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• We know all too well the factors that can enable fraught elections. Prominent among them: the neither-of-these-“two evils” rationalists and the hissy-fitters who didn’t get their nominee–who then sit out the election. Or it’s ideologues who go third party, which eases their conscience but can invite a worst-case scenario. Then, of course, there’s the media—from social to Rush Limbaugh. And it’s hardly in a democracy’s interest to have a candidate owned by a major network. But the problematics can include the non-Fox, mainstream media; we’re not just talking Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham now.

We’re also talking the conservative-establishment Wall Street Journal. That’s you, Peggy Noonan, whose WSJ opining is too often a lead-editorial anchor for the Tampa Bay Times. She can be more dangerous than a Foxster or a Breitbarter. That’s because she’s a real journalist with a really disingenuous touch. And that’s a real concern. She’s aware and observant enough to (this week) remind us that Trump lied about the pandemic and produced chaos. And “it would only be worse, more dangerous, more careless in a second term.” Moreover, noted Noonan, this White House is “mostly populated by second- and third-rate people, with the seasoned and competent fired and fled. It’s all so dangerous. A vote for him is not possible for me.” Good. But then she moves on to GOPster talking points that stereotype and demean the progressive left. Then she acknowledges that she is sitting out the election. “Is abstaining an honorable choice? For me it is the only one.”

No, abstaining is not honorable, no matter how democratic reality and civic responsibility appears through the skewed Noonan lens. And if it’s the “only” choice, that means not voting for the one person who is the only viable option to four more years of white grievance, autocratic arrogance, international disparagement and climate-change denial. If you can’t see the rationale for doing everything to remove an existential threat, then at least abstain from sharing your complicity in helping keep America grating.

• “(Trump’s) jealous of COVID’s media coverage.”—Former President Barack Obama.
• Saw a media reference to “rap legend” 50 Cent, who inimitably retracted his Trump endorsement. “F*** Donald Trump. I never liked him.” Two takeaways. Before Cent retracted, he endorsed someone he never liked? Second, how devalued is “legend”?
• Google is banning all election-related ads for a week after Nov. 3. The ban, explained Google, is necessary “to limit the potential for ads to increase confusion post-election.”
• “In the absence of real competition, Google manages to get away with shamelessly tracking your shopping habits, video-watching preferences and the content of your email conversations. … With its dominant market share in search, estimated at 88 percent, Google will be hard pressed to convince a judge that it lacks monopoly power.”—Tim Wu, Columbia University law professor and author of “The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age.”
• Comcast, the nation’s biggest cable operator, just passed a milestone—one that highlights the shift occurring across the media spectrum: It now has more streaming subscribers than cable-TV subscribers.
• Former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg has been a frequent guest on Fox News. But unlike some partisan politicians (think Rick Santorum on CNN) who cross the media aisle to expand career opportunities, Buttigieg was about making the case for Biden by doing more than preaching to the converted. At the very least, by being smart, articulate, inoffensive–and a former Naval officer–he makes it more difficult to stereotype and dismiss the LGBTQ community.
• If you catch the latest Sacha Baron Cohen “Borat” mockumentary (“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”) be ready to fast forward. It’s not a matter of politics. It’s just cheesy, annoying and insulting. No wonder Rudy Giuliani shows up. BTW, what the hell was he doing in that hotel suite with a faux-journalist babe and that poorly-timed, uh, shirt tuck-in while lying in bed on his back?
• “In COVID times, when tourism spending is on hold, it was good to see the country mentioned in the media. Not in the nicest way, but it’s good to be out there.” That was Kairat Sadvakassov, the deputy chairman of Kazakhstan’s tourism board, on his country’s return to pop culture–even if in a demeaning context—after the release of the latest “Borat” movie.
• Former Minnesota Sen. Al Franken was on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” last week. It was awkward, unfunny and made you wonder what he had been smoking.
• Sean Connery, 90, has died. He was the original, iconically cool, seemingly irreplaceable James Bond. Daniel Craig might agree.

