Sports Shorts

  • Luck of the draw: The Rays and the Yankees play each other 10 times. That’s 1/6 of the season against a really good team with a payroll three times that of the Rays.
  • Sports, as we know, can be a welcome diversion from the rest of life. But with a pandemic, the impact on the game is part of the optics. From masks to “cut-out” fans to politics. Now we have the Rays purchasing the contract of lefty reliever Sean Gilmartin. Yes, he’s the husband of White House press sycophant Kayleigh McEnany.
  • Speaking of fan cut-outs, there was a familiar one the other night at a Kansas City Royals game—at least familiar to those who remember “Weekend at Bernie’s.”
  • University of Florida football fans have to like that No. 8 pre-season ranking by USA Today. But context matters: SEC rivals Alabama, Georgia and LSU are ranked 3, 4 and 5. Plus, there’s that pandemic thing and whether there will be a season or not. Otherwise, go, Gators.

Quoteworthy

  • “I am confident that the alliance (NATO) will be all the better and stronger for it. We can see some moves begin within weeks.”—Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, on the Pentagon’s decision to cut American troops in Germany from 36,000 to 24,000.
  • “Whether it’s China or Russia or Iran, we’re not going to put up with it.”—National security adviser Robert O’Brien, in vowing to protect the 2020 U.S. election from foreign interference.
  • “I think the last person Russia wants to see in office is Donald Trump, because nobody has been tougher on Russia than I have—ever.”—Donald Trump.
  • “Far from a strongman, Mr. Trump has lately become a heckler in his own government, promoting medical conspiracy theories on social media, playing no constructive role in either the management of the coronavirus pandemic or the negotiation of an economic rescue plan in Congress—and complaining endlessly about the unfairness of it all.”—CNN political analyst Alexander Burns.
  • “Trump is like the reverse Midas. Everybody who is in his orbit, if they’ve had any integrity, it gets leeched away from them like some parasite.”—Gregg Gonsalves, assistant professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health.
  • “The Trump administration’s deliberate decision to intervene in the protests in Portland, Ore., with a heavy hand, unconventional means and inflammatory political rhetoric has contributed to growing public distrust—particularly of the Department of Homeland Security.”—Michael Chertoff, former secretary of homeland security under President George W. Bush.
  • “Mr. Trump didn’t hijack the Republican Party. He is the logical conclusion of what the party became over the past 50 or so years, a natural product of the seeds of race-baiting, self-deception and anger that now dominate it. … What is most telling is that the Republican Party actively embraced, supported, defended and now enthusiastically identifies with a man who eagerly exploits the nation’s racial tensions.”—Stuart Stevens, Republican political consultant and author of “It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump.”
  • “(Trump’s core base) is just glued to Fox News and Breitbart and Limbaugh and just this conservative echo chamber—and so, they’re going to turn out to vote.”—Former President Barack Obama.
  • “Congress has largely become a dysfunctional institution unable to meet the critical needs of our country.”—The “Congress at a Crossroads” report, produced by the Association of Former Members of Congress—30 House members and a senator–who left after the 2018 elections.
  • “Anything that slows down the mail could have a negative impact on everything we do, including vote by mail.”—Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union.
  • “I have never seen such an effort to sow distrust in our elections. We are used to seeing this kind of behavior from authoritarians around the globe, but it is particularly disturbing coming from the president of the United States.”—Michael J. Abramowitz, president of Freedom House that promotes democracy around the world.
  • “In a dark season of pestilence, COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism.”—Wade Davis, Rolling Stone.
  • “Police work is not a perfect science. We’re there to clean up messes. And sometimes when you clean up messes, it’s not pretty.”—Florida Rep. Val Demings, the former police chief of Orlando.
  • “F.D.R. demonstrated that the most effective leaders in crisis are often at the center of their party, not at left or right vanguard. Abraham Lincoln took enormous heat from abolitionists. But he’s the one who defeated slavery.”—David Brooks, New York Times.
  • “They’ve got their Rice, and we’ve got ours.”—A saying among some Democrats referring to Susan and Condoleezza.
  • “The lightly regulated online economy we have today is a product of that (1990s) decade, when Silicon Valley leaders persuaded starry-eyed lawmakers that young, scrappy internet companies could regulate themselves.”—University of Washington History Professor Margaret O’Mara.
  • “It appears to me that social media is a nuance-destruction machine, and I don’t think that’s helpful for a democracy.”—Jeff Bezos.
  • “Deloitte should be barred from receiving any new state contracts until they pay back the taxpayer dollars ($40 million) they received to develop the broken unemployment system, and the existing bid system should be re-evaluated.”—State Sen. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg. Deloitte Consulting recently won the ($135 million) contract to centralize and manage Florida’s Medicaid data.
  • “School leaders should be working creatively and diligently to accommodate as many students as possible with in-person instruction.”—Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran.
  • “We will focus on investing, not divesting.”—Mayor Jane Castor on her plans for TPD.
  • “You’re running out of excuses to get tested.”—St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman, in recommending all residents get a coronavirus test, regardless of symptoms because asymptomatic carriers can also spread the virus.
  • “Our schedule continues to remain intact.”—Nick Haines, president and CEO of the Bromley Companies, the developer of the mixed-use, 22-acre, $550 million Midtown Tampa project scheduled to open in February.
  • “We’re already prepared for this, and we’re moving forward and embracing it.”—Clearwater Police Chief Dan Slaughter, on City Council’s vote to adopt body cams for police officers.

