Category: Uncategorized

* Just when you think the British Royals have endured enough unwanted media distractions, they haven’t. According to BuzzFeed News, Buckingham Palace has formally requested that a doctored image of the Queen—sporting a Make America Great Again hat and a QAnon brooch—be removed from a “Trump Train” bus seen at a recent rally in Florida held by Congressional Trump toadies Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

* Liz Cheney is a bitter, horrible human being.”–As only the bitter, horrible human being that is Donald Trump could say it.

* Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, is considering a run for a North Carolina U.S. Senate seat.

* As of early this week, the Chicago White Sox had the best record in Major League Baseball. Their manager, lest we forget, is Tampa’s own Tony LaRussa, 76. He grew up in Ybor City, graduated from Jefferson High and USF, and earned a law degree from FSU. He’s won three World Series in a managerial career spanning more than three decades. And he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2014. Go, Pale Hose.

* After being released by the Los Angeles Angels, 41-year-old Albert Pujols has signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers. So, he’s still MLB’s oldest player. The second oldest? Rays’ pitcher Rich Hill, 41.

* Speaking of Hill, he has one of the more bizarre nicknames in a game known for them—from “Shoeless” Joe Jackson to Willie “Say Hey Kid” Mays to Jose “Joey Bats” Bautista. The Rays, for example, range from the silly “Big Bopper” (Joey Wendle) to the alliterative “KK” (Kevin Kiermeier) to the awkward “Dick Mountain” for Rich Hill. Yeah, locker rooms can be a hoot.

* “China has replaced socialism with capitalism, stolen technology and educated large cohorts of its people—by 2016, it boasted eight times as many STEM graduates a year as the United States. … China supercharges its economic ascent by employing unmatched competitive trade practices: massive subsidization, predatory pricing, monopolization of raw materials and trade-route dominance.”–Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney.

* “The federal government was unprepared for this (Capitol) insurrection, even though it was planned in plain sight on social media for the world to see. … I think the lack of direct communication from (then) President Trump speaks volumes.”–House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y.

* “Once Liz Cheney is loose from the grips of leadership, there is nothing to stop her from working with the Democrats to pursue the Jan. 6 (Capitol insurrection) commission.”–Amanda Carpenter, The Bulwark.

* “An America in which businesses and other institutions cast a wider net would be better for black people—but also better for, say, white community college graduates or Latino graduates of state schools.”–Perry Bacon, Jr. Washington Post.

* “These bills moving in state capitals across America are not empty threats, they are real efforts to stop people from voting.”–Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.

* “Republicans need to go back to kitchen-table issues that voters really care about, sprinkle in a little culture here and there but not get carried away. And some of them are making an industry out of getting carried away.”–Republican strategist Scott Reed.

* “The unfortunate truth is that infrastructure today is so vulnerable that just about anyone who wants to get in can get in.”–Dan Schiappa, chief product officer for The Sophos Group, a British security software and hardware company, on the recent hacking of the Colonial Pipeline that moves about 45 percent of the East Coast’s fuel.

* “We know America will never be fully safe until the pandemic that is rising globally is under control. No ocean is wide enough, no walls are high enough to keep us safe.”–President Joe Biden, in announcing the U.S. will share 80 million vaccine doses with other countries by the end of June.

* “(The CDC’s guidelines) should be revised to say that fully vaccinated people should have no restrictions on their public activities if vaccination status can be verified.”–Dr. Leana S. Wen, visiting professor of health policy and management at George Washington University and former Baltimore health commissioner.

* “Today, private spying has boomed into a renegade, billion-dollar industry, one that is increasingly invading our privacy, profiting from deception and manipulating the news.”–Barry Meier, author of “Spooked: The Trump Dossier, Black Cube and the Rise of Private Spies.”

* “Simply put: Putting our people first and doing the right thing for them will drive continued growth for our business.”–Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald’s USA, on McDonald’s Corp. raising hourly wages an average of 10 percent—bringing hourly entry-level salaries to a range of $11 to $17.

* “The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”–The late science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov.

* “The (voter-restricting) legislation DeSantis signed is un-American, unconstitutional and anti-democratic.”–U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, D-St. Petersburg, who is seeking the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2022.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, as we’ve been seeing, wants to manage the news—not just make it. We know whose playbook he’s following. We know what the go-to media outlet is.

Trump’s Sunshine State sycophant, who is now a national player, is more interested in growing his brand and preaching to the hard-core converted than doing what is best for Florida. His all-too-familiar legislative priorities pleased GOPsters and displeased non-Trumpsters.

That said, it was beyond outrageous that DeSantis went live for 7 ½ minutes on Fox & Friends for exclusive coverage of public business—in this case, the signing of the contentious legislative bill in West Palm Beach (SB 90) that makes it harder to request and return vote-by-mail ballots. Reporters and TV crews were turned away from the event–hosted by (Trump fan) Club45USA– by the governor’s precedent-breaking staff.

But this was serious, society-impacting, public business—not, say, an invite for a friendly media outlet to cover his daughter’s birthday party. This isn’t just about Republicans and Democrats. This is about the Republican tribe and democracy–and a viable First Amendment.

“The law leaves no question as to the impropriety of banning certain media while allowing on friendly media,” noted Pamela Marsh, executive director of the First Amendment Foundation. “This is viewpoint and content discrimination.”

It’s also doubling down on the polarized political environment we’re enduring.

We know that the monetized monster of social media encourages and enables cherry-picking and misinformation, but it’s unconscionable when an elected official, in the course of doing the public’s business, orchestrates legitimate news into an echo-chamber celebration. What we—as Americans and Floridians—don’t need is further media devolution in collusion with government.

