Transcript of #BecauseMiami: Neanderthal in City Hall

The hypocrisy that I'm seeing here today. With all due respect. With all due respect. With all due respect. Stop surveilling me. She told me to shut up, so you're gonna shut up.

Owners are Neanderthal in City Hall. Draggin' round his knuckles, Miguel Cappella. Even with Corollo gone. Corollo gone. Miami's a fucked up town.

La Novela.

Got marbles in his mouth. Spit 'em out. Wanna be dictator, furrow in his brow.

Crashin' out.

Juvenile in SNY. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Woo! The way you can't do math makes me laugh. Maybe read a book sometime, Gabbella. So much spending on your watch is curious. Careless with the taxpayers' dime, Gabbella. Your crony at Bayfront, search your parts. Check his resume, he's never run a park.

What the fuck?

He's unqualified.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah! Woo! Who you up there grunting at? All due respect, Arne Dey is talking that ooga booga way too hard to comprehend. What you said? Trogglodita erasum io punta! Public records can't be leaked, you dopey freak. But it's funny watching you on my TV embarrassing your constituency. My oh my, aye aye!

Woo!

Boo-gah, boo-gah, boo-gah, boo-gah, Boo-gah the Cowgirl Givela! Boo-gah, boo-gah, boo-gah, boo-gah, Boo-gah the Cowgirl Givela!

You get click, click, click.

I love this town.

It's good to be back here on Because Miami.

You sure about that?

You're right, Roy. You can't burn a bridge made out of stone. Okay.

You sure about that?

Cavemen. It's all caves. It's all caves these days. Ball bearings and caves. Welcome to Because Miami. We really had hoped that the corruption and dysfunction and nonstop construction in Miami was going to slow down with like the new regime and the new commissioners and the new mayor.. But man, oh man, the Florida fuckery is off the charts. The Miami madness is out of control. I've already dropped an F-bomb in the first like 10 seconds of the show. Roy is jotting it down, scribbling, scribbling, scribbling. Good to see you, Roy.

Yeah, I'm glad you feel that way, Roy.

Thanks, thanks, Billy. So later on in the show, we're gonna be talking about the Miami mess. At the city with a friend of the show, Tomas Kennedy of the Florida Immigrant Coalition. First up though, some breaking news about a longtime character that we haven't talked about in a long time, Fabian Basabe.

A jury in Tallahassee found that Republican State Representative Fabian Basabe sexually harassed two of his male staffers, defamed one of those staffers, and committed battery against both of them. Basabe, who represents a district that stretches from Miami Beach to Aventura, was ordered by the jury to pay the young men $450,000. One of the stranger aspects of the trial was Musabi's decision to get rid of his attorneys and represent himself. And trust me when I say it did not go well.

I was in Tallahassee for this trial for 2 out of the 3 days. It was absolutely wild. And this guy, you might remember, he's married to like the La Perla heiress. It's like this Italian lingerie fortune and they have a son. And yet he has this longtime boyfriend who's a Brazilian model who he lives with. Kind of a complicated double life that he lives, which wouldn't be of any interest to me, his personal life and whatever arrangement he has in his marriage is between them. But it has kind of bled into his— this sort of like duplicitous, kind of two-faced, like, I'm a conservative family values Republican, but yet I'm also like living my life as an out gay man. And now found liable by a jury of his peers in the state capital of Tallahassee for sexually harassing these young men who were on his staff working as his legislative aide, his intern.. And this trial, as you heard Jim DeFitti from CBS in that clip mention, was unbelievable because Bassabe, who is not a lawyer, he's a lawmaker and doesn't seem to know anything about the law, humiliated himself in front of the entire world by serving as his own attorney.

And the test—

never a good idea.

Never a good idea. And the testimony that came out during the trial, both directly to the allegations that he was found liable for and additional allegations that weren't the subject of the trial but came out during the trial, here are some of the— I don't want to call them highlights because it's pretty grotesque, but here are some of the highlights.

Mr. Basabe slapped me with his right hand across my face.

Representative Basabe was asking me about my penis size, getting his face right close to my neck and whispering in my ear. He put his hand on my thigh and he made comments about sex with men.

He whispered in my ear, I want all of that butt, and proceeded to slap my buttocks.

And that's where the sports fucking comment got brought back in, saying that there's less emotions involved when men, when men have sex with other men. And that, uh, men have higher sex drives. He also admitted that, uh, he was a bottom and was asking my preference of where I would lay.

When I went into Mr. Basabi's room, I observed Mr. Basabi spooning my friend and my friend looking at me terrified. I asked him what happened and he broke down crying. Mr. Basabi told me that I was all up in that butt last night and your friend is really cute. I came to lying down. I had no clothes on and Fabian's mouth was on my penis. I felt poking in my rectum and I realized I was being raped.

