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: Who are Americans voting for?

The numbers are puzzling. A recent NBC poll says 70 percent of voters don’t want Biden to run again. And it’s thumbs down for his presumed opponent from 60 percent of the electorate. Yet, Democrats, with their heads firmly buried in the sand, are discouraging any opposition for Biden in the primaries. Meanwhile, Trump’s closest opponent, our current Governor, only attracts about 21 percent of Republican voters. There’s a message there somewhere, but damned if we can figure it out. The Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan suggests perhaps a third party effort, but whom? Third parties only make elections murkier; they never win. Perhaps next year’s primaries might clarify things. We certainly hope so.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

Our Speaker of the House needs to forget about impeaching Biden – just get the GOP geared up to dump the bum next fall.

Related: as Biden stumbles towards the 2024 election, you gotta believe he’d rather be related to Billy Carter than Hunter Biden.

One of the six or fewer liberals who read this blog forwarded us a piece from some left of center organization that complains some political rallies are doubling as religious revivals. Hmm, maybe there should be more of those.

$3.69 – the bay area price for gas this weekend – up 34 cents this month and only 10 cents lower than normally much higher priced diesel. As a public service, we remind you that in the first week of January 2021 – our area price was $2.14. Are we having fun yet?

Pinellas County’s proposal to vacate its Court Street headquarters is fraught with problems – financial and otherwise. They should tread very cautiously.

Breaking news for a breathless world: Twitter is now known as X.

The 5:05 Newsletter reports: There are six parking places for every person in the United States. Most of them are in Wyoming.

25 years ago this month, a Tampa landmark, the Jai Alai Fronton on South Dale Mabry, closed after 46 years of operation.

Sports, media and other stuff:

Veteran Cubs’ announcer Pat Hughes is the well-qualified recipient of this year’s Ford Frick Award for broadcast excellence. So when are the folks in Cooperstown going to get around to this Staats fellow down here in Tampa Bay (after his stops with the Astros, Cubs and Yanks)?

Number of the week: 3 – the total number of major league regulars who have more walks than strikeouts – Juan Soto of the Padres, Cleveland’s Jose Ramirez and the Dodger’s Will Smith.

Random thought for a long, hot summer: You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy ice cream and that’s almost the same thing.

Factoid: Unchained Melody is the song title with the most charted versions (nine) including the original by Les Baxter (#1) and the popular 60s version by the Righteous Brothers which peaked at #4. Three different titles have reached the charts eight times – Little Drummer Boy, Mack the Knife and Stand By Me.

You’ve lived in the bay area a long time if you ever filled up at a Sinclair station, famous for their dinosaur logo. A series of mergers and acquisitions moved Sinclair out of Florida by the late seventies and early eighties.

…and another thing: more of Manfred

Rob Manfred has been reconfirmed as the commissioner of baseball for another five years and that is very unfortunate. The guy is tone deaf to the people who pay his salary – it’s not the owners, it’s the fans. The owners are only a conduit through which his salary flows. He has presided over an extremely costly work stoppage in 2022 with our state and Arizona being the biggest victims. He’s also allowed Oakland to swing in the wind while scheming to get the franchise to the home of his gambling buddies in Las Vegas. And we are just now starting to recover from his theft of the All-Star game from Atlanta in 2021. Here’s a radical, yet sane idea, like the All-Star teams, let the fans vote for the commissioner because, again, we pay his salary. And here’s a starting list of three guys who, unlike some second rate lawyer, know and truly care for the game, Cal Ripkin, Jr., Tim Kurkjian and, our personal choice, former player and Atlanta broadcaster, Joe Simpson. We’re sure you can come up with dozens more qualified than Biden stooge Rob Manfred.

UP NEXT: American Graffiti; Lizard skins; If you build it…

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