Obama Nostalgia Underscored

 “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

  • “Now it is your turn to let freedom ring.” Those were the posthumous words of John Lewis—still courageously exhorting fellow citizens to live up to America’s ideals and constitutional principles. Then others, including three ex-presidents–two Democrats and a Republican–took it from there at the moving, oratorically inspiring funeral service in Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church. One soon-to-be-ex-president, however, was notably not there: the narcissist-in-chief. It was proper, if pitiful. No one would have wanted “carnage” somehow worked into another Stephen Miller speech, regardless of occasion. 

The occasion also brought out presidential juxtaposition: the righteous eloquence of Barack Obama compared to the classless snub of the oratory-challenged Trump, who was too busy multi-tasking: trying to undermine the validity of the November election and scaring white suburbanites.                                                                                                                      “A man of pure joy and unbreakable perseverance,” intoned Obama. “If we want our children to grow up in a democracy—not just with elections but a true democracy, a representative democracy…then we’re going to have to be more like John.” Obama also worked in less-than-subtle references to Trump White House race baiting—without actually mentioning Trump—although he did drop in George Wallace and Bull Connor for context.                                                                                                                               Had Trump actually been there, it would have been awkward—and personally infuriating to Trump—who has never recovered from having to sit through President Obama’s skewering at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner. And had Trump been at the Lewis service, the juxtaposition would have been beyond bearable—and a visceral, nightmarish reminder of how far we have regressed and how much many of us miss a president we could take pride in. Think Andrew Johnson succeeding Abraham Lincoln—with apologies to Johnson.

  • In recent calls with Vladimir Putin, Trump acknowledged that he never brought up reports that the Russians paid bounties to the Taliban to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Trump’s exact words (in part): “I have never discussed it with him. I’m afraid he’ll bring up golden showers in Moscow.”
  • Yes, the president is still retweeting tweets advocating the use of (anti-malaria drug) hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 patients. The FDA recently withdrew an order that allowed its use as an emergency treatment. This is unconscionable—and dangerous. Any CEO would be fired.
  • “I have to see.” That was the demander-in-chief’s disturbingly equivocal response to a query about whether he would be a “gracious” loser if Biden wins the electoral vote in November. Not shocking and hardly reassuring to Americans who consider the peaceful transfer of power a fundamental principle of this democracy.
  • Former KKK leader David Duke has been permanently banned from Twitter for repeated violations of rules on hate speech. That’s one way to get back into the news cycle—other than by endorsing Trump.
  • The entrepreneurial/political/patriotic side of America has manifested itself during the pandemic with all kinds of customized masks. But, no, don’t expect any MAGA masks.
  • Trump’s “silent majority. Neither.
  • “Nobody likes me.” Alas, plenty of “deplorables” still do.
  • More than a dozen Florida sheriffs stood stoically behind Trump when he made his campaign rant at TIA. It’s abhorrent for police to be props for an autocrat. BTW,Trump has received an endorsement from the Florida Police Benevolent Association. Disgraceful: It also means the de facto endorsement of authoritarian, stormtrooper-enamored leadership.
  • All elections are run by the states. The dates for all federal elections are determined by Congress. Surely a president would know that. Surely.
  • Imagine if Trump had been president during the 1960s—from the Cuban Missile Crisis to violent Vietnam protests and civil rights upheaval. For one thing, he would have been a Manhattan Dixiecrat. And imagine if the eras of Trump and Gen. Curtis “Bombs Away” LeMay had overlapped. And then there’s this: Would we even be here now—literally–given how prudent presidents had to tactfully respond to Cold War, nuclear trip wires from Berlin to Havana. As with Trump and a pandemic, timing is everything.

