Category: Uncategorized

• Iran’s economy—inflation reaching 50 percent and GDP down 6 percent–has been hammered by sanctions as its oil exports have dropped from 2.5 million barrels a day to 500,000. Now its biggest—sanctions notwithstanding—customer is China. No surprise, and no lack of irony. The U.S. unilaterally withdraws from the Iran nuclear deal and unilaterally initiates a trade war with China. And China winds up helping out Iran.
• Amid all the turmoil of a trade war—and consequent roiling markets–is there little doubt now that the U.S would have been better off staying in the Trans-Pacific Partnership? A free trade agreement, the TPP would have aligned all the major Pacific economies—minus China—around America’s trade standards—and interests—and lowered tariffs on a ton of American products. Having the leverage of partners, including European Union countries that (still) respect us, would make eminently more sense than a base-pandering, vanity confrontation between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.
• Jon Huntsman, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, is leaving, effective Oct. 3. Questions will trail him. Foremost: Why did he take the seemingly no-win position in the first place? Did he take one for his country—the diplomatic counterpart of Gen. Jim Mattis at Defense—to counterbalance a volatile, unhinged president? Or as a former Utah governor, former ambassador to China and former Republican presidential candidate, did he want back in the game at any cost? His resignation letter offers few specifics, but does resonate with realpolitik. “No reset or restart is going to help,” notes Huntsman, “just a clear understanding of our interests and values.”

And why exactly is he leaving? Was working around the beyond-bizarre Trump-Vladimir Putin relationship—in the context of Russian election assaults, Ukraine-related sanctions, Syrian civil war sides and “golden showers” tales—too much for any human being outside the true Trumpster orbit to endure? Was it a visceral desire to just delouse himself—and preserve what’s left of his reputation? Was it another run for Utah governor next year? A combination?

And what was Huntsman’s impact? Did he unduly lend unearned credibility to an unconscionably unprepared Trump? And while you can’t ultimately prove a negative, was his experience and professional presence actually a behind-the-scenes brake on bilateral scenarios that could have been even worse?  

• Who better to urge “Red Flag” laws than a “Red Flag” president? As for removing guns from those who pose a “public safety threat,” that should mean that Trump can’t carry.
• And speaking of “background checks,” too bad the Trump base paid no mind to what had been public record for decades about Trump—from filing bankruptcies and lying pathologically to bullying the vulnerable, fostering racism and preying on women. Or were they just that enamored of “The Apprentice” and that smoldering in their resentment to an Obama presidency?
• “It’s CRITICAL that we STOP THE INVASION.”—A recent Trump campaign Facebook ad. Timing is everything.
• “I refuse to be a prop.”—That was Texas Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, whose district includes El Paso, on why she declined to meet with President Trump. Too bad Mike Pence doesn’t feel the same way.
• “Trump the Healer”? As if. Then how about “Putin the Peacenik” or “Kim the Kibitzer”?
• Try Googling “Trump and Kim.” Both Khardashian and Jong Un come up. Says volumes.
• It’s bad enough that George Wallace is back in the conversation, but now we’re seeing references to Nathan Bedford Forrest, a founder of the KKK.
• “We’re better than this.” If we have to keep saying it, are we? We’ll have a come-to-Jesus answer in 2020. Either America will have rebelled against the revolting and expunged Trump from the Oval Orifice—and mitigated the damage. Or America will have doubled down on despicable—with collateral damage far into the future. Not exactly a Hobson’s choice.
• Thanks to more sanctions on Venezuela, John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser, remains prominent in the news cycle. Speaking of the foreign policy neo-con, here’s an outtake from Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury” that is a reminder of how a couple of Trump insiders assessed Bolton. It’s a post-election, pre-inauguration exchange between Roger Ailes and Steve Bannon:
• Ailes: “(Bolton’s) a bomb thrower. And a strange little f—er. But you need him.”      
• Bannon: “Bolton’s mustache is a problem. Trump doesn’t think he looks the part. You know Bolton is an acquired taste.”                                                                                        
• Ailes: “Well, he got in trouble because he got in a fight in a hotel one night and chased some woman.”                                                                                                     Bannon: “If I told Trump that, he might have the job.”  

