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Spoiler alert: HBO Max’s 3-part “Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union” is well worth watching. But frustrated ideals, visceral nostalgia and sad ironies come with the experience. “Hope and change” and “Yes we can,” we are reminded, were soon bludgeoned by Mitch McConnell’s foremost priority: relegating Barack Obama to a “one-term presidency.” Racist animus ratcheted up and “post-racial America” became a naïve oxymoron. Obama’s “Amazing Grace”lead-in after the Charleston Church murders of nine African Americans ultimately morphed into the blazing disgrace of the Trump years. “Yes we can” became “Wish We Could Have.”

Alas, 2008 would become a historic precursor for 2016–not progress toward that more perfect union. While America has trafficked in right-wing populism before—including pro-Nazi “America First” rallies in Madison Square Garden and George Wallace racism masquerading as states’ rights—the year 2008 begot 2016.

For those white Americans frustrated with their status quo lives and needing scapegoats and lesser Americans to look down on, the ascendence of an African-American to the presidency was a game-changer. So, game on—from “birther” lies to xenophobic “wall-building”–for the stentorian “silent majority.” And when the opposing ‘08 ticket included a blatantly uninformed “hopey, changey” Sarah Palin, the bar on credentials and character had been lowered to subterranean depths. Trump didn’t just happen. It was the 2008 perfect storm that paved the way.

• To date, President Biden has been a disappointment on Cuba to those hoping for more normalized relations. One major factor is the unfortunate impact and influence of Sen. Robert Menendez, who now chairs the Foreign Relations Committee. The hard-line son of Cuban immigrants was an ardent critic of Obama’s outreach. Now he exerts outsized power over administration nominees—and other administration priorities.
• “In essence President Biden is defending liberal democracy and the notion that you can’t govern a nation based on the premise that the other half of the country is irredeemably awful.”—David Brooks, New York Times.
• In early December the US will host a “Summit of Democracy.” Noble intentions and democratic ideals will be highlighted, as will the return of the U.S. to its role of international exponent of democracy. But there’s also the elephant in the room—the Afghanistan pachyderm and Kabul endgame chaos. As with all presidents, Biden is living with the unfinished business of his predecessors. A corrupt Afghan government and a surrender-first military worsened reality. The U.S. had already spent $2 trillion and lost more than 2,300 American lives. There are no happy endings when you let mission creep turn into a two-decade war. Then it ends humiliatingly, like Saigon in 1975. Ironically, Biden has argued for pulling out of Afghanistan for years. In fact, he argued against the surge in 2009.
• “There aren’t a lot of things that almost every American could agree on. But I think it is safe to say that all of us…could agree that prescription drug prices are outrageously expensive in America.”—President Joe Biden.
• Whatever the compromises—between parties, within parties–the final numbers of an infrastructure bill will then be juxtaposed to the infrastructure help that wasn’t forthcoming during the Trump Administration.

• 8.5 million: the number of vaccines the U.S. is sending to Mexico.
• The CDC has updated its message to pregnant women; it’s now recommending vaccination. Evidence now shows no increased risk of miscarriage
• The U.S. is now averaging about 650 COVID deaths a day—an increase of more than 80 percent from two weeks prior.
• About 54 percent of eligible Florida residents have been fully vaccinated.
• Florida’s positivity rate hit 19.1 percent in the past week. The week before it was 18.5 percent. According to the WHO, states should maintain a positivity rate of 5 percent or less for at least two weeks before reopening. The Hillsborough County rate: 19.2 percent.
• “These vaccines are failing and do not reduce the spread of the virus and neither do masks.”—That was U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R(epugnant)-Ga. Twitter labeled her comments “misleading” and suspended her for a week.
• “There should be no mandates—zero—concerning COVID,” declared Rep(rehensible) Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. That means mask mandates, regardless of your vaccination status. That means no vaccine mandates. That means no vaccine passports.”
• When Stetson University announced that all of its employees would need to be vaccinated by Sept. 30, it also included a couple of exemptions. For medical conditions or religious beliefs. Quick takeaways: Medical, yes; religious beliefs no—from real religions to Scientology. These are more than personal decisions—they impact public health, the literal lives of others. And what would Jesus say?
• A recent AARP reports show that Florida had the nation’s highest percentage of nursing homes reporting new COVID infections among staff members during a four-week period in June and July. Florida facilities also had the second-lowest worker vaccination rate in the U.S.

