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.

Biden’s worst pick

Over the past many weeks, American’s collective jaws have dropped as Joltin Joe announced his cabinet picks – a former mayor of a town smaller than Clearwater as his Transportation chief; a woman to head the Small Business Administration who hasn’t been involved in a small business in nearly two decades; and a Commerce Secretary – a former governor of a state slightly larger than Pinellas County. But the scariest pick of all is his climate czar – John Kerry. The poor little rich boy, who has never had a real job in his life, dismissed 11,000 workers who lost their jobs with a stroke of a pen as “people who should have considered more appropriate jobs.” Hey, they couldn’t have all married ketchup heiresses, John. There are few, if any, people in government more out of touch with the American people than John Kerry – a climate czar who travels around the country in a private jet with the carbon footprint larger than a trucking fleet – a fleet that will now be used to carry crude at 25 times the environmental danger than the pipe line the cognitively challenged Mr. Biden wiped out along with 11,000 precious paychecks.

Great Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. Idle question: how many folks who huffed and puffed that they would never shop at Publix again because of a founder’s heir donating money to Trump, later lined up to get the vaccine shots the store is now offering? The company has always been a great corporate citizen and a donation from a person not involved in their daily operations doesn’t change that.

2. It should come as no surprise that a black market has developed for the COVID vaccine including some of the critical medicine missing in St. Pete. But at least, cooler heads prevailed when Joltin’ Joe attempted to divert some of the vaccine to terrorism detainees at Guantanamo Base in Cuba.

3. Related, we find it unconscionable that Clearwater (and other) police officers have not yet received COVD-19 vaccinations.

4. Suggested sign for the White House Briefing Room: “We don’t have the time or the CRAYONS to explain this to you.”

5. Number of the week – 54. The number of executive orders, executive actions, memos and proclamations issued thus far by the Biden regime. This compares to previous highs of 20 each by Obama and Trump - so much for bi-partisan cooperation and unity. His rationale - “I’m not making new law; I’m eliminating bad policy.” (Not to mention thousands of jobs.) Keep saying that Joe, some might even believe you.

Sports, media and other stuff:

6. We’re holding our breath, but pitchers and catchers are only a week away.

7. Media news from The 5:05 Newsletter: AT&T is reportedly looking to at selling its cable news station CNN. Expect a bidding war between China, Russia and the Democratic National Committee.

8. In October, the middle of the pandemic and the election season, the latest departure of Keith Olbermann from ESPN went pretty much unnoticed. Olbermann is a superb sports analyst, but he can’t decide whether he wants to do that or be a political commentator.

9. We were tempted to slip in a photo of Bernie and his mittens in this week’s issue, but we maintain our six-year policy of no pictures, only text.

10. You’ve lived in the bay area (or anywhere else) a long time if you remember NBA teams like the Minneapolis (now LA) Lakers, the Syracuse Nationals (now the Philly 76ers), the Fort Wayne (now Detroit) Pistons and the Rochester Royals since then the Cincinnati and KC Royals and now the Sacramento Kings.

Focus Group and “surf-stoppers”

Our Tampa Bay Rants and Raves Focus Group (a group of six or so old and mostly cranky people) is back after a long holiday layoff. They have been challenged with identifying a sure fire “surf stopper” – that movie which will stop you dead in your tracks while channel surfing as you watch it for the 10^th or 50^th time. Our youngest member, and the individual who coined the term, goes for Shawshank Redemption; our crankiest member gets stopped by lighter fare like Major League; the least cranky member of the group opted for the Chevy Chase - Goldie Hawn romantic comedy Seems Like Old Times; another of our elders stops and views whenever a Clint Eastwood “spaghetti western” comes on – like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; our newest focus group member will stop every time she comes across the Meryl Streep-Clint Eastwood movie The Bridges of Madison County – an eclectic mix to say the least.

NEXT WEEK: Four Stars; Marco and 2022: Different kind of fasting

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