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PUBLISHER James Howard EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ray Roa

ory

DIGITAL EDITOR Colin Wolf FOOD CRITIC Jon Palmer Claridge

CONTRIBUTORS Jefferey C. Billman, Kelly Benjamin, Rob Brezsny, David Cabassa, Justin Garcia, Yuki Jackson, Dan Savage

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INTERNS Chloe Greenberg, Christopher Cann

eaWorld in February, animal rights PHOTOGRAPHERS aiming the practice of keeping wild Chandler Cullotta, Dave Decker angerous. But even though public SeaWorld animal rights any don’t in seeFebruary, a parallel between the kind SENIOR ACCOUNT claiming the practice of keeping wild EXECUTIVES nd the practice of displaying animals dangerous. evenOr though public Anthony Carbone, Scott Zepeda king for tooBut much? is it time for a many don’t see a parallel between the kind animals? MARKETING, PROMOTIONS AND

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and the practice of displaying animals EVENTS DIRECTOR asking for too much? OrQuinn is it time for a Alexis Chamberlain t” animals? STREET TEAM

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The Venus’ new LP takes on the American experience, p. 31.

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editor's note No comment

SAFE SPACE: Facebook and Twitter are still there for the trolls and bots.

Why we banned comments on cltampa.com By Ray Roa

can only think of one real human that’ll be really ticked off about this, but Creative Loafing Tampa Bay just pulled the plug on the website’s comments section. This decision came after much discussion in the CL office and between editors at the seven papers owned by our parent company Euclid Media Group. There’s been a backlash against comments sections going on for a few years now, with outlets like Popular Science, NPR, VICE, Reuters, Mic.com, and locally, the Tampa Bay Times, all ditching them. On paper, they were a great idea, a utopian notion of the World Wide Web providing an instantaneous “platform” for “dialogue” between reader and creator. And sure, we’ll miss the insights of some of you who added thoughtful perspectives that our articles missed, especially when you chimed in with the occasional correction to a factual error. That’s why we’ve created a space for that thoughtful feedback (see end of story.) In reality, comments sections everywhere routinely devolve into racism, misogyny, Hitler (via Godwin’s Law), spam, and personal attacks. It’s worse for women journalists, who are called names far more vicious than their male counterparts. We refuse to believe some of you aren’t 13-year-olds, but we know some of you are grown men. The good news for trolls, bots and keyboard terrorists is that CL’s Facebook and Twitter pages still have room for your pithy, oh-so-important thoughts. Ideally, there would be an editor to moderate comments, but with staff cuts—we literally have two full-time staffers for the time being—that isn’t possible. Understand, however, that hateful, violent and generally dangerous comments on CL’s social media pages will still result in a ban. But give yourselves credit, readers, because CL hasn’t had to spend too much time playing whack-a-mole trying to ban trolls who kept creating new accounts (and even new IP addresses)

so they can impersonate other commenters and just generally cause chaos. In short, the comments section has devolved from its original purpose. So bye-bye. Now, I know what some of you are thinking: “How DARE Creative Loafing stifle free speech!” Well, is it really free speech if the trolls are granted anonymity and are held to a different standard than our own writers? As editor-inchief, I actually care about what’s published on CL, and that should be extended to the comments section. Plus, with comments sections being at the bottom of the article, it was as if the trolls were literally getting the last word. And some of you seemed to be skipping reading the article and going straight to the comments section anyway. Social media companies like Facebook and Twitter have famously distanced themselves from the responsibilities of moderating what their users post because they claim they aren’t “publishing companies.” Well, we are a publishing company. So why should we act like a social media platform? People act like comments sections are some inalienable human right, but there’s really no historical analog for them—except for maybe the old-fashioned letters to the editor. Remember those? We’re bringing that back to the print edition of CL… if people write letters or emails anymore (just kidding, we know you do). If you really want your voice to be heard, guess what? You can still do that! Email comments or corrections directly to the editor via comments@cltampa.com—or send ‘em to 204 E. Henderson Ave., Tampa, Florida 33602. Letters should be a minimum of 150 words, refer to content that has appeared on CL, and must include the writer’s full name, address, and phone number for verification purposes. I promise you I’ll read them. And if it’s good enough, maybe we’ll print it in our letters to the editor page. You know, like the good old days—before comments sections.

“Is it really free speech if the trolls are granted anonymity?”

6 | JULY 2-8, 2020 | cltampa.com

JOEY MENDEZ OF CAMERA CREW

COVER

NAMU MYŌHŌ RENGE KYŌ: Tampa poet Yuki Jackson has a mantra for self-centering.

Cycles breaking

How I embraced my discomfort as an opportunity. By Yuki Jackson

ometimes my life feels like a record spinning in one direction. The same patterns, the cycle of karma. I’ve learned that in order to transform the patterns that cause me suffering, I have to deal with my past. During this pandemic, I’ve realized the value of staying in an uncomfortable space so I could face issues within myself that I had buried under the noise of “normal” living. I decided to embrace my discomfort as an opportunity. I remembered how I had told someone about a year before, how I felt disconnected from my own body due to a series of traumatic experiences. Repeated experiences of being violated caused me to not feel at home in my own body. At the time, I wasn’t ready to delve into what that meant nor take the action to overcome it. Now, based on some encouragement and self-reflection through my daily SGI Buddhist practice of chanting the phrase “Namu myoho renge kyo,” I saw “staying at home” as a metaphor to me staying in my own body. I began taking better care of my physical health. I spoke up whenever I felt even slightly disrespected. I wrote a letter addressing a family member about them sexually molesting me in my childhood. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Finally, I had arrived at the point where I had developed enough selfesteem to acknowledge the trauma I experienced and speak up about it. My actions to confront my childhood trauma took place around the same time that George Floyd was murdered by police officers. Immediately, I felt connected to the righteous

outrage and protests that began taking place in response to this injustice. While on the surface, what I was personally dealing with appeared to be separate from the wider societal issues, I saw how on both the micro and macro levels, we were collectively interrupting our cycles of suffering by speaking out against violations imposed upon our bodies. Similar to when a DJ puts their hand down to stop a record spinning in one direction in order to create a new sound, we are transforming our karma. Historically, Black people and women are taken advantage of and silenced. As a Black woman, I feel and carry the pain experienced by my ancestors and community alongside my own experiences. I write poetry as a way to make sense of these experiences and to share my voice with the hope that it will contribute to positive change. I recently completed writing my debut full-length poetry collection titled “Record” in which I speak about my experiences as the reincarnation of the divine feminine figure who originated in Africa and has over time, been mistreated and ignored but who now speaks for myself. Together with the Black Lives Matter movement, I now step forward to reclaim my body and amplify my voice. “I’ve come in peace to turn the tables, the new sound made when breaking the cycle” Editor’s note: This week’s cover is by Battleground co-founder Yuki Jackson ans local artist David Cabassa (@megasupremo). Bookmark yukijackson.com. Follow @yukijacksonpoet on Instagram and Twitter.

“I now step forward to reclaim my body and amplify my voice.”

8 | JULY 2-8, 2020 | cltampa.com

Pride and pain

By Dave Decker and Chandler Culotta

t. Pete Pride president Chrys Bundy challenged would-be parade goers thinking about the canceled plans to instead do everything they could to support Black artists and the Black Lives Matter movement. Locals leveled up when Pride marches melded into the Black Lives Matter one on Sunday. On Saturday, Tampa protesters saw one of their own hit by a car in Hyde Park. See some photos here and visit the rest via photos.cltampa.com. â€”Ray Roa

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10 | JULY 2-8, 2020 | cltampa.com

KELLY BENJAMIN

Cop talks

POLICE THE POLICE: Moderator Tru Pettigrew (L) speaks with Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan.

We have to start somewhere. By Kelly Benjamin

n Friday Juneteenth, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor spoke at a hastily thrown together press conference determined to make a substantial announcement that would placate protesters who've steadily taken to the city’s streets over the last several weeks. Those activists are demanding accountability from law enforcement and concrete policy changes to address decades of distrust between Tampa’s Black community and police. Castor said going forward, all investigations involving officer-involved shootings will be led by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, rather than internally to “safeguard the accountability, transparency, and objectivity of those investigations.” She also announced the creation of an official duty-to-intervene policy if an officer witnesses another officer using excessive force and added that, “I’ve created the Mayor’s Community Task Force on Policing to ensure we have direct feedback from our residents.” The night before Juneteenth, city staffers sent a flurry of emails inviting a select group of approximately 40 people to be on the task force. Yvette Lewis, President of Hillsborough NAACP told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that she received a direct phone call from Castor. “I told her I would attend but it can’t be another dog and pony show like Buckhorn’s Citizen Review Board,” Lewis said. Lewis was referring to Tampa’s Citizen

Review Board of the Police Department (CRB), which Mayor Buckhorn formed by executive order in 2015 after a protracted fight with the Tampa City Council over its creation and control. Buckhorn wanted power over the Board and to limit its ability to influence police policy—and he got his way. Today’s CRB has no authority, an agenda set by the police department and no ability to investigate complaints from the public. It has been widely criticized as being ineffective. After George Floyd protests rocked the city, calls to revamp the CRB grew louder prompting Tampa City Council to consider recreating it to allow for more community oversight and investigatory powers. The Council will hold a workshop on restructuring the CRB on July 16. On Saturday, June 20, at the first meeting of Mayor Castor’s Community Task Force on Policing, Castor—accompanied by Ashley Bauman, City of Tampa Director of Marketing and spokesperson for the mayor—attempted to eject this reporter from the River Center at Julian B. Lane Park. “You weren’t invited. Don’t make us kick you out of here,” Castor said. She was right, I wasn’t invited. The mayor and her staff hand-selected which community members could attend her discussion on policing, and they didn’t pick me. On Tuesday, Bauman told CL that our reporter was asked to leave on Saturday and added that he seemed to want to be forcibly

