Category: Uncategorized

#Alone Together

* Timing, once again, is everything. More than 20,000 Americans remain overseas, still trying to return to the U.S. from vacations, work assignments and mission trips. International air travel is at a near standstill.

* So, after all that life-impacting vacillation, Gov. Ron DeSantis finally acted in the best interest of Floridians–not just lobbyists and the Florida Chamber of Commerce–by issuing a long overdue, public-safety, stay-home order. Better late than never, but not better than doing the right thing at the right time. There have been inevitable, unnecessary deaths. All activity will be limited to essential services for at least 30 days. And, yes, gun and ammo stores, are considered essential.  

But then later in the same day that he had issued the stay-home directive, DeSantis issued an amended order to override all local emergency orders. It confused and incensed any number of mayors and sheriffs.

So after a political honeymoon–prompted in no small part by the reality that anyone looks good after Rick Scott–DeSantis is looking increasingly like the guy who grew up in the Fox green room. At the worst possible time, we have had worrisome response delay, disconnects and now mixed, confusing messages. DeSantis should go on line and search for an Executive Order 101 class.

This is worse than “hanging chads” Flori-duh. This is the Sunshine State version of the Trump Administration clown car. Jeb! is looking better by the day.

* Dumb doubling down: How unconscionably outrageous that the usual suspects–aka COVIDiots–have targeted Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top government SCIENTIST in the all-consuming fight against COVID-19, for his lack of fealty to Trump. As if he’s undermining the Dissembler-in-chief with objective, scientific perspective.

* Speaking of COVIDiocy, how else to reference frolicking spring breakers and reckless religious congregants.  

* Speaking of religious services during a pandemic, what would Jesus say? Possibly “This is as alarming as it is embarrassing. I’m fed up with being represented by fakirs and fools. I don’t have a problem with megachurches, but I do have a problem with MAGAchurches. Remember ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s’? It’s hardly a religious reach to say that saving lives via public safety damn (oops), darn well applies. Separation of church and state? Good Lord, how about separation of life and needless death? Remember, ‘In GOD we trust,’ not ‘In GOP, we trust.'”

* Jeff Bezos, richest man in the world, where the hell are you?

* Which businesses are essential? Pharmacies, check. Grocery stores, check. Gun shops, say what?

* The state has not mandated the closing of parks. Hillsborough County and Tampa have closed theirs, while Pinellas and St. Petersburg have left theirs open–for now. The rationale for the latter: They are a better option than crowding along the waterfront. But St. Pete Mayor Rick Kriseman could change that if residents don’t adjust their park behavior. The new park normal means no picnics, no touch football, no playground equipment use. Parks are escapes–not attractions. Not an easy, however necessary, sell.

* So much for the aesthetic respite of Bayshore Boulevard. The scary COVID new normal still allows for more tragic and unconscionable idiocy. Over the weekend, a motorcyclist and a bicyclist both died in an eminently avoidable accident. The motorcyclist who hit the bicyclist was one of three bikers riding together. One was being ridden on its back wheels. Yes, they are still among us.

* “We are continuing to see things go up. We cannot be discouraged by that because the mitigation is actually working and will work.”–That was Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, rendering an expert opinion that has everything to do with context and meaningful reassurance–instead of self-serving misinformation and disingenuousness.

* “It’s not just the movie “Contagion” that’s making a streaming comeback. Amazon is having trouble keeping Albert Camus’ “The Plague” in stock. Obviously pestilence fiction still has a market–even when it’s no longer fiction.

* Jewish irony: Passover canceled because of a plague.

* “We may have to do a virtual convention.”–Joe Biden.

* “The people who will join my cabinet–God willing, if I become president–will be people who represent the spectrum of our party and who look like the country.”–Joe Biden.

* “These next several weeks will teach us a lot. In some ways, we are field-testing the future.” That was Paul Tash, chairman and CEO of the Tampa Bay Times, responding to the question of whether the Times’ newly enacted policy of twice-a-week print deliveries complemented by daily digital versions is the publication pattern of the future for daily newspapers.

* “Parade” magazine’s annual “What People Earn” issue prompts an annual response. Yes, we are a market-demand economy, so there are gigantic disparities. But societal priorities are also reflected. Soberly, even obscenely, so. To wit: Dr. Robert Redfield, M.D., the virologist/director for the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), pulls down $209,700 annually, whereas talk-show hosts Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh earn $93 million and $87 million, respectively. Is that part of American exceptionalism?

* The six-part Netflix series “The English Game” is worth watching–and bingeing. Kind of a soccer-history primer that arguably features Britain’s first professional player–the Scot, Fergus Suter. The game had been looking very much like rugby scrums until the Scots invented passing. The subplots, including the class divide, are reminiscent of Downton Abbey. Well done.

* Nice St. Pete touch for the roof of Tropicana Field to be lit in red, white and blue every night as a show of solidarity to honor health care workers.

* Suspended season notwithstanding, the NHL Players Association has gone ahead with its annual poll of best players. The Lightning’s Victor Hedman was selected the top defenseman for the second consecutive year. Goalie Andrei Valilevskiy was runner-up to Montreal’s Carey Price.

