Duterte Pivot. St. Pete. Where is the Rock? Is the Game Boring?

Back up Your Big Mouth Duterte.  Two Areas of St. Pete.  Even the Millennials are Going Classic Rock.  America’s Pastime.

• The Philippines and Rodrigo Duterte.  Moron, self-serving ‘leader’, or simply a power hungry politico who needs to play the U.S. against China? During meetings this past week with the Chinese brass, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced that HE (the Philippines) is “separating from the United States”.  This statement, in itself a radical foreign policy shift, has sent a very strong signal that the treaties and investments the United States have made in the Philippines is all for naught.   Yes, a 70-year old defense treaty…..guarantees to the Philippines that the United States will come to immediate aid of the island nation in case of foreign conflict or war and continued financial guarantees, delivering close to $200m in aid in 2016.  Does he not remember that the United States, with the help of few allies, defeated the Japanese during WWII?  Yes, the Japanese, who invaded and took over the Philippines from 1942-1945.  Now Duterte says he wants to align with China and maybe Russia.  His Secretary of Defense stated that the military aid received by the United States is ‘not enough’ and not significant.  Is time for us to call their bluff and pull all foreign aid?  I do realize that the island nation sits in a very strategic location in the Pacific but enough is enough….time to move on and let Duterte catch hell from the Philippine people when things go south very quickly.
• An interesting dichotomy only eight miles apart.  I am thinking about the area of St. Petersburg, Florida, with those white beaches on the beautiful Gulf of Mexico and a urbanesque downtown that bumps up to Tampa Bay.  Yes, the state of Florida’s 4th largest city is booming with growth on their beaches and city center.  From downtown, you take a short drive south on I-275 to the Pinellas Bayway and head across the intercoastal waterway past Isla Del Sol and Tierra Verde to Gulf Boulevard.  Heading north you experience a complete difference from downtown St. Pete, from the every-ending hotels and condos to the restaurants and dive bars.  So different than downtown St. Pete, which as of now has numerous cranes building new live, work, and play buildings that will blend well with the landscape of the Bay.  Instead of the dive bars on St. Pete beach, experience one of many downtown museums or enjoy the Pier and Beach Boulevard.  If you have not been, I highly recommend a long weekend to experience downtown and the beautiful beaches.
• Classic rock.  By definition: “Classic rock is a radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format features music ranging generally from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, primarily focusing on commercially successful hard rock popularized in the 1970s”.  So why is this music genre still so popular and why is the music format starting to skew younger, even to the millennials?  According to Nielsen, classic rock’s largest growth, surprisingly, is among 18-34 year-olds, who are listening 50% more to the format now than three years ago.  My only answer to this is the music is timeless, lends emotion with it’s lyrics, and is ‘cool’ for the younger generations to relate to the likes of Jerry Garcia, Mick Jagger, Steven Tyler and Ozzy Osbourne.  Funny how you can have 150 channels to choose from on Sirius XM but their classic rock offerings are in the top five most listened to over the last four years.  Classic Rocks!
• I was raised in a family of baseball fans.  My mother and father were Yankee fans and that spilled over to me and my brother.  Maybe it was my dad’s interest and my brother’s never-ending appetite for baseball stats, but along with my early interest in the NFL and worldwide soccer I was able to name every starter on every major league baseball team.  My interest, for many reasons, has diminished greatly.  I did not attend one major league baseball game this season and unlike past years did not watch one inning of a major league baseball telecast.  Maybe it is the world of free agency, the duration of a game, or me just wanting to spend time watching or doing something else.  I will most likely attend a game next season in the Braves’ new digs located a few miles from my home but I can definitely say that my interest in baseball may never come back to the level of my youth.  Sure, I like the atmosphere of any stadium but I just lose interest after four or five innings.  Never the naysayer, I do realize that baseball has a following…..maybe this year’s World Series, starting Tuesday night in Cleveland, will inspire me to enjoy one of America’s great pastimes.  Last night the Cubs advanced to the World Series for the first time in 45 years…..that in itself is a great storyline.
• Updates from previous posts:  Donald/Hilary: thanks for the WWE event Wednesday night; Yemen: Hey, you Houthi rebels, you sure got quiet after a response from the USS Mason’s Tomahawk missiles; Atlanta Falcons:  no let down later today!  The family at Amalfi Restaurant:  keep doing what you are doing; Chris Talley at Common Quarter:  good luck with your next chapter!

Adios and Happy Sunday Funday!