Category: Uncategorized

“Yes, we can.”

• Bottom line for Dems. You don’t follow the history-making presidency of an African-American with a white nationalist autocrat. And you don’t follow a progressive Supreme Court icon with another “originalist” Federalist Society suck-up. The former can be reversed, although not without collateral damage. The latter, however, could impact the court—and America’s take on women’s rights, voting rights, health care, immigration, a controversial presidential election and more—for a generation.  
• However this shakes out, we’ll be seeing vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris playing a notable role in her capacity as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
• The Biden campaign has seen a quick surge in donations in the aftermath of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death and myriad vigils around the country. It includes ActBlue, an online fundraising hub, which raised $30 million in 12 hours. The efforts could further gin up young voters, especially women. And it could more than offset re-energized evangelical Christians, who still don’t consider hypocrisy a sin.
• Biden’s press conference on COVID: He had just spoken with a roundtable of scientists and had done his homework. He sounded knowledgeable, candid and caring—enough that it will hopefully resonate with accountability, competence and empathy manifestly juxtaposed to Trump’s duplicitous pandemic mismanagement that continues to unnecessarily cost America lives.
• Biden and awkward gaffes: a given.Trump and self-serving lies: a given. False equivalence, anyone?
• “It’s all about Biden from here on out. …The Trump carnival rolls on, but it’s merely a sideshow now.”—Matt Bai, Washington Post.
• Some bottom lines never change. To wit: Edmund Burke’s brutally spot-on, all-too-prescient assessment that “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Obviously, it still applies. The upside for America: Good men still outnumber their evil counterparts. But that has to be reflected in the November vote.

It’s a supreme loss. With the unfortunate, truly untimely passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the U.S. now has one less “better angel,” a precious legal/ethical/moral force in an America in desperate need of serious societal lodestars. An America still revisited by gender and racial inequities. An America grappling with a white-makes-right autocracy.  

Out of respect for Ginsburg’s principles and her legacy, how appropriate it would be to not make her replacement nothing more than partisan political business as usual. How fitting it would be to honor her deathbed “fervent wish” that she “not be replaced until a new president is installed.” The election is mere weeks away. That’s a lot closer than Barack Obama was when he nominated Merritt Garland to replace Antonin Scalia in March of 2016. We all know how that Mitch McConnell-directed scenario ended. Typically, it takes about 70 days from nomination to confirmation. It took 89 days to vet Brent Kavanaugh.

How unshockingly dishonorable it would be for McConnell & Co. to ignore that self-serving precedent now that the president and senate are controlled by the same party. “When you have the Senate, when you have the votes, you can sort of do what you want,” underscored Trump, sounding like the SCOTUS version of his “Access Hollywood” tape.  

Too bad we can’t count on following the advice of the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. “If an opening comes in the last year of President Trump’s term, and the primary process has started, we’ll wait to the next election,” stated Graham in 2018. Alas, the senator who called Trump “unfit for office” has already made his Faustian deal that gets him golfing with this unfit president.

Well, then, there’s always the recommendation of Sen. Marco Rubio as seen through his 2016 political lens. “I don’t think we should be moving forward with a nominee in the last year of this president’s term. I would say that even if it was a Republican president.” Even, presumably, if that were a “con man” charlatan as president. Gracias para nada.

Unfortunately, this is the hypocritical scenario—with all the usual sycophantic suspects coming to the aid of their subservient party and narcissistic cult leader. Country first? Let the people decide via the upcoming election? How naïve. What kind of democracy is that? With the exception of those usual suspects, we all deserve so much better. But thank you for your service, RBG. History will be a lot kinder.

• Gasparilla and social distancing: Isn’t that an oxymoron? Will there be virtual rites of pissage?
• The Lightning Foundation has donated to Bay Area nonprofits during the team’s playoff run. It’s now reached $1 million. Go, Bolts.

Facebook and Google get nearly two-thirds of all digital ad revenue. It goes a long way in determining why they alone are worth $1.5 trillion.  

