Category: Uncategorized

 

* If the subsidies that help Americans pay for Affordable Care Act insurance plans expire at the end of 2025—as expected—the biggest hit will be in South Florida, which happens to be the country’s top market for the coverage. And let’s not forget that Florida is one of just a handful of states that have not expanded Medicaid.

* According to the National Association of Realtors, real estate accounts for 24.1% of Florida’s gross domestic product—the largest share of any state.

* Approximately 14% of the (3 million) students enrolled in Florida public schools attend charters.

* WalletHub data show that Orlando is the most-retiree friendly city in the U.S. Senior-friendly (state) tax policies and excellent geriatric hospital services were major factors. Miami was rated 4^th and Tampa 5^th.

* Florida has executed more people this year–15–than any other state. It’s followed by Texas and Alabama with 5 each. Two more are planned in Florida this month.

* A bill that would require teachers to take an oath to God and the U.S. Constitution and be positive role models “in both conduct and character” begs a question. Why not require legislators, especially the DeSantis-MAGA ones, to take an oath to “follow my conscience—not self-serving, partisan politics–and do what’s best for all Floridians” no matter who is governor or president.

* “I think that we need less politics in our education, not more. Education should be about expertise and not about politics.”—House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, in response to a bill that would make the Hillsborough County Public Schools superintendent position a partisan elected one.

* TIA is the 27^th largest airport in the U.S.

* Hurricane season and a 250-foot “observation wheel” in the Channel District seem problematic.

* Heads up: ACA tax credits expire Dec. 31. Sans government action, future health costs are expected to skyrocket for millions of Americans.

* Since the summer, ICE has arrested more than 1,000 people per day. This lags behind Trump’s goal of more than a million by the end of his first year of term two.

* According to Oxford Economics, a government-shutdown reduces economic growth by 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points per week. That’s worth $7.6 billion to $15.2 billion a week, based on the hours not worked.

* Here was Trump’s take on the “No Kings” marches. “It’s a joke. I looked at the people. They are not representative of this country.” As if this country’s president were.

* Israel-Hamas: Trump’s plan for Gaza (Trump Gaza Strip Malls?) doesn’t address the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That is, Palestinian statehood. No progress on a two-state solution leaves the conflict largely unsettled and unworthy of Nobel Peace Prize conjecture.

* Portland’s mayor, Keith Wilson, is not totally opposed to federal help. As long as the “help” is actually needed. “Imagine, the federal government sent instead 100 teachers or 100 engineers or 100 addiction specialists,” he noted.

* “Chicago is the worst and most dangerous city in the world.”—Donald Trump.

* “The Trump Administration is seeking to destabilize our city and promote chaos.”—Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.

* “You can’t get a (Nobel Peace Prize) medal for promoting democracy when you tried to overthrow the democracy you were running.”—Maureen Dowd, NYT.

* Edifice Wrecks: The demolished East Wing is being replaced by a 90,000 sq. ft., $380 million ballroom with bullet-proof windows and a gilded age Mar-a-Lago look. Call it another Trump legacy update beyond due process denial, xenophobia, grift, ICE invasions, health care insanity, Putin bromance, unprecedented buffonery and existential embarrassment.

* “The president wants to do the right thing by the ‘People’s House.’”—WH Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. Speaking of, Sean Spicer is looking better these days.

* Cabinet opening? Trump commuted the sentence of former U.S. Rep. George Santos, who had been serving a seven-year sentence in federal prison for fraud and identity theft.

* “I think he’s crazy. I think he’s unfit for office. … He’s an opportunist.” That was South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham’s thinking about Donald Trump in 2016. Chances are, he still feels the same, only can’t say it anymore, especially on the golf course.

* Trump is a (martial) law and order president.

* “Because of other countries’ testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately.”—Let’s call it what it is: The ultimate existential Trump threat.

* “Any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat—I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.”—Donald Trump. Calling Jews disloyal? We’ve, hauntingly, heard that before.

* “Mr. Trump and his sons’ enormous accumulation of crypto wealth appears set to continue throughout his term. … It’s an open door to a form of corruption, at the highest level, that Americans have never had to confront.”—Jacob Silverman, author of “Gilded Rage.”

