Established in 2014, Tampa Bay Rants and Raves is a weekly airing of local and national news, sports and memories from a politically incorrect viewpoint.

First thing on our mind:

Corey Comperatore – remember that name; a victim of a senseless act brought on by just as senseless political rhetoric.

Leading off: The GOP convention

First, does anybody think a four day convention and a $200 million economic boost will swing Wisconsin’s most Democratic city? Second, President Trump’s selection of J.D. Vance as VP is probably a net positive. He was not our first choice (see TBRR 5/9/24), but we apparently were not home the day the President called for our advice. Vance is a self-made man as opposed to the party-made individual on the Biden ticket. The most presidential sounding convention speaker, in our opinion, was Marco Rubio, who at 51 has a great political future. The Thursday night appearance of Tucker Carlson brought down the house. Weakness: scheduling President Trump’s too long speech so it would run until nearly midnight. But overall, an A minus.

Finally, we give the overall media coverage of the convention a B minus. Fox and Newsmax were their usual selves. The broadcast networks were good and not terribly slanted. Spectrum proved they are not ready for prime time – lots of technical goofs and a fairly lightweight analyst assemblage. MSNBC was off the charts, showing the convention, muted in the background (could have as easily shown cartoons) while the channel’s resident harpies Rachel Maddow and Joy Reid launched attacks, the vast majority false, against President Donald Trump. The fact is MSNBC wasn’t even in Milwaukee!

Tampa Bay, politics and notes:

While you were watching the convention, your pocket was quietly picked of another $1.2 billion by the Biden bunch. They just excused deadbeat student loan holders of that much in indebtedness.

Pro-abortionists now have a new patron “saint”. She is a British neonatal nurse, Lucy Letby, who earlier this month was convicted of trying to kill an infant in her care. This woman is currently serving a life sentence for murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six others.

Best of the Week: (compliments of our friend TL) District Attorney Alvin Bragg files two new charges against Donald Trump (Count 1) Avoidance of a targeted projectile; (Count 2) Obstruction of an assassination attempt.

Idle thought: Do George Clooney, Ashley Judd and Julia Roberts really think the average American cares about their political opinions?

Fulton County DA Fani Willis’ 15 minutes of fame is just about over as her RICO case against rapper Jeffery Williams (aka Young Thug) has blown up and her other high profile case against President Trump will likely see the dumpster by year’s end.

Useless trivia: Should J.D. Vance ever ascend to the presidency, he would be only the second chief executive with a last name beginning with a V; the first being Martin Van Buren.

Number of the week: 222. That’s the number of firearms seized at the nation’s largest airport (Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson) in the first six months of 2024. That’s the most at any U.S. airport.

Question: When was the last time you used a personal check at the grocery or department store? Citing low usage, Target is the most recent retailer to stop accepting personal checks as of last week.

Post Independence Day note from the editorial office of the 5:05 Newsletter: I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. I paid a 7% tax on fireworks to celebrate a revolution that started over a 2% tax on tea. It's not too late to ask King Charles to forgive us and take us back.

Born 100 years ago this week (7/21) in Morgantown, WV was veteran funny man Don Knotts.

Sports, media and other notes:

In our lifetime, there was no one whose presence on TV we enjoyed more than Bob Newhart. The man who sold millions of comedy albums in his early career and then starred in two successful sitcoms died last week at age 94.

Todd Helton enters the Hall of Fame. Shame on the baseball writers for making one of the greatest hitters of the 21^st century wait so long.

Yes, it would be great to see your favorite MLB All-Star in his team’s uniform; but as Steve Adams of Major League Trade Rumors points out, the majors are not inclined to give up all that revenue from jersey sales.

The Rays have five teams ahead of them in the race for a wild card spot. Look for them to be sellers at the upcoming trade deadline.

This week’s political song: Neil Sedaka’s Breaking Up Is Hard To Do.

One last thing: The players speak:

First, if you’re a sports fan and don’t subscribe to The Athletic, you should. Every major sport is covered in great detail. Recently, the publication did a survey of MLB players with questions like: best player (Ohtani); most over-rated player (Jazz Chisholm); best in the clubhouse (Mookie Betts); is the season too long (70% - no); what team would you most like to play for (Atlanta Braves); worst organization (Oakland Athletics); was the Dodgers’ off-season spending good for baseball (91% - yes) and finally a related question do you favor a salary cap (71% - no). We suspect fans would differ, particularly on the salary cap question but, all in all, a great set of insights from The Athletic.

NEXT UP: School Board Election; Insanity Defined; Crayola

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