Category: Uncategorized

• “How different they are from four years ago. Not even watchable. They totally forgot who got them where they are. … We all miss Roger (Ailes).” That was the Apprentice-in-chief waxing nostalgic for Roger Ailes and taking shots at Fox News for allowing some of its personalities to slack off on marketing his presidency—and running polls that show him trailing Joe Biden.
• “Mr. President, our job here is to keep the scores, not settle scores.” That was Fox News veteran Neil Cavuto—not Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham or Tucker Carlson.

• The Miami Marlins are MLB’s least favorite team right now. It has everything to do with leading (more than half the team) the postponement-plagued league in positive coronavirus tests. It also has everything to do with the consensus that the team has blatantly violated coronavirus protocols—including hanging out at hotel bars. The Marlins have become the societal counterpart of unmasked individuals who jeopardize others by their carelessness, cluelessness and defiance. Good luck, Derek (“They let their guard down”) Jeter.
• “We’re going to be fluid. We think it’s manageable.”—Commissioner Rob Manfred, on the impact of the coronavirus on the 2020 MLB season.
• #WeSkateFor: The NHL initiative to “support, celebrate and honor community heroes, front-line and health care workers, and racial justice activists through various local and national programs and activities.

• “President Nixon once said he feared he had created a ‘Frankenstein’ by opening the world to the C.C.P (Communist Party of China)—and here we are.”—Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
• “Space is the new air.”—Elon Musk.
• “I am putting the Kremlin and other foreign governments on notice. If elected president, I will treat foreign interference in our election as an adversarial act that significantly affects the relationship between the United States and the interfering nation’s government.”—Joe Biden.
• “Your tenure is marked by a persistent war against the department’s professional core in an apparent effort to secure favors for the president. … The president wants footage for his campaign ads, and you appear to be serving it up to him as ordered.”—Rep. Jerry Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, in questioning Attorney General William Barr.
• “Donald Trump is burning himself down. Has no one noticed? When the Trump experience is over, the Republican Party will have to be rebuilt.”—Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal.
• “We have one foot in the pandemic and one foot in the recovery.”—Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
• “The president has no power to change the date of the election. This … undermines voter confidence and seeks without evidence to undermine the legitimacy of voting by mail.”—Richard L. Hasen, law professor at the University of California at Irvine.
• “All of the supervisors of elections have been planning for this for a time. I think Florida will be ready to go.”—Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, on preparations for the Nov. 3 presidential election.
• “He can suggest whatever he wants. The law is what it is. We’re going to have an election that’s legitimate, it’s going to be credible, it’s going to be the same as we’ve always done it.”—Sen. Marco Rubio.
• “We are not moving the date of the election. The resistance to this idea among Republicans is overwhelming.”—Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney.
• No way should we ever not hold an election on the day that we have it.”—House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
• “Research shows that protests can become more violent when met with violent means themselves.”—University of Tampa political scientist Ryan Welsh.
• “Trump wants to distract us all from this dumpster fire economy and death toll by suspending democracy—all because he’s so badly bungled the COVID crisis. That move is straight out of the Maduro, Putin, dictator playbook.”—Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
• “This man doesn’t evolve. He doesn’t grow. … He is stuck and stunted. He is a creature of instinct and that instinct is base and animalistic, survival-centered, without core conviction of a prevailing character. … American lives were collateral damage.”—Maureen Dowd, New York Times.
• “When you listen to the president, you begin to wonder—is he worried more about the legitimacy of the electoral process, or is he worried about losing?”—Tom Ridge, former Republican governor of Pennsylvania and homeland security secretary in the George W. Bush administration.
• “Buycott”: Term for the reaction of Trump supporters to the boycott of Goya foods after its CEO praised Trump.
• “With each day the schools remain closed, shuttered, the educational gap between haves and have-nots is widening.”—Yale law professor Stephen L. Carter.
• “Banks and airlines have been bailed out. Surely, we can dedicate the necessary resources to help our schools too.”—Dr. Leana S. Wen, visiting professor at George Washington University’s School of Public Health.
• “A quick Google search is now equivalent to a medical degree when deciding the hydroxychloroquine is the cure for COVID. This is egalitarianism gone wild.”—Dr. Mona Mongat, immunologist and allergist and past chair of Doctors for America.
• “With more than 150,000 dead from COVID-19, we’ve not only lost the public health war, we’ve lost the war for truth. Misinformation and lies have captured the castle. And the bad guys’ most powerful weapon? Social media—in particular, Facebook.”—Margaret Sullivan, Washington Post.
• “Our Founders would not bow before a King. Nor should we bow before the emperors of the online economy.”—Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., chairman of the House Antitrust Committee.
• “Congress must pass legislation to provide the maritime sector the same protections and relief given to other industries during COVID-19, and close a huge gap in current federal emergency assistance that has left links in the maritime supply chain isolated and unable to access other assistance programs available to other industries.”—Doug Wheeler, president and CEO of the Florida Ports Council.
• “I am a conservative Republican, so, yes, I support (Trump).”—Pinellas County Commissioner Kathleen Peters.
• “I am one to believe that masks save lives. … Personally, I would prefer that people wear masks constantly whether inside or outside.”—Les Miller, chairman of the Hillsborough County Commission and the Emergency Policy Group.
• “This is an unparalleled, generational opportunity for us in St. Petersburg to address many needs, meet many goals and create a vibrant and unique sense of place accessible to all.”—St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman, on the city issuing a request for proposals from developers interested in redeveloping the 86-acre Tropicana Field site.
• “I like the students at USF. … They don’t have a sense of entitlement.”—Cheyenne Currall, wife of USF President Steve Currall.