• I hadn’t been sleeping that well for a while. But there were a few non-Rx approaches at the ready. Subtract some coffee, add some Melatonin, work in a diffuser. Didn’t help enough. But there was one remaining option. I turned the TV off early, read for a longer period, walked my adorable, senior Peekapoo Zeek on last call and called it a night. Zzzzzzzzz. There’s a reason why it’s advised that you knock off the screen time well in advance of going to bed. It otherwise leaves you too wired. Especially when screen time inevitably means screed time–from cable political analysis and TrumpSpin. 

As we know all too well, a few votes one way or another can make or unmake a president-elect. Ask Al Gore and Hillary Clinton. Recently the Democratic Socialists of America gathered in Atlanta for their biannual convention. Among its feistier members: Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Besides the usual “Bernie or Bust” optics, progressive fealty and targeting of the loathsome Donald Trump, there was this sobering resolution. “Bernie or Bust” is meant literally. The DSA will not officially endorse anyone other than Sen. Bernie Sanders as the party’s nominee in the general election. Deja vu all over again? 

• Yes, this is still “Flori-duh.” Republican Congressman Ross Spano of Dover is still a climate change denier. The Chairman of the State Board of Education, Andy Tuck, is still an evolution denier. And Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody still denies the common sense inherent in going after assault weapons. But yes, we no longer have the climate-denying Rick Scott for governor—and there’s no denying that it should help to have a chief science officer (Thomas Frazier), a chief resilience officer (Julia Nesheiwat) and an environmental secretary (Noah Valenti). But this just in: The Republican Party of Florida went ahead and held a two-day registration drive at a Pembroke Pines gun show. Would that we were shocked.
• While security upgrades get most of the attention about what’s new for Florida public schools this year, there are some other significant changes as well. For instance, curricula will now include a ½ credit elective in financial literacy. Good–but not good enough. First of all, don’t mandate an “elective.” Make it, uh, mandatory. It’s that important in this economy. Second, add another ½ credit for the mandatory instruction of media literacy—and its obvious implications for a vulnerable, 21^st century democracy.
• “Talk of economic embargoes may play well among the Cuban community in Florida, but people in Venezuela will be asking themselves if they will have to live through this for the next 60 years.” That was Geoff Ramsey, head of the Venezuela program at the Washington Office on Latin America, noting that increased U.S. sanctions on Venezuela amounts to foreign policy built on Cold War tactics and rhetoric.

• Miami Dolphins owner Steve Ross, the New York real estate developer who also owns Equinox and SoulCycle, recently hosted a fund-raiser for Trump at his home in Southampton, New York. It includes $100,000 for a photo and lunch—with Trump. The Glazers never looked so prudent and classy.
• More than a few brows were arched when Rays Manager Kevin Cash made the controversial move to take out Ryan Yarborough one out shy of a complete-game shutout against Seattle on Sunday. All about “matchups” and all that. But had Yarborough actually completed the 1-0, 3-hit win, it would have been the Rays first complete game since 2016—more than 570 games ago. It’s the way of the modern game that prioritizes pitch counts. Back in the day, complete games were not such a rarity. In fact, former USF baseball coach (1977-85) and Philadelphia Phillies Hall of Famer Robin Roberts threw more than 300 CGs in his career—including 28 in a row once. That was then; this is not—even close.