Fabian Nassabi, representative for Miami's House District, State House District 106. That incorporates pieces of Miami and all of like Aventura, Sunny Isles, Bal Harbor, Surfside, most if not all of Miami Beach, North Bay Village, Indian Creek, Golden Beach, parts of North Miami. It's a big—

all the East Coast—

big, influential, wealthy, powerful district. And he is running for his third consecutive term. And I think this is a noteworthy moment from the trial that has since gone viral in the last week or two. And you will note that we added some audio to it, but the pause itself is real and is in real time. Take a look.

All right.

So you were offended by these accusations. Have you ever been accused of drugging and raping anyone?

I have a sidebar, Your Honor.

So you good?

That I want to object, and I didn't know how.

Sidebar.

That's a yes or no answer, uh, right there in it.

I mean, so first of all, he blinks 14 times in 10 seconds. That is like a 10-second gap. But hey, Roy, you want to try this out? Let's try this out on each other.

Okay.

Um, do you want to ask me first, or do you want to ask me?

Ask me first.

Uh, hey, Roy.

Yes.

Have you ever been accused of drugging and raping a man?

No. Hey, Billy.

Uh, hey, Roy.

Have you been accused of drugging and raping a man?

No, Roy.

No.

So I don't know, that was pretty easy, actually.

Yeah, seemed easy to me. He was like he was going through the Rolodex.

He just sort of said it, you know, just— So that is a man who is an elected Republican representative for this community. Here's the thing: when he was running for reelection in 2024, Roy, he made a verbal contract. He put a video out because these allegations have been around for like almost 3 years now. We've been talking about them on this show. You might recall, in the immortal words of CBS Miami's Jim DeFitti, I want all of that, but— and the— you don't— sure you remember, it's on the stream deck, it's one of our cards.

So making sure it's not Michael Putney.

So, well, that's a bang bang snort snort. I didn't have that as, uh, As Randy Bang Bang snorts, snort.

Favorito.

So this is a video of a small excerpt from the video that Fabian Basabe posted in 2024. This video message is my verbal contract to you. Should any of these allegations ever prove true against me at any point in the future, I would resign on the spot and be held accountable. In the wake of the jury's verdict, I took to Instagram as I often do, Roy. And I posted about the, I believe, 25 South Florida elected officials who had endorsed Representative Fabian Basabe for his 2026 reelection campaign. This will be his third consecutive election. He won the previous two. And I posted these two dozen names. And basically asked them two questions. Number one, what is the current status of your endorsement in the wake of the verdict? And two, have you ever attended one of Fabian's notorious pool parties at his Miami home, which he named Shiloh? He named his house. And I will tell you, I think the first— and I welcomed everybody to join the conversation in the comments section. In the interest of transparency, let's just have this conversation openly right here. And the first— and I think since then, 6 officials have revoked, rescinded, withdrawn their endorsements of Bassabe.

But one was the first, and I think the only— tough to wade through all these comments— the only elected official who took to the comments section is Bal Harbor councilman or council member. I don't know how the most appropriate title took to the comments on my Instagram and wrote, endorsement pulled and he should resign immediately, which is, of course, what Fabian Bassabe had promised to do if these allegations were ever proven true. And But then he posted a second comment. To be fair, I asked two questions, right, Roy? And I have not attended any of those pool parties. Councilperson, councilperson, councilperson Buzzy Sklar from the tiny town or village or municipality of Bal Harbor. This is just north of Miami Beach. There is this very ritzy village. It's a half square mile with a population of about 2,695%. Of whom are white. The average income is over like $70,000, which is more than double the national average. It's home to the world's most expensive and exclusive shopping mall, and no Blacks or Jews allowed till 1982. So, bienvenidos, Bal Harbor. So, Buzzy, thank you for being here. I know Buzzy a long time as a Miami Beach guy, as an entrepreneur, and I don't really know you from your political life here.

I do know that I don't know any entrepreneurs who are not brave and willing to take risks and willing to buck the trend. And I thought this was a layup, a gimme like this. Fabian Basabe, how, you know, where do you stand on— I wasn't judging anybody. You guys are elected officials. Your jurisdictions, if you will, overlap. I get that there has to be relationships, whether you voted for him, supported him, whatever. You guys are serving at the same time in in the same place and you have to do business together, so to speak.

But I thought it was pretty easy in the wake of this trial to say like, it was definitely, it was the lowest hanging fruit on any tree out there.

But, but dude, you were like one of 6. And by the way, the 6th one happened like just now. So like this has been a slow trickle, dude.