* Statue of Liberty Update: “Welcome, White South Africans yearning to breathe free.”

* Trump reportedly wants the new Washington Commanders, $4-billion stadium named after him. Be careful what you ask for. Commander Bonespurs and Orangeskins could be in the running.

 

* Firing a football coach, even the prominent ones, used to be easier. Not enough wins; you’re out of here; that’s cause enough. Now it’s, “Pick up your 8-figure check on the way out and say hi to the folks at ESPN.”

* “My general feeling is that there’s never too much press attention, because you need a free press to have a free society.”—Former AG Janet Reno.

* “The media in this country should have a bias—in favor of democracy.”—Mehdi Hasan, British-American journalist and founder of the media company, Zeteo.

* Trump went on “60 Minutes” with Norah O’Donnell at Mar-a-Lago. The usual bluster and prevarication—from ICE and the economy to Venezuela and Biden revisionism—but no reference to the Epstein files in the 70-minute interview that was edited to 30 minutes. Surely, O’Donnell would have asked about it. Surely.

* Dem Sen. Adam Schiff has a YouTube channel. He’s well-spoken, stays on message and worth listening to.

* You don’t have to be a big college football fan to celebrate Tampa hosting (2029) another college football championship. The previous one, in 2017, was worth an estimated $300 million in economic impact. Not unlike Super Bowls, which Tampa has hosted five times, these are impactful events–more than just high-profile football games.

BTW, Tampa will also be hosting the 2027 Florida-Georgia game, while Jacksonville’s EverBank Stadium undergoes a $1.4 billion renovation.

* The Philadelphia Phillies have high expectations next season for 21-year-old, Triple A standout Justin Crawford. His dad is former Rays left fielder Carl Crawford.

* The only MLB team still without a pennant: the Seattle Mariners.

* The spread of legalized sports betting is out of control. Just ask the NBA and MLB about today’s pro sports ecosystem.

* An ESPN “College GameDay” sign: “My Girlfriend Entered The Transfer Portal.”

* The West underestimates “the growing military cooperation between Iran, China, North Korea and Russia.”—Carlo Masala, German political scientist and author of “If Russia Wins.”

* “The leadership of Russia must understand that its attempt to rebuild Europe’s last empire is doomed to fail. The age of empires is over.”—Radoslaw Sikorski, deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Poland.

* “The purpose of Iran is Shiite theocracy, for its own sake and a counterweight to democratic secular, and Sunni governments allied with the United States in the region.”—Graeme Wood, The Atlantic.

* “Mr. Netanyahu’s political survival now appears to depend on Mr. Trump personally.”—Dana Stroul, research director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

* “Violence is baked into American culture and politics going back to the genocide of Native Americans, the importation of slaves and Aaron Burr offing Alexander Hamilton.”—Ted Rall, co-host of the DMZ America podcast.

* “We have the hottest country anywhere in the world, which tells you about leadership.”—Donald Trump.

* The Trump version of the GOP: “It’s a populist party, and whatever populism is, conservatism isn’t. Populism is the belief that the passions of the people should be aroused and transformed into public policy by a strong leader of the sort who might say, ‘Only I can fix it.’ Conservatism, Madisonian conservatism, says passions are the political problem.”—George Will.

* “Charlie Kirk represented politics at its worst. He laced his speeches with racist and bigoted remarks. He created a ‘Professors Watch List,’ demanding that any professor associated with the political left be fired.”—Bill Press, author and host of The BillPressPod.

* “Oklahomans would lose their mind if (Democratic Gov. JB) Pritzker in Illinois sent troops down to Oklahoma during the Biden Administration.”—Republican Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt.

* “One of the biggest employers in the United States will become a net job destroyer, not a net job creator.”—Daron Acemoglu, of M.I.T., on Amazon’s plans to automate 75% of its operations.

* “An important part of this job is you have to be willing to be disliked.”—SCOTUS Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

* “We should be looking at ways to lean up government—right-size it, if you will.”—Republican Jim Boyd, the new Florida Senate president.

