TBR&R is a weekly airing of national and local politics, sports, lifestyle and nostalgia items from a very politically incorrect viewpoint. As always, beware - much of what is printed here should not be taken literally.

Blitherin’ Biden wins, we think

The Democrat’s 2020 strategy paid off – keep Blitherin’ Joe Biden mostly out of sight and script everything he says, allow everybody, dead or alive, to vote whenever they felt like it and get him elected. Now comes the fun part. Trying to continue to keep someone with the brain power of a hamster out of sight and just whisper in his ear the things the radical left wants him to parrot. Here are three or four things to keep an eye on. First, your taxes - as a middle class taxpayer (we have no rich readers), compare your tax bill this year to next year’s under a full year of Taxin’ Joe. Jobs – it’s a little hard to track, but doable - follow the number of jobs that return overseas as they did during the Obama-Biden years. Watch and see if our Covid-19 cases take a precipitous drop as opposed to the general trend they were already tracking. Tomatoes, gas and bread – keep your eye on things you have to buy and see what happens to the prices in the next twelve months. Inflation and Democrats seem to go hand in hand. Track small business failures in 2021. If you think this year was bad for small business, wait until Biden economics kicks in. And finally, before you shoot off fireworks (if you can afford them) on December 31, 2021, ask yourself if you’re better off than you were in the previous four years.

Great Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. The 5:05 Newsletter pretty much sums up this election season: "In my lifetime, we have gone from Dwight Eisenhower to Donald Trump, and we have gone from John F. Kennedy to Joe Biden. If this is evolution, I believe that in a few more years, we will be voting for plants."

2. Even twenty years later, political pundits mention the hanging chads of 2000. The fact is Florida has one of the very best vote counting systems in the nation and folks in places like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia and a half dozen other states might want to phone their colleagues in the Sunshine State and learn how to do it right – and perhaps legally.

3. The Good News: no more political/half-truth ads on your TV. The Bad News: we’ll be blitzed with Medicare ads between now and December 7.

4. The Associated Press, which has gone from a once respected news source to a far left advocate, is already predicting a failed Biden presidency, but blames it on Donald Trump. Huh?

5. A heartfelt thank you to all our veterans for their service to our great nation. Happy Veterans Day.

Sports, media and other stuff:

6. Sean Connery was James Bond. For us early baby boomers, all others were fakes. Connery also starred in Marnie, The Man Who Would be King and his Academy Award role as Jimmy Malone in The Untouchables. Sean Connery died last week at age 90.

7. Ah, last week we rolled the clock back an hour and marked yet another year of our national legislature ignoring the will of Florida’s residents to standardize our time.

8. We grow weary of folks saying “Publix is so expensive.” It all comes down to what you pay for – a bagger at the end of every line at Publix – or endless lines at Walmart. As our late, great friend and WTAN morning host Harry Lytle used to say, “You pays your money and you takes your choice”.

9. The answer: Patti Page, Brenda Lee, Olivia Newton-John, Madonna and Mariah Carey. The question, who were the top female artists of the decade for the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s respectively?

10. You’ve lived in Clearwater a long time if you refer to the now–razed building on Greenwood and Laura as the “old” Clearwater High School and not the one on Gulf to Bay that is being replaced by a new facility just to the south.

Election reflections

Some tidbits on local elections last week: Pinellas voters missed a chance to eliminate arguably the weakest of our county commissioners as Janet Long squeaked out a one percent win over a better qualified Larry Ahern. Speaking of the county commission, we now have two Gerards feeding at the public trough as Eric Gerard, husband of Commissioner Pat, outspent incumbent Largo City Commissioner Curtis Holmes 2 to 1 and won by 3000 votes. South of the Skyway, “Florida’s Best Newspaper” kept pushing the “close race” between veteran U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan and Margaret Good. Buchanan won by 11 points – hardly a close race, more like liberal wishful thinking. Charlie Crist re-elected as District 13’s U.S. Rep. We believe he ran on the Democratic ticket this time. Charlie tends to join whatever party is opportune for him at the time or become an Independent when that fits the purpose. But, we must say this: the man does represent his constituents well. Overall, there were few upsets in bay area elections.

NEXT UP: The Boys, Tops and others; Apple lemmings; $14 billion

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