#BecauseMiami: The Crosswalks Are Making Us Gay

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Speaker 13 Alligator Alcatraz on Friday afternoon where things looked quiet. On Thursday, operations appeared to be winding down.
This after a federal judge ordered ordered the detention center be dismantled.

Speaker 13 The Department of Homeland Security says it's complying with the order and moving detainees to other facilities.

Speaker 13 A new report from the Associated Press shows Florida taxpayers could be on the hook for $218 million spent by the state on the facility.

Speaker 13 It could cost another $15 to $20 million to shut it down, and another $15 to $20 million if the state is allowed to reopen it.

Speaker 14 It was not a good use of taxpayer dollars. It could cost, you know, to the top of about $240 million for the two months that they were operating.

Speaker 12 I take a couple weeks off from the show, and they closed down my favorite club in Toronto.

Speaker 15 Florida's hottest club is Alligator Alcatraz.

Speaker 12 Comedian or is it Comedian? What do we say?

Speaker 16 Oh, do not. I said it's comedian.

Speaker 9 It's exactly.

Speaker 15 It is. It's comedienne because I tell Joquettes with my Vagines.
So.

Speaker 15 Comedienne.

Speaker 19 Comedienne.

Speaker 12 Comedienne.

Speaker 12 Comediana. Is it the feminine? The feminine? Comediana?

Speaker 15 It's court jester.

Speaker 12 Comedienne O would be the masculine. Comedienne O.

Speaker 18 Comedian.

Speaker 17 Court Justine.

Speaker 15 And if you're my ex, it would just be manic disaster. But you pick whichever one that you're into.

Speaker 12 In Miami, we pronounce it Brittany Brave. I believe it's pronounced Brave.

Speaker 15 Legitimately, my kindergarten teacher in West Kendall said Britanni Brave when she did roll call.

Speaker 15 And then I had a reminder that I have the whitest name ever. I sound like a proud boy.

Speaker 12 Hashtag because my aunt. You look like a proud boy, too.
Actually, you look like an escaped Alligator Alcatraz

Speaker 9 prisoner.

Speaker 17 That's what you look like in a hat.

Speaker 15 I thought this was stylish.

Speaker 12 Very stylish. Thank you.

Speaker 15 I didn't know that they had in-house hair and makeup at Alligator Alcatraz either. They don't have food.

Speaker 12 And I love your hat, and we will talk about that later. But first.

Speaker 22 That's first. That's signs.

Speaker 12 That's what I needed after two.

Speaker 15 I just did a Kegel.

Speaker 3 A Kegel or is it a Kegel?

Speaker 15 It's a Kegel. It's a Kegel? I do them, so I've been doing them this entire time.

Speaker 24 Comedian.

Speaker 19 Comedian. Yeah.

Speaker 15 My vagina sounds like the doors from Law and Order. Klunk Klunk.

Speaker 15 We can say that now.

Speaker 12 So I've been saying this a lot on this program, and it bears repeating because I think it's true. And if it's not, I'm sure the commenters below will chime in.

Speaker 19 They will.

Speaker 12 But the enduring message here of this era, this golden age of grift, through the demagoguery, through the hatred, the misogyny, the homophobia, the transphobia, the anti-Semitism, through all of the quackery, the death of expertise and professionalism, the anti-science that has hijacked the country, the proliferation of guns, through all of it.

Speaker 12 The ultimate takeaway from this era is it is just a heist movie. They don't believe in anything.
They're not ideologues. They are just Hans Gruber.
Exactly.

Speaker 23 It's just like Die Hard. It's just Die Hard.

Speaker 12 All this horrible shit that I just told you about, the death demagoguery is a distraction from the robbery that's taking place. They're just buying their time.

Speaker 12 You have the President of the United States just generated five

Speaker 12 billion with a B dollars. in imaginary coins, in crypto assets this week.
What are we talking about? So for the Epstein time, this is just the golden age of Grift. This is all this is about.

Speaker 12 And to that end, Alligator Alcatraz, I resent that we even call it that because it was talk about demagoguery.

Speaker 9 This was just a fing grift.

Speaker 12 Analysis by the Associated Press shows that Florida has signed at least $405 million in vendor contracts to build and operate the facility, which officials initially estimated would cost at least $450 million

Speaker 12 a year to run. And now at least 200 and I don't know, 20 million, 50 million is gone.
Just gone. In the eight days it took to build it and the two months or so that it was running to dive into it all.

Speaker 12 Independent journalist and trial lawyer and friend of the show, Katie Fang, is joining us. Katie, where do we begin?

Speaker 12 I mean, obviously, the decision has been made to, apparently for the time being anyway, to wind this operation down and shut it down, but that don't get us our money back, does it?

Speaker 12 Where did the money go?

Speaker 9 No.

Speaker 26 And by the way, let's be clear, the grift didn't just start with Alligator Alcatraz, which is essentially a concentration camp smack dab in the middle of Big Cypress Preserve.

Speaker 26 It started before 2023 when Ron DeSantis mysteriously plucked some bullshit emergency out of the air to justify the grift that you're talking about, Billy. And, you know, it's, I call it pop, P-O-P.

Speaker 26 It's profits over people. It's public pop, private pop, public, private partnership pop.
I mean, you name it, it's pop. It's always profits over people.

Speaker 26 And we see it now wholesale to the tune of, what, $250 plus million dollars.

Speaker 26 I mean, I don't know if they think that they're going to get some type of slap on the back and a good job, boys, because you came in under the $450 million estimate.

Speaker 26 But we all know that but for a very smart federal judge putting this shit to an end, it would have kept on going and that bill would have kept on getting higher and higher.

Speaker 12 So where did the money go? Because clearly there was no RFPs. They didn't put it out to bid to get the best deal for these services.
Did they just go right to their donor list to find people?

Speaker 12 Were some of these sort of shady fly-by-night new companies, like where did the money go?

Speaker 26 Yes, yes, and yes.

Speaker 26 I mean, what do I, I mean, you, can we finish the show now? I mean, you solved the mystery. It's like, we don't need Scooby-Doo anymore.

