Opinions to go Online

• Normally, you don’t think politics when looking at newspaper ads. But we’re in normalcy free-fall. The Furniture Warehouse ran a full-page, Tampa Bay Times ad that included a prominent customer motivator: “Beat The Tariff! BUY NOW!”
• Just saw “The Brutalist.” It was a reminder that anytime a movie comes with an intermission, it has editing issues. This is no exception.

* There were more than 1.1 million international students in the U.S. during the 2023-24 academic year. International students pumped nearly $44 billion into the American economy and generated more than 375,000 jobs last year. The three largest host schools for foreign students: New York University, Northeastern University and Columbia University.

* “We are over the shock of American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons. … President Trump is trying to break us so America can own us. That will never ever happen.”—Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

* More than 75% of Canada’s exports go to the U.S.

* Greenland, an object of Trump’s possession obsession, is the world’s largest island. Its population, 56,000, approximates that of Pinellas Park (53,000). If Trump can’t buy it, perhaps he would settle for naming rights.

* Whenever India and Pakistan renew their adversarial relationship with troop attacks, drone volleys and missile strikes, it’s always cause for global concern. All-out war—and both sides have nuclear weapons—could result.

* China makes approximately one of every three physical products in the world—more than the U.S., Germany, Japan, the UK and South Korea combined.

• The Rays, as we know, have enough issues with injuries and a relatively limited payroll. Then add in the fact that their best hitter, Yandy Diaz, could not accompany the team for its recent three-game series in Toronto. He did not have a valid passport. This, of course, would not have been a problem were Canada the 51st state.
• NFL owners voted not to ban the “tush push.” Asinine move unless the goal is to look more like rugby.
• Congrats to the University of Tampa as the Spartans repeated as Division II women’s national champions in lacrosse.
• Lacrosse will return as an Olympic sport in 2028. But no pickle ball yet.

* “Politics has no relation to morals.”—Niccolo Machiavelli.

* “Every absurdity has a champion to defend it.”—Oliver Goldsmith.

* “In the long term, Trumpism is doomed. Power without prudence and humility invariably fails.”—David Brooks, The Atlantic.

* “He has enabled the president to turn the United States from the world’s economic leader into a rogue nation.”—Edward Alden, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, in reference to Peter Navarro, Trump’s controversial trade adviser.

* “Washington has become the court of Nero: a fiery emperor, submissive courtiers and a ketamine-fueled jester in charge of purging the civil service. This is a tragedy for the free world, but it is first and foremost a tragedy for the United States.”—French Senator Claude Malhuret.

* “Eight years is long enough for a good president, and four years is too long for a bad one.”—U.S. Rep. Edward McCowen, R-Ohio, 1947.

* “There is now a dangerous vein of autocratic thought running through one of America’s two great parties, and it poses an existential danger to the country.”—Congressman Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

* “We must begin to insert ‘impeachable offenses’ into civic conversations. If we don’t, we will be complicit in accepting that the aberrant behavior of this president is the new normal for the evaluation of future presidents.”—Howard L. Simon, former executive director of the ACLU of Florida.

* “While other nations are rolling out the welcome mat, the U.S. government is putting up the ‘closed’ sign.”—Julia Simpson, president and chief executive of the World Travel & Tourism Council, on projections that the U.S. may lose billions of dollars in international travel spending this year.

* “At any moment, things can change overnight, making it extremely difficult for companies such as Apple to plan their business … A curveball can come out of nowhere and derail any plans they have in place.”—Ben Wood, chief analyst at U.K.-based research firm CCS Insight.

* “When we consolidate them, Democrats say they’re eliminating them.”—HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., on his downsizing of the agency from 82,000 workers to 62,000.

* “When it comes to due process, that is a privilege reserved for American citizens.”—Florida Republican Congressman and Trump ally Byron Donalds.

* “This will be the catalyst for the most transformative economic development project Hillsborough County has ever been associated with.”—Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan on the impact of an indoor sports complex coming to the 74-acre MOSI site.

* “We used to have to fight to get on the map. Now, we are shaping that map.”—Tampa Mayor Jane Castor.

* “I think the chances are pretty good that I will.”—Former Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn on whether he will run for mayor again.

* “The most dysfunctional” (he’s ever worked with). How Tampa City Councilman Charlie Miranda has characterized the current city council.

Throughout most of its history, America has loomed large on the international stage. A global economy and super power status did it. Now that idealistic democratic experiment, however cruelly flawed, features Ralph Kramden as president. Pow, right in the due-process kisser.

How did we get here? This arrogant, nativistic, emerging police state is oligarch friendly, ally-alienating, tariff-roiling, legal system-assaulting and free speech-attacking. And let’s not forget the well-soiled machine that is DOGE and its indiscriminate downsizing, which helps nothing but Elon Musk’s ego. This iteration of America has an unread, unethical, autocratic, felonious narcissist in the Oval Orifice. One where constitutional guardrails no longer include checks and balances.