PROTESTS

removed. “But we’re not in the business of doing that so we let him stay,” Bauman told CL. She said that the group would continue to meet with the selected members and that CL’s reporter is not invited to the next meeting on July 18 as it’s off the record. But at her Juneteenth presser, Castor said that “community members will have the opportunity to participate by sending in questions and concerns during the public comment portion of the meeting on Facebook Live.” There was no public comment at Saturday’s meeting nor a Facebook Live. So our reporter stuck around. Bauman said that decision to make a livestream available changed when some task force invitees felt uncomfortable with the idea. However, during the meeting, the task force’s paid moderator, Tru Pettigrew, said that he didn’t see a problem with CL’s reporter attending the off the record meeting. Bauman told CL that the decision wasn’t Pettigrew’s to make. Bauman added that members of the task force group were selected by City of Tampa staff from a cross section of community organizers, leaders and activists. The city would not share a list of the members, but Bauman said that the members could self-identify. She added that the meetings are meant to be off the record so that participants can be open about their emotions. According to the city, findings being collected by USF will be made available to the public after the task force meetings wrap. Despite the Mayor’s protest, our reporter

joined the room full of assorted, masked-up community leaders, organizers, students, and clergy sitting disturbingly less than six-feet apart around assigned tables, each one furnished with a casually dressed cop prepared for a tough conversation. After a short speech from the mayor in which she vowed transparency in tackling issues with the police department (while simultaneously lamenting my presence to the crowd), she left, presumably to join WWE stars Dave Bautista and Titus O’Neil for something called a “Love Walk” downtown. (local ABC affiliate WFTS reported that O’Neil opened the “Love Walk” by stating that “we can’t break down systemic issues that have been plaguing this country for years by sitting and having conversations. We have to take action.” It’s unclear if his statement was vetted by the mayor’s office). After a brief powerpoint presentation by Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan running through Tampa’s demographics (low number of black officers relative to population) and police budget ($167 million, 90% of which is personnel costs) the Task Force moderator took over. Tru Pettigrew, a professional speaker and stylish workshop leader was flown in from North Carolina to guide the discussion. “Share your experiences at your tables” regarding racism and discrimination in law enforcement, he advised. “Don’t be dismissive.” The cop at my table was Corporal Jared Douds, a 26-year TPD veteran who leads the department’s training unit. Douds listened intently as each of the Black task force volunteers at the table described in great detail their

“The mayor and her staff hand-selected which community members could attend.”

cltampa.com | JULY 2-8, 2020 | 11

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experiences with racism within local law enforcement and instances of “biking while Black” and “driving while Black” and “existing while Black.” When asked if he agreed with their conclusion that structural racism influences policies and procedures within the department, Douds said “No, but I can understand why you could see it that way.” According to at least four other attendees, a similar situation played out at several tables in the room: Folks from the community would express frustration regarding incidents of discrimination or brutality with the police, and the cop at the table would deny that a systemic problem exists. Douds did suggest that perhaps members of the public should ride along with officers during training and critique interactions with the public in order to offer another layer of accountability. That idea generally received a favorable response. “Overall, it was frustrating,” D’Mario “KD” Edgecombe, a 22-year-old activist and University of South Florida (USF) student with the newly formed Black Collective Movement, told CL when contacted by phone after the meeting. “I don’t think it was really a productive meeting.” Edgecombe is among a new crop of local activists leading numerous protests through the streets of Tampa. His group is calling for the defunding and eventual abolishment of the police department (actions that aren’t as “radical” as most opponents would have you believe). BCM has also led the call for Mayor Castor to fire Chief Dugan over his handling of recent protests where officers used chemical weapons and projectiles on largely peaceful protesters in downtown Tampa. Last Thursday, spokesperson Bauman told CL in a text message that, “Dugan is the chief at TPD and there have been no discussions about a change at the top.” Dugan expressed regret over the incident but maintains that his back is against the wall. “If we show up and take action, we’re [accused of being] heavy handed,” Dugan told “Fox & Friends” on June 25. “...but I assure you, we are not going to take a knee, we are going to stand up and defend our city. We are the guardians of the city.” During the Task Force recess, Edgecomb along with a few other young activists cornered Dugan near several boxes of Dunkin Donuts to vent their grievances. “I appreciated that he was open to listening,” Edgecombe told CL. During our conversation, he partially walked back his demand to fire Dugan and said he was open to placing him on probation until he addresses multiple issues within the police department. “Ultimately, we’re still calling for the abolishment of the police. But that’s a long term goal.” The city also invited USF criminology professor Dr. Bryanna Fox to oversee collecting

recommendations from the Mayor’s Task Force. Fox brought in a group of her graduate students equipped with voice recorders to fan out to each table documenting conversations and policy recommendations. When the Task Force concludes, Fox says her group will “provide feedback on the perceptions of law enforcement and recommend evidence-based/scientifically-validated programs and policies to consider to address prominent issues.” There is a fair degree of pessimism among participants who fear the task force could be just one more committee set up as a release valve to talk about problems within the police ad nauseam. Those participants worry that the task force will not definitively address issues about unfair policing with concrete policy. Still, there was general consensus that the dialogue is healthy. “They need to hear us, they need to listen to us as people.” Edgecombe said. “And the mayor, as a former police chief, needs to stay in the room and have the conversation with us.” The Black Collective Movement did have one other opportunity to meet with the Mayor at her office downtown just as the protests began to engulf the city. “She showed up in a tracksuit with her dog.” Edgecombe said. “It was very casual. Discussing police violence and racism in our community shouldn’t be that casual. There’s nothing casual about Black people dying.” The next Community Task Force on Policing meeting will be held on July 18. CL hopes to attend. Things to note as protestors, activists and the City of Tampa world towards police reform • Mayor’s Community Task Force on Policing will meet throughout the summer to brainstorm ideas to address policy. • Citizen Review Board 2.0: The Tampa City Council is currently reviewing an ordinance to restructure the failed CRB to give it more independence from the Mayor and investigatory power. A workshop is scheduled on the ordinance for July 16. • Defunding the Police: The Mayor will announce her proposed City Budget to the City Council in August. Advocates for defunding, demilitarizing, and reallocating funds to the Black community intend to be a part of the conversation. Several cities nationwide have implemented some sort of defunding initiative. • The NAACP, ACLU, and all six law enforcement agencies in Hillsborough County are holding monthly meetings to hammer our policy changes that would be uniformly implemented by each agency. So far, the group has met once with law enforcement appearing to make a good faith effort to address concerns.

cltampa.com | JULY 2-8, 2020 | 13

Striking out

Tampa Police Chief lost the public’s trust, and it’s his own damn fault. By Colin Wolf

n June 22, Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan stood in front of reporters and vented. He said he’s at a loss of what to do with a beleaguered department that has witnessed near daily Black Lives Matter protests over the past month. “The police, we always have everybody’s back and nobody has our back,” said Dugan, a public servant whose salary is made possible by taxpayers. “Right now the officers feel like they can’t win. And I would have to agree with them.” The fact that he whole-heartedly thinks there’s a “winner,” at the end of all this, speaks volumes. But as Dugan stood alone at the podium, dressed in a button-down shirt rather than a traditional uniform (perhaps to protect the uniform and/or colleagues), the moment felt like a stark shift in his career. His comments came after he defended an officer that held a gun on a Black woman in Tampa last Thursday during a felony traffic stop, a situation that has since exploded on social media. In the video, 23-year-old Joneshia Wilkerson is seen filming a Tampa Police officer as he points his gun in her direction while she waits in her friend’s car, which was reported stolen. In the clip, Wilkerson and her passenger can be heard repeatedly asking the officer why a gun is pointed in their direction, and reiterating that they’re not armed. “The last thing I need is a gun pointed to my head,” she says. As the Tampa Bay Times reported, it was ultimately discovered that the car was a rental with a string of late payments and was reported stolen to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office. While Wilkerson and her passenger were briefly detained by TPD, they were also not charged with any crime. The video now has nearly 100,000 views, and made such an immediate impact it prompted TPD to release body-cam footage of the incident and post it to YouTube arguing it countered Wilkerson’s “false narrative.” The department stated in a press release that a gun was never directly pointed at Wilkerson’s head, like she claimed, and that the officer was “calmly explaining each step to the occupants.” “How would you like to be a police officer that arrests somebody, that could end up spurring more riots in the city just by doing your job?” Dugan (who oddly enough is the rare Tampa Police chief who’s stood up to unions about anything) asked at the June 22 press conference. “Whether you are right or wrong, it doesn’t matter right now. No one is listening and any justified action is getting twisted.”

Citizens have a right to film the police; Dugan admitted as much. But what the chief didn’t mention at the press conference is that Wilkerson had every reason to film that officer, and perhaps if she didn’t, this would be a much darker story. But rather than simply adding clarity to her video, his department decided to respond by posting in her Instagram mentions that she’s in fact wrong, and then revealing all of her personal information, including her address, phone number and date of birth. Wilkerson, who currently serves in the Army Reserve, says she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, which this incident only compounded. She also said that since the department released her personal info, she’s received harassing phone calls, including being called the N-word, and is now living in a hotel because she doesn’t feel safe at home. “Why can’t you all just leave me alone! You could’ve muted my personal information!” said Wilkerson in an Instagram post. In an email exchange with Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, Tampa Police Public Information Officer Jamel Lanee defended the department’s decision to doxx Wilkerson by stating that her information is public record. “We responded with information that was public record,” wrote Lanee. “In our efforts to ensure we’re a transparent agency, we released all public information in an effort to combat the false narrative of police brutality being presented on social media.” But when asked if it was appropriate, given the political climate, to possibly put Wilkerson in danger, Lanee replied, “If Wilkerson feels endangered, she can contact authorities.” Obviously, the next question here is which authorities should Wilkerson call, exactly? To recap: Wilkerson had a gun pointed at her. No charges were filed, and then she was doxxed by an agency bent on fighting a “false narrative.” So, again, who should she call after all trust has eroded? It’s also telling that the TPD felt it was necessary to release the personal information of a private citizen and not the officer involved. If you’re wondering, the officer’s name is Derek Nadeau, but we only know this because after repeated requests for the officer’s name, it was eventually released. Lanee explained that the officer’s name wasn’t initially made public because, “no one asked.” (Notice we mention the officer’s name, but not his address, phone number and date of birth.) Coincidently, Dugan did mention in the press conference that he would

