Category: Uncategorized

* “This grant will allow (the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority) to significantly reduce operational costs while expanding the Cross-Bay Ferry service, helping to grow inter city and commuter ferry service.”–U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, in announcing that the U.S. Department of Transportation is awarding a grant totaling $4.9 million To HART for the passenger ferry service.

* Hillsborough County has 35 schools on the state’s “persistently low-performing” list. No other district has more than 18.

* Five of the seven members of the Clearwater Downtown Development Board are Scientology parishioners. Good luck, DT Clearwater.

* “This has been a whispered conversation in this community for a long time. Frankly, folks have been afraid to bring it forward because there’s been a lot of pushback.”–St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch, on re-evaluating the city’s prime, 119-acre waterfront property where Albert Whitted Airport operates.

* After a two-year pandemic hiatus, the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the one President Trump never attended, is back: April 30. President Biden is expected to attend.

* “It’s the weaponization of context. It’s genuine content, but the context changes via minor edits. Anyone can be vulnerable with the right edit.”–Claire Wardel, executive director of First Draft, a non-profit that works to protect against disinformation and misinformation. Especially in the digital era. Especially with self-servingly edited, viral, partisan-political videos.

* Remington made news with its announced $73 million lawsuit settlement with families of those slaughtered at Sandy Hook Elementary. Too bad it didn’t also announce that it would, flat-out, no longer manufacture and advertise assault weapons, such as AR-15 style rifles, to any market other than the military and police departments.

Marketing is a critical factor when a manufacturer targets younger, at-risk males in ads and product placement in violent video games—a morally craven business model. Then it’s all about the macho gun culture—and clueless parents, gun-rights politicians and other societal enablers. What’s left of the Lanza family would likely agree. Until moral sanity and the law banning assault weapons is restored, the best counter weapons are big-money lawsuits.

* Don’t take life so seriously … it’s not permanent.

* When driving by the new Bank of Tampa facility on MLK Boulevard, I can’t help but reflect on the name. I think it matters to have a local identity. Not Fifth Third Bank. Not Bank of the Ozarks. Not, uh, Synovus.

* Bumper sticker: “Former baby on board.”

* Taxidermist’s window: “We really know our stuff.”

* A fence: “Salesmen welcome. Dog food is expensive.”

* Spring training games across Florida won’t start until—at least—March 5 because of the lockout.

* Much has been made of the citizenship—not just the incredible talent—of 18-year-old, San Francisco-born, freestyle skiier Eileen Gu, who won Olympic gold in Beijing. Her mother is Chinese and her father is American. She chose to compete for China—although China officially does not allow dual citizenship. “When I’m in the U.S., I’m American,” says Gu, “but when I’m in China, I’m Chinese.”

We get the duality of hyphenated Americans. But, let’s be honest. Nobody would be calling Gu a “traitor” or “ungrateful”–as some, alas, have–if she were, say, half Danish or Irish. But China is now the world’s avatar for authoritarianism and genocide. It has an increasingly adversarial relationship with the United States. That’s unfortunate. As is the possibility—or likelihood—that China will try to exploit her image for propaganda purposes.

“She was recruited to compete on behalf of China, but she was not recruited to become the spokesperson for China’s toxic patriotism,” notes CCNY political scientist Ming Xia.

* The next Summer Olympics: 2024 in Paris. The next newest sport: break-dancing. Seriously. Still not yet Olympic sports: The Bristol Stomp, Hop Scotch and The Limbo Bar.

* ESPN recently estimated that “under the table” (via a bookie or off-shore gambling site) bets on NFL and college football games exceed $95 billion per year.

* The Mazars USA accounting firm says it will no longer do any work for the Trump Organization—or Trump personally. Something about financial documents between 2011 and 2020 that can “no longer be relied upon.” Ouch. Mazars baled amid criminal and civil investigations into Trump and family over inflating the value of Trump Organization properties.

* A judge has ruled that Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump must answer questions under oath in New York State’s civil investigation into Trump’s business practices. So the three Trumps will have to sit for depositions. One caveat: The Fifth Amendment, the one once denigrated by Trump, is still available. See below.

* “Somebody should read (Trump) his Miranda rights. He has the right to remain silent.”–Attorney George Conway, a founding member of the Lincoln Project, the conservative Super PAC. Anyone representing Trump knows he cannot be allowed to say much under oath. He becomes his own worst rhetorical enemy.

* A federal judge rejected efforts by Trump to get conspiracy lawsuits—filed by lawmakers and two Capitol police officers—tossed out. Trump’s words—during a Jan. 6, pre-insurrection rally—were likely “words of incitement not protected by the First Amendment,” according to U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta in his ruling. Words of “incitement” before an insurrection. Sounds sort of seditious.

* On sale at Trump speaking events is his coffee-table (picture) book. Signed copies sell for $230. You have to know your market.

* “After sacrificing considerably to lead our nation, there continues to be unprecedented demand for President Trump, his thoughts and his products, unlike anything politics has ever seen.”–Trump spokesman-flack Taylor Budowich.

* Donald Trump Jr. has his own online store and sells, among other provocative items, shirts that say: “Guns Don’t Kill People/Alec Baldwin Kills People.”

* “We Shall Overcomb.” A possible ‘24 campaign sticker to complement MAGA?

* “Let us be clear. I am here today not to start a war, but to prevent one.”–Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking about Russia and Ukraine at the U.N. Security Council.

