Category: Uncategorized

“Yes, we can.”

• “Here in Florida, you can determine the outcome of this election. We win Florida and it’s all over.”—Joe Biden at a drive-in rally in Miramar.
• “Folks, el voto Latino puede hacer la diferencia aqui en Florida y en todos los Estados Unidos.” (“The Latino vote can be the difference here in Florida and in all of the United States.”) That was DNC Chairman Tom Perez, who was recently in Miami for a series of community events on behalf of Biden for President Florida.
• The Biden campaign is releasing a flurry of TV ads that will target NFL fans. “Monday Night Football” and “Thursday Night Football” are included, plus cherry-picked games of teams in battleground states—notably the Tampa Bay Bucs, the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 113,000: The margin of victory by Trump in Florida in 2016. 330,000: The margin that Trump won by with seniors in 2016. Polls now show senior voters shifting significantly from Trump to Biden.
• “It is residents 65 and older who still swing elections in the Sunshine State.”—Florida Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
• The Biden campaign raised a record-breaking $383 million in September. It has also surpassed $500 million in paid digital and television ads this year—compared to $438 million for the Trump campaign.
• Biden’s town hall on ABC: 13.9 million viewers. Trump’s town hall on NBC, MSNBC and CNBC: 13.0 million viewers. The Sept. 29 debate: 73.2 million viewers via 16 networks.
• Jaime Harrison, the African-American Democrat seriously challenging South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, raised $57 million from July through September. That’s the highest quarterly fund-raising total for any Senate candidate in U.S. history. Go, Jaime.

• No presidential lionizing: Check out YouTube and hear the latest from musical satirist Roy Zimmerman: “The Liar Tweets Tonight.” A sampling: “In the White House, the mighty White House, the liar tweets tonight. In the West Wing, the self-obsessed wing, the Liar tweets tonight. … “Vote him away, vote him away…”
• “Many white-collar workers, journalists including, struggle to understand the reach of talk radio because they don’t listen to it, and don’t know anyone who does. … Talk radio listeners make up a group at least three times as large as the NRA and are just as committed to a particular vision of America.”—Paul Matzko, author of “The Radio Right.”
• “You can do equal time on a different night! You can do equal time at a different time!” That was CNN anchor Don Lemon on how NBC handled Trump’s alternative town hall.
• If MLB had its way, the World Series would always be between the teams from the biggest markets. Fox Sports would agree. The Los Angeles Dodgers checked that box. MLB was likely disappointed at the Tampa Bay Rays’ ousting of the New York Yankees. But it was cushioned by the Rays dispatching of the Houston Astros. No way did the establishment want the Astros in the World Series. Not those cheaters and the accompanying player arrogance. A pandemic is enough to deal with. Plus, an upstart, payroll-challenged team with talented and colorful personnel makes for a compelling David vs. Goliath story line—and maybe great TV.

• The Rays are in the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Let’s hear it for the consummate underdog that has to be smart enough and creative enough to succeed in a big-market, money-talks business. And by avoiding an ALCS collapse and coming back to win Game 7 against Houston, the Rays won’t be enabling analogies to the Lightning’s shocking playoff sweep by Columbus last year. In short, there will be no need for a Lightning-like redemption season. But maybe there will be an off-season of Lightning-like celebration. Go, Rays.
• By being the winning pitcher in Game 7 against Houston, Charlie Morton became the only pitcher in MLB history to win three Game 7s. To win it all, teams need such a reliable, go-to guy on the mound. Blake Snell might agree.
• For the record, the Rays are one of six MLB franchises who have yet to win a World Series. The others: Colorado Rockies, Seattle Mariners, Milwaukee Brewers, San Diego Padres and Texas Rangers.
• “This is the best hockey town ever.”—Steven Stamkos.