14 | JULY 2-8, 2020 | cltampa.com

TAMPAPD/TWITTER

LOCAL NEWS

DOOGEYMAN: ‘When the boogeyman comes knocking, we’ll show up. They won’t.’ still help the “hypocrites” that don’t like him, and emphasized that if they called his police force, they would still do their jobs. “We always have everyone’s back. No one has ours right now,” said Dugan. “Every one one of these people that’s out there protesting, that are against police brutality, that are against the police, when they call 911 tonight, we’ll come and help them. Some of these people are just hypocrites and they’re out there just saying things.” It’s incredibly odd that any police chief should feel the need to say that he’ll help people he doesn’t like. It’s also baffling that the police chief wants credit for something that he’s paid to do by taxpayers, and more importantly that he swore an oath to uphold. (Side note: three days later, Dugan was on “Fox & Friends” questionably calling an incident an “ambush” on officers). Not only that, but Dugan also wants his supporters to now come out of the woodwork and defend his job. During the conference Dugan,

who uttered “law and order,” called on the “good people,” which are presumably those who held a “Back the Blue” rally last week, to start complaining about protesters. “I want the good people who support the police to start stepping up. If you are sitting in traffic and it’s being blocked, you need to step up and complain,” he said. If Dugan’s strategy to deal with protesters calling for better policing practices is to call for insurgent protesters and false complaints, then all hope for reform is lost, and this might already be the case. Despite Dugan’s words, his actions show a complete resistance to change. On June 19, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor held a press conference on local police reform, announcing a new task force, an updated excessive force policy, and news that investigations into officer-involved shootings will now be led by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, rather than internally.

“His actions show a complete resistance to change.”

“I believe good can come from these difficult times that we are in right now. I believe we can move forward toward a new level of connection and partnership with our community members,” said Castor. “The first step is listening and hearing the community concerns, and then, affecting real change.” One person who was notably absent from this press conference was Dugan, which is strange because you’d think a major announcement about local police reform would’ve at least had the police chief present. Lanee told CL that Dugan had another commitment and could not attend the press conference. Of course, Dugan’s absence from the meeting is largely symbolic, because he clearly can’t even pretend to listen or smile and nod for the cameras. Last week’s incident involving Wilkerson had at least two points that are worth looking at when it comes to police reform—perhaps preemptively drawing a weapon for a traffic stop isn’t always the best idea, and maybe TPD should revisit its social media policies. Over the past year, the Tampa Police Department has had numerous social media gaffes, and since the protests emerged after the death of George Floyd, the agency has used its platforms as another weapon in its arsenal. When asked if there were any recent changes to the department’s social media protocols, Lanee said “no,” adding, “We have always responded when necessary to social media posts and immediately to posts that are false.” At CL, we know this fact all too well. Besides posting a Donald Trump campaign video from the official TPD Twitter account, the department also dropped into our Facebook comment

section last month after we reported on officers using pepper-spray on protesters, specifically a 17-year-old girl with an umbrella. Rather than replying to our multiple attempts to reach a rep for Mayor Castor via email, the department suggested in our comments that we change our headline to “Criminals attacking officers” with the hashtag #TellTheFullStory. Ironically, that incredibly laughable hashtag has now become a rallying cry for protesters, who claim the department continues to use chemical weapons and rubber bullets at local protests. Not to mention the department’s habitual use of the “Thin Blue Line” flag, which not only represents police solidarity, but also a history drenched in white supremacy. At best, the flag embodies a non-communal mentality of “us versus them.” Sixty miles away from Tampa, Sarasota County Sheriff’s Capt. Ryan Brown told his deputies that they’re no longer allowed to wear the “thin blue line” logo while on duty (Brown cited “uniformity” but did acknowledge that law enforcement is in “unique times” right now.) In arguably his most on-brand moment of the year, Dugan ended his press conference by staring into the camera and saying, “When the boogeyman comes knocking, we’ll show up. They won’t.” The moment was presumably meant to show his commitment to the job, and that despite the critics, he’s still worthy of the public’s trust. But his words felt exceedingly hollow.His total inability to even recognize a problem only paints himself as a “boogeyman” and reinforces what protesters have been saying all along: If Dugan can’t accept reform, then he needs to resign.

“Good can come from these difficult times that we are in right now.”

KIMBERLY DEFALCO

EYES OPEN: Even former chief Mayor Castor seems more amenable to change.

cltampa.com | JULY 2-8, 2020 | 15

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Public enemy no. 2

Sure, Trump could lose. But Bill Barr will torch the Constitution on the way out. By Jeffrey C. Billman

aggie Haberman tweeted something the other day that I found remarkable. Promoting a story on President Trump’s about voting by mail, the New York Times White House correspondent wrote that Trump was “accelerating his attacks on the integrity of the elections” because he was “unable to stop [Joe] Biden’s rise or modulate his own behavior.” Even facing humiliation in November, the president can’t control himself or stop tilting at conspiratorial windmills. He’s a cokehead on a bender, in other words, or a toddler who needs a nap, only he has the federal government at his disposal and no compunction about using it to his own ends. So we can agree, then, that Donald Trump is the most dangerous man in America (and if you believe his niece, the world.) But barring a dramatic reversal, he’ll leave office in six months with few meaningful victories beyond the ideologues he’s appointed to the bench. In the long run, the second most dangerous man in America might leave a more damaging legacy. Since his appointment last year, Attorney General William Barr has enabled and encouraged Trump’s autocratic fetishes, laying the groundwork for a vast expansion of executive power that answers to neither court nor Congress, aided by a Department of Justice that has forsaken any shred of independence to brazenly function as a White House consigliere. From the outset, Barr made clear that he believed the president could do as he pleased— and that he viewed himself foremost as Trump’s legal advocate. Barr’s wildly misleading four-page summary of the Mueller report allowed the president to claim vindication—until the full report later showed that Trump had almost certainly obstructed justice and would have been indicted were he not the president. Barr has still not released the internal memo on which he based his conclusion that Trump did not break the law, though, according to an unsolicited memo he sent the DOJ and Trump’s lawyers in 2018—which might have played a role in his nomination a few months later—he didn’t believe interfering in the investigation was a crime in any event. After that, he set out to undermine the Mueller investigation piece by piece. He assigned a U.S. attorney to investigate the origins of the Russia investigation and another to reevaluate the investigation into former national security

adviser Michael Flynn, who plead guilty to lying to the FBI. The DOJ dropped charges against Flynn. It also reduced its sentencing recommendation for Trump pal Roger Stone, who lied to Congress; four career prosecutors withdrew from the case in protest. Over the last few weeks, the full range of Barr’s subservience has come into focus. Amid the George Floyd demonstrations, for instance, Barr personally ordered law enforcement to attack peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square to make way for Trump’s photo-op in front of a church. Then, following Trump’s lead, Barr baselessly fearmongered about voting by mail— though, also like Trump, he has voted by mail. On June 24, a federal prosecutor testified that Barr ordered prosecutors to reduce the government’s sentencing recommendation in Stone’s case after Trump tweeted his disapproval. Another DOJ prosecutor testified that Barr forced the antitrust division to investigate mergers in the cannabis industry because he hates weed and to investigate California automobile makers that committed to Obama-era emissions standards following—wait for it—a Trump tweet. And we’ve not yet touched the Friday Night/ Saturday Afternoon Massacre—Barr’s hackneyed effort to remove Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, the office that prosecuted former Trump attorney Michael Cohen and is now investigating cases involving the president, the Trump Organization, and current Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani. On June 19, Barr announced that Berman had resigned and would be replaced by an administration buddy. But Berman said he had not resigned. And because he’d been appointed by judges, only Trump could fire him. So the next day, Barr announced that Trump had fired Berman, though Trump seemed to deny it. But Berman stepped down anyway; having been fired, his deputy, not Trump’s lackey, would take over the office and its pending investigations until the Senate approved a replacement. Barr gave himself a headache for nothing. The question, yet unanswered, is why he so urgently wanted Berman out of the way— whether, perhaps, he might want to stall an investigation through November. Barr says Trump merely wanted to install his own man—Securities and Exchange Committee chairman Jay Clayton, who has no prosecutorial

INFORMED DISSENT

LET’S ALL GO TO THE BARR: Bill sees an unaccountable, quasi-monarchical unitary executive. experience—in that post, and he dismisses concerns about his motives as “conspiracy theories.” Feel free to roll your eyes. As Donald Ayer, a deputy attorney general during the George H.W. Bush administration, told the judiciary committee last Wednesday, “I was privileged to serve in the Department of Justice under two USDOJ Republican and one Democratic president, and I am here because I believe that William Barr poses the greatest threat in my lifetime to our rule of law and to public trust in it. That’s because he does not believe in its core principle: that no person is above the law.” House Democrats have shown little appetite for impeaching Barr, which is their only recourse. Senate Republicans, of course, would

acquit him, and besides, with Biden up by landslide margins, they’re not eager to do anything that might alter the course of the election. On a pragmatic level, that’s understandable. But the more Barr’s vision of an unaccountable, quasi-monarchical unitary executive becomes entrenched—the longer it exists without a sustained pushback—the harder it’s going to be to get the toothpaste back in the tube. Scream into the void if you must. But don’t let his flagrant corruption and abuses of power go unchallenged. Demand his resignation. Dare Republicans to defend the indefensible. The rule of law may depend on it. After all, history tells us that once an executive obtains power, it’s seldom given back. @jeffreybillman

“Don’t let his flagrant corruption and abuses of power go unchallenged.”