Speaker 26 I mean, right now we know that people that were giving money, people that started businesses just a month before Alligator Alcatraz was launched, businesses that are offshoots from those that have had litigation issues, criminal investigations, because they were giving money to the DeSantis campaign, to James Utmeyer, the current Florida Attorney General.

Speaker 26 Those companies, because of this pay to play scheme, were able to make money off of all of us as Florida taxpayers. And the thing is, a dollar is a dollar.

Speaker 26 A dollar doesn't know a political political affiliation unless it's being used in a pay-to-play scheme.

Speaker 12 Let's talk about this headline of the Miami Herald. Alligator Alcatraz contractors have links to allegations of fraud and price gouging.

Speaker 12 Who vetted these?

Speaker 19 What is this?

Speaker 25 I really hold out hope that they were angels on earth.

Speaker 15 I really held out hope that they had integrity.

Speaker 12 Oh, you mean the people that helped open up the concentration camp?

Speaker 15 Yeah, I just want, you know, benefit of the doubt. I'm kidding, obviously.

Speaker 12 Who the hell are these people? Who are these companies, Katie?

Speaker 26 So these are companies like ARS. So let's kind of like tick, tick, tick off of ARS, right? So ARS is Access Restoration Services, Billy.

Speaker 26 And in 2022, this is why I'm saying that this grift began before DeSantis declared his bullshit emergency concerning, quote, unauthorized illegal immigrants flooding our state.

Speaker 26 ARS began giving money as far back as 2022. So we know that it started with at least 100 grand back in 2022, and now it keeps on graduating every year with a 50 grand more.

Speaker 26 And all in, so far, we've seen more than $400,000 given by ARS to Republican officials here in the state of Florida.

Speaker 26 But then you get this offshoot company from ARS called IRG, which was launched in February of this year. IRG has also been giving money as well.

Speaker 26 But when we talk about the kind of quid, the pro and the quo here, the quo is pretty pretty hefty.

Speaker 26 We're talking tens of millions of dollars of contracts and purchase orders that are inuring to the benefit of these companies like ARS and IRG. They are so brazenly obvious.

Speaker 26 You do not have to scratch the surface in any capacity to be able to see that the money flow is a very direct, let me help you, you help me energy.

Speaker 26 And the thing that's crazy about this is you should have a vetting process.

Speaker 26 Any objective procedure would be able to weed out people that have litigation over ripping off law firms and employees, people that have been investigated for the commission of fraud.

Speaker 26 Those are people that should not be receiving tens of millions of dollars from our Florida taxpaying coffers. And yet DeSantis doesn't give a f.

Speaker 26 He doesn't care, especially because he's on his way out.

Speaker 26 So for him, he's like, look, if you're going to sit here and make me look good for my dear Furur, the cult, you know, the cult leader convicted felon Donald Trump, he's all in and then some.

Speaker 9 Nazis are his face.

Speaker 12 And these are not like incidental contracts either. This is big money like this company.

Speaker 25 Questions are swirling about the mysterious local company being paid $78.5 million to staff Alligator Alcatraz.

Speaker 23 Critical Response Strategies took down its leadership page sometime after May 13th.

Speaker 25 But using an online tool called the Wayback Machine, Action News Jax was able to track down its leadership team.

Speaker 25 Among them, local businessman Will Adkins, former Duval Emergency Director and current JFRD Lieutenant Todd Smith, and former GOP Michigan gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon.

Speaker 25 Matthew Fenner is listed as the manager of CRS.

Speaker 23 Fenner is also the CFO of Kaplan Ventures.

Speaker 25 The contract between CRS and the state was pulled down off the Florida Department of Financial Services website within the last 24 hours.

Speaker 25 Action News Jax was able to find more than $86,000 in campaign donations associated with Kaplan Ventures CEO, Ricky Kaplan, made to political committees and campaign accounts tied to Governor Ron DeSantis.

Speaker 12 To your point, Katie, not only would you hope that there would be open and transparent bidding process and vetting of the competency and legitimacy of these companies, but now you have a company clearly made up of a bunch of insiders, some former government officials, a former Republican gubernatorial candidate

Speaker 12 in another state, obviously donors of DeSantis or his PACs or the Florida Republican Party.

Speaker 12 But also this lack of transparency once these contracts to the tune of $78.5 million have been signed. Material like disappearing, people's LinkedIns being switched to private, all this crazy shit.

Speaker 12 Like, is this legal actually to sign a $78 million contract with the state of Florida for our taxpayer dollars and then to like make it disappear?

Speaker 26 Which part? Make the people disappear? Make the money disappear? I mean, make your information disappear? Listen,

Speaker 12 at this point, the human rights violations are almost incidental to this just craven, cynical, like grift and robbery that went on here.

Speaker 26 Yeah, listen, the due process civil rights violations, that's just icing on the fascist cake for these people, right? Like they don't care. And let me be very clear.
When y'all were going through that

Speaker 26 video right now, there seemed to be a whole lot of white people that were involved in that company. I just want you to know from what I could tell, unless my video screen was doing me dirty.

Speaker 26 Here's the thing. When you have the ability to negotiate on a contract and that gets signed, it's binding, right?

Speaker 26 So if the state enters into this contract and they have to pay this company CRS $78.5 $78.5 million, they have to. Now, there's no quality control though.

Speaker 26 So putting aside that there's no objectivity and being able to vet whether or not you have competent vendors that are providing a service, when they're actually doing it, nobody's quality control or checking to see whether or not they're actually doing what they're supposed to be doing because nobody cares by that point.

Speaker 26 When the money has been delivered, it's done. It's out the door.
And the thing is, in order to have a kind of clean, forward-facing look, you end up having good press. You end up having good comms.

Speaker 26 You end up hiring people like Ballard Partners, like that other company.

Speaker 18 Are we name checking? Are we name checking them?

Speaker 26 We're going to name check like a bitch.

Speaker 26 ARS hired Ballard Partners and Ballard Partners has been paid $193,000 last year alone. Ballard Partners hiring a whole bunch of former DeSantis people and they're lobbying hard for these companies.

Speaker 26 We're in Tallahassee and others, right? I mean, it's not just this one-way kind of energy. It's the total, you scratch my back, I scratch yours.