• I saw a reference to Las Vegas having defeated Carolina in week one of NFL play. I’m not a hard-core NFL fan, but Las Vegas? Oh, yeah, that’s where Jon Gruden’s relocated Oakland Raiders now call home.
• The Big Ten will be back for fall football, starting in late October. It’s motivated, we’re told, by more information and evolving protocols. Not mentioned: What it means to the bottom line to salvage the 2020 $eason.
• First things first: That was an embarrassing 52-0 loss last Saturday suffered by USF against Notre Dame. Let’s reframe it. Iconic Notre Dame and upstart USF have played twice. Each has won once. Leave it at that. Unless you’re still pining for Skip Holtz.
• The pandemic-skewed AP Top 25 ranking includes Marshall and Army, but not Ohio State and Penn State.
• “Los Rojos.” Alternate home jersey for the Cincinnati Reds.

• “Not merely a nation but a teeming nation of nations.”—How Walt Whitman described the United States back in 1855.
• “I think anyone who’s involved in this program should get themselves a lawyer.”—Dona Hathaway, Yale Law School professor and former Defense Department lawyer, referring to U.S. weapons sales to Saudi Arabia. The country’s air war against Yemen is killing civilians—and, as the State Department’s legal office knows, war crime charges are not out of the question.
• “Our nation has lost a jurist of historic stature.”—SCOTUS Chief Justice John Roberts, on the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
• “There will never be another like her. Thank you, RBG.”—Hillary Clinton.
• “Her loss leaves a gaping hole on our high court and in the soul of America, especially at this moment in history.”—Florida Democratic Congresswoman Kathy Castor.
• “A brilliant mind, a remarkable life, an incredible impact on our country. Rest in peace, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.”—Former Florida Republican Gov. Jeb Bush.
• “The threat of overturning Roe is no longer hypothetical. That’s it in a nutshell.”—Progressive strategist Rebecca Katz, on why the death of Justice Ginsburg has energized Democrats.
• “Post-election through to the inauguration, we have a real danger zone.”—Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
• “’Black Lives Matter’ equals cop killers.”—Trump attorney–and former NYC mayor– Rudy Giuliani.
• “Should a vaccine suddenly appear on the eve of the election under obvious political pressure, the systematic skeptics who interpret truth through Mr. Trump’s eyes could prove their fidelity to him by being the first in line to receive it.”—Greg Weiner, Assumption University political scientist and visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
• “The greatest intrusion on civil liberties (in U.S. history), other than slavery.”—AG William Barr on the COVID lockdown.
• “That (aforementioned) statement by Mr. Barr was the most ridiculous, tone-deaf, God-awful thing I’ve ever heard.”—South Carolina Democratic Rep. James Clyburn, the Majority Whip and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
• “Nostalgia is the antithesis of history.”—Documentarian Ken Burns.
• “For Trump to be struggling with what should be slam-dunk states (such as Georgia) at this stage in the race is a sign for him and his supporters that something is really wrong.”—Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post.
• “With the ascension of Donald Trump, (conservatives) have turned into zombie Buchananites.”—Shay Khatiri, the Bulwark.
• “The suburban shift is keeping builders busy, supported on the demand side by low interest rates.”—Robert Dietz, the National Association of Home Builders chief economist.
• “Not only are we planning for Gasparilla, we’re still planning to make it fun too.”—EventFest founder and president Darrell Stefany. 

In February, as we now know, President Trump was well awareof the imminent, lethal coronavirus pandemic. “This is deadly stuff” is hardly a dismissive take. But he didn’t want to sound counterproductively alarmist and dire. At a gut level, we get it. He played it down, because he didn’t “want to create a panic.” We get that non-panic part too. It’s part of a president’s uniquely protective purview when an ominous threat happens on his watch.