• “Coronavirus is deadly, and it’s now spreading exponentially in the U.K.”—British Health Secretary Matt Hancock. Britain already has Europe’s deadliest outbreak—with more than 44,000 confirmed virus deaths.
• “We have committed to keeping Canadians safe and we keep extending the border closures because the (United) States is not in a place where we would feel comfortable reopening those borders.”—Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
• “True democracy is a project that’s much bigger than any one of us. It’s bigger than any one person, any one president, and any one government. It’s a job for all of us.”—Barack Obama, in his final (2017) speech as president.
• “You would not be getting Justice Scalia; you would be getting Justice Barrett.”—Judge Amy Coney Barrett, at her confirmation hearing.
• “I just don’t have the power by fiat to impose my policy preferences or choose the results I prefer.”–Judge Amy Coney Barrett.
• “Women couldn’t vote. Slavery was legal. AR-15s and the internet and electric lights didn’t exist. But originalism.”—Judiciary Committee member Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.
• “Much has been made of the Democratic threat of ‘court packing.’ Was it ‘court stripping’ when Republicans decided that eight justices were enough rather than consider the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland?”—Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post.
• “The rhetoric coming out of this White House has serious and potentially deadly consequences. It must stop.”—Alena Yarmosky, spokeswoman for Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam. According to the FBI, members of anti-government, paramilitary groups discussed plans to kidnap Gov. Northam.
• “State and local leaders, in both parties, must denounce armed militia activity, whether from the right or the left. These efforts must continue after the election, when the threat of civil unrest could be at its greatest. … The law is on their side—private armed militias find no support in the U.S. or state constitutions or in American history. They must not be tolerated in our society.”—Mary B. McCord, legal director for Georgetown Law’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy.
• “For all its pious moaning about censorship, the right wing is more upset about being held to a standard of verifiable truth because they know it’s one they cannot meet.”—Leonard Pitts, Miami Herald.
• “The unpaid-taxes story may be more of a threat to Trump than the Access Hollywood tape. The president never pretended to be a good guy around women; he has pretended, however, to be a brilliant businessman—and the knowledge of all that debt, and all those losses, could pull out the block that will send his Jenga-tower reputation toppling.”—Molly Roberts, Washington Post.
• “The main reason Trump could avoid paying income taxes is that he was a lousy businessman.”—Jonah Goldberg, The Dispatch.
• “First, The Apprentice, and now this (NBC-hosted Trump town hall). Why not a new Bill Cosby special while we’re at it.”—ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel.
• “Of all the many ways President Donald Trump mishandled his COVID-19 diagnosis and recovery, the worst is what he’s doing now: facilitating super-spreader events while the United States is undergoing a surge in coronavirus cases.”—Dr. Leona S. Wen, former health commissioner of Baltimore.
• “Stopping Trump is a short-term solution. The long-term solution—and it will be more difficult—is fixing the educational system that has created so many people ignorant enough to vote for Trump.”—author and satirist Andy Borowitz.
• “I knew this job would be hard. But I’ll be honest, I never could have imagined anything like this.”—Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, after learning of a plot to kidnap her.
• “Too many people still believe that as long as they’re not an active member of the Ku Klux Klan, they couldn’t possibly be racist.”—Nathalie Baptiste, Mother Jones.
• “Florida citrus production is a marathon, not a sprint, and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services stands committed to help strengthen and promote Florida-grown citrus.”—Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, in response to news that the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast a 15 percent decline in orange production for the recently started growing season, as well as a 7 percent decline in grapefruit production.
• “The only thing that we have that’s consistent is the inconsistency.”—Mayor Jane Castor, in criticizing the state for not doing enough contact tracing and for not releasing data in a timely fashion.
• “Job growth, investment, is driven by the access to talent. That talent wants to be downtown. Jobs and investment will follow. … Everyone we’re working with expects this formula to be fully in place.”—David Dixon, vice president of Stantec, the urban planning group that is a lead figure in the development of Water Street Tampa.
• “Our hometown’s future has never been brighter.”—Rob Higgins, executive director of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission, which announced that Tampa will be hosting the Women’s Final Four (2025), the Frozen Four (2023), the Women’s Volleyball championship (2023), plus first- and second-round men’s NCAA Tournament games (2026).

“A Republic, if you can keep it.”

