Category: Uncategorized

• “This is a human rights obligation and a matter of survival. Without a healthy planet to live on, there will be no human rights–and if we continue on our current path—there may be no humans.”—Michelle Bachelet, the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights.
• “People, Planet, Prosperity.”—The slogan for the recent Group of 20 summit in Rome.
• “What we saw was a very significant event … very concerning.”—Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs, on China’s recent test of a hypersonic weapons system.”
• “I’m totally out of sync with 48 other Democrats, I love them all. And I love all the Republicans. So I’m just trying to survive in a very, very, very divided Congress in a very divided country.”—Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.
• “The corporate wing of the Democratic Party: Can we stop calling them ‘moderates’”?—Paul Krugman, NYT.
• “It’s sad but not surprising that Kevin McCarthy is continuing down the morally bankrupt path of embracing House Republicans who are white supremacists and conspiracy theorists, but attacking Liz Cheney for telling the truth and standing for the Constitution.”—Rep. Liz Cheney spokesman Jeremy Adler.
• “Democrats want to track every penny you earn so they can then tax you and your family at the maximum possible amount.”—House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
• “Solving the climate crisis provides an incredible opportunity to grow good-paying jobs, lower costs for consumers and improve the air we breathe.”—Congresswoman Kathy Castor, who chairs the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.
• “Part of this oncoming green tidal wave hitting the U.S.”—Daniel Ives, technology analyst at Wedbush Securities, on the announcement by Hertz that it will buy 100,000 electric vehicles from Tesla.
• “Changing their name (to “Meta”) doesn’t change reality: Facebook is destroying our democracy and is the world’s leading peddler of disinformation and hate.”—Statement from the Real Facebook Oversight Board, a watchdog group.
• “I find that appalling. In over 600 films and TV shows that I’ve done, we’ve never had a live round on set.”—Movie weapons specialist Mike Tristano, on the accidental shooting death of a cinematographer on the set of the Western “Rust.”
• “The rise of corporate wokeness.”—What Gov. Ron DeSantis criticized in his keynote speech at the annual meeting of the Florida Chamber of Commerce.
• “Thirty-five years ago, we opened our doors to our first patients. It was a glorious occasion that warms my heart to this day.”—H. Lee Moffitt, founder of Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute.

“Tampa continues to prove that it’s an ideal location for innovative tech companies looking for diverse, technical talent.”—Mayor Jane Castor, on the announcement that Boston-based cybersecurity analytics company Rapid7 will open an office at the shared workspace at Sparkman Wharf.           

In her currently-being-promoted audio memoir, Meghan McCain criticizes those in her father’s 2008 presidential campaign who treated Sarah Palin “really horribly. Set her up for failure.” Actually, thank you Nicole Wallace of MSNBC, who was part of the McCain campaign. She facilitated the infamous interview of Palin by Katie Couric, which essentially unmasked Palin as an embarrassingly clueless candidate.

And let’s not forget the unforgiveable, which McCain’s daughter seemingly has. It was John McCain’s call to put the unconscionably unprepared, uninformed Palin on a ticket, which was flat-out dangerous, plus an insulting sop to female voters. The ripple-effect reality: McCain’s choice helped pave the way for Donald Trump. When the bar is subterranean low for a presidential-ticket candidate, anything is possible. Couple that with a Trump base-affronting African-American on the other ticket, we had the perfect storm–that we haven’t recovered from. 

The release of the remaining JFK assassination files has been delayed again. According to a White House memo, the remaining files will now be released in two batches—one later this year and the other in December 2022. The postponement came at the recommendation of the national archivist, who said the pandemic has caused delays in reviewing the various redactions.

Will there be any stop-the-presses, redaction revelations? Probably not, but let’s not forget there’s still a conspiratorial elephant in the room. When a Congressional committee, the House Select Committee on Assassinations, issued its final report in 1979, it concluded that President John F. Kennedy was “probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.”

