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What You Missed This Week in La Gaceta
From As We Heard It, by Patrick Manteiga
► It took $90 to fill up our gas tank for our Toyota 4Runner. That’s the most we have paid for a tank of gas for my vehicle, which we have owned since 2022.
It’s bad enough that the cost is directly linked to a president who we didn’t support, but he makes it worse by having no understanding or care of the pain he is causing.
After Trump was asked if he is motivated by Americans’ financial situation in making a deal with Iran, the president said, “Not even a little bit. I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation.”
Trump not only doesn’t suffer with fellow Americans over this runaway inflation, which was fueled by his tariffs and now by his war, he and his family and friends seem to be profiting from this bad economy(to read more, buy a paper)
► Mayor Jane Castor’s high-paid promotion team of City Hall posted scenes from the mayor’s State of the City Address with the song “We Built this City,” by Starship, playing over the images.
A Rolling Stone readers poll pegged it as the worst song of the ‘80s. It won that title by a huge margin. Blender, in 2004, named it the “Most awesomely bad song of all time.” One writer penned, “ … It will stay lodged in your brain, like a barnacle made of synthesizers and cocaine.” Grace Slick, the song singer, called it “crappy.”
Maybe the young ones on the mayor’s team don’t know of the suffering many felt as this bad song was overplayed on the radio, but many of us still feel the pain. … (to read more, buy a paper)
► Democrats thought they spread out two good candidates to two congressional races instead of one last week when Kimberly Overman decided to switch her campaign from Congressional District 15 to 12 after the new redistricting maps came out.
But this week, Democrat Darren McAuley also switched from 15 to 12, where he hopes to take on Republican incumbent Congressman Gus Bilirakis.
Redistricting has been bad for Congressman Bilirakis, but it has been great for Congresswoman Laurel Lee, who will have a much easier race to hold on to District 15.(to read more, buy a paper)
► It was not a good week for the local Democratic Party. We hear they lost their Executive Director Crystal Fox.
A grievance was filed against chair Vanessa Lester for not allowing a Democratic candidate in good standing from entering a Democratic Party event.
Also, a letter was sent to Democratic Party members by the Hillsborough Society asking the party’s executive committee to remove Lester as chair and Kim Dude as sergeant at arms.(to read more, buy a paper)
► It looks like Alligator Alcatraz, the governor’s boondoggle, is going to be closed down because housing arrested immigrants there is too costly for the Federal Government.
Governor Ronald DeSantis promised taxpayers when this no-bid, grossly expensive project was built, that the Federal Government would reimburse Florida taxpayers. That is not going to happen. To demonstrate how stupid this project was, just take a look at the numbers.
So far, the cost to Florida’s taxpayers is $640 million. In its short life, supposedly 22,000 people were detained there with the majority not being people with criminal records. That means the cost for each detainee in capital expenses was $29,090 per person. The average detainee stayed 12 days. That equates to $2,424.16 per detainee, per day. That’s for room in a cage, a place to pee and a place to eat. That doesn’t cover food or staff.(to read more, buy a paper)
From Chairman of the Bored, by Gene Siudut
► I want to dive in before it is too late about the Bad Bunny Super Bowl halftime show, which has been a lightning rod for all the keyboard warriors and possibly racist snowflakes around the country.
This is not to say anyone not liking his music is racist. I am not a fan of his music, as I don’t know it and don’t have an opinion, but its not really my genre and I don’t speak Spanish or go to the clubs.
But there has definitely been a racist overtone. It’s something you recognize when you see and hear it. My parents taught me many things, but one of the most important was that racism is a stain on society.
Rich Eisen, a longtime ESPN personality, dove into the racist aspects of the arguments against the show, but also found something enlightening. But before that, let’s set the stage.
The outrage came quickly, predictably, and with all the thoughtful restraint of a Facebook comment section at 2 a.m.
Bad Bunny had taken the Super Bowl halftime stage, and before the final note had faded, the complaints were already circulating. Some viewers were offended. Others were confused. Many simply asked the same question in slightly different forms: Why was he singing in Spanish? …(to read more, buy a paper)
From O’Pionions to Go, by Joe O’Neill
► Cog Test: More hand-bruise speculation. More embarrassing, high-profile nodding off. Another “aced” cognition test. We’ve seen this presidential pattern; we’ll see it again. And again.
But we haven’t, until now, actually seen the Trump cognition test. Some likely samples: Solve Hocus-Focus, count backwards from 3, name the day of the week, current century, two SCOTUS justices, three NATO members and the main ingredients of a cheeseburger.
Atorvastatin, Azerbaijan, Acetaminaphen: Which one is a country? What is Stormy Daniels real name? Name two books other than “Art of the Deal” and “Mein Kampf,” that you have read. What is Melania’s phone number?