• Let’s be fair to Kevin Cash. Without his managerial creativity and analytical acumen, the Rays may not have made the post-season, let alone the World Series. He’s also a nice guy and well-liked by the players. His Rays came up short against a really good Dodger team. Unfortunately, all that well-deserved, Cash cache was seemingly canceled by his controversial decision to take Blake Snell out in the sixth inning of game six of the World Series. There’s no dodging this one. In fact, Snell’s “F-Bomb” reaction said it all.

It was a game that Snell had been dominating. The reason he was pulled had nothing to do with that moment in time—Snell was at his very best–but everything to do with analytics that the Rays rely on. In this case, statistics didn’t favor going through a line-up—that he had been overwhelming—for a third time. But the alternative was replacing him with Nick Anderson, who had been underwhelming throughout the post-season.

The response of Dodgers star Mookie Betts, who had struck out twice and was not looking forward to facing Snell again, was illustrative. “That’s the Cy Young Snell that came tonight,” said Betts, who welcomed Anderson with a game-changing, Series-altering double. “Once he came out, it was a breath of fresh air.”

• The response of media and fans to Cash taking out Snell was largely: “WTF!” The response of the Los Angeles Dodgers was unanimously: “Thank you.”
• “Champa”: The Lightning won it all. The Rays came really, really close. The Bucs could have a Super season.
• The Bucs brought in high-profile, high-risk, recently-suspended, wide receiver Antonio Brown to shore up the receiving corps for Tom Brady. Too bad they had to settle for this guy. Or maybe personal conduct, including arrests for assault and felony burglary and allegations of sexual assault, is just not much of an NFL priority anymore. BTW, head coach Bruce Arians—way back in March—said, of Brown, “There’s no room. … It’s just not a fit here.” But stuff, like injuries and NFL pragmatics, happens.
• “Trump’s policies will bring the American Dream to many families across the nation.” That was anti-socialist golf legend and Trump-voter Jack Nicklaus, who may be spending too much time on the 19^th hole.
• Former NFL QB Brett Favre endorsed Trump. Call it a pick-six.

• “I understand and respect that people can be shocked by these (Mohammed-caricature) cartoons. But I will never accept that someone can justify the use of physical violence because of these cartoons. And I will always defend freedom of speech in my country, of thought, of drawing.”—French President Emmanuel Macron.
• “One of the more insidious effects of polarization is to make foreign policy a tool of partisan politics. It’s done enduring damage to America’s reputation in the world for being able to keep its word.”—William J. Burns, former American diplomat who now runs the Carnegie Endowment in Washington.
• “Europeans are afraid that there is no longer a foreign-policy consensus in the United States. Every new administration can mean a totally new policy, and for them this is a nightmare,”—Ivan Krastev, director of the Center for Liberal Strategies.
• “A lot of what we’ve done over the last four years will be undone sooner or later by the next election. They won’t be able to do much about this for a long time to come.”—Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, on the conservative, Federalist Society-approving direction of the Supreme Court.
• “While support for government programs rises, trust in government is near record lows. Americans like it when government sends out checks to pay for things like child care, college and COVID-19 relief. They do not like proposals that concentrate power in Washington.”—David Brooks, New York Times.
• “Women think about government in terms of the well-being of the country. Men are much more likely to think about it in terms of their wallet. Their bottom line is, how does this affect me?”—Melissa Deckman, professor of political science at Washington College in Maryland.
• “Trump is the president of the United States because a majority of white people in this country wanted him to be. … Trump’s racism was welcome in the coven.”—Charles M. Blow, New York Times.
• “Trump’s low character is not only an abstract ethical concern but a public menace that has introduced elements of chaos and unpredictability in U.S. government activity. … Trump’s problem is not etiquette: It is dishonesty, stupidity and incompetence.”—Kevin Williamson, National Review.
• “Biden is a good man. Trump is not.”—Gen. Michael Hayden, former NSA director.
• “Purdue deeply regrets and accepts responsibility for the misconduct detailed by the Justice Department in the agreed statement of facts.”—Steve Miller, chairman of Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, on Purdue’s negotiated $8.3 billion settlement deal over its marketing of the addictive painkiller.
• “When you have 99.9 percent doing it correctly, that’s not bad.”—Hillsborough County Elections Supervisor Craig Latimer, on the status of mail ballots.

