Category: Uncategorized

* GOPster sub-plot: If the Republicans take back the House, will House GOPsters take back Kevin McCarthy as the next Speaker? Thanks to an audio clip making the media rounds, we know that Minority Leaders McCarthy and Mitch McConnell were concerned enough about the Capitol attack to consider the need for President Trump to resign. When asked by Rep. Liz Cheney if there was any chance of Trump resigning, McCarthy said, “I’m seriously thinking of having that conversation with him tonight. … It would be my recommendation (he) should resign.” The context, of course, included Democrats pushing for impeachment. And speaking of said Dems, Sen. Elizabeth Warren summed it up: “Liar and traitor.”

BTW, McCarthy also added that he did “not want to get in any conversation about Pence pardoning.” Have to draw the dissembling line somewhere.

John Boehner and Paul Ryan never looked so good. And Kevin McCarthy deserves to share the same name as the actor who played the lead in “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”

* Selective-memory update: “I don’t recall.” That’s how Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene responded–under oath–when asked (at an administrative law hearing in Atlanta) if she had urged then-President Trump to impose martial law as a way to stay in power. The case was brought by Free Speech for People, a campaign-finance reform organization. The hearing was about whether she was an “insurrectionist” disqualified from seeking re-election.

* “It’s a tragic indictment of the political process these days—and the Republican Party of late—that truth doesn’t matter, words don’t matter. … You cross lines now, and there are no longer consequences.”–Former South Carolina Republican Gov. Mark Sanford.

* “Trump and his acolytes didn’t invent this; insecure masculinity is an old phenomenon. … The negative aspects of masculinity are always lurking just beneath the surface.”–Mona Charen, Creators Syndicate.

* How naive it seems that some thought–not just hoped–that when Trump became an ex-president, truculent party loyalty and tribalism would give way to a return to old-school Republican mores and guardrails.

* “The Russian invasion of Ukraine was intended only as a beginning, then they want to capture other countries.”–Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

* “We need a wall between civilization and barbarians striking peaceful cities with missiles.”–Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

* “If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”–George Washington.

* “Gas and grocery prices are the GOP’s best friends right now.”–Hugh Hewitt, Washington Post.

* “I don’t date women my age. There aren’t any.”–Milton Berle.

* “This year’s mid-term elections occur during a moment of existential peril for democracy.”–Leah Aden, deputy director of litigation at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund.

* “It needs to be, and it should be. (Honesty) goes to the core essence of integrity.”–Florida Democratic Congressman Charlie Crist, promising that if he gets through the primary, he will make honesty a key part of his campaign to unseat Gov. Ron DeSantis.

* “Unfortunately, it appears to me our options are very limited regarding potential tax relief the board can authorize at this time.”–Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan.

* “You can’t take taxes that pay for cops on the street and use it to pay for baseball. That’s why we’re limited to the tourist development tax which pays for exactly that kind of thing.”–St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch.

* “You hear St. Pete talk about being the next Austin. Well, Lealman is its next-door neighbor.”–Christopher Moore, assistant Pinellas County administrator, referring to plans for a Tesla showroom and service facility at an old Kane’s Furniture liquidation store in the Lealman section of St. Petersburg at 34^th Street N and 46^th Avenue N.

* “More than 60 Israeli companies have a presence in Florida. And the Florida-Israel Business Accelerator based in Tampa is helping to increase that number.”--Mayor Jane Castor.

I know I’m not the only one. I’m not even the only one in my house to cut back on my TV news viewing.

The emotions fomented by fraught times continue to weigh on us. Emotional stability shouldn’t be a 2022 oxymoron. As a result—even for a news junkie—watching TV news has never been more parlous. That’s because it’s more about unsettling optics and ratings than about relevant societal updates. According to a survey by Digital Third Coast, more than two-thirds of respondents reported feeling “burnt out” by the news. “If it bleeds, it leads” still, alas, resonates—from cell-phone crime scenes and a Russian invasion to pandemic body counts and “weather porn” during hurricane season. “Breaking news” is now a network cliché. And social media remains a self-evident, Faustian deal with the devil.

And then there are the redundant, political-talk shows across the spectrum that all depend on conflict for their ratings. This typically manifests itself in partisan discord, if not vitriol, as well as theatrics. As for modulated discussions—sans interruptions and talk-overs—well, that’s why there’s PBS.

So what’s a news junkie to do? Rely more on the written word, however self-serving that may sound. Being informed should not have to be a visceral experience. Reading is less likely to cause the sort of gut-wrenching stress that leads to anxious mood swings and problematic sleeping.

Speaking of sleeping, not getting ramped up over optics certainly helps—as does cannabis tincture.

* The Biden Administration has disappointed climate activists by not permanently blocking oil and gas development on public land. But the Administration has dramatically limited U.S. public land available for new oil and gas development.

* “Democratic politicians should consider seeking face time on Fox News. That approach has become policy within the Biden White House, which is eyeing the network’s audience of Republicans, independents and Democrats.”–Erik Wemple, WaPo. In short, politicians need to meet viewers where they are. Having said that, however, exceptions should still be considered where Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham are concerned.

* Still feeling the Bern. “While Bernie Sanders will never be president, his two campaigns have transformed the Democratic Party and this country. Old orthodoxies about government spending and foreign policy have crumbled as a result of the unceasing efforts by an old socialist.”–Ari Rabin-Havt, former deputy campaign manager for Bernie Sanders.

