“I’LL PROBABLY GO THE SAME WAY”

 

Fifty seven years ago today. July 2, 1961. A sad day.

Ernest Hemingway committed suicide. At his then home in Sun Valley, Idaho.

One of the greats in the annals of literary history. A favorite son of Key West.

Hemingway’s father Dr. Clarence Hemingway committed suicide many years earlier. Hemingway said at the time: “I’ll probably go the same way.”

A quiet evening last night. A drink at the Chart Room and grocery shopping at Publix. The refrigerator was empty again.

BOB returns. The Bum Farto saga continued.

Authorities did not initially pay attention to drug dealing in Key West. Farto and friends became aware. He and some Bubba friends decided to make some easy money.

Farto fixed up El Jefe and his personal appearance. What he was doing became open and notorious. El Jefe was lime green to begin and carried a sign with El Jefe on it. Farto added a bright gold eagle to the hood, together with reflective glass and two sawed off shotguns.

He uniformed himself. He wore a shocking pink uniform, rose colored glasses, and a generous helping of gold jewelry.

Farto was on the way! His new career took off! Drug dealer!

Ssles and deliveries were made from El Jefe. The drugs secreted in McDonald lunch bags and pizza boxes.

Dealing drugs did not interfere with Farto continuing his regular job as Fire Chief.

The operation expanded. Thirty some odd fellow Key West citizens became involved. None, including Farto, were Mafia types. They merely happened upon an easy way to make money and said why not. Never seriously considering the consequences.

Federal authorities became aware. No one sure how. The flamboyant manner in which Farto was doing business? Someone squealed? The answer not known.

There was a massive arrest by authorities. Thirty in all. Farto included. Referred to as the Big Bubba Bust.

The timing had one inconvenient factor. Key West’s primary bail bondsman was among those arrested. The only other bondsman was out of town on vacation.

Who was going to bail these good citizens of Key West out of jail?

The bonding company Bankers Casualty Insurance Company became involved. Probably because they did not want to lose all the money they could make bonding thirty good and true men out of jail. The Company arranged for the release of the bondsman who in turn bailed out the remaining 29 defendants.

The best is yet to come.

To be continued…..

ICE is going to become well known to the American people. Some have begun referring to ICE as Trump’s private army. A scary thought.

My immediate concern is where are the babies and girls? Yesterday, photos of some of the girls were shown. Where are they? Where are the babies? What is going on? Time to open the doors and let the media and public in. I fear something bad has occurred.

On this day in 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act. A monumental moment!

Color would no longer be an issue. Did not work out that way. Things are better. However, race still an issue in our country. Trump I suspect a racist.

We have a long way to go.

On this day in 1881, President James Garfield was shot. He died some 80 days later. His doctors killed him, not the assassin who shot him.

A few yeas ago, I wrote a KONK Life column on the topic. I asked Sloan this morning to dig it out. If she finds it, I plan on running the column as tomorrow’s blog adding only a brief introduction.

The moment of truth is upon us. The truth re Trump’s use of tariffs to enhance the U.S. economically.

Yesterday, Canada began adding new tariffs totaling $12.6 billion on U.S. products. China begins friday when it will add new tariffs totaling $34 billion. U.S. soybean farmers are going to be hit big time. China’s tariffs are being imposed on the same day the U.S. is adding $34 billion on Chinese goods.

Harley-Davidson has already said it is moving a significant number of its production lines out of the U.S. because of the tariffs. Nine thousand jobs will be gone.

General Motors and Polaris warned in recent days that they may have to take certain of their businesses overseas.

The largest U.S. nail manufacturer, Mid-Continental Nail, announced it has laid off 60 employees already because of the tariffs. The Company further advised that if something is not done to correct the situation, it will be out of business by Labor Day.

Helicopter assisted escapes from jails becoming commonplace. Forty nine since 1971. Thirty successful, nineteen failed.

Yesterday at a jail outside Paris, Redoine Fain successfully escaped. A stolen helicopter landed inside jail walls, picked up Fain, and were up and away in less than a minute.

Since 1971, seven movies, a number of TV shows, and several books have been written re the “art” of jail helicopter escapes.

Tonight, one of my Key West favorites. Aqua’s Dueling Bartenders. I find it relaxing to sit, have a couple of drinks, and sing along with the bartenders.

Enjoy your day!