• “Xenophobic and racist discourse breeds hate crimes.”—Martha Barcena, the Mexican ambassador to the U.S.
• “It worked in Panama, it worked in Nicaragua once … and it will work in Venezuela and Cuba.”—John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, on the imposition of a full economic embargo on Venezuela.
• “Repression must end. The Cuban people deserve freedoms of press, expression, association and more.”—Mara Tekach, chief of the U.S. Embassy in Havana.
• “We should say to the Chinese: ‘You now are our economic equal.’ Give them that dignity. And tell them we want to restart these negotiations on the basis of total reciprocity. We should both have the same rules of access to each other’s economies.”—Jim McGregor, chairman of APCO China.
• “Puerto Rico needs assurance and stability.”—Justice Secretary Wanda Vazquez, Puerto Rico’s new governor, the third within six days.
• “We are not helpless here. But until all of us stand up and insist on holding public officials accountable for changing our gun laws, these tragedies will keep happening.”—Former President Barack Obama.
• “Perhaps even more than the morally bankrupt Trump, Mitch McConnel is the worst among us. He sees evil and does nothing but permit it to flourish. He and his profit at the expense of others. He closes his heart to what is right and good about America.”—Ann McFeatters, Tribune Content Agency.
• “We can’t fix a problem if we refuse to name it: white nationalism. An ideology emboldened by a president who stokes the flames of hatred and coddles white supremacists with messages of support.”—Former Vice President Joe Biden.
• “We need to call out white nationalism for what it is—domestic terrorism. And we need to call out the president himself for advancing racism and white supremacy.”—Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
• “(Trump’s) a moral arsonist.”—Frank Bruni, New York Times.
• “President Trump is serving up to our adversaries an ever more divided and weakened America, one that is animated by suspicion, rived by hatred of the “other” and increasingly incapable of uniting in the face of external threats. … Dictators around the world encounter no opprobrium from our government and are comforted to find a fellow traveler in rhetoric and policies that demean his own people.”—Susan E. Rice, former U.S. ambassador to the UN and former national security adviser to President Barack Obama.
• “Most of the time, mass shooters aren’t driven by delusions or voices in their head. They are driven by a need to wield their power over another group. They are angry at the perceived injustices that have befallen them at the hands of others. … It’s not an altered perception of reality that drives them; it’s entitlement, insecurity and hatred.”—Amy Barnhorst, Psychology Today.
• “The white supremacist terrorists and the white supremacist policymakers are bound at the hip.”—Charles M. Blow, New York Times.
• “We live in a precarious moment in this Trump era, in which a seat on the federal bench demands a prerequisite fealty to an expansive reading of personal gun rights under the Second Amendment.”—Robert Spitzer, chair of the political science department at SUNY Cortland and the author of “The Politics of Gun Control.”
• “The Mueller report may turn out to be more of a film noir than anything else. The detective successfully uncovers the plot, only to discover that the society around him is too rotten to do anything about it.”—Quinta Jurecic, Lawfare.
• “Every single person in the Justice Department … knew that (Jeffrey Epstein) was a suicide risk, and that his dark secrets couldn’t be allowed to die with him.”—Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
• “Bigger is better if you’re going after digital reach.”—Doug Arthur, Huber Research analyst, on the merger of Gannett and Gatehouse Media, America’s two largest newspaper publishers.
• “We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.”—The late Nobel Laureate novelist Toni Morrison.
• “You are too intelligent to believe in God.”—The very first words of Ayn Rand upon meeting William F. Buckley for the first time.
• “We don’t really see an end to the uncertainty at any time soon.”—Sameer Samana, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.
• “The stability of food supply is projected to decrease as the magnitude and frequency of extreme weather events that disrupt food chains increases.”—United Nations report.
• “We need to listen to scientists on the climate crisis. Not Ted Nugent.”–Congresswoman Kathy Castor, chair of the U.S. House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.
• “This is a great opportunity to engage the community and promote the values that make this country strong, prosperous, safe and great!”—Republican Party of Florida email announcing that the party would be holding a voter registration drive at a South Florida gun show.
• “Where we think the world’s going is … how do you curate the experience when you’re there? To us, that’s kind of what makes a great place.”—Nicholas Harris, CEO of Bromley Cos., the developer of the $500 million, mixed-used Midtown Tampa project.
• “I think the conference is going to put Tampa on the map as an absolute welcoming place for LGBT business to occur.”—Justin Nelson, president of the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce, on the impact of Tampa hosting the International Business & Leadership Conference, the largest LGBT business gathering in the world.

Imagine this exchange: “Hear anything more on that horrific, God-awful mass shooting?” “Which one?” That, inexplicably, is where we are: 31 mass-murdered within 13 hours in El Paso and Dayton.