 “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

• Constitutional foreshadowing: “We ought to have our government so shaped that even when in the hands of a bad man, we shall be safe.” That was Frederick Douglass, reflecting on life under Andrew Johnson, America’s previous worst president.
• “The importance of American engagement has never been higher. If the United States does not lead, there will be no leadership. … If we fail to live up to our responsibilities, if we shirk the role that only we can assume, if we retreat from our obligations to the world in indifference, we will one day pay the highest price once again for our neglect and shortsightedness.” That wasn’t Joe Biden—or some wistful, idealistic Democrat. No, that was the late Republican President George H.W. Bush in the late 1990s. What he said then was a real-world foreshadowing. What we are living now is the dark reality. Engagement, leadership and global respect cannot be politically partisan issues.
• How could a man who has so blatantly and repeatedly violated his oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States expect to be re-elected? Yes, that’s a rhetorical question.
• We all get that justices nominated for the Supreme Court since Robert Bork have followed a playbook of prudence and equivocation during a confirmation hearing. Whatever the question, some of them of the gotcha variety, responses have to be non-ideological, non-specific and non-committal to anything other than an open legal mind. The occasional “I don’t recall” is also in play as is a declaration of non-“pawn” status.

That said, Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s responses to climate-change questions were disappointing—and unnecessarily non-committal. The role of “originalism” and “textualism” in the saving of the planet seems almost oxymoronic. Playing it safe on climate change—such as describing settled science as still in dispute and confirming that she is “certainly not a scientist”—is more than a confirmation strategy. It’s existential-threat enabling—not taking one for humanity and civilization. And it made Barrett, who had the support of Charles Koch, sound like the daughter of the oil executive that she is.

• “Prohibiting the open carry of firearms in areas where citizens cast their ballots is necessary to ensure every voter is protected.” That was Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson saying what few used to think ever needed to be said.
• On more than one occasion the Defense Department has had to make it clear that it does not respond to commands over Twitter. It’s beyond indefensible to have a Twitter-in-chief, especially on matters of national defense.
• “Normal life; that’s all we want.”—Trump disingenuously doubling down on his normless message at The Villages rally.
• “You know why we have (COVID) cases so much? Because all we do is test.” Obviously not true/false.
• China: One of three foreign nations where Trump maintains a bank account. The other two: Britain and Ireland.
• “I am the least racist person in this room. … Not since Abraham Lincoln has anybody done what I’ve done for the black community.” Who else believes this other than Ben Carson and Kanye West?
• Call it the elephant in the room. Only this elephant is the all-too-familiar GOPster pachyderm. Even if Trump loses—and the result doesn’t prompt fraud charges and a  “Seven Days in May” scenario—there is a stark reality looming. Those who voted for Trump—again—are still here. Four years removed from dispatching the vilified Hillary Clinton and after four years of carnage mismanagement, they’ve been further emboldened. White grievance, xenophobia, misogyny, demonized media, gun culture, politicized federal law enforcement, militias, science disparagement, the deep state, perverted libertarianism, the normalization of lying, revanchism et al aren’t likely to go away with the formal exit of this cult-craving, faux-populist president. He’s tapped into something that resonates, however deplorably counterproductive. America, alas, is not exceptional. Autocracy happens.

No, this isn’t the John McCain or Mitt Romney, regroup-and-get-‘em-next-time crowd. There were never intimations of incompetence, narcissism, meanness or a grifter’s mentality. There was never a need for an autocrat’s playbook with those Republican establishment types, who prioritized family values, limited government, global trade, deficit-spending restraints, treaties and respect for military and national intelligence professionals. That was the Republican Party then and its regard for alliance-honoring, country-first ideology. It knew it was demographically-challenged and wanted to address it with a wider-appeal outreach. Remember Reince Priebus’ electorate “autopsy”? Priebus, the former RNC chairman and Trump’s first chief of staff is now as relevant to Trump and his base as Omarosa Manigault Newman or Michael Cohen.

What is regrettably relevant is the base identification with the 21^st century version of George Wallace’s law and order agenda and a Joe McCarthy-like approach to anyone labeled a “socialist.” Outreach has been replaced by divide-and-conquer.