 

 

23 comments on ““I’LL PROBABLY GO THE SAME WAY”

  1. Trade deficit; America and other countries, 2017
    China, 375 billion$
    Canada, 18 billion $
    world, 560 billion $
    How do we fix this imbalance.

    General Motors. After the bailout, GM closed 13 American plants and opened 15 in China. 7 of 10 of their vehicles are built in other countries. Brazil being one of those countries.

    H-D. I explained this company previously. The company sales are down 12% in this country and up 7 % in Europe/Asia and has been looking to reduce labor costs for a number of years. The new plant in Thailand was started quite some time ago and they have been making bikes in Brazil and India for quite some time. They want to increase their sales in Europa and Asia.

    If these are problems, how do we fix them.

    • Why would anyone believe your figures or analysis on any of this, given your record of incorrect information and widely off the mark conclusions, or even basic comprehensions of the simplest of issues? Even when you post under your own name.

    • Prior to Trump, we Republicans and most Conservatives, were very much for free trade and were quite successful in promoting and enacting all kinds of things to get America the leader with this economic model.

      Now we have a nincompoop as President who wants something else and people like you just get in line with his craziness without even understanding on how things work nowadays, or what WE have done to get it this way. It’s a global economy and it is American companies and American people who have made it this way. That ship has sailed.

  2. I don’t know if America is completely to blame. There is a huge imbalance. Canada charges America 270% on dairy products.

    • Patrick, your frequently stated 270% tariff charged by Canada on American dairy products is deviously misleading, even for you. Canada does charge those amounts on SOME american dairy imports, but then only for SOME types of dairy and then only for surplus amounts, not on the first quart. The details are involved and far beyond what would be appropriate for this blog, but are available to anyone (google) who might want to know more. Bottom line, you needn’t be so dishonest about what was designed by Canada to keep America from flooding the Canadian Market with some types of dairy products, just to make your vastly exaggerated political point.

      • Not frequently, just once. Details can be involved and far beyond those here. Vastly exaggerated, no. A 270% tariff is there, its fact.

        • Now you misquote me, perhaps you’d want to reread my post. I didn’t say it wasn’t there, I said you deliberately misrepresent it. There are several ‘fact-check’ articles available (Google) which prove that and would only have taken you a moment to read any one of them. These include “Quora,” Politifact,” “Check your Fact,” etc., etc. They all basically say that (and I’m paraphrasing here for brevity) that Canada has a quota system for imports, and above a certain volume, it imposes high dairy tariffs. Before those quotas are met, dairy products enter Canada duty-free or subject to much lower rates. The truth is that their actual terrif structure on on dairy (and other) products is far different than the ‘blanket’ high figure you blindly (and forcibly) are trying to claim and is aimed mostly at trying to limit anyone from flooding the market. Why do you continue to distort this when the actual facts are so easily and plainly available.

  3. By the way, aren’t you the same Ron that said Remington never made a version of the AR15 ?

    I’ll stick with my understanding of most things.

  4. Ron on February 26, 2018 at 11:05 pm said:
    Just to be clear, Remington never manufactured the AR-15. The weapon was designed by Armalite who sold the patent to Colt in 1959. Subsequent manufacture of the AR-15 was by Colt.

    Reply ↓
    Patrick on February 27, 2018 at 9:46 am said:
    There are several manufacturers that make versions of the original Armalite AR platform, Remington being one of them.

    Ron on July 2, 2018 at 8:41 pm said:
    No, not me

    end quotes/reply key

    OK, we must have more than one Ron.

    Those were in response to the shooting in which a Remington was used.

    • Very helpful post Patrick, we were all just on the edge of our chairs waiting for all of that to be cleared up!

      • Anonymous on July 2, 2018 at 9:30 pm said:
        Very helpful post Patrick, we were all just on the edge of our chairs waiting for all of that to be cleared up!
        end quote/reply key

        Always trying to be helpful and why I was so quick about it. I knew you wouldn’t get any sleep.

  5. trump and his family has 144 businesses in other countries. most if not all, he profits from while president of the united states.

    • I think that was meant to be sarcastic patrick, as in why were you bringing that up in the first place? Issues with your meds again?

      • Anonymous on July 2, 2018 at 10:02 pm said:
        I think that was meant to be sarcastic patrick, as in why were you bringing that up in the first place? Issues with your meds again?
        endquote/reply key

        It was !? Sarcastic !? I never would have guessed that !
        Of course it was sarcastic. As was my response. I’m glad you reminded me about the meds though.

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