Category: Uncategorized

 “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

* Remember this line?  “History isn’t kind to the man who holds Mussolini’s  jacket.” That was Ted Cruz in 2016, before he–and other fawning, calculating GOPsters–decided to hide out in the White House cloakroom.

* As we’ve seen, many prominent members of the military and national security community are at odds with President Donald Trump’s priorities and presidential mien. But it’s not just generals and admirals. A December 2019 Military Times poll found that a plurality of troops of all ranks disapproved of Trump’s presidency, and 45.8 percent “strongly disapproved.” Arguably, it has only gotten worse.

* As we now know, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, regrets having joined Trump for his controversial, presidential strut across Lafayette Square to St. John’s Church for that Bible-brandishing, hypocritical photo op. Authorities used tear gas and rubber bullets to clear the area of peaceful protestors. Gen. Milley says he regrets his participation–dressed in camouflage fatigues–because his presence “created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.” Chances are, it’s more regrettable–and visceral–than that. He knows that distinguished career notwithstanding, images showing him as a uniquely uniformed political prop for the worst president in U.S. history, are destined for America’s historical archives. He will never live this down. Too bad. But Trump enablers deserve infamy.

* “I don’t read Twitter; I only write on it.” That was how Sen. Marco Rubio–and other self-serving GOPsters–disingenuously create a bit of distance from some of the more polarizing tweets coming from the Oval Orifice.

* “Flori-duh”: Hardly happenstance that Jacksonville is where the Republicans will relocate major elements–including a prime-time acceptance speech by Donald Trump–of this summer’s national convention. The mayor, Lenny Curry, is a former Florida Republican Party chairman. City Council is Republican majority.

So, forget social distancing and masks for those crowding into the 15,000-seat VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena to hear Trump’s “carnage” and Keep America Grating updates. Anything less would be unacceptable to the optics-craving narcissist-in-chief.

BTW, Trump’s Aug. 27th acceptance speech is the same date as Jacksonville’s Ax Handle Saturday, when a mob of whites attacked black demonstrators trying to integrate lunch counters. We’ll see how Trump ax-handles that one.

* The GOP executive committee recently voted to keep the party’s current platform language–as adopted at the 2016 Republican Convention in Cleveland–in place for logistical reasons related to the last-minute, convention-venue change. It will carry over until 2024. Only problem, the platform’s priorities and principles are written in the literal context of rebuking the then-incumbent president, Barack Obama. Oops.

For example: “The current Administration has abandoned America’s friends and rewarded its enemies.” The utter, self-deriding, karmic irony is lost on nobody but the current incumbent.

* “Take back your city NOW. If you don’t do it, I will.”–That was Commander Bone Spurs’ directive to the mayor of Seattle and the governor of Washington about “domestic terrorists.”

* “Could be an ANTIFA provocateur.”–That was the polarizer-in-chief’s take on the identity and motivation of the 75-year-old Buffalo protester, Martin Gugino, who was pushed by cops and seriously injured. Twitter didn’t add any disclaimers to this Trump tweet, labeling it “speculative.”

* “She is much more like him than it appears.”–Mary Jordan, author of “The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump.”

* The Trump campaign has demanded an apology and a retraction from CNN over its recent poll showing Joe Biden with a 55-41 lead. It’s designed, charges the Trump campaign, for “voter suppression.” How ironic.

* “Trumptillas,” boat parades of Trump supporters, took place last Sunday in various waterfront communities across Florida, including off Apollo Beach. The official occasion: Where Flag Day meets Trump’s (74th) birthday. Patriotic flags and sycophantic signage, to be sure, were prominent optics. But no “SOS” signs.

* Too bad we didn’t hear those John Bolton insider revelations when he had an opportunity to share them with the American people through testimony in the House impeachment probe. Too bad his motivation wasn’t country–as opposed to book promotion–first.

#AloneTogether

* “Both symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals are part of the transmission cycle.”–Dr. Michael Ryan, WHO’s emergencies chief.

* $3.7 trillion: What the Congressional Budget Office has estimated the federal deficit will hit by the end of this fiscal year.

* “All of you millennials who thought you were immune to this virus … you were wrong. … Your death rate may not be as high as someone who’s 75 years old, but you could infect someone who’s 75 years old.”–St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman.

* 1,200: The number of epidemiologists and public health professionals who signed an open letter stating their support for the George Floyd protests.