• President Donald Trump on steroids: How scary is that?
• Of course, Trump wouldn’t agree to a virtual debate. Public health, including protecting those necessarily around him, is hardly a priority. He needs a bully pulpit–which doesn’t lend itself to virtual arrogance and sniping. Recall how Trump made his literal entrance on to the 2016 presidential-candidate scene. No way would Donald and Melania Trump have merely exited the elevator at Trump Tower—as opposed to descending, in deus ex machina fashion, via a high-profile, optics-augmenting escalator with fans and media beseechingly awaiting. An actual “debate” is not what a reality-TV narcissist does, but an in-person event can accommodate the art of the unhinged performance.   
• Veep Debate: Without saying so, a key goal in the vice-presidential debate was to not look anything like the embarrassing, chaotic presidential version. Mission accomplished, however subterranean low the bar. Neither challenger Kamala Harris nor Vice President Mike Pence had a game plan that featured the upstaging of decorum. But Pence, by interrupting in a civil fashion, did upstage Trump by seeming normal.

The other dual goal was to look like someone who could top the ticket in 2024. Harris has history-making demographics, a sharp prosecutorial mind, a progressive agenda and political charisma. Pence does not look like the second coming of Benito Mussolini.

Memorable lines: “They’re coming for you.”—Harris on the millions of Americans who will lose out if the ACA is repealed.  “Stop playing politics with people’s lives.”—Pence with a straight face. But no answer from Harris on the question of “court packing,” and no answer from Pence on the peaceful transition of power. And nothing but rhetorical pivots by either candidate on whether they’ve had succession conversations with their septuagenarian running mates. You know Harris has.

• “I feel like perfect.”—That was, like, the imperfectionist-in-chief, Donald Trump.
• “An intervention.” What House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for by those around Trump, because “something’s wrong.”
• Beyond ironic for the one who equates the Biden candidacy with the “Trojan Horse of socialism” to be the most prominent beneficiary of socialized medicine in the United States.
• “Don’t Cry for Me, MAGA Minions”: The super spreader-in-chief on his White House Blue Room Evita/Fuhrer balcony, rallying a crowd of cult fans practicing social proximity.
• Here’s the question some Democrats on the Judiciary Committee would surely have liked to have asked Amy Coney Barrett, even if it is better suited for “Saturday Night Live.” “To what degree are you—in the midst of an honorable and distinguished law career—embarrassed by having been nominated by the most unscrupulous, divisive, immoral, vile and unlawful president in the nation’s history?”
• “Blexit”: The Trump campaign plan to encourage black and Latino voters to leave the Democratic Party and become GOPsters.
• “(Biden’s) the camouflage to get Kamala Harris in. He’s the camouflage to get Bernie Sanders in … AOC.”—That was Donald Trump Jr. during a Tampa stop of his “Fighters Against Socialism” bus tour.
• “I’m immune.”—President Donald Trump. “We’re not.”—America’s democratic republic.
• Out of an abundance of caution, voters should not even think of re-electing Trump.

“AloneTogether”

• Globally, more than 36 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported—including more than 1 million deaths. In the U.S.: approximately 800,000 cases and 215,000 deaths.
• Peru has the highest mortality rate from COVID-19 in the world.
• Broadway theaters, which closed March 12, will remain closed until May 30.
• “Don’t be afraid of COVID. Don’t let it dominate your life.”—Super spreader-in-chief Donald Trump.
• Trump and his physician spin doctor continue to test positive for communication opaqueness.
• Health experts advise a 14-day quarantine for people who have been in contact with those who have the coronavirus.
• Tampa General Hospital has consulted with multiple entities, including the Florida Aquarium, the Straz Center for Performing Arts, the Tampa Bay Lightning and TECO. It will also consult with the Florida Senate to develop a plan for the 2021 legislative session.
• Under (14-day) quarantine: Hillsborough County Public Schools superintendent Addison Davis after a person he came into contact with tested positive for COVID-19.

“Yes, we can.”

• Joe Biden is a Pennsylvania native, and the Keystone State is a key swing state that the Dems need back in their column. Moreover, Pennsylvania is also home to Gettysburg. For obvious reasons, it made good strategic sense to stage a Biden speech near the iconic Civil War battlefield that still serves as the ultimate symbol of a country divided. It was the spot-on site for a candidate, not unlike Abraham Lincoln, calling for national unity amid a crisis. “Today, once again, we are a house divided,” said Biden, invoking Lincoln.

