Category: Uncategorized

* The Colorado Supreme Court has barred Trump from the state’s ballot. The rationale: A section of the 14^th Amendment that prohibits anyone who swore an oath to support the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection” against it from holding office. It’s an unprecedented application. In another era, such seditious behavior might have warranted a firing squad. But a de facto “You’re fired” will do.

* Rally rhetoric: 2016–“carnage,” 2024–“vermin.”

* According to Liz Cheney, George W. Bush wanted Trump impeached.

* Trump still wants to end the Affordable Care Act. The begged question: Can America afford a sequel to the Trump Apprentice act.

* “MSNBC (MSDNC) uses FREE government approved airways, and yet it is nothing but a 24-hour hit job on Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party for purposes of ELECTION INTERFERENCE. … Our so-called ‘government’ should come down hard on them and make them pay for their illegal political activity.”–Donald J. Trump.

* Weaponizing the government to punish the free press: Yet another reminder that the dictator’s playbook that advocates the demonization of the media is still very much in play.

* If re-elected, Trump says he won’t be a dictator—“except for day one.” … “We’re closing the border, and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.” How reassuring, except that these are the words of a well-documented, self-serving, pathological liar with a proven dictatorial fixation.

* “I don’t call them ‘prisoners.’ I call them ‘hostages.’” Trump on the alleged violent offenders who are detained and await trial for their roles in the Jan. 6 insurrection.

* “Daniel Ellsberg is the most dangerous man in America. He must be stopped at all costs.”–Henry Kissinger, 1971. Those were the (“most dangerous”) days.

* “Nikki Haley, at the top of the ticket, would boost candidates up and down the ballot.”–Koch Brothers-founded Americans for Prosperity, which has been raising money to help the GOP oust Trump.

* New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu has endorsed Nikki Haley for president–not Civil War historian.

* True that: “There is no bigger issue in this race than Donald Trump. His conduct is unacceptable. He’s unfit.”–Chris Christie, the only GOP debater to go after Trump.

* Reportedly Kevin McCarthy, the ousted GOP Speaker, would like to be considered for a Trump Cabinet position. Apparently senior sycophant isn’t prestigious enough.

* “Trump enjoys some unusual advantages for a challenger. … Even Ronald Reagan did not have a Fox News and the Speaker of the House in his pocket.”–Robert Kagan, WaPo

* Trump’s autocratic dream: Russian President Vladimir Putin will be seeking another—six-year—term. He’s already been in power for nearly a quarter of a century. No debates, no primaries, no relevant media, Stalin nostalgia, token opposition.

* “(The office of the presidency) does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass.”–U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutka.

* “Red Caesar”: New Right coinage for a leader whose post-Constitutional rule will restore the strength of his people. Or should that be Orange Caesar?

 

* “Our bodies are ecosystems, and the world is an ecosystem.”–U.S. climate envoy John Kerry.

* “If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason’s and Dixon’s, but between patriotism and intelligence on one side and superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other.”–Ulysses S. Grant.

* “A gigantic, global sewer.”–How Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo characterized Elon Musk’s platform X.

* “These companies (Apple and Google) know enough about your children to recommend games and other apps, but they claim ignorance when it comes time to judge whether material is safe and suitable for them.”–Elizabeth Self, The American Conservative.

* “Tampa Bay must address long-standing transportation infrastructure needs, including better regional connectivity. This is why Tampa Bay needs a new Tri-County Metropolitan Planning Organization.”–Bemetra Simmons, president and CEO of the Tampa Bay Partnership.

* “You don’t just want great physician scientists and nurses and techs and allied health professionals, you want to be in the state-of-the-art facilities with state-of-the-art technology.”–Tampa General Hospital CEO John Couris. TGH has announced plans for a $500 million, 13-story, 565,000-square-foot addition to provide a state-of-the-art environment for neuroscience and transplant services.

* “I own it.”–Hillsborough Schools Superintendent Van Ayres, in reference to disappointing county school grades, including 23 D schools and 4 F schools—more than any other state district.

It was a Halloween celebration along Ybor City’s 7^th Avenue. It was 3 a.m. Two people were shot and killed. The real underlying cause: the culture, not the venue.

Why go to a late-hour Halloween celebration with a gun? Why let your 14-year-old be anywhere other than asleep in his bedroom in the middle of the night? Ybor is, in effect, another victim of a dysfunctional societal culture that is gun-and-gang enamored.

Donald Trump’s inexplicably viable, front-runner status—despite his unprincipled, embarrassing track record and ongoing fraud and criminal legal problems—is an indictment of American democracy. And it hardly helps that “debates” are staged performance art, and fund-raising and advertising can be more consequential than a candidate’s policies. And it’s beyond worrisome that Trump has doubled down on his authoritarian essence with this rally warning: “I am your retribution.”

This can’t be what anyone—possibly including MAGA minions and the Koch Brothers–had in mind about American “exceptionalism.”

* Abortion rights continue to fuel Democratic optimism. Pro choice is more than a bumper-sticker freedom.

* “Kamala Harris has been raked over the coals as vice president. But few have ever doubted her skill as a passionate inquisitor and prosecutor—roles essential in a presidential campaign. It’s time to let Kamala Harris be herself. … (She) plainly gets under the skin of MAGA politicians and right-wing media.”–Jennifer Rubin, WaPo.

* “There was an assault weapons ban at one time. It expired. Let’s renew it.”–VP Kamala Harris.

* RFK Jr., Marianne Williamson, Joe Manchin: Biden alternatives? Hardly. And it hardly helps.

* “Competitive when it should be, collaborative when it can be and adversarial when it must be.”–Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the U.S. approach to China.

* “We’re finally getting it done.”– President Joe Biden in showcasing more than $16 billion in federal investments for rail travel along the Northeast Corridor.

* End Citizens United/Let America Vote, the grass-roots organization committed to protecting the freedom to vote and reforming the broken campaign-finance system, has officially endorsed the re-election of President Joe Biden.

* Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 83, is running for re-election. Not all octogenarians are the same.

* Cuban-heavy Hialeah has the second-highest Affordable Care Act enrollment in the country.

* “Nuestros Suenos” (“Our dreams”) and “Firme” (“Strong”): Democratic Spanish language TV ads in South Florida that target Venezuelan-Americans.

* We should probably stop putting people who are preparing for the Rapture in charge of anything anymore.

* Maybe those Founding Fathers were on to something by not including anything in the Constitution about a two-party system.

* I too was once a male trapped in a female body … But then my mother gave birth.

* When posing for a photo, don’t cross your arms in front of you. It makes you look like a self-satisfied real estate agent or a showboating athlete.

* Writer and satirist Fran Lebowitz played Tampa recently at the Straz. She’s opinionated, caustic, quick and funny. She’d be great to meet at a cocktail party—not so great as a next-door neighbor.

* Electoral euphemism: Candidates don’t drop out; they permanently “suspend” campaigns.

* The Gunshine State has seen an unsurprising drop in gun-safety classes. Permitless-carry laws have their ripple effects.

* The Florida Legislature has only one member–State Rep. Randy Fine of southern Brevard County–who is both Jewish and Republican.

* Disney has joined the sports betting business. It has launched its own app, ESPN Bet.

* Speaking of, Disney—according to a study by Oxford Economics—had a $40.3 billion economic impact on Florida in fiscal 2022.

* It looks increasingly appropriate that Ron DiSastrous announced his presidential bid on Elon Musk’s X-rated, social medium platform.

* The Florida State Guard: Get rid of those brown shirts.

* When the Tallahassee remake of New College is complete, it will look like Hillsdale, the GOP-backed, private, conservative Christian Michigan college.

* The governor swears he doesn’t wear height-enhancing lifts in those incongruous, bizarrely-shaped cowboy boots to look like a taller leader. But his campaign does need a vertical lift.

* Sixty years ago President John F. Kennedy visited Tampa, just days before Dallas. Another reminder that the security in a problematic area (mob boss/casino losses and Cubans embittered by the Bay of Pigs outcome) was so much better than in the “Hate Capital of the South.”

* Thanks to nearly $4 million in federal grant money, the Tampa Police Department will be hiring 30 new officers. Yeah, big government can help.

* The Wall Street Journal has ranked TIA among the top 10 best airports in the U.S.

* “A talent importer.”–Outgoing University of Tampa President Rick Vaughn, on the number of UT (enrollment now 11,000) students who now remain in the area after graduation.

* Trump’s Hialeah rally during the GOP presidential-candidate debate in Miami: counter programming.

* “Here is a truth: Anything good for cable news is bad for humanity.”–Peggy Noonan, WSJ.

* Remember when polls were more credible—and not “breaking news” snapshots? Land lines ruled and “push polls” was an unfamiliar coinage. When polling was the province of specific experts–think Gallup–and not a news-making extension of the media. When respondents were receptive and candid–if not flattered–to be involved. Bottom line: Voters vote, polls don’t.

* Meta says Facebook and Instagram will soon be requiring political ads running on their platforms to disclose if they are Artificial Intelligence.

* IBM is the latest prominent advertiser to pull its ads from former-Twitter “X.” Hate-speech concerns and Elon Musk’s controversial tweets on anti-semitism have everything to do with it.

* How could you have made the Israel-Hamas war a major part of the Miami GOP debate without any reference to the overriding need for a two-state solution?

* Some memorable debate lines are less “memorable” than others. Exhibit A: “You’re just scum.” That was Nikki Haley to Vivek Ramaswamy, who had referenced her daughter in a Tik Tok riff.

*Takeaway: Exactly what time slot will Fox offer Ramaswamy?

* CBS will be honoring Dick Van Dyke later this month (Dec. 21) with a birthday special. Van Dyke will be 98. “Rob Petrie” lives on.

* ESPN’s College Game Day is now a fixture of the Saturday college football scene. They set up shop on a host campus. Directly behind the pre-game chattering broadcasters is a background of amped-up students with signs that will show up on national TV. It used to be “Go Irish” or “Beat Bama” or “Hi Mom.” Now it’s signage such as “I Have To Pee” and “Michigan Took My Other Sign.”

* Since the Supreme Court helped usher in more sports betting in 2018, Americans have responded with more than $270 billion in sports wagering on various events.

* “I understand the (stadium) debate between Tampa and St. Pete, which side. St. Pete today is different than it was five years ago. I really believe that if Stu Sternberg’s prepared to commit to the deal in St. Pete, it’s going to be a good deal for baseball.”–MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred.

* Tampa Bay Sun: The Tampa-based women’s professional soccer franchise in the United Soccer League that will debut next year.

* Shout-out to Plant High for winning a state volleyball championship—for the 12^th time.