Then it’s up to the president to act, well, presidential. Think FDR. (Hell, think of a bullhorned George W. Bush in the ashes of the World Trade Center.) The danger is real, but a presidential president can still meaningfully mitigate deadly impact—by reassuring and preparing. It’s not an Apprentice moment. But saying it would “disappear”–not unlike a familiar flu–with the changing of the seasons was a lie. Thus, a misinformed and misguided public was unnecessarily—and negligently—much more vulnerable than it would ever have been. The U.S. death rate would not now be heading toward 200,000 if America had had a leader—not a misleader—during perilous times. It wasn’t political hyperbole for Joe Biden to label it a “life-and-death betrayal of the American people.”

So, this president, who has tested negative for empathy and was likely consumed with stock mark implications for his re-election messaging, dawdled on testing and contact tracing; failed to execute an effective plan for securing protective equipment; and went out of his high-profile-optics way to disparage mask-wearing and social distancing. He failed flagrantly on what would be any president’s ultimate responsibility: protecting the American people. Ironically–and hypocritically–Trump has had no qualms about stoking fear—if not panic—in the white suburbs with his law-and-order, “American carnage” warnings about invading hordes of “anarchists, agitators, looters.”

Then there’s this: Why talk, via 18 on-the-record, recorded conversations, with Bob Woodward—THAT Bob Woodward—who was writing a book on the Trump presidency? Because that’s what a pathological narcissist, who really thinks he can charm anyone–especially a celebrated, iconic author–does. “It actually reflects how deeply insecure he is about his own self-worth,” assessed Trump biographer Tim O’Brien. All of the president’s minions, of course, could never have prevented the fiasco-in-the-making. And Trump became, ironically, his own whistleblower.     

“A Republic, if you can keep it.”

• White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany: “The president has never lied to the American public.” Isn’t that a hoax?
• “Keep calm and carry on” is associated with Winston Churchill’s iconic leadership during the World War II German bombing of England. It has now been blasphemously inserted into the opportunistic Trump playbook. “That’s what I did,” claimed the revisionist-in-chief at a cult rally. Kayleigh McEnany, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Lou Dobbs would agree.
• Richard Nixon and Al Gore, however different in blatantly obvious ways, share an experience that should remain a democratic rule-of-thumb. After losing closely contested–and understandably controversial–races for the presidency, they both ultimately decided it was better to stand down and accept the results–rather than pursue a course that would likely tear the country apart. That was then. This is not.
• “Your Excellency.” That’s how Trump was addressed in correspondence by North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un—not by Attorney General William Barr.
• “Yesper.” How Trump recently referenced his(third) Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who he ironically wishes were much more of an actual “yes man.” Look for Esper, who wasn’t on board with federalizing troops over civil unrest but was on board with renaming military installations–to be replaced soon after the election, if not sooner.
• Donald Trump and his campaign have made it a priority to demean Joe Biden’s health—as in “somebody who truly has lost a step.” Heads up on the pushback step. That self-serving campaign assertion only pales in comparison to an unscrupulous, uninformed, ill-advised, under-performing, overweight, unhinged, pathologically compromised, climate change-denying incumbent who has lost whatever remnant remained of a moral compass.
• “As I’ve been saying since the beginning, Trump was a mobster, plain and simple.” That was Michael Cohen, former personal lawyer and erstwhile “fixer” for Donald Trump. “As a rule, Trump expressed low opinions of all black folks, from music to culture and politics.” Another unflattering Cohen quote from his book, “Disloyal: A Memoir.”
• “Michael Cohen is a disgraced felon and disbarred lawyer who lied to Congress. He has lost all credibility, and it’s unsurprising to see his latest attempt to profit off of lies.” That was dismissive White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who’s familiar with Trump-agenda prevarication and using a Trump-provided forum for career enhancement.
• Speaking of publication profiting, Sarah Huckabee Sanders now has a book out, “Speaking for Myself.” While she was an annoying, enabling avatar of fealty who was regularly parodied on “Saturday Night Live,” she will be best remembered for being the first WH press secretary to receive Secret Service protection. Well earned.
• For what it’s worth, including to formerly conservative Republicans, the U.S. national debt—$26 trillion–is now greater than GDP. Tea Party on, GOPsters.
• It’s not just Vlad Putin who’s consumed with the American election from afar. It’s no secret that NATO allies fear the worst if Trump is re-elected, and the U.S. makes good on his Putin-pleasing threat to exit the 71-year-old alliance. It would mean a seismic shift away from America’s role as a leader and protector of the continent. 
• Ignoble Prize. Trump engaged in another celebratory, tweet storm over his nomination for the Noble Peace Prize. True, but context still matters outside the White House. First of all, any national lawmaker can nominate anyone for the Nobel Peace Prize. To date, there are more than 300 candidates put forward for the 2020 Prize. Trump’s nomination was by a far-right Norwegian politician for his brokered deal between Israel and the UAE. For the record, Adolph Hitler was also nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize–in 1939–by a notably sardonic, anti-fascist member of the Swedish parliament.
• As a cost-cutting measure, the Trump campaign decided not to spend $3 million for a NASCAR car featuring Trump’s name. Pennzoil never looked so classy.
• So Sen. Ted Cruz makes Trump’s Supreme Court short list. It’s called pandering to a former rival’s ego and base—while hoping nobody still cares about Trump insulting Cruz’s wife and alleging that his father was somehow involved in the Kennedy assassination. Another day at the orifice.
• Trump Time Machine: “Didn’t need no welfare state … Girls were girls and men were men. … I don’t know just what went wrong. Those were the days.” That was from “All in the Family” that debuted in 1971. And, yes, the Bunker is back.

