Category: Uncategorized

* “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that some of the best-run places (in COVID response) have been run by women: New Zealand, Germany, Taiwan. And where we’ve seen things go most badly wrong–the U.S., Brazil, Russia, the U.K.–it’s a lot of male ego and bluster.”–Susan Rice, former national security adviser under President Barack Obama.

* “African-Americans shouldn’t feel helpless, because the black vote does matter–it never mattered more. It is at the heart of the fight to take back America. … Joe Biden would be retired if not for the black vote. … In November, the number of black voters who turn out in the crucial swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin is likely to be the deciding factor in the election.”–Fox News analyst Juan Williams, author of “What the Hell Do You Have to Lose?”

* “Boards should hold themselves and management accountable for specific objectives around recruitment, retention and promotion of African-Americans and other minorities. Only when companies and management are accountable in ways that are quantifiable will we see real systemic transformation of corporate America.”–Darren Walker, the African-American president of the Ford Foundation.

* “(George) Floyd stands apart … Emmett Till for a digital generation.”–Karen Attiah, Washington Post.

* “The African-American community is near and dear to (Trump’s) heart.”–White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.

* “It is status quo thinking to believe that putting more police on the streets creates more safety. That’s wrong. … You know what creates more safety? Funding public schools, affordable housing, increased homeownership, job skill development, jobs, access to capital for those who want to start small businesses or are running small businesses in communities.”–Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.

* “The irony of training at bases named for those who took up arms against the United States and for the right to enslave others, is inescapable to anyone paying attention.”–David Petraeus, former CIA director and four-star Army general.

* “Our history as the Greatest Nation in the World will not be tampered with. Respect our Military!”–Donald Trump, in tweeting that he would veto the entire National Defense Authorization Act if it were to include language that would change the name of military bases named after Confederate generals.

* “Maybe–just maybe–the Civil War is coming to an end. And perhaps Donald J. Trump, not Jefferson Davis, will go down in history as the last president of the Confederacy.”–Eugene Robinson, Washington Post.

* “I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my tenure that wasn’t driven by re-election calculations.”–Former National Security Adviser John Bolton, the author of “The Room Where It Happened.”

* “If the election were held today, the result could easily resemble 2008, the closest thing to a landslide our divided system has recently produced.”–Ross Douthat, New York Times.

* “Where’s my copy of ‘Atlas Shrugged’? It’s in the shredder.”–Stephen Bannon, former Trump chief strategist.

* “In an uncertain world, time-tested values like honesty and integrity, empathy and compassion–that’s the only real currency in life. Treating people right will never, ever fail you.”–Michelle Obama, in her YouTube address to the Class of 2020.

* “(Jacksonville will) showcase Florida’s energy, facilities, entrepreneurship and commitment to bring together the delegates of the Republican Party at a historic time in our nation’s history.”–Gov. Ron DeSantis.

* “Clearly, the RNC wants a large event with a lot of people. I want that too.”–Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry.

* “The landscape of policing has changed dramatically… . 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.

* “We are observing police malpractice in a way that heretofore, absent cameras and whatever, we weren’t able to observe it.”–Goliath J. Davis, St. Petersburg’s first African-American police chief.

* “A huge win for our city.”–Mayor Jane Castor, on the announcement that Fisher Investments, an investment adviser that manages more than $120 billion in assets, has opened its first office on the East Coast of the U.S. in Tampa. It expects to eventually hire 600 employees.

* “A building like ours is made to welcome crowds of people. And being in a crowd of people is what we can’t do right now.”–Jill Witecki, Tampa Theatre’s director of marketing.

 “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

* No, it’s not going to presage a “Seven Days in May” scenario, but recent Trump-critical comments by those with serious military and national security credentials and insights just might be the final straw in this flailing, failing president’s defeat in November. Respect for those sworn to protect us transcends political partisanship. Generals and admirals are not seen like elected officials with self-serving, fealty agendas. They have earned respect the hard way–through their service to country–no matter who their commander in chief happened to be.

It hardly helps Trump to have his (current) secretary of defense, Mark Esper, and the (current) chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen. Mark Milley, indicate publicly–and defiantly–that they don’t support using the military to combat protests over the killing of George Floyd. As it turns out, neither does Gen. Martin Dempsey, a former chairman of the joint chiefs. Then Esper’s predecessor, Gen. James Mattis, weighed in and added that Trump “doesn’t even pretend to try” to unite this increasingly polarized country. Then Adm. Mike Mullen, another former chairman of the joint chiefs, spoke out about the dangerous “inflection point” that Trump has brought this country to. And as far as retired 4-star Gen. John Allen is concerned, American democracy is imperiled because “there is no one home” at the White House.

There have also been letters–signed by former SODs (Chuck Hegel, Ashton Carter and William Cohen), and scores of foreign service officials and top figures in the Army, Navy and Air Force–condemning Trump for his heavy-handed, militarist approach to civilian protest. And you know there are other issues–including America’s dysfunctional relations with its allies, its simpatico relations with authoritarians and its betrayal of Syrian Kurds–that have been festering. In short, Trump, an intemperate, narcissistic security threat, is to be marginalized and contained, not respected and saluted.

“President Trump has shown he doesn’t have the qualities necessary to be a good commander in chief,” stated retired Navy Adm. William H. McRaven, who directed the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. “This fall it’s time for new leadership in this country–Republican, Democrat or Independent.” And Colin Powell, former secretary of state, national security adviser and chairman of the joint chiefs, cut to the Oafish Office chase: “He’s dangerous to our country.” Powell has already indicated he’ll be voting for Joe Biden. He won’t be the only one.