The analogy is all too apt. Nineteenth century secession and a devastating civil war is the existential counterpart of a 21^st century era rife with ruinous partisanship, autocratic leadership, racial upheaval and economic crisis–plus a pandemic and planet-threatening climate change. We can not afford an incompetent, negligent, immoral authoritarian wannabe with the country—and planet—at an onerous inflection point. Who the president is matters no less in 2020 than it did in 1863. “Instead of treating each other’s party as the opposition, we treat them as the enemy,” said Biden during his 22-minute, outdoor speech. “This must end.”

Yes, Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes are critical for both parties, but winning the “battle for the soul of the nation” is far more important. A pandemic can’t be a partisan political issue. Neither can global warming. Nor racial equality. This must end.

• Polls consistently show Biden with a substantial national lead over Trump. More notable than most is Rasmussen Reports, a favorite, go-to pollster for the Trump campaign, that has Biden with a double-digit lead.
• As a female candidate of color, Kamala Harris, the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, could make obvious history—and help the cause to win back Florida, the mega swing state with myriad diverse-minority communities. Among them: more than 300,000 Jamaicans. And it matters that Harris’ chief of staff is the media-savvy Karine Jean-Pierre, a black woman born in Martinique to Haitian parents. It also helps that the Biden campaign’s senior adviser for Florida is Karen Andre, a first-generation Haitian-American.
• “If Joe Biden wins big, part of the reason…will be simply that he is normal. And people miss normal so much.”—Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal.

• The Nixon-Kennedy debates. There were three in 1960—and one of them was virtual. Nixon was in a TV studio in California; Kennedy in a studio in New York. So, yes, there is precedent, even with the unprecedented Trump as president.
• Recall that in 2016 Trump didn’t carry his home Manhattan district—you know, the one that knew him best. Now he’s changed residences—and tax scenarios—by making Florida his Mar-a-Lagoed, home state. Now his new hometown newspaper, the Palm Beach Post, has endorsed Joe Biden. To wit: “(Biden) will heed the advice of scientists to protect public health, push to increase access to affordable health care for everyone, fight for reasonable and popular measures for gun safety. That’s what the leader of any modern, developed nation is supposed to do.”
• “Masks Required Beyond This Point. Please wear masks over both your nose and mouth at all times.” That’s what a sign on the door of the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House says. It has a makeshift look for good reason. It wasn’t put up by the White House. It was actually affixed by the correspondents who have to show up for press briefings and interaction as needed with White House officials.
• “The only place on the White House grounds where a mask has been required is the White House press area, and the only people who have routinely violated that rule have been White House staff.” That was Jonathan Karl, ABC’s chief White House correspondent.
• “I felt safer reporting in North Korea than I currently do reporting at the White House. This is just crazy.” That was CBS News correspondent Ben S. Tracy.
• The post-hospitalization, 30-second, Trump campaign TV ad that includes Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s pre-eminent immunologist and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is not playing well with—Dr. Fauci. A narrator says: “President Trump tackled the virus head on as leaders should.” That was directly followed by a (March) clip of Dr. Fauci saying: “I can’t imagine that anybody could be doing more.” It’s out of context. Dr. Fauci was not referring to Trump–but to efforts of federal public health officials before mismanagement and chaos became self-evident and America became the leader in COVID deaths. Moreover, permission to use (part of) a clip from a Fox News interview was never asked, because it would not have been granted. Dr. Fauci doesn’t endorse. The ad, disingenuously, implies otherwise.
• Last Saturday’s SNL cold opening focused on the vice-presidential debate. Fair enough. But there’s a manifest difference between politically spot-on satirical and over-the-top, quit-while-you’re-ahead silly. Speaking of the latter, the Jeff Goldblum-homage fly in the Pence ointment was all it took. Not even debatable.