* “Nie wieder Krieg” (“Never again war”). Still a familiar, pacifist strain in Germany.

* “I cannot stress this enough: We urge our private sector partners to … put in place cybersecurity defenses … that make cyber attacks harder for even sophisticated cyber actors.”–White House Deputy National Security Advisor Anne Neuberger, in urging American companies to brace for potential Russian computer hacking as tensions mount along the Ukraine border.

* “Ukraine belongs to Russia’s sphere of influence.”–France’s Marine Le Pen, the perennial nationalist and anti-immigrant presidential candidate.

* “Make no mistake: Sea level rise is upon us.”–Nicole LeBoeuf, director of NOAA’s National Ocean Service.

* “The thing that is different about Trump is the making-money part seems to have permeated everything. There is this appearance, at least, that he is always thinking: How can I make a profit off of this? It is wrong for influence and power in this country to be sold for personal profit.”–Former Federal Election Commission general counsel Lawrence M. Noble.

* “The Democratic Party has lost touch with all working people, including its own base.”–Democratic pollster and political strategist Stan Greenberg.

* “Ninety-eight percent of people on the Mall on Jan. 6 were white. We need better white people in the United States.”–Democratic analyst James Carville.

* Where race is concerned, eliding the truth is an American tradition.”–Leonard Pitts, Miami Herald.

* “People who worry themselves sick over sexism in language and think the government sneaks into their houses at night and puts atomic waste in the kitchen dispose-all cannot be expected to have a sense of humor. And they don’t.”–The late humorist P.J. O’Rourke.

* “Secretaries of State are, in the battle over the future of our democracy, serving on the front lines. Clearly the work that we did to successfully defend democracy in 2020 has placed us in a greater spotlight.”–Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. She and her family were confronted with protests in front of their house by armed supporters of former President Donald Trump.

* “It seems hard to believe, but there’s no visa that allows someone to settle permanently in the U.S. because they’ve started a business. … We need a true entrepreneurship visa that allows a broad scope of international talent to start a business with the security of permanent status.”–Julio Fuentes, the president, CEO and founder of the Florida State Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

* “It makes good business sense to include workforce and affordable housing in all of our development.”–Mayor Jane Castor.

* “This is the good stuff, guys. This is the one you fight over.”–Bill Cronin, president and CEO of the Pasco Economic Development Council, on announced plans by Amazon to build a $150 million, 500,000-square-foot distribution facility that will provide 500 jobs.

Showtime’s four-part “We Need to Talk About Cosby” is worth checking out. Writer-director Kamau Bell chronicles the unmasking and devolution of an erstwhile icon to that of societal menace. The overriding takeaway: “America’s dad” was an unconscionable, unrelenting predator. His victims and show biz enablers didn’t want to acknowledge and confront a Dr. Huxtable & Mr. Hyde monster in their midst. One of our seemingly better angels was preying on vulnerable women.

But it was more than a disgusting revelation.

It was a gut punch to a society that thought it had a high-profile black entertainer who was what racially riven America desperately needed: Someone who could, without trafficking in “adult” humor and F-bombs, remind us all of what we had in common—not conflict. Every neighborhood had a Fat Albert. Regardless of race or religion, we could see the humor in our literal retelling of God’s ark-building instructions to Noah. In a society polarized by race, Cosby was a godsend. Until he wasn’t. His betrayal was a demonic nightmare.

* If the Democratic Party sticks together, it will be able to confirm President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee sans any GOPster votes. She could become the first person elevated to the court by a vice presidential tie-breaking vote. A lot of history could be made.

It wasn’t always this problematic. Recall that retiring Justice Stephen G. Breyer, a member of the court’s liberal wing, was appointed in 1994 by President Bill Clinton, and the confirmation vote was a one-sided 87-to-9. Hell, hard-core conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who was nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, was confirmed in a shutout: 98-to-0. That was then.

Whatever happened to consensus? Right now the Dems are hoping for a couple of ideological defections. Best chance: Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who was the only Republican to oppose Justice Brett Kavanaugh. A realistic, best-case scenario: Collins, Murkowski and Sen. Lindsey Graham cross the politically partisan aisle-gulf. All three backed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, a front-runner to succeed Justice Breyer, for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

* “The worst thing you can do in American politics is to give people something and then take it away. The failure to pass the Build Back Better has a negative effect on a lot of families.”–Democratic strategist Brad Bannon, alluding to the child tax credit benefit that lapsed last month.

* “You lie!” Remember that? It’s when South Carolina Republican Congressman Joe Wilson shouted that during President Barack Obama’s address of a joint session of Congress in 2009. Little did we know that it would get so much worse than even that.

* “Democrats generally respect the notion that a more democratic nation is a good thing … (and don’t seek) to rig the rules in their favor. That’s why there was no Jan. 6, 2017, insurrection to stop Donald Trump from taking office.”–Perry Bacon, WaPo.

* Nearly 54 percent of the world population is fully vaccinated, according to Our World in Data. Nearly 62 percent have received at least one dose.

* Russia has fully vaccinated 49 percent of its population.

* The FDA announced that the vaccine for kids under 5 has been delayed until at least mid-April.

* According to the CDC, booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines lose substantial effectiveness after about four months—but were still effective in keeping people out of the hospital during the omicron surge.

* In Florida omicron-related infections have fallen by nearly 50 percent in the past two weeks.

* Hillsborough County is still operating these testing sites: Adventure Island, Hillsborough Community College Brandon, Progress Village Park and the West Tampa Community Resource Center.