Quoteworthy

 

* “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”–Thomas Jefferson.

* “Time is precious. Waste it wisely.”–Mark Twain.

* “The upper classes are a nation’s past; the middle class is its future.”–Ayn Rand.

* “China’s hackers are positioning on American infrastructure in preparation to wreak havoc … We cannot afford to sleep on this danger.”–FBI Director Christopher Wray.

* “We’re looking for inflation to come down, as it has been coming down for the last six months.”–Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.

* “Falling inflation, rising growth give the U.S. the world’s best recovery.”–Washington Post.

* “These companies must be reined in, or the worst is yet to come.”–Sen. Lindsey Graham at a U.S. Senate hearing that admonished leaders of social media platforms over child-abuse safety.

* “House Republicans are failing America and our allies at a time when tyranny and terrorism are on the march.”–Florida Democratic Congresswoman Kathy Castor.

* “Donald Trump said he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and get away with it. Ron DeSantis, trying to out-Trump Trump, shot democracy in the middle of our courthouse—and he’s gotten away with it.”–Former Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren, who was suspended and replaced by the governor.

* “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.

* “The resurgence of downtown has been good for us, and we’ve been an important part of that resurgence.”–Straz Center CEO Gregory Holland.

Sports Reality

 

I always turn to the sports page first. It records people’s accomplishments; the front page, nothing but man’s failure.” That was former Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren in a moment of non-constitutional candor. We get it. We all need escape, however brief, from all the reminders of what’s wrong with our society and the world.

And when the season was upon us, there was nothing like college football. Especially for a Catholic kid with family fealty to Notre Dame. Football was a combative, strategic, athletic sport with a fan following based on family tradition, alma mater allegiances and state pride.

Those were the days.

Today’s sports page–whether print or E-version–is looking increasingly like the rest of the news. It happens when a college game evolves into an athlete-acquisition business. The respite from that other news reality has largely disappeared. They now overlap—from economic pragmatics, legal scenarios, network hegemony and politics to more cheating, more recruiting scandals, more rap sheets and ubiquitous sports betting. Name Image and Likeness inducements, including blue-chip high school recruits, and transfer-portal free agency are precursors to increasing scandals that could play on page one.

When universities are calculatingly selling their brand identities, it’s not a news escape—but an unfortunate embodiment—of where our society is.

DeSantis Drops Out

To no one’s surprise after his awkward, messy, $100-million campaign, “Amerika’s Governor” has finally conceded and has “suspended” (OK, ended) his presidential campaign. He will officially support Donald Trump and become a ring-kissing part of his ever-expanding campaign baggage. He’ll fall in line seamlessly and push the cultish MAGA brand to ban abortion, rip away access to health care and whitewash Jan. 6. The same Trump who ridiculed him as Ron DeSanctimonious.

So much for “Never Back Down.”

Dem Notes

* Bottom, rally-’round line for Dems and for America: Democracy is on the ballot. How tough a choice is that?

* Money matters: The Biden-Harris campaign closed out 2023 with a strong $97 million, 4th-quarter haul.

* “As I told you four years ago, we know Joe. But more importantly, Joe knows us.”–South Carolina Democratic Rep. James Clyburn, in his introduction of President Biden at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, where Biden addressed, among other things, “the poison of white supremacy.” Clyburn is Biden-Harris 2024 Campaign co-chairman.

* Labor market resilience: U.S. employers added 216,000 jobs in December. In November, it added 173,000. The unemployment rate is 3.7 percent.

* “We need to fix the border. There’s virtually unanimous agreement among Democrats and Republicans about that.”–Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

* Nobody has a more formidable portfolio than Antony Blinken. Secretaries of State usually do—but his includes the murderously Muddled East and the sieve-like border with Mexico. Plus there’s the Russian-Ukraine war and all its ripple effects—from North Korea to NATO to partisan American politics.

* We’ve been living with presidential impeachment subplots—from Nixon and Clinton to Trump and Biden. Now House Republicans are maneuvering to impeach a cabinet member: Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayoras. GOPsters contend that his management of the border amounts to a dereliction of his duties.

* Black small business ownership is growing at its fastest pace in 30 years.

* If GOPsters cherry-pick the Biden domestic record without context, then it’s fair to note that Donald Trump was the first president since Herbert Hoover to leave office with fewer jobs than when they came in.

* Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff recently represented the U.S. in Davos for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. His priorities also included highlighting the Administration’s commitment to countering the global rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia as well as promoting gender equity. That kind of high-profile portfolio is something you don’t typically see of a vice presidential spouse. Certainly not with Emhoff’s predecessor, Karen “Mother” Pence.