It’s a worst-case perfect storm where assault weapons, gun culture and NRA political whore-mongering meet racist, anti-immigrant nativism and hateful, online posts. And how can any rational American not think that having a base-pandering, racist, anti-immigrant Tweeter-in-chief not be a cause?  

“Mental illness and hatred pull the trigger—not the gun,” noted President Donald Trump as only he can note. That’s his way of trying to maintain distance from his own obvious complicity. But nothing about Second Amendment cherry-picking, nothing about assault weapons and high-capacity magazine in the hands of anyone not part of the military, national guard or local police. Nothing about a Latino community being targeted.

Trump, as we well know, actually speaks in racist rants and Tweeted manifesto language. The word “invasion” is a go-to trope. And it has only ratcheted up since his election. And, no, his Telepromptered speech this week did nothing to change the reality—or the Trumpian optics. He even referred to Dayton as Toledo.

And this just in: Mexico—THAT Mexico—is now demanding protection of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in the U.S.

• The end of the 32-year-old Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty between the U.S. and the Soviet Union is both sobering—and nostalgic. The world is less safe, and compared to the Donald Trump-Vladimir Putin tandem, the Ronald Reagan-Mikhail Gorbachev duo never looked so wise, responsible, trustworthy and, well, likeable.
• If China—and not American consumers—ultimately pays the price for the tariff war, maybe Mexico will also pay for The Wall.
• Amoking fess. “We need somebody strong that can really rein it in. Because, as I think you’ve all learned, the intelligence agencies have run amok. They’ve run amok.” That was Donald Trump justifying, as it were, why he had nominated John Ratcliffe, the notably underqualified congressman from Texas, to take over as the new director of national intelligence. It was also Donald Trump reminding us that he knows what “amok” means, including having ultimately to withdraw the Ratcliffe nomination because of all-too-familiar, shoddy vetting.  
• There’s spin—and then there’s TrumpSpin. Here’s how the vetter-in-chief announced, so to speak, that Ratcliffe was officially no longer going to be considered for DNI. “Our great Republican Congressman John Ratcliffe is being treated very unfairly by the LameStream Media. Rather than go through months of slander and libel, I explained to John how miserable it would be for him and his family to deal with these people … John has, therefore, decided to stay in Congress.”

No mention, of course, that the Amateur Hour vetting had failed to discern the burgeoning concern about Ratcliffe’s credential-challenged background, inflated resume and disturbing implications for the intelligence community and American security.

Pushback wasn’t particularly partisan: It was coming from the intelligence community, per se, which doesn’t countenance on-the-job training at the top, from Republicans who didn’t want to have to go on the record with an awkward vote on his nomination and from allies with whom we share intelligence, the quality of which cannot be doubted and challenged. And “LameStream Media”? We hadn’t heard a Sarah Palin quote in a while.

• No surprise that the Department of Justice declined to prosecute James Comey over his handling of memos he wrote documenting personal interactions with President Trump, the essence of which he later passed on to a law professor friend who, in turn, passed along their substance to a reporter. Comey, the fired FBI director-turned private citizen, could foresee how it would play out, he notes in his book, “A Higher Loyalty.” “To be clear, this was not a ‘leak’ of ‘classified’ information no matter how many times politicians, political pundits or the president call it that,” he writes. “A private citizen may legally share unclassified details of a conversation with the president with the press or include that information in a book.” He was also more than aware that the Justice Department typically does not prosecute over confidential information.
• “The most novel aspect of President Donald Trump’s racist gibes isn’t that he said them,  but that he said them in public.”—Tim Naftali, former director of the Nixon Presidential Library.
• “It doesn’t really matter whether Mr. Trump is truly a racist or merely playing one on television to appeal to his base. Either way, his path can lead to bloodshed.”—Frank Figliuzzi, former assistant FBI director for counterintelligence.
• “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”—That was Martin Luther King Jr.—not Mitch McConnell.

