Opinions to go Online

 

Thanks to President Donald Trump, Greenland is in the geopolitical cross hairs. His latest real estate fixation has alienated allies and pleased those benefiting from NATO chaos. It’s manifestly not what America should be fostering, but in the narcissistic world of Trump, it’s about what it has always been about: ego-driven, artless deal-making and Donsense branding. Only this isn’t about stiffing leverage-challenged subcontrators or playing the bankruptcy card. He’s playing the hand dealt to the one in charge, the one who happens to be the worst-case iteration of Roy Cohn.

Greenland is of legitimate interest. It has been looked at through a strategic lens before. During the Cold War, the U.S., under an agreement with Denmark, turned Greenland into a military asset. The U.S. even offered to purchase Greenland in 1946. But after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, most U.S. military installations were closed.

Today’s geopolitical reality includes security concerns over Arctic competition with Russia and China over natural resources and shipping lanes. It’s a legitimate issue, but one that can be addressed collectively by the U.S. and its 31 NATO allies. This, however, is counter-intuitive to Trump, who’s never played well with others unless they’re bearing gifts.

Greenland, the world’s largest island, has been evolving along with melting ice. But Trump the unilateralist isn’t about prioritizing mutual security, the lodestar of NATO, or working with allies. It’s about owning the world’s largest island.

He even admitted in a recent White House gaggle that it was “psychologically important to me.” Fiona Hill, a senior director for Russian and European affairs in the first Trump Administration, summed it up all too accurately. “He wants the greatest land deal in history—that’s the context,” she underscored.

Trump recently posted an altered image on social media showing a map of the United States that included Venezuela, Cuba, Canada and Greenland. It’s all part of his “branding” instinct—as if he were presiding over the U.S. Organization. Maybe he envisions a Trump Tower Nuuk.

 

* According to the Federal Election Commission, the RNC raised $172 million in 2025; the DNC raised $145 million for the year.

* “I think it will be part of every single campaign, up and down the ballot.”—Brad Woodhouse, executive director of Protect Our Care, on the critical role of health care in the mid-terms.

* National Newsom News: “Louisiana’s request is denied.” That was California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s high-profile response to an extradition request for a doctor charged with providing abortion pills in Louisiana.

* Political reality: According to a recent Gallup poll, 45% of Americans identify as political independents. This is in sync, however, with long-held political science theory that such “independents” are often partisans in disguise—with most leaning one way or the other, as opposed to third-party yearnings.

 

* Still my favorite spoonerish: “Is it kisstomary to cuss the bride?”

* Random bumper sticker: “Kick More Ass Than You Sit On.”

* Bumper sticker from the Iranian-hostage era: “The Ayatollah Is An Assahollah.”

* Sleep is important, but not important enough to lose sleep over.

* Most people in most countries deserve better than the governments they’re stuck with.

* No citizen-led ballot initiative will be on the ballot this November in the Free State of Florida.

* The Florida Bar didn’t reprimand Matt Gaetz over alleged sexual misbehavior. Takeaway: Being disturbingly, disgustingly sleazy just isn’t reason enough.

* 4^th Amendment update: “Many live in a prolonged state of uncertainty, and this will only worsen the situation.” That was Isaret Jeffers, founder of Colectivo Arbol, a group that helps farm workers and Central American immigrants, on the revelation of an ICE memo allowing officers to forcibly enter homes without a judge’s warrant—just an administrative warrant.

* Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier’s office sent out an ironic, unsettling message on MLK Day. It announced an opinion identifying more than 80 state DEI laws that “promote and require racial discrimination on its face.” Florida Sen. LaVon Bracy Davis, an Orlando Democrat, gave the proper response. “Eliminating these is not colorblind. It’s history blind.”

* Dems now trail Repugnicans by more than 1.4 million registered voters. As recently as 2018, Dems actually had a voter-registration lead. Purple never looked so good.

* As we well know, Florida has never had a governor of color, although Andrew Gillum came tantalizingly close in 2018. That could change in 2026. That would certainly happen if there’s an all-Black match-up between the Trump-endorsed GOPster Byron Donalds and Democrat Jerry Demings, the Orange County mayor.

* More than 4.7 million people in Florida receive health insurance through the federal marketplace. That is the largest number of people—many of whom remain anxious amid Trump’s protean priorities—in any state to be receiving federal health care.

* “Education is not indoctrination.”—Gov. Ron DisIngenuous.

* Florida’s DOGE accused the city of St. Petersburg of overspending its 2025-26 budget by $49.4 million. “A big chunk of it is personnel cost that they probably don’t need,” said Florida CFO Blaise Incoglia.

