Bad habits die hard. Or not at all.
Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar must really think we’re all a bunch of bobos.
A few days ago, the rarely-seen congresswoman made one of her once-in-a-blue-moon visitas públicas to the district — this time to Cutler Bay — to smile wide and brag about delivering a $4.4 million check for local road projects, public safety improvements, and coastal resilience work. Signed by herself. From her office.
Except for one little problem: Salazar voted against the 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act that included that little allocation. .
¿Cómo se llama eso? Hypocrisy? No, this is worse. It’s straight-up gaslighting her own constituents. Pretending to deliver what she worked to deny.
Because if María Elvira had her way, Cutler Bay would be getting nada — no check, no infrastructure improvements, no money to protect against climate threats.
But that didn’t stop her from showing up with her press team to claim credit for it like she was Santa Claus.
“Infrastructure is about protecting families and improving quality of life,” Salazar said in a statement. “The Marlin Road project will make this corridor safer for drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists, while also reducing congestion and making daily commutes easier for everyone in Cutler Bay.”
“This is what we’re here for, to bring money, to bring money to District 27,” she said in a video posted on YouTube. “They came to Washington. They presented the project in a very accurate way and I said, ‘Sure, I think that the Cutler Bay residents deserve to have a better life.”
This isn’t the first time she’s done this. She is sorta famous for taking credit when it’s not due.
Read related: Maria Elvira Salazar takes credit for judge extending TPS for Venezuelans
Only a few months ago, she took credit for getting the temporary protective status extended for 18 months for 350,000 Venezuelans in the U.S. whose TPS had been rescinded by President Trump. It was a California judge who did that.
Remember when María Elvira posed last year with a giant $650,000 check for Florida International University’s Small Business Development Center, also from legislation she voted against? And remember when she was caught flat-out lying about taking credit for her no votes by CBS Miami’s Jim DeFede in what is now a viral clip. She actually said she couldn’t remember voting against key legislation that brought jobs and federal dollars to the district.
Maybe she’s not fit for office if she can’t remember how she votes. Or, worse, if she’s practicing some political sleight of hand.

On Nov. 5, 2021, she voted against the Bipartisan Infrastructure and Jobs Act, the bill that was supposed to finally fix our crumbling roads, bridges, public transit and even boost broadband.
On July 28, 2022, she voted against the CHIPS and Science Act, meant to make America competitive with China by funding tech hubs focused on energy and environmental issues.
And on Dec. 23, 2022, she voted against the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, the massive spending package that funded everything from disaster relief to aid for Ukraine — the very Ukraine Salazar claims to support against Putin.

But those party-line “no” votes didn’t stop the congresswoman from taking full credit when the money started flowing into her district anyway. Like magic, she suddenly became the madrina of millions she had literally tried to block. Most notoriously, she staged a little ceremony at Florida International University, where she was photographed grinning and holding a giant fake $650,000 check — signed by herself — for FIU’s Small Business Development Center.
A photo-op as shameless as it gets.
Let’s call it the Salazar shuffle: Vote against it in D.C., pose with it in Miami.
Read related: Maria Elvira Salazar’s ‘Dignity Act’ is about zero dignity and all a big act
What has she done? Not much. Right now, she’s pushing the Dignity Act, which gives only some immigrants a sorta undignified path to stay in the country as long as they work some menial jobs and keep paying for special licenses to do so.
But hey, maybe she’s just hoping that some giant checks and a few photo ops will distract voters from the fact that she’s one of the most inútiles politicians to ever represent District 27.
Cutler Bay deserves better. Miami deserves better.
Y Ladra’s going to keep calling it out. Because around here, we do pay attention.
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Former MDC Prez Eduardo Padron: ‘Unimaginable’
So, the state is about to gift Donald Trump a $67 million piece of prime downtown real estate for his future presidential library — and, maybe, a hotel to boot.
This is the parking lot next to the Freedom Tower, across from the Kaseya Center, smack in the middle of downtown’s cultural hub. The very same piece of land Miami Dade College bought in 2004, after a lot of sacrifice, to expand its Wolfson Campus for a growing student population. The same property former MDC president Eduardo Padrón said was “critical” for the school’s future.
Gone. Just like that.
The MDC Board of Trustees voted in a blink-and-you-missed-it meeting last month to transfer the lot to the state, with an agenda that vaguely said they’d be discussing “potential real estate transactions.” No mention of the $67 million parcel. No mention of Trump. No mention that Gov. Ron DeSantis had already decided where it was going.
