Author: opinionstogo

* Amid widespread allegations of electoral fraud, Nicolas Maduro has begun his third term as Venezuela’s president. He was sworn in as the U.S., U.K. and the European Union imposed new sanctions. A collapsing economy has resulted in the exodus of nearly 8 million Venezuelans over the last decade.

* Speaking of Venezuela, special mission envoy Richard Grenell visited Caracas and met with Maduro to urge him to take back deported migrants who are criminals and release several imprisoned Americans.

* Canada will hold a presidential election in October. “It’s time for a reset,” said PM Justin Trudeau, who announced he will be stepping down after nine years. Polls predict a landslide victory for populist Pierre Pailievre and his Conservative Party.

* Qatar has become a Middle East asset by helping with the Israeli-Hamas cease fire and the prisoner swap with Afghanistan’s Taliban.

* Colombia has refused to allow two planes carrying America-deported migrants to land. Trump then imposed tariffs and sanctions. Game on.

* Thailand is the third place in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage. It joins Taiwan and Nepal.

* Orlando Dreamers: Group that is exploring scenarios to bring Major League Baseball to Orlando. That means either expansion–or relocation, which would involve the Rays.

* Ohio State is national champion in football. In a previous era, it couldn’t have happened. Not when you don’t win your conference (Big 10) or even represent your division in the conference championship.

* Tampa will host the Women’s Final Four in April and college football’s 2029 national championship game.

* An expensive fix of the Tropicana Field roof in time for the 2026 season–soon followed by the Trop’s raising–is beyond problematic. Why not just disassemble what remains of the roof, put in real sod and play for a couple of years in a hurricane-customized, outdoor Trop?

* St. Petersburg City Council has approved spending $3.2 million to repair hurricane-damaged Al Lang Field. No roof helps.

* On the way to the Capitol, it’s customary for the incoming presidential couple to stop by the White House for a tea and coffee reception with their outgoing counterparts. But this wasn’t Bush-Obama. Custom was, however, observed, but can you imagine the awkward small talk among those who don’t like each other? Where do you begin? “Nice hat. Is that you, Melania?”

* Beyond ironic that Trump’s swearing-in was in the Capitol Rotunda, where insurrecting, Trump-supporting “patriotic” punks once roamed and rioted.

* How long before Secretary of State Marco Rubio realizes that Trump is still the “con man” he once labeled him? Just ask Rex Tillerson, who once tried to run Trump’s “Deep State Department.”

* Attorney General Pam Bondi STILL can’t bring herself to admit that Trump lost in 2020.

* The Fraternal Order of Police, which endorsed Trump, condemned his pardon of J6 rioters.

*DOGE: Department of Government Effrontery.

* Trump timing: Trade-war rhetoric with Canada is ratcheting at the same time as Trump is insulting our neighbor to the north with suggestions that it be annexed as the 51^st state. BTW, Canada is the world’s largest national buyer of U.S. goods.

* “Promises made and promises kept.”–White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, on Trump tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China.

* Gulf of Mexico name game. Gulf of America? Gulf of Trump? Gulf of Narcissism? Gulf of Exxon? Gulf of God? Gulf of Golf? Gulf of Grift? Gulf of Tonkin?

* Trump’s nationalistic suggestions for the redrawing of international borders have become a global concern. Foremost among those who are much less concerned: Vladimir Putin.

* Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) said that the controversial, Fox-vetted Pete Hegseth was not only unqualified to be secretary of defense, but would be an easy target for blackmail. And one of Hegseth’s myriad tattoos has become controversial. It is “Deus Vult” or “God will it” in Latin. It’s been around since the Crusades and has been adopted, no surprise, by some white extremist groups. BTW, Mitch McConnell voted against the nomination. VP Vance cast the tie-breaker.

* Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna has filed a bill directing the federal government to add Trump to Mount Rushmore. No, you can’t make this stuff up; it’s Mount RushNoMore.

* No, the Manhattan Project was not Trump Tower.

* Greenland, Iceland, Newfoundland: Could Trump resist a naming rights offer?

* “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”–Thomas Jefferson.

* “Keep the faith in a better day to come.”–President Joe Biden.

* “Do we think we’re entering into a period that sees the return of the law of the strongest? Yes.”–French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot.

* “The canal is and will continue to be Panamanian.”–Jose Raul Mulina, president of Panama.

* “One major secret of dictatorships, from Stalin to Hitler, lies in their ability to provide moralistic dressing for coercion and so transform it into a satisfying experience.”–Albert Speer.

* “When they call the roll in the Senate, the senators do not know whether to answer “present” or ‘guilty.’”–Theodore Roosevelt.