We’ve seen an America First playbook before. Now it’s America Fist First. The bully pulpit shouldn’t include a bloviating, bully pulpiteer with a zero-sum worldview. A United States president shouldn’t be the avatar of unhinged authoritarianism. Nor should he be an insurrectionist. “He’s the kid in the garage with matches standing next to the gasoline tank,” noted Trump biographer Tim O’Brien.

But we did some fast-forwarding in 2008.

So many of the MAGA cult followers didn’t like their lives and needed scapegoats and those to look down on. Nobody was farther down than African-Americans. And now one of them was president. Game on. For the otherwise apathetic, it would be voter incentive.

It also hardly helped that the losing ticket featured Sarah Palin for vice president. She was an embarrassingly uninformed performance pol who was an insult to the electorate, especially women. She would have been a heartbeat away from the presidency had John McCain won. That leadership bar was now at a subterranean depth. Dan Quayle never looked so good.

Too many poorly educated, easily misinformed Americans then found their voice and their candidate in the Kramdenesque Trump. The born-rich, grifting billionaire racist talked like a “deplorable” and sounded like he was delivering punch lines to Norton and Alice. Also joining in: evangelical hypocrites, some addled greed heads and the SCOTUS-vetting Federalist Society.

What would it take to put Trump and Trumpism into the rear-view mirror of history? Democrats obviously can’t play the complacency card, as Cory Booker underscored. Grass roots efforts have helped in some special elections, indicating that hope remains–just like when Dems pushed back and helped defeat Trump’s first-term effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, even though GOPsters controlled both the House and the Senate.

This isn’t about right and left; it’s about right and wrong. “The threats to the American people and American democracy are grave and urgent, and we all must do more to stand against these,” said Sen. Booker in his marathon Senate speech.

One other thing. This country needs to take a serious look at education. Americans are notorious for all they don’t know about history and geography, including, most notably, their own. Mandatory civics classes that actually teach about our electoral system, including its obvious flaws, would help. That would include use of the 25^th Amendment, just in case a would-be Mussolini becomes president. And stop playing the racial insult or placation card—and teach racial reality, not theory. Also include real-world economics that would put tariffs, for example, into a relevant taxation and global context, as well as online reality as it relates to misinformation.

What America doesn’t need is a retribution president who considers the US more of a Trump brand than an impactful player for world peace, climate control, human rights and free trade.

• “In a dangerous and complex world, it’s not enough to be strong. You also must be smart. … The Trump approach is dumb power. Instead of a strong America using all our strengths to lead the world and confront our adversaries. Mr. Trump’s America will be increasingly blind and blundering, feeble and friendless.”—Hillary Clinton.
• “Imagine if I had done any of this.”—Barack Obama, comparing his presidency to the early arrogance and chaos of the Trump Administration.
• Kentucky’s Democratic Governor Andy Beshear has been making the TV rounds. Devastating flooding has brought him back to the national scene, where he can also remind the Dem base that he will be a player in 2028.
• “Social Security is a sacred promise.”—Joe Biden.
• “You (Dems) have to stop acting like this is a normal presidency that will just time out in four years.”—Liz Cheney.

* The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.

* It’s probably generational, but some things I’ll just never get:

^Nose rings, especially in otherwise attractive women.

^Backwards baseball caps for non-catchers. No matter how cool, this is still the SUNshine State.

^Those wearing pants below the butt line. Asinine.

^A sports coat, a dress shirt, a tie, sneakers.

^Restaurants that no longer feature intimate dining ambiance, because it’s at odds with ambient loudness and optics that include multiple TVs featuring sports.

* Remember when answering the phone only required “Hello”—not “Hello, Hello? HELLO!!!”

* We used to arrive at a movie at the posted, appointed time. No more. That’s because it means sitting through obnoxiously loud, often comic book-inspired trailers that are the cinematic opposite of the movie we’re actually there to see.

* Forgetfulness is a common, frustrating human condition. But recalling that there’s stuff we can’t remember is just unfair.

* Two things, not typically referenced analogously, can bring out the worst in people: Driving on a busy major highway and attending a Trump rally. They both feature the careless and the clueless and reward the overly aggressive, who are obnoxiously dismissive of normal drivers and voters.

* The odds of winning the big lottery are roughly one in 300 million. In other words, the odds are about the same whether you play or not.

* We’ve all moved, and a lot of us ultimately downsized. Then came a long-deferred, identity realization. We are in the moment, and we are what we keep.

* *“Floridians are already facing barriers to economic self-sufficiency because of the state’s inadequate safety net. Under the cuts being floated right now in Congress, we could see food insecurity among Florida children and adults skyrocket.”–Florida Policy Institute CEO Sadaf Knight.

