Opinions to go Online

*  Regardless of politics, there is no finer-spoken person than George Will. From baseball to democratic scenarios. You’d swear he’s brought off-the-cuff cue cards. And it really helps these days to engage in public discourse or personal reflections without any “you knows” or “likes.”

* Annual trade between the EU and the U.S: $1.8 trillion.

* Mexico’s first female president Claudia Sheinbaum, a true populist, was elected last year with 60% of the vote. Today her approval rating is above 80%.

* Mexico, the world’s 11^th most populous country, had more than 30,000 homicides in 2023. The year before, Reporters Without Borders declared Mexico the deadliest in the world for journalists.

* The vast majority of Amazon products are made in China.

* China is the largest producer of antibiotics worldwide.

* More than 15% of people living in the US were born abroad. The previous high: 14.8% in 1890.

• The Rays, as we’re well aware, have long languished in attendance. Too bad they couldn’t have played the Savannah Bananas over the years.

* Here’s a record we’re not likely to see broken: UCLA won 7 straight national basketball championships from 1967-73. Too much parity now.

* March Madness: Given today’s collegiate reality of NILs and de facto free agency, “student athlete” can seem oxymoronic. Maybe this will help a little. Maybe. When listing starting line-ups, include this: eligibility year, transfer background, height, scoring average, major and GPA.

* “Who am I to judge?”—The late Pope Francis.

* “The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.”—English essayist William Hazlitt.

* “Human rights is the soul of our foreign policy, because human rights is the very soul of our sense of nationhood.”—President Jimmy Carter.

* “…Trump’s team sees Europe as a parasitic, freeloading ally and its liberal democracies as political and ideological adversaries.”—Celia Belin, head of the Paris office of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

* “The challenge for Europe is how to deal with a predatory America willing to use the vulnerability of allies to extort them—whether it’s a mineral deal in Ukraine or attempts to annex Greenland.”—Mark Leonard, director of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

* “No court in the U.S. has a right to conduct the foreign policy of the United States.”—Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

* “Tariffs won’t make us safer. They won’t bring back lost jobs. They won’t build stronger supply chains. What they will do is raise prices on American consumers, inject chaos into global markets, and alienate the allies we need to compete with China.”—Jordan Valdes, former international trade adviser to the Small Business Administration during the Obama Administration.

* “The greatest threat to American universities since the Red Scare of the 1950s.”—Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber, referring to the Administration’s crusade against universities.

* “Mr. Trump puts stock in the Madman Theory—that a leader gains an edge when foes fear he’ll do something insane.”—Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal.

* “The moves of Trump embolden foreign leaders who know the US is now an autocratic ally, and there will be no consequences for repressive behavior.”—NYU history professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat.

* “Immigration enforcement must be lawful and humane, not weaponized for political stunts.”—Florida Congresswoman Kathy Castor.

* “We are going to have to keep tightening our belts and watching every penny.”—Hillsborough County School Board member Nadia Combs, in response to expectations of lean state budgets.

* “I see the Tampa Bay region, Tampa-St. Pete, as a major league market.” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred.

* “(Tampa Bay) is a growing destination for pretty much the whole world.”—Rolando Damas, managing director for Avianca Airlines, Colombia’s largest. It will be making TIA’s first non-stop flight to South America.

* “Sixty-five years later, we really haven’t changed a whole lot. We’re still all about the automobile. We had more lanes, but then we add more cars.”—Tampa Bay History Center historian Rodney Kite-Powell, on the opening of the newly expanded Howard Frankland Bridge.

Word has it that in an effort to further impress the world’s wealthiest man, President Trump decided to include himself among those following DOGE directions to list what they did last week. He even added some. Here’s Trump’s recent attempt to show some populist empathy while joining the DOGE & pony show.

1—Bullied Zelenskyy and berated Trudeau; we’ve helped those losers enough.

2—Checked in with my Moscow mentor; golden-showers never came up.

3—Binge-watched “Naked and Afraid” and re-runs of “The Apprentice.”

4—Issued an executive order declaring Jan. 6 Patriots’ Day.

5—Aced another cognition test. I like true-false.

6—Trump bibles, steaks, coins not enough. Signed off on a new deal: Trump Depends.

7—Relaxed in my Agent Orange tanning bed and farted away.

8—Worked on my handwriting. It has the right celebrity arrogance, but looks too much like my EKG.

9—Reread some passages from “Art of the Deal.” A reminder that it helps to have a real writer write your book.

10–Called Melania. Left message.

* There was no government shutdown, but nobody is happy. It’s a low bar for any serious, democratic high-fives.

For now, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer is not a strategic scapegoat. Just awkwardly unpopular and symbolic of the trade-off of short-changing Democratic priorities such as health care and housing help. It also assures Trump of MAGA-pleasing, despotic discretion on spending decisions. This isn’t political compromise; it’s heavy-handed, autocratic leverage.

* A strategic UK sign: “Buying a Tesla Helps Trump Hurt the Planet. Choose Another EV.”