* “Christian nationalists are emboldened like never before.”--Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

* “Donald Trump? He ain’t done nothing wrong to me. He has done only great things for me.”–Snoop Dogg.

* “They need to pay for what they did.”–Trump-pardoned Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio.

* “To be woke is to be aware of oppression and commitment to justice.”–Rev. Bernice King, daughter of MLK.

* “The very fact that Communist China refuses to permit its sale reveals exactly what TikTok is: a Communist spy app.”–Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.

* “A progressive is basically a liberal who’s run some focus groups.”–Bill Cotterell, Tallahassee Democrat.

* “You’re looking at hope. Hope has no price.”—Tampa City Councilman Charlie Miranda, on his support of the Riverwalk expansion.”

* “There’s going to be something fantastic in this location. I just can’t tell you when.”–Justin Greider, VP of the commercial real estate firm JLL, on the future of WestShore Plaza.

 

Back in the (‘90s) day, I was living in Atlanta and doing some work for Americus-based Habitat for Humanity. I had written about HFH, and now I helped out with Jimmy Carter Work Projects. The first one was in Houston. My job was to help with the media who always wanted more time with former president/expert carpenter Jimmy Carter. It was always more time than Carter or the Secret Service preferred, but the benefits of informing others about such projects and the ongoing need for volunteers and donations was a HFH priority.

My first impression of Carter was his genuine politeness and signature smile. Here was a former president who had brokered a Mideast peace and had earned an appreciative and laudatory global reputation for his post-presidential work and advocacy of public health and human rights. He didn’t spend time giving well-compensated speeches.

A couple of moments are especially memorable.

I once accompanied a Secret Service agent to try and coax Carter down from a house roof where he was feverishly working. It was mid-day, mid-summer with uncomfortable Houston humidity, and he was in his mid 70s. We implored him to come down for a hydration break. He did. Eventually. When he had finished.

It was an up-close reminder that he wasn’t using Habitat as a political forum (who doesn’t like sweat equity and volunteerism?), as so many politicians did. He was literally helping to build houses—not a political career. He was genuine. He wanted to help people more than be helped by people. “You’ll get a lot more out of it than you put into it” was his mantra.

Later that day there was a standard, Baptist-tinged ceremony to celebrate a finished house with its new, sweat-equity owners. We all gathered where President Carter would lead the dedication. After a longer-than-usual moment of silence, it was apparent: President Carter wasn’t there.

And then we heard his Southern comfort voice: “Please move that over a little bit to your left. No, a bit more. Perfect. Thank you.” As it turned out he was next door, at a house that only needed landscape touches. It was a reminder of his micromanaging manner, previously seen in the White House. Then he came over and humbly presided and embraced the new owners.

When he recently died at 100, Carter ended an unsurpassed post-presidential era. And how ironic that flags will still be at half mast when Donald Trump is sworn in. Another reminder that we will not see Carter’s kind again. But we shouldn’t give up on finding someone to “Make America Gracious Again.”

 

The role of university presidents has evolved. Gone are the days when they were all career academics. Now they have to work with the regional business community—as well as with impactful politicians. Fund-raising experience is a given. When the politically savvy Betty Castor, who was a player in Tallahassee, became USF president, it was a game changer. Especially for a university without a legislator-producing law school.

* “Envy of the World”: That’s how the Economist recently described the American economy. It also noted that the U.S. “has left other rich countries in the dust.” That’s not how Donald Trump would characterize it.

* A federal appeals court upheld a $5 million verdict against Trump for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll. But, no surprise, his MAGA-base appeal is not impacted by his well-chronicled history of salacious, misogynistic behavior. No more than a track record that includes more than two dozen women having accused Trump of sexual assault.

* Sentencing for Trump’s hush-money case will be Jan. 10. Just part of the countdown to Trump’s Jan. 20, America-shaming inauguration. But no slammer time for Trump–just an ongoing track record of sleazy offenses—jailable if he were anybody else.

 

* Cheers: It’s Wine o’clock, and Ale is well.

* A woman was arrested for trading sex not for money—but for spaghetti dinners. Would that make her a pastatute?

* Gov. Ron DisAstrous has two looks that we’re all too privy to. When he’s smugly smiling about some anti-woke ordinance, he looks like Alfred E. Newman. When he’s squinting and frowning, which is most of the time, he looks like a guy in a crowded elevator, where someone just let go with an SBD (silent but deadly).

* “I don’t believe in the afterlife, but I’m still taking a change of underwear.”–Woody Allen.

* What if UFOs are just billionaires from other planets?

 

* Under Florida law, which Matt Gaetz is probably familiar with, a person who is 24 years old or older who has sex with a person 16 or 17 years of age has committed a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

* Campus pro-Palestinian protests would be more effective and credible if protesters were explicitly anti-Hamas.