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* “I am proud to say that we are going into this general election a united party.” That was Joe Biden after formally clinching the Democratic presidential nomination. One caveat: No unforced errors, Joe, that enable Trump to pivot and divert. Stay on script, strategically get out of your Delaware basement to juxtapose priorities and principles and ratchet up the number of key advisers who better reflect diversity and inclusiveness.

* If the Republican convention were to relocate to Florida, it wouldn’t be to Tampa. Common logistical sense and public safety come to mind. Also, no way would the GOPsters want to encourage opposing partisans from bringing back a classic bumper sticker: “Tampa 2012: Where Stupidity Meets Humidity.” And that’s when Mitt Romney was the Republican nominee.

* “Money Ball”: An all-too-fitting description of the negotiations–and priorities–of Major League Baseball as manifested in management-player scenarios to open the season.    

* You go, Jeff Scott. The new head football coach at USF was among the Tampa protest marchers.

* “Angela Merkel represents everything Trump loathes: Globalism, multilateralism, international law. Trump aligns more with the well-known authoritarian leaders in the world.”–Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff, Berlin-based vice president of the German Marshall Fund, a research group.

* “I am your president of law and order.”–President Donald Trump.

* “I think we need to look hard at who we elect. … What is their character like? What are their ethics?”–Retired Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff.

* “What happens to a dream deferred? Maybe it sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?”–Langston Hughes.

* “What I want to see is not a rush to judgment, but a rush to justice.”–Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, author, NBA Hall of Famer and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient.

* “‘Qualified immunity’ shields government officials from liability for damages–even if they have violated the Constitution–so long as they did not violate ‘clearly established’ law. In this extraordinary time, ending ‘qualified immunity’ would be one of the most powerful first steps that the court or Congress could take to improve police accountability.”–UCLA law professor Joanna C. Schwartz.

* “(U.S. police are) much more militarized  than (other) Western countries. We do on average have more aggressive policing than our peers.”–Jennifer Earl, University of Arizona professor of government and public policy.

* “To stop bad cops and police abuse, we must tackle police unions.”–Peter Sudeman, Reason Magazine.

* “There is no such thing as rock bottom for Trump. Assume the worst is yet to come. … He must be removed.”–George Will, Washington Post.

* “What’s unprecedented is that never before have we been led by a man who so completely inverts the spirit of Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address. With malice toward all; with charity for none.”–Brett Stephens, New York Times.

* “Most sophisticated dictators don’t argue that they’re angels. They argue that America is sanctimonious and hypocritical because we do the same things they do.”–Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-New Jersey.

* “America’s allies see a president further withdrawing U.S. leadership at a time when the world seeks to unite against the common enemy of the coronavirus.”–Dan Balz, Washington Post.

* “He has maxed out his base. … His polls are down, he has historically high negatives.”–Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal.

* “The more that the protests highlight the need to improve the country’s ruptured race relations, then, the more it is likely to harm the president’s odds of reelection.”–Michael Tesler, Washington Post.

* “Preach a false version of history.”–What the state of Virginia will no longer do, pledged Gov. Ralph Northam, in announcing that the iconic statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee will be removed from Monument Avenue in Richmond.

* “The landscape of policing has changed dramatically in the last five days. 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.

 “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

* It should be alarming and embarrassing that the president of the U.S. should be called out to delete tweets. Twitter, which Trump uses as a bullhorn to his 80 million followers, recently attached fact-checked disclaimers to Trump tweets about vote-by-mail fraud. “Disclaimers” is a polite word for targeting self-serving misinformation and pathological lying. BTW, Trump wasn’t the only world leader to be targeted by Twitter. It actually removed tweets by Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro over their touting of false COVID cures and ignoring social distancing orders. No, it’s never a good sign when an American president is referenced, all too appropriately, in the context of authoritarian leaders.

“Our election process will become badly tainted and a laughingstock all over the world,” noted Trump in his fact-check-warning-induced tweet. How ironic. An election process, which has already yielded a Trump presidency with accompanying collateral national and global damage, has already tainted America. As for “laughingstock,” here’s hoping the last laugh belongs to an American electorate that is finally so appalled by the Trump base’s channeling of the Oval Office version of the Rev. Jim Jones that it rallies enthusiastically and existentially around the Democratic nominee and (hopefully) relegates the Trump years to historic-anomaly status.