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The year of hope A satirist gets serious about 2020.

he coronavirus has now doubled the U.S. death toll from the Vietnam War. Within weeks, it will surpass the nuking of Hiroshima. The killing of George Floyd wrought riots in the streets, yet police shootings continue to mount. And for all their efforts, the Founding Fathers never stopped to pose an obvious question: How can we save the nation from someday being destroyed by a large orange raccoon? If it all feels rather apocalyptic, take solace, fellow citizens. All this misery seems to have delivered us a rare bout of introspection. Look beneath the hood, and you’ll find a seismic shift in public sentiment, suggesting we may have finally decided to mend our ways.Here are six reasons for hope, by the numbers. 54 The percentage of Americans who believe protesters were justified in burning a Minneapolis police precinct. OK, so no one really likes torching government buildings, since it amounts to setting fire to our own property. Yet with police killings now caught on tape for all the world to see, the old tropes of “don’t get arrested,” “don’t resist,” and “he probably deserved it” are being roundly detonated on instant replay. Five years ago, only half the country considered racism a “big problem.” Today it’s at 76%. Meanwhile, just 7% believe our police system is essentially sound. When an awakening arrives of this magnitude, things change quickly – even in the most unlikely of places. 98-0 That was the vote in the Iowa House for a new law that bans chokeholds and bars officers from working again in the state if they’ve been fired for misconduct. More surprising: It was approved by a Republican majority. Then there’s Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. Only a few weeks ago he was single-handedly holding up an anti-lynching bill. Now he’s seeking a nationwide ban on no-knock warrants, the kind that put eight bullets into emergency room technician Breonna Taylor as she slept. Even the Human Incendiary Device, Donald Trump, is feeling the pressure. He signed an executive order that would track police misconduct and raise standards for use of force. Yes, it’s meaningless, since it’s nothing more than a series of “guiding principles.” But when a man with Ted Bundy’s sense of empathy feels obliged to feign compassion, you know the times are changing. If Black Lives Matter was a presidential candidate, it would crush Trump in a landslide. BLM’s current approval rating: 62%, nearly double what it was four years ago. Donald Trump’s: 40. 1/3 The percentage of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” revenue propped up by a single

advertiser, MyPillow. It’s hard to have a moderately sane country when top-rated news hosts are triggered by “Sesame Street” specials on racism. Combined with talk radio and an army of frothing websites, one could argue that Fear Thy Neighbor Television is the greatest propaganda force since the Third Reich, dispensing an alternate reality where the white man’s besieged, the villain de jour is coming to take your riding lawn mower, and the only road to salvation is to give all our money to the “job creators.” As Fox’s resident blueblood recently put it: “This may be a lot of things, this moment we are living through. But it is definitely not about black lives. And remember that when they come for you.” Yet the boardroom caste has belatedly discovered they’re funding the wrong side of history. Carlson’s show is hemorrhaging advertisers, an exodus that includes Disney, Papa John’s, T-Mobile, Pacific Life and Farmers Insurance. When the Beast loses its primary source of nutrition, good things are in store.So the next time you see a Wendy’s commercial vowing nebulous solidarity, think of it not as another shallow attempt to ingratiate. Think of it as the dawn of a transformational moment in the executive suite. They may not understand it all. They may not even agree. But they’re getting the distinct sense they can no longer be seen in polite society with the Tucker Carlsons of the world, lest they imperil their one true love—money. 29 The number of states with surging Covid cases. No, this is not actually a good thing. But it’s what happens when half the country believes it’s mastered epidemiology by glancing at a Facebook meme. And in a painful, backward way, it may be the one thing that spares the nation from Death By Gooberism. The surge is concentrated in the sunbelt states, where governors fear that adhering to science makes them look weak and effete. (Point of order: You’re doing just fine with that on your own, pal.) So they pretended a global pandemic just went away. Think of it as the All Lives Matter Except Grandma’s Campaign. The peasantry was sent back to work, the job creators remained safely ensconced at home, and Trump could finally launch his much anticipated “Risk Death to Celebrate Me” summer tour. If tens of thousands of more people died, so be it—as long as the death part is handled by a different department. We’ve become akin to the country that still uses bloodletting and leeches after the rest of the world discovers penicillin.

POLITICS

GAGE SKIDMORE

By Pete Kotz

TUCK YOU, DUDE: A top-rated news host is triggered by ‘Sesame Street’ specials on racism.

Yet there’s an upside to this self-inflicted agony. Once upon a time less than half the nation thought climate change was real. Then Mother Nature sent hurricanes, rising seas and 100year floods to the homelands of Gooberville, the sunbelt. Suddenly, climate change could no longer be dismissed as someone else’s problem. Belief rose to 80%. Consider the latest Covid surge another Pavlovian lesson, targeting the Disciples of Mean Jesus who won’t make the smallest sacrifice for thy neighbor. And it’s carrying the gift of enlightenment. 1.4 % Biden’s lead among voters 65 and older. No one’s confusing Biden with the Second Coming. Or even a minor saint who’s nonetheless pleasant at dinner parties. But when the alternative is the World’s Most Vile Attempted Human ™, it’s a bit like saying, “I know we should get rid of Stalin, but shouldn’t we wait to find the perfect replacement?” No. We must drive the serpent from the temple. Now. And our elders may prove our saviors.In 2016, Trump won in part by a 13-point lead with the elder vote. He did so with a Republican playbook that’s worked for decades: Pound them with fear of changing world. Make them tremble at the immigrant hordes invading our shores. Promise that the country could be great again if only they elected an incompetent daddy’s boy, just like the great presidents of yesteryear. It wasn’t exactly a master’s class in propaganda. But if you’re old, isolated, and frame your worldview from the nightly prattle of Sean Hannity, you believed.This was especially important because about 70% of older people vote in presidential elections. By contrast, the under-30 crowd hasn’t broken 50% in the last 40 years. (Want someone to blame for our odious leaders,

Sweet Youth of America? Examine the mirror tomorrow morning.) But Trump’s handling of the coronavirus has made his intentions clear. In a choice between the Dow Jones Industrial Average or some 70-year-old’s continued breathing, he’s definitely going with the Dow. That’s left older voters to bail en masse. Biden and Trump are now in a statistical dead heat. Weirdly enough, when the elderly must choose who to fear more – a Mexican meatpacker or a president doing his best to make them dead – the Mexican doesn’t seem so scary anymore. 25% Biden’s current lead among women. In 2016, Trump received just 41% of the women’s vote, a nonetheless impressive showing for a serial sex offender. But among white women alone, he rose to 52%. This tragic figure led some to believe that women could eventually prove as dumb as men. Yet polling now shows a full recovery from this bout of madness. Biden’s lead among women is the highest in polling history. It’s not only enough to boot the man-child-in-chief, but may well portend the coming of femaledominant governance. Judging by man’s track record alone, we should already have a constitutional amendment barring anyone in possession of a penis from public office. We’re the people who brought you school massacres, congressional gridlock, corporations as humans, the anti-Christ McConnell, and the most expensive health care in the world. And these are just the appetizers. Even if women just decided to, say, value human life as much as the stock market, we’d be rocketing toward a bold new world. The numbers say that world is coming.

“Can we save the U.S from being destroyed by a large orange raccoon?”

cltampa.com | JULY 2-8, 2020 | 19

20 | JULY 2-8, 2020 | cltampa.com

Strength in numbers

To make it more obvious, here’s additional science on mask wearing. By Tina Hesman Saey, Science News infected from passing the virus to someone else. “We believe now that we are learning more about this novel virus that there is transmission from asymptomatic individuals,” Quigley says. Studies have determined that people can transmit the virus for a couple of days before symptoms start, and that some people who never develop symptoms can be contagious (SN: 6/9/20). In Singapore, researchers used contact-tracing data to estimate that about 40%-50% of COVID-19 cases from January 23 to February 26 were transmitted by people who weren’t yet having symptoms. The same team found that in Tianjin, China, the amount of such presymptomatic transmission was even higher. From January 21 to February 22, 60%-80% of cases were attributed to spread before symptoms appeared, the researchers report June 22 in eLife. Since even seemingly healthy people can spread COVID-19 if they’re infected but don’t know it, health officials now recommend that everyone wear masks in public. Is there evidence that a cloth mask can block virus spread? Many studies have tested surgical masks and N95 masks and found that they reduce viral spread, but until now, there hasn’t been much evidence that cloth masks also work (SN: 4/9/20). Matthew Staymates, a mechanical engineer and fluid dynamicist at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Md., usually works on devising ways to detect narcotics and other illicit substances in the air. But while he was on mandatory telework, Staymates found he missed doing experiments. So he convinced his supervisors to let him bring home some equipment so he could evaluate whether cloth masks cut down on the number of potentially virus-laden particles that spew from people’s mouths and noses when they talk, cough or breathe. He set up the apparatus in his woodshop and filmed himself coughing without and with a mask. He ultimately tested 26 types of cloth mask, including ones made from common sewing fabrics like lightweight flannel, cotton T-shirts, quilting cotton, cotton-polyester blends and polypropylene from reusable shopping bags. Staymates didn’t use any viruses in his experiments, so he can’t say whether one type of mask does a better job of catching viruses than another. But using high-speed visualizations, he could determine which masks blocked the trajectory of air coming from his lungs when

SCIENCE

KIMBERLY DEFALCO

o mask or not to mask? To the dismay of many public health experts, that remains a question up for debate in the United States even as the coronavirus pandemic rages on. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that everyone wear masks when in public to curb the spread of COVID-19. But as lockdowns have lifted, many people haven’t followed that advice, and case numbers are rising in some states. In response, some states like California have made wearing face coverings mandatory in public. But in Nebraska, the governor has blocked city- and county-level efforts to require wearing masks in public. Other states, such as Texas, recommend, but don’t require face coverings in public, though some counties within the state are requiring masks. At the individual level, some people have protested that their personal freedoms are being infringed upon by being told to cover their mouths and noses. Others are masking up whenever they leave their homes. Meanwhile, scientists have been collecting data on whether cloth masks worn by members of the general public can cut down on the spread of the coronavirus. Science News rounded up the latest data and talked to experts about how well these masks really protect against the coronavirus. Why are masks now recommended by public health experts? At the beginning of the outbreak, public health officials thought that the virus was primarily transmitted by people touching contaminated objects or surfaces and then touching their face. Regular handwashing and refraining from touching your face were the main prescriptions (SN: 3/4/20). The CDC and the World Health Organization both at first said that healthy people didn’t need to wear masks. But it has become clear that contact with virus-laden objects isn’t the major way that the coronavirus passes from person to person, says immunologist Robert Quigley. He is senior vice president and regional medical director of International SOS, a company based in Trevose, Penn., that helps devise strategies for mitigating medical and security risks. Instead, researchers now think COVID-19 is spread mainly by someone inhaling the virus expelled by another person. That explains the reasoning behind the CDC’s recommendation that everyone wear a mask in public: The covering may lessen the risk of mask wearers who don’t know they’re

YOU KNOW BETTER: Tampa Mayor Jane Castor’s indoor mask policy is not optional. he coughed or talked. Wearing any face covering, including bandanas or neck warmers, could at least partially block the cloud of droplets released in a cough, the experiment showed. Masks that are fitted to the nose, cheeks and chin did a better job of blocking droplet flow, and,

theoretically, of stopping viruses, too, Staymates describes in a blog post on the NIST website. Provided that people wear the masks properly, that is. “At one point, I pulled my mask down below my nose in the video” and coughed, he says. The video showed a jet of air streaming from his nose as he coughed.