Being an entrepreneur, you have to be able to pivot. Sometimes you make mistakes, sometimes you make wrong decisions. You know, I always say it's like, you know, jumping out of a plane and building the parachute on the way down. And that's sort of one of the reasons I got into politics. You and I go way back. As a matter of fact, I think I gave you an Ego Trip magazine many, many moons ago. You and Alfred, some of your first press on Cocaine Cowboys. Yes, absolutely. That's how long we know each other, when you were really just a kid. Again, this was just a really easy decision. There are some decisions in life that you have to think about and then some things that are just, should be automatic, at least in my opinion. And this was definitely one of those things was automatic, especially with his couch-sitting contract that he looked right at the camera and said, hey guys, I'm going to resign my position if I'm ever found guilty of this. So he basically made that decision for me, right?

It wasn't your idea. It was his idea.

You just— his idea.

You just agreed with him. Yeah. Listen, I'm going to tell you, one of the things those fucking losers, the Democrats, get right is that there does seem to be a self-policing mechanism. I mean, Graham Plattner took a lot. He definitely pushed the threshold of what was tolerable in the party, but he's out. Eric Swalwell out. Self-purging, self-cleaning. I still don't understand why Al Franken resigned the Senate, but that's a thing that also really happened. And if it's not leadership that's self-policing, it's the constituency. You know, it's the voters. It's the base of the Democratic Party that would not tolerate this shit. If Abein Basabi was a Democrat, I'd be calling him out just the same. But the party by now would have expelled him from the House. They certainly, certainly wouldn't still be running for reelection. So you are a Republican. So have you gotten any pushback from your party for taking the stand?

No, no, no, not at all. And in all honesty, you would hope the Democrats would do something about it. But nothing in life, as we know, is guaranteed. They've showed definitely a little bit of a track record of doing that. But then again, they've showed track record of letting people stay in positions a little too long also. I've got—

you mean like Mitch McConnell? Oh, no, wait, he's a Republican, by the way. RIP Mitch McConnell.

You know, again, who basically is controlling the strings on that mannequin marionette?

So let's be fair. In the interest of full transparency with the audience, we prerecord this podcast. So who knows what state Mitch McConnell is going to be in by the time this thing— this thing— because on Friday, I mean, I mean, you know, go easy, bro. Pour a little sake out for Mitch McConnell. And I'm glad you're wearing the hat because I forgot to ask you in our conversation before this, I'm like, what are we plugging, Buzzy? What are we plugging? What's the business?

We're really not plugging it. I think, Billy, I think you've been around for a good dozen or so of my businesses. So again, entrepreneur, that's again, just sort of why I got into politics also, really just wanting to, with no ulterior motive, just wanting to make sure my community is well taken care of.

I like what you said also about calling balls and strikes. I'll use that term, calling balls and strikes. But like, you know, you don't get to open— you don't get to open 12— I blew it, Roy.

Sports!

There you go. Sorry, it was sports metaphor. So you don't get to open 12 businesses without, like you say, some trial and error. You say I called it right, I didn't call it right. I am curious, I do want to talk a little bit about Bal Harbor politics, but I want to ask though one final thing about this Basabe situation. Are you surprised that more people have not been a little bit more forthcoming as you have and withdrawn their support? Is there some fear? Let me, let me start there. Maybe that's fair. Is there some fear that if he is still the representative for House District 106, covers a lot of municipalities in Dade County, they might interpret him as having controlling some purse strings, bringing home the bacon for these municipalities, for these lawmakers? I don't want to call it political shakedown or extortion, but oftentimes that fear does come into play? Are people scared to speak truth to power? You know, great question.

I'm sure people are. Again, I think that's sort of where I differentiate myself as a politician, and I'm going to air quote politician. You have to have your own mind. You have to have your own guile, and you have to have your own ethics. And, you know, again, there's sort of no amount of money that you could sort of back that type of behavior. It really was shocking to me when you posted that. I actually was just getting off a plane. I got into my Uber heading home and I saw a notification come up and I checked it and I'm like, ah, this is the easiest thing ever. Boom, boom, boom. Like, well, during my Uber ride and for only 6 out of the 20-some-odd people not to step forward because you tagged them all. So we know they all have Instagram or even just to pick up the phone and call you, send you an email. I thought this was the easiest thing ever. But again, I'm never shocked when it comes to political behavior from some people.

But regularly disappointed as I am. So I want to ask this. Bell Harbor. I mean, you can count the number of traffic lights in your town on one hand, I think. Is it that many? You guys have 3 now. You're growing. You're growing.

Yeah, we are. We're getting huge. And then we split some with Surfside on 96th Street. So I'm only going to count those as halves.

