Tampa Bay Rants and Raves is a weekly airing of national and local politics, sports, lifestyles and nostalgia items from a very politically incorrect viewpoint. As always, beware - some of what is printed here should not be taken literally.

Congress needs to take stock

Last week we opined that members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors should be required to have their portfolios placed in a blind trust to avoid the recent surge of insider trading allegations. Now, U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia has taken that one step further with proposed legislation that members of Congress and their spouses (read Paul Pelosi, a heavy stock trader) cannot trade stocks while in office. Your humble blogger, while an elected official years ago, learned of a local company soon to gain a large defense contract that would (and did) catapult their stock. Your HB and the appointed city official who gained this information at a private meeting agreed that no way on God’s green earth should they act on it. But what if one of us was in a financial bind, or just greedy? If a local official can gain such information, think of what a member of Congress can learn about future events affecting companies’ worth? Legislation like this makes way too muchsense.

Great Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

Surely the irony is not lost on the American public: our fearless leader vowing the crucial Nord Stream 2 Russia-to-Germany gas pipeline would be blocked if Russia further invades Ukraine. Meanwhile, 11,000 Americans lost their jobs when Biden shut down the Keystone Pipeline, and they hadn’t invaded anything.

More on the Ukraine: this headline Kamala Harris to take lead on Ukraine. My, isn’t that comforting?

“You’ve got to be kidding” is the reaction of many observers to Tampa’s mayor picking an old crony with some serious negative background to be the city’s new police chief over Tampa native and deputy chief – Butch Delgado.

Number of the week: 6.6 million. That’s the number of Americans who suffer from a gambling addiction – a number that our legislature and our general population should keep in mind as we seem to rush headlong towards increased gambling in our state.

Idle thought: when we have to fill critical positions requiring highly qualified people, why do we tie our hands by limiting our selections to a small subset of candidates?

From the MIT Technology Review, here are four of the worst innovations from the past couple decades – The Segway, cryptocurrency, E-Cigarettes and selfie sticks, to which we add the “driverless” car.

Related to our concluding article below, there are now 35 Sears stores left in America.

For almost half a century, he was the go to guy for everybody in Clearwater when their vacuum cleaner went kaput. Clearwater High ’62 grad George Valone passed away last month at age 77.

THIS WEEK IN 1899 (2/13): THE TEMPERATURE DROPS TO MINUS 2 DEGREES IN TALLAHASSEE, THE RECORD LOW IN FLORIDA HISTORY.

Lighter stuff:

From the 5:05 Newsletter: The historic Rotterdam Bridge will be temporarily dismantled so Jeff Bezos’ new super yacht can pass through. Bezos will then board his private train and head to Switzerland where, for his convenience, a portion of the Alps has been flattened.

Pitchers and catchers did not report Monday, the first of a lot of bad news baseball fans will be receiving. The second was an offer by Biden Labor Secretary Marty Walsh to “help out” in negotiations. Walsh is one of the most pro-union people on the planet.

Allegedly attributed to baseball Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins, “I called to congratulate (baseball umpire) Joe West on retiring, but he missed that call too.”

Mid-February and it’s now safe to go back to the gym, the overcrowding caused by New Year’s resolutions has now passed.

Forgive us if we’ve mentioned this before, but never buy your wife a stepstool for Valentine’s Day even if she asked for it.

Seen on a bumper sticker: My dog is smarter than your president.

You’ve lived in Clearwater a long time if you remember the major fire that destroyed nearly a block on the northern side of downtown Cleveland Street in the late 1950s.

Rochester may have hit on something

As we see shopping malls all across the country, including here in the Bay Area, struggling, folks in Rochester, NY may have hit on something. They are repurposing arguably the most struggling retailer in the country, Sears, into a 300,000 square foot medical campus in the Marketplace Mall. It’s a project of the highly respected University of Rochester Medical Center. When you stop and think about it, a conversion like this makes sense. The mall offers relatively cheap real estate, tons of parking and it’s centrally located. Rochester is not the first community to do this, but the Marketplace Mall location is likely the most comprehensive such facility thus far in what could be a boon for struggling malls as well as medical facilities trying to keep non-critical patients away from the COVID threat in our hospitals.

UP NEXT: Three times around; Good Old Boys; Electric cars

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