“Even low-effectiveness masks could cut transmission rates by a third.”

cltampa.com | JULY 2-8, 2020 | 21

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KRISEMAN/TWITTER

READ MY LIPS, RICK: St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman (R) lives in his mask lately. “I was stunned when I saw that footage,” he says. “I was really surprised at how much air comes out of your nose when you cough.” Now when he sees people with their masks covering their mouths, but not their noses, “I [think] ‘No. Don’t do that. You’re defeating the purpose,’” he says. Does a cloth mask prevent me from catching the virus from someone else? Alone, cloth masks aren’t great at protecting the wearer, says Abba Gumel, a mathematical biologist at Arizona State University in Tempe. Cloth masks can vary widely in the amount of particles, including virus, they prevent from reaching the mask wearer. The best cloth masks, which are fitted to the face and made of optimal materials, such as tightly woven cotton, might block up to 80% of particles, while most — especially masks that aren’t fitted properly, or made of flimsy material — filter out only about 20%50% of particles, he says. But even the lowest efficiency mask, “is still better than nothing,” Gumel says. Cloth masks are for protecting other people from you, Quigley stresses. “Let’s make no bones about it; the cloth mask is not anywhere near as effective in preventing one from inhaling the coronavirus compared with a medical-grade N95 mask,” he says. Surgical masks may block 70%-90% of infectious particles from reaching the wearer, and N95 masks filter out more than 95%, Gumel

says. Medical-grade N95 masks have been in short supply and should be reserved for health care workers and others who are high risk of being exposed to the coronavirus, he and other experts agree. Masks are better at shielding others from the mask wearer than at protecting the wearer because when someone wearing a face covering breathes, talks, coughs or sneezes, most of the air carrying any potential viruses is filtered through the mask, increasing the chances of catching most of the infectious particles. Inhaling while wearing a mask that doesn’t form a seal on the face may draw in unfiltered air from the sides, top or bottom, as well as air filtered through the mask. Does everybody need to wear a mask? There is strength in numbers, Gumel and colleagues found. In simulations of epidemics with a low rate of transmission, widespread mask wearing is “very, very effective at reducing hospitalizations and mortality,” he says. If half the population wore masks that block half of particles, transmission rates could also be roughly halved, Gumel and colleagues report April 21 in Infectious Disease Modeling. Even low-effectiveness cloth masks that block only 20% of viral particles could cut transmission rates by a third, provided 80% of people

wore the coverings, the researchers estimate. In areas where transmission rates are high, if 80% of people wore masks that block half of infectious particles, 17%-45% of projected deaths over two months might be prevented, the researchers calculate. Those calculations are in line with estimates made by other scientists. Epidemics could be brought under control if everyone wore a mask all the time when in public, even if face masks are only 50% effective, researchers report June 10 in the Proceedings of Royal Society A. And even though masks are less effective at protecting the wearer, personal protection went up as a greater percentage of people wore masks in the researchers’ calculations. That’s because “my mask protects you, your mask protects me,” the researchers write, so more mask wearing means greater protection for everybody. Some real-world data also suggest masks are effective at helping curb the spread of the coronavirus. George Wehby and Wei Lyu, health policy researchers at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, tracked daily coronavirus case counts in 15 states and Washington, D.C., that mandated face coverings for the general public in some settings like grocery stores, during the study period from April 8 to May 15. The pair also monitored case counts in states that

“If everybody wore a face mask, we’d be doing a lot better.”

required masks only for essential employees, such as restaurant workers, health care providers and police or firefighters. States that required everyone to wear masks saw small, but steady declines in daily case counts after instituting the mandate compared with counts in the one to five days before the mandates took effect, the researchers report June 16 in Health Affairs. By the time mask orders had been in place for 21 days, daily case counts had declined by 2 percentage points. An estimated 230,000 to 450,000 coronavirus cases may have been prevented between April 8 and May22 because people wore masks, the team calculates. The researchers accounted for shelter-inplace orders and other public health measures, but can’t say for sure that masks are the sole reason for the decline, Wehby says. Requiring employees, but not the general public, to wear masks didn’t lower case counts, the researchers found. But that might be because businesses are often already requiring employees to wear masks, so the state mandates are just enforcing measures that are already in place. “Masks work, research is supporting that,” Wehby says. “Masks are an alternative to some of the strict social distancing measures. They don’t replace [social distancing], but where social distancing cannot be enacted, mask use makes common sense.”Gumel agrees. “If everybody wore [one], we’d be doing a lot better.”

cltampa.com | JULY 2-8, 2020 | 23

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24 | JULY 2-8, 2020 | cltampa.com

Shit Happened THURSDAY 25

SATURDAY 27

Florida’s most-searched term on Dictionary. com amid the pandemic is ‘social distance.’ Still no word on how Florida scored on its reading comprehension test though.

MONDAY 29 Despite an HOA order, former Pasco County Sheriff Deputy Sean Kennedy refuses to remove the Blue Lives Matter flag flying above his garage. What’s that thing conservatives say about obeying the rules?

FRIDAY 26

KIMBERLY DEFALCO

Pinellas County Trump supporters want to set the world record for biggest ‘Trumptilla.’ However, organizers told CL that an official from the Guinness Book won’t be there. I guess we’ll have to take the right-wingers’ word on it.

Florida manatee deaths are up 20 percent in 2020, and experts point to COVID-19 as a factor. Nothing is sacred these days.

TUESDAY 30 Temple Terrace Public Library asks library card holders to stop microwaving books in attempts to kill the coronavirus. What’s that thing about reading comprehension again? So much shit, happening all the time via cltampa.com/news.

cltampa.com | JULY 2-8, 2020 | 25

26 | JULY 2-8, 2020 | cltampa.com

RESTAURANTS

RECIPES

Big ideas

DINING GUIDES

Pinellas restaurateurs navigate the COVID-19 storm.

magine a sun-drenched California vineyard. Row upon row of leafy green vines fill the undulating hills of the Central Coast landscape. But as you reach the center of Halter Ranch’s 281-acre vineyards, a monster appears. It’s not, however, a “Game of Thrones” dragon breathing fire, but rather the Ancestry Tree which dates from the same War of the Roses time frame. The gargantuan iron oak seems impossibly broad. Indeed, it is the world’s largest Coast Live Oak. The multiple gnarled trunks rise, but the branches are so long that they bend earthbound again creating a natural pergola which filters the sunlight to dapple the ground like a romantic fairyland. It’s here, drunk with love, and perhaps some wonderful Paso Robles meritage blend, that Zach Feinstein proposed to Christine Padilla, his long time business partner. For a couple in their early 30s, they’ve had extraordinary success. In six short years, they’ve together developed a diverse portfolio of four successful restaurant concepts in northern Pinellas through savvy and hard work: Dunedin’s Black Pearl, The Living Room, Sonder Social Club, and Iron Oak BBQ just north in Palm Harbor. The couple honed their management skills overseeing 1000-plus Burger King corporate franchises across the globe, but really had an interest in fine dining. Zach is quick to add that “in the macho world of restaurants, Christina doesn’t always get full credit for being an owner.” Nine months ago they welcomed a daughter, Sofia Rose, into the family. On March 10 they moved into an expansive new home as a reward for their labors. And on March 16, COVID-19 closed their restaurant empire down. “It was terrifying,” Zach said. Christina chimes in that her mother is “very high risk.” But they acted quickly “the day that everything was available for emergency disaster loans . . . we all sat down and we just hammered through the applications” and they were granted payroll protection plus emergency bridge and disaster loans. Still, there was a lot of uncertainty about when they were going to be able to open and re-employ their staff of 110 people in northern

Pinellas. “We signed up for Uber Eats and everything under the sun” in order to get The Living Room and Iron Oak open. They got online ordering booted up and opened Iron Oak first in the middle of April. “Business was more surprising than we thought” However, Christina adds, “it has been a challenge to reinvent yourself; we don’t know when it will be the same again“ When you’ve got three successful restaurants all within walking distance of each other, it’s daunting to realize that “there’s not enough traffic in downtown (Dunedin) when there’s nothing going on to support a healthy ‘to-go’ business.” The couple is “absolutely resolute to make sure that we’re following the CDC guidelines. Making our employees feel safe is really important. We do require our entire company to wear masks at all times.” At The Living Room they did to-go cocktails which has been “kind of a neat change.” Christina adds with a laugh that it’s “something I hope doesn’t go away.” They were operating Sonder’s drinks’ program out of The Living Room plus some Black Pearl favorites as well. Because of their extensive outdoor space, they were able to meet the 25% limit and still be profitable. “We have a very nice patio (at The Living Room) so that’s been very good for us. Iron Oak is basically just a giant patio. It’s one of the few places in northern Pinellas where you can spend your entire night outdoors undercover.” The Black Pearl, however, doesn’t work at 25% capacity (much like The Restorative) so they took the opportunity to make it easier to clean and more sanitary but also to give it “the facelift that it deserved.” Cristina’s keen design eye now has their flagship looking like a Michelin star. The Black Pearl, which is a 42-seat jewel, reopened seating just 20 diners at a time, but it can essentially do three seatings. Unlike their other more casual restaurants which rely on walk-ins, Christina adds that “we know where they’ll be seated, so we can control the social distancing.” On top of density limitations, the cost of goods has increased. Best of the Bay-winning