* The W.H.O. has calculated the global death toll at approximately 15 million by the end of 2021. That’s more than double the official total of six million reported by countries individually. More than a third of the additional nine million deaths are estimated to have occurred in India, where the government has stood firm on its count of about 500,000. It’s believed India has the highest total in the world.

* The BA.2 mutant is thought to be about 30 percent more contagious than COVID-19. Keeping a surge somewhat in check is a higher level of immunity in the U.S. from vaccination or past infection.

* Total U.S. population that is boosted: 30 percent.

Total Florida population that is boosted: 26 percent.

* Florida positivity rate: 6.2 percent.

Hillsborough County positivity rate: 3.5 percent.

* As the Omicron variant has receded, the airline industry has rebounded. The Adobe Digital Economy Index reported that ticket sales for domestic flights in February exceeded those for the same (pre-pandemic) month in 2019.

* Masks would still be required until at least May 3 for those flying commercially—as well as other transportation settings, including buses, subways and ferries. At least they were until a federal district judge in Tampa (Kathryn Kimball Mizelle) voided it. But, yeah, it’s OK to wear a mandate-free mask just to be on the safer side.

* Florida’s economy is the 15^th largest in the world.

* According to Planned Parenthood, Florida is among 19 states where access to abortion is now “severely restricted.”

* “Whatever happened to the separation of powers? The fact that the Florida Legislature is just bending over backward to do what the governor wants. I mean, why are we elected?”–State Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, in reference to Republican legislative leaders deferring to Gov. DeSantis to draft a new congressional (redistricting) map.

* Banning math textbooks over critical race theory? Go figure.

* Democratic Congresswoman Val Demings, a Senate-candidate opponent of Marco Rubio, nearly doubled the latter’s fundraising in Quarter 1 of 2022. It’s the fourth consecutive quarter Demings has outraised Rubio.

* “I want every woman in Florida to know that when I am the first woman governor of Florida, you’ll have an ally—not an enemy—in the governor’s office,” promised Nikki Fried. “Women in Florida deserve better.”

* Democratic bumper sticker possibility: “Abort DeSantis’ Agenda.”

* DeSantis bumper sticker reality: “Pro-Strife.”

* Tampa Bay inflation was up 10.2 percent in the last year. Nationally, the inflation-rate increase was 8.5 percent—the highest in more than 40 years.

* “Please be patient. It’ll be worth it in the end.”–Brad Baird, Tampa’s deputy administrator for infrastructure, on the city’s two-decade, ($2.9 billion) PIPES project that will begin this summer in East Tampa, MacFarlane Park in West Tampa, Forest Hills in North Tampa and Virginia Park in South Tampa.

* “We are prepared to work with federal and local partners to ensure that refugees of this terrible (Ukraine) crisis have the support and assistance that they need to join our communities—if they so wish.”–From a letter to President Joe Biden from three regional mayors: Tampa’s Jane Castor, St. Petersburg’s Ken Welch and Orlando’s Buddy Dyer.

* “A genocide.”–How President Joe Biden characterized Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

* Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked President Biden to designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, a powerful sanction.

* “The city of Mariupol has been wiped off the face of the Earth by the Russian Federation, by those who will never be able to restore it.”–Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

* It’s been a major embarrassment for Russia that its flagship vessel of the Black Sea Fleet, the Moskva, was sunk.

* According to UNICEF, nearly two thirds of all Ukrainian children have been forced from their homes since the start of the Russian invasion.

* S&P Global placed Russia under a “selective default” rating.

* Wouldn’t it speak volumes if Edward Snowden, of leaked-NSA-information infamy, announced that he was leaving Russia as a protest against Vladimir Putin’s unconscionably cruel and tragic invasion of Ukraine. Or is genocide an insufficient reason to leave his Russian safe house?

* NATO expansion? Finland and Sweden could be next up. If that were to happen, Russia would “rebalance the situation,” according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Such euphemistic “rebalancing” could involve moving nuclear weapons near the Baltic Sea.

* A Supreme Court confirmation hearing in 1981 was the first to be televised live. It was that important—and historic: the confirmation of Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman Supreme Court justice. BTW, the vote was 99-0. That was then.

* It remains surprising, if not shocking, that there has never been a movie made of the amazing and tragic career of Dorothy Kilgallen, who was one of the most widely known journalists in the world and a multi-media star. Ernest Hemingway called her “the most powerful female voice in America.”

She also met a beyond-suspicious death—in the context of pushing back against the popular scenario that “Oswald alone” was behind the JFK assassination. She had recently visited New Orleans and had plans to return in pursuit of a Mafia lead. Her phone had been tapped and she was under FBI surveillance.

Kilgallen covered the Jack Ruby trial, secured–via her fame and assertiveness–two interviews with Lee Harvey Oswald’s killer and then outraged the FBI and the Warren Commission by secretly securing transcripts of Ruby’s testimony to the commission and publishing them before they were officially released. She included information ineptly ignored or redacted by the Warren Commission. Maybe Oliver Stone would be interested.

* “I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy. … Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.” That was Elon Musk, whose hostile takeover bid ($43 billion) has been rebuffed so far by Twitter.

* “Easter Kegg Hunt”: Thanks to Pabst Blue Ribbon.