* “Washington transformed into a war zone for this coward.”–That’s a blunt outtake from the latest political ad (“Mourning in America”) salvo from the Never Trump Republicans of the Lincoln Project PAC.

* “We all watch in horror and consternation what’s going on in the United States.”–That was Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s reaction to Trump’s response to American protestors.

* “Hopefully, George is looking down right now and saying, ‘This is a great thing that’s happening for our country.”–That, inexplicably, is what the tone-deaf, white-nationalist-in-chief said about what the brutalized, murdered George Floyd’s reaction would be to a positive jobs report.

* No, marching over to St. John’s Church as security forces cleared the way for Trump and his enabling posse was not a “Churchill moment.” More like a Putin moment.

* “I am struggling with it.”  That’s how Alaska’s Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski responded when asked if she could support Trump for re-election. “Struggling“? How about, “Hell, no. I’ve seen enough. In fact, I had seen enough before this narcissistic goon was ever appointed by the Electoral College. I care more about my country than about my Party standing. I answer to my conscience–not the marching orders of Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell.”

* Proximate to nearby protests, the Secret Service did their job of protecting the president by ushering him into the White House bunker. But then they let him out.

* Trump Vodka. Trump Steaks. Trump Travel. Trump University. Trump Tower Tampa. Why would any American have expected other than what we’ve gotten from Trump Presidency?

One of the features of the Tampa Bay Times that I never skip is “This Week In History.”  In these times of uber upheaval, it helps to be able to reflect on how we, as this unique experiment in a constitutional, democratic republic, got here. The route, we are reminded, has been circuitous, ironic, triumphant and tragic. To wit:

* Sunday, June 7 (1942). America’s victory in the Battle of Midway was the turning point in the Pacific War. America was making a global difference for the better. Those were the days.

* Monday, June 8 (1864). Abraham Lincoln was nominated for another term during the National Union (Republican) Party’s convention. A National Union, anyone?

* Tuesday, June 9 (1954). During the Senate Army-McCarthy hearings, Army special counsel Joseph Welch berated Sen. Joseph McCarthy by rhetorically asking: “Have you no sense of decency, sir?” But imagine, having to ask that–on a daily basis–of a U.S. president?

* Wednesday, June 10 (1692). The first execution resulting from the Salem Witch Trials took place in Massachusetts. Yes, we’re better than that. “Witch hunts” don’t seem so threatening.

* Wednesday, June 10 (1963). President John F. Kennedy signs the Equal Pay Act, aimed at eliminating wage disparities based on gender. We’re not there yet–more than a half-century later.

* Thursday, June 11 (2009). The WHO declared the first global (swine) flu pandemic in 41 years. What goes around… .

* Friday, June 12 (1963). Civil rights leader Medgar Evers was murdered in Mississippi.  Would that it had become a turning point in addressing violence directed at black Americans.

* Friday, June 12 (1987). In Berlin, President Ronald Reagan exhorted Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.” Now we have a president exhorting America to build walls.

* Friday, June 12 (2016). The slaughter of 49 people by an American-born Muslim at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando. No, we haven’t changed much except increasing xenophobia.

 * Saturday, June 13 (1967). President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Solicitor-General Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the Supreme Court. Another reminder of what you won’t get with a Federalist Society-pandering president who answers to his white nationalist base.

* The editorial page editor of the New York Times, James Bennet, is out. He had signed off on an op-ed piece by Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, the right-wing Trump cheerleader who advocated using federal troops to quell protests. Moreover, Bennet had not read the hard-line piece, entitled “Send in the Troops,” before publication. It caused a backlash of outrage among Times’ journalists. He had to go. He went.

Two takeaways. First, a key reason newspapers have “op-ed” forums is to be, within reason, inclusive of other–including opposition–points of view. It’s journalism’s version of what good attorneys do before coming into court: know the other side’s “best” arguments, to better disable them. Cotton outs himself with constitutional overreach and storm trooper mentality. Second, if you’re the editorial page editor and you run something controversial without having read it, you should be fired.

* There’s an obvious, definitional difference between protest and loot–or protesters and looters. As in emotional fealty to a just cause and opportunistic, criminal behavior that undermines it. But there’s also protest protocol. For the racially unwoke, just don’t interchange looters and “thugs.” The “t word,” as has been pointed out, can also be code for the new “n word” Now we all know. We also know what City Councilman John Dingfelder meant: Shame on looters, however labeled.

* From social media enabling of partisan lying to WiFi outage to butt-dialed calls, the new communications normal can be a double-edged societal sword at times. But thank goodness for cell-phone cameras that have unmasked police brutality in too many tragic instances.

#AloneTogether

* The herd immunity threshold for COVID may differ from place to place, but on average, experts say, it will require at least 60 percent immunity in the population.

* 13.2 million: the projected TIA passenger count this year–down 40 percent from last year’s record 23.3 million.

* 55 percent: The percentage of its U.S. routes that American Airlines will be flying in July. In May it was 20 percent.

* Social distancing and protesting: the new oxymoronic normal.

* 172: the number of Tampa residents hospitalized for COVID last week–and the week before. Of those 172, 38 were being treated in intensive care units.

* County contrast, as of last Friday: Hillsborough–2,554 coronavirus cases, 91 deaths. Miami-Dade: 19,056 cases, 771 deaths.

* “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.