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.

Statehood for a city?

Every time the White House and Congress lean to the left, the ages old idea of statehood for the District of Columbia raises its ugly head. After all, it has a population larger than two of our 50 states (Vermont and Wyoming), but it is a city not a state. There are 19 cities with larger populations than D.C. and you don’t see Columbus, Ohio or Jacksonville campaigning for statehood. Democrats, of course, would love it as the biggest GOP presidential vote getters in DC history were Richard Nixon at 21 percent and Ronald Reagan at 13 percent. Single digit counts for Republicans are more the norm (Trump got five percent in 2020). DC Statehood would give the Democratic Party two additional Senators plus a Representative. DC already has three electoral votes compared to none for Puerto Rico which has four times the population. It seems more logical to attach DC to Virginia which appears to have the same values set – just repealed the death penalty (but still kills unborn children) and now has just legalized recreational marijuana. That DC was not incorporated as part of either Virginia or Maryland in our formative days was a mistake. Making the 19^th largest city in the country a state now would only compound the problem.

Great Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1, Quote of the Week: It’s getting harder for the Biden Administration to claim we’re in an economic crisis that demands more spending. It’s closer to the truth to say the economy is growing in a way that calls for spending and monetary restraint. The Wall Street Journal.

2. An Echelon Insights poll of last week has as the leader for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination – Governor Ron DeSantis, by a hair over Mike Pence despite 60 Minutes extremely misleading report (to be generous) on the Governor’s vaccine policy. DeSantis and Pence are leaders among actual people – the biggest draw in the poll was “Unsure” at 35 per cent.

3. City news: Dunedin’s city commission approves construction of a new $20 million City Hall. Meanwhile, Clearwater city government still operates on an out-of- sight floor of a bank tower in downtown with no solution in the near future.

4. Rumblings in the Florida Senate about giving even more power to tribal casinos are troubling. We think back to warnings from Clearwater drug store magnate and gubernatorial candidate Jack Eckerd about gambling in Florida. Everything he predicted has come true – and worse.

5. Item: New York State legalizes recreational marijuana. The thoughts of a career New York state law enforcement officer tasked with dealing with the after effects of drug use – “the tax windfall (from marijuana sales) will go largely to the downstate black hole instead of wholly funding substance abuse education and treatment.”

Sports, media and other stuff:

6. Thanks to the 5:05 Newsletter for this masterpiece: “ Major League Baseball is moving the All-Star Game out of Atlanta this year because of Georgia's new voting law. So if you go to the ballpark this year and they ask you to show them a ticket call it ‘Fan Suppression’ and set something on fire.”

7. Thought from a veteran sports observer: “I've been waiting for the PGA to move The Masters, but I guess golfers aren't as "woke" as the coelenterates in charge of MLB.” And yes, we had to look it up too. It is a grouping of sea life, none of which have a spine.

8. Yes, Baylor won the NCAA tournament, but the story of the event was the 11^th ranked UCLA Bruins, led by scrappy Jaime Jaquez and their well-prepared coach Mick Cronin. They came one half-court shot from the championship game.

9.The University of North Carolina basketball program has been blessed with two of the finest coaches in college history – Dean Smith and the now retired Roy Williams. With Krzyzewski, Knight and Wooden, they are truly the “Fab Five” of college coaching ranks.

10. Call us old fashioned, but the Mustang should not be an electric car. The Mustang, by the way, is the most popular car of the last century.

A black eye for National Geographic

During some research recently, we needed some quick facts on several American Presidents. We found the book Our Country’s Presidents put out by National Geographic. It is actually a book for a juvenile audience, but we felt the facts we needed would be in the book. They were – such as they were. We learned that Ronald Reagan was probably the worst President since Andrew Johnson. That George W. Bush should be ashamed of his military service, but no mention of Bill Clinton’s pulling all number of strings to dodge the draft. We read of the corruption in the Nixon White House and Justice Department, but the antics of Obama’s minions Holder and Lynch go unnoticed. You get the drift. The author, a Wisconsin based writer, Ann Bausum, makes no apologies for the left wing book. But the scary thing is kids read this book. Kids who quite probably are not all that discerning might accept this book for fact. If we’re burning Dr. Seuss books, this piece of nonsense should hit the dumpsters as well. Even worse, National Geographic has put its name on this book – a major hit for their credibility.

NEXT WEEK: Joy to the World; Back to church; Three stooges

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