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.

Leading off: Times hits a new low

A couple of Sundays back, “Florida’s Best Newspaper,” as it likes to call itself, printed a front page, and here we search for a word or phrase – story would be incorrect since that might imply some semblance of truth; pack of lies might be a little too strong, since there were a few elements of truth in the piece, although not many. Let’s settle for a lot of innuendo. The subject was the weekly gathering of pro-life advocates at an abortion clinic on Clearwater’s Highland Avenue. If you go by this gathering, which we do virtually every Saturday, you would not recognize the scenario the paper painted. It is a peaceful and prayerful gathering of people who recognize abortion is murder and do their best to prevent such carnage. The article goes on to describe scattered incidents where there have been violence at such facilities – none whatsoever in Clearwater. And the paper’s push for “protection” by the city of Clearwater for this slaughterhouse should fall on deaf ears. This painting with a broad brush fails to include any of the acts of savagery performed all over the country at pregnancy resource centers and houses of worship whose congregants tend to be pro-life. The distortion of facts by this left wing agenda promoter represents a new low, even for them.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

From the 5:05 Newsletter: If East Palestine, Ohio wants to get Federal aid quickly, it should vote to annex itself into Ukraine. In two days the place will be the cleanest city in America.

Very much related: the headline on the 22nd of February reads “EPA to take charge of Ohio derailment,” – eighteen days after the toxic chemicals were spilled.

FBI offering to look into Clearwater’s recycling gaffes? We’d like to think our tax dollars were being spent more wisely.

Moderate Republicans’ concern: With many qualified candidates likely to enter the Presidential sweepstakes (like DeSantis, Haley, etal), could Trump squeeze in and capture the nomination?

What group of idiots chose this Emily Kohrs to be the “foreperson” of the show trial in Atlanta over the 2020 election? Her 15 minutes of fame has compromised the entire procedure.

We go into next month’s Tampa city election with a mayor whose first term has been riddled with controversy and missteps virtually unopposed - puzzling.

Luncheon date: In response to our luncheon date with three of our teen heartthrobs last week, our SW (Saintly Wife) counters with Elvis, Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

This week in 1903 (Feb. 28) Barney Dreyfuss & James Potter buy the Philadelphia Phillies for $170,000. Today, the franchise is valued at $2.3billion.

Sports, media and other stuff:

The very best comment we’ve seen on Facebook in a long time, “You call it eating five boxes of Girl Scout Cookies alone; I call it supporting young female entrepreneurs.”

Top rated TV shows 50 years ago this week were, in order, All in the Family, The Waltons, Sanford & Son, M*A*S*H and Hawaii Five-Oh.

Major League Baseball has announced the ghost runner rule will become permanent except of course in post season where the games really mean something. An announcement regarding participation trophies is expected soon.

In addition to the World of Coca-Cola and Underground Atlanta, another Atlanta “must-visit” was the CNN Tower which housed the network and other fascinating places. Now, CNN has announced it is gradually pulling out of the tower with its landmark CNN sign at the top.

…and another thing: AT&T controversy

We recently dumped AT&T as our mobile phone provider. It really had nothing to do with the controversy regarding their DirecTV affiliate dropping the second most popular conservative network in the country – Newsmax. That unfortunate move by DirecTV has driven down their stock by 7 percent or about $10 billion as thousands have cancelled their DirecTV and AT&T accounts. We took on AT&T approximately five years ago and from day one experienced the company’s lack of integrity with dishonored quotes, “let’s see if we can get away with it” billings, and welching on purchased phone insurance. We finally had enough and ate a contested hundred dollars, just to get away from these, here we hesitate; what is a kinder word for thieves? As for DirecTV, we’ve never had the pleasure, but those we know who have, ran away as soon as possible. Not an organization you would recommend to anyone you didn’t intensely dislike.

NEXT UP: Jack Russell; TBR&R’s 9^th; 5:05 on DST

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