Category: Uncategorized

• One of the candidate-favorite rules of thumb for Joe Biden is to keep more of the focus on his role during the Obama Administration years—not his back-in-the-day Congressional tenure. However, Barack Obama isn’t likely to endorse him right now. It’s too early for him to be putting his thumb on the primary scale. But that’s awkward for Biden, a guy who needs that public affirmation from the one who vetted him. Especially for a former vice president who typically refers to the former president by his first name.
• And now there’s Tom Steyer, 62, getting into the mix. The billionaire investor-activist with an impeachment message can outspend everyone. Steyer has been frustrated with the slow, Dem-controlled House approach to impeachment. He also targets climate change with his advocacy group, NextGen America—and time is on nobody’s side. We get his sense of immediacy and urgency. He’s also against the inordinate influence of big corporations in politics. 

But the biggest political concern is what happens when Steyer inevitably doesn’t get the nomination—and resorts to an independent run. Ross Perot and the election of 1992 should still ironically resonate.

• It hardly helps that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has strongly suggested that Speaker Nancy Pelosi was disrespectfully singling out “newly elected women of color.” Arguably, Pelosi’s ire has everything to do with rookies needing to read the minutes of previous meetings, doing freshman homework and channeling feisty activism into something other than a counterproductive media spotlight. That’s likely what Pelosi had in mind when she told the Democratic caucus’ progressives: “Some of you are here to make pâté, but we’re making sausage.” Yes, it’s time to break up the circular firing squad before 2020 gets any closer. It’s time to remember that the real heavy is Trump, who wants to exploit a Democratic-controlled House split while tossing in racist tropes that further cement common cause with white nationalists.
• Speaking of, Donald Trump has weighed in as only the occupant of the Oval Orifice can against the AOC “squad” by exhorting them to go back to the “broken and crime-infested places from which they came.” And, BTW, they “hate our country.” Among the pushback to such despicably dangerous, presidential trash talk is that of New York Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries: “Racial arsonist strikes again. Shut. Your. Reckless. Mouth.” And, yes, the congressman, who also chairs the House Democratic caucus, pulled some rhetorical punches in his response to the racist-in-chief.

• Were it not for investigative reporting, in this case the Miami Herald, we would not be having this societal reaction and conversation about sex-trafficking predators. No, Jeffrey Epstein and his privileged treatment was not fake news. But allowing a predator to, in effect, continue preying was morally reprehensible. 
• Another day at the orifice. A federal appeals court ruled that Trump had violated the Constitution by blocking Twitter users who criticized or mocked him. Because he uses Twitter to actually conduct government business, said the court, he could not exclude Americans from reading or engaging with his posts because he didn’t like them. The reinforced bottom line: The new, noxious normal of Trump and political expression increasingly taking place online still doesn’t place anyone above the law.
• “Unlike immigrants, natural-born citizens such as Tucker Carlson are neither screened nor forced to pass a citizenship test nor made to swear an oath. And when they stray from the American way, no one thinks to tell them that they’re failing to assimilate.” That was a lot more than a satiric broadside from the Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf.

• It’s about time; it’s progress; we’ll take it. Gov. Ron DeSantis has officially requested that a statue of Mary McLeod Bethune, the iconic civil rights leader and educator, replace that of a Confederate general (Edward Kirby Smith) as Florida’s representative in the U.S. Capitol’s National Statuary Hall. Symbolism matters—more than ever right now.
• Undervote Update: Recent research now indicates that in Broward County voters who skipped the 2018 Senate race likely did, indeed, do so by accident. A poorly-designed ballot isolated it from other marquee contests. Sorry about that, Bill Nelson. But how the hell does an informed voter leave a voting booth without having cast a vote for one of the highest-profile races—Rick Scott vs. Bill Nelson—in the country? This is not just about bad ballot design.

• Imagine building a spec office tower these days? For Tampa it’s no longer an edifice hex. For this is what’s happening with the onset of construction of the 20-story 1001 Water Street office tower that Strategic Property Partners is building next to the nearly completed USF Morsani College of Medicine. But it’s a reminder of what can happen when a developer such as SPP has faith in this market and, even more importantly, can tap into the capital of its deep-pocketed founders: Jeff Vinik and Cascade Investment, the personal wealth fund of Bill Gates, one of the richest people in the world.
• The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office is now awaiting proposals for body cams. We all know the urban-policing reality. It will cost: as in digital video storage, maintenance and retrieval. Plus, privacy issues. But we also know the inevitable costs of deadly force and no transparency.
• Whatever the uncertainty over the high-profile Riverwalk Place tower, where developers have stopped taking condo reservations, this much we definitely know: There will not be a Trump Tower Tampa going up there.