* Trump retribution hit a new, subterranean low with his tweets that spread a baseless claim that MSNBC host Joe Scarborough murdered a staff member in 2001. That’s just not disproportional payback for on-air criticism or hardball political rhetoric, it’s defamation and should have serious consequences–even if social media companies are still, inexplicably, exempt from libel laws that apply to other publishers.

* “Market up BIG, DOW crosses 25,000. S&P 500 over 3000. States should open up ASAP. The Transition to Greatness has started, ahead of schedule.” Yes that was the populist-in-chief underscoring that the stock market–hardly a synonym for the economy–is the measure of his presidency and “greatness.”

* Trump’s gut issue with the GOP Convention in Charlotte this summer is not one of serious pandemic priorities, but how it will affect his coronation show. He wants his live, prime-time, rubber-stamp party. The celebrity apprentice-in-chief needs a center-stage presence with a full-capacity love-in of MAGA-hatted sycophants. His business, lest we forget, is still show business. Image trumps public safety. Anything that smacks of virtual convening is antithetical to a narcissist’s needs.

* Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kayleigh McEnany: Joseph Goebbels would be embarrassed.

* “… Any difficulty and we will assume (military) control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” That was Trump’s inimitable, tit-for-tat tweet of reassurance to Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota after violent protests broke out over the killing of George Floyd .

* Imagine America’s status with China, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, the European Community, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UN and the WHO, if Trump were not, as he has self-heralded, a superior negotiator.

How unconscionably outrageous and tragic that there is an “I can’t breathe” sequel. From Eric Garner on Staten Island to George Floyd in Minneapolis.

A few takeaways.

Police forces have to police their own. Everybody knows who the “bad cops” are. They are few in number, but disproportionate in their impact on black lives and the reputation of the rest of the force. That’s not fair across the board. Targeted people die unnecessarily and cops are unfairly stereotyped and demonized. As a result, community policing is undermined and society suffers.

Second, isn’t it about time that police departments flat out ban the use of chokeholds and other neck restraints? Cell phone footage of de facto executions is a horrific reminder.

Third, Tampa’s recent experience with rioting and looting–and a resultant curfew–was put into perspective by Black Lives Matter Tampa. The organization helped plan an East Tampa rally against police brutality that helped make the case without making mayhem. They brought in dozens of trained legal observers, safety marshals in orange and yellow vests and a team of medics just in case. “We don’t condone any lawlessness,” said BLMT in a statement that helped offset the “No Justice, No Peace!” zero-sum mindset of some demonstrators.

Fourth, amid the moral imperatives there is pure pragmatism. Protests that result in looting and shooting and setting fires are counterproductive to the cause. That Champ’s Sports store that was burned to the ground or the Saigon Bay Vietnamese Restaurant that was damaged had nothing to do with racism and murder. But the owners–and their employees and patrons–are paying an outsized price for their location of proximity to rioters. The upshot: Riots only help the hard-line, “law-and-order” elements with their white nationalist rationales for racial double standards.

“Every time a riot develops, it helps George Wallace.” That was the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. And those words still pragmatically resonate. Even more so during these racially divisive Trump years.

#AloneTogether

* “It’s just a smoldering fire, and when the conditions are ripe, it just takes off. A second wave isn’t something that happens right away.”–Dr. Marissa Levine, director of the Center for Leadership in Public Health Practice at USF.

* “The scientific data is really quite evident now about the lack of efficacy.”–Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, on the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus patients.

* “FOMO.” Fear Of Missing Out. In short, it’s the incentive for some to re-socialize imprudently now that more businesses–notably restaurants–are re-opening.

* Florida drivers were involved in 16,191 crashes in April. The previous April that figure was 33,692.

* Nearly 1 million Floridians have been tested–or just shy of 5 percent of the state’s population. Of those tested, 5.6 percent have been positive.

* Another sign of societal re-opening: Beer pong is back.