You share. I'm only going to share. So, but there is a movement. We're seeing it with the federal government in D.C. We've been seeing it in Tallahassee, in the state of Florida, where they want to centralize power. Take it away from, in the case of DC, the states, you know, in the case of the federal government, in the case of the state government, Tallahassee, they want to take it away from local governments and municipalities, which to me runs seemingly counter to what Republican values are. And Republicans run the country, they run the state of Florida. But one of the major duty responsibilities that you guys usually have at the local level is zoning. I know people's eyes sort of glaze over when we start talking about that, but this affects every single person, what your local government does.

We're, we're, yeah, we're, we're a north-south corridor. I mean, if you really think about it, the north-south corridor runs through Bell Harbor.

Yeah, on A1A, on Collins, on Jimmy Buffett Memorial Highway.

Exactly. So be able to control our own zoning is unbelievably important because it's not like we can build a second story of streets above Collins and run it to mitigate traffic. So zoning and regulation of height and zoning, all those things become an integral part of local government decision.

To be clear about this, this is like— what zoning means is like you live in a residential neighborhood, for example, with single-family homes. And if someone were to just buy a block, knock down these homes, and suddenly build some mega development or project right in the middle of your quiet little residential neighborhood, that's what zoning impacts. So, Buzzy, tell me a little bit about what's happening at Ball Harbor Shops. How is the state trying to usurp your authority to be able to control your own little community?

Well, there's a thing called the Live Local Act, and what the Live Local Act does in principle is it allows for a certain amount of workforce housing to be built. And if you build within the formula of commercial property to your workforce housing, you basically do not have to go to local government for height restrictions. You could build as high as you want. Someone wants to put the Twin Towers on top of Val Harbor Shops, they have the right to do that. The problem is there's a lot of other things that impact that. So a lot of developers are now using the Live Local Act to circumvent local government zoning regulations to basically build as high and as big as they want. And they're really missing the purpose of what Live Local really is, is to bring workforce housing into neighborhoods. And there are certain areas where I think it works great.

Great.

And then there are certain areas where it's such a confined neighborhood, village, or city that it really doesn't work great. And it's happening all over. I know it's happening at the Clevelander on Miami Beach. They want to put up a giant tower on Ocean Drive. There's a project in Doral. There's even one in Surfside at the little post office that used to be on 95th Street. They're trying to put a Live Local project there.

By the way, can we be clear though about this bullshit about affordable housing or workforce housing. It's not really—

the percentage of workforce housing you have to put into the project, Billy, is so small it's negligible.

But also, but also what constitutes quote unquote workforce? It's like you have to make, what, $150,000 a year? Like, it's like it's not real affordable or workforce housing.

It's not. It's not for, you know, the janitor and the housekeeper at the Fountain Blue. That really need local workforce housing. You know, it's— I wouldn't define it, as you said, as the true workforce housing, because to me, that's the workforce. It was the guy that was, you know, working in my kitchen at a B&B, you know, washing dishes. That's the guy that needs workforce housing.

Is he going to be able to afford an apartment in Bell Harbor at the new Bell Harbor Shops?

Uh, not according— not according to it, because the way I think they do it— again, please don't quote me on this— so I think they take an average of your municipality and a few areas around it. So to your point, you know, $70,000, you know, median income here in Bell Harbor. Yeah, you're not talking about someone that's, you know, washing dishes in the back of a restaurant.

What's funny is that all of this having been said, I still give Fabian Bassabi even odds on getting reelected. We all look up on DraftKings what the odds are, but I'm telling you, I think it's even that this guy gets reelected in November for a third consecutive term. Do you know why? Hashtag because Miami. Irregardless, on our way out the door, thank you, thank you, Councilman Buzzy Sklar from the great tiny town of Bal Harbor Village for joining us here. The village, it takes a village.

Village, right? We are a village.

It takes a village of Bal Harbor. Follow him, Instagram @buzzysklar. Before we go, I'd like to make this— can we dedicate, can we dedicate a song? I feel like Delilah. Can we dedicate this? This Because Miami classic deep cut goes out to Representative Fabian Basabe. Miami Beach State Representative Fabian Basabe is accused in a lawsuit of sexually harassing former intern and his legislative aide.

Basabe stated to his legislative aide, I want all of that butt.

George Santos, he would blush 'cause your grifting is too much. Ooh, Fabienne Bassabi, Miami's right-wing queen. The bar's real low for who's elected and runs the show. And from inside your glass closet, you're pushing policy blatantly anti-gay.

Don't say gay!

But you have a boyfriend and have a wife. You love living a double life. Harassing 18 nations, not an ounce of class, 'cause you want all of that. You want your intern's ass. You are the right-wing queen, lying fraud, racist, and obscene.