• The H word: “Holocaust.” It’s as singularly horrific a word as there is. It embodies evil. It should never be repurposed for political advantage. So, imagine this from Israel’s new Education Minister Rafi Peretz, who’s opposed to inter-faith Jewish marriages. He went rhetorically renegade by asserting that “assimilation is like the Holocaust.” Being the leader of a religious nationalist party hardly excuses unconscionably heinous hyperbole.
• Last weekend police in Copenhagen arrested more than two dozen people who were riding scooters while drunk. You knew it was coming, but an “SUI” arrest still sounds weird.

• “No plans to do that. … My plate is overflowing, so I don’t see that.”—Jeff Vinik, on speculation that he may get involved with the Rays.
• Granted, it’s an “All-Star” game, which means it’s an exhibition, however high profile. But when you mic-up baseball players in the field and talk with them while the game is ongoing, it’s beyond gimmicky and disrespectful to the game, if that still matters.
• “It’s weird because the Lightning sell out, and Tampa Bay is not a hockey town.” That was Mets All Star and Plant High alum Pete Alonso, weighing in on the Rays chronically poor attendance and the team’s two-city alternative. It caught some eyes and raised some brows. Tampa’s not a hockey town? Yo.

But we know—we think—what Alonso meant. There had been zero tradition for hockey here. Obviously. So how ironic that an MLB franchise in a market steeped in baseball tradition doesn’t do nearly as well as ICE hockey in this Sunshine State market. A lot of well-documented factors. But the juxtaposition is blatantly ironic, although this is, to be sure, a hockey town. Go, Bolts.

• It was sad—and sobering—to hear that Dwight “Doc” Gooden had been charged (in New Jersey) with cocaine possession and being under the influence of drugs. The Hillsborough High alum who won the Cy Young Award with the New York Mets in 1985, has had drug problems in his professional career and afterwards.

• “They have not been buying the agriculture products from our great farmers that they said they would. Hopefully, they will start soon.”—President Donald Trump, in accusing China of “letting us down” by not promptly buying more U.S. farm products.
• “They’re crowded because we have a lot of people, but they’re in good shape.”—Donald Trump, on conditions at migrant detention centers.
• “We have a crisis at the border. It is one of morality.”—Rep. Rashid Tlaib, D-Mich.
• “Our diversity is our strength, but out unity is our power. And without that unity, we are playing completely into the hands of the other people.”—House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in a warning to fellow Democrats who attack colleagues publicly—most notably over border-crisis legislation.
• “A completely safe (New York) district. She can’t be primaried from the left. She feels a job security no Democratic moderate can feel.”—Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal, in assessing the political security of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
• “Today’s world treats victims very, very differently.”—Former Labor Secretary Alex Acosta.
• “Lolita Express.”—What the tabloids have called Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet.
• “The future is already here, a floodier future.”—NOAA oceanographer William Sweet, on the higher incidence of “sunny-day flooding.”
• “Let’s take a look at the economy and let that be the report card.”—Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, on speculation about his status as President Trump questions his competence.
• “Trump’s climate denial is a threat to all Floridians, and the only surefire way to turn things around is to make sure we have a different president in 2020.”—Ariel Hayes, National Political Director for the Sierra Club.
• “A victory for openness and the future of medical marijuana.” Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, in response to an appeals court rejection of state restrictions on medical marijuana.
• “I am proud that the investments at MacDill Air Force Base that I championed were authorized in the NDAA (2020 National Defense Authorization Act), including a 3.1 percent boost in pay and $11.5 billion for military construction and family housing.”—Congresswoman Kathy Castor, D-Tampa.
• “To address what has been an ongoing issue, I think the owners are prepared to live with the idea that (the Rays) would operate in two markets. … It was sold to the owners, to the executive council as a way to preserve baseball in Tampa (Bay). That’s how people saw it.”—MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred.
• “I don’t care if it’s a political move or not, it’s a good move.”—Tampa City Councilman Orlando Gudes, in referring to Mayor Jane Castor’s “Bridges to Business” initiative to minority-owned businesses.
• “This product can now compete with anything in the United States.”—Jim Allen, CEO of Seminole Gaming and chairman of Hark Rock International, on the nearly-finished, $720 million expansion of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa.

* “Americans love our freedom and no one will ever take it away from us. For Americans, nothing is impossible.”—That was President Donald Trump trying to wax proud and patriotic. Instead, it was more than ironic. There was a time when it would have seemed impossible to have elected someone like Trump to be a successor to George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

* Trump’s Fourth of July speech beneath the statue of Lincoln underscored a soberingly obvious point. No staff-prepared, homily-rich speech, even if not delivered awkwardly from a Teleprompter, can offset the image of tanks on parade. What works well in Beijing, Moscow, Pyongyang and Caracas, looks like hell in Washington. And B-2 stealth bombers remind us that we don’t, alas, have a stealth president. His mega-MAGA presence is ubiquitous.

Plus, exclusive VIP seating for deep-pocketed Republican donors only made an ego-driven, charade parade into a partisan sham. The new normal now includes a hallowed holiday.