Musings

* Marijuana, inexplicably, remains a controlled substance under federal law. It obviously has no grass roots support among the feds.

* The Party of Capital. The Party of Labor. Remember those defining days?

* Braver Angels”: a citizens organization that works to bridge red and blue America. It has a free online course on how to talk with MAGA relatives at family gatherings. Maybe keep the conversation confined to religion and sex.

* A “Rizzy” pick-up line: “Do you believe in love at first sight, or should I walk by again?”

* Does Hocus-Focus qualify as a cognition test?

* Nothing like mail from the Neptune Society to kick start your day and a new year.

Tampa Bay

 

* Chad Chronister has announced that he will seek another term as Hillsborough County sheriff. No surprise. What would have been a surprise would be an announcement that he would no longer serve as a photo-op prop for Florida’s self-serving, “anti-woke” governor.

* Curfew reality: Clueless and/or absentee, enabling parents are the societal problem. Juvenile Lives—and those they impact—Matter.

* According to Zillow, Tampa Bay is the nation’s 10th hottest real estate market for 2024. For context, “hot” includes home value appreciation, how long houses are on the market and job growth per new homes. Buffalo was #1. The only other Florida market was Orlando at #10.

*Tripadvisor has ranked St. Petersburg as the #2 Trending Destination in the country for 2024. Tripadvisor noted Fort De Soto Park, the Pinellas Trail, Sunken Gardens and access to Major League Baseball. Napa, Calif., was ranked #1.

Florida

* Florida remains just one of two states that allow a less-than-unanimous (8-4) jury verdict for the death penalty. The other state is Alabama, where the jury threshold is 10-2. For further context, Florida—with six executions—was second to Texas (eight) in the nation in 2023. That’s more than half of the country’s total executions this past year. Even more ignobly, Florida “leads” the U.S. in death row exonerees (30).

* “(Florida is) a refuge for freedom and sanity.”–Ron DiSastrous. Yeah, this is what freedom and sanity now look like.

* If we’re banning more books for schools, shouldn’t the governor’s politically self-serving (“The Courage To Be Free”) memoir—seemingly done with the aid of a Chatbot—be included?

* We know about Trump’s so-called Muslim ban. But there was an earlier GOP version—thanks to then-Rep. Ron DeSantis. In 2015, he introduced the Terrorist Refugee Infiltration Prevention Act, which would have blocked entry of refugees from certain countries “if the alien is a national of, has habitually resided in, or is claiming refugee status due to events in any country containing terrorist-controlled territory.”

* The “Flee State of Florida”? So, Sean Hannity has relocated from New York to “the free state of Florida.” Too bad Gov. DiSastrous won’t fly him to Martha’s Vineyard.

* This state’s controversial Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo disagrees unsurprisingly again with the FDA, and has come out against COVID vaccine—specifically, those of Pfizer and Moderna for mRNA. Maybe it’s part of his “freedumb” DNA.

* NaPalm Beach update: Trump’s Mar-a-Lago New Year’s Eve party featured Vanilla Ice. Ted Nugent must have already been booked. Also in attendance: lucky lackeys Roger Stone and Rudy Giuliani. Not in attendance: Stormy and E. Jean.

* According to the Florida Department of Education, more than 20% of students in public schools, including adult education, missed 21 or more school days during the 2021-22 academic year.

* China is Florida’s biggest trading partner—for IMPORTED goods.

* “Symbols matter. They tell the world what we stand for and what we aspire to be.”–Jacksonville (Democratic) Mayor Donna Deegan, who ordered the removal of a prominent Confederate monument.

* As of 2022, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Florida still had 77 Confederate memorials.

Media Matters

* “To suppose that (newspapers) only serve to protect freedom would be to diminish their importance: they maintain civilization.”–Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835.

* Recent Economist magazine cover headline: “Donald Trump poses the biggest danger to the world in 2024.”

* If local media had an epiphany, it would spend a lot less time covering a Tarpon Springs cross toss.

Sports Shorts

* The Buccaneers had their obvious shortcomings, but played into the final eight in the playoffs. The Bucs were in their fourth straight playoff appearance, the longest such streak among NFC teams. Also worthy of note: Making the playoffs can be a marketing coup—especially when an ABC/ESPN Tampa Bay vs. Philadelphia home game is juxtaposed to those played in snowstorms.

* Alabama’s Nick Saban has retired. He went out on top with another College Football Playoff appearance. Bill Belichick didn’t get the post-Tom Brady memo soon enough.