And the very same day, voilà, DeSantis announced that his hand-picked Cabinet would vote Tuesday to gift the property to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation. Attorney General James Uthmeier and freshly minted CFO Blaise Ingoglia could hardly contain themselves on X, gushing about how excited they were to hand Trump the land. Ingoglia even bragged this would be one of his “first votes.” Que cute.
Uthmeier even dropped a hype video about how “no better location” could tell Trump’s story than a spot right next to the Freedom Tower — Miami’s own Ellis Island of the South.
Read related: Donald Trump’s Gold Visa puts the American Dream up for sale for $5M
Never mind that Trump’s immigration crackdown has put scores of Cubans in deportation proceedings and that one of his first acts in office was suspending asylum at the border. Never mind that Freedom Tower was the beacon for Cuban refugees fleeing Castro’s Cuba — while Trump is promising the “largest deportation operation in U.S. history.” The irony practically writes itself.
The location is a dream spot: 2.6 acres across from Bayside and PortMiami, at the entrance to MDC’s Wolfson Campus, and just steps from the newly-renovated Freedom Tower that the college poured $25 million into restoring. That same tower where Miami-Dade School Board Member Roberto Alonso, MDC’s board vice chair (also appointed by DeSantis) said his parents were welcomed decades ago. Alonso said Trump’s library would “really take Miami to the next level.”
Next level of what? Insanity? Double-standard? Hypocrisy?
What the college didn’t say in the vague agenda or the lightning-round vote is that the land has been pitched to developers before and could have netted MDC a pretty penny. A decade ago, they tried to monetize that same parking lot, across from the $6 billion Miami Worldcenter project. This week, they just gave it away. For free.
Padrón, who led MDC for nearly 25 years, was blindsided. “It’s frankly unimaginable that this decision was made without any real discussion of the consequences of what that will do to the college,” he said in an interview with WLRN. “There was a lot of sacrifice in order to gain that piece of land for the expansion of the college.”
Translation: The land was meant for students, not for Trump’s hotel-library ego project.
Trump has been shopping Florida schools for his library — FAU, FIU, and MDC were all on the list. Now it looks like the Magic City won. Maybe. Because remember, Trump likes options, and insiders say MDC could still be just a “satellite” location.
Alonso, who was appointed to the school board by DeSantis, said the MDC board got the “request” from the governor’s office on Sept. 16 and insists the college doesn’t need the lot anyway. “The college and our community have so much to gain from a presidential library,” Alonso said, calling it an “economic engine.” Ladra wonders: economic engine for who, exactly? Students paying tuition? Or Trump Inc. selling hotel rooms and MAGA merch?
Read related: Miami-Dade School Board gets extreme makeover with two hard right newbies
Let’s not forget that this could be the first presidential library with an attached hotel. Imagine that — a two-for-one shrine to Trump where you can book a suite after your tour of “alternative facts.”
Meanwhile, MDC students are literally spilling out of the Wolfson campus. Enrollment there has grown from 19,500 in 2003 to more than 27,000 today. Across the county, nearly 59,000 people are enrolled at MDC, making it one of the largest community colleges in the nation. Padrón said the college once considered using the lot for a conference center or a new building for the New World School of the Arts. Instead, it’s going to Trump’s library-hotel vanity project.
The property, bought by MDC for $24.8 million in 2004, is now valued by the county appraiser at more than $67 million. And with Miami’s real estate boom, it would almost certainly fetch even more if it were put up for bids.
But no. No bids. No discussion. No transparency. Just a fast-track giveaway.
Because this isn’t about students. This is about DeSantis and his Cabinet paying tribute to the Orange Idol while shortchanging Miami Dade College — and the people it’s supposed to serve.
There will be a protest Monday afternoon, before Tuesday’s cabinet vote, led by historian and Florida International University Professor Marvin Dunn, who called the location “an insult” to the hundreds of thousands of Cuban, Venezuelans, Haitians and other “freedom seekers” who live here.
But Alonso told CBS News Miami that it was “not about political values or ideologies. It’s about the office, the office of the president, and something that will be here in Miami for our students, our community to go visit and to learn more about the office of the presidency.”
Also, Trump’s foundation — which reportedly has $53 million in commitments so far, thanks in part to settlements from Trump’s defamation suits against ABC, Meta and Paramount — has to break ground within five years.
