishing areas remain protected, and that in Cuba many former fishermen are now employees of the marine park and making ten times what they made fishing. We COULD learn a lot from Cuba - but will we? Seems the third world may be much more advanced than the first world populations, some have been smart enough to not destroy their environment like other economies. I hope Cuba doesn’t let the US destroy their reef and natural environment.

So listen to the 8 minute NPR segment below and don’t miss seeing the segment ‘Gardens of the Queens’ in Cuba at oceandoctor.org or at the 60 Minutes site. There IS hope, if humans will only listen and change their ways. Question is WILL THEY, or will they continue with the same behaviors and kill the ocean completely - which will have even graver consequences for mankind later.
This is truly inspirational, I hope you, Jerry and some of your friends will listen and watch I wish we could get Dr Guggenheim down here for a presentation to local citizens, fishermen, politicians and students - it could be life-changing… ocean-changing :-)

Ocean Doctor president, David E. Guggenheim joined NPR for Science Friday host, Ira Flatow, to discuss Cuba’s coral reefs, their future, and how they may serve as a “living laboratory” to help us restore coral reefs in the Caribbean, where half of the coral reefs have been lost since 1970 according to a 2014 study.

A healthy stand of elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) in Cuba’s Gardens of the Queen. Photo by David E. Guggenheim

A dramatic time series of photos documenting the 95 percent loss of coral cover from Carysfort Reef, Key Largo, Florida since 1975. The photos capture the loss of a once thriving colony of elkhorn coral.

Dr. David E. Guggenheim is a marine scientist, conservation policy specialist, submarine pilot, ocean explorer and educator. He is president and founder of the Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization, Ocean Doctor.
Guggenheim directs Cuba Conservancy — an Ocean Doctor Program, and is in his 15th year leading research and conservation efforts in Cuba focused on coral reefs and sea turtles, a joint effort with theUniversity of Havana. His work was recently featured on 60 MINUTES. Guggenheim led the formation of the Trinational Initiative for Marine Science & Conservation in the Gulf of Mexico & Western Caribbean, a major project to elevate collaboration in marine science and conservation among Cuba, Mexico and the U.S. to a new level.
As an ocean explorer, Guggenheim piloted the first-ever manned submersible dives into the world’s largest underwater canyons in the Bering Sea as a scientific advisor to Greenpeace. He was inducted into the Explorers Club as a National Fellow in 2008.
Guggenheim is working to advance cutting-edge technologies for sustainable aquaculture practices to the Americas to reduce pressure on overfished wild fish stocks. Following the tragic BP Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Dr. Guggenheim has led efforts on a key recovery project in New Orleans East, the Viet Village Urban Farm Sustainable Aquaculture Park, a next-generation fish farming facility designed to grow fish sustainably while taking pressure off of the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem during its long recovery. The project will bring green jobs and economic benefits to the largely Vietnamese community of New Orleans East, a community that has been heavily dependent on fishing but has been seriously impacted by both Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill.
Following the wreck of the freighter, Oliva and resulting oil spill at Nightingale Island, part of the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, Dr. Guggenheim has been leading efforts in the U.S. to assist in the rescue and rehabilitation of endangered Northern Rockhopper penguins, half of whose population resides in those islands.
Guggenheim hosts The Ocean Doctor Radio Show and ExpeditionCasts podcast series and plays a key role in public outreach and education about the oceans. He makes frequent speaking and television and radio appearances, having recently appeared on 60 MINUTES, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, MSNBC, and NPR.
Guggenheim holds a strong commitment to environmental education and is currently engaged in Ocean Doctor’s 50 Years – 50 States – 50 Speeches Expedition to all fifty U.S. states, visiting schools and bringing special programs about ocean exploration and conservation to young students. So far he has traveled more than 37,000 miles, visited 17 states, 1 U.S. territory, made more than 55 speeches and reached more than 15,000 students in schools ranging from the northernmost community in North America, Barrow, Alaska, to Macksville, Kansas, close to the geographic center of the lower 48 states, to the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Guggenheim played a lead role in forming the Gulf of Mexico Alliance, a partnership among the U.S. Gulf states and 13 federal agencies and Mexico.
Guggenheim previously served as Vice President at The Ocean Conservancy, President & CEO of The Conservancy of Southwest Florida, co-chair of the Everglades Coalition and president of the Friends of Channel Islands National Park.
Guggenheim holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Public Policy from George Mason Universityin Virginia, a Master’s in Aquatic and Population Biology from University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Master’s in Regional Science and Bachelor’s in Environmental Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.