  “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

• “Cancel culture.” Bring it. Cancel the Trump-cult culture on Nov. 3.
• What do you do when you’ve grossly mismanaged a pandemic that has cost lives and livelihoods? Another Chris Wallace interview certainly won’t help. So, you panic and pivot. In so doing, you recklessly resort to the reviled “law and order” mantra associated with George Wallace and Richard Nixon. And you scapegoat and demonize the usual suspects. The partisan political message: Only Trump, the instigator-in-chief, truly stands up to anarchy. Only he, as he has told us, can “fix it.”

How far we’ve regressed.

But the ultimate charlatan showman gets his optics—however much induced and provoked by de facto federal stormtroopers in cities such as Portland—that can appeal to his base and maybe frighten others already blindsided by the pandemic. Call it Lafayette Square on ‘roids—as well as an outtake from the autocrat’s playbook.

We’re already seeing it play out on political ads that don’t show unrest turned into chaos via militaristic provocations—only protestors’ responses. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown underscored the scorched earth reality. “It throws gasoline on the fire.” It’s what you get when the narcissist-in-chief, facing the prospect of a humiliating defeat less than 100 days from now, doubles down on doing the Reich thing.

• In case you missed it: According to President Trump, it is now “patriotic to wear a face mask when you can’t socially distance.” Disingenuous upshot: hypocrisy unmasked.
• “He’s shot. (Biden’s) mentally shot.” That was the cognitive-tester-in chief, who recently bragged of having “aced” his (“Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.”) Montreal Cognitive Assessment test. Too bad it wasn’t a high school civics exam.
• “We are too big a people to be able to be careless in what we say.” That was President Teddy Roosevelt, who could be frank, impulsive and knew his way around a bully pulpit, but also knew that words mattered mightily—domestically and internationally. Those were the days.
• And speaking of TR, he famously said: “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” The infamous, Trump version: “Speak cluelessly and carry a narcissistic schtick.”
• The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute has told the Trump campaign and the RNC to stop using the former president’s image to fundraise. What’s next? “Mr. Trump, tear down this wall of nativism, xenophobia and divisiveness”?
• The hawkish Republican Rep. Liz Cheney has not been endearing herself to the Trump Administration on its handling of the pandemic. She’s a high-profile defender of Dr. Anthony Fauci and has even tweeted a photo of her dad, THAT Dick Cheney, in a mask with the hashtag “realmenwearmasks.” It all helps.

“I’m president, I’m not king.”—Barack Obama, back in the day.

#AloneTogether

• West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner has urged young people to work the upcoming polls as a “call to arms” not unlike joining the military after 9/11. Good analogy. Remember “… What you can do for your country”? JFK didn’t speak in a pandemic context, but the principle applies.
• National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien is now the highest-ranking White House official to test positive for the coronavirus.
• Since July, Arizona leads the nation in new infections per test: 25.3 percent. Florida is second at 18.8 percent.
• An estimated 27 million American workers require child care, which includes schools, to return to full-time work.
• 77: That’s how many hand sanitizers have been recalled by the FDA because they contain dangerous levels of wood alcohol.
• Limits of virtual classrooms: Boston, for example, reported that roughly 20 percent of enrolled students never logged in.
• About 46 percent of Florida deaths are linked to long-term care facilities.
• The Toronto Blue Jays will not play their home games at home this season. By order of Canadian health officials, teams will not be permitted to fly in and out of Toronto from the COVID-epicenter that is the U.S. Canada is afraid that frequent travel to and from the U.S. could provoke a spike in coronavirus cases. No one is happy—but Justin Trudeau possibly feels a sense of reprisal for Trump’s arrogant, ally-alienating “America First” agenda.
• 206: COVID-19 cases reported in Hillsborough County Public Schools this year. Five of the patients were students.
• He’s still a player: Dr. Anthony Fauci threw outthe ceremonial first pitch at the Nationals MLB opener against the Yankees. It’s what you do when you are disinvited from the reintroduced presidential coronavirus press ramblings. It’s also what you do when you are the Nationals and you want someone appropriate to throw out the season-opening first pitch during a pandemic. That, of course, should be the president—unless he’s more of a self-serving, chaotic enabler than a genuine leader during a crisis.
• Marriott Hotels, the world’s largest hotel chain, has begun requiring guests to use facial coverings in its 7,300 hotels. The requirement applies to guests in all indoor public spaces. Good idea—three months ago.
• As we’ve been seeing, you can’t mask ignorance and stupidity.
• The Small Business Administration and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin are being sued because the PPP has denied help to adult businesses and strip clubs.