COVID Bits

# AloneTogether

  • 32.9 percent: How much America’s GDP plunged last quarter.
  • Texas Republican Congressman Louie Gohmert, who has been publicly dismissive about wearing a mask, has tested positive for the coronavirus. Karma.
  • “There are certain fundamentals—the staples of what you need to do. One is universal wearing of masks.”—Dr. Anthony Fauci.
  • 556: The total number of workers that United Air Lines will lay off at TIA and Orlando International Airport.
  • 74.8 million: The number of U.S. airline passengers in May 2019. 7.9 million: The number of U.S. airline passengers in May 2020.
  • “Equitable, fair and transparent.”—CDC Director Robert Redfield, on how vaccine allocation must be seen by the public.
  • 3: Florida universities among the top 10 in the U.S. for the highest number of coronavirus cases this year. They are: 2-UCF (438 cases); 5-UF (217); and 7-USF (182). No. 1 is the University of Texas (449).
  • This fall 59 percent of classes at USF will have some in-person component.
  • Polk County has the highest positivity rate in the Tampa Bay region: approximately 12 percent.
  • The new normal in the Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg includes parents signing a waiver of liability. Back in the Philadelphia day of St. Timothy’s Catholic School and its Order of St. Joseph nuns, my parents never had to sign a waiver allowing the nuns to cuff around the wise guys who deserved it.
  • Some counties have mask ordinances, some don’t. But no virus recognizes borders.
  • 30 percent: How much firearms sales jumped from March to June.

Dem Notes

  • “I’m voting for Joe because our democracy is at stake.”—Lin-Manuel Miranda.
  • “It is true I have never run for office on my own behalf, but I’ve run for office on behalf of others. If I were to decide to do it, there’s nothing about it that on its face would feel uncomfortable or unfamiliar.”—That’s Susan Rice, former national security adviser and ambassador to the UN, in response to those who cite the fact she has never run for—let alone held–elective office as problematic for a potential vice-presidential candidate.
  • Speaking of vice presidential scenarios, amid all the vetting, lobbying and pontificating, the most pragmatic question is still this: Who would be the person best qualified—and seen as best qualified–to succeed a President Biden after one term? It’s unlikely that an octogenarian incumbent would be back on top of the 2024 ticket.
  • The economy, of course, is always a critical element in presidential elections. Wall Street and Main Street, etc. But not all partisan political perceptions, as we well know, are grounded in facts. “Wall Street generally considers Republicans to be better for market returns but historically, that’s not true,” points out Paul Hickey, the co-founder of Bespoke Investment Group. “Democratic presidents have generally had better returns versus Republicans.” Indeed, the historical ledger shows that since 1900 the stock market has fared better—actually far better—under Democratic presidents, with a 6.7 percent annualized return for the Dow Jones industrial average compared with 3.5 percent under Republicans. For the record, it was 12.1 percent under Barack Obama.
  • “Their best maneuver is to act like they’re three points behind in Florida.”—Advice to the Biden campaign from Fernand Amandi, Miami-based Democratic strategist and pollster.
  • Reminder: In key battleground states, “late deciders” went heavily for Trump in 2016. Reminder: No let-up.
  • 30 percent: percentage of Floridians who voted by mail in 2016 and 2018. During the 2020 presidential primary, it was 45 percent.
  • How ironic that for years Florida Republicans have championed vote-by-mail as an effective tool in the get-out-the-GOPster-vote effort. Now it raises fraud hackles.

“Fox & Fiends”

  • “How different they are from four years ago. Not even watchable. They totally forgot who got them where they are. … We all miss Roger (Ailes).” That was the Apprentice-in-chief waxing nostalgic for Roger Ailes and taking shots at Fox News for allowing some of its personalities to slack off on marketing his presidency—and running polls that show him trailing Joe Biden.
  • “Mr. President, our job here is to keep the scores, not settle scores.” That was Fox News veteran Neil Cavuto—not Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham or Tucker Carlson.

Sports Shorts

  • The Miami Marlins are MLB’s least favorite team right now. It has everything to do with leading (more than half the team) the postponement-plagued league in positive coronavirus tests. It also has everything to do with the consensus that the team has blatantly violated coronavirus protocols—including hanging out at hotel bars. The Marlins have become the societal counterpart of unmasked individuals who jeopardize others by their carelessness, cluelessness and defiance. Good luck, Derek (“They let their guard down”) Jeter.
  • “We’re going to be fluid. We think it’s manageable.”—Commissioner Rob Manfred, on the impact of the coronavirus on the 2020 MLB season.
  • #WeSkateFor: The NHL initiative to “support, celebrate and honor community heroes, front-line and health care workers, and racial justice activists through various local and national programs and activities.

