Category: Uncategorized

• A proposed Florida constitutional amendment would limit the authority of government to close or restrict the sizes of gatherings at religious institutions. It’s part of the  pushback from pandemic protocols regarding public health. What would Jesus say?
• While the (“health and family concerns”) details of USF President Steve Currall’s abrupt resignation are not yet clear, this much should be certain regardless of spin. He probably won’t be available for testimonials. That said, USF’s search should prioritize an academician with political instincts and an innate understanding of the synergistic and catalytic role of a major research university in a major metropolitan area. The next president also needs a candid grasp of USF reality—from campus consolidation to equity concerns to budget priorities.
• GRIT: That’s the Hillsborough County Sheriff Office’s Gunfire Response Investigations Team acronym. GRIT wants the public’s assistance in curbing shootings.
• Congrats to Pinellas County fifth-grade teacher Sarah Ann Pointer, who was named Florida’s “Teacher of the Year.” It’s also another reminder that when it comes to judging “Teacher of the Year” candidates, there should be separate awards for elementary and secondary teachers—given the difference in challenges and skill sets.

• NBCUniversal has paid $7.5 billion to extend its U.S. Olympics media rights until 2032.
• “The athletes, they’re not the priority. Television is the priority.”—Olympic historian David Wallechinsky.
• “We stand by him.” That was WEDU president and CEO Paul Grove, in defense of Rob Lorei, who will continue to host “Florida This Week.” Lorei had been fired by local radio station WMNF for using an ethnic slur (“kapo”) in an email response to a listener who had defended the actions of the far right. You go, WEDU.
• According to a Pew Research Center report, newsroom employment in the U.S. has dropped by 26 percent since 2008.
• At the end of 2019, the U.S. had 6,700 newspapers. It had 9,000 in 2004.

• Good for the NFL. Any game not rescheduled due to coronavirus outbreak among unvaccinated players would result in that team forfeiting the game—and players on both teams would not be paid for the unplayed game. If personal and public health are not incentive enough, then double down on peer-pressuring the stubborn and stupid.
• Bucs’ tailback Leonard Fournette has publicly expressed his unwillingness to get vaccinated. “Vaccine. I can’t do it.” He’s been nicknamed “Playoff Lenny” and “Lombardi Lenny.” Now add “Clueless Lenny.”
• It’s understandable that the Bucs mantra for 2021 is “forget last year.” As in no resting on laurels. No overconfidence. We get it. But there’s nothing wrong with recalling how the team—with the same 22 starters returning—went from 7-5 to a Super Bowl win.
• The Cleveland Guardians: It’s the right thing to do. Finally. Even Chief Wahoo should agree.
• The first modern Olympics in 1896 featured nine contested sports. It was 28 in Rio in 2016 and now 33 in Tokyo this summer. The Games’ sports now range from skateboarding, surfing and sport climbing to badminton and ping pong (oops, table tennis). But, no, darts, shuffleboard, twister and cornhole are still not Olympic sports. BTW, shouldn’t the horses, that do all the work, get medals in equestrian?
• Every Olympics since 1960 has run over budget. Tokyo originally said it would spend $7.3 billion. A 2019 government audit raised that number to $28 billion.
• The next three summer Olympic sites: Paris (2024), Los Angeles (2028) and Brisbane, Australia (2032).

• When House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy included Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan—along with Indiana Rep. Jim Banks—among his choices for a House Select Committee investigating the Capitol siege, he underscored his top priority: Force Nancy Pelosi’s hand to jettison them and undermine the investigation. Both Jordan and Banks are known to be combative Trump defenders. They are the antithesis of integrity.

Jordan, a founding member of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus–and who led the effort to discredit the Russia investigation–didn’t just vote to overturn the election. He also met with Trump a few weeks before Jan. 6 to help plan the catalytic election challenge. He’s a potential material witness—as well as a smug, Trump-sniffing punk who gives contentious partisanship a bad name. He also was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom by Trump right before he left office.

