Category: National

Here’s something that’s been making the internet rounds–after making a splash on CNBC’s “The Filthy Rich Guide”–and is worth pondering if you’re prone to second guess yourself.

Imagine being Ronald Wayne. Back in 1976, when he was 40, he was the third person in on the founding of Apple Computer. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, the cash-challenged catalysts, were both in their feisty 20s.

From the get-go, Wayne had misgivings about working with the young whirlwinds and the possibility this could all head south. Within two weeks, he sold his 10 percent stake back to the co-founders for $800. Today, that would be worth around $80 billion.

But no regrets, says Wayne, an electronics industry retiree with a net worth of $300,000. “If I had stayed with Apple, I probably would have wound up the richest man in the cemetery.”

Some epitaphs are better than others.

What goes around … .

Shortly after taking office in 2011, the Tea Party-backed Gov. Rick Scott turned down $2.4 billion in federal funding for high-speed rail connecting Orlando and Tampa. Too risky, he said. The Sunshine State would still be on the “hook.” More to the point, no way was he accepting anything, however progressively beneficial and necessary, from the “socialist” administration of Barack Obama.

Fast forward to now. The state will be considering private bids to build a high-speed rail link between Orlando and Tampa. Brightline, the railroad line that connects Miami and West Palm Beach, has already put in a high-profile bid to build track along I-4 to connect Orlando and Tampa.

What’s changed–besides Scott needing to broaden his appeal for his Senate run?

The biggest change is that instead of the Orlando-Tampa megalopolis being already connected–with plans likely in place to push high-speed rail to Atlanta–this area fell farther behind the competition and quality-of-life improvements that meaningful mass transit promised. And modern mass transit, as we all know and most of us acknowledge, has long been the missing link in Tampa’s efforts to realize its smart-growth potential.

But now, eight years later, Scott would have us believe that he held out for better timing and a private-sector savior.

Here’s the reality, lest we forget, courtesy of the Florida DOT. Late in Scott’s first Tea Partying year, the DOT sent a post-facto report to the Federal Railroad Administration with revealing projections on Tampa-to-Orlando ridership and operational costs. The numbers, which were based on findings of two consulting firms–hired by the state of Florida–projected an annual ridership of 5 million and a surplus of $30-million to $45 million within a decade of start-up. The DOT also estimated 3 million passengers and a $4.3 million surplus in the initial year (2016) of operation.

And while we’re trafficking in railroading reminders, let’s not forget that the bidding consortiums back then–all the major global players–were never even given the opportunity to present their building plans. Instead, the “on the hook” mantra and a specious comparison with California trumped everything–including bottom-line input from those who would actually build the line along a shovel-ready corridor.

And speaking of input, the bid winner would have realized a major global marketing coup: It would have been heralded as the one that built America’s first dedicated high-speed rail line. Any chance that winner would have agreed to make up any deficits and overruns to get the contract?

Some things you don’t–and shouldn’t–forget.

Scott will soon be gone from Tallahassee. But the incalculable damage done–from short-term jobs to the long-term development and redevelopment of the Tampa-Orlando axis of synergy has lingered on as part of his con-jobs legacy.

In the best of all possible democratic worlds, party labels for local public office shouldn’t be part of the election equation. It makes sense that ministerial jobs that lend themselves to non-ideological competence should be nonpartisan contests.

But we’re obviously not in the best of all possible democratic worlds. Otherwise, the Donald Trumps and Rick Scotts wouldn’t get elected. Diligence is still due from the electorate. And when it comes to non-presidential years, the turnout can be embarrassingly low, and outcomes can be determined by activists and extremists.

Hillsborough County commissioners have voted to include constitutional offices–clerk, sheriff, property appraiser, tax collector and supervisor of elections–on a referendum ballot that would remove party labels from candidates. All five would be nonpartisan races. The rationale: How relevant is a “D” or “R” in evaluating candidates for sheriff or clerk of county court?

The only issue with a change to such county nonpartisanship, is that it ups the ante on voter responsibility. Will voters do their homework and make their call based on candidate experience and pertinent credentials? If not, what else would be a relevant difference-maker other than political affiliation as an indicator of partisan values?

* “I REALLY DON’T CARE, Do U?”

As we’ve noticed, every facet of fashion worn by Terse Lady Melania Trump is a de facto statement. It’s her plagiarism-free, go-to communication mode So, which is it, Mel? Are you that clueless, that uncaring, that arrogant, or that, well, Trumpian?

