Tampa Bay Rants and Raves is a weekly airing of national and local politics, sports, lifestyles and nostalgia items from a very politically incorrect viewpoint. As always, beware - some of what is printed here should not be taken literally.

Midterms approach, suddenly we matter to Biden

All of a sudden, it seems to matter to the Biden clique what Joe Lunchbucket is paying for gas, health care and what the polls are saying about their midterm prospects – it isn’t encouraging. Food prices are through the roof, interest rates are up – about the only thing down in the first quarter was your portfolio. And we haven’t even mentioned the Ukraine mess and the border crisis which is forecast to worsen during the summer months. There are consequences to irrational actions and the elitists will take their medicine in November. Despite their belated pandering to certain subsets of our population, it is no longer whether or not they will lose both houses of Congress – only how badly.

Great Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

Headline of the week from Newsmax: Suddenly, It's Catholic Biden Leading Dems' Pro-Abortion Fight in Midterms.

And yes, keep up those contributions to Planned Parenthood. They are being used to “redecorate” houses of worship – not to mention distributing the addresses of Supreme Court justices - what a noble organization.

Quote of the week, if not the year: No hard-working American without a college degree should have to pay for others' student loans. Period. Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. We could only add to Governor Haley’s comment – nor should responsible students who repaid their loans.

The blockheads here at TBR&R plan to submit a new word for possible inclusion in the next Oxford English Dictionary. The word is Bidenflation. The definition is obvious.

This week in 1940 (May 10) Winston Churchill became the British Prime Minister. On the same day, Hitler invaded Belgium and the Netherlands.

Sports, media and other stuff:

If you like to follow minor league baseball, you might want to take a trip to Dunedin’s TD Park the next time left hander Ricky Tiedemann starts. In two recent outings, he went 10 innings of no-hit ball with 17 strikeouts and four walks. Do it fast, as we don’t think he’ll be in Single A ball long.

Random thought: As Jeopardy struggles to hold on to its dominance, there are viewer complaints about tweaks to the show that seem to encourage winning streaks. They reached a peak last week when the Final Jeopardy answer was “O Canada”– a softball for the reigning champion who happens to hail from Canada. The champ was ousted a few days later by an Atlanta resident when the Final Jeopardy answer was Hartfield-Jackson Airport - a little too much coincidence?  

Update of a classic board game as reported by the 5:05 Newsletter: The Monopoly Game has updated the Community Chest cards to reflect society today. It now includes a card that reads “We Found a Problematic Tweet You Wrote 12 Years Ago. Give Up All Your Property and Money and Leave the Game.” 

From the nearly world famous Gassman Law Firm marquee: “The new Apple car doesn’t have windows.” 

Seen on a T-shirt: A penny for your thoughts seems a little pricey.

Factoid: Camel, Chesterfield and Lucky Strike (all unfiltered) accounted for over 60 percent of cigarette sales at the middle of the 20^th century. Today, four filter brands make up 70 percent of sales. They are Marlboro (40 percent alone), Newport, Camel and Pall Mall.

Only in Chicago politics

You can’t help but think that Chicago was in better shape back in the thirties when Al Capone was the de facto head of city government. Recently, mayoral candidate Willie Wilson self-funded a gas giveaway of $2.2 million to Chicago drivers. Not to be outdone, Chicago’s, let’s be kind and say controversial, current mayor Lori Lightfoot pushed through a plan to distribute 50,000 gas cards and 100,000 transit fare cards worth $12.5 million on the public dime. Granted, Wilson’s gambit is purely political and not on the moral high ground, but, to in effect, fund your re-election campaign with public funds is absolutely subterranean. It’s no wonder Lightfoot’s current disapproval rates among Chicago citizens range as high as 86 per cent.

NEXT UP: Shrinking airports; First Derby; John Hunter

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Happy Mother’s Day!