Right-wing queen.

You get off on the self-loathing, oh yeah. Criminal misogyny, you're dead filed for bankruptcy, so you gotta laugh her laugh. Sugar mommy, Miami's right-wing queen.

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Sometimes the best conversations or interviews happen when I don't know where to start because there's just so much to talk about in the city of Miami. And so much of what's happening here is emblematic, symptomatic, symbolic. Of the greater catastrophe that is American politics. And who better to talk to about that than friend of the show Tomas Kennedy from the Florida Immigrant Coalition, who has been on the front lines of a lot of the fuckery here in the state of Florida and the city of Miami. Roy's scribbling, scribbling.

Roy, that's 4.

Is that really 4 F-bombs today?

Yes.

Holy fuck. So the 5. So, Tomás, a lot of us thought, you know, well, not a lot, not maybe not us, not maybe not us, but a lot of people believe, you know, in watching all of the catastrophe of Miami during the Francis Suárez era with Joe Carollo, Alex Diaz La Portilla, Tricky Vicky Mendez, the, the city attorney, Art Manuel Noriega, the city manager, we thought after that era was over that maybe shit would calm down a little bit with Pardo, with Gabela, the new commissioners, with Rolando Escalona, with Mayor Eileen Higgins. But things, I think, not only are as bad, but I would argue are worse than they were before.

Well, the meetings are starting somewhat on time. I guess that's the only marginal improvement.

Yes, the meetings The corruption starts on time now in the city of Miami. That, that, that is our— but again, arguably that is not an improvement. I always say the less they got done at the meetings, the more we'd win because the less they'd steal from us.

So Florida politics has turned me into a libertarian of sorts. Less government, please.

Less government.

Government to do less. Dear God.

Well, it's kind of funny, like we watched with this billion-dollar bond boondoggle that Eileen Higgins, by the way, totally surprised everybody with. She was sitting here on this show for a full hour in studio, never once mentioned that the one of the first things she was going to do as mayor of the city was put the city in debt, basically double the debt of the city, $1 billion to $2 billion.

Yeah.

I mean, she never mentioned that. Talk about burying the lead. And you have 5 commissioners on that dais. Now, these are nonpartisan positions, but they are registered with political parties. They have affiliations, 3 Republicans, 2 Democrats.

And who were the fiscally responsible commissioners? The two Democrats.

They were the fiscal conservatives. They were the only ones who sat up there. Christine King, I got to give— like, she and I, you know, we have our issues. Hashtag because Miami. But I got to give credit where credit's due. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. She not only talked right, she voted right. And she—

she was great on the issue. She was great on this.

She was a fiscal conservative. She sounded like my grandpa circa like '30, '40. She sounded like a Reaganista. Or something. It was weird.

I mean, look, we were talking about this yesterday, right? I believe in the power of government to do good things. I believe in the power of government to spend on services for residents. What I don't believe in is, again, a mayor who did not campaign on increasing the debt of the city by doubling the debt of the city by over a billion dollars with no plan on how to repay it as we're staring into the, you know, the abolition, the reforming, whatever you want to call it, of property taxes, which is a major revenue source for the city, with no consultation on the community about the bond process. No meetings, nothing. That's not how you do this, right? And I think Christine, uh, Commissioner Christine King was, uh, right on the money when she questioned a lot of this stuff and voted against it. She held strong.

I mean, what else? Gabela has transformed into Worse now, worse than Carollo. He's like Timu Carollo. And we need that cart though. I was hoping to have it on the stream deck ready to go for this episode. The Andrew Streeter Ooga Booga chant. You know, Tomas and I are going to sit at meetings now. You know, and then just lay in the front row. Booga, booga, booga.

All right. Don't get thrown out now.

Booga.

What do you—

come on. Of course I'm going to get thrown out. What are you talking about? But this guy, like, first of all, he blocked me from Instagram just last week for telling the truth, for commenting. I mean, he said so. And not only dumb, probably illegal, by the— because this is not his personal account or his or his campaign account.

You should sue him.

I might have no choice.

Yeah, he likes to sue, so I'm right back.

This guy is suing. It's a frivolous defamation lawsuit against Elaine Davalle from Político Cortadito. She's been on this show, a guest on this show. For telling the truth about him in order to silence his critics and stifle dissent like some kind of third world tinpot dictator wannabe like Fidel Castro, like a— Tries to get me thrown out of City Hall just for asking him good questions, actually, is defending police corruption. I don't even know where to start with this guy. He was always a problem. He was always unstable and unqualified. He's like a Jaguar parts salesman. He doesn't really have the qualifications to be up there on the dais talking that ooga booga. But to be like voting on multi-billion-dollar decisions. Just last week they voted—

Is he a car salesman?