* “Divide and conquer worked for Caesar; it will work for the Democrats.”James Unnever, retired USF professor of criminology.

* Thanks, Lincoln Project. It’s helping being heard.

 

* Still a favorite song title: “All My Ex’s Live In Texas.”

* I recently watched the Ken Burns’ documentary on country music. It was, no surprise, informative, superbly edited and empathetic about values and roots, romantic love and heartbreak. I also found out that a lot of popular songs were written on the fly, often on the backs of envelopes. That thought was with me when I recently went to the Florida Eye Institute for a laser procedure. I had some envelopes and spare time while waiting. Here’s what resulted.

“The eyes, as we’ve seen, always open our world. But sometimes we see too much.

“When that world becomes a deep MAGA mine, you just might wish you were blind.”

And why stop there?

“I never have been to a book burnin,’ but if I change my mind,

“I’ll be sure to bring the ‘Art of the Deal’ and enjoy how that would feel.”

Then came the glaucoma laser.

* Remember when “You look great!” didn’t mean “for your age.”

* Roofing reality: First thing to do after a new roof goes on: Check for nails. A flat tire shouldn’t be part of the overhead.

* Whatever happened to the subjunctive mood? If I were (not was) still an English teacher, I’d feel like a linguistic alien or the victim of a societal lexicon-job.

* Generational change: Fact-checking will soon be a college major.

* Police chiefs and sheriffs are signing up to be part of a federal immigration program that allows local officers to stop and question people about their immigration status. Call it what it is: a Racial Profiling Program.

* January ended with 172,000 homes for sale. That’s the highest number of any month in records dating back to 2012. It’s up nearly 23% from a year earlier.

* Medicaid, now a Washington spending-cut target, is the primary payer for nursing home care.

* A Republican State Senator recently made the case for truly conservative Republicans to not go against a limited-government credo. Don’t pay for campaigning against amendments, urged Sen. Jennifer Bradley. She proposed a ban on using state funds to advocate for or against constitutional amendments, including those dealing with abortion and recreational marijuana. It also helps some otherwise spineless Republicans that Gov. DisAstrous is now a lame *uck.

“This amendment makes sure that taxpayers don’t get the bill for political issue campaigns,” explained Bradley. Hell, Rick Scott should even agree not to leave taxpayers “on the hook.”

* Among those who recommended against the use of fluoride in drinking water: Sturgeon General Joseph Ladope-o. The key reason: It harms children’s IQ’s. Among those not in agreement: Dental and real health experts.

* Publix will not allow illustrations of any flag other than that of the U.S. on cakes. Desert this ideology, please.

* Arnie Bellini donated $40 million to USF to establish the Bellini College of AI, Cybersecurity and Computing. This should be another difference-maker for the ever-evolving USF. The ultimate goal is for USF to be to Tampa what Stanford is to Silicon Valley. Go, Bulls.

* “Absent a ballpark, having a blank canvas there is not necessarily a bad thing.”–Jason Mathis, CEO of the St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership.

* The sign(age) of the times—Honeymoon State Park (Dunedin): “Fight For Nature,” “Protect Our Parks,” “Pickle The Planners.”

* A presidential address shouldn’t seem like open-mic night in front of Congress.

* The MUSKrat has called on the U.S. to leave NATO. It’s only been around for 76 years, and its value is grossly overrated in a world at peace. BTW, the DOGE Bag also indicated that exiting the United Nations is a pretty good idea too.

* The “Voice of America” is being shut down. It was no longer relevant for an arrogant, self-serving, America First Administration that relies on presidential cacophony to represent the U.S.

* “It’s doing us no good.” Trump on his executive order to dismantle the Dept. of Education.

* Maybe it will eventually occur to Marco Rubio that he does, indeed, work for the man he once candidly and accurately labeled a “con man.” Maybe not.

* “If the DOW drops 1,000 points in two days, the president should be impeached immediately.”–That was Trump in 2012.

* “If I don’t win, you will have a 1929-style depression. Enjoy it.” Trump in his 2024 campaign.

* In such chaotic times as these, it would really help to have a “stable genius” in charge.

* A Trump Library: Isn’t that an oxymoron?

* That prominent “Black Lives Matter” street mural near the White House is gone. It’s a reminder of what happens with President Trump, a GOPster-controlled Congress and DC’s limited autonomy. Maybe a “MAGA Minions Matter” is up next.

* Trump now owns a RED, no surprise, Model S Tesla. More high-profile marketing for the MUSKrat Rambler.

*According to the National Literacy Institute, America ranks 36^th in the world for literacy levels; 21% of Americans are illiterate; 54% of Americans can’t read beyond the level of an 11-year-old; and white, US-born adults are the largest group with low literacy. It impacts, to say the least, our electorate.

* “Only sick and twisted people keep bodies, and you are sick and twisted.”–Trump, in reference to Hamas. Yeah, sometimes he’s actually right.