• Most observers—and more than a few participants—would likely agree that the Democratic presidential “debates” have been a grandstanding mess so far. Entirely too many candidates, most of them long shots looking for their center-stage, viral moment. Part of the problem is the criteria to determine who makes the cut. The bar for the first two rounds–65,000 donors OR hit 1 percent in three polls–was practically subterranean. The ante will be upped for the September gatherings in Houston. Candidates will need 130,000 donors AND at least 2 percent in four polls. That’s still too low a bar if you really want “debates”—and not high-stakes reality TV.
• “Burn rate.” We’re hearing that insider term more often now, because it applies to candidates’ credibility and staying power. It means how much a campaign has spent relative to its fund-raising. It’s an issue for anyone not named Biden, Buttigieg, Harris, Sanders and Warren.
• “Some of you candidates need to focus on Trump. Some of you others need to go home and run for the Senate!”—That was Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post, speaking for a lot of us.
• No, we’re nowhere near “post-racial” America, and political campaigns still racially strategize away. Here’s some interesting context, thanks to Steve Phillips, the founder of Democracy in Color. In every presidential election for the last 50 years, a majority of white voters have voted against the Democrat, and the overwhelming majority of people of color have sided with the party’s nominee.
• “People are gonna think that I’m trolling but compared to what else is up on this stage, I think Marianne Williamson is actually winning this thing.” That was the debate take of Donald Trump Jr. Have to wonder what he would have said had he been trolling.   
• “I don’t understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for president of the United States just to talk about what we really can’t do and shouldn’t fight for.”—Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
• Chris Mathews, the host of MSNBC’s “Hardball,” was roundly criticized for how he conducted a post-debate, drive-by interview with Elizabeth Warren. He talked over her and was called out for a sexist approach. I would disagree. That wasn’t Mathews being sexist in his off-putting interview with Warren. That was Mathews being Mathews—obnoxious in how he handles too many interviews.
• “We are more worried about winning an argument than winning an election.”—Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
• “This isn’t about just speaking to the obvious, that our president is a racist, it has to be about how are you connected to the struggle of our communities.”—Sen. Cory Booker.
• “Yada yada” candidacy: How, well, ironic that Marianne Williamson, the self-promoting, self-help guru, is the one proposing racial reparations of $500 billion.  
• “He’s never been good at synthesizing his thoughts into 30-second or 60-second answers. He was just as awkward in ’88.” That was the perspective of Ed Rendell, Former DNC chairman and former governor of Pennsylvania, on Joe Biden’s “debate” showings.
• However this candidate-winnowing process shakes out, a line that will resonate–in the 2020 election or across presidential-campaign history–is Joe Biden’s “My time is up” in the first debate. And it won’t be remembered for Biden’s sole adherence to time-limit protocol.
• “We ran on ‘yes we can,’ and you’re not going to win on ‘no you can’t.’” That was David Axelrod, the key strategist behind Barack Obama’s political ascent to the presidency, referencing those candidates who have been critical of certain Obama Administration policies.

• “I want to see this succeed. This is going to be big for the city of Tampa.”—That was Tampa City Councilman Joseph Citro speaking about—scooters. I hope he’s right; I also hope we haven’t unduly lowered the bar on what could be “big” for Tampa. Of much more concern, however, are the downsides of trafficking in hip transit toys in an area notorious for all manner of traffic accidents and fatalities.
• Media coverage of this year’s Tampa Bay Comic Convention included a new-normal juxtaposition: Those dressed in pop-culture, comic character and those SWAT team officers keeping a close eye on attendees.
• The Hillsborough County Aviation Authority board recently awarded TIA CEO Joe Lopano a 7 percent raise, increasing his salary to $508,000. Well earned, Joe-Lo. That’s because whoever is in charge at TIA can be a serious bottom-line difference-maker. In Lopano’s eight years at the helm, TIA has grown its passenger count 40 percent (to 22.3 million) and its operating revenues by 63 percent (to $267 million). For more societal context, the minimum salary for Major League Baseball players is $555,000.
• Look for the Sunshine Skyway Bridge to morph into much more of a major marketing icon now that it’s being outfitted with those colorful LED Lights. We’re talking national and international focus.  

