I WAS WRONG

I thought sure there would be a confrontation last night between Trump supporters and activists. I was wrong.

During the afternoon, I had my first inkling I had called it wrong. In two different instances, activist leaders spoke with the media. Pence was coming in to talk with them.

The two activists in effect thought it was a good idea. They seemed to be backing off from a “war.”

They were.

All last night brought was a brief skirmish here and there. The biggest, which not big at all, following Trump’s speech when Trump people were trying to leave the area.

As to the rally itself, it was not up to Trump’s usual standards. From  my perspective, it was a failure. Interesting, we both failed the same evening.

Trump had been expecting one million people. The arena held 19,000. An outdoor area for 4,000 was arranged for those who could not get in.

Trump got neither 1 million, 23,000, or 19,000. Total attendance approximately 13,000.

The outside area was immediately taken down so it would not be seen empty.

Inside the arena, it was obvious the place was not full. Huge areas of empty seats. Especially on the upper levels. Also one third of the floor standees area.

Why the crowd much smaller than anticipated?

Two groups of American teenagers got him. TikiToy users and K-pop fans.They had members and non-members nationwide write in for a ticket. Never intending to attend. That is what ran the anticipated number up to one million.

Ho, ho! A gotcha situation.

Trump came out on time to speak. Unusual for him. He looked disappointed. Most of the 2 hours he spoke, he did not appear to be a happy camper. It was obvious he was unhappy because of the crowd size.

His talk reminded me of 2016. Mostly the same. Even the issues. Some of which are no longer issues.

He exhibited a sense of humor on occasion. Especially his recent West Point experience. Spent 15 minutes on it. I assume it was a made up story to cover what the press thought. Whatever, he was funny during those 15 minutes.

He lied on occasion. To be expected.

Referred to the activists as “thugs.” I found this interesting. Most of his supporters seated in the arena looked like thugs.

His overall demeanor the same as always. He cannot help it. He comes over as a nasty man.

Less I forget, I know I am correct about my coronavirus prediction. Four-six weeks from now, the numbers will spiral in many areas of the country because of the very few wearing masks and absolutely no social distancing.

Trump’s son Eric spoke. Called the Black Lives Matter protesters “animals.” I thought based on the way the Trump family lives, they could be called “pigs.”

Think about it. The massive uprising of the past several weeks began in Minneapolis with the death of George Floyd. Minnesota should be the first state to come up with legislative police reforms.

Not going to happen.

The legislature is one house Democrat and one house Republican. Their term was coming to an end. They did not come to an agreement. The legislature closed friday till late summer or early fall.

Why is it so difficult to do the obvious? It resembles the school shootings. Legislation right away! Never happened.

This tearing down statues and monuments is going too far. Everyone has an ax to grind.

Two recent statues down in California are examples.

Father Junipero Serra’s statue in Los Angeles has come down.

A priest. Spent his adult life in California developing the missions. It is said he worked the natives hard in building the missions.

His statue was erected in 1932 by the Knights of Columbus. He was canonized a Saint by the Catholic Church in 2005.

His statue was toppled this weekend. The reason given the way he treated the natives several hundred years ago in the construction of the missions.

The worst is Ulysses S. Grant. No justification for his statue coming down. The event occurred Juneteenth in San Francisco.

Grant has some heavy credentials. President of the U.S. and General of the Union Army that defeated the Confederacy. As President, he advocated for the civil rights of former slaves and helped ratify the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks the right to vote.

The reason his statue was toppled is he owned one slave. The slave was gifted to him. He freed the slave before the beginning of the Civil War.

A big step too far!

The colors of the rainbow have been adopted by gays and lesbians world wide. They have come to symbolize Pride.

Key West in 2015 painted the intersection of Duval and Petronia with rainbow stripes. Signifying gay/lesbian pride. The intersection is also the home of Key West’s most famous gay bars. 801 and Bourbon Street.

The intersection was resurfaced with the flag this past week. A bit larger and brighter colors.

Key Westers believe the rainbow intersection speaks as to how the community looks upon its residents and visitors: “Everybody is welcome, everybody is equal, everybody is recognized.”

Keys’ residents speak of iguanas and infrequently crocodiles and pythons.

A crocodile or two every year. A python every 5 years.

A crocodile visited the backyard of an Islamorada home last week. A 12 footer. He was captured by a legal trapper and removed to someplace where crocodiles go in north Florida.

Crocodiles cannot be captured other than by a legal trapper. They cannot be harassed or killed. They are a protected species under Florida Law.

As are the chickens in Key West.

Enjoy your Sunday!

14 comments on “I WAS WRONG

    • Hi Al…..I took the 13,000 figure based on 2 things. An earlier report that said the arena was one third empty. I figured 6,000 subtracted from 19,000 covered it. I also watched Trump on CBSNEWS stream. The place looked about two thirds full. I found the 6,200 number, afire reading your comment, in a Forbes article based on a Fire Marshall’s report. Respectfully, did not look that little to me. No way. Always good to hear from you.

  1. Lou says this tearing down of statues and monuments is going too far. I agree. It has to stop.

    There is an ugly word in the English language. The word is “purge”. In its milder political usage a purge is the removal, often by force, of any references to things considered undesirable or offensive in a society. This can include entire generations of historical structures, images, and documents. We are well on our way to purging a large part of our history and social identity. If it continues, we will have expunged about 120 year’s worth of our social development. That’s a huge chunk out of our total of 244 years as a nation. Any references to racial conflict, cultural/economic differences or slavery during that period (and continuing to today), will be suppressed. Think about that. How will school children learn about our history if the Civil War cannot be discussed? How do they learn of the cultural differences that led to an industrialized north and an agrarian south? Why have so many statues and monuments to historical figures been defaced and/or removed? Why are there some things about our founding fathers that cannot be discussed? Why can’t they read “To Kill a Mockingbird” or “Huckleberry Finn”.

    Shhhhhhh. Sorry, children, we can’t talk about any of that.

    In its uglier political form, a purge becomes the removal of humans from society to prison camps or death for reasons of social reform or political advantage. The purges that took place in China, Soviet Union, Cambodia, Burma, Germany, Bosnia, Poland are examples. Are we now closer to a human purge of our own? Where does this end?

    • Leave it to this guy to determine what is right and what is wrong?

      Is this guy loves him his opinions, Andy

      …be one thing if he thinks hims opinions be just that, Amous – but looks like him thinks his opinions are gospel too!

      … yea, thems kind thinks they be smarter than us, wid alls dem quotes and such and that “Shhhhhhh. Sorry, children, we can’t talk about any of that” clever down talking stuff.

      —-yeaj, and days wunder whys their city be burning.

  2. To bad that the smart Germans sat on their hands and did not purge Hitler and his Nazis from their country when they were starting out.

    • No they thought maybe he would change his way and become a good leader. They supported him and said he just needs more time to adjust and come around to being a good leader.

  3. The Hill is reporting that the Tulsa fire Department is saying that fewer than 6200 people attended Trumps rally in Tulsa, not including, media, staff, or people in box suites, as of 7:30 PM and based on scanned tickets. Campaign officials were saying 12,000.

      • Biden doesn’t do Rallies. It’s a fascist thing, you know Hitler and Trump.

        Besides “Covid” stupid. Biden is more considerate and wouldn’t put his supporters in that kind of predicament

Leave a Reply to I. Adroit Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *