TBRR is a weekly airing of national and local politics, sports and lifestyle items from a very politically incorrect viewpoint. As always, beware - certain accounts printed here should not be taken literally.

The worst public policy proposal in US history

In the epitome of a knee jerk reaction, several cities are seriously looking at “defunding” or disbanding their police departments in the wake of the Minneapolis mess. Exactly what are these civic leaders using for brains? Wack job groups like “Take Back the Block” are leading this very misguided initiative which constitutes an open invitation to come to Minneapolis and start looting. In New York, their left wing mayor is talking about police cuts – just what is needed right now in America’s most screwed up city. Remarkably, other liberal-led cities are considering similar measures. This will work great until some folks wake up and realize why we have police departments. It all goes back to the whimsical but oh so true observation - “A liberal is someone who has not yet been mugged”. Reform yes, radical surgery – a menu for disaster.

Great Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. Quote of the week: “I think (that’s) more of a knee jerk reaction than sitting down and actually assessing the responsibilities of law enforcement agencies and the need out in the community.” - Tampa Mayor (and former police chief) Jane Castor’s response to Minneapolis’ radical plan cited in our lead article.

2. Also related to our lead item: CNN’s Chris Cuomo, brother of New York’s distinguished governor, declared that police officers are those required to remain peaceful — not demonstrators. Supposedly, Mr. Cuomo has a law degree. We also suppose that he was absent the day when his Constitutional Law class discussed the 1^st Amendment and the right to peaceful assembly.

3. Another offshoot of the corona virus is the unavailability of large appliances right now. The industrial shutdowns and diversions to virus-related materials have created a backlog of orders for things like refrigerators and washing machines. Another area of shortages right now is bicycles.

4. Congratulations to Clearwater Central High graduate Msgr. David Toups who has been named Bishop of the Diocese of Beaumont, Texas.

5. You’ve lived in the bay area a long time if you dined at Maas Brothers Suncoast Restaurant at Westshore Mall with its view of takeoffs and landings at TIA.

Sports, media and other stuff:

6. We always enjoyed and were informed by ABC’s This Week with David Brinkley. Recently, we were in a situation where we were more or less forced to view this generation’s version of the show with former Clinton mouthpiece George Stephanopoulos. Brinkley, the great TV journalist, would be embarrassed. Truth be told, the entire news division of ABC is an embarrassment.

7. Number of the Week – 5. That’s the number of U.S. cities that have multiple daily newspapers from which to choose. They are New York, Chicago, Boston, Detroit and Washington. The bay area lost its second (and best) newspaper The Tampa Tribune when the St. Pete Times bought and folded it in 2016. The Times itself is now just a two paper a week sheet.

8. Best wishes to former Rays’ outfielder Denard Span who has announced his retirement. A career .281 hitter, Span was acquired from the Giants for legendary, but fading, third baseman Evan Longoria and was later flipped to the Seattle Mariners after only 43 games.

9. Answer: former Ray’s reliever Jesse Chavez. The question: what current major leaguer has been traded more than any other active player - eight times? The veteran reliever has modeled nine uniforms – including Texas and Toronto twice. While the property of the Rays briefly in 2009, Chavez did not pitch in the majors for Tampa Bay.

10. And this gem from the 5:05 Newsletter: California News: Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti ordered store owners not to resist rioters and looters and, instead, "show them love and humility." Minutes later he was named the defense minister of France.

College athletics have become a joke

Think back to when you were a kid and the college athletes you admired. Being older than dirt, we admired the great athletes of Bud Wilkinson’s mid 1950s Oklahoma teams like Tommy McDonald, Clendon Thomas, Jerry Tubbs and Jimmy Harris. And the San Francisco basketball teams lead by Bill Russell and K.C. Jones. Now, the best you can hope for is one season from your college superstar and three, at most, from your favorite school’s football BMOC. And it’s getting worse with the NBA, in particular, coming around to every kid being a LeBron James or Kobe Bryant – going straight from high school to the pros – or maybe even skipping their high school senior year. It seems the madness is headed in that direction. It’s probably Pollyanna to say okay, you dozen or so kids go straight to the NBA, the rest of you, we expect four years for the tuition, room and board, we provide. And if you want to leave early, we’ll take 15 percent of your salary for every year until your graduation year – returning college sports to what it was meant to be.

UP NEXT: Summer songs; Biff Burger; Qualified Captain

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