A weekly look at the Tampa Bay area and national politics from a conservative viewpoint – plus a helping of sports and lifestyle items. Warning: not everything printed here should be taken at face value.

Efforts to make drugs more affordable

There’s a lot going on currently to make the cost of prescription drugs less onerous. Forty four states have joined in a suit against the manufacturers of generic drugs for price fixing – a scheme that has seen the cost of some generics jump from 85 cents a dose to well over $10 a dose. The skullduggery has forced thousands of people to choose between drugs that keep them well or food or gas for their car. The suit, if successful, will cost the offending companies millions of dollars, but with their deep pockets it’s like you and I paying a traffic ticket. What we would hope is that some well-deserved jail time be handed out to the executives behind these crimes. That and only that will get the attention of the big pharmaceutical manufacturers. More on this in weeks to come.

Great Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. With the liberal media spewing the “R” (recession) word, a cooler head who we respect greatly points out that last Wednesday was the 307^th time in the last century that the market fell three percent in a day – or for the math-challenged slightly more than three times a year.

2. As we pointed out before (TBRR 5/5/19), like it or not, the people have spoken on the matter of felons who have done their time getting their vote back. Governor Ron DeSantis does our state (and himself) a disservice by trying to circumvent the will of the people.

3. Pardon us, Duke Power, TECO and Florida Power and Light, but shouldn’t we be trying to save every kilowatt we can? Florida’s big power companies are pushing for reduced incentives for consumers to cut back.

4. This moving thing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be with all the address changing etc. But the folks at Pinellas County’s Elections Office, Property Appraiser and Tax Collector couldn’t have made it easier - hats off folks.

5. You’ve lived in Clearwater a long time if you remember when the unofficial five and a half day work week ended on Noon Saturday with the blowing of a loud whistle downtown. Thanks to our unofficial TBRR historian.

Sports, the media and other stuff:

6. Dale Earnhardt’s scary crash last week reminds us that we have lost some truly great drivers in air plane crashes – Davey Allison, Alan Kulwicki and the legendary Curtis Turner.

7. Charlie Manuel is back on the field as the Phils hitting coach – probably one of many moves the “stupid money” Phils will make to their coaching staff.

8. It’s just not the Rays playing the stadium game, the Angels are romantically involved with Long Beach some 25 miles away from their current stadium.

9. The Rays 2020 schedule reveals some good NL draws in the Brewers (home and home), the Cards and the Pirates, but, alas no visit from the NL Central’s biggest draw – the Cubbies. The other downer is finishing the season with seven on the road.

10. The last two picks in our series of the best player to wear a certain number (back story TBRR 3/10/19) were tough. Picking the top #22 is a lot easier. He won three Cy Young Awards and pitched his team to three World Series championships. Baltimore’s Jim Palmer notched 268 wins in his Hall of Fame career.

It was a dark and stormy night

Fifty years ago on August 16, 1969, it truly was a dark and stormy night. Hurricane Camille was just about to enter the Gulf of Mexico. The associated bands of rainstorms held off just long enough for the outside wedding pictures to be taken but the newly married couple drove to their simple wedding reception in a downpour. Since that day, they have sworn that rain on a wedding day is a good omen. Now fifty years later, your humble blogger and his best friend look back and smile at the sunshiny days, the stormy days and all the days in between. So much of life ahead … and yes we’ve just begun.

Up Next: Owning a Duncan; Worst Phils trade ever?

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