Speaker 26 And hey, by the way, we'll have a whole whole back scratching orgy going on with everybody helping everybody out, but it all costs money to enter the game.

Speaker 12 So it goes both ways, but enough about Andrew Gillum. So the Katie, I.

Speaker 17 Lord.

Speaker 12 Sorry.

Speaker 12 Hey.

Speaker 9 We can say that now.

Speaker 19 Back scratching orgy.

Speaker 7 Back scratching orgy. That's what we talk about.

Speaker 12 Another thing I've been saying for many, many years in this program, even before the state started building concentration camps in the middle of the swamp with stolen land, incidentally, from Iamme-Dade County.

Speaker 12 I've been talking about this kind of quarter of a century mission by the Republicans, really starting with Jeb Bush. Police clap.
To privatize, subsidize, and brutalize.

Speaker 12 It started with the education system and has continued into almost every facet, including now obviously prisons and law enforcement.

Speaker 12 But you privatize businesses and services that were ordinarily done by the government. You subsidize them, of course, with our tax dollars.
And then you brutalize.

Speaker 12 Well, how do you brutalize a lack of transparency? Because a private entity is not subject to public records laws under the state.

Speaker 12 So now that a government entity isn't doing it, they don't have to be transparent. They don't have to necessarily have the kind of hiring standards.

Speaker 12 I mean, this is why you have to see a lot of charter schools getting shut down because they have literal child molesters being hired at their schools.

Speaker 12 And brutalize, in this case, now that we have concentration camps in the great state of Florida, literally brutalizing people and violating countless of their constitutional rights.

Speaker 12 And somebody could have helped stop this. And I want to talk about that before we go.

Speaker 12 Katie, after this judge, this federal judge made the decision to shut down Alligator Alcatraz, Miami-Dade Mayor Danielle Levine-Fifa, I'm sorry, Danielle Levine Cava, had this to say out front of the concentration camp.

Speaker 15 I'm here at Alligator Alcatraz, and we are uplifting the courageous decision of Judge Williams from yesterday that orders the state and the federal government to bring no new detainees and to shut it down within 60 days.

Speaker 15 I'm so grateful. I've been grateful to the judge for being so diligent, recognizing the threats to our beautiful natural environment.

Speaker 15 I'm so grateful to the Miccosukee tribe who always fought for this area.

Speaker 15 And I'm grateful to all of the advocates and activists who've called attention to these issues, not only to the environment, but to the humanity. So thank you.
Thank you, everyone, for your advocacy.

Speaker 27 Stop this, stop this, stop this, stop this.

Speaker 12 I'm sorry, Katie, I'm no lawyer. You are.
Is it me or was Danielle Levine Cava, who is the CEO of Miami-Dade County, a defendant on the opposite side of this lawsuit?

Speaker 12 What am I missing here that she's out here celebrating that she lost the lawsuit? What is happening?

Speaker 26 Yeah, so that's what's so wackadoo about that social media clip there. So the Friends of the Everglades, the Center for Biological Diversity,

Speaker 26 they were the original lawsuit that was brought against not only the DeSantis administration, but the Trump administration for the construction and the operation of Alligator Alcatraz.

Speaker 26 And a lot of people, Billy, poo-pooed this lawsuit initially because they were like, oh, it's about the environment. No one cares.
Well, a lot of us care.

Speaker 26 And a lot of us, including the federal judge, Kathleen Williams, said, no, no, no. And that is the case that ended up having Alligator Alcatraz shut down and dismantled.

Speaker 26 In that lawsuit, though, there was an additional defendant, Miami-Dade County. And the mayor, Daniela Levine Cava, was adverse.

Speaker 26 She was on the opposite side of this case, of the litigation, from the Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity. So what's absurd is, and let me be very clear.

Speaker 26 As a lawyer, you advocate for your client. And Miami-Dade County has the entire office of the county attorney's office to be able to handle its litigation.

Speaker 26 When you're sued, you have to respond or else you're defaulted, meaning that the court will say, yeah, you didn't respond. I guess that means you don't want to fight it.

Speaker 26 So we'll just tag you for whatever the hell happens. But Miami-Dade County fought against the plaintiffs in that case.
actively.

Speaker 26 They went so far as to oppose the idea of entering an injunction, meaning a block against alligator Alcatraz.

Speaker 26 Dade County was on the side of DeSantis and the Trump administration to allow them to continue to put stuff up, erect new buildings, put more shit that's damaging our ecological system out there in Big Cypress.

Speaker 26 And yes, inhumane civil rights and due process violations. That is the side that the Miami-Dade County was on.

Speaker 26 And what's astounding to me, Billy, is that the mayor could have, on behalf of Miami-Dade County, instituted litigation before anybody else did because the county, you, me, others that are a part of Miami-Dade County, the county owns that land, that parcel of land that they put Alligator Alcatraz on.

Speaker 26 But instead of suing the Trump administration or the DeSantis administration, ostensibly because there was this issue of trying to get your budget approved by the go by the state government there was no litigation that was commenced so I want to take it and I want to compare it to the following if you're living in your house and DeSantis comes knocking on your door and tells you that he's going to erect a gigantic dog cage on your front lawn where all of the filth the waste the shit and the piss is going to run off basically into your house that the people that are going to be put into there are not going to be fed they're not going to be housed.

Speaker 26 They're not going to be able to take a shower. They're not going to be able to have access to counsel.
They're not going to be able to see their loved ones.

Speaker 26 They're going to be eating food with maggots. And you're just going to sit there and let DeSantis put that cage on your front lawn.
You're not going to take action. That's exactly what the mayor did.

Speaker 26 She could have taken action on behalf of the county. And let's be very clear here.

Speaker 26 Even if the futility of that litigation may have been very evident, you still fing do it because you do not allow this to be the stain on your legacy.

Speaker 26 If you are the mayor of the place that technically owns that land. And I don't want to hear about DeSantis' emergency powers because we all know that that's a crock of shit.

Speaker 12 Danielle Levine Cava, mayor of Miami-Dade, was on the wrong side of this case. She's on the wrong side of history.

