Opinions to go Online

 

Now that there’s a hold on the return of Persian civilization to the Stone Age, let’s focus on something so important that we can all rely on its well-prepared, prioritized occurrence. That would be UFC coming to the Blight House.

UFC—Ultimate Fighting Championship—is a sport that celebrates violence. Call it bar room brawling in bare feet. It’s particularly popular with those enamored of extreme masculine stereotypes.

Also known as cage-match fighting, it will be coming to the White House in June to help celebrate President Donald Trump’s 80^th birthday as well as to be part of America’s 250^th anniversary. A 5,000-seat arena will be constructed on the White House lawn.

“This will be one of the greatest and most historic sports events in history,” exclaimed White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, who, BTW, is a former UFC spokesperson.

It’s all too appropriate.

Cage-match fighting–or “human cockfighting” as described by the late Sen. John McCain–is the perfect MAGA metaphor. The veneration of bloody, brute force is ironically and indecorously appropriate for Trump’s bombastic, no-holds-barred, cartoonish-optics approach to governance.

Morphing a WH lawn into a MAGA-macho, fistic milieu should be seen as a societal affront, one that seems more like an over-the-top skit on brutish masculinity from Saturday Night Live.

BTW, what else might be looming as suitable celebrations for this Trump Blight House? How about a Congressional Corn Hole tournament or an ICE dodge ball competition?

* This is, as we well know, a mid-term year, and Dems are perforce encouraged. Since Trump’s re-election, Dems nationally have flipped some 30 state legislative seats. GOPsters have flipped none. A major factor: independent voters breaking for Dems.

* Another rationale for optimism: Over the last decade, we’ve seen that GOPsters vote a lot less reliably when Trump is not on the ballot.

* The Democratic Party’s two best speakers: Pete Buttigieg and David Jolly. But both come with major caveats: The former is gay in an anti-woke politisphere; the latter is a former Republican.

 

* “No Kings” signage: ^“They Want 1939 Germany. They’ll Get 1789 France.”

* Acerbic insiders at the National Security Agency say NSA also stands for “No Such Agency” and “Never Say Anything.”

* AI (Artificial Intelligence): problematic; AI (Actual Ignorance): scary.

* For the Pun of It: A long knife that can cut four loaves of bread at the same time: a four-loaf cleaver.

* “The secret of a good impromptu speech is careful preparation.”—Mark Twain.

* ICE update: The Miami Field Office averages approximately 120 arrests per day and totals more than 10,000 so far this year—and 41,000 since Trump returned to office. No other region is close. The Miami Field Office includes the state of Florida plus Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

* Those special election wins by Dems—notably in Hillsborough and Palm Beach counties—have boosted morale about mid-terms, including the 2026 gubernatorial race. “I’m convinced that if the election were held today, we’d win the governorship,” assessed Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Jolly, who has gathered some fund-raising momentum by bringing in more than $900,000 in the last week of March.

Context: Low-turnout, state special elections are not proof of a seismic shift, but they are encouraging. And when Republicans outnumber Dems by 1.5 million registered voters, the key determinant are the independents, who are more likely than GOPsters to be influenced by tariff-tainted prices, an unpopular war with U.S. casualties, ICE Picks and Epstein pedaFILES.

* “Profit is not going to be a bad word when it comes to the education industry.” That was Congressman Byron Donalds, GOPster gubernatorial candidate, on the future of education in Florida. In short, the future of Florida education is about profit and loss as well as teach and learn.

* Speaking of $, Donalds picked up a $3 million campaign donation from the Seminole Tribe of Florida and $7.5 million from billionaire Wall Street trader Jeff Yass.

* “I will continue fighting to permanently ban drilling in the Eastern Gulf and protect our coastal way of life.”—Congresswoman Kathy Castor.

* Attorney General James Uthmeier is targeting the NFL’s “Rooney Rule,” which requires teams to interview minority candidates for coaching and front office roles. He wants to stop its enforcement in Florida. We know this Administration is “anti-woke,” but the “Rooney Rule” as an attorney general priority? Maybe Uthmeier should spend more time on his UF course work.

* The Donald J. Trump International Airport in Palm Beach. What’s next? MAGA-NASA?

* According to U.S. News & World Report rankings, USF’s Morsani College of Medicine retained its Tier 1 Status. USF’s College of Nursing is the top school in Florida and #22 overall.

* Another major-impact development for Tampa that has nothing to do with Water Street or the Rays: A 4,300-seat concert venue, slated to open in 2028, will be part of Ybor City’s Gasworx.

* Sometimes we just need a break from news cycle anxiety and angst—from MAGA chaos to Flori-duh. In a ceremony at the Tampa Museum of Art presided over by Congresswoman Kathy Castor, Cora Bowen of Blake High School was honored as the Congressional Art Competition winner for Hillsborough County Public Schools. Bowen’s art work, “A Million Paths To Take,” will be featured for one year in the U.S. Capitol alongside other Congressional Art winners from around the country. Congrats, Cora.

* Swearing to tell the whole truth: According to a Washington Post analysis of social media posts and public remarks, since February 2025 Dems have sworn more often than their Republican counterparts. WTF!

* “First They Came For My College,” the documentary about the right-wing takeover of New College, was recently screened at the Florida Film Festival and will be streaming and playing various venues later in the year. Not expected to check it out: Florida’s anti-woke governor.

* That was then: Beirut was the Paris of the Middle East.

* Hormuz News: Still strategic leverage by the “loser” of a war. Ironically, Iran now likely sees the need for a nuclear weapon more than ever.

