Aesop, thank you for the information. Had no idea that Ariel's wife is (Monica Segura) running under her maiden name, maybe not to be associated with the Ariel Fernandez circus.
I am so tired and fed up with the Circus started 3 years ago.
Never, in Coral Gables have we seen what started 3 years ago.
Once again thank you for bringing in more LIGHT for us to see.
Y.O.S.O. might be the most accurate political acronym since “trust me,” which is usually the last thing anyone should do.
What we’re watching right now isn’t governance—it’s the emotional afterparty of an election result that didn’t go as planned. The raised voices, the walkouts, the theatrical indignation—it all has the distinct vibe of people who’ve realized the audience has already left but are determined to finish the performance anyway. The holy water on the dais was a particularly nice touch. When policy arguments fail, escalate to spiritual warfare.
And Ariel continues to be Ariel, which is to say: maximum confidence, minimum calibration. The more uncomfortable the facts get, the more we’re treated to a sermon. It’s almost Pavlovian at this point. Bell rings, speech begins, history gets lightly…remixed. The Reagan quote mishap was perfect—nothing catastrophic, just enough to remind everyone that the performance is doing a lot more work than the substance.
But the part that actually matters—the part that isn’t just entertaining but consequential—is the overlap with his wife’s judicial campaign.
Because here’s where the tone shifts. Judicial races aren’t supposed to be this. They’re built—very intentionally—to sit above the political food fight. Calm, measured, apolitical, insulated from exactly the kind of chaos currently spilling out of City Hall. That’s not a suggestion; it’s the entire premise.
And that creates a fairly obvious tension. On one side, you have a candidate for judge who, by design, has to project independence, restraint, and distance from partisan noise. On the other, you have…this. A spouse operating at full volume in the middle of controversy, headlines, and ongoing political trench warfare.
No one is saying she’s responsible for any of it. That’s not the point. The point is proximity.
Because voters don’t evaluate judicial candidates in a vacuum. They look at judgment, temperament, and—fairly or not—the environment surrounding them. And when that environment feels like a live-action case study in exactly the kind of conduct the judicial code is trying to rise above, it raises questions. Not legal ones—optical ones. Judgment-adjacent ones.
Put more simply: if one half of the household is campaigning on impartiality and restraint, and the other half is out there reenacting Gladiator on the commission dais, it’s not unreasonable for people to wonder how clean that separation really feels in practice.
That doesn’t mean it can’t be done. It just means the margin for error shrinks to about zero.
Which brings us back to Y.O.S.O. Running again might satisfy the ego and extend the show, but it also guarantees more attention, more friction, and more opportunities for things to blur together in ways that are…less than ideal for someone trying to win a judicial seat.
So the real question isn’t whether a campaign would be entertaining—it absolutely would be. The question is whether it’s worth the spillover.
Because at some point, “You Only Serve Once” starts to sound a lot like “You Only Get One Shot at Not Making This More Complicated Than It Needs to Be.”
And based on recent performance, subtlety has not exactly been the guiding principle.
While YOSO is a great concept, let’s not underestimate the stupidity of some voters. Those of us with neural connections must vote. Remember how Joe CaCarollo kept getting re-elected and he still has not paid up the 64 million he owes on a Federal indictment.
If you are going to talk about politics, get it right.
George Washington was IN FACT NOT a Republican nor EVER will be labelled as one.
(FYI, do some reading: he was more neutral and independent than you are suggesting - he did not even believe in political parties and saw it as something that could damage than help this country. Smart man. You should learn something from him.)
This deterred me from wanting to read more of your post.
Thank you !!!! I can tag this excellently written article as rather realistically revealing to the extent your voice was magically imbedded inside Ariel’s cranium as an ethereal “advisor” to be a sensical “dropout” and save himself from sure defeat in November
I too have an “advisor” embedded that has succeeded convincingly for me to register as a candidate for Seat 5; whether the incumbent runs or doesn’t is rather inconsequential as that seat demands a “despojo”……a thorough cleansing where you get to add positives to This Beautiful City of ours thru known and experienced people……and eliminate the sure uncertainty of filling Seat 5 with unknown new faces on a gamble which we cannot afford to take another chance on
Aesop, thank you for the information. Had no idea that Ariel's wife is (Monica Segura) running under her maiden name, maybe not to be associated with the Ariel Fernandez circus.