* “Who the hell would have believed this? Look at what hockey has become in Florida.” That was Lightning founder and NHL Hall of Famer Phil Esposito, on Tampa successfully hosting the highly hyped, Gasparilla-themed Stadium Series game with Boston at Raymond James Stadium before a crowd of 65,000. BTW, the Stadium Series marketing coup for Tampa was ESPN’s most viewed NHL regular-season game.

* Fox News’ Will Cain recently referenced a “weird kind of smugness” in the way “some of these liberal white women interact with authority.” Another MAGA target revealed.

* Some right-wing influencers and commentators have now turned the targeting into an acronym: AWFUL (Affluent White Female Urban Liberal).

* Because of Iran’s internet blackout, anti-government activists have been smuggling in Starlink terminals. It helped that the State Department coordinated with SpaceX on the sanctions exemption for digital communication tools in Iran. It also helps that Starlink services reportedly will be offered for free.

* WaPo has made significant newsroom layoffs. Last year it trimmed dozens of journalists with buyouts. Years of financial losses have taken a toll. Too bad Jeff Bezos couldn’t write a check and cover it in the interests of free speech. It cost Amazon $75 million to underwrite the “Melania” infomercial.

* Tabloid book ends: The New York Post now has a West Coast sibling, the California Post. Heads up, “Commiefornia.”

* Moneyball. No, they won’t look like NASCAR drivers, but college athletes will soon be sporting advertising patches on their uniforms. NCAA Division I leaders have approved such uniform patches in a move that could generate millions to fund athletic departments looking for new ways to pay players. Beginning Aug. 1, Division I teams can place up to two patches of no more than 4 square inches on uniforms for regular-season games. Stay tuned for additional changes in the post season.

* “I believe that it’s either going to be located at Hillsborough College or the team’s going to be in Orlando.” That was County Commissioner Ken Hagan pragmatically weighing in on the Rays’ stadium plans. Hagan, of course, is well aware that Orlando, although a smaller TV market than Tampa Bay, has a lot more bed-tax revenue. The city is also home to the “Orlando Dreamers” group that is looking for an MLB franchise. It’s serious and has more than $1.5 billion in investor pledges. Orlando is either Rays’ de facto leverage or Rays’ Plan B.

* At a White House ceremony, the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers gave the gilt aficionado two championship rings, a “Trump 47” jersey and a gold hockey stick.

* This summer’s World Cup will be played in sites in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The next World Cup, in 2030, will also be tri-hosted: Spain, Portugal and Morocco.

* The Bucs disappointed by not making the playoffs, but they did beat the Super Bowl champs.

* Hypocritically ironic authoritarianism: Trump has shown combative support for anti-authoritarian protesters in Venezuela and Iran. As for Minneapolis? All in for ICE Gestapo.

* One result of Trump’s constant threats to invoke the Insurrection Act: We’re all learning about American statute laws—albeit in the worst (ICE invasions, election-suspensions threats) way.

* The U.S. was the only major tourism market in the world to decline in 2025. Hardly happenstance.

* Lest we forget: Former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s House Judiciary Committee testimony was a sobering reminder of what the insurrectionist Trump was up to on Jan. 6, 2021. “Our investigation revealed that Donald Trump is the person who caused Jan. 6, that it was foreseeable to him and that he sought to exploit the violence,” said Smith.

* “I think the dementia and the cognitive decline are palpable.” That was Ty Cobb, a White House attorney in Trump’s first term, on Trump’s “significant decline” in his mental faculties.

* Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer rejected a Trump offer to sign off on billions for New York infrastructure projects in exchange for the renaming of Penn Station and Dulles International Airport after Trump. A compromise? Perhaps the renaming of the Queens Landfill?

* The U.S. has finalized its withdrawal from the World Health Organization.

* Who knew? Many Baptist churches have pastors who also work other jobs. In the Cities Church in St. Paul, Minn., a U.S. ICE official serves as a pastor. Really.

* The imperial, off-putting Trump was upstaged by Canadian PM Mark Carney at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “Middle powers must act together, because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu,” underscored Carney.

* Trump’s Gaza-focused Board of Peace is looking increasingly to key allies as a self-serving rival to the UN Security Council.

* All too true—and scary. This was Trump’s response to a query about whether there were any limits to his power. “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”

* When Trump was gifted the Nobel Peace Prize by its recipient, anti-Venezuela regime activist Maria Corina Machado, it did not make him an official Peace Prize laureate. Nor was it precedent setting. In 1943, the Norwegian writer Knute Hamsun, a Hitler admirer, sent his (1920) Nobel literature medallion to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. Didn’t count then either.

* “Discombobulator”: Trump’s term for a secret U.S. pulsed energy weapon used to disable Venezuelan equipment during the blackout capture of Nicolas Maduro. Deadpanned Trump: “I’m not allowed to talk about it.” Promise?

* It’s been reported that there have been sightings of locals in Nuuk, Greenland sporting red MAGA caps. Word has it that these lids, however, stand for Make America Go Away.