BTW, what were your other message-jacket choices? “I MARRIED A BILLIONAIRE, U DIDN’T”? “I’M STILL HOT, UR NOT”? Or “U FIGURE IT THE HELL OUT”?

Unsolicited advice: File for divorce, break out the pre-nup agreement and move back to Ljubljana or risk becoming the Cursed Lady.

Final thought: Bess Truman never looked so eloquent and classy.

* The Civil Rights Office of the Homeland Security Department should not be an oxymoron.

The numbers are always benumbing. Here’s a global gun update from the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey: There are more than 390 million civilian-owned firearms in the U.S. Or an estimated 120.5 guns for every 100 residents. The next highest ratio can be found in Yemen at 52.8 guns per 100 Yemenis. In raw numbers, India is second with 71 million firearms in circulation. In other words, nobody is close. This shouldn’t be part of “American exceptionalism.”

Here’s another number that seems in sync with a gun culture that venerates Second Amendment cherry-picking.  Last year Gallup determined that 42 percent of American households had guns on hand. That’s about 50 million households. That’s about an average of eight guns per gun-owning household. That’s scary.

I watched Bill Clinton’s interview with NBC’s Craig Melvin the other day and was transported.

I recalled that former Clinton adviser Paul Begala once talked of what it was like to be at a summit-like setting and knowing that “the smartest guy in the room was your guy.” Imagine.

I remembered Dick Greco telling me that he spent a few minutes in the back of the presidential limo with Clinton after he had flown to Tampa to make an address at Jefferson High School. Clinton asked Greco what was happening in Tampa, and the former mayor told him about the passing of the Community Investment Tax. Greco was later blown away by how Clinton lauded him in impressive, free-flowing, Clintonian detail for his pragmatic approach that included a football stadium as an inducement to get tax support for schools, police and fire departments. Vintage performance.

I wondered why he was submitting to a network interview until it became apparent that he was hustling a book. He even brought along his co-writer, James Patterson. Then he got combative and self-righteous in an exchange with Melvin when he was asked–inevitably–about his impeachment and the #MeToo movement. He wasn’t apologetic, he was arrogant. He turned a dialogue into a diatribe and ranted about sloppy journalism. He rhetorically asked Melvin if he thought JFK should have resigned. Etc.

Then I was reminded why Hillary Clinton isn’t president.

Yes, she had those email issues, Benghazi, Wall Street speaking fees and a flawed campaign strategy. But she still won the popular vote. But she was unable to rally enough women, including Bernie Sanders’ women, to make history that was there for the making against the most vulgar, vile, misogynistic presidential candidate in American history. That could only have happened if her background included being a disingenuous enabler for a predator of women, a predator who arguably still doesn’t get it.

Call it the perfect geopolitical storm: where protectionism meets isolationism.

The most frustrating and counterproductive aspect of the Trump Administration’s controversial tariff policies is that those countries most impacted are allies. Those we need for all kinds of reasons–from U.S. export markets to foreign-policy leverage. How weird that we seem to be getting along better with the renegade Kim Jong-un than with the respected Justin Trudeau.

Not nearly as affected, ironically, is China, which is no ally and no ethical trade partner. But it’s a de facto player in the upcoming U.S.-North Korea summit. North Korean exports to China account for more than 90 percent of NK’s international trade, and China is known to have employed a wink-and-nod approach on refined petroleum products finding their way into NK. China matters as much as China wants to. And Trump knows it.

* Some traditional, American-export related jobs will inevitably be impacted by tariff retaliation. It’s unfortunate, but practically karmic, that Kentucky bourbon will be among them. Spin that one to the base, Mitch McConnell.

* You can tell a lot about a government policy by its opponents. It’s typically the usual, partisan crowd. This, to be sure, is not typical. From the Business Roundtable and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to GOP Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker to the Wall Street Journal, they stand in opposition to the Trump tariffs. They recognize the artifice of the deal.

* It hardly helps the FBI’s efforts to rally sentiment against Trump ridicule when one of their own makes headlines by accidentally shooting someone at a nightclub. The agent was dancing and doing a back flip when his service revolver fell from its holster, went off and wounded a patron at a Denver night spot. But, yes, he was off duty.

James Comey misses his old job less and less each day.