* “The primary aim of the humanities is to train people to make up their own minds.”—David Newheiser, associate professor of religion at FSU.

* “The real art in an art heist isn’t the stealing; it’s the selling.”—Robert Whitman, former FBI art crime inspector.

* “I am confident that something good’s going to happen in Tampa.”—MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, on prospects for a new Rays’ stadium.

* “The transformation underway in Ybor City is bringing new life, businesses, jobs and opportunity back to this historic landmark. Expanding Tampa General’s footprint in Ybor will offer the new residents, professionals and visitors we’re attracting to Ybor convenient access to exceptional health care.”—Developer Darryl Shaw.

It was the Cold War ‘70s; it was the winter; and I was in Berlin. When traveling in East Berlin, I was followed. Stasi had no idea who I was, and this was the spy vs. spy era. It was creepy. However, the Berlin Wall optics, as seen from Checkpoint Charlie, were worth writing about, and I did.

But what still resonates were various conversations I had with West Berliners. One constant: references to Chancellor—and former Berlin mayor—Willy Brandt. They respected him and liked him, and they liked poking fun at him by calling him “Schnapps Willy,” for his reputation as the imbiber-in-chief.

No way would residents of East Berlin have poked any fun at their leader, Erich Honecker. Autocracies didn’t tolerate such affronts in the name of humor. Their leaders were on pedagogic pedestals and satiric jabs, seen as anti-government, traitorous affronts, were not countenanced.

Fast forward to now.

If you’re a late-night comedian, punch lines at the president can result in White House counterpunching. Which means free speech censorship, First Amendment hypocrisy and cultural cancellation. “The countries where comedians can’t mock the leader on late-night TV are not really ones you want to live in,” noted MSNBC’s Chris Hayes.

That’s especially true for a democracy that, in effect, features a pathological, narcissistic Archie Bunker felon as its unprecedented president. No, humor is not the ultimate litmus test for a democracy. But it’s a free-speech factor, especially when the leader is an existential global joke.

“Comedy doesn’t change the world, but it’s a bellwether,” observed comedian Jon Stewart. “We’re the banana in the coal mine.” There’s value in humor, especially when the alternative would be complicit silence in the face of a wannabe authoritarian.

BTW, humor aimed at this president is not as easy as it may seem. Satirizing a farce can be challenging.

President Trump has ended seven wars, as he has notably noted. Chances are, that’s a minor consolation, even if true, for brutalized residents of Ukraine and Gaza. And it may not be as consoling as expected from, say, Azerbaijan and Armenia. Trump’s press conference reference was to “Aberjiban and Albania.” Whatever. It was old news by the time Trump made his Tylenol announcement the next day and tried, more than once, to work in acetaminophen. It sounded more like Azerbaijan.

 

To those GOPsters trying to cling to a Ronald Reagan connection, don’t forget this. When Reagan launched his presidential campaign in 1980, he didn’t come gliding down, deus ex machina-like, on a skyscraper escalator. He wasn’t a “populist” nativist ushering in a new ICE age. He did it in front of the Statue of Liberty, where he praised generations of immigrants for their role in building America. “We all came from different lands, but we share the same values, the same dream.”

That was then.

* “My experience in politics has been that the way you earn trust with voters is based mostly on what they think you’re going to do for their lives, not on categories.” That was Pete Buttigieg. He is the Dems’ well-informed, most impressive-speaking candidate–from town halls to debates–for 2028. His ideology is spot-on progressive. But in this era of hateful MAGA pushback, that “category” still matters a helluva lot more than it should.

* Signs of the times:

^ “Vaginas Brought You Into This World. Vaginas Will Vote You Out.”

^ “In America, We Should Not Have To Protect Democracy From the President.”

^ “Our Children Deserve Better Than Our Silence.”

^ “Keep The Immigrants; Deport The Racists.”

^ “This Is The Government The Founders Warned Us About.”

* In 2008, John McCain ran an ad disparaging Barack Obama for his large, rock-star crowds, as a “celebrity.” That was then. Some “celebrities” can actually be presidential.