Party of Lincoln: How can Republicans still maintain that their party is “the party of Lincoln”? Shouldn’t these Lincoln Day Dinners be realistically renamed? How about the Bull Connor or George Wallace Day Dinners? Stop using Lincoln as a disingenuous, hypocritical model. …(to read more, buy a paper)
From In Context, by Doris Weatherford
► I see that the Justice Department is suing Harvard, again. Again, the suit is about what the Trump administration sees as Harvard’s failure to release complete data on its admission process. Let’s get this straight: Harvard is a private entity, not a public one. It has been private since 1636. (Yes, that is a 400th anniversary coming up soon, as opposed to the 250th anniversary of the United States.) It is operated by a board elected by its alumni and has no legal reason to respond to the demands of Agent Orange.
In the interest of transparency, though, there is one admission record I’d like to see: did young Donnie apply back in 1964, when he instead went to Fordham, a much inferior Catholic school in New York City? If his snit with Harvard is based on rejection, was Daddy’s promised donation insufficient to bend Harvard’s high standards? Or was he a victim of the discrimination against white men that Harvard historically upheld? Yes, I’m being sarcastic: it was impossible for a woman of any color or even wealth to enter as an undergraduatethe college back then. Not until 1977 were Harvard’s admissions “gendersex-blind.” Color-blindness came in the 70’s as well.And my daughter still is angry that her 1995 diploma credits Radcliffe equally with Harvard. …(to read more, buy a paper)
From Silhouettes, an interview with Rick Brown, by Tiffany Razzano
► Born at Fort Benning, Georgia, into a military family, Rick Brown didn’t spend much time in one place as a child.
When his father received a new assignment, Brown went with him – Rome, Okinawa, Maine. “I grew up in the Army, so we moved frequently,” he said. “It was just one of those things. I could be anywhere, anytime.”
This lifestyle never struck him as odd in his youth. “It was just kind of normal. Most of my friends [moved frequently], too. So, I didn’t know that anybody did anything any differently,” he said.
And when his father was stationed in the U.S., usually there was a large number of military kids in the local schools. He recalled typical conversations with other students. “Where were you last and where was I last? Those were our basic conversations,” Brown said. …(to read more, buy a paper)
From Líneas de la memoria, por Gabriel Cartaya
► El jueves de la semana pasada nos visitó en La Gaceta el músico Carlos Solís Bravo, acompañado del poeta Alberto Sicilia. Desde las palabras de presentación, francamente amigables, la conversación derivó hacia las diversas actividades culturales que en la actualidad se desarrollan en Tampa y el rol que desempeña Tampa Lector en su fortalecimiento.
Comentamos acerca de la reciente exposición de arte del pintor Vicente Castro y sobre la Feria del Libro cuya segunda edición será el próximo noviembre. Pero más que contarle quisimos saber de él, no solo de su origen cubano, sino de su temprana inserción en la cultura estadounidense, lo que le llevó a fundar su propia banda de música –nombrada Solís Bravo– y con ella recorrer todo el país, componiendo y cantando, contribuyendo no solo a la alegría, sino también a la sanación, la fe y la esperanza.
Por eso le comento: quienes han escuchado la música que haces, incluidas letra y melodía, coinciden en encontrar en ella emoción y esperanza, de modo que trasciende el disfrute del instante. Lo afirmo y le pregunto, ¿cómo valoras esa percepción hacia tu labor artística? La respuesta es segura y concisa, como si las verdades necesitaran pocas palabras:
-Uno de mis objetivos ha sido conmover a la gente y hacer que sintieran algo positivo al escuchar mi música. Si eso sucedía, cumplía con mi deber como músico. … (to read more, buy a paper)
From Briznas culturales, por Leonardo Venta
► Nacido hacia el 497/96 antes de Cristo, Sófocles –uno de los tres grandes dramaturgos de la antigua Atenas, junto con Esquilo y Eurípides– murió a los 90 años. Al nacer Sófocles, Atenas preludiaba su democracia y apertura al dispositivo de un gobierno popular.
En calidad de autor dramático, Sófocles gozó de gran popularidad entre sus conciudadanos. Ganó su primer concurso trágico, en las Dionisiadas del año 468, compitiendo con Esquilo; a partir de esa fecha, concursó en otras 29 festividades hasta el año de su muerte, obteniendo el primer premio en 18 ocasiones, y no quedando nunca en tercer lugar.
De sus numerosas obras dramáticas sólo se conservan siete tragedias: Áyax, Las Traquinias, Antígona, Edipo Rey, Electra, Filoctetes y Edipo en Colono. Sin embargo, se sabe que los sabios alejandrinos conservaban más de 120 de sus tragedias y dramas satíricos.
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