* According to Visual Approach Analytics, Florida is the destination taking the biggest hit from the reduction in seats on flights from Canada. Airports in Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers and Orlando seeing up to a 30% cut in April. MAGA tariffs and national insults matter.

* Canada is paying for those digital billboards we’re now seeing, such as “TARIFFS ARE A TAX on hardworking Americans.”  It may be ironically helpful in case hardworking, MAGA cult-followers hadn’t figured that one out yet.

*The unpopular Senate Dem leader, Jason Pizzo, has left the party. Among those not missing him: Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried. “The FDP is more united without him,” said Fried.

* Tariff pushback: A conservative advocacy group, New Civil Liberties Alliance, is representing a Florida company, Emily Ley Paper Inc., that is suing Trump for imposing tariffs—via emergency executive powers–on all imports from China. The New Civil Liberties Alliance is financed by billionaire Republican mega-donor Charles Koch.

* “I’ve always known that (DeSantis) was selfish and sometimes condescending.”—GOP State Rep. Alex Andrade, who endorsed DeSantis for president in 2023. H also has led the House’s investigation of the transparency-challenged, “mistakes were made” Hope Florida Foundation.

* Since 2006, daily trips across the Howard Frankland Bridge have increased by more than half.

* In 2003-04, USF enrolled 4,057 black students—12.6% of the student population. Last year USF enrolled 3,793 black students—8.8% of the student population.

* The Straz Center project has broken ground on its $100 million expansion—one that will range from an outdoor stage and a rooftop bar to a fine-dining restaurant and additional classroom and educational-performance space.

* Red Scare: The Trump Organization’s online store is now selling “Trump 2028” merch.

* Barely two months in, the Trump Administration already had its own “Gate.” No, “SignalGate” won’t be the last.

* “One way or the other.” How Trump expects to get Greenland.

* This is a great time to get rich.”—Donald Trump, adding context to financial chaos.

*If you believe the usual White House enablers, Trump’s 90-day tariff pause was always part of his “Art of the Deal” negotiating strategy. It was about Trump leverage–not a global market meltdown or recession generation or the de facto reality of a trade war between the U.S. and the rest of the world. This is Trump treating other countries like the sub-contractors he stiffed as he built his born-rich business brand.

* “If you removed white evangelicals in particular from (Trump’s) coalition, he would have lost all three of his presidential races by a landslide.”—David French, New York Times.

* Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene might even be an embarrassment to the legacy of the Cold War-Red-Scare-exploiting Joe McCarthy. Her rationale for calling for the “total” defunding of NPR and PBS: “It’s up to Congress to determine if Americans are going to continue to pursue their progressive, or rather, communist agenda,” she explained.

* The Trump Pentagon has removed images of the atomic bomb-dropping plane that ended World War II. The reason: The plane’s name is Enola GAY. Seriously.

* Recall that AG Pam Bondi, the embarrassing essence of compliant fealty to Trump, was next up after the sleazy Matt Gaetz flamed out. But if Bondi were to have a conscience-ridden epiphany, who would replace her? Rudy Giuliani? At least Roy Cohn is no longer with us.

* Trump had a recent physical. Before the results were released, he gave a spoiler alert. “Overall, I felt I was in very good shape. A good heart, a good soul, a very good soul.” Yeah.

* Trump has upended the Kennedy Center by ousting its president, its board of directors and its board chairman and replaced them all with MAGA minions. What’s next? A name change that doesn’t harken back to a Democratic icon? The Musk Center? How about granting Kennedy (for now) Center Honors to Kid Rock, Sean Hannity and Clarence Thomas.

* “We are all afraid.”–Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, referring to Trump retribution.

* “The future of CDC (Centers for Disease Control) is under threat, by any measure.”—Yale health policy researcher Jason Schwartz, on the recent departure of five high-level officials in the latest turmoil for America’s top public health agency.

* Tesla sales fell 14% in the first quarter.

* DOGE was originally intended to operate until July 4, 2026. No, it won’t last that long. Yes, Elon Musk is becoming a political lightning rod. Sounds ironic for this administration. But we know what Steve Bannon thinks.

* Dollar Don Update: There is now a $5 million, “gold card” visa—with Trump’s likeness on it—that aims to lure wealthy immigrants to the U.S. It offers U.S. residency to individuals who invest $5 million in this country. The president had earlier unveiled $100 silver medallion Trump coins.

* Mike Huckabee, US ambassador to Israel, visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem and inserted a message handwritten by Trump. According to unreliable sources, it said: “GOD, you’re terrific!!! You’re why we prey!”

* “Insurrection Hoax,” “Patriots Vindicated”: Titles of fundraisers featuring Jan. 6 rioters.