Author: opinionstogo

* The older you get, the more you forget. But you never forget that there’s stuff you can’t remember. Not fair.

* There was a time when “You’re looking good” didn’t mean “for your age.”

* Joe Biden: “We shall overcome.” Donald Trump: “We shall overcomb.”

* Weird how a person who says “I could care less” means the same thing as someone who says “I couldn’t care less.”

* Word Nerds: Acronyms are now a routine and fundamental part of our written and spoken communication—from NATO and NAFTA to SCOTUS and POTUS. Then there’s WOKE, the one that, for a certain some, stands for “Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees.” Do administrations and political campaigns have designated acronym specialists? Is it the Acronym Specialist Syndrome?

* Trump University. Trump Steaks. Trump Sneakers. What’s next? Trump IndictMINTS?

* Starting July 1, Aeromexico will begin offering flights between TIA and Mexico City. The new route is expected to generate some $70 million in economic impact annually for the Tampa Bay region.

* Tampa Union Station is the second-busiest AMTRAK station in Florida.

* The Central development in St. Petersburg will include a hotel that is part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection—and will be the first 4-star hotel downtown since The Vinoy.

* VP speculation for Trump includes Florida GOP Congressman Byron Donalds, 45, an African-American Brooklyn native now based in Naples. He describes himself as a “Trump supporting, gun-owning, liberty-loving, pro-life, politically incorrect black man.” He’s also a Tea Partier who claims that Biden is not the legitimate president of the U.S. He checks a lot of suck-up boxes.

* Speaking of veep speculation, that also includes Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who has formally endorsed Trump for president.

* Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner candidly framed the bottom-line on Spring Break crowd violence. “They’re not staying in hotels; they’re not visiting our businesses.”

* Florida is among the dozen states that have reported measles cases this year. But it’s the only one with a problematic surgeon general who doesn’t agree with the CDC on the appropriate response. SG Joseph LaDOPEo has notified parents that they’ve been granted permission to send unvaccinated children to school amid the outbreak.

* Dire Education: The American Association of University Professors voted to sanction New College of Florida for its imposition of “an aggressively ideological agenda.” Only one other Florida school has ever made the AAUP’s sanction list—Miami Dade College in 2000.

* The age-appropriate teaching of Communism in our schools should mean: its history, its ideals and its fascist realities. Groucho and Karl are not related. It’s not the same as “woke” socialism. Ask Swedes.

* According to the social justice organization Oxfam, it will take 230 years—at current rates—to end poverty, but we could have our first trillionaire within a decade.

* The right to an abortion is now a Constitutional Right, a world-first, in France.

 

* Overall, it was an historically successful season for the USF men’s basketball team, now in its 53^rd season. First national ranking. First regular-season conference championship. A 15-game winning streak. Next hurdle: an NCAA Tournament invite. Last one was in 2012. Go, Bulls.

* Back in the day, legitimate “student-athletes” found free tuition and room and board, pride of university representation and networking benefits sufficient. That was then; this is NIL (name, image, likeness compensation) and transfer-portal roulette.

*The Rays averaged 17,781 fans per game last season. The MBL average: 29,295.

* The Rays are one of four teams to make the playoffs the last five seasons.

* Countries, in order, that produce the most MLB players: USA, Dominican Republic.

 

* At Trump’s Super Tuesday watch party at Mar-a-Lago, Melania was a no-show. So was Stormy.

* Ingratiating himself religiously at a Christian media convention, Trump wondered “How any Christian can vote for a Democrat … how you can vote for a Democrat is crazy.” Obviously, hypocrisy, stupidity and sycophancy are not sins.

* “If I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath.”–More, uh, “hyperbole,” from Trump.

* Trump: “When I did the mug shot in Atlanta … You know who embraced it more than anyone else? The black population.” Who else could insult while campaign pandering?

* The potential danger posed by AI was obvious with a Trump ad artificially showing him surrounded by fake images of smiling black voters. This made as much sense as a Trump ad showing him surrounded by such smiling, fawning supporters such as: Jack Smith, Fani Willis and E. Jean Carroll.

* “When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.”–A Trump duplicitous predecessor, Richard Nixon.

* “The broad mass of a nation … will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one.”–Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf. Still applies.

* Alabama: Embryos are people—and future Republicans: GOPryos.

* Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, chairman of the National Governors Association, leads an initiative called Disagree Better that aims to reduce political divisiveness. He recently met with President Biden. No, it’s not Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan sharing beers, but anything helps an effort to lessen zero-sum political pandering and brawling.

* A big candidate quest: Getting those GOP-leaning moderates disenchanted with Trump. Begged question: Why would a “moderate,” by any definition, have ever been enchanted with Trump in the first place?

* Timing matters: Because of delays, the president-elect—if its Trump—could theoretically be tried and convicted of the most serious felony charges after being elected—but before taking office in January. So, yes, this could get even more chaotic.

* Potential precedent? In 1920, Eugene Debs, Socialist Party candidate, got a million votes while in prison.

* “Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life, as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.”–Booker T. Washington.

* “Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.”–Franklin D. Roosevelt.