• The state’s population grew from 18.8 million residents in 2010 to 21.5 million in 2020. The voting age population grew from 14.7 million to 17 million.
• Brightline will restart operations in November—20 months after it closed because of the pandemic. It will resume hourly service between Miami and West Palm Beach—and require all employees be vaccinated and mandate masks for crew and passengers inside its trains and stations.
• The $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill passed in the Senate, 69-30. Not among the 19 GOP votes (that did include Minority Leader Mitch McConnell): those of Florida Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio, who have rediscovered their non-Trump resistance to debt.
• “Faucian dystopia”: What “bureaucratic authorities” want to consign America to, according to Gov. Ron DeSantis.
• “I’m calling on Gov. DeSantis to once again issue a Coronavirus emergency order to allow more flexibility for a surge of nurses and medical professionals from out of state to treat patients and stabilize costs for our overwhelmed hospitals.”—Florida Congresswoman Kathy Castor, D-Tampa.
• Speaking of U.S. Rep. Castor—who was first elected in 2006–her stature and profile continue to grow. She is the chair of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. It gets her increasing media exposure. She’s a player that matters, because climate change matters. Last week the New York Times prominently ran her editorial underscoring the existential need to keep greenhouse gases such as methane out of the atmosphere.
• Say what? The federal Department of Health and Human Services recently sent 200 ventilators and 100 high-flow nasal oxygen kits to Florida—as hospitals deal with a surge of COVID patients. HHS said it had responded to a request from Florida. At a news conference, however, Gov. Ron DeSantis said it was news to him. “I would honestly doubt that that’s true,” he said. “I’ve not had any requests that have crossed my desk.” It’s probably just a bureaucratic oversight—or some awkward byplay between the governor’s office and the Biden White House.
• “Through no fault of Florida’s educators, I am deeply concerned about your state leaders’ actions to date.”—Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.
• “Critical Race Theory”: It’s an ongoing hot-button issue. Maybe a change of wording would help; the words “critical” and “theory” can be especially problematic and subjective. Critics and theories can seem ideologically loaded for partisans. Maybe call it what it is: “Race History and Reality,” rather than using a demonized catchall phrase. Bottom line: Yes, slavery existed before 1619. It’s the world’s original sin, but America has enabled racism—and it has continued. If we don’t teach that, it will surely continue.
• When it comes to Gov. DeSantis, it is Flori-duh—and it is Fox-ida.

• “Respectful responder.” That’s a USF volunteer who can be called by instructors to de-escalate any contentious mask issues in the classroom.
• Pentagon spokesman John Kirby is a USF alum.

• No mere family affair: CNN’s highest-rated program is the 9 p.m. one anchored by Chris Cuomo, brother of lame duck, sexual-harasser Gov. Andrew Cuomo. He was identified in the New York State attorney general’s report as a frequent participant in political strategy-session calls with his brother and his inner circle. “Family first, job second,” says Chris. Indeed, except where politics and media intersect with family.
• Conservative media outlets Newsmax and One America News have been sued by Dominion Voting Systems over claims made about the company after the 2020 election. The Dominion defamation suit is over allegations that the outlets made that Dominion conspired to flip millions of votes away from Donald Trump. Dominion also has suits pending against Fox News and Rudy Giuliani, among others.
• Fox News ratings-magnet Tucker Carlson doesn’t have a President Donald Trump, the unhinged autocrat, to suck up to on a regular basis. Plan B: Take the show on the road to, say, Budapest for a week and cozy up to Europe’s most reviled authoritarian, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Great get, Tuck.
• I knew of, but didn’t personally know the late David Alfonso, a former Tampa Tribune reporter. But I read his recent obit in the Tampa Bay Times. He wrote it himself. It was a good read—from self-deprecating humor to shout-outs to loved ones to musing about mortality. Not a bad way for a writer to end this chapter.

• For the first time in 15 years, the U.S. MEN’S soccer team has been ranked in the top 10 in world rankings (#10). The top two: Belgium and Brazil.
• The Lightning’s Jon Cooper has been named coach of Canada’s 2022 Olympic hockey team. Cooper is a native of Prince George, British Columbia.
• The Atlanta Falcons are the first NFL team to have all of its players vaccinated.

“Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.” That was iconic British statesman, orator and philosopher Edmund Burke. That was an 18^th century version of “Do the conscience-mandated, right thing—not what self-servingly appeals to the lowest common denominator. It’s about Country—not Party and political career—first.” Wonder what Ron DeSantis would say? Wonder if Trump ever heard of Burke?

• “This report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet.”—UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, urging global cooperation against an existential threat.
• “We’ve known for years that we are in a race against time. We’ve run out of time. Now every bit of pollution—and every fraction of a degree—counts.”—Florida Democratic Congresswoman Kathy Castor, who chairs the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.
• “There are literally thousands of sub-tribes in Afghanistan. Each has a grievance. If the Taliban ceased to exist, you would still have an insurgency in Afghanistan.”—Peter Lavoy, President Obama’s deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs.
• “A tragedy for the people of Afghanistan, and a consequence of American misjudgments and failures.”—Former top NATO general Wesley Clark.
• “It is really about the reopening of the economy. … The supply side will respond. The economy will adapt.”—Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, on the 5.4 percent increase in prices in July compared to a year ago.
• “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”—Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
• “If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists—to protect them and to promote their common welfare—all else is lost.”—Former President Barack Obama.
• “Today, what remains of conservative intelligentsia is split. One side thinks that conservatism should revert to a kind of anti-liberalism—in the reactionary 19^th century European tradition. Then there are those who believe that the purpose of American conservatism is to conserve the substantive principles of 1776—that is of the open mind and the ever more open society.”—Bret Stephens, New York Times.
• “In my mind, I have never crossed the line with anyone. But I didn’t realize the extent to which the line had been redrawn.”—New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s well-shy-of-an-apology response to charges of sexual harassment in the workplace.
• “There will be some risk associated with in-person schooling, but, for most kids, that risk is worth the extraordinary educational, developmental and psychological benefits. Parents should reduce in-school risk as much as possible and also cut exposure out of school.”—Dr. Leana S. Wen, former health commissioner of Baltimore.
• “I think it’s very important that we say, unequivocally, no to lockdowns, no to school closures, no to restrictions and no to mandates.”—Gov. Ron DeSantis.
• “Ron DeSantis may say he’s protecting freedom by opposing government mandates, but he also seems to oppose the science-based public health measures that save lives.”—Howard L. Simon, former executive director of the ACLU of Florida.
• “(DeSantis) acts more like the governor of Fox News than the governor of Florida.”—Agriculture Commissioner—and 2022 Democratic gubernatorial candidate—Nikki Fried.
• “We are not authorized to require or mandate mask-wearing. And so we’ve used the language that we ‘expect’ mask-wearing indoors and in large gatherings.”—Interim USF President Rhea Law.
• “I tell everybody that the only place you can’t get a vaccination is once you’re in the hospital with COVID.”—Mayor Jane Castor.

“Make America Florida.” That’s a new Ron DeSantis banner. But it’s not cut from the same partisan cloth as “Don’t Fauci My Florida.” The latter is a gut appeal to the usual Trump-cultists, faux patriots and spineless GOPsters. The former is, at best, a double-edged sword.

The Fauci taunt, which is now marketed on T-shirts and drink koozies, underscores DeSantis’ pro-“freedom,” anti-lockdown political ambitions. Those who live by bumper sticker memes love it. They also love his COVID bottom line: “We can either have a free society, or we can have a biomedical security state,” declared DeSantis.

As for “Make America Florida,” it’s supposed to be a regionalized riff on trump’s MAGA movement. For Trump acolytes, it’s a way of reminding them that DeSantis, who is serious about 2024, has largely reopened Florida for business (despite having 11 million unvaccinated residents). It’s also a defiant reminder that he banned so-called “sanctuary cities,” barred the teaching of “critical race theory” in K-12 schools, issued an executive order prohibiting school districts from imposing mask mandates, led the legislative push to ban “vaccine passports,” and leveled “lockdown” abuse on public-safety-first adherents.

The other side of the sword is this: If you’re a moderate Republican or an independent, you’re still recalling–and still witnessing–“Flori-duh.” From hanging chads to unhinged legislators. Increasingly, DuhSantis is its high-profile exponent. “Make America Florida,” which is now the epicenter for COVID explosion? “Hospital Hell”? Have at it, governor.