• According to a report by the (conservative) American Enterprise Institute, nearly 40 percent of Republicans polled agreed with the statement: “If elected leaders will not protect America, the people must do it themselves, even if it requires violent actions.”
• “The share of Americans who are more socially disconnected from society is on the rise. And these voters disproportionately support Trump.” Daniel Cox, senior fellow in polling and public opinion at the (conservative) American Enterprise Institute.
• None of the states that rank ahead of Florida in vaccination rate voted for Trump in 2020.
• “The only thing I care about is electability.”—Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
• The top fund-raiser among U.S. senators—other than Majority Leader Chuck Schumer—is Tim Scott, the African-American Republican from South Carolina who has made it a point to not “demonize” the police. He raked in more than $9.5 million in the months after his high-profile, State of the Union response. One of the results: speculation about his 2024 ambitions.
• “Bravo, Eric Clapton. Artists should defend individual liberty.” That was bravo-challenged Sen. Ted Cruz’s shout-out after Clapton announced he won’t be playing in any venues that require audiences to show vaccination proof.
• “American exceptionalism” has to stand for something other than a disingenuously partisan misapplication of anything said or printed in the name of “freedom” and “individual liberty.” Patrick Henry would be appalled.

• “I say this as a German: The idea that you could possibly die from weather is completely alien.”—Oxford physicist Friederike Otto, who studies climate change.
• “Respecting international legal obligations is of paramount importance. We will not agree to a renegotiation.”—European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic, in rejecting a demand by the U.K. to renegotiate the Brexit deal governing Northern Ireland.
• “There were people threatening the lives of members of Congress. There were members of Congress fleeing for their lives. This was more than a simple riot.”—U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss, who handed down an 8-month prison term to Paul Allard Hodgkins of Tampa for his role in the Capitol siege.
• “The American people deserve to know what happened.”—Republican Rep. Liz Cheney on the need for a Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol Attack on the Capitol.
• “It’s the unvaccinated folks who are letting us down.”—Alabama Republican Gov. Kay Ivey.
• “Sleep monitoring is a growth industry for Silicon Valley. It’s a selling point for wearables such as the Apple Watch and Fitbit.”—David Lazarus, LA Times.
• “I also want to thank every Amazon customer, because you guys paid for all of this.”—Jeff Bezos, after flying into space in the Blue Origin.
• “The traffic code has become a legal framework for investigating people. But middle-class white people are not affected by this.”—UNC political scientist Frank Baumgartner, the author of “Suspect Citizens: What 20 Million Traffic Stops Tell Us About Policing and Race.”
• “Clean energy and resilience have become integral measures of a region’s overall competitiveness.”—Nicholas Glover, vice president of advocacy for the Tampa Bay Chamber.
• “We are tan, rested and ready to go.”—Peter Lackman, captain of Ye Mystic Crew, on the announcement that the Gasparilla parades will return in January.
• “The high tide increase every decade or two is superimposed on sea level rise, and the combination of the two is giving us vastly increased events.”—USF College of Marine Science Associate Dean Gary Mitchum, on the increase of tidal flooding in St. Petersburg.
• “I think it’s just time.”—Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan, in announcing his September retirement.
• “We stand united with the Cuban people 500 miles away and across our community.”—Tampa Mayor Jane Castor.
• “USF is the magnet that draws top talent, energy and innovation to our region.”—Will Weatherford, chairman of the USF Board of Trustees.
• “We know that a community benefits agreement supports equity, inclusion and allyship.”—St. Petersburg NAACP President Esther Eugene, after the St. Petersburg City Council approved a “community benefit agreement” that would require developers who get significant city funding to reinvest in the community.

We can protest and rally and rhetorically stand with the Cuban people, but that’s not enough. What is called for is the overturning of Trump policies toward Cuba–including restrictions on trade, travel and remittances to Cubans–that had undone what President Obama did to normalize relations. In short, rescind the Trump Administration designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism. And it would help if we changed our delusional, Cold War-induced United Nations vote on the embargo.

