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.

(Editor’s Note: At approximately the one-third point in our 7^th year, we are making a slight adjustment to our weekly presentation. Our lead and closing items will remain pretty much the same, but the Great Tampa Bay and Sports, Media and Other Stuff sections will no longer be numbered and will not necessarily be five each section every week. Some weeks demand a dozen items, other weeks not so many. As a good friend and mentor, Dr. Don Ardell, once said in one of his extraordinary wellness books – “Let us not be rigid.”)

Joe & friends try to undo 150 years of justice

Somehow our justice system has stumbled along for 152 years with a Supreme Court of nine justices. FDR tried to bloat it in the 30s and the response was something akin to “get out of town.” Now Joltin’ Joe, who is certainly no FDR, wants to team up with fellow left wingers and juggle things on the Court. Over the last century and a half, we have had conservative majorities and liberal majorities and somehow we have survived. Joe and company are all shook up because there is a solid conservative majority now and none of those Justices seem inclined to step down. Joe’s boys and girls are not going to change that through legitimate means in the next four years, so they do as Democrats often do – try to find a way to circumvent the law of the land. Even the Court’s eldest justice, Stephen Breyer, a Democratic appointee, says this latest dictatorial effort will “undermine public trust.” As if Biden and friends weren’t losing the public trust more and more every day.

Great Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

Related note, the far left, including Lefty Leonard, seems quite comfortable with stuffing the Supreme Court. We can only imagine the histrionics if there were currently a liberal majority on the high court.

Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace wonders if Kamala Harris, who Biden put in charge of the border crisis, knows the border is a "mess and doesn't want her fingerprints on it." Kamala has been nowhere near any of our southern borders.

Idle thought: remember when we looked to our elders, religious leaders and educators for advice? Nowadays, misguided people put way too much credence in the opinions of people whose greatest qualifications are being able to dribble a basketball or utter words, written by others, in front of a camera.

A lesson last week from Amazon to employers everywhere: take good care of your workers and unions can huff and puff all they want, but your doors will remain standing.

A tip of our cap to Governor Ron DeSantis for prohibiting the so-called “virus passports’ requirement for services or travel. Something like that sounds alarmingly like 1930’s Europe – or today’s China.

Also kudos to the Clearwater City Council for not bowing to the Scientology-controlled Downtown Development Board’s request to limit council appointed ex-officio members to one.

Sports, media and other stuff:

Now with two shots of a COVID vaccine, it is wonderful for so many people of faith to feel safe enough to attend church again after over a year of watching televised services.

Looking back fifty years (1971) this week, the biggest hit of the year went to #1 and would stay there for six weeks – Three Dog Night’s Joy to the World. Twenty five years ago (1996), only eight songs made it to #1 – a record for the fewest songs in a year. Two songs, The Macarena and Toni Braxton’s Un-Break My Heart combined to top the charts for fully half of the year.

A couple centuries back, there were handwritten newsletters. Then along came Mr. Gutenberg and eventually the newspaper replaced newsletters. Now, according to The Economist’s Tom Standage, newsletters are replacing newspapers. Wow, we’re on the cutting edge and didn’t even know it!

The All-Star game, stolen from Atlanta, has been moved to Colorado – a solid “blue” state. Surprised? The only surprise would have been moving the game to states like Florida, Missouri, Ohio or Texas, all of whom have two major league stadiums, but Rob Manfred’s boy, Joe Biden, was an overwhelming loser in all four states.

Another curious shortage – stain removers like Oxi-Clean and Shout. Suddenly store shelves are barren of any type of this product. We wonder why?

Our annual music rant

Next year, we promise we’ll get this out of the way in our first blog of the year – our annual ranting about Paul Anka and Neil Sedaka not being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – a combined 83 charted hits plus six #1 songs for the two of them. Just a few of the hits they wrote (and sang) for themselves and others – My Way (Anka for Sinatra); Tonight Show Theme (Anka for Johnny Carson); She’s a Lady (Tom Jones); plus his own #1 hits Diana, Lonely Boy and The Times of Your Life. Sedaka penned songs for The Captain and Tennille (Love Will Keep Us Together); Connie Francis (Where the Boys Are and Stupid Cupid)) and The 5^th Dimension (Puppet Man and Working on a Groovy Thing); plus his own #1 hits – Laughter in the Rain; Breaking Up is Hard to Do and Bad Blood.Any music hall of fame that doesn’t include these two giants is a joke.

NEXT WEEK: Border fiasco; Standing O; Sixties’ hit makers

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