TEACHER’S DAY
If there is a slackening of demand for COVID-19 vaccines for 65 and over at Jackson Health Systems, per Ben Conarck’s Feb. 18 article, “Jackson wants to expand vaccines to 55 and older,” so why not declare a Vaccine Teachers Weekend ?
Vaccinate every teacher in Miami-Dade County over one weekend. Such a community push will help get most children back to in-person school, which is so desperately needed.
– Carole Smith, Coconut Grove
Like Julius Caesar’s Gaul, today’s Republican Party is divided into three parts: Never Trumpers, Sometimes Trumpers and Always Trumpers.
The overwhelming GOP vote against impeaching and convicting former President Donald Trump shows the Always Trumpers remain dominant. The Never Trumpers have found the going tough. Now, Sometimes Trumpers are beginning to emerge.
The power struggle among these three factions is already proving to be bitter, epitomized by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s sharp postimpeachment criticism of Donald Trump and the former president’s heated response, and will affect whether Republicans can regain the House and Senate next year and the presidency in 2024.
In the pre-Trump era, a coherent conservative philosophy defined the GOP: smaller government, fiscal responsibility and a robust American presence abroad. Trump demolished those verities, so Republicans now define themselves almost exclusively by their relationship to a single person, Donald Trump.
Most Never Trumpers started spurning him in 2016. Many are governors from Democratic states like Maryland’s Larry Hogan and Massachusetts’ Charlie Baker or outspoken former operatives and pundits like Bill Kristol and ex-John McCain strategist Steve Schmidt. Their most prominent voice is Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee.
Romney is unique, a conservative senator from a conservative state with national standing. Hogan, who predicted on CNN Sunday that Trump’s domination would diminish over time, has talked of running for president.
But it is hard to see any Never Trumpers playing a significant role in 2024. Parties tend to change direction gradually, not abruptly.
Sometime Trumpers have generally backed Trump publicly, often with private reservations. Now, they want to steer the party’s image away from him, and a crucial factor will be how many prominent Republicans join them.
Two people, with different goals, epitomize this group: McConnell and former South Carolina governor and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley.
The Senate GOP leader, after backing Trump until the final days of his term and voting for acquittal, called him “practically and morally responsible” for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The Kentucky senator fears a party tied too closely to the former president won’t have business community financial support and will have trouble winning 2022 Senate races in states like Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Haley has swung back and forth, expressing 2016 disdain for Trump before backing him, joining his administration before departing early, and supporting him in 2020 before belatedly denouncing his post-Nov. 3 efforts to steal the election.
“We need to acknowledge he let us down, Haley told Politico.”
Haley’s strategy — setting a more independent course with an eye on 2024 presidential nomination — is risky, since Republicans overwhelmingly still back Trump. She appears to hope that, come 2024, Republican voters will want a kinder, gentler version of Trumpism.
Her fellow South Carolinian, Sen. Lindsey Graham, occasionally poses as a Sometimes Trumper. On the night of Jan. 6, he proclaimed “enough is enough,” but quickly reverted to form on “Fox News Sunday.”
Still, Graham lacks the consistency of Always Trumpers like Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri, White House hopefuls who lashed themselves firmly to the former president’s mast, from challenging Joe Biden’s electoral votes to opposing Trump’s conviction.
They calculate the 2024 GOP will still be Trumpdominated and looking for a Trump 2.0.
In almost the same category are Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, outspoken Trump advocates who opposed rejecting any electoral votes.
Events will show if their momentary independence makes them pariahs to hardcore Trumpers.
At sports’ most important, celebrated and focused-on position bar none — quarterback — we have never seen an offseason such as the one the NFL is smack dab in the middle of.
The Tom Brady-Patrick Mahomes Super Bowl just past was the reminder nobody needed: That a great QB is only about as important to your franchise as oxygen, or air-conditioning in South Florida. And that mediocrity at the position is a curse that can rob you of relevance for decades.
QB greatness as the sport’s towering Holy Grail is why five more golden arms led by Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence surely to Jacksonville No. 1 overall are pegged for the first of round of April’s NFL Draft by ESPN guru Todd McShay in his latest mock. He has
QBs going 1-2-3-4. Which has never happened.
Like never before, though, this offseason finds passer-hungry teams weighing whether to trust the draft for their answer, or dive into the treasure trove of available veteran quarterbacks.
Matthew Stafford already has been traded, from Detroit to the L.A. Rams for Jared Goff and two first-round picks.
Thursday, the Eagles traded Carson Wentz to the Colts for two picks.
Philip Rivers has retired. Drew
Brees looks like hes about to.
And we’re just getting started with this game of QB roulette, a Wheel of Fortune.
Deshaun Watson, very publicly
demanding a trade out of Houston.
Dak Prescott, a free agent in Dallas.
Aaron Rodgers, reigning league MVP, uncertain about his future in Green Bay.
Matt Ryan, Derek Carr, Teddy Bridgeweater, Sam Darnold and Jimmy Garoppolo — all the subject of available-for-trade reports and speculation.
Along with Prescott, notable lesser available free agents starting in March also include Blisters like Miami’s Ryan Fitzpatrick, Jameis Winston, Cam Newton, Andy Dalton, Tyrod Taylor, Mitchell Trubisky, Jacoby Brissett and Joe Flacco.