Quoteworthy

  • “President Nixon once said he feared he had created a ‘Frankenstein’ by opening the world to the C.C.P (Communist Party of China)—and here we are.”—Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
  • “Space is the new air.”—Elon Musk.
  • “I am putting the Kremlin and other foreign governments on notice. If elected president, I will treat foreign interference in our election as an adversarial act that significantly affects the relationship between the United States and the interfering nation’s government.”—Joe Biden.
  • “Your tenure is marked by a persistent war against the department’s professional core in an apparent effort to secure favors for the president. … The president wants footage for his campaign ads, and you appear to be serving it up to him as ordered.”—Rep. Jerry Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, in questioning Attorney General William Barr.
  • “Donald Trump is burning himself down. Has no one noticed? When the Trump experience is over, the Republican Party will have to be rebuilt.”—Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal.
  • “We have one foot in the pandemic and one foot in the recovery.”—Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
  • “The president has no power to change the date of the election. This … undermines voter confidence and seeks without evidence to undermine the legitimacy of voting by mail.”—Richard L. Hasen, law professor at the University of California at Irvine.
  • “All of the supervisors of elections have been planning for this for a time. I think Florida will be ready to go.”—Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, on preparations for the Nov. 3 presidential election.
  • “He can suggest whatever he wants. The law is what it is. We’re going to have an election that’s legitimate, it’s going to be credible, it’s going to be the same as we’ve always done it.”—Sen. Marco Rubio.
  • “We are not moving the date of the election. The resistance to this idea among Republicans is overwhelming.”—Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney.
  • No way should we ever not hold an election on the day that we have it.”—House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
  • “Research shows that protests can become more violent when met with violent means themselves.”—University of Tampa political scientist Ryan Welsh.
  • “Trump wants to distract us all from this dumpster fire economy and death toll by suspending democracy—all because he’s so badly bungled the COVID crisis. That move is straight out of the Maduro, Putin, dictator playbook.”—Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
  • This man doesn’t evolve. He doesn’t grow. … He is stuck and stunted. He is a creature of instinct and that instinct is base and animalistic, survival-centered, without core conviction of a prevailing character. … American lives were collateral damage.”—Maureen Dowd, New York Times.
  • “When you listen to the president, you begin to wonder—is he worried more about the legitimacy of the electoral process, or is he worried about losing?”—Tom Ridge, former Republican governor of Pennsylvania and homeland security secretary in the George W. Bush administration.
  • “Buycott”: Term for the reaction of Trump supporters to the boycott of Goya foods after its CEO praised Trump.
  • “With each day the schools remain closed, shuttered, the educational gap between haves and have-nots is widening.”—Yale law professor Stephen L. Carter.
  • “Banks and airlines have been bailed out. Surely, we can dedicate the necessary resources to help our schools too.”—Dr. Leana S. Wen, visiting professor at George Washington University’s School of Public Health.
  • “A quick Google search is now equivalent to a medical degree when deciding the hydroxychloroquine is the cure for COVID. This is egalitarianism gone wild.”—Dr. Mona Mongat, immunologist and allergist and past chair of Doctors for America.
  • “With more than 150,000 dead from COVID-19, we’ve not only lost the public health war, we’ve lost the war for truth. Misinformation and lies have captured the castle. And the bad guys’ most powerful weapon? Social media—in particular, Facebook.”—Margaret Sullivan, Washington Post.
  • “Our Founders would not bow before a King. Nor should we bow before the emperors of the online economy.”—Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., chairman of the House Antitrust Committee.
  • “Congress must pass legislation to provide the maritime sector the same protections and relief given to other industries during COVID-19, and close a huge gap in current federal emergency assistance that has left links in the maritime supply chain isolated and unable to access other assistance programs available to other industries.”—Doug Wheeler, president and CEO of the Florida Ports Council.
  • “I am a conservative Republican, so, yes, I support (Trump).”—Pinellas County Commissioner Kathleen Peters.
  • “I am one to believe that masks save lives. … Personally, I would prefer that people wear masks constantly whether inside or outside.”—Les Miller, chairman of the Hillsborough County Commission and the Emergency Policy Group.
  • “This is an unparalleled, generational opportunity for us in St. Petersburg to address many needs, meet many goals and create a vibrant and unique sense of place accessible to all.”—St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman, on the city issuing a request for proposals from developers interested in redeveloping the 86-acre Tropicana Field site.
  • “I like the students at USF. … They don’t have a sense of entitlement.”—Cheyenne Currall, wife of USF President Steve Currall.