* “It is critical that folks socially distance and wear masks in public.”–Dr. Charles Lockwood, Dean of USF’s Morsani College of Medicine.

* California Sen. Kamala Harris and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren are strong candidates for vice president on the Biden ticket. Recent events have underscored no less status. Harris, a former district attorney and attorney general, has introduced well-timed legislation: the Justice in Policing Act of 2020 that is all about police accountability and a criminal justice overhaul. Warren wrote the proposal–coming out of the Armed Services Committee–that added a mandate (to a key defense authorization bill) to require the Pentagon to strip military bases of Confederate names and monuments within three years.

* Speaking of female VP candidates, Florida Rep. Val Demings, the African-American, former police chief of Orlando, has the support of Florida Congressman Charlie Crist, D-St. Petersburg.

* Re: Any Democratic partisans seen sporting MOFA hats. Relax, it means a progressive with a sardonic, literary sense of political humor sharing aspirations to “Make Orwell Fiction Again.”

* A sign we’ve not yet seen: “Blue AND Black–not black & blue.”

* America’s protests over police brutality toward blacks have resonated beyond the U.S. In most cases, it means support for a cause that resonates globally. But in some instances, it’s more like geopolitical schadenfreude. Exhibit A: The Russians are enjoying payback after having endured decades of American criticism of its human rights record. It also helps Vladimir Putin divert internal criticism of Russia’s security services–a diversionary tactic not unfamiliar to Trump.

* “People realize that no one on TV is under oath.” That comment was likely more self-revealing than intended. It speaks, unsurprisingly, volumes about the ethics of this Administration. Who said it? Kellyanne Conway in January 2017.

* All English Premier League (soccer) jerseys will be featuring Black Lives Matter–instead of players’ names–for the first dozen games of the reopened season.

* Lest we forget, seven NFL owners contributed $1 million to Trump’s Inaugural Committee. The good news: Tampa Bay is not among them. The bad news, the Glazers did donate $250,000.

* “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that some of the best-run places (in COVID response) have been run by women: New Zealand, Germany, Taiwan. And where we’ve seen things go most badly wrong–the U.S., Brazil, Russia, the U.K.–it’s a lot of male ego and bluster.”–Susan Rice, former national security adviser under President Barack Obama.

* “African-Americans shouldn’t feel helpless, because the black vote does matter–it never mattered more. It is at the heart of the fight to take back America. … Joe Biden would be retired if not for the black vote. … In November, the number of black voters who turn out in the crucial swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin is likely to be the deciding factor in the election.”–Fox News analyst Juan Williams, author of “What the Hell Do You Have to Lose?”

* “Boards should hold themselves and management accountable for specific objectives around recruitment, retention and promotion of African-Americans and other minorities. Only when companies and management are accountable in ways that are quantifiable will we see real systemic transformation of corporate America.”–Darren Walker, the African-American president of the Ford Foundation.

* “(George) Floyd stands apart … Emmett Till for a digital generation.”–Karen Attiah, Washington Post.

* “The African-American community is near and dear to (Trump’s) heart.”–White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.

* “It is status quo thinking to believe that putting more police on the streets creates more safety. That’s wrong. … You know what creates more safety? Funding public schools, affordable housing, increased homeownership, job skill development, jobs, access to capital for those who want to start small businesses or are running small businesses in communities.”–Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.

* “The irony of training at bases named for those who took up arms against the United States and for the right to enslave others, is inescapable to anyone paying attention.”–David Petraeus, former CIA director and four-star Army general.

* “Our history as the Greatest Nation in the World will not be tampered with. Respect our Military!”–Donald Trump, in tweeting that he would veto the entire National Defense Authorization Act if it were to include language that would change the name of military bases named after Confederate generals.

* “Maybe–just maybe–the Civil War is coming to an end. And perhaps Donald J. Trump, not Jefferson Davis, will go down in history as the last president of the Confederacy.”–Eugene Robinson, Washington Post.

* “I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my tenure that wasn’t driven by re-election calculations.”–Former National Security Adviser John Bolton, the author of “The Room Where It Happened.”

* “If the election were held today, the result could easily resemble 2008, the closest thing to a landslide our divided system has recently produced.”–Ross Douthat, New York Times.

* “Where’s my copy of ‘Atlas Shrugged’? It’s in the shredder.”–Stephen Bannon, former Trump chief strategist.