* Impressive hoops hires: USF’s women’s and men’s basketball teams have new coaches. Kristy Curry is the new women’s coach. Her resume includes at least 100 wins at three different Division One programs: Texas Tech, Purdue and Alabama. For the men, it’s the veteran Chris Mack. He has more than 300 career victories leading Texas Tech, Xavier and Charleston. Bringing in Curry and Mack are indicators that USF, although a midmajor program, is not some stepping stone. Go, Bulls.

* The NFL averages nearly $11 billion per season in revenue from its media deals.

* Because President Trump did not seek Congressional approval for his war in Iran, he has been advised to use euphemisms instead of “war.” That’s how we got to “excursion.” There are, however, no applicable euphemisms for narcissistic chaos.

* U.S. relations with Germany have been undermined, no surprise, by America’s insulting, unilateral approach to allies. And it hardly helps that gasoline in Germany has now topped 2 euros per liter, the equivalent of $9.48 per gallon.

* “Haphazard” and “not well thought out.”—That’s how John Bolton, former Trump national security advisor, has characterized U.S. actions in Iran. For Bolton, that was an understatement.

* “This is not making America great again. This is evil.”—Former GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, on Trump’s Iran war.

* “Trump has managed in just one year to destroy the American order that was, and he has weakened America’s ability to protect its interests in the world that will be. If Americans thought defending the liberal world order was too expensive, wait until they start paying for what comes next.”—Robert Kagan, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

* “I think in the world today, you need allies.”—Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.

* “I’m not going to start a war. I’m going to stop wars.”—Prevaricator-in-Chief, Nov. 6, 2024.

* “We did Iwo Jima; we can do this.”—That was Trump senatorial lackey Lindsey Graham, as he encouraged Trump to seize Iran’s Kharg Island, its main oil-export base. Only issue with the Iwo Jima analogy is that, irrelevant to Graham or unbeknownst to President Bone Spurs, some 26,000 American marines were killed or wounded there.

* Macho militarism reminder: “You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself…Go get your own oil.” And if that were a bit too nuanced, Trump later added: “Back to the Stone Ages.” Does Marco Rubio not yet regret his Faustian bargain for 2028 GOP leverage? Or is he envisioning el jefe de Cuba?

* Speaking of “back to the Stone Ages,” it’s beyond ironic that we are the ones most intent upon Iran not having a nuclear weapon. Yet the world’s most dangerous, unhinged leader has plenty.

* While Trump continued to demean mail-in voting, calling it “corrupt as hell,” he voted by mail by casting his big, beautiful ballot as a Palm Beach County resident.

* “We’re the only country that does it that way.” That was Trump again on mail-in voting. Wrong. Dozens of countries also allow it.

* Presidential priority: “We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of day care.” Trump, on proposing a $1.5 trillion defense-spending boost and a reduction of 10% in non-defense spending.

* Trump’s advance man: VP JD Vance heightened his profile, if nothing else, by flying to Budapest and offering the Trump Administration’s support to Europe’s foremost autocrat, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban, who then lost his re-election bid. Vance also traveled to Islamabad, Pakistan to lead peace negotiations with Iran. They ended artlessly sans deal. Welcome back, JD.

* Looming legacy: Forget impeachment and the 25^th Amendment; sycophantic invertebrates won’t permit it. The most likely denouement if Trump doesn’t bludgeon the constitution and run for a third term: leaving the country like one of his casinos, broken and in need of new management.

* “Netanyahu wants every American president to believe that there is no legitimate Palestinian alternative to Hamas … and, therefore, a two-state solution is impossible.”—Thomas Friedman, NYT.

* “I’m tired of old men dreaming up wars for young men to fight.”—Sen. George McGovern.

* “You have to be convinced that this (Iran war) is the right thing to do, particularly now that we’re on the eve of potentially the insertion of American combat troops.”—Steve Bannon.

* “This is not our war; we have not started it.”—German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.

* “The largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market.”—International Energy Agency.

* “It is essential to our national security to exempt all Gulf oil and gas activities from the Endangered Species Act requirements.”—Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

* “Trump in his second term is like Michael Corleone in ‘The Godfather,’ settling all the family business.”—Carlos Lozada, NYT.

* “People only leave Washington by way of the box—ballot or coffin.”—The late Claiborne Pell, Democratic senator from Rhode Island.

* “We are losing working-class voters—the core of our coalition since the New Deal—to a corrupt billionaire with a gold toilet.”—Former Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer.

* “Humanitarian aid is needed now, but a broad economic and political transition is essential. Progress will come when the Cuban people are free to speak, organize, innovate and build a modern economy that reflects their talents and aspirations.”—Congresswoman Kathy Castor.

* “There’s no opposition waiting in the wings and no one like Delcy (Rodriguez, the co-opted, acting Venezuelan president who replaced the kidnapped Nicolas Maduro). The elements are in place where you could imagine (Castro family members) trying to transition from a revolutionary oligarchy to a capitalist oligarchy.”—Ricardo Zuniga, former State Department official, who helped broker President Barack Obama’s opening with Cuba.

* “We cannot be passive observers. … An engaged public, prepared to take to the streets, is the Calvary that will save American democracy.”—Howard Simon, former executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.

* “Right now, it costs so much money just to be alive.”—Florida Democratic state Rep. Angie Nixon, who is a candidate for Marco Rubio’s senate seat.

* “We can’t overstate the importance of workforce housing in our community.”—Mayor Jane Castor.

* “This is about more than a (Tampa baseball) stadium. It is about whether Tampa Bay is willing to take the next step forward as a major league city—not just in sports, but in vision, execution and ambition.”—Will Weatherford, former Speaker of the Florida House, chairman of the USF Board of Trustees and an investor in the Tampa Bay Rays.