I replied:

Hi, Christine -

Thanks for this information, but I cannot get the NPR Dr. David E. Guggenheim interview to come up when I click on the link in your email. Nor, after some effort on Google, was I able to locate that interview. Any help you can lend there appreciated, as I’d like to listen to the interview and share it with my readers, along with your email and my response.

Perhaps Drs. Guggenheim and Weinstock would like to get together and discuss our reef and what killed most of it. Although Jerry has no university degree in marine or environmental science, he is a physician, and he has spent perhaps 50 years deeply involved in the marine/environmental arena. It is not necessary to attend college and get letters after your name to learn about the ocean and what makes it tick, and why, and what messes it up, and why. Jerry says he was tutored by knowledgeable scientists who did have the accepted letters after their names.

This morning, I talked about the reef dying with Todd German, riding down to Key West with him from Cudjoe Key. Todd grew up on the US eastern seaboard. He saw what overfishing did there. He said Key West used to have a whole lot of shrimp around, pink gold it was called, but no longer. Fished out. Todd asked, if one major fish species is lost, could that somehow affect the reef and its health? Of course, is the answer.

We talked about what the fish situation used to be like in the Keys: abundant, seemingly infinite. For almost 40 years, I lived to come down to Islamorada and fish the flats around there, and sometimes I fished offshore on charter or party boats. I know what decimated many fish species in the Keys. Overfishing. I saw the same thing happen around Destin, Florida, and west of there over to Alabama, and east of there over to Carabelle, on and off old US 98. Overfishing.

Letting commercial fishermen look after the fish population did not work, and it will not work. So, somebody else has to look after the fishes.

The lobster mini-season is insane. Mainlanders flock to the Keys, to grab as many lobsters as they can. Locals do the same. Going out and getting their limit, coming in and unloading into coolers hidden somewhere. Then going out and doing it again, and coming in and unloading again. And going out and doing it again. Solution. No lobster mini-season. Nothing else will stop what goes on during lobster-mini season, the whole point of which is, yep, to get people to spend more money in the Keys for a few days.

I have a pretty basic redneck view of what killed 90 + percent of our reef. Humans. How did humans do it? Several ways, is my view, after listening to three experts, who did not agree with each other: Jerry Weinstock; Billy Causey, PhD, Regional Director Southeast Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Region NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries; Brian LaPointe, PhD, private consultant.

!) Too many humans in the Florida Keys, putting out too much poop for the local ecosystem to handle

2) floating cities (cruise ships) dumping their poop into the ocean outside our reef, and polluting and occluding the ocean

3) Fun and disgusting agri-chemical smorgasbords migrating from the south Florida interior into streams and rivers and canals, and then into the Bay of Florida, and then down to the Florida Keys and through the channels between the islands into the Atlantic Ocean

4) Same fun and disgusting chemical smorgasbords washing off of yards, parks and golf courses in the Florida Keys into storm drains which flush into the sea, or into canals, or into the sea directly

5) at one time, commercial fisherman pouring liquid bleach into the water, to herd fish toward their nets

Cuba.

Compared to Cuba, the Florida Keys are molecules next to an unexplored continent. Compared to the Florida Keys, which are mostly paved over, Cuba is a rural, undeveloped, beautiful landmass. Cuba would be smart to stay rural and undeveloped, and use that to attract ecotourists, instead of the kind of tourists who flock to Key West down US 1 and on airplanes and cruise ships.

Personally, I say the odds are zero that the Key West and the other local governments will do anything they don’t absolutely have to do, that is, forced onto them by a higher power, such as Tallahassee, or Washington D.C., or ETs, or angels, to do what would please you, Christine. If you had run for mayor of Key West 4 times, and county commission 3 times, which I did, maybe you would say the same thing. Not just because of how politicians and bureaucrats think and behave, but because they mirror how most of the rest of the people in the Keys think and behave.

Money is the most important thing in the Keys, booze is the second most important thing.

