Opinions to go Online

* “Life is not linear.”–Musician Sixto Rodriguez.

* “There is but one way to eliminate juvenile delinquency—that is by providing each child in America with competent parents.”—J. Edgar Hoover.

* “I declare that today France recognizes the state of Palestine.”–French President Emmanuel Macron to the U.N. General Assembly.

* “Russia has been conducting an undeclared and hybrid war against the West for a very long time.”--Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky.

* “Sweden is neither at war nor at peace, because Russia is operating in the gray zone between cold peace and the Cold War.”–Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson.

* “There are no security guarantees except friends and weapons.”–Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

* “It means the Hungarian economy would be on its knees.”–Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, on why Hungary will continue to buy Russian oil and natural gas.

* “We are vigilant. We are resolute. And if we need to confront planes that are operating in NATO airspace without permission, then we will do so.”–British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper.

* “The U.S. needs to know it’s not dealing with a banana republic.”–Brazilian President Luiz

Inacio Lula da Silva.

* “(Charlie Kirk’s killing) undermines what higher education should be about, namely the ability to teach and learn, debate and disagree, without fear of intimidation or violence.”–American Association of University Professors Director Isaac Kamola.

* “God sent me President Trump.”–Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

* “We’re barreling toward one of the longest shutdowns in American history.”—Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.

* “Don’t take Tylenol.”–Donald Trump.

* “The era of politically correct, overly sensitive, don’t-hurt-anyone’s-feelings leaderships ends right now at every level.”—Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

* “Democrats are holding our government hostage to protect bloated, COVID-era entitlements.”—Florida Republican Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna.

* “This dangerous pattern of politicizing our military and forcing our troops to intimidate their fellow Americans in their communities is as un-American as it gets.”—Illinois Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a veteran.

* If you’re not growing, you’re dying.”—Former Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn.

* “We’re now full steam ahead on site evaluation, feasibility, analysis.”—Rays new managing partner, Patrick Zalupski.

Call it the Mad Hatter update. It’s Trump’s new red, merch-ready hat: “Trump Was Right About Everything.” Actually, for all his “America First” tariffs, nativistic arrogance, due-process disdain, NATO derision, and (EPA and Energy Department) cherrypicking climate-change data, he was right about something. The American electorate is not “exceptional;” it’s exceptionally vulnerable. Made all the more so by the truth-challenging, internet age. And rallying around a “retribution” theme is the absolute right approach if your prime presidential priority is autocratic dictates.

Not that we need even more context when it comes to President Trump, but here’s one that is sometimes overlooked. It’s the comparison with Richard Nixon, who was deceptive, disgraced and unlawful—and quit the presidency to avoid impeachment and conviction.

Nixon didn’t grow up rich, didn’t philander, served in the Navy as well as the House, the Senate and the vice presidency. He was qualified, however unethical and unlikable. He even gave the go-ahead for the EPA.

But the way he handled his razor-thin, popular-vote loss to Kennedy speaks to the stark difference between “Tricky Dick” and a would-be dictator.

Nixon, unsurprisingly, was suspicious about vote-counting and-buying—in states such as Illinois, West Virginia and Texas. “We won, but they stole it from us,” he told insiders. But he left it there. “The bitterness that would be engendered by such a maneuver on my part would’ve done incalculable and lasting damage throughout the country,” he later explained.

Upon reflection—amid the Trump era—Nixon never looked so patriotic.

Utah’s Republican Gov. Spencer Cox is hardly a prominent figure in national politics. But his response to the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk was notable and spot on. He didn’t demonize the left, but advocated a pivot to a more civilized version of what America is alarmingly becoming.
“This is our moment,” Cox said. “Do we escalate or do we find an off-ramp?” Known more for empathy than agitation, Cox didn’t play the bellicose retribution card. Instead he underscored that the response to violence and hate can’t be an escalation of even more violence and hate. “That’s the problem with political violence,” he said. “It metastasizes, because we can always point the finger at the other side.” Given the political divide that has riven the U.S., the Kirk assassination requires presidential leadership that will console America without vitriolic, retribution rhetoric.

 

* In her book, “107 Days,” Kamala Harris gives an ultimate insider look at her last-minute elevation to presidential candidate after the “debate debacle” performance of Joe Biden. It was, she recalls, “recklessness” for Democrats to leave it up to Biden and the First Lady to make the call on his re-election bid.

But she put the Biden presidency into appropriate context. “On his worst day, he was more deeply knowledgeable, more capable of exercising judgment, and far more compassionate than Donald Trump at his best. But at 81, Joe got tired. That’s when his age showed in physical and verbal stumbles.”

 

* Trump was Reich about everything.

* Remember “due process”? It’s still (over)due.

* Do marketing departments have acronym specialists? Check out the Republican-sponsored Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments Act. It’s an insider-trading issue. It’s also called the PELOSI Act.

