Opinions to go Online

Vladimir Putin, as we well know, has long seen NATO expansion as encroachment that doubled down on the USSR’s implosion. United Soviet republics, Warsaw Pact members. How dated.

As for Ukrainian compromise, it’s beyond problematic when Putin wants to return to the Cold War, back when NATO’s members besides the U.S. were: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the UK. Only this isn’t a who-blinks-first, nuclear-age confrontation over Luxembourg. It’s an ominous, tragic reminder of what can happen with a geopolitical authoritarian who wants a European reset and renewed relevance for the erstwhile USSR. The land-grabbing, feral-eyed, (bo)toxic Czar Putin is the worst-case perfect storm of Napoleon complex, KGB culture, autocratic values and historic revisionism.

What’s next as sanctions play out and cyber-attack scenarios ratchet? Nobody’s saying: “Yes, Ukraine, we want you now as our 31^st member.” But President Joe Biden has made clear that “Putin has failed in his goal of dividing the West. NATO is as united and resolute as it’s ever been.”

Timing is everything.

* “This is a complete rupture now in U.S.-Russia relations.”–President Joe Biden.

* “It looks as if moderate and conservative Democrats are doing everything they can to obscure the fact that, under their leadership and following their agenda, the Democratic Party has run aground and can’t get back on course. They sense a blowout in November and would rather play the blame game than do anything concrete to regain the ground they’ve help lose.”–Jamelle Bouie, NYT.

* “VOTING is just like DRIVING. If you want to go backward, choose ‘R.’ If you want to go forward, CHOOSE ‘D.’” Thanks, again, Kevin, for sending an all too apt metaphor for our 21^st century, two-party system. Plus the one below.

* “Let’s Go Darwin.” No, we can’t speed up political evolution.

* According to the CDC, COVID-19 was the third-leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2020. The top two: heart disease and cancer.

* According to a study in Nature Medicine, the risk of cardiovascular disease of all types increases substantially in the year after a COVID infection—even a mild case.

* 5.4 million: The number of eligible Floridians, 5 and up, who remain unvaccinated.

* 6.6 million: The number of eligible Floridians who are overdue for a booster shot.

* Florida’s positivity rate last week: 5.6 percent. The week prior: 8.2 percent. The week before that: 14.3 percent.

* Hillsborough County Administrator Bonnie Wise signed a directive giving county employees and visitors the option to not wear a mask inside county buildings.

* Curtis Reeves was found not guilty in that deadly movie theater shooting. It’s another reminder of the difference between “not guilty” and “innocent.” The former is legal, the latter moral. In short, the truly innocent don’t bring guns to a movie theater.

* Money Management firm DoubleLine Capital LP has moved to Tampa. The move by billionaire fund manager Jeffrey Gundlach, relocates DoubleLine, which oversaw more than $134 billion at the end of 2021, from Glendale, Calif.

* Floridian Adam Johnson, 37, the Capitol rioter who posed while toting Nancy Pelosi’s lectern, was sentenced by a DC District judge to 75 days in jail plus one year of supervised release and a $5,000 fine and $500 in damage restitution. Judge Reggie Walton said he wanted to send a message that such conduct was unacceptable and that there are going to be “severe consequences.” Too bad he didn’t. Alas, Johnson dodged the “severe consequences” bullet that should be aimed at any and all democracy-undermining, insurrectionist traitors.

* “I believe there are a lot of people in this country that are influenced by Marxism that don’t even realize they’re influenced by Marxism.”–That was CPAC speaker Marco Rubio, whose Marxism influence is more likely via Groucho.

* Speaking of Rubio, he said he planned on being a no-show at President Biden’s State of the Union speech. His reason: the requirement to follow strict COVID guidelines. “I’m just tired of all the COVID theater crap,” he said by way of explanation.

* “This is another red meat pandering bill, and it has nothing to do with parental rights. It is empowering mean people to be more mean.”–State Rep. Michael Grieco, D-Miami Beach, in reference to Florida’s so-called “Don’t say gay” bill.

* The Department of Health is now recommending that businesses should stop requiring employees to wear masks.

* “There is a place in science for those who like to go against the grain. And that place is research or academia, which is his specialty. He can publish all the editorials he wants decrying accepted science, but what he cannot and should not do is lead the Florida Department of Health.”–State Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton, referring to newly confirmed Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo.

* Plaudits to “Saturday Night Live” for pre-empting its cold comedic opening with a tribute to Ukraine that featured the Ukrainian Chorus Dumka of New York. Moving.

* Actor-activist Sean Penn had been in Ukraine filming a documentary on the Russian invasion before fleeing to Poland.

* Periodically, I gaze at our home library to see what books remain shelved that I haven’t read. There are very few, otherwise it makes you feel like an imposter. In the media memoir section, I spotted “Events Leading Up To My Death” by Howard K. Smith, the American journalist whose career spanned radio reporting to network (ABC) anchoring to presidential debate (Kennedy-Nixon) moderating. It was published in 1996; he died, at 87, in 2002. Yes, I’ve read it. The title still takes me aback. It’s as memorable as it is poignantly prescient.

* If break-dancing can become an Olympic sport–as it will in Paris in 2024—then why not the “Bristol Stomp.” Yo.

* Computer store: “Out for a quick byte.”

* Diner window: “Don’t stand there and be hungry, come in and get fed up.”

* Congrats to the undefeated Tampa Prep boys soccer team for wining the Class 3A state championship. Tampa Prep was ranked No. 1 in the nation by MaxPreps.

* The Lightning won its (outdoor) “Stadium Series” debut in Nashville with a 3-2 win over the home town Predators. The Bolts-Preds game was played in front of nearly 70,000 spectators, making it, by far, the largest crowd the Lightning have ever played in front of.

* Vladimir Putin asserted that Russian troops are in east Ukraine as “peacekeepers.” That’s like saying the Trump-incited, Capitol insurrectionists were true “patriots.”

* “After over A YEAR of muzzling by the Liberal Big Tech tyrants: TRUMP. IS. BACK.”–That was Trump toady—aka House Minority Leader—Kevin McCarthy in a fund-raising email referring to Trump’s new social media app (Truth Social).

* “Rick Scott (in his CPAC-announced ‘Rescue America’ plan) also wants to restore the construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall and name it after, you guessed it, Donald Trump.”–Inae Oh, Mother Jones. But no naming rights’ payment?

* “Playing (him) like a drum.”–How Trump characterized Putin’s working relationship with President Biden over Ukraine.