* “In an uncertain world, time-tested values like honesty and integrity, empathy and compassion–that’s the only real currency in life. Treating people right will never, ever fail you.”–Michelle Obama, in her YouTube address to the Class of 2020.

* “(Jacksonville will) showcase Florida’s energy, facilities, entrepreneurship and commitment to bring together the delegates of the Republican Party at a historic time in our nation’s history.”–Gov. Ron DeSantis.

* “Clearly, the RNC wants a large event with a lot of people. I want that too.”–Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry.

* “The landscape of policing has changed dramatically… . If there’s a police officer in the city of Tampa that does not want a body-worn camera, then I suggest you turn your badge in.”–Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan.

* “We are observing police malpractice in a way that heretofore, absent cameras and whatever, we weren’t able to observe it.”–Goliath J. Davis, St. Petersburg’s first African-American police chief.

* “A huge win for our city.”–Mayor Jane Castor, on the announcement that Fisher Investments, an investment adviser that manages more than $120 billion in assets, has opened its first office on the East Coast of the U.S. in Tampa. It expects to eventually hire 600 employees.

* “A building like ours is made to welcome crowds of people. And being in a crowd of people is what we can’t do right now.”–Jill Witecki, Tampa Theatre’s director of marketing.

 “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

* No, it’s not going to presage a “Seven Days in May” scenario, but recent Trump-critical comments by those with serious military and national security credentials and insights just might be the final straw in this flailing, failing president’s defeat in November. Respect for those sworn to protect us transcends political partisanship. Generals and admirals are not seen like elected officials with self-serving, fealty agendas. They have earned respect the hard way–through their service to country–no matter who their commander in chief happened to be.

It hardly helps Trump to have his (current) secretary of defense, Mark Esper, and the (current) chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen. Mark Milley, indicate publicly–and defiantly–that they don’t support using the military to combat protests over the killing of George Floyd. As it turns out, neither does Gen. Martin Dempsey, a former chairman of the joint chiefs. Then Esper’s predecessor, Gen. James Mattis, weighed in and added that Trump “doesn’t even pretend to try” to unite this increasingly polarized country. Then Adm. Mike Mullen, another former chairman of the joint chiefs, spoke out about the dangerous “inflection point” that Trump has brought this country to. And as far as retired 4-star Gen. John Allen is concerned, American democracy is imperiled because “there is no one home” at the White House.

There have also been letters–signed by former SODs (Chuck Hegel, Ashton Carter and William Cohen), and scores of foreign service officials and top figures in the Army, Navy and Air Force–condemning Trump for his heavy-handed, militarist approach to civilian protest. And you know there are other issues–including America’s dysfunctional relations with its allies, its simpatico relations with authoritarians and its betrayal of Syrian Kurds–that have been festering. In short, Trump, an intemperate, narcissistic security threat, is to be marginalized and contained, not respected and saluted.

“President Trump has shown he doesn’t have the qualities necessary to be a good commander in chief,” stated retired Navy Adm. William H. McRaven, who directed the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. “This fall it’s time for new leadership in this country–Republican, Democrat or Independent.” And Colin Powell, former secretary of state, national security adviser and chairman of the joint chiefs, cut to the Oafish Office chase: “He’s dangerous to our country.” Powell has already indicated he’ll be voting for Joe Biden. He won’t be the only one.

* “Washington transformed into a war zone for this coward.”–That’s a blunt outtake from the latest political ad (“Mourning in America”) salvo from the Never Trump Republicans of the Lincoln Project PAC.

* “We all watch in horror and consternation what’s going on in the United States.”–That was Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s reaction to Trump’s response to American protestors.

* “Hopefully, George is looking down right now and saying, ‘This is a great thing that’s happening for our country.”–That, inexplicably, is what the tone-deaf, white-nationalist-in-chief said about what the brutalized, murdered George Floyd’s reaction would be to a positive jobs report.

* No, marching over to St. John’s Church as security forces cleared the way for Trump and his enabling posse was not a “Churchill moment.” More like a Putin moment.

* “I am struggling with it.”  That’s how Alaska’s Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski responded when asked if she could support Trump for re-election. “Struggling“? How about, “Hell, no. I’ve seen enough. In fact, I had seen enough before this narcissistic goon was ever appointed by the Electoral College. I care more about my country than about my Party standing. I answer to my conscience–not the marching orders of Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell.”

