Author: opinionstogo

During World War II and the Cold War, we were reminded that Popes can make a difference. For better or worse. Pope Pius XII was no help during the Holocaust; Polish native John Paul II was a key rallying force against the spread of Soviet communism. The latter helped galvanize anti-Soviet, Polish resistance that complemented the Solidarity movement of Lech Walesa. For JP II, it was papal and personal.

Now there’s an American pontiff, Pope Leo XIV. His track record on issues such as gender are not particularly progressive, but he is in line with his predecessor, Pope Francis, when it comes to advocating on behalf of migrants and the downtrodden. He found his missionary mindset and voice in Peru—under an authoritarian president. Frontline pastoral work became his Catholic wheelhouse. He was more caring than charismatic, but it helped that he was multi-lingual and empathetic. He was also made Cardinal Robert Provost by his progressive predecessor, Pope Francis.

Popes can stand up to autocrats, including xenophobic, nativistic sorts who treat non-white immigrants like criminals. Hopefully, President Trump will discover that an American Pope with humanitarian, missionary zeal for the poor and forlorn, can’t be ignored or treated like some spineless, career-first GOPster. Pope Leo’s attention to the dignity of the worker—as well as the unemployed—has appeal that transcends political divides. Presumably Trump already knows that before becoming Pope, Cardinal Robert Provost’s social media account shared criticisms of the Trump Administration’s positions on immigration.

This U.S. president has a bully pulpit that appeals to the worst in us. The Pope has a papal pulpit that appeals to our better angels. You go, Father Bob. Papal and personal. The whole world is watching—not just its 1.4 billion Catholics that include VP JD Vance.

• Dems key online, fund-raising platform, ActBlue, is now under investigation by Trump’s fealty-driven Justice Department. The DOJ, under AG Pam Bondi, will follow the president’s orders to investigate ActBlue–over allegations of straw donations–and report back in 180 days.
• “Donald Trump and the Republicans thought they could ‘shock & awe’ us into submission. We’re just getting started.”—House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
• “Our job is to stand up for people who can’t do it themselves.” SCOTUS Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in remarks to the American Bar Association.
• Unforced errors update: Former FBI Director James Comey, the one who ironically enabled Trump’s 2016 win with his last-minute, Hillary-email pursuit, is back in the news. His “86 47” Instagram post was too easily interpreted as encouragement for taking out the 47th president.
• Social Security: Don’t degrade. Upgrade. A means test would be fair.

• Intelligence can be Artificial, but stupidity is always real.
• Remember when protocols for large family gatherings precluded the awkward introduction of topics such as religion, sex and politics? A friendly family vibe doesn’t result. Now religion and sex never seemed so benignly inviting.
• Even agnostics believe in something. I believe I’ll have another Negroni.
• A favorite, Borscht Belt lyric: “Throw Mama from the train a knish,

Don’t leave her hungry behind.”

• “DA POPE!” That’s what happens when Leo XIV’s Chicago roots meet holy humor. BTW, he’s a Chi Sox fan.
• You know you’re getting up in years when the Pope is younger than you are.

• MFPSA: Make Florida Pre-Scott Again. Talk about revisionist nostalgia–and missing Jeb!
• “I’m more committed to Hope Florida than I’ve ever been.”—Gov. Ron DisAstrous.
• UF’s new president, Santa Ono, even with some DEI subplots at Michigan, seems nicer than Ben Sasse. Should be fun to see how UF handles a President Santa at Christmas.
• The speaker at New College’s graduation will be legal scholar Alan Dershowitz, who represented Trump in an impeachment trial.
• “Everything is in place for an above average (Atlantic hurricane) season.”—Ken Graham, director of the National Weather Service.

• Mayor Jane Castor has been named to the “bipartisan” federal FEMA Review Council. The co-chairs are Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

* The WSJ’s Peggy Noonan nailed it. “Mr. Trump puts stock in the Madman Theory—that a leader gains an edge when foes fear he’ll do something insane.”

* Another Trump endorsement: “Keep Making America Great. I’m ready to go.”—Last words of serial killer Glen Rogers before his Florida execution this month.

* Air Farce One: The president was all hyped up about accepting a super luxury jumbo jet from Qatar. So hyped that his chat with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani went beyond his usual awkward small talk. “You folks are so creative,” Trump reportedly said. “I love your creativity. It’s great. Who would have thought anyone could look so good in a tablecloth and a fan belt?!”

* “It’s hard to see how Trump would have acted any differently if he were a Russian asset than how he has acted in the first 100 days of his second term.”—Ivo Daalder, chief executive of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and former ambassador to NATO under President Obama.

* Planning continues apace for the National Garden of American Heroes as part of Trump’s plans for the 250^th anniversary of American independence next year. Among those rumored to be immortalized: King George III, Hank & Aaron Burr, Jefferson Davis, Andrew Johnson, D.W. Griffith, Huey Long, Al Jolson, Tonto, Joe McCarthy, Roy Cohn, Amos & Andy, Lester Maddux, Bull Connor, George Wallace, Gen. William Westmoreland., Strom Thurmond, Col. Sanders, The McDonald Brothers, Richard Nixon, G. Gordon Liddy, Rush Limbaugh, Mike Tyson, Hannibal Lector, Jeffrey Epstein, Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Jeanine Pirro, Barbie, Don King, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Sean Hannity and Clarence Thomas.

* “I think we have a ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ situation going on in the White House.”—Liz Cheney.

* Given who he is and what he is, what would it take for MAGA cult followers to turn away from Trump? Perhaps, dressing like John Fetterman. Perhaps.

* Crypto-grifting: $TRUMP–That’s the website that promotes Trump’s “memecoin.” Should AG Pam Bondi join in the promotion, look for a website change: $TRUMPET.

*Name games update: Trump said the U.S. will now refer to the Persian Gulf as the Arabian Gulf. Take that, Iran. Lawrence of America?

*Canadian PM Mark Carey on making Canada the 51^st state: “Not for sale.”

President Donald Trump on making Canada the 51^st state: “Time will tell.”

*One sign of (somewhat) improved relations with Canada: Trump doesn’t refer to Carey, the new PM, as “governor.”

* Perhaps it’s more karmic hope than reality, but there are those who believe fervently that tariffs will be Trump’s Achilles’ heel. We already know he’s made it through bone-spurs patriotism.

* Trump’s tax shill is known officially and fawningly as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” Seriously.

* The minimum annual salary in the NFL: $840,000. The salary for POTUS: $400,000. For many, that’s an example of distorted American priorities. Trump, however, is overcompensated simply by being out of jail.

* Trump signed an executive order reinstating a federal law that requires commercial truck drivers to be proficient in English. The rule had been removed in 2016 under the Obama Administration.

* BTW, 18% of U.S. truck drivers are foreign born, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

* For the record—as well as for what remains of “old school” Republicans—the nation’s debt now stands at $36 trillion.

* No yoke: U.S. egg prices fell 12.7% in April.

* For what it’s worth to this administration, birthright citizenship has been, uh, enshrined in the U.S. Constitution—via the 14^th Amendment—since 1868.

• 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.