No, Jaguar parts salesman.

Okay, there we go.

Okay, so, but he's up there negotiating like mega real estate deals. And yesterday, yesterday, last week they voted on another $150 million expenditure. Expenditure after already greenlighting a $70 million expenditure and a billion-dollar expenditure. I just don't—

listen, this is a guy that almost literally came to blows with Joe Corolla during a meeting, which, right, and she thought it was a good fight.

Yeah, charge him, charge, charge them to physically assault them, which, entertaining.

I mean, sure, it was funny, but it's, it's, it really is a disqualifying thing to do as a commissioner.

Like, assault and battery, like, it is It is honestly some caveman shit. Hey, hey, Roy, we got him into it. I was afraid Roy was going to walk out after that song.

You know what?

You can't be doing that shit. You can't be assaulting like fellow commissioners or charging at them. It's embarrassing.

He was always a blunt instrument, but we sort of let it slide as entertainment because he was like our blunt instrument against Carollo. But that's a problem. Like, you have to hold everybody to the same standard. Like I said, he was always unstable and always unqualified. It didn't matter that he was like butting heads with Corolla, because now with Corolla gone, he is worse than Corolla, waving dossiers around and threatening people and stifling dissent.

The Bayfront Trust as his own personal slush fund. It's exactly like $1 million to random nonprofits.

Uh, he's a Jaguars parts salesman, so he's like, uh, Chris Farley in Tommy Boy.

Dude, we have a This Rolando Escalona, this guy 11 years ago was in communist Cuba, and now he is a sitting city commissioner making decisions about like multibillion-dollar expenditures in the United States. Okay. If you look at his social media, look at his Instagram, 11 of his last 13 posts, which go all the way back to like May, it's over like 2 and a half months. 11 of the 13 are about Cuba. They're not even about the United States or Miami. He's like, March for Cuba. How about we march for Miami? How about we free Miami from this insanity? Again, totally unqualified up there, doesn't know what he's talking about. We warned him that you can't trust the administration, you can't trust the city attorney's office, and he's just up there taking their advice. And by the way, he talks a good game, but it doesn't matter what you say, it matters how you vote, it matters what you do. And he's up there with the crocodile tears. When we were there on 287G, I hope you can bring the guy around on this, but the guy is, like I said, newly arrived to this country, basically, and he has not yet agreed to vote to end the 287 agreement in the city.

Yeah, look, I mean, I'm still withholding judgment on him.

Fair.

I've met him.

He's very new.

He's very new, you know, I think he's under a lot of pressure. He seems like a perfectly nice guy, seems like a good person, you know, maybe I'm naive on the bond issue, I disagree with him fully, you know. And as again, I'm an independent, but I lean towards like what you might call the left or the progressive side or Democrats. Yeah, exactly. But again, I believe in the power of government to do good things for people. Again, I just want to reiterate what I don't believe in is irresponsible spending in a city that has done multiple of these bonds where the money is allocated into unaccountable projects. Just to me, it's— again, we talked about this already, but it's bizarre to see the 3 Republicans on the dais take this sort of fiscally irresponsible, unaccountable, big government spending tack, you know. So I do have to question that. But again, I withhold judgment, and I hope that he— I think he's still a vast improvement from the from the person that previously occupied that chair, which was—

In God we trust.

Yeah. Yeah.

But here's the thing.

He's so much better than that guy.

Okay. But Joe Carollo owes the city millions, possibly tens of millions of dollars in legal fees for a lawsuit that he should have been out of pocket for. And they allowed him to continue appealing all the way to the Supreme Court on the taxpayers' dime when he should have been paying the entire time. They gave him a credit card, and he owes the city millions of dollars, and instead of taking action against him and pursuing that debt, they all just voted 5-0, including Escalona, who was elected to stop the Correio corruption, because Correio's brother, you remember, Frank Correio, was running to take over his old seat, which had been taken over by his older brother, and he voted 5-0 to give Joe Correio $770,000 in taxpayer money to settle a lawsuit that Joe Correio had brought against the city and should have been paying out of pocket. Pocket for his own legal expenses. It is an outrage. This city commission and this mayor and the city manager, the new guy, are out of control. They are absolutely reckless. I honestly— you've never heard me say this— I feel like the governor should come down and they should like take over the city, like put the city into receivership.

This governor?

Any governor. Like, the city is completely out of control. Well, let me— let's talk about this. Hang I'm talking about the money and the fiscal irresponsibility. The city of Miami in the last week or two, we learned from Bloomberg News, Miami is now the least affordable city in the country for the first time in history, has surpassed New York.

