Tampa Bay Raves and Rants is a weekly airing of national and local politics, sports, lifestyles and nostalgia items from a very politically incorrect viewpoint. As always, beware - much of what is printed here should not be taken literally.

Looking forward to Politics 2022

It’s not a good time to be a Republican or Libertarian or even an Independent. Because of a small percentage of fools in Washington a few weeks back, the Democratic Party, the most corrupt organization in the free world, suddenly occupies the moral high ground – for the moment. We have no doubt that shenanigans like those of Obama, Biden, Holder, Lynch and company will again come to the fore and the seesaw will then be balanced or even tilted back the other way. This will open the door for Republicans to reclaim the Senate (the House would be a stretch) in 2022 and return sanity to our government. But for the next two years, we can only hope the damage to our great nation will be minimal.

Great Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. The Biden $1.9 trillion giveaway reflects a plan by a guy who has never run a business - business which will be egregiously damaged if the giveaway is passed and flies in the face of the truism that you cannot borrow your way to prosperity.

2. Thanks so much to our Congress for wasting our money and time on a removal process everyone in America knew was not going to matter. We will reserve our thanks for the 2022 elections.

3. Another item in the death spiral of “Florida’s Best Newspaper.” They are eliminating 150 jobs; selling off their once profitable printing plant and will farm out the printing of what’s left of their paper to a Gannett plant in Lakeland.

4. Speaking of “FBN”, in a recent “news” article, a pinhead reporter named Natalie Weber tried to connect the fact that the U.S. had its single worst day of COVID-19 related deaths to the unrest in Washington the same day. Ah, walk us through that thought process if you will.

5. Numbers of the Week 49 vs 1927. As we come down the home stretch, President Trump has granted 49 pardons - mostly for white collar crimes. His predecessor Barak Obama granted 1927 pardons mostly for drug dealers.

6. Watching the 3-2 vote in Port Richey over hiring a new city manager recently and all their other tussles reminds us that the smaller the community (population 2600), the more contentious the politics.

Sports, media and other stuff:

7. So what is the over/under in years on Urban Meyer’s tenure with the Jacksonville Jaguars? Given his history, we peg it at fewer than two.

8. If you’re just a casual football fan, you probably didn’t know the name DeVonta Smith a month ago, but you sure do now.

9. The Rays got a good haul for left hander Blake Snell, but you have to believe part of the equation was the narcissistic lefthander had worn out his welcome in Tampa Bay.

10. The recently announced closing of Nathan’s Men’s Store in Lakeland reminds us that no such individually owned store has existed in Upper Pinellas County for several years. Long gone are the better men’s stores like Webb’s and Short’s in Clearwater and Darby’s in Dunedin.

Government gone crazy

We predict you will see many similar headlines in the next four years, but this particular idiocy has nothing to do with the incoming Biden administration. It is just a case of government bureaucracy run amok. Early in the pandemic, in addition to paper goods, you couldn’t find a bottle of hand sanitizer anywhere. Well, our nation’s distilleries jumped in and began diverting a little bit of alcohol production (much to the dismay of our friends at The 5:05 Newsletter) and devoted some of their production to alieving the shortage of hand sanitizer. A couple weeks ago, in a backhanded way of saying thanks, the FDA slapped the distilleries with a $14,000 fee – a fee normally reserved for drug manufacturers. Fortunately, our law makers hauled the FDA bureaucrats out in the hallway and slapped them around a little bit until they rescinded the fees. Now they need to tell the industry thanks for helping out at the expense of not manufacturing a product with a much higher profit margin.

NEXT UP: Gas Buggy; Wrecking Crew; Don’t Blame Me

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