Speaker 12 And just the cynicism of her coming out to celebrate a victory that was not only somebody else's victory, but that she was fighting against is just absolutely.

Speaker 18 Politicians do that all the time.

Speaker 12 But this is next level because she had an opportunity.

Speaker 12 She had more standing, arguably, than any of the other plaintiffs in the now three, at least three lawsuits against the state and the feds over Alligator Alcatraz.

Speaker 15 Also the nerve to call it, what, a courageous decision. Courageous.

Speaker 15 It's like if you turn the audio off, she looks like an influencer who's telling her followers to come to Alligator Alcatraz, this hot news spot that she found.

Speaker 15 She flip-flops more than a chocleta.

Speaker 20 Yeah. Hashtag Because Miami.

Speaker 12 Katie Fang News is her channel on YouTube. It's fabulous.
Follow her. Katie, come back and see us sometime.
We'll talk more concentration camp talk here on Because Miami.

Speaker 26 I just want to make clear that the Kagle is not a Kugel, even though, Billy, you may be excited for that.

Speaker 15 And I just did a quibby.

Speaker 12 Yeah, I like

Speaker 12 my Kaggles with cream cheese.

Speaker 15 It's a classic New York breakfast.

Speaker 28 This episode is supported by FX's The Lowdown, starring Ethan Hawk.

Speaker 22 Allow us to introduce you to Lee Raybon, a quirky journalist/slash rare bookstore owner/slash unofficial truth seeker who's always on the tail of his latest conspiracy.

Speaker 28 This time, his most recent expose puts him head to head with a powerful family that rules Tulsa. Meaning only one thing, he must be onto something big.
FX's The Lowdown premieres September 23rd on FX.

Speaker 28 Stream on Hulu.

Speaker 5 Hey, listeners, it's Mike. Hey, Billy Gill.

Speaker 7 Hey.

Speaker 5 Hey, Billy, as a proud member of your inner circle, remember when we were hanging out last weekend?

Speaker 6 Oh, yeah, fishtail palms.

Speaker 5 The fishtail palms, the great memories we made, kids playing in the pool, and in our hands, a nice ice-cold can of Miller Light.

Speaker 7 It was so hot out.

Speaker 5 I know, but it was so cold in my hand.

Speaker 4 We took that first sip. It was crisp.
It was refreshing.

Speaker 5 Oh, man, there is nothing like cracking open a Miller light with your crew and your inner circle bones. Hell yeah.
We fist bumped.

Speaker 7 Whether it's we actually really did. Whether it's that touchdown.

Speaker 5 It didn't make a sound, but it just thought BAM!

Speaker 17 Boom.

Speaker 5 Whether it's that touchdown you didn't see coming or just arguing about fantasy lineups, you and I did plenty of that.

Speaker 4 Miller Light has been the taste that you can depend on for 50 years.

Speaker 5 Brewed for flavor with simple ingredients, rich toffee notes, and that iconic golden color. And here's a kicker, Billy.

Speaker 7 What? It's just 96 calories.

Speaker 5 What?

Speaker 7 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.

Speaker 5 The original light beer since 1975 and still hitting different five decades later.

Speaker 30 Miller Light, great taste, 96 calories.

Speaker 5 Go to millerlight.com/slash dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Light pretty much anywhere they sell beer. It's Miller time.
Celebrate responsibly.

Speaker 5 Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.

Speaker 3 In Florida, rainbow crosswalks are being removed, including outside Orlando's Pulse Nightclub, honoring the 49 people gunned down in the 2016 mass shooting, targeting the LGBTQ community.

Speaker 3 The Florida Department of Transportation, the same agency that first painted the art, erased it.

Speaker 32 Three protesters were arrested outside the Pulse nightclub over the weekend. The Florida Highway Patrol accused them of defacing a traffic device by covering the crosswalk with colored chalk.

Speaker 32 Orlando police and state troopers have been stationed there since last weekend.

Speaker 26 In the last week, Key West, Tampa, and Tallahassee have received similar requests from FDOT. Delray Beach Mayor Rob Long called the move political.

Speaker 3 This crosswalk on famed Ocean Drive in Miami Beach could soon disappear.

Speaker 3 Florida says it's following a new federal directive from the Trump administration to keep crosswalks and intersections free from distractions.

Speaker 12 I hit the wrong cart right out of the gate.

Speaker 17 Good job, Joe.

Speaker 20 The crosswalks are making us gay. The crosswalks are making us gay.
The crosswalks are making making us gay.

Speaker 12 I don't know. I'm having strange urges just having crossed the street, Brittany Brave.

Speaker 15 How about you? I was looking at those rainbow crosswalks, and I suddenly had this huge urge to eat.

Speaker 15 It was crazy.

Speaker 9 We can see that now.

Speaker 12 Oh, my God. Holy shit.
Guess Britney Brave is here, folks,

Speaker 12 in case you forgot.

Speaker 9 What if you jaywalk?

Speaker 31 What happens then?

Speaker 21 I think that's it. You're trans.

Speaker 9 I think you're.

Speaker 12 I think you're, it's called, yeah, you're, it's called gay walking, first of all, yeah.

Speaker 19 Not jaywalking.

Speaker 7 And you, you get a ticket for that. And

Speaker 12 it falls right off.

Speaker 18 You're just, you're trans.

Speaker 18 Exactly.

Speaker 19 Exactly.

Speaker 12 Florida's square dance into fascism continues. And Anne Escamani is a Florida state rep.

Speaker 12 She is a candidate for city of Orlando mayor, which has kind of become ground zero in a way for this controversy that is engulfing the entire state of Florida.

Speaker 12 But what's happening in Orlando, of course, is it was a memorial for the victims of the Pulse mass shooting.

Speaker 9 Very traumatizing.

Speaker 12 Approved, of course, by the Florida Department of Transportation. This was not some random protest or unpermitted act.
This was something that was done in conjunction with the state as a memorial.

Speaker 12 It has now been

Speaker 12 covered over and then repainted by protesters and then covered over and repainted with chalk by protesters. And now they've been arrested

Speaker 12 some of these folks and now they have guards, like eight troopers, state troopers, making sure that nobody, God forbid.