New York.

The metro area of Miami down here is the most unaffordable, least affordable, most expensive place to do anything. And there's also San Francisco and there's expenses. Related to Miami that they don't even have in New York. Like, everybody has a car, so there's insurance, there's gas, there's like all kinds of—

I mean, I go to San Francisco all the time, I go to New York. I mean, at least there you can walk, you can take the train, you can take the trolley. Like, you don't have that here. You really do need a car.

So on top of the unaffordability, the— I mean, we went to dinner last night.

I got crazy.

I got 2 cocktails, basic tequila pineapple, got an appetizer that we shared with the table, and I I got shrimp tacos. 3 shrimp tacos. How much was yours?

I got 3 cocktails. A little much, but we need it down here. I do need it. Yeah, drowning my sorrows after that Bayfront Trust party.

Talk about that.

Yeah, we'll talk about that. $64 for 3 drinks, and that's on the cheap end.

$64 for 3 drinks?

Yeah, upcharge.

Appetizer, fried pickles, which I shared with the table. Fried chile, delicious.

Shrimp pickles.

They were delicious. Shrimp tacos, which were very good. 3 little tacos and 2 basic, you know, 2-ingredient cocktails with tip, 18%, $71. And we were, we were, we were at Black Market.

Like, it's, it's a, like, they already make you pay the tip. It's a shitty sports bar, you know? Like, we weren't at a fancy place, but it's a sports bar. It's a basic, it's a normal sports bar. It's just not a luxury bar experience.

No, let's say like a proletariat joint, you know? Right, it's a sports bar. Like I shouldn't pay.

You can't use that language in this stream.

Trying to watch them all in this game.

Comrades, we go to black market.

$64 for 3 drinks? Come on, man.

Oh, by the way, your drink had 1 ingredient plus ice.

I literally just had Jameson on the rocks.

Did somebody say ice? La migra, la migra.

I literally just had Jameson on the rocks and I did not use the word ice. I said big rock.

Big Rock. One big rock. Big Rock. Dwayne Johnson walked in. So my point here is that we have real problems. Nobody who lives in Miami, who built Miami, who has been in Miami can afford to be in Miami. We have government giving away sports welfare to FIFA, which turned out to be a bust, by the way. We're now getting the feedback from the hotels who are like, first of all, there were fewer visitors to Miami International Airport this year than there were at the same time last year. It's not just that.

You can read this in the Miami Herald. This is not coming from me. A lot of the hotel operators— we're talking big hotel operators, Faena, like beautiful Miami Beach, downtown Miami— they're saying we actually lost money, not just because the hotel bookings weren't where we expected them to be. We lost out on bookings for conferences and events because people didn't come here because everybody avoided it because of FIFA. So it actually cost people money.

And we spent— I think I've lost count— I guess at least $70 million, because once you add up all the penny-ante shit like Bayfront Park, FIFA Fan Fest, which they gave away for free—

let's talk about— let's talk about yesterday. We're at the Bayfront Trust Park meeting, and these bozos said, what, you know, what we didn't account for was the— in the rental agreement with FIFA for Bayfront Park was the loss of revenue on the parking fees, which is their biggest revenue. And what we brought up is that like actually there was no rental agreement to agree upon because you gave away the park for Fan Fest for free. So you don't even know what you're talking about. Not only was there loss of revenue on the parking, you didn't even charge the rental fee that you're talking about here. You have no idea what you're voting on.

They deprived the residents access to the park for like 5 weeks for setup, breakdown, and Fan Fest. They lost the revenue from any concessions or parking at the park during that period, and they charged FIFA exactly $0.

And who brought that up at the meetings repeatedly at the Ray Funchess Park meetings ahead of the FIFA World Cup?

I don't know who.

Favorito!

Exactly. You and I multiple times saying, guys, we're leaving a lot of money on the table here.

Why?

Why are we giving this multi-billion dollar organization who's already getting $60, $70 million in public money, why are we giving them free rental of, of—

we owe for Messi—

of our Central Park? It's so—

not only are we giving them free rental, but we're cutting off revenue sources while doing it.

And the members, these idiots who voted for everything we were telling them not to do at the meeting this week, were literally like, hey, you know, maybe we shouldn't be giving up. It's like, unbelievable. If only you guys could have voted on this 4 months ago. Oh wait, you did. Bend over for Beckham, maybe.

Unbelievable.

Unbelievable. And, and I stood up and told the truth to Miguel Gabela, got called a liar. He didn't, he didn't cite a single instance again in which I was lying.

You got, you got, you got on the soundboard what you got called.

Well, no, not just, not just that.