I am so tired and fed up with the Circus started 3 years ago.
Never, in Coral Gables have we seen what started 3 years ago.
Once again thank you for bringing in more LIGHT for us to see.
Y.O.S.O. might be the most accurate political acronym since “trust me,” which is usually the last thing anyone should do.
What we’re watching right now isn’t governance—it’s the emotional afterparty of an election result that didn’t go as planned. The raised voices, the walkouts, the theatrical indignation—it all has the distinct vibe of people who’ve realized the audience has already left but are determined to finish the performance anyway. The holy water on the dais was a particularly nice touch. When policy arguments fail, escalate to spiritual warfare.
And Ariel continues to be Ariel, which is to say: maximum confidence, minimum calibration. The more uncomfortable the facts get, the more we’re treated to a sermon. It’s almost Pavlovian at this point. Bell rings, speech begins, history gets lightly…remixed. The Reagan quote mishap was perfect—nothing catastrophic, just enough to remind everyone that the performance is doing a lot more work than the substance.
But the part that actually matters—the part that isn’t just entertaining but consequential—is the overlap with his wife’s judicial campaign.
Because here’s where the tone shifts. Judicial races aren’t supposed to be this. They’re built—very intentionally—to sit above the political food fight. Calm, measured, apolitical, insulated from exactly the kind of chaos currently spilling out of City Hall. That’s not a suggestion; it’s the entire premise.
And that creates a fairly obvious tension. On one side, you have a candidate for judge who, by design, has to project independence, restraint, and distance from partisan noise. On the other, you have…this. A spouse operating at full volume in the middle of controversy, headlines, and ongoing political trench warfare.
No one is saying she’s responsible for any of it. That’s not the point. The point is proximity.
Because voters don’t evaluate judicial candidates in a vacuum. They look at judgment, temperament, and—fairly or not—the environment surrounding them. And when that environment feels like a live-action case study in exactly the kind of conduct the judicial code is trying to rise above, it raises questions. Not legal ones—optical ones. Judgment-adjacent ones.
Put more simply: if one half of the household is campaigning on impartiality and restraint, and the other half is out there reenacting Gladiator on the commission dais, it’s not unreasonable for people to wonder how clean that separation really feels in practice.
That doesn’t mean it can’t be done. It just means the margin for error shrinks to about zero.
Which brings us back to Y.O.S.O. Running again might satisfy the ego and extend the show, but it also guarantees more attention, more friction, and more opportunities for things to blur together in ways that are…less than ideal for someone trying to win a judicial seat.
So the real question isn’t whether a campaign would be entertaining—it absolutely would be. The question is whether it’s worth the spillover.
Because at some point, “You Only Serve Once” starts to sound a lot like “You Only Get One Shot at Not Making This More Complicated Than It Needs to Be.”
And based on recent performance, subtlety has not exactly been the guiding principle.
While YOSO is a great concept, let’s not underestimate the stupidity of some voters. Those of us with neural connections must vote. Remember how Joe CaCarollo kept getting re-elected and he still has not paid up the 64 million he owes on a Federal indictment.
If you are going to talk about politics, get it right.
George Washington was IN FACT NOT a Republican nor EVER will be labelled as one.
(FYI, do some reading: he was more neutral and independent than you are suggesting - he did not even believe in political parties and saw it as something that could damage than help this country. Smart man. You should learn something from him.)
This deterred me from wanting to read more of your post.
Damn, you got me. 😔 But he did free the slaves at Gettysburg right?
.. ha ha ha. I did not see this meeting. In my defense, your blog is quite wordy. The whole commission gives me a headache.
Wow. How dense can you be? You clearly didn't understand the joke.
No, you clearly do not understand, and believe in mental gymnastics.
🤦🏻♂️ Good Lord, no.
Thank you !!!! I can tag this excellently written article as rather realistically revealing to the extent your voice was magically imbedded inside Ariel’s cranium as an ethereal “advisor” to be a sensical “dropout” and save himself from sure defeat in November
I too have an “advisor” embedded that has succeeded convincingly for me to register as a candidate for Seat 5; whether the incumbent runs or doesn’t is rather inconsequential as that seat demands a “despojo”……a thorough cleansing where you get to add positives to This Beautiful City of ours thru known and experienced people……and eliminate the sure uncertainty of filling Seat 5 with unknown new faces on a gamble which we cannot afford to take another chance on