MDC’s current president, Madeline Pumariega, called the move “historic.” She’s not wrong. It’s a historic giveaway of tens of millions in public land so that Donald Trump can build a monument to himself.
The Freedom Tower will still be a symbol of freedom. But it could stand next to a symbol of Florida power brokers bending over backwards for the Donald and robbing MDC students of resources and opportunity.
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October 7 commemoration is too political, some say
Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago thought he’d raise a flag. Instead, he raised eyebrows. And tempers.
At next week’s city commission meeting, expect a little political kabuki over an idea that already sparked plenty of drama: raising the Israeli flag at City Hall to mark the anniversary of the October 7th Hamas attack, where more than 1,200 people were killed and 200 were taken hostage.
Lago already proposed the gesture at the first meeting in September, but he had to defer the plan after he got some unexpected resistance from the newest commissioner, Richard Lara, who dared to go against the mayor’s wishes. Lara wasn’t buying the symbolism and there was plenty of blowback from residents, as well.
Read related: Kendall group wants to bring together diverse political views, without a fight
Coral Gables has shown support for Israel before. After the 2023 attacks, the city lit up the building in blue and white and hosted a demonstration of solidarity with the local Jewish community. Resolutions were passed. Hands were held. No drama.
But raising a flag at City Hall? That’s different. It’s a more public, visible — political. And people noticed.
The city should not recognize the Israeli victims without also recognizing the Palestinian victims, said Jay Shahadeh, who lives on North Greenway Drive. He said the message was: “If the victims look like me or if they look like my children, it doesn’t matter.”
Some residents questioned whether City Hall is the place for these kinds of international gestures. Others warned about opening the door to every other foreign conflict and flag — Palestinian, Ukrainian, Armenian, Cuban, you name it. If we fly one, are we ready to fly them all?
“City Hall is supposed to be welcoming to all,” said Sadia Raja, a pharmacist who spoke at the Sept. 10 meeting. “It sends a message that the city is taking sides in a foreign dispute. All suffering and death should be acknowledged, not just one side.”
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The only person who spoke in favor of the flag raising was South Miami Mayor Javier Fernández, who was there as a lobbyist on a land use issue, but just decided to chime in because he felt the need to support Lago on this. Fernandez was also in Israel for a week in July with a delegation of other electeds from across Florida, including Sen. Alexis Calatayud and State Rep. Vicky Lopez. They met with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who might be taking a break from peddling his sleep aid, and the families of some of the hostages and former hostages, Fernandez said. The value will be on his next disclosure form.
“We met with Israelis, Christians, Jews, Palestinians, Islamists and Muslims,” Fernandez told Political Cortadito this week.
And, in fact, he liked Lago’s idea about raising the Israeli flag so much, he brought it to his own South Miami commission, which passed a similar item on Sept. 16 unanimously, to commemorate the Oct. 7 mass killing.
Fernandez told Ladra that the action is just to pay homage to the hostages and their families, to commemorate the events of Oct. 7. “I certainly have a lot of reservations about how the current Israeli government is conducting its military campaign and operations in Gaza,” he said. “But the resolution is to express solidarity with the hostages and the victims of Oct. 7, which is in line with our 9/11.”
He did, however, parrot a lot of the Israeli arguments about civilian deaths being the fault of Hamas and how all the Palestinians have to do is leave and there is no genocide. But forcing hundreds of thousands of people into refugee camps with no food, no running water, no safety net, no educational opportunities, no future is practically genocide by neglect.
And nobody who is driving by City Hall on Oct. 7 is going to know the nuanced differenced. Most people haven’t read the wording of the resolution. Maybe 10 people saw the Sept. 16 meeting, where nobody opposed the raising of the flag. But when they drive by City Hall with the Israeli flag raised, they will just think that the city has taken a side in the conflict. Period.
And the timing is insane. Every week, it seems, another country or international body is calling out Israel for what it’s doing in Gaza and the West Bank. From the streets of London and Paris to the chambers of the U.N. and the Hague, the tide of global opinion is turning — and fast. What used to be whispered is now being shouted: that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is not just “self-defense” — it’s oppression, occupation, and has even been called genocide. Governments in the Global South, European parliaments, human rights groups, even some Jewish organizations — they’re lining up to condemn what’s happening.
Read related: Miami-Dade still deep in Israel bonds despite budget woes — and genocide
And Lago is doubling down? What’s in it for him? Is he seeking some group’s backing in his ambitions for higher office? Everybody knows that he wants to run for Miami-Dade mayor. Is he making a move for the Jewish vote?
