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.

When lying, don’t make it so easy to check 

Quote of the week from the “always believable” Political Fact people concerning soaring gas prices: Part of that has come on Biden’s watch — prices have risen about 10% since he took office in January 2021. The bulk of the increase came under Trump. Second quote of the week from our 1/3/21 TBR&R -   $2.15 – This is a number we track every year – the year end cost of gas locally. At the end of 2019, it was $2.14 – pretty much the same, but not near the $1.97 of the beginning of 2018. Watch out for this year! So using simple math, gas prices have risen a robust 25 percent to $2.69 during Biden’s tenure. We are sure it had nothing to do with his axing an economical fuel delivery service – the Keystone Pipeline and the 11,000 jobs that went with it. Memo to Politifact – try to make your untruths a little less easy to disprove.

Great Tampa Bay, politics and stuff: 

1. The state of Virginia’s recent repeal of the death penalty would have been much nobler if it included companion legislation to outlaw the slaughter of unborn children in the state.

2. Hey, it could have been worse, former Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is proposing a two percent wealth tax. It, fortunately, has no chance of passage. One of the bill’s co-sponsors is the nut case from Hawaii – Sen. Mazie Hirono. You remember her – she’s the one who asked now Supreme Court Justice Amy Barrett Comey if she had ever been accused of sexual misconduct.

3. “Florida’s Best Newspaper” seems to have a problem with Publix Supermarkets handling COVID shots. It’s not like Publix is making a ton of money on this public service and if you’ve had your shot at a local Publix, you know the procedure runs smooth as can be.

4. The weather was justifiably blamed for the week-long delay in COVID-19 shots, but you have to wonder where the blame would have been placed prior to January 20.

5. Speaking of the weather, last weekend’s Chamber of Commerce weather gave us the first beach back up of the year with traffic on Court Street backed nearly as far east as Missouri Avenue.

Sports, media and other stuff:

6. He was the face of what was then a local power company, Florida Power. Executive and civic leader Andrew Hines died late last month at age 98.

7. Factoid: The University of Tampa was founded as Tampa Junior College in 1931 just four years after St. Petersburg Junior College.

8. Congratulations to the women’s basketball team at USF for winning their first ever American Athletic Conference title. Go Bulls!

9. From TBR&R Five Years Ago (March 8, 2016) Now that Mayor Bob Buckhorn’s “election campaign” is over, expect him to start positioning himself for a run for governor in 2018. Fine, but mayor, please remember what we are paying you to do in the interim. (Buckhorn tested the waters, but passed on a run).

10. As we pass the halfway point in the season of Lent, we present another fasting suggestion from Pope Francis – “Fast from anger and be filled with patience.”

This week we turn seven

(Ed. Note: To answer a few similar questions we’ve been asked, TBR&R is reached simply by typing in Tampa Bay Rants and Raves on your search engine, then bookmarking. There is a similar-named site associated with Craig’s List, but we don’t hawk anything here – except perhaps some politically incorrect ideas. New editions usually post by approximately 6 p.m. the Saturday before the date of publication.)

It’s been seven years and over 300,000 words since TBR&R ranted its first on March 9, 2014. First, a thank you to James Foster and Robert Brucker, the IT pros that helped us get started seven years ago. In that time, we’ve covered two very disappointing presidencies with a third (and quite possibly worst) now underway. Our Focus Group (a group of old, mostly cranky people) have weighed in on music, movies, Presidents and the like. Our crack prognosticator Achmed Walled (pronounced wall-ED) has had a great run of World Series predictions – so-so on Super Bowls. We’ve witnessed the demise and then revival of The 5:05 Newsletter and the demise, but sadly no revival, of the area’s only trustworthy newspaper, The Tampa Tribune. And in just the last year, we’ve witnessed glory for the Bucs and Lightning and a near miss for the Rays. We seem to be nearing the back side of a pandemic, and we hark back to our beginning issue with “what ever happened to Alex Sink?” Now, as we ponder an exit strategy three years hence, we begin our eighth year.

NEXT WEEK: Legal notices; DST again; Trump and Hoover

030721/77