Category: Uncategorized

“A Republic, if you can keep it.”

• Of all the seemingly countless arguments–domestic to global–that can be summoned to summarily vote Trump out of office, nothing should matter more than this: Fewer Americans would be dead had it not been for Trump’s utter incompetence in handling a pandemic.
• Imagine, Trump’s version of a pandemic relief project does not include emergency money for the U.S. Postal Service. More than ever, Americans, including this president, will be voting by mail. For many Americans, it’s a pandemic safety measure. There’s no masking the worst health-risk reality in a century. Not to help an already underfunded, understaffed USPS is to further fray a lifeline that America’s democracy must have in this hour of utter peril. No, this isn’t your basic Republican voter-suppression gambit; this is the democracy-damning, narcissistic Trump version.
• “I want to make the post office great again.”—Donald Trump, trying out another hat theme.
• $3 trillion: the expected deficit for this fiscal year, according to the Treasury Department.
• “You inspired me to run and fight to Save America and Stop Socialism!!”—That was Marjorie Taylor Greene, responding to President Trump’s congratulatory tweet for her win in the Georgia Congressional Republican primary. It’s noteworthy, so to speak, because Greene is an outspoken, (anti-Muslim, anti-black, anti-Semitic) video-posting supporter of QAnon. Yes, that QAnon,the one that is centered on the belief that Trump is waging a secret campaign against enemies in the “deep state” and a—no, you can’t make this up—child sex-trafficking ring run by satanic pedophiles and cannibals. What’s not to congratulate?
• “George Washington would’ve had a hard time beating me before the plague.” Who knew that plagues could have an upside?
• Among Trump’s economic advisers: Arthur Laffer—of “Laffer Curve” renown. Indeed, we’re seeing ripple effects on the economy.
• “I have every reason to believe Trump will not go quietly into the night if he loses.”—Hillary Clinton.
• Again, how did we get here? There have always been populists and nationalists and racists, some less nuanced than others. They’re well chronicled throughout America’s eclectic, democratic history. But contemporary times brought us an inflection point in 2008. Republicans putting the manifestly uninformed, reality-TV wannabe Sarah Palin on the ticket was the outrageous precursor to a charlatan such as Trump. When the bar for a presidential ticket is that subterranean, anything can happen. And it did eight years later. Then add the other perfect-storm elements: a less-than-involved electorate, one that could be inordinately influenced by rapidly morphing social media—domestic- and foreign-based—and a pop-culture, media savant who only reads tabloids and authoritarian playbooks. The regrettable result: demeaning the media; playing up white nationalism; scapegoating elites and liberals; and getting Donald Trump elected. Once.
• “(Trump) is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment.”—Michelle Obama, at the virtual Democratic convention.
• “Compassionate conservative.” Remember that? Maybe George W. Bush still does.

#AloneTogether

• The U.S., with 4 percent of the world’s population, accounts for nearly 25 percent of coronavirus infections—and 22 percent of the deaths. That should not be part of “American exceptionalism.”
• “Eat Out to Help Out”: A British initiative that offers customers 50 percent discounts at restaurants and pubs between Monday and Wednesday in August.
• 30 million: The number of Americans now collecting unemployment benefits.
•  Grocery stores are doing better than most enterprises, as Americans increasingly dine at home.
• Florida is one of four states (California, Minnesota, North Dakota) plus the city of Philadelphia that will participate in a COVID-19 vaccine pilot program with the federal government.
• $5.4 billion: Budget deficit facing Florida over the next two years.
• TIA passenger traffic in July was down 68 percent from the previous year.
• Weekly positivity rate averages: Polk County, 10 percent; Hillsborough County, 7 percent; Manatee County, 6 percent; Pasco County, 6 percent; Pinellas County, 5 percent.
• AMC Theatres expects to open two-thirds of its more than 600 U.S. theater locations by Sept. 3—including five in the Tampa Bay area.