Speaker 12 Representative Escamani, let me just ask you this. Where does this rank as far as the issues facing the people of Florida right now?

Speaker 12 Is this top 10, top five, top three, top 50?

Speaker 12 Where does this rank as the issues that matter most to your constituents and us Floridians?

Speaker 26 I mean, before DeSantis made all the shitty decisions around it, nobody talked about it.

Speaker 26 I mean, The Crosswalk was, as you mentioned, originally established with support of FDOT as a spark of joy as a as a piece of art to add on to what will be a permanent memorial at the pulse site and of course nobody talked about it until the state erased it and what what point i i want to emphasize this point because it wasn't just erased it was erased in the middle of the night with no warning

Speaker 26 we woke up the next day realizing it was gone until literally the state of florida with didn't even tell us they just snuck in and that was the first crosswalk they decided to erase.

Speaker 26 I mean, it's just absurd.

Speaker 26 And obviously, I also have to argue that it was timed out because the night they did it, the next morning was when we were all expecting the court decision to come out about the so-called Aligarh Alcatraz.

Speaker 26 It was that same Thursday when we woke up to this news. So, I mean, the DeSantis administration, they're so insidious.

Speaker 26 It's always about optics for them and timing communications to distract from their losses. Just like the most recent announcement about vaccines, right?

Speaker 26 I mean, they just, they're always coming up with ways to deflect and distract. And this was one of those examples.

Speaker 24 Why do they always do this? Why do they always do it under the cover at night and at midnight, do these stupid, ridiculous things?

Speaker 15 It almost kind of sounds like they're really terrified of these gays and these allies. They're like, oh, we're going to do this in the middle of the night.

Speaker 20 The crossbows are making us gay.

Speaker 15 Yeah, so a drag queen doesn't come out with a stiletto and beat the shit out of me.

Speaker 26 It's funny you say that because when I was, I was out, I've been out there a lot of days, right? With the activists, with the protesters and with all these FHP troopers. And we're just like, y'all,

Speaker 26 we are basically a bunch of gays and girls holding chalk and clack fans. Like we are not dangerous.

Speaker 9 And yet.

Speaker 26 They have this army of folks waiting for us. I mean, it's just so silly.

Speaker 15 Well, it's funny because we continue to target a movement, the LGBTQ movement, that is literally based on love and acceptance and equality and showing up exactly as you are.

Speaker 15 And DeSantis and the administration is terrifying.

Speaker 12 You use the term erase, and I know you did that on purpose.

Speaker 12 They came out in the middle of the night and erased this memorial, not just a sidewalk chalk or paint on the ground, this work of art, this memorial designed and approved for a very specific purpose.

Speaker 12 Because, I mean, speaking of erasure, I mean, 49 people, am I right, were slaughtered in what was very deliberately a targeted attack, a hate crime against the LGBTQ plus community there in Orlando at the Pulse nightclub, but they're talking about this under the guise, the state is, of safety.

Speaker 12 This is what they're saying. So, because this is going to make it, because these are distractions is what's happening here.

Speaker 26 So silly.

Speaker 15 Yeah.

Speaker 26 I mean, the data speaks for itself that decorative crosswalks increase public safety. It helps remind drivers that people walk here.
And so you look out for them more proactively.

Speaker 26 It also increases walkability in general, because if you are expecting to encourage someone to walk in the hot sun upwards of a mile, if not more, to get from point A to point C with the B as the walk in the middle, then you have to give them interesting things to look at, interesting things to see.

Speaker 26 And these decorative crosswalks have played a part in supporting local artists and increasing safety, but also increasing walkability, which apparently all these maha folks I thought wanted more people to exercise and walk.

Speaker 26 And so at the end of the day, this was only about politics and it is about an eraser eraser because the state of Florida has shown itself time and time again.

Speaker 26 Governor Ron DeSantis has already demonstrated a deep disdain for people who are different from him. And

Speaker 26 he has pushed for policies that erase queer people from literature, that

Speaker 26 restrict access to health care, that allow medical providers to deny you access to care if you are gay.

Speaker 15 I can't wait for the day that this man inevitably comes out of the closet.

Speaker 17 Can we all agree?

Speaker 15 Was his wife.

Speaker 19 Hang on. Remember, he had those rain boots, so you don't have to do that.

Speaker 26 That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 9 I mean, remember the don't say gay bill?

Speaker 15 My first time when I heard about the don't say gay bill, I was like, this is pretty gay, not to be a middle schooler.

Speaker 23 Like, he's projecting.

Speaker 12 It's some closet case kind of shit.

Speaker 18 I definitely think so.

Speaker 12 But you said that there is evidence that painted crosswalks actually make these intersections safer.

Speaker 12 From 2022, a Bloomberg philanthropy study found that there is a 50% drop in crashes involving pedestrians or cyclists in the U.S.

Speaker 12 and a 27% increase in drivers yielding to pedestrians in areas where asphalt was installed. So 50% fewer crashes.
That's not incidental. No.

Speaker 12 I mean, there's a lot of your fellow politicians who would be thrilled to win an election with 50%

Speaker 12 of a vote. I mean, that's a pretty overwhelming...
I mean,

Speaker 12 that increases public. That's like off the charts.

Speaker 15 Yeah, but Billy, what you're forgetting is the very important and legitimate statistic that rainbow crosswalks also increase desires for homosexual makeout sessions by 120%.

Speaker 15 Obviously, that's the statistic.

Speaker 19 Don't forget to mid-stat.

Speaker 15 I mean, I'm looking at her beautiful earrings and all the rainbow colors. I'm having feelings right now, not to make it inappropriate, but it's not simple to say.

Speaker 12 No, they need to stop this because they want to stop people getting rear-ended at these intersections.

Speaker 17 Exactly.

Speaker 19 Oh, no, no.

Speaker 9 We can say that now.

Speaker 20 The crosswalks are making us gay. The crosswalks are making us gay.

Speaker 15 So also a great snippet from Lady Gaga's new house.

Speaker 12 Also, in terms of public safety here, how many armed guards are there now at this intersection?

Speaker 9 Guarding a crosswalk.