* “There was always an argument that the existing world order cannot change because only a momentous war has done that in the past, and world wars have become impossible. But in pandemics–and soon in climate change–we may have found two functional equivalents of war.”–Bruno Macaes, the National Review.

* “As we can all feel, the world at this moment seems extraordinarily fragile.”–The final post by Prince Harry and wife Meghan on their SussexRoyal Instagram account.

* “Rather than heed the warnings, embrace the planning and preserve the structures and budgets that had been bequeathed to him, the president ignored the risk of a pandemic.”–Susan Rice, national security adviser to Barack Obama.

* “In an election year, it has been impossible to witness the mixture of incompetence, egotism and eerie inhumanity with which President Trump has responded to the Covid-19 pandemic and not fear a corona-coup. Panic and disorientation are precisely the elements on which the dictator feasts. The danger of an American autocratic lurch in 2020 is as great as the virus itself.”–Roger Cohen, New York Times.

* “We basically wasted two months (of coronavirus prep).”–Kathleen Sebelius, former secretary of Health and Human Services.

* “This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment.”–U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams.

* “Donald Trump is trying to build a campaign message around his image as a wartime president. But as a commander in chief, Cadet Bone Spurs is bringing up the rear.”–Maureen Dowd, New York Times.

* “Trump, the consummate bully, could use those powers for good, by countermanding Mitch McConnell and establishment Republicans and working with Nancy Pelosi to pass a badly-needed revamp of America’s infrastructure.”–Curt Mills, the American Conservative.

* “There’s a lot of things in this pandemic that have not gone the way they should, but the science has been blazing fast.”–Dr. Gigi Kwik Gronvall, senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

* “Early on, epidemiologists simply didn’t know how well social distancing would work. Now it’s clearer: We have the tools to save lives, if we will use them.”–Nicholas Kristof, New York Times.

* “We really do appreciate the work of the citizens of California and Washington, because we do see that their curve is different from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut–and we really believe that the work that every citizen is doing in those states is making a difference.”–Dr. Deborah Birx, the U.S. coronavirus response coordinator, in praise of California and Washington for their social distancing efforts.

* “A lot of advertisers are just pulling back–the tide’s going out.”–Boston University marketing professor Garrett Johnson.

* “If one looks carefully, suffering is not the exception but the rule.”–University of  Massachusetts philosophy professor John Kaag, author of “Sick Souls, Healthy Minds.”

* “The Electoral College is worse than merely useless. Its primary function is to malapportion political power, and it does so–indeed, has always done so–with strikingly awful consequences. … In a liberal democracy, not everything need be decided by majority vote. But once something is put to a vote, it is hard to understand why the side getting fewer votes should win.”–Cornell law professor Josh Chafetz, the author of “Congress’ Constitution: Legislative Authority and the Separation of Powers.”

* “There’s no magic age for becoming a regular voter. But when people move into their 40s, that’s when you see voter turnout grow.”–Carroll Doherty, director of political research at the Pew Research Center.

* “Making sure that we’re ready to care for this community is not each individual healthcare system’s job, it is all of our jobs. … These large healthcare systems that are providing care are truly banding together to give the best care.”–Richelle Hoenes, director of corporate communications for AdventHealth West Florida Division.

* “The responsible and sensible thing to do is to avoid all congregational activities that involve people proximate to each other. You can spray things down, you can decontaminate to a point, but you’re still taking a risk.”–Jay Wolfson, associate vice president for health law, policy and safety at USF.

* “We’re looking at all of our major revenues in terms of potential reductions. We’re taking a holistic look at both revenues and expenditures.”–Tampa’s Chief Financial Officer Dennis Rogero in assessing the impact of the coronavirus on the city’s $1.04 billion budget, where “nothing is off the table.”

* “It’s a difficult balance. You’re balancing the public welfare with the economy. Both are very important, but I was elected as mayor, first and foremost, to look out for the health and well-being of all of my citizens.”–Mayor Jane Castor in a CNN interview with Anderson Cooper.

 “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

* The job of the newly created  Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery is to monitor how the Treasury Department extends loans and loan guarantees. Moreover, the new inspector general has a mandate to notify Congress immediately if the White  House doesn’t cooperate with an audit or an investigation involving $2 trillion in stimulus money. What could go wrong with this scenario?

Unsurprisingly, the oversight position isn’t going over well with the Divider in chief. “I’ll be the oversight,” declared Trump.

The new IG is supposed to be nominated by the White House and confirmed by the Senate. Presumably Stephen Miller, Corey Lewandowski, Sean Hannity, Pam Bondi, Ted Nugent and Roger Stone are still in the running.

* Donald Trump recently–and intemperately–called for “packed churches … all over our country … on Easter.” The call for de facto religious/political rallies had epidemiologists alarmed and Trump evangelicals elated. (Even the Pope called upon Christians to celebrate Holy Week and Easter by not gathering for worship services.) America’s misleader has since walked it back as the outbreak has spread and social-distancing is a common sense and public health given. Too bad we couldn’t give up Trump for Lent.