FOOD NEWS

THE FEINSTEIN GROUP

By Jon Palmer Claridge

FEIN COUPLE: Christine Feinstein (L) and husband Zach. Chef Chris Artrip curates all of the menus and has had to look at pasta and vegetarian dishes because the beef market has gone crazy. “It’s been really challenging to see this problem from all angles,” Christina said. Artrip is revisiting menus and talking to vendors every single day to make sure that they’re profitable. “Chris is like a brother; he has no ego,” Christina glows. “He’s one of the most adaptable persons in this whole situation.” “We’re trying to do the best we can do to make sure we have a safe environment for our staff and our guests,” Zach says. “As long as we serve great food and we innovate in the way we deliver that food to tables, we’ll provide great service.” Weekdays at The Living Room are still a little slow, but weekends are on an hour wait. “We have a paging system so people can walk around downtown Dunedin; we don’t want them congregating.” Christina is justly proud of Sonder’s creative

partnership born of limited space inside. “We teamed up with a couple of adjacent boutique shops on Douglas Avenue to have tables outside. It’s been an awesome collaboration,” she explained. “I think we’re gonna be alright, but we’re not out of the woods yet,” Zach sighs. “The faster a vaccine becomes available, the better.” Still, Zach said, 100% of staff is back at work even though some servers were passing out flyers while others were painting. “We just wanted to get money in their pockets,” he explained. As it turns out, Halter Ranch’s expansive iron oak is the perfect metaphor for the Feinsteins’ business. Big ideas are always percolating. Their latest project is an inspiring innovation that’s still in its inchoate stage, so they’re not quite ready to share details. But, like the tree, it’s big, bold and reaching for the sky. Stay tuned.

“We don’t know when it will be the same again.”

cltampa.com | JULY 2-8, 2020 | 27

Freeborn & Freeborn attorneys at law

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MOVIES

THEATER

ART

CULTURE

Godmuthafuckin’ damn!

East Tampa’s charismatic new Instagram star contains multitudes.

utside of the Hope’s Food Store, Chester Stone waits excitedly for the next actors in his show. All day long, he interviews and jokes with people coming in and out of the shop and posts to his Instagram account, ChesterStone745. What started out as a fun hobby two years ago has made Stone a flourishing Instagram celebrity, with his fame growing by the day. He chose this spot near the corner of 22nd Street and E. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in East Tampa because the owner is friendly to him hosting his show there. Fans travel from other cities and states to visit Chester, bring him cat food, and shout his slogan, “Godmuthafuckin’ damn!” In many of his videos he acts surprised and excited, shouting “Oh my god!,” if a fly car pulls up, a particularly attractive lady passes him, or if someone with extra clean sneakers walks by. When Creative Loafing Tampa Bay catches up with him, Chester is outside the store on an intensely bright summer day, with little shelter from the heat. He’s thinking about his next video while the kittens he takes care of are nibbling on some food by his chair next to the front doors of the store. A few feet away, gas pumps are spray painted with “BLM” (Black Lives Matter), but they don’t carry any fuel. “This ain’t the promised land,” he tells CL in his deep and powerful voice, “But it’s where I’m supposed to be. I fit in where I get in.” Stone’s account has over 127,000 followers from all over the world, and his following started taking off about a year ago. It grows by the day all without the use of the normal hashtags influencers deploy to gain followers and pull eyeballs. He loves all of his supporters and thanks them, but the 57-year-old from humble origins says it’s not about the fame. For him, it’s just about creating things that people can enjoy. Stone was born in Poughkeepsie, New York. He says he lived there with his father, who immigrated to the U.S. from Jamaica, and his mother, who was born and raised in North Carolina.

When he was nine years old, his parents separated, and he traveled to Jamaica with his father, where he got in touch with his roots, before returning to the United States. Stone describes himself as a nomad, and says he lays his head wherever he can. He’s worked a number of jobs, most recently at a grocery store in Clearwater. Now people are buying shirts from his website where he also collects BitCoin and Ethereum, but Stone says he hardly touches that money. When asked about any family in the area, he goes silent, and says that’s private. He calls the streets home. “Foxes have holes, birds have nests,” Stone says, “But I have no regular place to rest my head.” His Jamaican roots come through in his music. For decades he’s performed under the name “Super D”, creating a beautiful blend of reggae and hip-hop. He’s collaborated with a number of well known Tampa artists, including local hip-hop hero Rahim Samad. “Let me tell you something,” Stone says with a wide grin across his face, holding out a burned CD, “If you don’t listen to this Super D and The Bad Boys CD, I’m gonna kick your ass!” Stone laughs after that statement and says “God Bless You” out of kindness, but he’s spiritual in a unique way. His Instagram bio says, “I’m not religious, I’m conscious.” He believes that God is in every living creature, not a jealous or vengeful God who judges us from on high. His conscious spiritualism aims to, “shed light on darkness”. Chester’s politics are rooted in liberation, but with some caveats. He calls Malcolm X a “very positive person, dedicated to what he believed in”, and says, “If you’re not positive, then fuck you!” While he admires Malcolm, he at the same time has an open dialogue with the police who come to the store, and says they are there to help the community. Still, often times he’ll shout, “Don’t strip search me officer!” and other such playful, yet very real comments towards the cops.

INTERVIEW

JUSTIN GARCIA

By Justin Garcia

HOPE, DELIVERED: Nearly 130K Instagram users have flocked to Chester Stone. In mid-June, Stone started posting videos of “Chester Stone 4 President” signs, with his commentary in the background. The political party he’s chosen to run with? You guessed it, the “Godmuthafuckin’ damn! Party”. His comedic imagination shines in a video of painted penguins on the side of an ice machine near Hope’s Food Store, saying (in Stone’s voice), “Fuck the United States, we want you to run for president of the North Pole!” While his larger than life personality has taken the internet by storm, Stone wants people to remember that he’s like anyone else who is working to survive in this hectic world. “I’m really a private person in many ways, I’m not really a celebrity like y’all think I am,” Stone says, his mood turning somber.

“I’m really struggling and going through difficulties too. I’m not really impressed by certain things, but I have to please the people who like and want to be around me, you know?” Stone says that if things were to take off for him, he’s mainly interested in leaving what he makes for future generations. “If I made $500 million, well, I’d leave $400 million to the kids,” he laughs, “I’d fuck up a 100 million dollars up though!” He loves that he has a large following, and that he can create things for them to enjoy and brighten their days.But as his notoriety and following skyrocket, he keeps his feet planted firmly on the ground. “I’m motivated by what’s within me,” Stone says. “Where’s God at? Within you!”

“I’m really struggling and going through difficulties, too.”

cltampa.com | JULY 2-8, 2020 | 29

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REVIEWS

PROFILES

MUSIC WEEK

Venus rising

A St. Petersburg band returns to Earth and delivers an edict on American blight. By Ray Roa ended up welcoming their daughter in their own backyard as the sun came up. Cat Power was playing over the speakers as their Bernese mountain dog mix, Buddy, kept watch. “Not what we were planning for but it turned out to be a pretty magical moment and she’s a healthy baby,” Charos said. That doesn’t mean he isn’t concerned about the world his daughter and her friends will grow up in. In notes for the album’s title track, Charos—who’s been involved in activism for the homeless over the last 12 years—calls the music “an informal journal on the American experience and karmic catastrophe.” He told CL that the record is a commentary on his experience as a multicultural millennial in St. Petersburg trying to examine himself in the context of his history and his choices. Charos—who has a Greek father and a mom who was raised in Tampa Bay—had to learn English when he got here. His family looked and sounded different; they ate different foods on their different holidays. Charos was bullied when he lived in Greece for being too American and pushed around in the U.S. for being too Greek. A lot of The Venus’ music (and the songs he recorded in his last band, Alexander & The Grapes) is about letting go of self. “If we all face the demons within we can face the evils in this world,” he said, conceding that his experience is similar to a lot of firstgeneration Americans who find themselves in a strange land in strange times. The zeitgeist is captured impeccably on Ancestor Simulator’s lyrics, but the sound is from another era. The record’s aesthetic is a result of a recent tour spent soaked in the music of the early-’70s. Before that trek, Charos would’ve never put so many guitar solos on a Venus record, but this one is full of them, along with heavy doses of bass-face low end, big-belly drum fills and horns arranged by Charos’ brother Jason (a student at the the Frost school in Miami, and a bright young star in the Bay area jazz scene). “Drag On” is a brass-drenched, acidlaced ode to the Sunshine City. “Swamp Juice” is a humid, country-rock workout. “Fringe of Evolution”—where Charos sings, “I seem to be

LOCAL MUSIC

CAMREN MEIER

n July 24, St. Petersburg rock band The Venus will release a sophomore full-length that feels half a world away from the Joe Meek-inspired ‘60s space-rock on its 2018 selftitled debut. The evolution didn’t come easy. Frontman Alexander Charos told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that The Venus’ 19-track debut was written in 2016 with a lot of psychedelics on hand; that time forced him to face pain that’d been buried deep within him. The new album, Ancestor Simulator, captures the inevitable comedown of that chemical whirlwind. “The last few years have been spent trying to improve my life and my health,” Charos, 32, said. Quitting the party led straight to therapy where he spent four years trying to get to the root of his depression and anxiety. He fell hard into yoga, nutrition, skateboarding and the teachings of the recently-deceased psychologist and spiritual leader Ram Dass. He shed 60 pounds in the process. “I literally look like a different person, and the songs kind of reflect the emotional and physical transformation I went through,” Charos explained. The band—Jeremy Trevino (drums, guitar, percussion, background vocals, organ), Dylan Gunn (bass), Jackson Davis (piano), John Jenkins (congas, timbales, guiro) and Charos’ brothers Philip and Jason (drums, tambourine, guitar, trumpet and mellotron)—spent 2019 recording the album at Charos’ own Yoko Phono Recording. Production wrapped in January, and The Venus was about to order vinyl and plan tours for the west coast and Europe when coronavirus lockdowns began making the landscape for working musicians look grim. Charos knew he’d have new material whenever, if ever, COVID-19 became an afterthought, so he went ahead with the release. But another change was also on the horizon for the first-generation Greek immigrant. Near the end of the recording process, Charos learned he was going to be a father. His wife’s first trimester was difficult, and he wrote LP-closer “Reality Suite” to express his care and that he’d be there for her no matter what. COVID19 changed the couple’s birth plan, too; they