Speaker 12 Stopping people from sidewalk chalking National Guard. What is happening right now?

Speaker 26 I mean, I have to tell you, there's been some really important commentary around the police presence because there was not ever this much police when it was a gay club to protect those who were celebrating and to protect those.

Speaker 26 Right.

Speaker 26 And so there's, it's just such a sad contrast of all the resources to protect a crosswalk from being chalked compared to no resources to protect LGBTQ plus people who are overtly targeted for who they are and who they love at places like nightclubs.

Speaker 26 So it's been sick to see.

Speaker 15 I wonder what's going to be more dangerous in our classrooms for our kids at this point, guns or crayons?

Speaker 12 Well, we have to get the AR-15s into classrooms and those vaccines out of the classrooms is what we really need to do

Speaker 12 here in Florida. Good news, they're not just trying to erase the LGBTQ plus community, they're also doing this.

Speaker 33 Two pastors were arrested by St. Pete police and are charged with obstruction and hindering traffic.

Speaker 33 Reverends Andy Oliver and Benedict Atherton Zeman learned F-DOT crews were targeting the Black History Matter street mural in front of the Woodson African American Museum in St. Pete.

Speaker 33 They arrived and began to pray on top of it.

Speaker 34 Part of my vows that I took as

Speaker 34 part of my ordination and my baptism is to resist evil, injustice, and oppression.

Speaker 6 We have the values of interdependence, of love, and I really couldn't just stand on the sidelines. I had to kneel in the street.

Speaker 15 Can I say something? Please. Those two mugshots of those two pastors, the one on the left, well, the one on the right looks like the one on the left after an episode of Queer Eye.
Can we just agree?

Speaker 15 I mean, his hair is jellyfish.

Speaker 23 Oh, yeah, look at that.

Speaker 15 Right? Like, I thought that was like the same man who just like had a glow up in prison

Speaker 15 because he got rear-ended.

Speaker 7 Oh, no.

Speaker 9 Oh, no.

Speaker 17 We didn't say that now.

Speaker 21 They're coming all over the place.

Speaker 19 Representative.

Speaker 19 What, what, what, why, why?

Speaker 12 What are we doing? And this is in front of like a black history museum. This wasn't just a random street that they just kind of threw this mural on.
Everything's kind of thematically appropriate here.

Speaker 12 Like, you know, South Beach, we have one, which is like probably one of the most gay-friendly communities historically in the world. And what else do we have to make disappear now?

Speaker 12 Other than children and their vaccines.

Speaker 15 I think women are next. I think it's over for us, I think.

Speaker 12 Well, that was a long time ago.

Speaker 26 Yeah, that was predestined when they

Speaker 12 got rid of that. That ship sailed.

Speaker 9 That's true.

Speaker 26 Yeah, when they banned abortion in Florida. I mean, I think, first of all, like much love and gratitude to our faith leaders who are showing up in solidarity.

Speaker 26 Reverend Andy in particular, I've known him for a long time. And I think this is a space for more faith leaders to step up, whether it's on immigration, whether it's on inclusivity and so forth.

Speaker 26 So I'm grateful for the leadership on that. But I also want to acknowledge that the DeSantis administration, their intention is to erase

Speaker 26 communities and topics they don't like. But because of First Amendment concerns, they have to remove all the decorative artwork, right? Because they're trying to avoid accusations of content.

Speaker 26 And so I think it's important to note that their intention is to go after specific content. That's where they're targeting first.
But they are getting rid of local artists and

Speaker 26 in our case of Orlando, Swan murals, you know, all these efforts to beautify our city that we've spent hundreds and thousands, if not millions of dollars on. They are going after that too.

Speaker 26 And it's just, it's a slap in the face to what FDOT used to celebrate. I mean, literally, FDOT gave out an award to Tampa for creative crosswalks for school safety.

Speaker 26 So you have a state agency that has been encouraging us to do this. And of course, Complete 180.
And there was no new law that gave them permission to do this.

Speaker 26 It was a rule change with the Green Book. They did it with no public oversight.
And

Speaker 26 of course, evading legislative oversight has been another MO of the DeSantis administration.

Speaker 12 Before we go, 30 seconds, breaking news this week. DeSantis and our, I mean, I can only describe this as like borderline mass murder.

Speaker 12 The Surgeon General of the State of Florida, Latipo, will end all vaccine mandates in Florida law. Your comment, 30 seconds.

Speaker 26 I think it's important to note not only how extreme this is, but how people with money and insurance will be able to get their children vaccinated.

Speaker 26 And those who don't have those resources are going to be most at risk of not only getting sick and ill, but spreading disease within different communities. And of course, potentially even dying.

Speaker 26 So this is a dangerous precedent, and we have to do everything we can to fight back.

Speaker 12 That's an interesting point.

Speaker 12 Because of no mandate, then that means the insurance companies don't have to provide it.

Speaker 12 So this doesn't just affect parents who don't want their children or choosing in the free state of Florida to not have their children vaccinated.

Speaker 12 Parents who want their children vaccinated may not be able to afford it because insurance won't cover it anymore.

Speaker 26 Yeah, and DOH might not require it, might not provide it for no cost. You know, I grew up in a working-class family in Orlando.

Speaker 26 My mom took us to the Department of Health to get our vaccines at no cost. And so, if you remove the mandate, what's next is not providing them excess at all in our departments of health.

Speaker 26 So, where do those families go?

Speaker 15 The good thing is, though, now that vaccines aren't mandated, we're going to have a lot less gay people because that's what was making people gay from what I heard.

Speaker 12 No,

Speaker 20 the crosswalks are making us gay.

Speaker 31 The crosswalks are making us gay.

Speaker 9 And the crosswalks are making us gay.

Speaker 16 And Eskimani, thank you so much for joining us.

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Speaker 24 But when you think about it, that's already too late. That's reactive.
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Speaker 15 Hi, everyone. It's comedian Brittany Braight.
And some of you may remember that in late 2022, I had the Dolulu idea to make an entire movie about Miami's comedy scene. Movies need help.

Speaker 15 Movies need support. Movies need

Speaker 20 your money.