 

* “Man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.”—How Immanuel Kant defined the Enlightenment.

* “It is clear they (ICE) are not welcome in Milan, without a doubt.”—Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala.

* “At some point, I believe the reality is that security comes from military capability, but even more from relationships, alliances, mature diplomacy and credibility on the world stage.”—Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who formerly ran the Joint Special Operations Command

* “Numerous federal judges have ruled against Trump, but they are in the position of trying to put out a house fire with bottles of San Pellegrino.”—Steve Chapman, Chicago Tribune.

* “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it’s faced.”— James Baldwin.

* “Today, roughly 70% of Americans say they don’t believe in the American dream. … Absent that shared vision of possibility, people revert to a tribal, us-versus-them morality.”—David Brooks, The Atlantic.

* “It’s just been accepted that masked policing isn’t consistent with a democratic society.”—Radley Balko, author of “Rise Of The Warrior Cop.”

* “If, as Martin Luther King promised, the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice, we could use some more torque these days.”—Ron Charles, WaPo.

* “Democrats need a majority that lasts, like the New Deal coalition.”—David Plouffe, former Obama campaign manager and senior adviser in Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential bid.

* “The Epstein files have turned a lot of the base against Trump. They’re not happy with Bondi.”—Jake Hoffman, executive director of the Tampa Bay Young Republicans.

* “They put (Ashley) Moody in the Senate to be a ‘yes’ vote for Trump and the billionaires. She’s not Florida’s senator. She’s theirs.”—Retired Lt. Col. Alex Vindman, a Democrat and the whistleblower who triggered Donald Trump’s first impeachment, who is now challenging Moody for the U.S. senate seat previously held by Marco Rubio.

* “I’m excited to update our History of Communism standards detailing the fall of the Maduro regime.”—Florida Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas.

* “We’re supportive of (the Rays) pursuing that (Hillsborough College mixed-use development) partnership, because I think it could be good for them. I think it could be good for the state, but I definitely think it could be really good for this region.”—Gov. Ron DeSantis.

* “No matter your political stripes, no one wants to see a reckless, Gestapo-like force harassing innocent Americans. That’s why I did not vote to approve the Department of Homeland Security funding bill. … We will celebrate America’s 250^th birthday this year—a time that we can recommit to standing up for our values.”—Congresswoman Kathy Castor.

* “Major League Baseball belongs in Tampa Bay.”—MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred.

This was going to be mostly about Venezuela, the Donroe Doctrine, Greenland, ICE and why I miss college football from back in the day. Another eclectic day at the scribe office.

But life intervenes. Stuff happens.

Spoiler alert. I am no longer “No-Vid.” I was blindsided and bed-ridden before Christmas and well into a crappy new year. I’ll spare you the details. No soiler alert needed.

It took me into a weird place of escapism and mortality intimations. It happens when there’s a lot more behind you than ahead. So COVID senior citizenry during the Trump era can feel like constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. Anxiety and depression can be a given. Peter Finch’s “Mad as hell” rant in “Network” always looming.

There were days when I would close my eyes, and it looked like an ophthalmologist’s field test. Other times it felt like being locked in a Jackson Pollock gallery.

But the dreams were largely nostalgic, flashbacks to youthful inflection points. Two in particular:

^When the O’Neill family of Philadelphia moved from plebian Kensington to the Archie Bunker-row house ambiance of Mayfair, I was about 8 years old. All the neighborhood guys—prospective buddies—were 2 to 3 years older. Enough to look down on the new little kid on the block. But my dad and nearby uncle engaged me a lot in baseball and football, and I could hold my own with the older guys. My mom also helped in this regard. She called me in each weekday evening at 5:00—“Joseph, dinner’s ready.” It was actually code because that’s when Howdy Doody came on, and I didn’t want the older guys to know I was still watching it.

Then one day my mother broke the code. “Joseph, Howdy Doody’s on.” Game on. I got even better at touch football and stickball.

^When I was a sophomore at La Salle High School, I was on what was to become an undefeated, Hall of Fame football team and city champion. I was on the kickoff receiving team, so I would definitely be playing in the season-opener against Bishop Neuman in South Philly. My father, a city bus driver was as pumped as I was. Then he was told he had to fill in for a driver who had called in sick and would have to take over his route and miss my debut.

He did a work-around. He drove the route in the late morning until there were no more passengers. Then he got out and put up the “Charter” sign in front and headed straight to the football field in time for the opening kickoff. I returned it and broke my collarbone in the process. And dad was there. To cheer and then to console.

A final thought on this intense fortnight: epiphanies happen. Life shouldn’t be an assignment. It’s an experience. Live. Love. Laugh. Learn. And even leave a legacy. Otherwise, it’s an ironic ruse.