* “Reducing our nation to tanks and shows of muscle just makes us look like the loud-mouth guy at the bar instead of the extremely diverse and energetic nation that we are.”—Pete Buttigieg. And Mayor Pete could have added that for an already fortunate few, that loudmouth picked up their tab at last call.

* Make America Gluttonous Again: Speaking of symbols, Joey Chestnut wolfed down more than 70 hotdogs to retain his title at the annual July Fourth hot dog eating contest at Coney Island. Too bad this isn’t “fake news.”

* The Trump Administration perceives North Korea and Iran as its—and the world’s–biggest military threats. Arguably, North Korea is the bigger threat—and, ironically, the bigger conundrum. Trump has a, however weird, personal relationship with NK leader Kim Jong Un, which is potentially helpful, and there are UN sanctions still in force. That’s nothing like Trump’s unilateral withdrawal from the Iran-nuclear deal that alienated the U.S. from international partners.

But there is this: North Korea, unlike Iran, already has a nuclear arsenal. And there are still no concrete signs that both countries can even agree on a definition of “nuclearization.” Love letters and a political-theater two-step across the DMZ into North Korea are not nearly enough.

* Kim Darroch, the British ambassador to the United States, has been quoted as describing the Trump Administration as “incompetent,” “dysfunctional” and “diplomatically clumsy and inept.” Diplomats typically speak in calculated diplomatese. Wonder what Darroch really thinks.

* It’s now official. There is no longer a lone Republican in Congress calling for the impeachment of President Trump. U.S. Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan has officially changed his status from renegade Republican to candid, country-first independent. That now renders the Republican Party totally spineless when it comes to holding Trump accountable for his justice obstruction.

• Vatican Vlad: Can only imagine the details of those “substantive talks” between Pope Francis and Vladimir Putin at the Apostolic Palace. We do know, however, that the “relevance of the Catholic Church in Russia” was addressed. We don’t know if meddling in other countries’ elections came up, or if the Pope offered to hear his confession.
• It’s that time of the year again: the nine-day San Fermin fiesta—or the “running of the bulls” through the narrow streets of Pamplona, Spain. It draws about a million spectators, some of whom mindlessly mix among the bulls that will be killed later in bullfights. Several American tourists have been hospitalized. Regardless, I still root for the bulls.
• “This is by far—by thousands of times—the cheapest climate change solution.” This was Thomas Crowther, a climate change ecologist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, in making the case that the most effective way to fight global warming is to plant lots of trees. That’s because trees help remove carbon from the air—especially when they are younger. And the top six nations with the most room for new trees: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Russia and the United States. But, no, it’s not nearly enough without emissions cuts, reminds Crowther.

* You go, Senator Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, and Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren.

Rouson has already filed legislation that would ban private schools that ignore sexual orientation and gender identity from being part of the voucher program. It’s bad enough that tax-dollar tuition vouchers go to unregulated private schools, but it’s unconscionable that there would be a gender loophole. This is the 21^st century and the LGBTQ cause needs formal inclusion.

As for Warren, his office is looking closely at the possibility of judges waiving the court costs of former felons caught in the Tallahassee machinations of Amendment Four. Warren’s office is proactively making the case that judges could substitute community service for court costs for a large number of cases. It would, if it passes legal and logistical muster, create special courts—so-called “rocket dockets”–to eliminate debts that thousands of defendants owe to the criminal justice system. It would also eliminate de facto “poll taxes.”

It would thus speed up the process of those who want to regain a key right on the way back to societal reintegration. And lest we forget, society at large also benefits when those who want back into their communities after paying their debts are allowed to do so–as was envisioned in Amendment 4.

* Are felons always felons, even after paying their felonious debt to society? Or are they “former felons”? The media uses both—not unlike the interchange of ACA and “Obamacare.” As we well know, labeling carries connotations and matters to partisans.

* Suppose a leading Democratic presidential candidate with an impressive fund-raising haul wrote a check to help the cause of former felons getting their vote back in Florida? As in a big, possibly game-changing check underwriting substantial costs associated with fees, fines and even restitution in America’s ultimate swing state. A classic win-win: doing the morally right thing—for a lot of politically pragmatic reasons.

* So, Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed a controversial bill that would have required prominent warnings on lottery tickets. As in, “Warning: Lottery games maybe be addictive.” Or the less-alarmist “Play responsibly.” The governor rationalized that the result might be fewer players and, thus, less money for education. Maybe he should consider an alternate warning, one that might truly resonate with gambling sorts, but might not impact educational dollars. Perhaps: “Odds are, you won’t get addicted.”

* Roil Tide: Floridian Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr. has further underscored his opposition to the Alabama Legislature and governor for enacting an anti-abortion statute in May. Last week he took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal with the less-than-nuanced headline: “WHEN WE SING ‘GOD BLESS AMERICA’ ON THE FOURTH, IN ALABAMA, SOME WILL WHISTLE ‘DIXIE.’”