I told the angels today, while riding the Key West City Transit shuttle bus back up to Cudjoe Key, as far as I know, I’m the only person who ran for mayor or the county commission, who said Mother Nature is the most important thing in the Florida Keys, her needs trump humans needs. It is not a joke when I say the cure is for humans to leave the Florida Keys, forever. And the planet. Despite the likes of Drs. Guggenheim, Weinstock, Causey, LaPointe, humanity will destroy this planet, unless humanity is removed from it, or suffers an attitude adjustment I can only imagine would be extraterrestrial or supernatural in appearance and effect.

I wonder if the climate change religion people ever ponder that this planet has gone through many climate changes having nothing to do with human beings, and maybe what is called a climate change now in progress has a component in it of natural climate change, which was going to happen anyway regardless of human beings?

I wonder if the climate change religion people ever ponder that what they call climate change actually is an intentional intervention, perhaps by the planet itself, perhaps by ETs, perhaps by angels, to reduce the human population, or eliminate it, to save the planet and its other life forms from the humans?

Saving the planet, saving the Keys, saving the reef, not a religion with me. Nor is saving humanity. I do what is given to me to do. I say what is given to me to say. However, in the end, if I had to choose between the planet, or humanity, continuing to exist, I would choose the planet. Maybe that goes back to my now old philosophy: You don’t shit where you eat, and you don’t eat where you shit. In the old days, people understood that.

Sloan

Christine wrote this morning:

Sloan -
I have not had a chance to read your entire email but wanted to get back to you that you should be able to listen to the 8 min segment by Dr Guggenheim The Ocean Doctor in this way:
Google these exact words “conserving cubas coral reef science friday”
You should be able to then click on one of several listings to listen to the short but very informative and hopeful broadcast. I will hope you and enough of your local listeners will listen to this and maybe someone will try to get Dr Guggenheim down here. He may be able to lead the Keys on a path to save the dying reef - and the local economy!
If ‘poor’ third world Cuba can support a living reef - can’t we? Personally I don’t look at Cuba or other third world countries as ‘poor’ - there is more than monetary wealth, to happiness and well-being - but that is another conversation.
Please let me know if you are now able to listen to the Ocean Doctor.
I will finish reading your email and get back to you.
“Together we can make a difference” - this is the motto of my Spay Panama and it also applies here. Thanks for all you good work you do Sloan - or try to do.

I replied:

I did what you suggested and this came up right on top of my monitor screen, and I clicked on the link and “Listen” came up, and when I clicked on “Listen”, the audio started.

I like the good doctor Guggenheim, but I remain of the views you did not have a chance yet to read in my email yesterday back to you. With a mayor who refuses to admit MRSA inhabits Key West waters, who insists Key West’s ocean is beautiful and clean, which is parroted by the city commissioners and city manager and Chamber of Commerce and Tourist Development Council, I don’t see any change coming to Key West, but more to grumble about. I hope it goes really different in Cuba, and that they don’t let Americans do to their country what happened before. Nor, if I were Cuba, would I receive cruise ships. I hope the good doctor Guggenheim told the Cubans that.

Sloan

As for MRSA and cruise ships causing it in Key West and Florida Keys waters,

“cartoon” by Arnaud Girard, Co-Publisher, Key West the Newspaper, www.thebluepaper.com

email back and forth with Jerry Weinstock yesterday, I added the pretty MRSA pics,

Jerry wrote:

subject: MRSA

where did MRSA come from -clean salt water ;???

please you are smarter than that -listening to those on the take.

I replied:

MRSA came from humans polluting the ocean, like Key West pumping all its raw sewerage through a pipe 2 miles into the sea, for decades, before there were cruise ships; like Ocean Reef Club [on upper Key Largo] dumping its raw sewerage into its saltwater creek on the outgoing tide, until a federal judge started fining Ocean Reef Club $60,000 a day, which forced Ocean Reef Club to deal with its raw sewerage differently; like the Keys being developed and developed and developed, and the only sewerage systems for decades were cess pits and septic tanks. Like thousands of liveaboard boaters pooping directly into the ocean though their onboard toilets. The people of the Keys did plenty to pollute the ocean before there were cruise ships, and afterward.

Jerry wrote:

no public health history until the Cruise cities
I never got real sick until the Cruise ships
I don’t think you did either.???