#AloneTogether

• “The reason we’re investing not in one but six different vaccines is because of the expectation that they won’t all work.”—NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins, after AstraZeneca’s suspension of final testing of its potential COVID-19 vaccine.
• “By the time you mobilize the distribution of the vaccine and get a majority or more of the population vaccinated and protected, that’s likely not going to happen until the end of 2021.”—Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert.
• Amtrak will soon be furloughing more than 2,000 workers because of a sharp decline in ridership and revenue caused by the pandemic. That’s nearly 10 percent of Amtrak’s work force.
• Used car sales: Now on the rise as consumers need options to avoid using buses, trains and Ubers during a pandemic.
• Plane truth: Airports are much more problematic than airplanes.
• 2,900: approximate number of people hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of the coronavirus across Florida—including approximately 500 in the Tampa Bay area.
• Amazon will hire another 100,000 workers—again underscoring the massive shifts to online retailers.
• 26: The number of early-voting locations in Hillsborough County after Raymond James Stadium was added. Amalie Arena is also a site. Early voting begins Oct. 19.
• Demand for (free) coronavirus testing in Hillsborough County has dropped to an average of about 20,000 tests per week. The county’s sites are operating at about 20 percent capacity.
• “It’s no time to talk about where we used to be. The pandemic is still raging.”—Hillsborough County Commissioner Pat Kemp.

“Yes, we can.”

• “Trump lied and people died.” Now a bottom-line Democratic theme—brutal, but not a lie.
• “More cops have died from COVID this year than have been killed on patrol.” Joe Biden weighing in with public health/law-and-order context.
• $100 million: What Michael Bloomberg is committing to the Biden Florida campaign. Among the foremost, micro-targeted priorities: boosting Spanish language advertising in key markets.
• American University historian Allan Lichtman, known for his “Keys to the White House” model, has accurately predicted the outcome of every presidential election since 1984, including 2016–sometimes defying the conventional wisdom of pundits and pollsters. For 2020, he predicts a Biden victory.
• Too bad that “socialism” too often resonates more than “authoritarianism” with Cuban-American voters.
• The CHIRLA (Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights) Action Fund and its Immigrant Power PAC announced their first-ever endorsement in a presidential election, throwing support behind the Biden-Harris ticket. “We chose decency over mean-spiritedness, inclusiveness over racism, democracy over plutocracy,” noted CHIRLA President Angelica Salas. Todo ayuda.