MANY MOONS AGO: The Venus playing St. Petersburg’s Paper Crane in June 2018. a brief light flashing only once in this time/rare organism on the fringe of evolution/waves of life bursting into everyone”—plays like the star the aforementioned Dass rode home on. Charos said he listened to a lot of Grateful Dead over the last couple of years and wanted to make a studio album that could also take off and become something else in a live setting. Local concert goers won’t know how it plays anytime soon, but Ancestor Simulator is alive with the hopeful, progressive spirit and promise of Woodstock (you know, before those hippies became Tucker Carlson bootlickers). “A m e r i c a n Bl i g ht ” — r e c or de d during quarantine as a late addition to the album, with members of The Venus turning their parts in from home—shines a light on the fight unfolding outside of Charos’ window. Some of the characters in the three-and-a-half minute song are drinking champagne while a new civil rights revolution starts to roil, but so many others on the cut are marching in the streets against police brutality, all in the face of a coronavirus that’s upending everything else. And with the Fourth of July approaching, Charos didn’t mince words in discussing what the holiday means in 2020. “As we become more aware of our history and truly living into the words of our constitution we see that July 4 was only an Independence

Day for white people,” Charos said. In his eyes, now is an opportunity for the country to examine itself and ask itself how it can lean deeper into the ideal of equality and justice for all. “We need to honor days like Juneteenth with equal reverence. The anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, the Marriage Equality act are also just as momentous,” he added. Justice for Black Americans and Indigeous people is long overdue, he said, and until the U.S. truly addresses its original sins, then real progress will always be out of reach. “Until we all are afforded freedom to live and love without fear of persecution we have to keep fighting,” Charos explained, adding that the last few years, while peppered with inner healing, had also left him burned out. Still, the protests, and seeing his generation say “enough is enough” to police brutality and systematic racism, have inspired him to believe that momentum is back in progress’ corner. He hopes that music, in its own way, can help cut through the bullshit and assist people in connecting with something beyond themselves. “I’m more hopeful now for our country than I’ve been in a long time. I hope that we can keep this momentum going and actually change policy and vote out the final old guard of racists and bigots,” he said.”Don’t stop protesting and don’t stop singing.”

“Don’t stop protesting and don’t stop singing.”

cltampa.com | JULY 2-8, 2020 | 31

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Cancer The crab.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Some readers wish I would write more like Cormac McCarthy or Albert Camus or Raymond Chandler: with spare simplicity. They accuse me of being too lush and exuberant in my prose. They want me to use shorter sentences and fewer adjectives. To them I say: It ain’t going to happen. I have feelings similar to those of best-selling Cancerian author Oliver Sacks, who the *New York Times* called, “one of the great clinical writers of the 20th century.” Sacks once said, “I never use one adjective if six seem to me better and, in their cumulative effect, more incisive. I am haunted by the density of reality and try to capture this with ‘thick description.’” I bring these thoughts to your attention, my fellow Cancerian, because I think it’s important for you to be your lavish, sumptuous, complex self in the comi n g weeks. Don’t oversimplify yourself or dumb yourself down, either intellectually or emotionally.

excellent time to rededicate yourself to this noble aspiration. I invite you to dream and scheme about three specific wonders and marvels you would like to experience during the next five years.

and fun. I’m guessing that if you embrace them, they will liberate you from overly literal and materialistic ideas about how the world works. And that will be good for your soul.

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

CAPRICORN (Dec. SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 22-Jan. 19): Pioneer Capricorn scientist 21): U.S. Senator Isaac Newton is often Elizabeth Warren By Rob Brezsny has advice that would hailed as one of histoserve you well in the ry’s greatest geniuses. coming weeks. She says, “Keep a little space in I agree that his intellectual capacities were your heart for the improbable. You won’t regret sublime. But his emotional intelligence was it.” In accordance with your astrological poten- sparse and feeble. During the time he taught tials, I’m inclined to amend her statement as at Cambridge University, his follows: “Keep a sizable space talks were so affectless in your heart for the and boring that improbable. many of his students You’ll be

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Travel writer Paul Theroux has journeyed long distances by train: once from Britain to Japan and back again, and then from Massachusetts to Argentina. He also rode trains during part of his expedition from Cairo to Cape Town. Here’s one of his conclusions: “It is almost axiomatic that the worst trains take you through magical places.” I’d like to offer a milder version of that counsel as your metaphor for the coming weeks: The funky, bumpy, rickety influences will bring you the best magic. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Philosopher Miguel de Unamuno declared, “Everything that exalts and expands consciousness is good, while that which depresses and diminishes it is evil.” This idea will be intensely true for and applicable to you in the coming weeks, Virgo. It will be your sacred duty—both to yourself and to those you care about—to enlarge your understandings of how the world works and to push your awareness to become more inclusive and empathetic. What’s your vision of paradise-on-earth? Now is a good time to have fun imagining it. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): What do you want to be when you grow up, Libra? What’s that you say? You firmly believe you are already all grown up? I hope not! In my vision of your destiny, you will always keep evolving and transforming; you will ceaselessly transcend your existing successes and push on to accomplish further breakthroughs and victories. Now would be an

rewa rded with catalytic revelations and intriguing opportunities.” To attract blessings in abundance, Scorpio, be willing to set aside some of your usual skepticism and urge for control. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Author Malidoma Somé lives in the U.S. now, but was born in the West African country of Burkina Faso. He writes, “In the culture of my people, the Dagara, we have no word for the supernatural. The closest we come to this concept is *Yielbongura*, ‘the thing that knowledge can’t eat.’ This word suggests that the life and power of certain things depend upon their resistance to the categorizing knowledge that human beings apply to everything.” I bring Somé’s thoughts to your attention, Sagittarius, because I suspect that in the coming weeks, you will encounter more than the usual number of experiences that knowledge can’t eat. They might at times be a bit spooky or confounding, but will mostly be interesting

skipped most of his classes. I’ll encourage you to make Newton your anti-role model for the next eight weeks. This time will be favorable for you to increase your mastery of three kinds of intelligence beyond the intellectual kind: feeling, intuition, and collaboration. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): When future writer (and Aquarius) Charles Dickens was 12 years old, his parents and siblings got incarcerated in a debtors’ prison. To stay alive and help his family, he took a job working 12 hours a day, six days a week, pasting labels on pots of boot polish in a rotting, rat-infested warehouse. Hard times! Yet the experiences he had there later provided him with rich material for the novels that ultimately made him wealthy and beloved. In predicting that you, too, will have future success at capitalizing on difficulty, I don’t mean to imply you’ve endured or will endure anything

as harsh as Dickens’ ordeal. I’m just hoping to help you appreciate the motivating power of your challenging experiences. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Maybe you feel that the ongoing pandemic has inhibited your ability to explore and deepen intimacy to the degree that would like to. But even if that’s the case, the coming weeks will provide openings that could soften and remedy your predicament. So be extra receptive and alert to the clues that life reveals to you. And call on your imagination to look for previously unguessed and unexpected ways to reinvent togetherness and tenderness. Let’s call the next three weeks your Season of Renewing Rapport. ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries author Marge Piercy writes, “The people I love the best, jump into work head first without dallying in the shallows.” The Aries people I love best will do just that in the coming days. Now is not the right time to wait around passively, lazily hoping that something better will come along. Nor is it prudent to procrastinate or postpone decisions while shopping around for more options or collecting more research. Dive, Aries, dive! TAURUS (April 20-May 20): *Calvin and Hobbes* is a comic strip by Bill Watterson. It features a boy named Calvin and his stuffed tiger Hobbes. In the first panel of one story, Calvin is seated at a school desk looking perplexed as he studies a question on a test, which reads “Explain [Isaac] Newton’s First Law of Motion in your own words.” In the second panel, Calvin has a broad smile, suddenly imbued with inspiration. In the third panel, he writes his response to the test question: “Yakka foob mog. Grug pubbawup zink wattoom gazork. Chumble spuzz.” The fourth panel shows him triumphant and relaxed, proclaiming, “I love loopholes.” I propose that you use this scenario as your victorious metaphor in the coming weeks, Taurus. Look for loopholes! And use them to overcome obstacles and solve riddles. GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “It is a fault to wish to be understood before we have made ourselves clear to ourselves,” wrote philosopher and activist Simone Weil. I’m hoping that this horoscope of mine can help you avoid that mistake. In the coming weeks and months, you will have a stronger-than-usual need to be seen for who you really are—to have your essential nature be appreciated and understood by people you care about. And the best way to make sure that happens is to work hard right now on seeing, appreciating, and understanding yourself.

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Kinked gays By Dan Savage

I’m a gay man in a relationship and we’re both really happy since we met a year ago. We’re “open” in the sense that he wants the option to be intimate with someone else if a connection happens and in turn he said he would be supportive of me being involved in my kinks. But I haven’t done anything yet out of fear. I’m not afraid of my kinks. I’m worried that if I ask to go do something kinky it will ruin our relationship. I don’t think he was bluffing when he said it was OK for me to explore my kinks with other guys but it worries me. I tend to repress the kink part of my sexuality and I’m worried that him knowing I want to act on it will cause issues. My boyfriend and I are so balanced but in the kink aspects of my life I’m a submissive and need to engage in power exchange with someone. I miss being able to express these things and it feels like there’s a void in my life. That might sound silly, but it’s true. I think repressing them is actually taking a toll on my mental health. Any advice? —Guy’s Abandoned Yearnings Subtly Undermining Bond If your boyfriend is bluffing, GAYSUB, you wanna know that sooner rather than later. Your still-relatively-new-ish boyfriend gave you permission to act on your kinks at the same time he asked your permission to fuck someone else. You gave him your OK and I assume you meant it, GAYSUB; you meant it when you told him he could, if and when “a connection happens,” go ahead and fuck the dude. Seeing as he took your “yes” for an answer where his “connections” are concerned, GAYSUB, I think you should take his “yes” for an answer where your kinks are concerned. So go find some hot Dom you wanna submit to and let your boyfriend know you’re gonna get your kink on. If it turns out your boyfriend was lying to you—if he’s one of those people who wants to be free to play with others (which is why he got your OK) but doesn’t want his partner playing with others (and the okay he gave you was insincere)—it’s better to find that out 12 short months into this relationship than to find it out 10 years, a mortgage, one kid, and two dogs into this relationship. And what you describe about the void you feel is understandable to anyone with kinks, GAYSUB, and even vanilla people can understand if they think about it for even a moment. (That vanilla stuff you enjoy, vanilla people? Imagine never being able to do any of it. See?) Your kinks are an intrinsic aspect of your sexuality and repressing them—not having any way to explore or express them—does take an emotional toll. It can also breed resentment if your partner is the reason you can’t explore or express them.