* “Because the ‘Ratings’ of my (daily) News Conferences etc. are so high, ‘Bachelor finale, Monday Night Football’ type numbers according to the @nytimes, the Lamestream Media is going CRAZY.” Whatever. It’s what you get during an existential crisis with a narcissistic “Celebrity Apprentice” host as president. So, thanks again, basket of deplorables, feckless GOPsters, skewed-priority greed heads and disaffected progressives who sat out the 2016 election. No one saw COVID-19 coming, but we all should have foreseen a mega mess as the collateral damage from having an unprepared, unethical  rogue charlatan in the White Nationalist House.

#AloneTogether

* How ironic–and maybe karmic–that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who had recklessly pledged to “go on shaking hands with everybody,” has tested positive for the coronavirus.

* Repurposed Olympics: With the Olympic Games now postponed till next year, Tokyo is looking at using the Olympic Village as a place for patients with milder cases of coronavirus.

* Encouraging that subway service is being restored in Wuhan, China, where the coronavirus first emerged in December.

* As of early this week, only Hawaii and Wyoming remained as states with no reported deaths linked to the outbreak.

* The right and responsibility to vote meets the clear and present danger of gathering during a pandemic. Voting by mail is now a no-brainer. Not doing it is brainless.

Not too long ago, I was feeling almost nostalgic about when communities turned out to cast votes in person. In the era of online living, we don’t gather as diverse communities the way we used to. Voting, among neighbors of different party affiliations, was still a collective, communal experience. It was still America. But the combination of a pandemic and unprecedented, visceral partisanship in the era of Trump makes mailing it in the only alternative. Trump and COVID-19 changed everything.

* There are more than a dozen physicians in Congress, most of them Republican. Why aren’t they the loudest, most coherent and most helpful voices during a health crisis? Or did they take the hypocritical oath?

* “We cannot create an incentive not to work.” That was Sen. Rick Scott’s rationale for being one of four Senate Republicans who objected to a temporary hike in unemployment benefits in the stimulus package. Yes, he’s still Rick Scott–and we’re still “on the hook” for his “leadership.”

* Iso Update I: Binge watching for a certain age group–such as those who fondly recall “The Twilight Zone”–should come with a spoiler alert. Themes of manipulation–from aliens to grim reapers–and eerie uncertainty abound. Hardly escape, although Rod Serling is still cool. And if nostalgia includes “The Honeymooners,” it won’t provide nearly enough escape either. You’ll be reminded that Ralph Kramden would have been a Trumpster.

* Iso Update II: What day is this again?

* So a Fox Business anchor, the blonde bombshellish Trish Regan, is out following a coronavirus riff in which she dismissed concerns as a “scam” fueled by enemies of Donald Trump. No, it’s not the same as giving the boot to Sean Hannity, but it means there is still a detectable pulse of professionalism and ethics, even as Roger Ailes twitches in his grave.

* Normally during a crisis, the media is the critical go-to source for necessary information and perspective. That scenario changes during a pandemic when the media is also blindsided–from free-falling advertising revenue to vulnerable frontline reporters. Exhibit A: the Tampa Bay Times, which has already downsized because of technology and a societal culture that increasingly undervalues reading off line. Now the Times, beginning next week, will begin printing and delivering the paper twice (Wednesday and Sunday) a week. Paul Tash, chairman and CEO of the Times explained that the paper “simply cannot afford to produce the ink-and-paper version every day.” But, yes, the Times’ daily electronic edition will not be affected.

* That 12th debate is increasingly looking like the Olympics, which was on hold until, inevitably, it couldn’t hold up to pandemic context and all its mutating, movable parts. Officially, the DNC has not called off the debate–now down to two candidates, one with a near-insurmountable lead–scheduled for later this month. “We don’t have a (media) partner or a location or a date,” said a DNC spokesperson. Other than that, stay tuned.

* While others speculate about when Bernie Sanders will formally bow out, the feisty Democratic socialist is not giving any hints. Among those not surprised that Sanders is still officially competing for the nomination is Nick Carter, who was Sanders’ political outreach director for the 2016 campaign. And it’s not about ego or stubbornness or irascibility. “For someone who has built a career out of campaigning against the inequality of our health care system, this is prime time,” underscored Carter.

* “Talent won’t be an issue to keep us out of the playoffs, no.”–Bucs head coach Bruce Arians.

* A lot of media used the photo of the empty and forlorn home of the Chicago White Sox to underscore the depressing new normal in what was supposed to be opening day for Major League Baseball. In addition to feeling sad, I was reminded that the stadium is no longer called Comiskey Park. Since 2016, it’s been Guaranteed Rate Field. Before that, it had an iteration as U.S. Cellular Field.

We all get naming rights: It’s about marketing and money and business branding. But some names are just better than others–and some buildings and facilities just deserve no less. Arguably, south-side Chicago’s Comiskey Park was oneof those.But at least the Chisox don’t play at 1-800-Ask-GARY Field. And so far, that other field on the other side of the Windy City is still Wrigley.