• Joe Biden: “Is anyone surprised Donald Trump has a problem with strong women across the board?” Is anyone surprised that’s a rhetorical question? Ask Hillary Clinton. Or Elizabeth Warren. Or Angela Merkel. Hell, ask Carly Fiorina or Megyn Kelly.
• The Biden campaign raked in $48 million–$39 million of it online–in 48 hours: the 48 hours immediately following the formal announcement of the Biden-Harris ticket. The fund-raising haul included 150,000 first-time donors.
• “It will energize black voters because they can now see themselves in the ticket.”—That was NAACP President Derrick Johnson, weighing in on the selection of Kamala Harris for vice president.
• “Conscience. … It was necessary to do this, and I felt it’s the right thing to do. I believe Biden can bring us together.”—Former Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich—a 2016 GOP presidential candidate—on accepting a speaking role at the Democratic National Convention. And we won’t be shocked if Presidential Nominee Biden announces another—permanent—role for Kasich to play in a Biden Administration.
• As we know, the Dems need a net gain of only three seats to take back a Senate majority if Joe Biden wins. The chances are more than do-able—starting with the top targeted states of North Carolina, Arizona and Colorado. Plus, it’s even money right now in Georgia, Iowa, Maine and Montana. Hell, Lindsey Graham could be ousted by Jaime Harrison in South Carolina. Even Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is feeling heat in Kentucky. According to the non-partisan Cook Political Report, it’s advantage Dems less than three months out from the election. And then there’s this telling-assessment memo issued by Kevin McLaughlin, the executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, to mark the 100-day countdown to the election. “From 30,000 feet, things look pretty bleak.” Too bleaking bad.
• No surprise that the 300,000-member National Association of Letter Carriers has endorsed Biden for president. But will they be voting by mail?
• It couldn’t hurt if Bernie Sanders, the avatar of democratic socialism and the lodestar of American progressives, didn’t just caucus with the Democratic Party, endorse its presidential nominee and speak at its virtual convention–but formally joined it. Call it the ultimate loyalty pledge—and a politically-pragmatic signal to his rabid base that it’s got to be all in to take out Trump.
• “We do not agonize; we organize.”—House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

• Sobering reality: In June and July, Fox News was the highest-rated TV channel in the highly-prized, 8-11pm time slot. Not just on cable—all of television.
• Expect a big spike in sales of “The Truths We Hold,” Kamala Harris’ 2019 memoir.
• Birtherism Update: Newsweek has apologized for an op-ed written by a conservative attorney that questioned Kamala Harris’ citizenship—and VP eligibility. The apology specifically noted that the op-ed was “being used by some as a tool to perpetuate racism and xenophobia.” Even for an erstwhile media icon trying to stay relevant, this was unconscionable.
• “The press must look past the campaign coverage that was and embrace its role as a safeguard of democracy.”—Kyle Pope, Columbia Journalism Review.

• 5 overtimes! That’s how long the Lightning’s Game 1 win over Columbus took. That has to change–sudden-death, NHL playoff tradition notwithstanding. That’s about 25 innings in baseball—only hockey is a physical, contact sport. The common opponent is injury-enabling fatigue.
• “Unlike professional sports, college sports cannot operate in a bubble. Our athletic programs are part of broader campuses, in communities where in many cases the prevalence of COVID-19 is significant.”—Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott, after the Pac-12 and Big Ten conferences announced there will be no fall football.
• When the Big Ten pulled the seasonal plug on football, the economic implications were serious. To wit: According to the U.S. Department of Education, Ohio State University football brought in $115 million in the 2018-19 fiscal year. 