* Proximate to nearby protests, the Secret Service did their job of protecting the president by ushering him into the White House bunker. But then they let him out.

* Trump Vodka. Trump Steaks. Trump Travel. Trump University. Trump Tower Tampa. Why would any American have expected other than what we’ve gotten from Trump Presidency?

One of the features of the Tampa Bay Times that I never skip is “This Week In History.”  In these times of uber upheaval, it helps to be able to reflect on how we, as this unique experiment in a constitutional, democratic republic, got here. The route, we are reminded, has been circuitous, ironic, triumphant and tragic. To wit:

* Sunday, June 7 (1942). America’s victory in the Battle of Midway was the turning point in the Pacific War. America was making a global difference for the better. Those were the days.

* Monday, June 8 (1864). Abraham Lincoln was nominated for another term during the National Union (Republican) Party’s convention. A National Union, anyone?

* Tuesday, June 9 (1954). During the Senate Army-McCarthy hearings, Army special counsel Joseph Welch berated Sen. Joseph McCarthy by rhetorically asking: “Have you no sense of decency, sir?” But imagine, having to ask that–on a daily basis–of a U.S. president?

* Wednesday, June 10 (1692). The first execution resulting from the Salem Witch Trials took place in Massachusetts. Yes, we’re better than that. “Witch hunts” don’t seem so threatening.

* Wednesday, June 10 (1963). President John F. Kennedy signs the Equal Pay Act, aimed at eliminating wage disparities based on gender. We’re not there yet–more than a half-century later.

* Thursday, June 11 (2009). The WHO declared the first global (swine) flu pandemic in 41 years. What goes around… .

* Friday, June 12 (1963). Civil rights leader Medgar Evers was murdered in Mississippi.  Would that it had become a turning point in addressing violence directed at black Americans.

* Friday, June 12 (1987). In Berlin, President Ronald Reagan exhorted Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.” Now we have a president exhorting America to build walls.

* Friday, June 12 (2016). The slaughter of 49 people by an American-born Muslim at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando. No, we haven’t changed much except increasing xenophobia.

 * Saturday, June 13 (1967). President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Solicitor-General Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the Supreme Court. Another reminder of what you won’t get with a Federalist Society-pandering president who answers to his white nationalist base.

* The editorial page editor of the New York Times, James Bennet, is out. He had signed off on an op-ed piece by Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, the right-wing Trump cheerleader who advocated using federal troops to quell protests. Moreover, Bennet had not read the hard-line piece, entitled “Send in the Troops,” before publication. It caused a backlash of outrage among Times’ journalists. He had to go. He went.

Two takeaways. First, a key reason newspapers have “op-ed” forums is to be, within reason, inclusive of other–including opposition–points of view. It’s journalism’s version of what good attorneys do before coming into court: know the other side’s “best” arguments, to better disable them. Cotton outs himself with constitutional overreach and storm trooper mentality. Second, if you’re the editorial page editor and you run something controversial without having read it, you should be fired.

* There’s an obvious, definitional difference between protest and loot–or protesters and looters. As in emotional fealty to a just cause and opportunistic, criminal behavior that undermines it. But there’s also protest protocol. For the racially unwoke, just don’t interchange looters and “thugs.” The “t word,” as has been pointed out, can also be code for the new “n word” Now we all know. We also know what City Councilman John Dingfelder meant: Shame on looters, however labeled.

* From social media enabling of partisan lying to WiFi outage to butt-dialed calls, the new communications normal can be a double-edged societal sword at times. But thank goodness for cell-phone cameras that have unmasked police brutality in too many tragic instances.

#AloneTogether

* The herd immunity threshold for COVID may differ from place to place, but on average, experts say, it will require at least 60 percent immunity in the population.

* 13.2 million: the projected TIA passenger count this year–down 40 percent from last year’s record 23.3 million.

* 55 percent: The percentage of its U.S. routes that American Airlines will be flying in July. In May it was 20 percent.

* Social distancing and protesting: the new oxymoronic normal.

* 172: the number of Tampa residents hospitalized for COVID last week–and the week before. Of those 172, 38 were being treated in intensive care units.

* County contrast, as of last Friday: Hillsborough–2,554 coronavirus cases, 91 deaths. Miami-Dade: 19,056 cases, 771 deaths.