Yeah, Billy got called a communist. And a socialist, in that order. By Gabbella.

Gabbella was like, "You, you, with all due respect, at the end of the day, Billy, you are a communist, you're a socialist, you're a communist and you're a socialist." That's what they said.

Pick one.

First of all, the guy doesn't even know what either of those words mean, let alone the difference between them. And incidentally, I don't think you can be those things in that order. I think it's the other way, or I think socialism is the gateway drug into communism. I don't need to—

With all due respect to the— What they're saying about you, what they're saying about me, I hear that you're a communist and you're a socialist. My guy, you're good.

At the end of the day, at the end of the day, your guy, my guy, my guy, your guy, at the end of the day, with all due respect, at the end of the day, all due respect. I wasn't going deep enough with that. We don't have— So incidentally, we don't have any carts for Gabela yet. We're going to have to have like a whole stream deck just dedicated to Gabela.

That's a treasure trove right there for the support.

That guy is reckless. And I said this is going to beat us up a few Decembers ago when he first got elected. I said that this guy is going to accidentally get himself indicted because, like, he just doesn't know what he doesn't know. And there's so much hubris. And I think he may mean well at times, but I think he's his own worst enemy, a lot like Carollo. And I just think that—

I don't think he means well at all. Not really.

No, you wouldn't like him when he's angry.

I would not, no.

He gets—

Uka, uka, uka, uka.

I don't know, man, like, the suing of journalists, like, that I just can't abide by.

But I feel like he gets talked into dumb shit, kind of like Escalona. Like, he's not getting good advice. There's no better angels in the building.

But Escalona does not act like that guy.

Not yet.

He's too new. But see, I don't ever see Escalona charging another commissioner to to try to beat them up. Like, there's just, there's just a, like, I don't see— there's, there's a, there's a character profile around Gabella that I saw from day one that I was like, I don't like that guy. Yes, that guy should not be a commissioner.

There was always something a little— yeah, there was always a screw loose.

And also, he's not the commissioner.

Also, like, no, his wife is the commissioner. Yeah, Mrs. Gabella is the commissioner.

Well, that's how I usually go in marriages.

And he— well, no, she is everywhere She is at every public meeting. She's interacting with staff. Her private Gmail address is like copied on emails from the district office for like meetings with constituents. She's basically a quasi-public official. And I don't know, I feel like the city attorney needs to opine on this because that creates liability in the workplace.

Right.

There were 6 private security officers at the Bayfront Trust Park meeting and there were There were literally 5 attendees, including Billy, myself, James Reyes, and 2 other people.

I don't trust Billy.

You gotta have a lot of security officers and a police officer that they put off duty to just sit there and do nothing. And who was standing at a— like, there was literally a barrier between the Bayfront Trust board members and us. There's a barrier for some reason. And who was standing, sitting there? Recording, by the way, with the security officer, Commissioner Gabela. Commissioner Gabela, the wife.

The wife. The real, the real commissioner. So, you know, here's the thing.

I think it's important—

bizarre. It's weird.

Well, it's important to note that there were like zero security guards before. I think it's important to note that we have gone from zero security guards to 6 people. There's metal detectors now.

Yeah.

At the door with one security guard. You walk in, you sign in, you walk down the hallway. They've now moved the meeting to like—

this is all taxpayer money, by the way.

Yeah.

And there's now a second doorway where there's another security guard, and then there's the big tall guy. So there's technically two security guards at their door, at that door. Then there's this weird barrier that Tomas was talking about where there's two more security guards, one on either side of that barrier. That's five. Then there was a uniformed officer who I presume was either off duty and being paid by the taxpayers, or on duty being paid by the taxpayers and not patrolling her area. And then there was the sergeant at arms, who is one of the highest paid officers in the room. That is 8. And again, security guards are law enforcement officers.

5 attendees from the community, including Billy and me.

There were more security guards and police officers than there were attendees at the meeting. Yeah, the man's lost his damn mind. And that is if you would argue he never had it to begin with.

I would absolutely argue that.

And I'll tell you, like, I really was hoping that we would make Miami boring again. I want government to be boring. I don't want to have to go to all these meetings. I don't want to have to— they're a drag. It's a drag, man.

And they're going to be worse when they're at the InterMiami Freedom Park bullshit stadium.

Oh boy, you have just— he has just opened up a whole new can of sports welfare.

Yeah, tell the audience what's happening with Miami City Hall.

No, we're not talking about it this time. We're going to save it.

No, we're going to go save it for later.

The mayor is going to go on fire. Nope, nope, we're not doing it in this episode. We're not doing it. We're not doing it. Ooga booga, ooga booga, cocaines.