• Imagine if you’re the Glazer family and your most disappointing sports franchise is not the underperforming Bucs. It’s what happens when you also own the disappointing—but internationally iconic–Manchester United soccer club of Great Britain.
• Speaking of the Bucs, quarterback Jameis Winston’s chances for success are all about decision-making—on, and no less importantly, off the field.
• How weird would it be that the year the Rays win eight of nine games against the defending World Series champion Red Sox at Fenway, is a year the team doesn’t make the playoffs. Could happen.

• “Russia is solely responsible for the treaty’s demise.”—Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on the end of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Force Treaty signed by the U.S. and the Soviet Union in 1987.
• “With the end of the INF Treaty, a bit of security in Europe is being lost.”—German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.
• “China’s position is very clear that if the U.S. wishes to talk, then we will talk. If they want to fight, then we will fight.”—Zhang Jun, China’s ambassador to the United Nations.
• “(Kim Jong Un) will do the right thing because he is far too smart not to, and he does not want to disappoint his friend, President Trump.”—President Donald Trump, on his friendly relationship with Kim—in the context of North Korea’s recent missile tests.
• “Trump has the opportunity to be the president who, like Harry Truman, redirected U.S. foreign policy for a generation.”—Paleoconservative political commentator Patrick J. Buchanan.
• “Hate has no place in our country, and we’re going to take care of it.”—Donald Trump.
• “(President Donald Trump’s) demagoguery has made skillful use of an old American tradition: employing differences of race to make people forget huge differences of wealth. It’s exactly what Southern plantation owners did when they got non-slave-owning whites to join them in fighting for the Confederacy.”—Adam Hochschild, the Nation.
• “It’s not the beginning of a long series of rate cuts. What we are seeing is that it is appropriate to adjust policy to a somewhat more accommodative stance over time.”—Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, in announcing the reduction of the benchmark interest rate–by a quarter-point—for the first time in more than a decade.
• “We want to see a surge in reshoring and new manufacturing jobs, but the Administration’s policies have fallen short of getting us there.” Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing.
• “Republicans will never do anything on gun control. Never.”—David Jolly, former Republican Florida congressman.
• “The overall trend of glacier retreat around the world is due to both warming air and warming oceans. They’re getting eaten away at both ends.”—University of Oregon oceanographer David Sutherland.
• “The real third rail of health-care reform—whether we’re talking about single-payer, a public option or anything else—is the question no one seems to be asking: Will you require doctors to make less money?”—Catherine Rampell, Washington Post.
• “With the Juuls, kids are able to get a much higher dose of nicotine—and dose matters.”—Sharon Levy, director of the Adolescent Substance Use and Addiction Program at Boston Children’s Hospital.
• “It’s going to be a mosh pit for the next 30 years. The question is how we operate collaboratively when we have a mix of self-driving and manually driven vehicles.”—Gregory Winfree, director of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute and a former assistant secretary of transportation during the Obama Administration.
• “Homelessness is a big issue throughout the country and in Florida, and they are at higher risk to spread hepatitis A around.”—Dr. Eugene Schiff, director for liver diseases at the University of Miami School of Medicine. To date, Florida has had more than 2,000 hepatitis A cases since the beginning of the year. It had 548 all of last year.
• “The Sunshine Skyway bridge is the flagship bridge for the Tampa Bay area and the state of Florida.”—Florida Department of Transportation spokesman Kris Carson, in announcing that FDOT is in the process of installing some 1,800 colored LED Light fixtures on the bridge. The project will cost an estimated $15 million, with the funding coming from tolls. All other major Florida bridges are lit—and when new ones are built lighting is included.
• “Now we face rebuilding our reserves. We must be prepared to weather another recession, if anything comes our way.”—Mayor Jane Castor in underscoring a key priority in her first budget ($1.04 billion) presentation to City Council. At 23 percent, the “rainy day” fund is well above what’s needed to protect Tampa’s credit rating.
• “I’m thrilled that Mosaic has stepped up to the plate.”—Hillsborough County Commissioner Pat Kemp, in response to Mosaic Fertilizer offering to donate land for a ferry terminal on part of its Big Bend Mosaic Terminal site.