Commissioner Lara said the quiet part out loud: The city shouldn’t be in the business of picking sides in global conflicts, especially when those sides divide the people who live here.
Wow. That came out of his mouth?
So L’Ego deferred, promising “more community input,” which is code for “more time to get people to convince Lara.”
Source told Ladra that people tried to convince Lago to drop this flag thing. They appealed to him on several levels.
This is a city that celebrates its international ties with the “Flags on Ponce” program, where national flags flutter along Miracle Mile. But that’s about cultural heritage and global presence — not geopolitics.
There’s a big difference between flying the flag of your parents’ homeland during carnival and raising the Israeli flag to commemorate a war that’s still going on. This isn’t about being pro-Israel or pro-Palestine. It’s about what City Hall should represent. And whether the dais is the right place to wage symbolic battles with real-world consequences.
Flying a foreign flag, especially one tied to an ongoing and deeply divisive international conflict, might not be the unifying move Lago says he wants. In fact, it might do the opposite.
 
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Michael Rosenberg is about to try something almost revolutionary in today’s political climate: a public meeting where people with opposing views actually talk to each other like human beings.
Can it even be done?
Rosenberg, a longtime animal rights activist and president of the Kendall Federation of Homeowner Associations, is launching what he hopes will be a community conversation that doesn’t immediately devolve into shouting matches or Facebook flame wars. He’s inviting people of all stripes to sit down and discuss the issues that usually blow up Thanksgiving dinners: immigration, abortion, healthcare, vaccines, gun rights, even the meaning of “socialism.”
Read related: Miami-Dade still deep in Israel bonds despite budget woes — and genocide
The goal? Civil engagement. “I want to see if we can encourage people to share their opinions without fear of repercussions or a fear of having an opposing viewpoint,” Rosenberg told Political Cortadito.
It’s an ambitious experiment. After all, this is Miami-Dade — where just about everyone has a strong opinion on politics, and most aren’t shy about telling you. But Rosenberg says the point isn’t to agree. It’s to listen.
The KFHA has hosted political forums for decades. But these have been with candidates. They have provided the questions. This forum is different because the invitees are the residents. Candidates and electeds are welcome to join, however.
“We’ve all read the news, heard the news, watched the news — and the conclusion is that it is impossible to have a civil, polite, courteous, well-mannered meeting with groups of people that have opposing political ideas,” Rosenberg said. “The ‘rumor’ is that Democrats, Independents, Libertarians and Republicans simply cannot be in the same room together without some sort of histrionics, hysteria, screaming, arguments and a meeting that would end with total chaos.
“Let’s prove them wrong.”
The leaders of various political parties have been invited. The FIU College Democrats’ President Alexandria Gopee, the FIU College Republicans’ President Daniella Dieppa, the Miami-Dade Democratic Party Chair Laura Kelley and the Libertarian Party Chair Hector Roos have confirmed attendance. Also going: the chairperson of the FIU Libertarian Party, Joshua Espinoza, and former State Rep. JC Planas, who has lots of experience with constitutional issues.
The KFHA was trying to get someone from the Republican Party of Miami-Dade County to attend — but nobody had confirmed early this week. They might feel it’s not echo chamber enough.
If there was ever a perfect time to try this kind of community conversation, it’s right now.
Read related: Palmetto Bay councilman is asked to resign after ‘vile’ Charlie Kirk post
We’ve got a perfect storm brewing with the assassination of Charlie Kirk — causing people on both sides of the aisle to question what “free speech” is — a crackdown on dissent on college campuses, media networks and city halls, where people are being shouted down, canceled, or arrested for daring to speak up. And hovering over all of it is the raw, emotional debate over Gaza, where even neighbors and families are splitting apart over what’s happening half a world away.
Everywhere you look, the national discourse is toxic. People aren’t just disagreeing — they’re dehumanizing each other.
That’s why Rosenberg’s little experiment feels so timely. It’s not about solving immigration or abortion in one night. It’s about proving that, at least at the community level, people can sit in a room together, talk about the toughest issues, and walk out without hating each other.
In an America where speech feels more weaponized than free, and where every issue becomes a purity test, carving out space for civil disagreement might be the most radical thing you can do.