Speaker 15 Puchacha is basically my love letter to Miami. And if you know anything about me, ill, gross.
I don't do those. Whenever Miami does something, it doesn't exactly do it on a small scale.

Speaker 15 Pitbull could have just been Mr. Kendall, but he decided to be Mr.
Walt Bye. Daddy.
Any donation is appreciated, and I want everybody to see what we call the 305 Magic City.

Speaker 15 And no, that's not code for cocaine. Not always, at least.

Speaker 12 Excuse me just a moment, Brittany.

Speaker 30 The U is back, baby!

Speaker 30 The U is back, baby.

Speaker 19 Don't you clap your hands like that.

Speaker 18 I've been creating a little frickin'.

Speaker 12 I've been holding that in the whole episode. It's a gator chump.

Speaker 17 The U is back, baby.

Speaker 15 Yeah, I hear Tourette's.

Speaker 7 How about them pains?

Speaker 15 Tourette's bad.

Speaker 12 How about them pains, you and your gator. Chomp, Chomp.
You and your gay, the fighting GED.

Speaker 9 I couldn't f ⁇ ing afford UM.

Speaker 15 Come on. Bright futures, baby, had to go to UF.

Speaker 12 Yeah, you know what UM and UF students have in common?

Speaker 12 What? They both got into UF.

Speaker 15 Oh, no. That's not even.
Okay. That's not even.
That's not factually correct.

Speaker 22 You know what?

Speaker 24 The crosswalks are making us Gator.

Speaker 12 You know?

Speaker 7 Oh, no.

Speaker 15 It kind of feels weird to say go Gators because then people might think I'm like.

Speaker 12 No, it's Go Getter because you don't say gay.

Speaker 19 Go getters. Go getters.

Speaker 17 Go getters. Go getters.

Speaker 15 Go getters.

Speaker 15 Go Gators feels weird because then it feels like I'm a fan of Alligator Alcatraz.

Speaker 12 You know what the average UF student gets on their SATs? Drool.

Speaker 15 Cool. That's what they do.
Leave the jokes to the comedians.

Speaker 12 No, these are my Florida dad jokes, is what

Speaker 12 they are.

Speaker 15 Yeah, you wrote them while on bats faults.

Speaker 15 That's why they hit the way they do.

Speaker 12 What a meth.

Speaker 17 Oh, crap. I left that one.

Speaker 19 I have a little bit of a lift.

Speaker 18 I have a little bit of a lift.

Speaker 19 A little bit of a lift.

Speaker 12 Do you know?

Speaker 15 Now you sound like people.

Speaker 7 Do you know why?

Speaker 19 I have a little bit of a list than you.

Speaker 20 A crosswalks are.

Speaker 12 Hey, hey, hey, don't give me that look, Roy.

Speaker 9 Hey, man. We can say that now.

Speaker 12 Also,

Speaker 15 if men in your life start developing a lisp, it's because the crosswalks made them gay and they've been exercising their right for fellatio. Brittany.

Speaker 12 I didn't know you knew Italian.

Speaker 15 Brittany.

Speaker 17 Poquito.

Speaker 12 Brittany or your stripper name, Delulu.

Speaker 12 Can we talk about this Indiegogo? You have been working on this documentary, as it says on your hat. Let me read it aloud.
It says much.

Speaker 12 Exclamation point. It is a noun.
It means

Speaker 12 tiny bitch. You can say that now.
Yes.

Speaker 15 That was one of the first jokes I wrote.

Speaker 12 But enough about Donna Shalala.

Speaker 12 Or enough about David Sampson.

Speaker 15 You're going to have a lot of hate.

Speaker 17 Keep on going.

Speaker 15 You're going to have, I mean, there's going to be dwarf organizations that are going to be coming after you after this episode.

Speaker 17 Dwarf organizations.

Speaker 16 Yeah.

Speaker 18 The lollipop guild. Who's going to protest outside? Quit listening to the

Speaker 12 unions. They're walking off.

Speaker 21 That's it.

Speaker 15 Can't even see them.

Speaker 12 So tell me about this documentary.

Speaker 15 I started it in 2022. I have never made him.
This is my first go at filmmaking.

Speaker 9 My first indie go.

Speaker 15 My first indie go,

Speaker 15 exactly.

Speaker 15 I wanted to capture what was happening in Miami comedy.

Speaker 29 Oh, so it's a short film?

Speaker 15 It's a very short film. Yeah, exactly.
It's a short film. It's documentary style.
There's live stand-up tapings. There's interviews.
There's

Speaker 15 BTS, there's B-roll. And I said, I want to capture something and put my friends in it and make a movie to bring it to the industry if the industry won't come to us.

Speaker 15 And over the last two and a half years, we've been shooting and I have been banging my head in the wall, but we are finally in post-production and we are raising money to get through.

Speaker 12 Congratulations. To get through it, we're done.
I have an interest in the form of documentary filmmaking. And so I think I know what a pain in the ass it is and how much work it is.

Speaker 12 And it is not a surprise to hear three years later, you still, you know, pounding the pavement and working on it in post and in financing. Very, very common.

Speaker 12 But I'm curious, though, because this is what happens when you're doing a dock or a Verite kind of follow-doc style thing and you're trying to document a scene.

Speaker 12 In this case, the comedy scene in Miami, shit changes. So, how has it changed?

Speaker 12 For a while, like Miami comedy scene was not a thing. Like, you couldn't even really say that Miami comedy scene.

Speaker 15 Sure. So,

Speaker 15 the through line, the thing that we're kind of noticing with all this footage, because we do have characters past, present, and future of Miami comedy.

Speaker 15 So, if you follow the comedy scene at all down here in Miami, a lot of familiar faces. Billy's actually in it too.
There's footage of him. I'm in it.

Speaker 15 Yeah, when you did my Big Yikes podcast, we had a comedy. Yeah, yeah.
And I dressed like a Tura and I made Billy sit on an inflatable couch in Broward County.

Speaker 12 She made me slept all the way up to

Speaker 19 unbelievable. I should have been in it.

Speaker 21 Yes, yes. Because I don't know if you know this, but Roy lives in.
Broward!

Speaker 15 Oh, that's embarrassing.