* A recent CNN poll found that nearly a third of Americans–including 70 percent of GOPsters–said Joe Biden did not legitimately win enough votes to win the presidency. Sobering. They’re still out there, awaiting more Kool Aid from MAGA-a-Elba.

* “The ARP (American Rescue Plan) and other relief proposals have helped Kentuckians endure a very difficult period. But we cannot simply return to the pre-pandemic economy with its growing inequality and widespread insecurity.”–That was Jason Bailey, executive director of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, reminding fellow Kentuckians that their day-to-day existential interest is better addressed by a big government, populist economic approach—than by the polarizing, faux populism of corporate tax cuts, white grievance, anti-immigrant animus, a traitorous insurrection, a democracy-undermining, bigelection lie or media demonization.

* “President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan includes financial incentives to holdout states to finally expand Medicaid. Up to 4 million low-income Americans could get covered with cheap or free health care if their states took action.”–Laura Packard, The Nation.

* Germany has canceled Oktoberfest festivities again this year.

* Nepal has issued climbing permits this year to 408 foreign climbers despite a surging COVID-19 outbreak. Mount Everest was closed to climbing last year.

* According to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker, the U.S. has now fully vaccinated a third of its population while in India, only 2.5 percent of the population is fully immunized.

* July 4^th: The date that is President Biden’s goal for at least 70 percent of Americans to have had at least one vaccine shot. Right now, that figure is about 57 percent.

* Indianapolis is planning to welcome 135,000 spectators for the Indy 500 at the end of this month.

* “Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite the World.” That’s the Southern California fundraising concert that aired on network TV and other media last Saturday. Among the participating celebrities: Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck, David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel and The Foo Fighters. No, there were no appearances by Ted Nugent or Kid Rock.

*8.2 million: The number of unrecovered American jobs.

* $26 billion: That’s what Pfizer said it expects global sales of its vaccine to reach in 2021. That would make it the biggest-selling pharmaceutical product in the world.

* “Consider flying during the week when it’s less busy, especially if you’re traveling with kids or anyone who isn’t vaccinated yet. Book non-stop flights to limit sitting around in airports and, if you can, avoid crowds by flying into a smaller regional airport.”–Konrad Waliszewski, CEO of the travel-planning app TripScout.

* Speaking of flying, the Federal Aviation Administration reports that despite air traffic being down, incidents of unruly passenger behavior have notably gone up.

* According to the CDC, more than 180,000 vaccine doses were wasted as of late March. Of those, CVS was responsible for nearly half and Walgreens for approximately 21 percent.

* “There’s a risk of this thing mutating into something that could be less affected by the vaccines, and then we run into this awful cycle again. Until we get more people vaccinated, we remain in dangerous territory.”–Dr. Jay Wolfson, USF professor of public health.

* As of last Sunday, more than 7 million people are fully immunized in Florida.

* Busch Gardens, Disney, SeaWorld and Universal have announced that they will stop screening visitors for temperature before entry.

* June 28: Date on which activity on USF campuses will return to pre-pandemic levels.

* The Lightning are increasing Amalie Arena seating capacity to approximately 7,000 fans—or 33 percent of capacity—for the first round of the playoffs. Capacity for regular-season games had been 4,200.

* “I’m glad that Donald Trump is not going to be on Facebook. Suits me. But part two is that this is just further demonstration that these giant tech companies are way, way, way too powerful.”–Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren on America’s Faustian deal with social media.

* “The evidence-based thing to do.”–Gov. Ron DeSantis’ rationale for issuing an executive order immediately suspending pandemic-related local restrictions.

* Somehow the State Legislature prioritized the penalizing of social media companies, banning vaccine “passports,’ issuing restrictive voting “reforms” and implementing “anti-riot” legislation—but couldn’t move on reforming Florida’s inoperable state unemployment system.

* “I’m running against Ron DeSantis. And any Democrat who wants to run should.”–U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, D-St. Petersburg.

*“Which party is he going to run under? Do we even know for sure.”–Gov. Ron DeSantis’ response to the Crist gubernatorial candidacy.

* “Bystander training.” From the police-murdered George Floyd to assaulted Asians, there is now a formal call for American bystanders to effectively–and safely–intervene and help out those in distress.

* It was always a long shot, but thankfully that atmosphere-re-entering Chinese rocket didn’t rain down destructive debris. And no one is more thankful than Asian-Americans, who didn’t need haters having another “reason”–such as the “Kung Flu”–to target Asian-Americans.

* “Trump seems unwilling to cooperate in fading away. A Republican Party that incorporates some of the changes he has wrought, moves on and succeeds is not in his interest. And even without a Twitter account, he has a flair for getting attention.”–Ramesh Ponnuru, National Review.

* “The 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system. … We Republicans need to stand for genuinely conservative principles and steer away from the dangerous and anti-democratic Trump cult of personality.”–Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the No. 3 House Republican. Ironic upshot: a surnamed Cheney taking a bipartisan stand that’s truly America—not Trumpublicans–First.

* “I would just say to my Republican colleagues: Can we move forward without President Trump? The answer is no. I’ve determined we can’t grow without him.”–That was Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has been unable to grow a spine since trashing Trump as a “jackass,” a “kook,” “crazy” and–in case the aforementioned were too nuanced–“unfit for office.”

* “It’s becoming increasingly difficult, it seems, for people to go out on the stump and defend somebody like Liz Cheney or Mitt Romney.”–Former Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake.

* GOP: If viability and what’s in America’s best interest truly matter, look to Liz—not Lindsey.

* “The undisputed leader of the Republican Party.”–That was Rep. Matt Gaetz referencing Trump at the “America First Rally” roadshow/circus kick-off at, yes, The Villages.