With Stafford and Wentz traded and most experts believing Prescott and Rodgers will stay put, the intriguing grand prize is Watson. It’s a staring march as the player vehemently wants to be traded but the Texans thus far indicating no intention to do so. Who will force whose hand? Who blinks first here?
About a third of NFL teams would consider a hard run at getting Watson — the Dolphins at or near the top of that list.
The Watson to Miami speculation has not only not ebbed, it has grown. And in the usual way in the social media age, such as the recent photo, taken in Miami, that showed Watson arms-on-shoulders with Dolphins defenders Raekwon Davis and Christian Wilkins — the latter Watson’s former Clemson teammate.
Notably, the photo was tweeted out by one Bryan Burnley, Watson’s own marketing agent.
It isn’t the only hint that Watson, who has a notrade clause and thus could steer where he ended up, might prefer Miami has a destination. But Carolina and the New York Jets are among other ardent potential suitors.
With Watson trying to leverage a trade the NFL’s biggest offseason story and Miami enmeshed in it, Dolphins management faces a seismic decision: Proof vs. Possibility. Watson vs. Tua Taglovailoa.
It’s a lopsided either/or on the face of it. Watson is a superstar coming off his best season and coming into is prime. Taglovailoa is a fifth overall pick coming off a promising but up-and-down rookie year. Though the Fins have publicly committed to Tagovailoa as their starter moving forward, no team in its right mind wouldn’t rather have Watson. Period. No debate.
Where that either/or does become debatable is in the enormous compensation it would take for Miami to swing such a deal.
Watson vs. Taglovailoa becomes a lot more arguable if it’s Watson without a ton of surrounding offensive talent vs. Taglovailoa festooned with a trove of high-draft-pick help over the next two years — draft capital that would be substantially gone in a trade for Watson.
As an example, CBSSports.com recently speculated (guessed) that to get Watson, Miami would have to give up Taglovailoa, the third overall pick this April (acquired from Houston in the Laremy Tunsil trade), a 2021 second-round pick, and 2022 first- and secondround picks.
Other speculation is that Miami might have to part with both its first-round picks this April (third and 18th overall) and at least one starting player, with cornerback Xavien Howard sometimes mentioned.
The point is, you don’t have the pleasure of Deshaun Watson leading you for the next 10 years without the pain in how much you’ve had to spend to get him.
In some ways it’s a can’tlose scenario for Miami, but fundamental in the decision on which way to go is a question the Dolphins must ask themselves — and a question on which their answer had better be right:
How much do you believe in Tagovailoa?
And how great do you think he’ll be?
If your franchise is all-in on both answers, you surround Tua with talent and watch him soar.
If you’re not all in on both, you spend more than you’d like and as much as you need to on the biggest trade in the 56-year history of the Miami Dolphins.
The last shot was nearly at its apex. The final seconds were ticking away. DeShawn Jean-Charles had to reach as far as he could to keep Miramar’s Class 7A title defense alive.
It hadn’t been a great night for him overall and he had been burned — badly — on Cypress Bay’s final possession. Jaylen Bernard’s potential game-winning shot was gliding to the rim, ready to erase the Patriots’ 53-52 lead in Miramar.
“It was just desperation,” the junior said.
Jean-Charles stretched and swung with all his might, and he swatted the final shot off the backboard. The reigning state champions survived a firstround scare in the Region 4-Class 7A quarterfinals.
The last-second block capped a 10-point fourthquarter comeback for the Miramar to avoid a firstround upset in the Region 4-7A playoffs. After struggling through most of four quarters, Jean-Charles scored or assisted on the Patriots’ last seven points in the final 1:15 to finish off a come-from-behind win at Miramar High School.
With the one-point win, the Patriots advance to face Western in the Region 4-7A semifinals Tuesday in a rematch of the Big 8 championship.
“It’s high school basketball, man,” Patriots coach Tramaine Stevens said. “You don’t know what you’re going to get sometimes.”
Jean-Charles finished with just 11 points on 4of-11 shooting with four turnovers, but delivered three of the biggest plays of the game in the final minute to avoid the upset.
Patriots guard Isaiah Williams ran some clock from the left wing with the offense spread out along the perimeter. With a minute left, Jean-Charles flashed from the left corner down to the block and Williams fed him in the paint. The junior spun to his left and finished a layup through contact, adding a free throw to give Miramar a 51-50 lead — its first since it led 2-0 in the opening minutes, then slogged through a 15-point first half with only 15 shot attempts and seven turnovers.
“Coach kept telling me keep my head up,” JeanCharles said. “Coach T ended up calling it.”
On the other end, Gordon hit two more free throws and the Lightning (8-10) went back ahead 52-51 with 38.5 seconds remaining.
Jean-Charles was content to wait and take the last shot, until he saw an opening. Maxx Martinez — the Patriots’ best three-point shooter — could get an open look in the corner if Jean-Charles could collapse the defense. He drove to the middle and Cypress Bay sent help to the guard to prevent a three. Williams, who led all scorers with 16, slipped in the back door and Jean-Charles found him beneath the basket for an easy layup to put Miramar ahead again 53-52 with 21.5 seconds left.