• “The United States is becoming like Lebanon and other Middle East countries in two respects. First, our political differences are becoming so deep that our two parties now resemble religious sects in a zero-sum contest for power. … And second, as in the Middle East, so increasingly in America: Everything is now politics—even the climate, even energy, even face masks in a pandemic.”—Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times.
• “It falls on all of us, regardless of our race or station—including the majority of men and women in law enforcement who take pride in doing their tough job the right way, every day—to work together to create a ‘new normal’ in which the legacy of bigotry and unequal treatment no longer infects our institutions or our hearts.”—Former President Barack Obama.
• “Trump and (Steve) Bannon took a low-rent strand of conservatism—class-based, ethnic nationalism—that had always been locked away in the basement of the American right, and overturned the Reagan paradigm.”—David Brooks, New York Times.
• “For the Trump campaign to turn Joe Biden into 2020’s Michael Dukakis requires the president to make Mr. Biden, not himself, the campaign focus.”—Republican strategist Karl Rove.
• “(Harris) is going to be a great motivator for this ticket.”—Democratic South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, the House Majority Whip.
• “I still hope, especially with Kamala on the ticket, that the coverage of women running for president or vice president will be less sexist, less sensationalist and less trivializing.”—Hillary Clinton.
• “Harris is American melting pot meets American dream.”—Ruth Marcus, Washington Post.
• “Congratulations on being the Democratic Vice President nominee … All love and respect from the future president. It’s an honor to run against you.”—Kanye West.
• “We are focused strictly on talking about how (Harris) completes the radical leftist takeover of Joe Biden.”—Tim Murtaugh, Trump campaign communications director.
• “It’s not inconceivable that in 2024, America could have to choose between (Kamala) Harris and (Nikki) Haley for president. Which will it be, the Tamil Brahmin or the Sikh?—Tunku Varadarajan, executive editor at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.
• “A disappointment to conservatives.”—Vice President Mike Pence, on SCOTUS Chief Justice John Roberts.
• “A payroll tax cut is the hydroxychloroquine of economic policy.”—Paul Krugman, New York Times.
• “Alarmingly, across the nation we see the devastating effects of the president’s campaign to sabotage the election by manipulating the Postal Service to disenfranchise voters. … In a time of pandemic, the Postal Service is Election Central.”–Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in calling House lawmakers to return to Washington to block Postal Service changes that could make it harder for millions of Americans to vote by mail.
• “I don’t know of any evidence that voting by mail would increase voter fraud.”—Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney.
• “I feel like the Titanic. We have hit the iceberg, and we’re trying to make decisions of what time should we have the band play.”—Dr. Carlos Del Rio, infectious disease expert and member of the NCAA COVID-19 Advisory Panel.
• “Having declared a state of emergency for the entire state on March 9, Gov. Ron DeSantis could sign an executive order, allowing mail ballots placed in the USPS mail stream prior to Election Day to be counted, even if they arrive after Election Day.”—Daniel A. Smith, chairman of the political science department at the University of Florida.
• “Having video will provide clarity for everyone and will also hold all parties accountable.”—Hillsborough Sheriff Chad Chronister, in announcing that deputies will begin wearing body cameras.
• “We’re laser focused on Feb. 7.”—NFL Executive Vice President Peter O’Reilly, in reference to Super Bowl 55 in Tampa.

 “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

• “Whether you call it Vote by Mail or Absentee Voting, in Florida the election system is Safe and Secure, Tried and True.” Now it’s official: The vote, including Trump’s mail-in, won’t be rigged in Florida.
• When it comes to uncertainties over mail-in votes, it would be more than helpful if the U.S. president were to advocate for a geared-up U.S. Postal Service—given the reality of an increased volume of mail during a pandemic. But, alas, the president is Donald Trump and Louis DeJoy, the big-dollar donor he appointed to run the USPS, has followed Trump’s instructions to eliminate overtime for postal workers—thus virtually guaranteeing delivery delays during the election period. And it hardly helped that Ronald Stroman, the Postal Service Board of Governors member who oversaw mail-in voting, recently resigned. Prior to that, the other five board members had been replaced by Trump. And, BTW, there’s another agenda afoot. DeJoy’s cost-cutting is also being seen as a preliminary move toward the privatization of the Postal Service.
• While presidential elections are partisan political events, not everyone with a stake in the outcome is home grown. Foreign countries—allies and adversaries—are calculating the outcome. Chances are Russia, Brazil, Turkey and The Philippines are rooting for a fellow-authoritarian to win re-election. Iran, for sure, isn’t. It’s expanding its nuclear program and won’t negotiate with Trump, who pulled America out of the multi-national, Iranian nuclear deal. “He is going to benefit from negotiations,” said Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who knows how Trump vainly sought to leverage his center-stage, North Korean negotiations.
• Speaking of Russia, President Vladimir Putin’s top foreign-policy priorities: Keep Trump in the White House and keep Turkey in NATO.
• “Pathetic.” That’s how Trump labeled (White House coronavirus task force coordinator) Dr. Deborah Birx’s characterization of the virus as “extraordinarily widespread.” He also criticized her “taking the bait” from Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Indeed, pathetic.
• “He’s against God.” The morally-challenged hypocrite-in-chief referring to Joe Biden.
• Here’s what’s really, really embarrassing: That all Americans aren’t, well, embarrassed by the aforementioned avatar of immorality, incompetence, ignorance and narcissism.
• So why sit down with Axios’ Jonathan Swan for a predictably embarrassing interview–that highlighted, so to speak, Trump’s clueless, classless and prevaricating nature–on Russian bounties, John Lewis’ legacy and the coronavirus? Was the only other choice Rachel Maddow? Yet another reminder that the uninformed, unhinged Trump is not advised, to the degree he is advisable, by the best and brightest.
• No, Kanye West running for president isnot the same as Ross Perot, Ralph Nader, Jill Stein or even George Wallace making a run. Sure their votes had impact, but their campaigns were never directly abetted by agenda-driven, other-party operatives. Not the case here. Exhibit A: Wisconsin, a key swing state, where at least a half dozen individuals—GOP activists and Trump supporters—are helping West get on the ballot of a state that Trump won by less than 23,000 votes—and now trails Joe Biden. Among those Trump supporters: Lane Ruhland, an attorney who has worked for the Trump campaign and has been representing it in a lawsuit filed this year against a Wisconsin TV station for airing an ad critical of Trump’s coronavirus response. This is about a blatant effort—formerly known as “dirty tricks”–to try and siphon off a few African-American votes to possibly make a difference in another election that could come down to a handful of votes in key states. One other thing: This is a gross insult to African-American voters: As if having a bizarre, black celebrity for a candidate were sufficient reason to vote for West.
• No, it won’t go on a hat or a bumper sticker, but it does unmask and reflect the Trump-cult mentality: “Don’t Tread on Me, but I Can Breathe on You.”
• “I think (Trump’s) crazy. I think he’s unfit for office.”—Remember that? Lindsey Graham wishes you didn’t.
• Still in the running for Trump’s acceptance speech site: The White House, Gettysburg, Tulsa, The Villages.
• Mt. Flushmore: “Never suggested it although … (it) sounds like a good idea.”—Trump on the possibility of being chiseled onto a monument.
• “Yo-Seminite” NationalPark. “Thigh-land.” Whatever.
• “It is what it is.” May it be: It was what it was.

