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

First thing on our mind:

We think we and the rest of America could survive without Saturday mail, saving our nation $2 billion a year.

Leading off: auto companies, come back home

As a rather staunch GM buyer over the last couple of decades, it’s somewhat embarrassing that many of their models, including the one we have driven most often, are manufactured south of the border. If Trump’s threatened tariffs moved GM plants northward, we wouldn’t mind the additional expense. Other companies, particularly foreign nameplates are not in as good a shape as GM. Volkswagen, with only one U.S. plant would be hit hardest. Least impacted, with only 20 percent of its production offshore, would be Ford, while the various Chrysler labels are struggling as is. Toyota would take a significant hit, but as the biggest seller of vehicles worldwide, they will survive. Hyundai/Kia meanwhile has announced new, significant investments in US plants.

Tampa Bay, politics and notes:

While “the sky is falling,” more savvy investors, or those with savvy investment advisors, took much less of a hit last week. A lot goes back to that “pigs get slaughtered” thing.

The legislature’s proposal to cut back Florida’s sales tax seems to be the better path for Florida residents than Governor DeSantis’ proposed property tax cut. Renters, who are usually in the lower end of the income spectrum, would receive no benefit from the property tax cut.

We certainly hope President Trump means what he says about cutting off funding to recalcitrant states who continue to allow males in women’s sports – and locker rooms.

Add another term to the political lexicon – “judge shopping.”

2400 jobs are cut at the Center for Disease Control, an agency that was allowed to become bloated during the COVID crisis.

Factoid: Foot Locker, which has announced it’s moving its New York headquarters to St. Pete, is the spinoff of the 20^th century five and dime retailer, F.W. Woolworth.

Second Factoid: 90 percent of all new grocery products, even those from powerhouses like Colgate or Proctor & Gamble fail – from the book Becoming Trader Joe. More on this book next week.

The United States has flourished economically and strategically for two and a half centuries without Greenland. We suppose that trend will continue.

Texting note from the 5:05 Newsletter: Reminder: Text “STOP” to opt out of updates on Pentagon war plans.

This week in 1912 (April 10), the ill-fated RMS Titanic sets sail from Southampton on her maiden voyage.

Sports, media and other notes:

The Top 5 shows on TV this week in 1975 – All in the Family, Sanford and Son, Chico and the Man, The Jeffersons and M*A*S*H. CBS had nine of the Top 11 shows.

Not so fun to wake up after the first week of baseball and your favorite team has the worst record in the majors. And then your biggest offseason acquisition gets suspended and a guy with a 1.99 ERA last season comes up lame. We live with the maxim that being a Braves fan pounds steel into the soul.

Factoid – the Tampa Tarpons open their season this week (April 8) but do not play a home game until May 13^th due to the Rays occupying Steinbrenner Field.

Related – any bets on the Trop being ready for the opening of the 2026 season?

Christmas shopping alert: only 37 more Thursdays until Christmas!

A recent survey of the healthiest and unhealthiest fast food sandwiches had four of the worst coming from Burger King (topped by their Big Fish sandwich). Three each of the best came from Chick-fil-A and Firehouse Subs (topped by Chick-fil-A’s Deluxe Chicken and Firehouse Sub’s New York Steamer).

Next month will see the first inductees into the Video Game Hall of Fame in Rochester, an offshoot of the Toys Hall of Fame. Twelve games have been nominated including Frogger, the only one of the 12 we remember playing.

You’ve lived in Clearwater a long time if you remember Birge’s meat market on Court Street and Val’s on Drew.

One last thing: Mount Rushmore III

As the baseball season gets underway, MLB players were surveyed as to the best player in the game. No surprise, the answer was Shohei Ohtani. But the top five revealed some surprises. Ranked at number two was Bobby Witt, Jr. of the Royals rather than AL MVP Aaron Judge, ranked third. The other two in the top five were Mookie Betts of the Dodgers and Corey Seager of the Rangers. Two surprising omissions, the Mets’ Juan Soto and ’23 MVP Ronald Acuna, Jr. of the Braves, possibly because of his season ending injury last year. Only one pitcher got a mention, Garrett Crochet of the Red Sox.

UP NEXT: COVID flashback; Trader Joe’s; The rabbit hole

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