• “Take a very good look at.”—That’s how Trump recently responded to an inquiry about whether he would consider a pardon for Edward Snowden. Recall that Snowden is the former American intelligence contractor who leaked top-secret documents. Snowden has been living in exile in Moscow since 2013.
• “(Trump) can’t want (black people) to be successful more than they want to be successful.”—Jared Kushner, sending an inimitable Trump message to black voters.
• “He can be a handful. He can get in the way of his own success.”—That was Sen. Lindsey Graham, being as Trump-candid as sycophancy permits.

#AloneTogether

• Ireland, now in a six-week lockdown, became the first European country to reimpose a nationwide lockdown because of coronavirus concerns.
• According to the Johns Hopkins coronavirus tracker, the U.S. has suffered 65.74 COVID deaths per 100,000 people. China has lost 0.34 per 100,000, which probably doesn’t please anyone targeting the source of the “Kung Flu.”
• “When you get this disease, it hits you how easy it is to prevent. We are asked to wear cloth over our mouth and nose, wash our hands and avoid crowds. These minor inconveniences can save your life, your neighbors and the economy. Seldom has so little been asked for so much benefit.”—Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who went maskless to the White House and paid for it with COVID-19 and a week in the ICU.
• Women’s job losses due to COVID have been beyond disproportionate; last month approximately 617,000 women 16 and over left the work force, nearly eight times the number of men. They’ve borne the brunt of closed schools.
• 2,100: Approximate number of people in Florida hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of coronavirus. Approximately 470 are in the Tampa Bay area.
• “There was a spike in Florida that is gone.” That was the prevaricator-in-chief at the last debate.
• More than 500,000 diagnostic tests for coronavirus have been administered in Hillsborough County. The county’s public sites have accounted for more than 20 percent of the total.
• TGH is creating a new center for infectious diseases to treat COVID-19 patients. It will renovate an existing building to create a 59-bed intensive care unit and up to 45 “surge readiness” beds for COVID-19 treatment.
• Golfer Dustin Johnson, the world’s No. 1 player, tested positive for the coronavirus.

“Yes, we can.”

• While the traditional campaign logistics have been skewed by the pandemic, some fundamentals remain in play. Exhibit A: Get your closer out there to make the case, especially in a country that has one of the lowest rates of voter turnout among developed nations. And nobody, including Joe Biden, makes the case against a Trump re-election better than The Donald’s predecessor, Barack Obama.

Obama recently campaigned in Philadelphia, underscored that Dems “can’t be lazy and complacent,” and then traveled twice to Florida, including most notably, to majority-black North Miami. “If you bring Florida home, this thing’s over,” said Obama. In other words, let’s get the black vote back to 2008 numbers when the black turnout in Florida was 74 percent. In 2016 it was 69 percent. The excuse was: Clinton wasn’t Obama. Well, neither is Biden, but he is the experienced, decent, unifying alternative to a national and global threat. That should be motivation enough—and Obama is the “Yes, we can” one to keep making the case to vote as if American democracy were at stake, because it damn well is.

• “Moral obligation.” How Biden has characterized the role of the U.S. regarding climate change.
• “The environmental movement doesn’t have a persuasion problem; we have a turnout problem. There’s this enormous, latent pool of political power in the climate movement in Florida.”—Nathaniel Stinnet, founder of the Environmental Voter Project.
• FiveThirtyEight estimates the odds of a Democratic takeover of the Senate at 74-26—or three to one.
• Fortunately for Biden, no big deal was made of his quick look at his watch near the end of the last presidential debate. Shades of President George H.W. Bush doing that against Bill Clinton in 1992. Talk about unforced errors.
• Don’t stand back. Don’t just stand by. But stand up for America. And vote out the one that democracy can’t stand.

• Next time a presidential debate features a mute button, why not let the moderator control it? NBC’s Kristen Welker might agree. At the last Biden-Trump debate, a member of the debate commission was in control, as it were, of the mute button.
• We know that presidential debates are typically more performance art than “debate,” but it’s still worth seeing the candidates juxtaposed. But let’s not concede more than we should; let’s not, as Welker did and others have done, introduce a presidential debate as “the show.” It can become self-fulfilling.
• “(Dr. Anthony Fauci) seems to get more airtime than anybody since the late, great, Bob Hope.” Yes, that was the airtimer-in-chief.

