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 immigration “reform” is not reform

We lead off with White House news from the 5:05 Newsletter: In a great and humane gesture, Joe Biden signed an executive order today granting citizenship to everyone who voted for him. Okay, that’s a bit of a stretch but Joe Biden wants to change our nation in a month or two with a bunch of presidential executive orders. Many of them involve illegal immigrants which is a slap in the face to law abiding Americans. At a time when there are so many higher priorities, to grant carte blanche to people here illegally is an insult to working men and women who have broken no laws, pay taxes, defended our country through their military service and need help right now. Our newly elected leader has to get his head on straight and take care of immunizing our citizens against COVID-19, help our American jobless and get our economy back to the levels of the Trump administration before granting a free ride to yet another over 25,000 people (last month alone) who need to earn it. As Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody put it so well – “President Joe Biden’s radical decision to abandon his responsibility, mandated by federal law, is tantamount to abolishing important requirements of immigration enforcement without congressional approval. This is not immigration reform. This is blatant disregard for our laws, for which every other citizen is held accountable.”

Great Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. In an ABC News interview, Joltin’ Joe said he believes New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo should resign if the investigation into his alleged sexual harassment reveals wrongdoing. “I think [Cuomo] will probably end up being prosecuted, too,” Biden added. Glass houses, Joe?

2. A recent PolitiSpin piece implies all the misinformation about the pandemic was a product of the right while the left was entirely blameless. With stuff like that, why continue to publish the comics?

3. Factoid – despite this past year’s pandemic, COVID-19 was only the third most common cause of U.S. deaths in 2020 behind heart disease and cancer. So stay on that wellness path!

4. Tell us again, who is going to pay for all these $1400 checks and other Democratic pork wrapped into the “COVID virus relief bill”?

5. Our elderly chief executive is becoming the new Jerry Ford, stumbling twice boarding Air Force One last Friday. Where is Chevy Chase when you need him?

Sports, media and other stuff:

6. Forty years ago this week, the Clearwater High School basketball team, led by the state’s top center Mike Britten and top sixth man David Stewart and coached by the legendary Jack Wilson won the only state basketball championship in the school’s history.

7. Answer: Austin, Texas. Question what is the largest city in the U.S. without a pro sports franchise? Austin currently ranks as the 11^th largest city in the nation.

8. Idle thought: you can tell a lot about human nature by watching people return (or not return) shopping carts in a grocery store parking lot.

9. You’ve lived in Clearwater a long time if you remember the Sea Shell Hotel on the white sands of Clearwater Beach.

10. As we enter the final two weeks of Lent, we offer this fasting suggestion from Pope Francis - “Fast from grudges and be reconciled.”

Your first trip to the record store

I’ll put on the old 45s – from Barry Manilow’s classic The Old Songs. Think back to your time at a record store and that precious piece of vinyl that was your first purchase. We asked our TBR&R Focus Group (recently classed up with the addition of two new members) about the first 45 they carried home from the record store. One of the founding female members of the group recalls The Dupree’s 1962 arrangement of the standard You Belong to Me; another of our elders who bought way, way too many singles through the years (over 3000), says his first record was Al Caiola’s 1960 recording of The Theme from the Magnificent Seven; another of our number got the most (8 minutes and 36 seconds) for his first purchase money when he bought the classic Don McLean side American Pie; The Fleetwoods had great success in the late 50s and early 60s with 11 hits on the charts including a #1 tune Mr. Blue which was the first purchase of another of our august group; One of our group has a slightly warped sense of humor even on his good days and swears his first record purchase was the bizarre Napoleon XIV recording They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa! The song made it all the way to #3 on the charts, so our strange friend had some company; another member’s first purchase was the classic Gerry and the Pacemaker’s 1964 hit Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying. And our newest focus group member recalls her first purchase being an album (only hippies bought albums back then) but she wanted the most for her money and it was a greatest hits album from the terrific Mamas and Papas.

NEXT WEEK: 50s top groups; St. Louis Browns; Sidd Finch

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