* The Commerce Department reported new-home sales climbed 0.6 percent in April, a notably unexpected increase.

* Florida state revenue was down $871 million in April.

* Given the most recent, excruciating reminder that the U.S. is still dealing with rogue policing of African-Americans, the pressure has only ratcheted up for Joe Biden to choose a black woman for the ticket. That could likely mean Sen. Kamala Harris, whose back story includes being bused for integration–as well as a prosecutorial background that will be heavily scrutinized. And, yes, the racial unrest in Minneapolis complicates the veep prospects of Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

* “The most disloyal, actual retard that has ever set foot in the Oval Office. A complete blithering idiot.” That was conservative author (“In Trump We Trust”) and commentator Ann Coulter, riffing on Trump. Count on seeing that Coulter quote again in Biden ads.  

* The AFL-CIO has endorsed Joe Biden. No surprise, but no less helpful to have the country’s largest coalition of labor unions behind your candidate–and “playing hard,” as AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka put it.

* Because there will be a female on the Dem ticket, there’s still talk of Trump matching that–think Nikki Haley, not Sarah Palin–and dropping Mike Pence. But if Pence stays on the ticket, he may become a bigger presence on the campaign trail. Maybe even get his own hat with a theme that could complement Trump pandering. Perhaps “Make America Straight Again.”

* Thank you, SpaceX and the Falcon 9 rocket. Where sigh of relief meets occasion for celebration. It’s been nearly nine years since the U.S. last launched astronauts from America. Saturday’s launch from the Kennedy Space Center–taking two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station–highlighted the changing face of space travel.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX made history: A private company had never sent people into orbit before. So, thank you, SpaceX, for giving us a hopeful and proud moment amid the chaos and worry of our perfect-storm “new normal.” A new beginning for American space exploration–and the revival of the aerospace industry in Florida–is more than a welcome diversion. It’s American progress–and a real reason for lots of virtual high-fiving.

* Gov. Ron DeSantis’ recent appointments of John Couriel and Renatha Francis to fill two vacancies on the Florida Supreme Court checked several boxes. Both come from immigrant communities. Couriel, 41, is the son of Cuban immigrants; Francis, 42, is a Jamaican immigrant. And as 40-somethings, both could theoretically be on the court for more than a generation.  And both are members–as is DeSantis–of the conservative-libertarian, “originalist” Federalist Society.

* Another hurricane season means another list of hurricane names, 21 in all–from Arthur to Wilfred. But “Hurricane Nana?” What would Emile Zola say?

* “Right now, we’re not in the second wave. We’re right in the middle of the first wave globally.”–WHO Executive Director Dr. Mike Ryan.

* “Severing ties with  the World Health Organization serves no logical purpose and makes finding a way out of this public health crisis dramatically more challenging.”–Dr. Patrice Harris, president of the American Medical Association.

* “Dereliction of duty.”–How House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy characterized the House allowing the first-ever remote Congressional floor votes. Republican leaders filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the vote-by-proxy arrangement.

* “It has become increasingly clear that money intended to rescue small businesses has often gone not to those with the greatest need but rather to those with the most shameless lawyers. They are part of the national equation: Power creates money creates more power creates more money.”–Nicholas Kristof, New York Times.

* “(Trump) doesn’t read the bible and he doesn’t live as a Christian and love thy neighbor. But he is demanding that the churches be re-opened because his evangelical base will love that. Everything he’s doing right now is to stave off a loss in November.”–Trump biographer Tim O’Brien.

* “The most critical question for American democracy: Will President Trump concede if he is defeated by Joe Biden in the November election? Or put another way, can a liar accept a truth incompatible with his devouring ego? The need to pose these questions reflects the depth of the national nightmare.”–Roger Cohen, New York Times.

* “Partisanship seems to continue to escalate in spite of the crisis. It is the worst I have seen in my lifetime. And there is no end in sight.”–Former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.

* “Far from being an odd couple, Trump and Mitch McConnell are a perfectly paired duo. They work well together as a grifter team. Trump is the clown who grabs all the attention, while McConnell picks the pockets of the distracted crowd.”–Jeet Heer, The Nation.