• Tom Brady and the fourth-down fiasco: from GOAT to goat?
• The Rays’ road to the World Series runs through the Houston Astros. We all know Houston’s “cheater” back story. But this time they were helped—not by prohibited video-taping—but by the coronavirus. MLB’s truncated season was reduced from 162 to 60 games. Houston lost 31 of them. How does a team play its way into a possible World Series with a regular-season losing record? Only with the ironic help of a pandemic.
• For the record, the New York Yankees have a pandemic-impacted 2020 payroll of $109 million, the highest in the major leagues. That’s about four times more than the Rays’ payroll of $28 million, which is 28^th out of 30 teams. It’s what helped make the Rays’ elimination of the Yankees so sweet—in addition to that karmic home run hit by Mike Brousseau against Aroldis Chapman, the one who had thrown a 101 mph fastball at his head last month.
• Nice schadenfreudian touch after the Rays clinching game five against the Yankees in San Diego. Some Rays players lingered long on the field still celebrating with cigar smoking and dancing when the Petco Park sound system cranked out “New York, New York.” Frank Sinatra never sounded better.
• “Success is REVENGE.”—A shout-out tweet from San Diego outfielder Tommy Pham, who was with the Rays last year.
• Admirable that the NBA and its player association are behind a societal get-out-and-vote campaign. High-profile advocacy can help influence others. Ironic, however, that an estimated 20 percent of NBA players voted in 2016.
• “I’ve never voted before in my life.”—Retired NBA star Shaquille O’Neal’s admission after recently sending in an absentee ballot.

• “Today, in many countries, hyperbole, extremism and polarization have become political tools.”—Pope Francis.
• “(Trump) is aiding and abetting Vladimir Putin’s efforts by not being direct about this. This sustained campaign of disruption, disinformation and denial is aided by any leader who doesn’t acknowledge it.”—Retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, a former national security adviser to Trump.
• “Russian operatives did not invent our crude tribal politics; they invented internet personas to whip them up. American politicians reduced the country to red and blue states; Russian operatives purchased online ads to target voters on both sides of the domestic divide. … The biggest risk to this election is not the Russians, it’s us.”—Fiona Hill, senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and a former official of the U.S. National Security Council, specializing in Russian and European affairs.
• “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us.”—Jim Mattis, former defense secretary under Trump.
• “Hate. … It’s a contagious virus that easily infects people afflicted by the pre-existing conditions of ignorance and fear.”—Mary Schmich, Chicago Tribune.
• “A virus that both leaders shrugged off as neither a personal nor a political threat may yet bring them down.”—Jenni Russell, The Times of London, referring to both British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and President Donald Trump.
• “Presidents make these decisions based on politics over medicine. And there is an inherent conflict between politics and medicine.”—Presidential author Matthew Algeo, in reference to Trump’s repeated requests to be discharged from Walter Reed hospital as

well as his denial of the seriousness of the coronavirus.

• “I don’t understand the resistance to a virtual (presidential) debate. We have moved much of our lives online. The technology is there. Why the insistence on an in-person debate?—University of Florida epidemiologist Natalie Dean.
• “What’s alarming is that each diagnosis in the White House demonstrates how thoroughly this administration has been infected by its own disinformation.”—Michelle Goldberg, New York Times.
• “A perfect physical specimen.”—How Trump described himself in a post-hospitalization interview on the Fox Business Network
• “Waiting until after the election to reach an agreement on the next COVID-19 relief package is a huge mistake.”—Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.
• “The hope of Republicans was that the Barrett nomination could save them, that she’d shine like a star and put some new wind in the sails. That’s all that we would be talking about right now.”—Stephen Moore, a member of Trump’s economic task force.
• “The GOP is inhospitable to conservatives, moderates and people of decency and courage. … America needs a sane, serious, humane, center-right party that aims to persuade, not to dominate. This GOP is not that.”—Mona Charen, the Bulwark.
• “You were looked down upon when you would walk by with a mask.”—Olivia Troye, formerly one of Mike Pence’s top aides on the coronavirus task force.
• “Let (Trump) howl at the moon all he wants. He’s scared. And he has good reason to be.”—Eugene Robinson, Washington Post.
• “Trump might lose women voters by numbers we’ve never imagined.”—Tim Alberta, Politico.
• “Trigger City.” The Tampa Bay chapter of the Proud Boys.
• “When it comes to children being online, there is no such thing as being too protective as a parent.”—Hillsborough Sheriff Chad Chronister.
• “These things are never staring at their cell phones, and they never drink.”—District transportation secretary David Gwynn, on the debut of downtown Tampa’s Beep autonomous shuttle.