Donald Trump begins every Sunday by reading this blog

By now you are probably familiar with the disclaimer at the top of our weekly offering. And President-Elect Trump does not read our blog – yet. He hasn’t had time with little things like assembling a cabinet, saving a thousand jobs at Carrier and, our favorite thus far, deciding that Boeing might be asking “just a little too much” for a new Air Force One fleet. As we said four months ago (RANTS – August 14) fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy night. But sooner or later, the Don may get around to absorbing the superlative advice we offer up to our government leaders each week.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. We mentioned Boeing above as our favorite Trump move so far. Close behind is his selection of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head the EPA – an organization that has completely lost its way. No two Washington bureaucracies need a sharp refocusing or out and out elimination than the EPA and the IRS.

2. Other than the two above mentioned quagmires, no other agency we can think of needs to be euthanized more than Hillsborough County’s Public Transportation Commission (PTC). The agency, beholden to the taxi industry for four decades, has outlived its usefulness and now a bill in the Florida legislature would eliminate the body. All good and well but the legislature also needs to adopt statewide standards for Lyft and Uber to avoid conflicting county by county regulations regarding the transportation services.

3. As the new session of Congress gets ready to convene just after the new year, Pinellas voters will realize the consequences of their congressional vote last fall. Instead of a well-connected, majority party congressman, Pinellas now has a guy who will occupy an office and little else.

4. Remember when Bill Miller, Barry Goldwater’s running mate in the 1964 election, was featured in American Express’ “do you remember me?” ad campaign? We forecast a similar future for Tim Kaine.

5. You’ve lived in the bay area a long time if you, your kids or grandkids enjoyed “Breakfast with Santa” at one of the Maas Bothers’ restaurants. Speaking of which, there is a cool short history of the beloved department store chain by Michael Lisicky which would make a great stocking stuffer.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. A few folks are voicing their displeasure at USF’s rush in hiring a new head coach without vetting other possible candidates. But the chances are Charlie Strong is probably the best candidate they could have come up with whether they took a few days or weeks or months in the process.

7. Are we the only ones who cannot figure out why Lane Kiffin, the highest profile coordinator in college football, would take the job at Florida Atlantic? USF, maybe (don’t think he was considered), but a team that hasn’t had a winning season in almost a decade – and in a nothing conference to boot?

8. Our modern day Jimmy the Greek, Achmed Walled (pronounced wall-ED), predicts the NCAA championship will shake out this way: Alabama over Washington and Ohio State taking Clemson with the Tide rolling in the title game in Tampa. There’s more on the playoff below.

9. Holiday note from the jolly elves at the 5:05 Newsletter: “And suddenly those annoying neighbors who leave their Christmas lights up all year long look like geniuses.”

10. Fifty years ago, as 1966 closed, the top three songs in America were an eclectic mix of the Monkees I’m A Believer and two novelty songs - Ocala’s Royal Guardsman’s Snoopy Versus the Red Baron and just down from number one – Winchester Cathedral by the New Vaudeville Band.

Tampa, here we come! The flawed NCAA football tournament

Okay, first let us be perfectly clear on two points. (1) Penn State got jobbed by the selection process. When you win what likely is this year’s toughest football conference and defeat one of the teams selected ahead of you, something simply isn’t right. (2) Despite Penn State being mistreated, there is no good reason to expand the post season to eight teams. There occasionally will be an injustice but that is not a rationale to water down the post season and stretch it out until the start of spring training (slight exaggeration). Let’s stay with four and thoroughly enjoy the economic benefits of having one the country’s biggest sporting events here in the bay area.

SNEAK PEAK AT NEXT WEEK – OUR ANNUAL RETROSPECTIVE