Author: opinionstogo

* USF is breaking ground Oct. 18 on its on-campus, 35,000-seat football stadium.

* The name, image and likeness era means the end of major college (revenue-producing) sports as we have known them. University football will look more like MLB farm teams, with signing bonuses into the multi-millions and then de facto free agency for transferring. Athletes as pseudo students majoring in eligibility. And head’s up for all the scandals on their way.

* Florida is the 36^th state to permit high school athletes to benefit financially from name, image and likeness. There’s no turning back.

* UT won its 9^th Division II baseball championship.

* UF won its 3^rd straight NCAA Men’s Outdoor Track & Field Championship.

* USF won the AAC men’s indoor and outdoor track championships this year.

* The Memorial Weekend Sunday game between the Rays and Royals included respectful shout outs to veterans and the singing of the “Star Spangled Banner” and “God Bless America.” The players stood at attention with caps over their hearts. The cameras showed some close-ups. Oops. Regardless of the context, baseball players do what baseball players do. At least one (Royal) had to work in a spit.

* Miami Marlins home crowd for recent game with the Rays: 8,778.

* Congrats to Jesuit High for winning its 7^th (5A) state baseball championship.

* History will provide the ultimate verdict on Trump. MAGA minions and Felon followers won’t matter.

* “Biden’s DOJ was authorized to shoot me (during the Mar-a-Lago raid).”–D. Trump. Not true, however tempting.

* The wild card: When Nikki Haley and her “zombie campaign” pulled in more than 20% of the primary vote in Maryland and Indiana, it should have been a signal to Trump that he could still face more opposition with the Republican Party. Avoiding global humiliation and supporting true country-first priorities could still, seemingly, be a motivator for some GOPsters. Yeah. And now Haley supports Trump. So much for the zombie vote.

* “There’s no backbone in her decision.”–Former Trump White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, on Haley’s support for another Trump presidency.

* Trump says Biden should take a drug test before the debates. Maybe Biden should say Trump ought to take a polygraph test during the debates.

* Veepstakes: Spineless toadies who prioritize their MAGA connection as a Trump prop.

* The Reich Stuff: Political opponents are “vermin,” his enemies should “rot in hell,” and he embraces being a “day one” dictator. So, why would anyone be surprised that Trump worked a “unified Reich” in America reference into a video posted to his social media?

* “You all know I stand by the truth, and if I put my name on something, I truly believe in it.” That was bankruptcy-hammered Rudy Giuliani, who still stands by the avatar of prevarication, in rolling out ads for his personally-branded “Rudy Coffee.” What’s next? “Rudy Steaks?” “Rudy Bibles?” “Rudy Hair Dye?”

* RFK Jr. said that if president, he would appoint a special counsel to examine whether Trump allies were unfairly singled out for prosecution.” Whatever.

* Low-caliber update: The NRA endorses Trump.

* “I violated my moral compass, and I suffered the penalty, as has my family.” Forever frowning Michael Cohen, on his Faustian-deal as Trump’s “fixer.”

* Candid Cohen on Trump: A “boorish cartoon misogynist” and a “Cheeto-dusted” villain who belongs in a “cage.”

* A Trump gag order: Isn’t that an oxyMORON?

* “This ridiculous (hush-money) prosecution is not about justice. It’s all about politics.” That was 2020 election challenger House Speaker Mike Johnson, when he became the highest-ranking GOPster to show up at Court with Donald Trump. He also called the trial a “sham.” But nothing about all the America-diminishing, inherent sleaze that not even the felon’s wife could show up for.

* In a recent USF poll, 17% of respondents said that “the candidate’s personal character and integrity” will be a key determinant of how they vote. Beyond sobering and worrisome when a certain candidate is unethical, immoral, unhinged, misogynistic and a proven pathological liar and fraudster—and for 83% of respondents that’s not a big vote factor.

* “History will remember that Spain, Norway and Ireland decided to award a gold medal to Hamas murderers and rapists.”–Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, on the three countries saying they would recognize a Palestinian State.

* “Geo-economic fragmentation could end in military conflicts, just as it did during the 1930s.”–Barry Poulson, Heartland Institute.

* “The way to defeat Beijing economically is by making America more competitive. This means playing to traditional strengths of innovation, low taxes and regulation, and trade alliances.”–Wall Street Journal.

* “I wish that all Americans would realize that American politics is world politics.”–Theodore Roosevelt.

* “It is now life and not art that requires the willing suspension of disbelief.”–The late literary critic Lionel Trilling.

* A conservative is someone who “clings to something and does not want to see beyond that. … It’s one thing to take tradition into account, to consider situations from the past, but quite another to be closed up inside a dogmatic box.”–Pope Francis, on the conservative backlash against his papacy.

* “There’s been a lot of positive things that have happened. It’s not too late.”–Nobel Prize-winning scientist Terry L. Root, on science ultimately winning out and planet-warming emissions falling.

* “If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are gone, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.”–Carson McCullers.

* “I will not be intimidated.”–Attorney General Merrick Garland.

* “I think (Andrew Warren’s) got an awful lot of support.”–Former Tampa Mayor Sandy Freedman.

* “I’m excited by the progress that’s being made to bring Brightline to Tampa.”–Tampa Mayor Jane Castor.

* “Build on the vibrant atmosphere at Amalie Arena by providing a complementary and unique experience.”–Josh Taube, CEO of Strategic Property Partners, on announcing plans to add an office complex, a mixed-use entertainment destination and a condo tower to the Water Street neighborhood.

