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.

2024 Update

Word on the street is Republican leaders are urging Donald Trump not to announce his candidacy for 2024 even if he intends to run – thus making the controversial ex-President less of a talking point for Democrats in the mid-terms. But we all know how well Trump listens to wise counsel. Meanwhile, the hot mess that is the Biden Administration is making the Democratic bidding more interesting. Biden is showing every classic symptom of dementia and would be the ripe old age of 82 if he took office in early 2025, but all of America prays for his good health over the next two and a half years – if for no other reason than the train wreck that would replace him if he became unable to govern. And veteran political observer Dick Morris says we haven’t heard the last of Hillary. To recap, Babbling Joe, the Donald, Hillary or Kamala. Out of the remaining 332 million Americans, surely we can do much, much better.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser is finding having illegal immigrants in her great city is not as much fun as having them at the southern borders. She is asking for National Guard assistance to deal with the same problem Southern mayors have been dealing with since the beginning of the Biden administration.

In a related note, the first busload of illegals from Texas arrived in New York City Friday. Enjoy!

As the midterms and the primaries draw closer and closer, more and more Democrats faced with tough races are distancing themselves from Biden.

Fortune 500 companies are, for the most part, refraining from commenting on federal and state abortion laws – and wisely so. There is no issue in America that will get you in hot water no matter what you say.

We give a rave to Clearwater’s outstanding Creative Contractors for their renovation project at St. Pete High. Nice job on a school that is a twin to the old Clearwater High/Jr. High that was on MLK. Both schools were built in the mid-1920s.

As we head into a new school year, this thought from the 5:05 Newsletter: “Those who can, teach. Those who cannot, pass laws about teaching.”

Five Years Ago in TBR&R (August 6, 2017) You can now get an Uber or Lyft ride at TIA. Most third world airports have offered this for the past five years.

Sports, media and other stuff:

Vin Scully was the voice and spirit of the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers. More so, he was the voice and spirit of baseball. The sport’s greatest broadcaster, who invited us to “pull up a chair”, died last week at age 94.

It’s a stretch to call a basketball Hall of Famer underrated but that describes Bill Russell who died last week at age 88. LeBron, Magic and Michael may have had higher profiles, but all Bill Russell’s teams did was win – starting with the national champion University of San Francisco team and carrying through the Celtics days.

Lots of baseball stuff this week:

From the 5:05 Newsletter: Washington National’s outfielder Juan Soto rejected the Nationals’ $440 million contract offer. His agent said Soto is waiting to see if the Saudis start their own baseball league. (Ed. Note – actually there is a form of that in America, it’s called the Los Angeles Dodgers).

In case you missed the return for Soto, a member of our Focus Group supplies a partial list: the Padres’ farm system, the San Diego Chicken, Tijuana, La Jolla Beach, Sea World, the San Diego Zoo and an aircraft carrier to be named later.

Forty years ago last week, Joel Youngblood became the first major leaguer to get a hit for two different teams in two different cities on the same day (8/4). He singled in the winning run for the Mets in Chicago and then was traded to the Montreal Expos and got a hit that evening in Philadelphia against the Phils.

Having trouble finding Caffeine-Free Diet Coke? Coke blames supplies of cans with the focus being on their prime brands i.e. good old Coca-Cola and the not so great, in our mind, Coke Zero. Better times are coming according to Coke. (Update: a few 2 liter bottles were found this week at Publix. Update on the update: none on Sat. 8/6).

MLB after the trade deadline

If you’re old enough to remember baseball in the fifties, October nearly always featured the Dodgers and the Yankees. At the two-thirds point in the baseball season, we see no reason why that won’t happen this fall - after all; our ace prognosticator Achmed Walled (pronounced wall-ED) had them both seriously in the hunt. After the Padres snatched up this era’s best hitter, Juan Soto, we still like the above mentioned two teams along with the Astros and Braves over the Padres. After the deadline trades, you can now call the Mariners Cincy West. They pick up Reds ace Luis Castillo after acquiring the bats of former Reds Eugenio Suarez and Jess Winker in spring training. And two teams you can pretty well count out are the Giants and Red Sox. In addition to their perilous positions, neither team can catch the ball. Meanwhile, our local nine are hanging by a thread to the last wild card spot with Cleveland, the White Sox and, surprisingly, the Orioles in the mix.

UP NEXT: No place like home; CHS; U of Iowa

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