• Call it “The Invasion of the (Deliberative) Body Snatchers.” It’s what happens when a bill—such as democracy-defining voting rights—can’t get passed in a Congress that gives dysfunctional, party-first partisanship an even worse name. It’s more than “Build Back Better” pushback. It’s now manifestly obvious that no legislation that targets voter suppression will advance without changes in Senate rules that have enabled GOPsters to filibuster away at America’s foundation. Such a voting-rights stalemate–plus those other well-chronicled Democratic priorities–is frustrating and infuriating Dems (including President Joe Biden) and building the case for rule changes. It’s what happens when deliberative body shaming doesn’t work.
• For Dems understandably bemoaning a Trump and Federalist Society-enabling Supreme Court, we’ve seen these judicial rodeos before. It’s part of our partisan history. To wit: The Jeffersonians’ struggle with the (John) Marshall Court featuring six Federalists.
• President Biden’s nominee for ambassador to Japan is Rahm Emanuel, former mayor of Chicago and one-time chief of staff to President Barack Obama. His hearing focused on his hardline approach to China as well as a certain domestic issue–lingering recollections of his role amid the racial protests over a Chicago police shooting.
• “There are two big lessons Democrats can learn from Republicans and should have learned a long time ago: fierce loyalty and ruthless determination.”—Bill Press, author, political commentator and former co-host of CNN’s “Cross Fire.”
• “I’ve concluded that democracy itself is more important than any Senate rule.”—Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with Dems, on the need to change the filibuster rules that create a 60-vote threshold for most legislation to pass.
• “What I’ve told our caucus is everyone is going to be disappointed in certain things, but everyone’s going to be glad about certain things.”—Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer perfuming the pig resulting from efforts to try and reconcile party-first GOPsters and Dem “moderates.”
• “Why are you so bad at politics, Democrats?”—CNN’s Don Lemon.
• For Dems frustrated and fed up with Senate “moderate” outlier Joe Manchin, an all-too-relevant reminder: Trump won West Virginia by nearly 40 percentage points last year.

• The Brazilian Senate has recommended crimes against humanity and other charges against President Jair Bolsonaro for allegedly bungling the country’s pandemic response. To date, more than 600,000 Brazilians have died from COVID.
• According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the national debt of major countries will increase next year by as much as 25 percentage of their GDP because of pandemic-related effects.
• The virologist Trevor Bedford, known for issuing the first warning of community COVID spread in the U.S., recently speculated that the U.S. could see 40,000 to 100,000 deaths annually from endemic COVID. That would be moderately higher than the seasonal flu.
• New York City is requiring its entire municipal workforce (some 40,000 public employees) to be vaccinated—or be placed on unpaid leave.
• “All J&J recipients should plan to receive a second shot because protection against symptomatic illness appears to be waning at an alarming rate.”—CNN medical analyst Dr. Leana S. Wen, former health commissioner of Baltimore.
• Despite all the controversy about vaccination mandates, a study published in Scientific Reports shows that such mandates appear to “encourage” more people to get the shots.

• The National School Boards Association formally contacted the Biden Administration to raise concerns about “domestic terrorism” targeting boards. As a result, the U.S. Department of Justice has announced it would monitor the situation. “Thank you for helping out” is not how Gov. Ron DeSanctimonious responded. He mischaracterized the issue as a federal attempt to curtail parental rights and doubled down in disingenuous support of bumper-sticker versions of freedom and liberty. “Parents across the state should know that their freedoms are going to be protected here, and that the state of Florida has your back,” stated the governor. Ironic that a spineless Trump sycophant would prioritize having someone’s back.
• Special Tallahassee legislative session overhead: $72,000 per day.
• There was a tense exchange recently between Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo and Democratic state Sen. Tina Polsky, who represents parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties. The issue: Dr. Ladapo was asked to leave a meeting after refusing to wear a mask. Sen. Polsky said she had a serious medical condition. As it turned out, it was a breast cancer diagnosis.
• The next president of the Florida Senate will be Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples. She becomes the third woman to hold that position.
• More than 5 million eligible Floridians remain unvaccinated.