• Thanks again, Bolts and Rays. We needed that lockdown diversion and home team, community pride. Now go, Bucs.
• “United from Start to Finish:” New, well-tested USF Bulls’ mantra, as introduced by first-year head coach Jeff Scott.

• “Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God. What we have to have is a civil union law; that way they are legally covered.”—Pope Francis.
• “The world no longer looks up to America. … They no longer think we can lead, because they have seen an ineptness and a disdain for civility that is beyond anything in their memory. But without American leadership, the world will, indeed, be transformed, just not in the way we hope. This could all change in November.”—Retired Navy Admiral William McRaven, former commander of U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill AFB.
• “The White House has all but embraced herd immunity and poisoned the public with misinformation, making it all but impossible to get near-universal compliance with public health advice for the foreseeable future.”—John M. Barry, professor of public health at Tulane University and the author of “The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History.”
• “We literally left this White House a pandemic playbook to show them how to respond before a virus reached our shores. It must be lost along with the Republican health care plan.”—Former President Barack Obama at a drive-in rally in Miami.
• “A Senate win is critical. Otherwise, we are back to a standoff between a Democratic president and Mitch McConnell.”—Ray LaRaja, University of Massachusetts-Amherst political scientist.
• “While I oppose the process that has led us to this point, I do not hold it against her.”—Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, in explaining her support of SCOTUS nominee Amy Coney Barrett.
• “Biden became a unity candidate in response to an overwhelming, almost feral desire to limit Trump’s damage to one term. When Trump leaves, Democratic unity, I fear, may be close behind. Unlike Republicans who have essential agreement around economic and social policy, our Party has fissures on many fundamental issues.”—Carter Eskew, a top strategist from Al Gore’s 2000 campaign.
• “Climate change and climate-change solutions have jumped a number of other really important issues into the forefront of not only what’s being discussed in the waning days of the election, but likely at the top of the agenda in the beginning of the next Congress. That’s fundamentally different.”—Robert Gibbs, former White House press secretary under President Barack Obama.
• “Part of what the presidency is about is norm-setting. When a president establishes that it’s OK to make fun of people with disabilities, or to be a racist, or to lie, or to assault women, you see that replicated in society. That’s not a surprise.”—Ian Bassin, head of the nonprofit group Protect Democracy.
• “If Biden wins, your borders are gone, which means your health care is gone, the middle class is gone, and your safety is gone.”—Donald Trump, who is not gone yet.
• “There is no philosophical underpinning for the Republican Party anymore.”—Lincoln Project co-founder Reed Galen.
• “If women defeat Trump next month, it will be because of everything he’s done to defeat them first.”—Michelle Goldberg, New York Times.
• “Biden feels others’ pain. Trump doesn’t even feel his own. … He needs the adoration of the mob more than he needs the acceptance of normal people.”—Trump biographer Michael D’Antonio.
• “Politicians reckon with shifting demographic realities by following new voters wherever they may be, but when it comes to Latinos they also need to think beyond elections, and beyond the strategic importance of Hispanic Heritage Month itself. When they see us as more than voters, we may give them our votes.”—Geraldo L. Cadava, author of “The Hispanic Republican: The Shaping of an American Political Identity, From Nixon to Trump.”
• “A bank won’t lend you money unless you can prove that you don’t need it. That’s especially true with minority-owned businesses.”—John Hope Bryant, CEO of the Atlanta-based nonprofit Operation Hope.
• “We haven’t seen the surge worldwide locally, but we know there is just as much (domestic violence)—if not more.”—Mindy Murphy, president and CEO of the Spring of Tampa Bay.
• “Mental health issues don’t discriminate. … It’s one of law enforcement’s biggest challenges.”—Hillsborough Sheriff Chad Chronister, on the establishment of the Behavioral Resources Unit that aims to connect people with social service resources before they become the subject of law enforcement calls.
• “St. Pete is really a hub for all things marine science.”—Tom Frazer, dean of USF’s College of Marine Science. USF St. Pete recently received a $9 million federal grant to launch a Center for Ocean Mapping and Innovation.
• “Right now, Tampa’s on the map in the sports world, with what’s going on with everything here. Having that publicity, it’s hard to put a dollar figure on it, but it’s certainly there.”—Michael Mondello, associate program director at USF’s Vinik Sport and Entertainment Management Program.