#AloneTogether

• “Younger people also need to take on board that they have a responsibility. Ask yourself the question: Do I really need to go to that party?”—WHO Emergencies Chief Mike Ryan.
• 2.5 million: Number of Muslims who performed the Hajj last year; 1,000: number allowed this year by Saudi Arabia.
• 55 percent: The percentage of the 132,500 consumer-facing businesses in the U.S. that have shuttered because of the virus and are now permanently closed.
• 6.1 percent: The increase in adjusted profit for Allstate—as drivers and car accidents declined as the coronavirus erupted.
• “The COVID-19 pandemic has been a trial by fire, but the experience to date has made clear that the health care system is ready for broader access to telehealth on a permanent basis.”—Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon.
• $24 million: The revenue hit taken by the city of Tampa since March.
• 7.3 percent: Percentage of COVID cases accounted for by children.
• $561 million: How much AMC Theatres, the world’s largest cinema operator, lost in its most recent quarter.
• 45 percent: The percentage of adults who get an annual flu shot.
• Just wondering: If it took “Click it or Ticket” to motivate people to wear a seat belt, could “Mask it or Casket” also work?

• $24 million: the amount raised for the Biden campaign the past two months from Barack Obama fundraisers. Another reminder that Obama is the ultimate Biden surrogate.
• “The Biden ‘Women’s Agenda’ provides a strong vision for gender equality and for improving economic security across the board. These are our values and our plan, and I’m proud to fight alongside Joe for what we believe.”—Congresswoman Kathy Castor.
• Nobody was surprised with Joe Biden’s selection of Sen. Kamala Harris as his vice presidential running mate.
• And nobody will be surprised when a President-Elect Biden nominates Susan Rice as secretary of state.

• “Back The Blue:” While understandable with an institution we need and should respect, it’s still polarizing when systemic racism—and police brutality–is the dominant societal theme for our vulnerable democracy. But this shouldn’t be a zero-sum matter. That’s a false option. It’s not back or don’t back, fund or don’t fund. It’s about backing the good cops, which is the overwhelming majority. And it’s about funding that addresses “community” needs, not overkill military optics. How about “Back The Best Blue”?
• The moral high ground erodes when you stoop to call out Trader Joe’s for “racist” brand labeling of certain product lines, such as: “Trader Jose’s” or “Trader Ming’s.”