• “Reroute your cargo to come to Florida. We stand ready to offer you incentives that will make it ideal in cost savings.”—Port Tampa Bay president and CEO Paul Anderson to shippers with cargo stuck in port log jams such as Savannah, Ga.
• According to U.S. News and World Report rankings of the best places to retire, Tampa Bay was 6^th overall in the nation. “Living in the Tampa Bay area is like being on vacation all year,” wrote the report’s author, Ginger Warder. Criteria included housing affordability, tax rates, health care quality and happiness of locals. Eight of the top 10 metro areas for retirement are in Florida, with Sarasota ranked No. 1.
• Tampa ranked 50^th in Orkin’s Top 50 Rattiest Cities List. The good news: Tampa has become less “ratty”; it previously ranked 41^st. Chicago is still No. 1.

At a holiday loss for toast-able words? Some suggestions. ^ “May you live as long as you want, and never want for as long as you live.” ^ It matters not if the wine glass is half empty or half full, clearly there’s room for more.” ^ Here’s to friends and family who know us well, but love as just the same.” ^ “May the wind at your back be from the cabbage at lunch.”

• The NHL suspended Evander Kane of the San Jose Sharks 21 games for submitting a fake vaccination card. Professional sports vaxx rates: NHL-99 percent; NBA-96 percent; NFL-94 percent; MLB-87.4 percent.
• The Rays, as we know, do very well with far less money than their chief competitors in a non-salary-cap sport that is blatantly skewed financially. But the post-season loss to Boston, a team the Rays won a majority of regular-season games from, hurt. The Rays reality: a team not made for a short series. Last post season: Charlie Morton, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow. This post season: Shane McClanahan, Shane Baz and Drew Rasmussen—plus no stud closer.
• As with the Rays, the Tampa Bay Rowdies made the post-season playoffs after an impressive season. But something else is also the same. They each have an Arozarena brother: the Rays’ Randy and the Rowdies’ Raiko.
• American Athletic Conference update: New additions will include FAU, UAB and UTSA (University of Texas San Antonio). Departees: Cincinnati, Houston and UCF. Bottom line: The AAC spiral continues. Remember when the Big East’s USF didn’t want to play UCF because it was a step down in status and couldn’t help an ascendant program? That was then; this is decidedly not.
• Sotheby’s auctioned off a pair of Nike sneakers worn by Michael Jordan during his 1984 rookie NBA season for–$1.47 million. That’s not a misprint.

• Nobody does eulogies quite like Donald Trump–as the McCain family well knows. A recent iteration after the passing of Gen. Colin Powell: “He was a classic RINO, if even that, always being the first to attack other Republicans. He made plenty of mistakes, but anyway, may he rest in peace.”
• “It’s my hope that the ’22 election will be a referendum on the performance of the current administration, not a rehash of suggestions about what may have happened in 2020.” That was Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, sounding unlike someone who wants to prioritize the perpetuation of Trump’s grievance over election fraud.
• “If we don’t solve the Presidential Election fraud of 2020, Republicans will not be voting in ’22 or ’24. It’s the single most important thing for Republicans to do.”—Donald Trump.
• “(2022) should be a 100 percent, straight up referendum on Biden. Instead, you have Trump the narcissist trying to inject himself into what should be a glide path for Republicans to an incredibly successful election, by making it all about him.”—Former  Florida Republican Congressman David Jolly.
• “There won’t be any coming back from a second season of Donald Trump. If you thought he was vengeful against his perceived enemies last time, you haven’t seen anything yet.”—Alan M. Cohn, senior adviser at the consulting firm Global Situation Room Inc.
• “Republicans unwilling to toe the Trump line are being marginalized or driven out, creating a purer, more unified cult of personality with no real interest in governance.”—Michelle Cottle, NYT.
• A Texas bill—pushed hard by hardcore GOPster Gov. Greg Abbott—would make businesses that require vaccinations vulnerable to discrimination lawsuits. Par for the course in a state now notorious for its theater of performance defiance. But it was rejected by the Longhorn Legislature. Keeps hope alive.
• “Blexit.” Black Exit from the Democratic Party: a movement founded by right-wing commentators.