To set the tone, Rosenberg will start the meeting by reading a letter from his “wonderful, amazing MAGA friend” in Northeast Georgia. The two don’t see eye-to-eye on pretty much anything — he’s a Trump Republican, Rosenberg’s a liberal Democrat — but they have genuine love and respect for each other.
Read related: Op Ed by KFHA’s Michael Rosenberg: ‘Kendall Talk!’ makes Kendall strong
“Mike and I can discuss controversial issues and to people listening to our conversation, it can sound sometimes very heated,” wrote James Calhoun, descendant of John Caldwell Calhoun, a senator from South Carolina and seventh vice president of the United States. “But at the end of the day we can go have dinner or ice cream together. We both know we intensely love our country. There’s no doubt about that.”
And if they can manage that partisan divide, Rosenberg believes, maybe neighbors here can, too.
The big question: can it really happen without a fight? How heated is too heated? Can a room full of Miamians, armed with opinions on the Second Amendment, Social Security, and birthright citizenship, actually prove that we’re capable of civil discourse?
Rosenberg is betting yes. It’s a risky bet. Around here, it doesn’t take much for “civil discourse” to turn into a cage match with cafecito flying across the room. But hey, if Rosenberg can pull this off, it’ll be a bigger miracle than bipartisan immigration reform.
The “In One Room Together” town hall sponsored by the KFHA begins at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Kendall Village Center Civic Pavilion, 8625 SW 124 Ave. Come for the discourse and the free pizza because Mike’s Italian Restaurant is providing food.
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Everybody knew that the Miami mayoral election wasn’t going to be nonpartisan. Not really. Not with these people. Not in these times.
We’ve already seen the attacks. The Republican Party of Florida compared Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins, a Democrat, to New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, because that’s a bad thing in Miami. And the Florida Democratic Party call former City Manager Emilio Gonzalez the MAGA mayor, using the tired and emotional phrase coined by President Donald Trump.
But things are now turning positive now.
Read related: Poll has Eileen Higgins in Miami mayoral runoff with Emilio Gonzalez
On Tuesday, Gonzalez rolled out an endorsement from Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose own relative is one of the 13 candidates. That includes Kenneth James Desantis, who might have been snubbed by “Uncle Ron” because he’s an independent and not a GOP voter. Or maybe he doesn’t even know a member of the fam is running. “I have not spoken to him,” Kenneth DeSantis told Ladra.
The guv cited the former manager’s proven record of service, integrity, and leadership in defending Miami voters’ right to cast ballots this November. Gonzalez sued after the Miami city commission voted to move election years from odd- to even-numbered, in order to coincide with state and national elections, which effectively cancelled this year’s election and extended everybody”s term, by a year. The courts agreed with Gonzalez’s attorneys, that the move violated the city and the county’s charter because they did not go out to a public vote.
“I’m pleased to endorse Colonel Emilio González for Mayor of Miami,” DeSantis said in a statement from the campaign. “With 26 years of military service and experience at both federal and local levels, Emilio has shown his commitment to our nation and Miami. When local officials tried to cancel the election and extend their own terms, a  clear violation of term limits, Emilio stepped up and stopped them in court five times. Emilio is committed to providing property tax relief, strengthening public safety, and reducing government. red tape,” said Governor DeSantis.
Read related: Partisan politics seize hold of Miami mayoral election already with attacks
He bypassed five other Republicans running include Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo,  former Miami Commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla, Christian Cevallos, Alyssa Crocker and June Savage.
Gonzalez called the governor’s nod both an “honor and a responsibility” that he would take seriously.
“When the political class tried to cancel this year’s election, we went to court and won so Miami residents could vote,” Gonzalez said in a statement. “As mayor, I will bring that same resolve to end corruption at City Hall, restore accountability, and put Miami’s residents—not insiders—first.
“Miami needs a mayor who will stand up to entrenched interests, protect taxpayers, and deliver results,” González added. “That has been the hallmark of my career — from 26 years in the U.S. Army to serving our community here at home. I’m grateful for Governor DeSantis’s confidence, and I’m ready to get to work for the people of Miami.”
On her part, the Higgins campaign delivered a mailer Tuesday that touts her as “The Trusted Democrat.”
Read related: Eileen Higgins qualifies for Miami mayoral race, launches new video ad
On one side, it says “November can e the month we put a stop to the extremist MAGA agenda,” and “Commissioner Eileen Higgins is the ONLY candidate Democrats trust to protect our rights, our democracy and our values.” It also says she will end the “chaos, corruption and MAGA extremism.”

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