* “The entire GOP, which just nominated a QAnon believer as its Senate candidate in Oregon, is becoming a modern day Know Nothing Party, a cesspool of prejudice and irrationality.”–Max Boot, Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow and CNN global affairs analyst.

* “Wearing a red (MAGA) hat doesn’t inoculate you from the transmission of diseases.”–Former Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, on speculation that the GOP could relocate its Charlotte convention over disputes about social-distance guidelines.

* “North Carolina is relying on data and science to protect our state’s public health and safety.”–North Carolina’s (Democratic) Gov. Roy Cooper.

* “In Florida, the Republicans have pretty much dominated (voting by mail) in the last two decades.”–Republican Party of Florida chairman Joe Grutas.

* “It’s richly ironic that a Republican president is now screaming about a growing vote-by-mail option.”–Christian Ulvert, Miami-based Democratic strategist.

* “In the critical months of this pandemic, the cabinet has been left in the dark.”–Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried.

* “They’re not anti-cop; they’re anti-police brutality, as we all should be.”–Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan’s message to those protesting the killing of George Floyd.

* “We will help the churches. We will help the synagogues. We believe that everybody needs to worship. This is the time to worship.”–Mohamed Aqad, Islamic Society of Tampa Bay Area mosque administrator.

 “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

* “Our country was not meant to be shut down.” Or shut up.

* Vanity and ventilators. So, President Donald Trump goes to the Ford Motor Company’s repurposed factory in Michigan, which now makes ventilators, in order to be seen as doing and saying, well, something in the critical swing state of Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. It was the day after he had vilified Whitmer and the state with false claims of voter fraud.

What he was heard saying in the Ypsilanti plant was that he couldn’t wait for the country to reopen for business and Trump rallies–and also worked in a reference to “200 beautiful new miles of border wall.” And what he was seen doing was defying plant guidelines by preening about without a mask. Trump doesn’t like the optics, and his ego won’t permit public masking, even as his inability to lead during a crisis has long been unmasked.

The political upshot from the state where most polls have Trump trailing Biden: “He’s going to be asked not to return to any enclosed facilities inside our state,” announced Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.

* Bully pulpit update: The tumult over Trump taking hydroxychloroquine is certainly warranted–but not because it could put the health of the charlatan-in-chief in jeopardy. It’s because it necessarily sends a message to fellow Americans, especially those who channel this president, that an unproven malaria drug could be worth trying–potential fatal side effects notwithstanding. 

*The  Senate approved the confirmation of Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, as next director of national intelligence. His confirmation passed 49-44. For the record, that’s more “no” votes than any other DNI nominee. Maybe it’s because he was blatantly unqualified. When Congress created the DNI position two decades ago, it was with the expectation that directors would be nonpartisan national security experts. With Ratcliffe, they get a Texas congressman known for Trump loyalty whose best credential is that he has been a member of the House Intelligence Committee for a year.

* It’s beyond ironic–and hypocritical–that Trump, the embodiment of immorality, has hectored hard for churches to reopen. Perhaps he will double down to keep his appeal to evangelicals by showing up–sans mask–at a service and passing out collection plates, sharing a prayer book and joining in congregant singing and chanting.

* For the first time in more than two months, Trump was able to play some golf–at the Trump National Golf Club in suburban Virginia. No mention of whether his caddy was Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham or William Barr.

* Not that anyone’s nostalgic, but there’s a post-Cold War arms races going on. Who would have thought the “new normal” would include a competition in hypersonic (speeds in excess of Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound) weapons among the U.S., Russia and China. “Our ultimate goal is, simply, we want to dominate future battlefields,” said Mark Lewis, the Pentagon’s director of defense research and engineering for modernization. As for the commander-in-chief: “I call it the super-duper missile.” Whatever.

* Trump continues to heap scorn on the practice of voting by mail with his unproven and unprovable accusations of fraud. Presumably, that doesn’t include his While House mail-in to his “home state” of Florida.

* Political karma update: “Alabama, do not trust (Senate candidate) Jeff Sessions. He let our country down.”