* “(Tampa) is a city that has the most diversified employment base in Florida. … We think that the growth that you’re seeing now is nothing what you’re going to see in the next decade.”–Jorge Perez, founder and CEO of the Related Group, the Miami-based developer.

 

Florida’s “intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity” survey on how university students’ political views affect relationships on campus is yet another reminder of the new normal we’re now mired in. It’s a microcosm of our fraught societal landscape. How do we get along with those who have slaked their political thirst with the vile and venomous Kool Aid provided by the Irreverent Donald Trump? Especially when they are family members, friends, neighbors and colleagues.

This isn’t about old-school ideological differences between the business and the middle class. This isn’t the era of Jacob Javits and Margaret Chase Smith. This is about threats to democracy, core values and those too easily duped by the racist ethno-nationalism of a malevolent cult leader.

We’ve all had the encounters. Just don’t double down and make it worse by getting into an ideological fistfight. Simply withdraw respect, move on to other topics or other people and alter the definition of “friendship.”

 

It’s been 25 years since Columbine—and its 13 murdered victims. What have we learned? Alas, that we haven’t learned much.

Guns remain deeply embedded in our culture and self-serving, disingenuous, counter-productive interpretations of the Second Amendment, including assault weapons in non-military or non-police hands, are a rite of passage for too many NRA-venerating GOPsters. The assault on common sense and the tragic Columbine legacy live, so to speak, on. And it hardly helps that Florida AG Ashley Moody has sued the Biden Administration over a federal rule to close a gun-dealer loop hole.

 

Two takeaways from Ron DeSantis’ meeting with Donald Trump:

^He will seemingly try to help Trump’s campaign.

^He will help himself because there’s always 2028, and the MAGA populist wrecking ball will likely still be a surly, anti-woke, nativist factor. Moreover, DeSantis still has that network of donors who don’t see him as “DeSanctimonious.”

 

Pro-Palestinian protests and sit-ins about Israeli overkill would be more credible had they been preceded by public signs of outrage and protest in October when Hamas invaded Israel and murdered babies and horrifically raped and beheaded–and even videotaped–Israelis before retreating with hostages to use Palestinian civilians as de facto shields.

* The Biden campaign is opening its first Florida field office—in Tampa. The Sunshine State isn’t the swing state it used to be—but, with November ballot initiatives in play, it’s looking less red than 2020, when Biden lost Florida by 3%.

* Country over family: “We denounce (RFK Jr.’s) candidacy and believe it to be perilous for our country.”–That was Kerry Kennedy and three other offspring of Robert F. Kennedy in a statement on their brother running for president. “Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgment.” Ouch.

* The Lincoln Project has targeted Arizona and Wisconsin–”Ground Zero for democracy this year” with the launch of the 3-ad Operation RedZone.

* “Let’s call Trump’s words and actions what they are: anti-Latino, anti-immigrant, and anti-American.”–Biden-Harris 2024 Hispanic Media Director Maca Casado.

* “Impeachment should never be used to settle a policy disagreement.”–Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on the conviction-less impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

* Stereotypes are inherently flawed, but it’s better to be demonized as “woke” or naively idealistic than hateful and self-serving.

* Reunion karma: Anyone who has been to a class reunion—many decades in the making, unmaking and remaking—will get it. Not everyone who used to be cool still has that look—from cute to athletic. And a lot of the geeks and nerds no longer look the part. What goes around…

* Techie pick-up line: “Are you Siri? Because you autocomplete me.”

* A fully-loaded, 80,000-pound driverless truck weaving around cars on a highway at 65 mph or more. What could go wrong?

* Whatever happened to the subjunctive mood? At least it hasn’t impacted “Fiddler on the Roof.” It’s not: “If I was a rich man. …”

* The older you get, the more hearing becomes problematic. But no problem hearing weedwackers, motorcycles and Trumpsters. Not fair.

* “Doody Calls.” A port-o-let reminder or a patriotic Trump-rally line?

 

* Looks like the high-speed rail connection between Orlando and Tampa could finally happen. The $25-million Brightline project is estimated to take three years. But perspective matters. This should have happened more than a decade ago when Gov. Rick Scott, R-HCA, turned down more than $2 billion in federal (Obama) money to connect Orlando and Tampa—and ultimately Atlanta. He never even permitted bids—that could have reconciled doubts about “being on the hook.”

* “In America, today, 2024, women have fewer rights than their mothers or their grandmothers had, because of Donald Trump.”–President Joe Biden in his Tampa visit.

* “I’m running for election as state attorney to serve the people—all the people—of Hillsborough County.”–That was twice-elected but gubernatorially-ousted Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren.

* USF reached a record $692 million in research funding last year.

* The Democrats still have about 9,000 more active registered voters than Republicans in Hillsborough County. But the trend is concerning: The Democratic voter registration advantage was about 74,000 in 2020. In Pinellas County, the GOP now has an advantage of more than 32,000 active registered voters.

* USF will be offering an upper-level literature course on Swift: Taylor—not Jonathan.

* Macy Mall: WestShore Plaza will be demolished—except for Macy’s. A mixed-use development will span the 52 acres. There’s no definitive time line yet.

* Forbes’ ranking of the top 25 worst cities to drive in includes three from Florida. Miami: 2^nd; Jacksonville, 16^th; and Tampa: 24^th. The rankings covered four categories: safety, cost of car ownership, access to car maintenance and driving experience.

* The late Senator (and Governor) Bob Graham was known for his “work days.” They included teaching classes at Plant High.