Which means if your boyfriend wants you to be happy and wants you to be a good boyfriend to him, then you need to have the freedom to be who you are. For some kinky people porn is enough of an outlet, GAYSUB, but most kinky people want actual experiences. Often a vanilla partner is willing and able to meet a kinky partner’s needs and that’s great. But sometimes a vanilla partner can’t do it, or is incapable of faking it, or does it poorly on purpose so they won’t be asked to do it again. And for some kinksters the awareness you’re being indulged makes it impossible for to get into the right subby headspace. If either is the case, you’ll have to outsource these desires to fill that void. If your boyfriend gives you the okay and has a little breakdown after you get home—if it dredges up some unexpected feelings (and you should expect that it will dredge up some unexpected feelings (so expect those unexpected feelings)— and needs some reassurance, that’s fine. Answer any questions he has and let him know you’re not going anywhere; indeed, the fact that you don’t have to choose between him and your kinks makes you far less likely to end this relationship. (Sometimes people who weren’t even in the dungeon during the scene need a little aftercare too.) But if you’re careful not to neglect your boyfriend sexually or emotionally and your kinky dates are just an occasional thing and your boyfriend keeps having great, big, dramatic meltdowns, GAYSUB, then that’s a bad sign. If he punishes you with drama every time he gives you his OK to play with someone else, then he’s hoping you’ll decide to stop seeking these experiences out because the emotional price is too great. You won’t be able to remain in this relationship if that’s what winds up happening, GAYSUB, so you’re going to wanna act on your kinks at least a half a dozen times before you get a dog or a mortgage.

learning to tie knots and getting better at calling him names when we have sex, and I actually really enjoying spanking him. But I was talking with a friend—our straight lady mutual (with the boyfriend’s oOK!)—and she told me she’s never had a straight guy open up to her about wanting to be tied up abused. Are gay guys just kinkier? —Talking Over Perversions

My new boyfriend just opened up to me about his kinks. Nothing crazy: just bondage and humiliation. While he usually meets and dates guys off kinky dating sites, we met “the old fashioned way” a few months before COVID-19 slammed us here in Chicago: at a potluck dinner party thrown by a mutual straight lady friend. Your name came up during the conversation about his interests. He told me he was taking your advice and “laying his kink cards on the table” before I had made too much of an emotional commitment. What’s interesting to me, Dan, is how often this happens. My boyfriend is easily the fourth guy I’ve dated in the last few years who laid down the exact same kink cards: wants to be tied up, wants to be called names, wants to be hurt. I’m

I have a theory… When we’re boys… before we’re ready to come out… we’re suddenly attracted to other boys. And that’s something we usually feel pretty panicked about. It would be nice that first same-sex crush was something a boy could experience without feelings of dread or terror, TOP, but that’s not how it works for most of us. We’re keenly aware that should the object of our desire realize it—if the boy we’re attracted realizes what we’re feeling, if we give ourselves away with a stray look—the odds of that boy reacting badly or even violently are high. Even if you think the boy might not react violently, even if you suspect the boy you’re crushing on might be gay himself, the stakes are too high to risk making any sort of move. So we stew with

SAVAGE LOVE

feelings of lust and fear. Sexual desire can make anyone feel fearful and powerless—we’re literally powerless to control these feelings (while we can and must control how we act on these feelings)—but desire and fear are stirred together for us gay boys to much greater degree than they are for straight boys. We fear being found out, we fear being called names, we fear being outed, we fear being physically hurt. And the person we fear most is the person we have a crush on. A significant number of gay guys wind up imprinting on that heady and very confusing mix of desire and fear. The erotic imaginations of guys like your boyfriend seize on those fears and eroticize them. And then, in adulthood, your boyfriend wants to re-experience those feelings, that heady mix of desire and fear, with a loving partner he trusts. The gay boy who feared being hurt by the person he was attracted to becomes the gay man who wants to be hurt—in a limited, controlled, consensual and safe way—by the man he’s with. On the savagelovecast.com: would you choose to live in...Kansas? Contact mail@savagelove.net. Follow @FakeDanSavage on Twitter.

cltampa.com | JULY 2-8, 2020 | 35

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creative loafing puzzler SHAGGY DOG STORY by Merl Reagle 1 4 8 11 16 20 21 22 23 24 25 27 29 31 32 34 36 40 42 43 46 48 51 52 53 54 56

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70 Erstwhile “Science Guy” Bill, on TV 71 Queen’s land, in the Bible ACROSS 73 Worlds ___ Spinning abbr. 74 Register contents Return of the brat? 76 See 56 Across Gene Kelly hirer They come to mind 79 Short on color Judge’s comment 80 Court VIPs 83 In the style of at a dog show? 84 1970s abductors: Some arrivals at abbr. the dog hospital? 85 Vampire, in Robert Turn to Jell-O Wagner-ese Reached the hard 87 “We’re ___ of the way, as a base woods yet” Sandwich cookie Phone line: abbr. 89 Dog that’s half Chihuahua? Jolt from Joe “Enter the vehicle” 94 Shad output Grp. of offices with 96 “___ side are you on?” one address Japan’s part of it 97 They’re looking Miles and others at you, kid Finishes 98 Pirate William Essayist Charles 99 On ___ (after Perfect for the being challenged) tabloids 101 Harper’s Bazaar Home of a Dover illustrator soul: abbr. 102 Teeter-totter Mesmerizing dog? minimum Pay-per-view 105 Grass chopper venues 107 Holmes or Pre-vu? Watson, e.g. Resistance unit 109 Part of speech: Eye color: abbr. abbr. Film classic, ___ 112 Rose’s guy River 114 Skating Be slower 116 Part of 8 Across’s With 76 Across, motto the story of a dog 117 Peace-seeking and his flock? dog? (and a new low in puns, even for me) 121 Crime network headed by dogs? Horse-gazing 122 Approval need, briefly It gives you a leg 123 All time, poetically 124 Gaelic up “___ but no one 125 Enjoy Alpo answered” DOWN Invalid addition? Where dog biscuits 1 Taylor of The Birds come from? 2 Equanimity 1

92 Joining words 3 34 years after the 50 Tampered with 93 Tim Burton film Pilgrims landed 55 Slow-pouring stuff 95 Beethoven’s 4 Joined by melting Third 5 “That’s ___ have 57 One into weights 58 Hardly 99 Miller or Murray to say” 59 English school 100 One more, with 6 Weapons in a 60 Prohibitions feeling soliloquy 103 Rodeo shout 7 Seven, in Seville 61 Gripe 8 De Maupassant’s 62 Do in, as a 104 Old Greek coin dragon House of ___ (or backward, a 65 Scarlett dug him Tellier wolf) 66 When it falls, 9 Its capital is 106 Ink for une plume Bordeaux unemployment 108 Mouth full of 10 Catholic title: abbr. ensues water? 11 “___ your 68 CD ancestors 109 Ctrs. of renters’ waitress” 69 Org. that Michael lives 12 Kilmer in Moore’s dad 110 Qatar’s capital Tombstone belonged to 111 Pouch passenger 13 Nobelist Wiesel 72 Pear type 113 Getaway spot 14 Art's Jeopardy 75 Sufficient, old115 Swine successor style 118 Injection amt. 15 Rel. of a network 76 Watered-down 119 Not ’neath 16 Be bounced from 77 Rumors 120 “___ the games a job 78 Pal, on the range begin” 17 Made cents 80 Deadness 18 Overacts symbol 19 Visits 81 Like the Puritan 20 Council action lifestyle 21 Vector’s opposite, 82 Guides in math PUZZLE FANS ! 86 Come together 26 “April Love” For info on Merl's 88 The other van composer Sammy Sunday crossword Gogh 28 Bell or Edison: anthologies, visit 90 Capital ending abbr. www.sunday 91 Key ___ 30 Building wing crosswords.com. (dessert) 33 Name on the River Kwai set Solution to Going All the Way 35 Connoisseur with M E E T WO O AWL S CMA J attitude MA XMOR A T H AMA XOP HOB E MA X I S K I R T S MA X I M I L I A N 37 City on the I GE T E NDO H A R P T OS S Hudson N I N I NGE S I D E A RM E T E S 38 Sahara sight E R A G L E S S OB J E T L E A R L A T H E T E N AM MA X E RN S T 39 Ice cream brand, N E I L L A S T I R L VOV ___ Jerry’s B D E S E A N NU B OR A C L E 41 Truly surreal kind H E R R M A N N M A X B R A N D I A N A Y E I MON I K E A P S E R T D of guy MOW M A X I L L A S H A Y R I C K S S U S S E X E S S N E RD DU E 44 Mao was one U T WO D A F O E T O T E S 45 Gen. Bradley MA X F I E L D P A N AM WH AMO 47 Famed Naples OR E C L E E R E L A X U S A F B MA RC L OG L OGS H EMS X A S opera house, PORC E URO S A ND D I D I Teatro ___ MA X I MGOR K Y A N T I C L I MA X T H E B L U EMA X NOMA X I MUM 49 Wedgwood of SOD S MOS S TWA V E E S ceramic fame 6

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38 | JULY 2-8, 2020 | cltampa.com

Our take Florida Style Berliner Weiss with raspberries, blackberries & blueberries. This baby pours deep fuchsia color, with aromas of a mixed berry smoothie.

Super tart but finishes with a delightful sweetness!

tbbc.beer @tbbco #beerisyourfriend cltampa.com | JULY 2-8, 2020 | 39