* Remember when technology would solve the world’s problems—not cause them?

* “SAVE THE EARTH! It’s the Only Planet with Dogs.” That’s why I read bumper stickers.

* Birth-control books: Better Read Than Bred.

* Las Vegas is a gambling mecca. Now it upped the ante: free robotaxi service for anyone willing to gamble on a driver-less vehicle.

 

* It’s not enough to lead the nation in executions, now Florida—thanks to Gov. Ron DisAstrous and Surgeon General Joseph La-dope-o—are pushing hard to end all state vaccine mandates, including for school children. “Who am I as a man standing here now to tell you what you should put in your body?” disingenuously explained the SG.

One obvious response: As a surgeon general, you are required to do what’s medically best for Floridians. Full stop. Do your job, which is not that of a vax quack. Stand up for Floridians, not its hypocritical, “freedumb”-advocating governor. Too bad there’s no vaccination for politics-first idiotology.

* Gunshine State update: If Florida AG James Uthmeier gets his way, the U.S. Supreme Court will strike down a (2018) state law that prevents those under 21 from buying rifles and other long guns. The law was passed, as we well know, in the aftermath of the Parkland shooting massacre that resulted in the killing of 17 people. The NRA, which at one time prioritized safety over machismo, agrees with Uthmeier. Of course it does.

* Speaking of guns, which we too often still have to do, how about tax breaks on guns and ammo? It’s now—and for the rest of the year—part of the state’s sales tax “holiday.” But, no, gun safes and locks are not included.

* According to TPD, the murder rate in Tampa in the first half of 2025 was two per 100,000 residents.

* “Public safety is never an accident. It is the result of strategy, leadership and commitment.”–Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw.

 

* The bill that passed in March funding the government runs out at the end of this month. Heads up.

* “This country cannot be WOKE, because WOKE IS BROKE.”–President Trump.

* A Trump executive order aims to rename the Department of Defense as the Department of War, its previous name until changed in 1947. Sen. Rick Scott is co-sponsoring companion legislation in the Senate. The rationale for the change? “It just sounded better,” explained the president who wants to project military toughness. Secretary of (for now) Defense Pete Hegseth was more specific—and disquieting. “We haven’t won a war since” (the name change). “We’re going to go on offense, not just defense.” How reassuring.

* “I love the smell of deportation in the morning.”–The president’s Trumpian comments that accompanied an AI “Chipocalypse Now” posting on his Truth Social platform.

* What a coincidence: National Guard occupiers have been sent to, among others places, Washington, Los Angeles, Oakland, Chicago and New York. They all have Democratic mayors who are black.

* “I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do.”–Donald Trump. BTW, only four U.S. presidents have won it: Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama.

* A president who truly cared about crime would not have pardoned the Jan. 6 rioters. Moreover, dozens of the Justice Department lawyers who prosecuted them have been fired.

* “A crown jewel of this administration.”–A reference to U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. by Trump suck-up consigliere Stephen Miller.

* “We’re still a long way off.” That was Sec. of State Marco Rubio’s take on the Ukraine-Russia war, the one that Trump would end on “day one.” Surely, Rubio, a former presidential candidate, knows he now works for a man he once accurately labeled a “con man.” Surely. But it’s the price to be paid for career ascent and Faustian prestige.

* “I have the right to do anything I want to do—I’m the president of the United States.”–Donald Trump. Had any predecessor said that, it would have been a stop-the-presses moment. For Trump, just another day at the orifice.

* Trump’s predictable take on the Epstein files: “They’re trying to get people to talk about something that’s totally irrelevant to the success that we’ve had as a nation since I’ve been president.”

* Imagine a president who’s an anti-science germaphobe?

 

* The MSNBC news network will soon be known as MS NOW. It’s part of the corporate divorce from NBC. No peacock symbol for the acronymed My Source News Opinion World.

* A final word on the recent passing of Rob Lorei, an icon of community radio and public TV. We lost a good one. We live in a media age increasingly defined by political talk that is more about performance optics and hectoring than reasoned exchange of opinions. It was always a welcome respite to see a first-class, politically knowledgeable media professional at work.

* “There is nothing more authentic than what people say on a hot mic.”–Bill McGowan, founder and CEO of Clarity Media Group.

* “Make Country Great Again”: Ft. Myers country music radio station WHEL (93.7 FM) saw its ratings triple since March after a “Trump Country” rebrand and MAGA embracing. It’s hardly a shock. Trump won 64% of the 2024 presidential vote in Lee County.

* “The bottom has fallen out of the entire industry.”–Andrew Morse, publisher of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which will stop publishing its print newspaper at the end of the year.

* Thanks to Trump-trolling South Park, frontal nudity has never been so funny.