And speaking of the embargo, the Administration should engage with–even this–Congress in efforts to finally overturn a policy that has been a blatant, counterproductive failure for nearly 60 years. One that cut off Cuba’s access to financing and imports. The ensuing national conversation–although heated and replete with the usual illogical ideology, retribution and posturing–would still underscore the hypocritical reality that while the U.S. has normal relations with corrupt, authoritarian Saudi Arabia and communist Vietnam, we can’t find a way to get along with Cuba, a neighboring communist country with dire needs.

It’s hardly incidental that as vice president Joe Biden oversaw a policy that in 2015 restored full diplomatic relations with Cuba. And he, to be sure, knows that yet another political diversion is problematic, given his challenging agendas. But he also knows what’s right–from humanitarian as well as geopolitical perspectives–and what would ultimately benefit both post-Castro Cuba and post-Trump America.

• “It’s up to all of us to protect that right (to vote). This is a test of our time.”—President Joe Biden.
• No signs yet that liberal Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, 82, the Court’s oldest justice, plans to step down. Breyer is under pressure to retire so President Biden can name a successor while the Democrats still retain a narrow Senate majority.
• “It’s absolutely imperative if democracy is to survive that we do everything that we can to say, ‘Yes, we hear your pain and we are going to respond to your needs.’ That’s really what this is about.”—Sen. Bernie Sanders.
• “If Democrats bungle the bloodshed in Cuba, they will forfeit Cuban-American voters forever—and they will deserve it.”—Fabiola Santiago, Miami Herald.

• Driven by the delta variant, lagging vaccine rates and holiday gatherings, the number of new COVID cases per day doubled over the last three weeks.
• COVID context: The virus continues to kill people faster than guns, car crashes and influenza combined.
• “This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated.”—CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky.
• According to the State Department, there’s a backlog of 1.5 million passport applications. The wait time for renewing or applying could be as much as 18 weeks.
• Los Angeles County, the nation’s largest, has restored an indoor mask mandate—even for those who have been vaccinated.
• Consensus: Most vaccinated Americans are unlikely to need COVID-19 booster shots for months—or even a year.
• According to the American Psychology Association’s annual stress survey, 42 percent of the population gained unwanted weight—averaging 29 lbs.—during the pandemic.
• Airbnb upside: As the country adjusts to post-lockdown status, many travelers are choosing to stay in rented homes rather than hotels as a way of maintaining a safer bubble.
• According to White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients, nearly one in five of the nation’s new COVID-19 infections is from Florida.
• Florida is third in the nation in new COVID cases per capita—trailing only Arkansas and Missouri, according to the CDC.
• The U.S. has been experiencing COVID outbreaks tied to summer camps in a number of states, including Florida.
• According to Dr. Peggy Duggan, TGH’s executive vice president and chief medical officer, nearly 90 percent of hospitalized COVID-19 patients have not been vaccinated.
• “There should be more mandates (at the local level to crush the COVID spread).”—Dr. Anthony Fauci.

• “The one thing that communist regimes fear the most is the truth.”—That was Gov. Ron DeSantis. And while DeSantis is no avatar of veracity, what he says is true. But other regimes, non-Communist ones, have been known to fear the truth as well–as DeSantis and his pathologically-lying mentor know.
• DeSantis traveled to the Texas-Mexico border and was briefed on security issues. He also upped his profile among Republicans looking to regain the White House in 2024.
• Florida’s new civics curriculum has been approved by the State Board of Education. Gov. DeSantis is pleased, which is cause for concern. “We’re going to teach our kids about the evil of things like communism and socialism,” declared DeSantis. So much for historic racism and political harlotry. Or maybe he’s just nostalgic for the Cold War era and the secondary teaching of “Americanism vs. Communism.”
• “(Socialist Democrats) would rather blame America than admit that the ideology they support has caused devastation, death and squalor for the people of Cuba.”—Sen. Rick Scott, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
• “A new lifestyle is evolving in Florida and with it, a new habitat, the condominium.” That’s what Florida Trend magazine declared in 1970. Condo “paradise” was dawning. Much more than luster, however, has been lost over the years. 
• Twenty-five years ago, Florida produced more than 200 million boxes of oranges. The most recent season, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, produced 52.8 million boxes.

Air Canada has begun limited service from Tampa to Toronto. Recreational travel from the U.S., however, is still banned.