• The latest Quinnipiac Poll has Joe Biden ahead of Trump by 13 points in Florida.
• As it turns out, Biden’s best zip codes, in terms of the number of donors, are on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Trump’s best zip code includes much of The Villages, the hard-core conservative retirement community in Central Florida.

BTW, Trump lost his home Manhattan district to Hillary Clinton in 2016, which surprised no one. Home districts know their candidates best.

• “Yes We Can”: Getting Barack Obama personally involved is the biggest “get” there is.
• The Biden campaign has hired a faith adviser who worked on Obama’s re-election campaign. Top priority: Keep anti-abortion Democrats motivated for the Democratic challenger.

• “Lawyers for Equal Justice”: More than 100 St. Petersburg attorneys gathered on the downtown lawn of the Judicial Courthouse to make a united call for equal justice under the law. It was the counterpart of what a number of Tampa attorneys did in June. It matters a lot when those of direct influence and impact on the criminal justice system weigh in with conscience—as well as influence.
• Holy disinfectant protocols! Scooters are back. What could go wrong with their shared nature during a pandemic? Could they be carrying more than just those who scoot—until they’re dropped off—or just dropped?

The words “hero” and “patriot” are too easily misappropriated by partisans in this politically divisive, bumper-sticker culture. And the words “legend” and “icon” are routinely devalued in a society that often lacks historical perspective.

And then there is John Lewis. The late, alas, John Lewis. Hero. Patriot. Legend. Icon.

The death of the 17-term Georgia congressman, 80, has unsurprisingly galvanized non-Trump America, which is still, thankfully, a majority of Americans. He embodied what we should all want in our American heroes.

An original “Freedom Rider” and former chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Lewis risked his life—and literally shed his blood—for the moral cause of racial equality without ever invoking or stoking violence. “Find a way to get in the way” was never a dog whistle to riot—or respond in kind to police brutality and white bigotry. Neither was “good trouble.” Lewis stood for morality not militancy—the antithesis of “Burn, baby, burn.” He boycotted Trump’s inauguration.

This son of a rural Alabama sharecropper family never let national forums be about anything other than the righteous cause he devoted his life to. He became very important, but never self-important. The cause was always center stage—not Lewis. It was about principle—not personality.

He earned his iconic status—and never leveraged it to boost his image. He was the North Star of anti-racism and voting rights, the avatar of class–and the conscience of the Congress. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama and, in passing, became the first black lawmaker to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol’s Rotunda. No, President Trump, was not among those paying final respects.

BTW, a lot of empty monument pedestals now loom, especially in the South. That’s an obvious opportunity for Lewis lionization, as well as affixing his name to a certain Selma bridge. Restoring the Voting Rights Act should be a given. Symbolically, such public displays of homage would help extend his morally-courageous life’s work of making America honor its ideals by non-violently ending racism.

• “America then, as told by America now.”—How Lin-Manuel Miranda has described “Hamilton.”
• Re: The cringe-worthy, Chris Wallace Fox grilling of Trump. Mike Wallace would be proud.
• Michael Cohen’s book, expected out before the election, will be, of course, “unflattering” to Trump. Cohen knows a lot more than just details about hush money to bimbos. And word is that he’ll be sharing Trump’s flair for racist and anti-Semitic comments. As for reactions, no one expects House Negro Ben Carson or sycophantic, Jewish son-in-law Jared Kushner to be insulted, angry or surprised.
• It still seems weird, even in the new normal, to see a Wall Street Journal ad in the Tampa Bay Times.
• Ron DeSantis reality: Not being Rick Scott is not enough. Not nearly. And, yes, he’s still showing up on “Fox & Friends.”
• “People need a break from the news.”—Comedian Jim Gaffigan.

• It’s some kind of a parallel-universe baseball season that’s underway: no fans, lots of masks and some rule changes—like a universal designated hitter. But there are familiar constants besides spitting. Here’s one that won’t go away—unless MLB implements a salary cap so that teams, regardless of market size and consequent TV deals, can all play by the same rules. Exhibit A: The Rays payroll last year ($64.2 million) was less than 30 percent of the New York Yankees’ payroll. And that’s before the Yankees signed free agent pitcher Gerrit Cole to an obscene, 9-figure contract.
• The Rays have no African-American players on the roster. First base coach–and Tampa native–Ozzie Timmons is the team’s only uniformed African-American.
• “I get asked every day if college sports will return this fall. The consensus opinion among our health advisers is significant change must occur for that to happen.”—NCAA President Mark Emmert.
• MLB’s Miami Marlins recently had 17 players and two staff members test positive for the coronavirus—leading to postponements.
• Until further NFL notice, it will be the Washington Football Team: Obviously, no focus group was involved.