The rape of Miami by Loria and Samson

Rape is a heinous crime. It should never be tolerated. And yet, a group of Miami community “leaders” are allowing the owners of the Miami Marlins to get away with it.

There are also their enablers that include certain mayors and commissioners from Miami and Miami-Dade.

It’s a long story I’ve told before. Let me summarize it quickly. The Marlins baseball team wanted a new stadium. They went to the county commission and hoodwinked them into buying the Marlins the structure that now sits in the old Orange Bowl site. We (as in taxpayers) paid more than 500 million dollars to buy the stadium for a rich, greedy owner. Now we have a place that most of us cannot afford to enter.

Sad! as a certain orange-haired buffoon would tweet.

The owner’s name is Jeffrey Loria (left in photo). The man behind Loria who put the deal together for him is his stepson and team president David Samson. Including interest and other costs, our 500 million over a 30 year period will turn into about two billion dollars. It’s money we owe and must pay.

[I guess nobody told members of the city and county commissions that this area is in need of inexpensive rental housing, improvements on the infrastructure — which includes roads and the sewer system — and more money for trivial things such as Jackson Memorial Hospital, our public schools, food for needy children and the elderly, money to fight drug addiction — especially among our youth… There’s more, but I wanted to draw you the picture.]

Most interesting is that these same commissioners who green-lighted the new stadium without even demanding to look at Loria’s and the team’s financial statements are the first to jump up and cry poverty whenever there’s a need for the real important stuff detailed above in italics. Double sad!!

[One more thing I must inject into this situation. Jeffrey Loria will soon leave Miami a billionaire. All made possible by politicians who bought this rich man a stadium thereby doubling — at least — the value of the team which he’s in the process of selling this summer. What do the rightful owners receive? We will get stuck with a 30 year mortgage and an eyesore in Little Havana.]

And still, Loria and Samson want more. And we’re about to give it to them.

Now you see why I cry rape.

Weeks ago Miami hosted Major League Baseball’s All Star game. The commissioners, and other city and the county bigwigs, got their tickets for free. They went and partook of the orgy for millionaires that pro sports has become. Regular people, the real owners of this modern-day temple, those working 9 to 5 jobs for minimum wage, could not fathom spending hundreds of dollars… for just one ticket to this game.

The Marlins contract with the county states that they (the team owners) must pay for off-duty police and fire services for “jewel events,” such as the All-Star Game. But… both Miami and Miami-Dade, in a frenzy, signed an agreement with MLB that committed them to pay for public safety. This was done to assure that the game would be played here. A little integrity would have you believe that the team owners would compensate the city and county for the money spent.

Not these guys, though. Lack of integrity is a better fit for these two. Loria and Samson, not only rapists but also swindlers, refused to pay the almost $2 million owed to police, fire and rescue for their work during the events. Samson told the Miami Herald that “they [the city and county] honored the commitment they made to bring the All-Star Game to Miami.” Samson seems to have forgotten they had a contract with the county for exactly these kind of events.

This act of abuse against the residents of the county leads me to ask several questions. One, why haven’t the county and city gone after the Marlins for money that THEY owe? Two, almost two million dollars being charged by police, fire and rescue? If my estimate done on scratch paper is right the two million turns out to be close to more than $70 an hour in overtime for this personnel. Sounds like I’m in the wrong line of work.

The true story behind the Marlins baseball stadium is still not fully known. But these days, and when talking about so much money (we’re into the billions), who knows what kind of deal Loria and Samson made with some of the community “leaders” who are helping to make Loria a billionaire.

This leads me to ask myself: Who are the true assailants in this case?