 “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

• COVIDiocy update: “People are tired of COVID. I have these huge rallies. People are saying, ‘Whatever. Just leave us alone.’ They’re tired of it. People are tired of hearing (Dr. Anthony) Fauci and all these idiots … This guy’s a disaster.” Yeah, that was the COVIDiot-in-chief during a campaign staff call that some media were privy to. Speaking of disasters, how unconscionable is it that the super-spreader himself, whose mismanagement and maskless optics have contributed directly to thousands of unnecessary deaths, would still be scapegoating the country’s pre-eminent epidemiologist. And how unconscionable that his base won’t turn on him for self-serving  mismessaging and lethal mismanagement. What the hell would it take? Isn’t that, well, “deplorable”?

BTW, Trump wasn’t worried about being quoted. “If there’s a reporter on, you can have it just the way I said it,” said Trump. I couldn’t care less.” No s***.

• Shame on NBC for accommodating the defiant dictates of Donald Trump, who wanted his own, alternate town hall forum. This was orchestrated by the super-spreader-in-chief, who wouldn’t do a virtual debate as directed by the Commission on Presidential Dabates, because it would confine his histrionics and maybe whatever virus he might still be carrying. Then he could brag on his ratings. As it turned out, not only were those ratings not huge, but they were smaller than what Biden got on ABC. The bottom line: This was not fair to the democratic process—nor, frankly, to Savannah Guthrie, who was not averse to giving pushback during her moderation. She was, fortunately, no Chris Wallace, but it was still a no-win night.

The NBC scenario is a reminder that it’s not just right-wing media that has enabled Trump in his disastrous, America-diminishing presidency. The mainstream media was all-in in its ratings-driven, saturation coverage of Trump during the 2016 campaign season. I can still recall MSNBC’s Chris Matthews interrupting the flow of his “Hardball” show with something like: “We’ll have to end it right there, everybody, so we can now go live to Possum Trot, Mississippi for a Trump rally.” Without that kind of high-profile, ubiquitous, celebrity coverage, there would have been less impact–and interest–from Fox News, Breitbart, Rush Limbaugh and Russian bots.  

• “I went through it. Now they say I’m immune. I feel so powerful. …I’ll kiss everyone in that audience. … I’ll just give you a big fat kiss.”—That was the fat-kisser-in-chief at his Sanford, Fla. rally—six days after leaving Walter Reed, where he had been treated for COVID-19. Yes, there were masks in evidence.  In fact, Trump tossed a bunch wrapped in plastic to his fans. It’s a familiar Trump optic. Puerto Ricans would understand.
• “Suburban women, will you please like me. I saved your damn neighborhood.”  That was the savior-in-chief at a rally in Johnstown, Pa, with a reminder that only he stands between safe, suburban neighborhoods and invasions by gangs of Antifa supporters.
• It was inevitable that SCOTUS nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s Catholic religion would work its way into the confirmation process. For context, it’s worth noting that the Supreme Court’s six Catholic members include Sonia Sotomayor and Clarence Thomas, as ideologically polar opposite as possible.
• Sure, there’s understandable concern about the ideological framework of future SCOTUS Justice Amy Coney Barrett. And, no, glib responses and “I don’t recall” answers during confirmation Q&A dynamics are hardly reassuring. But do recall that conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, appointed by President George W. Bush in 2005, saved the ACA, and back in the day President Dwight Eisenhower never did get what he was expecting from Earl Warren after appointing him in 1953. Stuff can still happen.
• Tampa’s own Trump toady, Pam Bondi, continues to play a role in the Trump campaign. Some are more obvious than others. She was part of the high-profile, Trump impeachment defense. And she has also accompanied Trump family members who campaigned for him in Tampa. And she also played Kamala Harris in a debate-prep session for Mike Pence. Maybe she wants to replace William Barr in a second Trump term. Or maybe she still wants to be president of Trump U.