John Lewis Legacy

  “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

  • Cancel culture.” Bring it. Cancel the Trump-cult culture on Nov. 3.
  • What do you do when you’ve grossly mismanaged a pandemic that has cost lives and livelihoods? Another Chris Wallace interview certainly won’t help. So, you panic and pivot. In so doing, you recklessly resort to the reviled “law and order” mantra associated with George Wallace and Richard Nixon. And you scapegoat and demonize the usual suspects. The partisan political message: Only Trump, the instigator-in-chief, truly stands up to anarchy. Only he, as he has told us, can “fix it.”

How far we’ve regressed.

But the ultimate charlatan showman gets his optics—however much induced and provoked by de facto federal stormtroopers in cities such as Portland—that can appeal to his base and maybe frighten others already blindsided by the pandemic. Call it Lafayette Square on ‘roids—as well as an outtake from the autocrat’s playbook.

We’re already seeing it play out on political ads that don’t show unrest turned into chaos via militaristic provocations—only protestors’ responses. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown underscored the scorched earth reality. “It throws gasoline on the fire.” It’s what you get when the narcissist-in-chief, facing the prospect of a humiliating defeat less than 100 days from now, doubles down on doing the Reich thing.

  • In case you missed it: According to President Trump, it is now “patriotic to wear a face mask when you can’t socially distance.” Disingenuous upshot: hypocrisy unmasked.
  • “He’s shot. (Biden’s) mentally shot.” That was the cognitive-tester-in chief, who recently bragged of having “aced” his (“Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.”) Montreal Cognitive Assessment test. Too bad it wasn’t a high school civics exam.
  • “We are too big a people to be able to be careless in what we say.” That was President Teddy Roosevelt, who could be frank, impulsive and knew his way around a bully pulpit, but also knew that words mattered mightily—domestically and internationally. Those were the days.
  • And speaking of TR, he famously said: “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” The infamous, Trump version: “Speak cluelessly and carry a narcissistic schtick.”
  • The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute has told the Trump campaign and the RNC to stop using the former president’s image to fundraise. What’s next? “Mr. Trump, tear down this wall of nativism, xenophobia and divisiveness”?
  • The hawkish Republican Rep. Liz Cheney has not been endearing herself to the Trump Administration on its handling of the pandemic. She’s a high-profile defender of Dr. Anthony Fauci and has even tweeted a photo of her dad, THAT Dick Cheney, in a mask with the hashtag “realmenwearmasks.” It all helps.

I’m president, I’m not king.”—Barack Obama, back in the day.

COVID Bits

#AloneTogether

  • West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner has urged young people to work the upcoming polls as a “call to arms” not unlike joining the military after 9/11. Good analogy. Remember “… What you can do for your country”? JFK didn’t speak in a pandemic context, but the principle applies.
  • National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien is now the highest-ranking White House official to test positive for the coronavirus.
  • Since July, Arizona leads the nation in new infections per test: 25.3 percent. Florida is second at 18.8 percent.
  • An estimated 27 million American workers require child care, which includes schools, to return to full-time work.
  • 77: That’s how many hand sanitizers have been recalled by the FDA because they contain dangerous levels of wood alcohol.
  • Limits of virtual classrooms: Boston, for example, reported that roughly 20 percent of enrolled students never logged in.
  • About 46 percent of Florida deaths are linked to long-term care facilities.
  • The Toronto Blue Jays will not play their home games at home this season. By order of Canadian health officials, teams will not be permitted to fly in and out of Toronto from the COVID-epicenter that is the U.S. Canada is afraid that frequent travel to and from the U.S. could provoke a spike in coronavirus cases. No one is happy—but Justin Trudeau possibly feels a sense of reprisal for Trump’s arrogant, ally-alienating “America First” agenda.
  • 206: COVID-19 cases reported in Hillsborough County Public Schools this year. Five of the patients were students.
  • He’s still a player: Dr. Anthony Fauci threw outthe ceremonial first pitch at the Nationals MLB opener against the Yankees. It’s what you do when you are disinvited from the reintroduced presidential coronavirus press ramblings. It’s also what you do when you are the Nationals and you want someone appropriate to throw out the season-opening first pitch during a pandemic. That, of course, should be the president—unless he’s more of a self-serving, chaotic enabler than a genuine leader during a crisis.
  • Marriott Hotels, the world’s largest hotel chain, has begun requiring guests to use facial coverings in its 7,300 hotels. The requirement applies to guests in all indoor public spaces. Good idea—three months ago.
  • As we’ve been seeing, you can’t mask ignorance and stupidity.
  • The Small Business Administration and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin are being sued because the PPP has denied help to adult businesses and strip clubs.