* “Our NATO alliance is now stronger, larger than it’s ever been.”–Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on Sweden becoming NATO’s 32^nd member.

* “It is obvious that the use or threat of force cannot be an instrument of foreign policy.”–Mikhail Gorbachev, the world’s most-missed super power leader.

* “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”–Eleanor Roosevelt.

* “The celebrity is a person who is known for his well-knownness.”–Daniel J. Boorstin, former librarian of Congress.

* “Politics has become so expensive that it takes a lot of money even to be defeated.”–Will Rogers.

* “Democrats and Republicans in our community know the obvious: We need more transit and transportation investments. We need them now, and we are willing to pay for them.”–Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera, who chairs the county’s transportation agency.

* “I have got to start building our bench. There is no other way around it. I have teachers who are leaving.”–Hillsborough County Schools Superintendent Van Ayres, in making the case for a special property tax.

 

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Those riveting, rallying words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt defined post-Pearl Harbor America. He was the right president for the perilous time. That was then.

Today such rhetoric would seem naive. Sure, the world is worrisome—from the lethal confrontations in the Middle East and Ukraine to Chinese hackers to pandemic aftermath. But it’s not the visceral, gut fear that comes with a surprise-attack, lost lives and a world war.

This time the ultimate fear is actually a home-grown iteration. It’s seeing the possibility of an existential threat back in the White House, where the ripple effects impact the economy, national security, the Constitution and freedom. American “liberty” and “patriotism” shouldn’t be perverted with a disingenuous, “anti-woke” connotation. But it’s now on the 2024 ballot. This is worthy of real fear.

It’s about having a narcissistic, autocratic, seditious sex offender–one who led the effort to overturn an election and would surround himself with a compliant DOJ and a cabinet of sycophantic, second-rate lapdogs—as an ex-president seeking retribution. It’s about having a criminal defendant-candidate, which should be an oxymoron. It’s about the Oval Office housing “the most flawed person I’ve ever met,” according to former Trump Chief of Staff John Kelly. And it’s about a manifestly flawed system that includes the undemocratic Electoral College and a frighteningly large chunk of the electorate, Morons for a Messiah, living in a misinformation bubble and too easily manipulated by a faux populist cult leader, anxious to preside, according to Chris Christie, over a “vendetta presidency.”

Yes, Trump’s a source of real, tangible fear itself.

It’s all too familiar. America has a killer gun culture.

The most recent horrific example: A lethal shooting at a Kansas City Super Bowl parade. A parade! We’ve seen it happen at movie theaters and parties and entertainment districts. Not hate crimes, just societal misfits, often unsupervised juveniles, bringing a gun to such venues. And then inevitable “disputes” break out. And innocent people die because “packing” for a block party, movie or parade is now a dystopian given for too many.

 

* Older candidate perspective: Occasional, awkward gaffes vs. ongoing, unhinged, unethical chaos.

* Biden’s approval ratings have been heading south. Recall, however, that Trump left office at 34%.

* According to Trump, it’s “Sleepy Joe.” According to the Steele dossier, it’s “Pee Pee Don.”

* Criticism of Vladimir Putin over the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny:

^Biden: “It’s a reflection of who (Putin) is. It cannot be tolerated.”

^Trump: “ ………………….”

* U.S. employers began ‘24 by adding 353,000 jobs in January—roughly twice what economists had been forecasting. The unemployment rate remained at 3.7%, barely above a 50-year low.

* The Commerce Department reported that the economy grew at an annual rate of 3.3% from October through December.

* Data shows inflation falling back to the Federal Reserve’s 2% annual target without a recession.

* “While falling inflation took some time to feed through to consumer sentiment, it appears the good news is finally getting through.”–Oxford Economics analyst Grace Zwemmer.

* Kudlow-down: Fox Business host—and former Trump economic adviser—Larry Kudlow, who had been predicting economic gloom, has now switched to a reality lens. “I was wrong about the slowdown and the recession,” he admits. “I would be bragging about (the economy) too.”

* The unemployment rate for black Americans fell below 5% for the first time in April. For the record, the rate peaked at 16.8% in May 2020. Now it’s 4.7%. You’ll be hearing this again, but probably not from Tim Scott.

* “In America, freedom is not to be given. It is not to be bestowed. It is ours by right.”–VP Kamala Harris, during her “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms” tour. A reminder that having a female vice president is not only historic, it is invaluable with abortion on the ballot.

* As reported on, yes, Fox, year-end reports filed with the Federal Elections Commission show the DNC holding nearly three times the cash on hand reported by the RNC and brought in nearly three times as much fund-raising in the final month of 2023.

* Heads up: Democrats are defending more Senate seats than Republicans in 2024.

* According to Bill O’Reilly, Michelle Obama is “the only one” among Democrats “who could beat” Trump. For the record, the former First Lady has given no sign that she is interested. For the record, that’s an O’Reilly shot at Biden.

* “Border is no longer the province of Republicans.”–Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

* The Biden Administration has set a goal—but not a mandate—to have electric vehicles comprise half of all new vehicles sold by 2030.