Speaker 17 I'm sorry.

Speaker 15 Come on now. You should fire him.

Speaker 17 Whoa, whoa.

Speaker 18 I need the job. Easy.

Speaker 12 It's going to go scream in the bathroom.

Speaker 17 Exactly. Punch him.
Roy.

Speaker 15 The kind of common denominator that we're finding is that Miami has had a lot of opportunities to have a renaissance with comedy. There's been a lot of booms and then a lot of crashes.

Speaker 15 So, a lot of different moments across the last 10 to 20 years. It's had some heat on it.
We had the South Beach Comedy Festival here at one point.

Speaker 12 It was fun. Super fun.

Speaker 15 I love that. Comedy Central was involved and produced it.
It was Amy Schumer's first big festival look, Joe Rogan's first big festival look.

Speaker 15 And then we kind of watched the momentum go away because of a lot of factors, because Miami will Miami. And because comedy is still a relatively new thing in this very young, vibrant city.

Speaker 15 It's hard to pay attention to jokes when you've just got fat asses clapping. and where? Where? Exactly.
Where?

Speaker 19 See? Where?

Speaker 15 See? You see? Where do you? Where?

Speaker 15 I'm being silenced. You see? Okay.

Speaker 19 I'm sorry.

Speaker 15 Or you have crypto being thrown at you or corrupt business plans being thrown at you or bottles being lit on fire.

Speaker 15 It's not exactly a city that's, it's not conducive conditions for good stand-up comedy.

Speaker 15 And I think that anybody that takes it seriously has found they need to kind of leave at least for a little while to go establish themselves and then can kind of leave leave Miami on the back burner if so.

Speaker 15 So which is what you've done.

Speaker 12 And now you're coming back and you're finishing this documentary. And how do people support it?

Speaker 15 Indiegogo, Muchacha, Britney Brave, Google it. At the top of this year, I got a new executive producer on board, Allie Edwards.
She's a badass.

Speaker 15 She's worked on projects for Netflix and HBO and Paramount Plus.

Speaker 15 And Transparently, two years ago, you and I had drinks and I picked your brain and you were very kind to give me two hours worth of advice.

Speaker 15 And you were like, I don't even know if what you have as a doc, as much as a short, as much as just a special about Miami comedy.

Speaker 15 But you told me to keep shooting with a couple things in mind. And I gave it to Allie at the top of this year.
And I said, am I out of my fing mind? Do I have anything here?

Speaker 15 Is there a story to be told? Should I scrap this? The last thing I want to do is scrap it because I've worked hard on it for the last three years.

Speaker 15 And Allie believed in it. Yeah.
And she said, I think, I think there's a story with you. There's a story with these comedians.

Speaker 15 There's a story with just exploring Miami because people are so perplexed by our wonderful dystopian tropical paradise that we live in.

Speaker 15 And she said, there's something here. And so she's been helping me kind of get this thing across the finish line.

Speaker 15 And we just need a little bit of money to make sure it gets edited and colored and taken care of.

Speaker 12 Go to Instagram at Brittany Brave. You can find the info there or Google Indiegogo Muchacha.
Indiegogo Britney Brave. You will find it.
Brittany, thank you so much for being here. Thank you.

Speaker 12 Before we go, our Miami moment. It is the world premiere this week of the trailer for my new pop doc, which I produced with Dear Gen and Neon, the company that brought you Anora and Parasite.

Speaker 12 They won two Oscars for Best Picture. Remarkable.
It's a really young company. This is a bat shit tale of Florida ferry about a U.S.

Speaker 12 Green Beret war hero who helped plot Operation Gideon, which was dubbed Bay of Piglets by the press.

Speaker 12 It was an epic failed coup to overthrow Nicholas Maduro in Venezuela, and they schemed out of a WeWork in Brickle, of course. Classic.

Speaker 22 Of course. But of course.

Speaker 15 Hashtag Because Miami.

Speaker 12 It will be available September 9th on premium video on demand. So wherever you rent movies digitally, cocaines.

Speaker 28 In May 2020, I was raided by the FBI

Speaker 27 because I planned and executed an operation to invade Venezuela in hopes of liberating 30 million people.

Speaker 7 How'd that go?

Speaker 27 No subueno.

Speaker 16 The self-proclaimed architect of an infiltration into Venezuela, Florida, contractor and ex-Green Beret, Jordan Goudreau.

Speaker 27 Everybody and their mom was trying to liberate Venezuela back then.

Speaker 35 We are fighting for 23 years.

Speaker 4 Jordan made statements that he was in direct contact with people within the administration.

Speaker 9 Hola, I'm Mike Pence.

Speaker 32 We discussed the nature of the operation and I was going to catalyze change of government in Venezuela.

Speaker 12 I had the military in place. All we needed to do was coordinate.
I figured, you know what? I'm good to go.

Speaker 35 Really?

Speaker 32 You decided you're going to save the country?

Speaker 27 Venezuela is an extremely resource-rich country.

Speaker 12 Let's suppose that we are interested in that.

Speaker 27 It was the first business contract I ever signed.

Speaker 1 So the contract was for $212 million.

Speaker 20 Who's paying for that?

Speaker 25 I didn't ask.

Speaker 34 There had been camps set up with training going on.

Speaker 27 I'm a man of my word. And if I say I'm going to invade a country, that's typically what I do.

Speaker 35 Who is him to even give an opinion? Stick at it.

Speaker 11 There was no U.S. government involvement in this operation.
If we'd have been involved, it would have gone differently.

Speaker 27 When those guys are in jail, it's like a knife in my heart.

Speaker 11 I don't know if we have one foot in reality and one foot in delusion. We checked the earth, and that was red flag after red flag.

Speaker 3 It wasn't in their best interest to liberate Venezuela.

Speaker 26 This is like Firefest the Army.

Speaker 14 This had no chance of working.

Speaker 27 I still have the element of surprise.

Speaker 20 His name was on TV.

Speaker 35 The contract was on TV.

Speaker 21 Was I in over my head?

Speaker 7 Yeah.

Speaker 29 But I'm always in over my head.

Speaker 27 I'm in the over-your-head business.

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