I replied:

I didn’t dive, and I seldom snorkled, maybe 2-3 times, all the time I was around Islamorada. I swam some around Key West, after arriving in late 2000. I’d never heard of MRSA, before then. I had heard of staph infections, but not the kind that eats flesh. The kind that gets into the blood and is systemic.
When did cruise ships first start calling on Key West?
When was it noticed that the reef was dying fast?

Jerry wrote:

between 1995 and 2000 death became painfully obvious—-
and now only a few remnants remain-(2015)

I replied:

Christine Russell sent me something yesterday, mostly featuring Dr. David Guggenheim, indicating the reef die off on Key Largo’s Craysfort Reef began after 1975. From what Christine sent.

P.S.

When did cruise ships first start calling on Key West?

P.P.S.

Google brought up:

It looks to me the reef started dying off Key Largo before cruise ships amounted to much in Key West.

Jerry wrote:

SLOAN—I go way back to meeting the founders of the modern Cruise lines at private supper
my adolescent fishing buddy of my brother and me George’s father was a big time industrialist

they were courting his monetary support -this was in 1947—-first tentacles started -of ships much smaller started early on -first big ones made in Finland in 1970’s —Key West was still considered not ideal as entry too shallow -dredging had to be done -which is DEATH to coral.;

no one really seems accurate as to who really paid for the first dredging-which lasted several years.

In burning fossil fuels nitrogen Dioxide is released along with other just as toxic organic related gases which can be partially soluble in seawater -how much not yet determined-Cruise uses lowestgrade

this is dangerous to humans highly carcinogenic/toxic—-Olympics in Vancouver would not let them run their engines Cruise cities had to hook up to local grid-MANDATORY

My daughter Stephanie and I —first noted silt residue—as early as late 1980’s-but thought little of it at the time -now of course it coats Coral heavily around a certain radius of Key West;

our beautiful pastel blue seawalls began turning Black in the 1990’s-now they are UGLY;
for 35 years they were lovely-we logged over 30 years several thousand extensive dives.

During a Pirate Radio debate in the 2014 Key West mayor race,

I said Key West’s ocean is full of MRSA, and local divers and physicians know going into the water with a nick or scratch on your skin could end up giving you MRSA. Following me in the debate,

Mayor Craig Cates said Key West’s ocean is beautiful and clean, there is no MRSA in the water. You will never hear of MRSA in Key West’s and Florida Keys’ waters from the Touri$t Development Council, the Chamber$ of Commerce or elected official$. I have told many touri$tS about MRSA, and to swim, snorkel or dive at their own ri$k. MRSA is difficult, if not nearly impossible for doctors to cure. For that reason, I once published “MRSA Treatment & Pilgrim From the Mutant Species”, which you should be able to reach by clicking on this link: http://goodmorningfloridakeys.com/?page_id=303.

Of course not arranged by angels, not a chance, Naja Girard, Co-Publisher of Key West the Newspaper (www.thebluepaper.com), emailed me this morning:

Subject: Threats about copyright infringement - your photo

Hi Sloan,
I’ve received a notice from science photo library of a copyright infringement claim because they found a mrsa photo that belonged to them that appeared on our website without a license. They are offering to lower my “settlement payment” by 20% to “only” $408.00 “after discount”. What do I do?’ I’ve removed it from the website. It’s the one with the eye.
Naja

Then she sent:

I just checked their website and the photo is not there when you search mrsa. Do you know where you got the photo from ? Can you give me a signed statement saying where you got it from [if it is not form their site]. My little paper can not afford to pay this absurd fee for the use of their ugly [“ass”] photo.

Come over and chat if you’re in town. I miss banging on the table with you…

http://www.sciencephoto.com/

I replied:

I don’t know what you do, and I don’t know why they are behaving that way, given the gravity of what you are trying to alert to the public.

I found the MRSA photos by using Google image, years ago. I don’t know which site, or where, other than that.

If you Google image MRSA, you should see gobs of beautiful photos :-).

P.S.

What I would do would be to tell them to sue me and we’s make a national case out of it and by the time we were done the entire world would know about MRSA and the risk of contracting it in Key West and the Florida Keys :-).

See last 1/3rd of the further adventures in the Key West and Florida Keys criminal justice system, dead coral reef and MRSA infested ocean petting zoos post today at goodmorningkeywest.com.

Chow Maim,

sloanbashinsky@outlook.com