MORNING STEW #42

Busy morning ahead. Today #113 of my self-quarantine. Will be leaving the house for only the second time. Do not like it. However, I have no choice. The body is reacting to my normal pre-coronavirus problems. Need medical updating.

Ergo, a Morning Stew.

Tom Friedman had an excellent Opinion piece on 6/30/2020 in the New York Times: This Should Be Biden’s Bumper Sticker.

“Respect science, respect nature, respect each other.”

Fitting.

Friedman begins with “We’re not leading. We’re not following. We’re lost.”

Friedman wrote Trump has changed things dramatically. He has created a different pandemic. “A pandemic of incivility. You cannot exaggerate the impact on the whole civil cultures of having a President who has elevated name-calling, denigration and lying to a central feature of his Presidency, amplified by the White House.”

Friedman believes Biden “will need a simpler, clear message to counter Trump’s “Make America Great Again.”

Friedman’s idea for such a bumper sticker is a slogan that came to his attention when he recently read an article by the environmental innovator Hal Harvey. The one mentioned at the beginning…..Respect service, respect nature, respect each other.

I wrote a blog recently titled “I Don’t Get No Respect.” Featured was Rodney Dangerfield.

I received a comment yesterday from a Dale. He had read Friedman’s article of 6/30. He thought a proper Trump bumper sticker would be Dangerfield’s famous line as I had reported it: I Don’t Get No Respect.”

That is the way it has become. No one has done Trump in. He is doing it to himself.

The sign at the entrance to Bahama Village on Petronia Street is down. Under repair. Being sanded and repainted.

Ernest Hemingway purportedly killed himself this day in 1961 at his Idaho home. He is reported to have blown his brains out with a double-barreled 12 gauge shot gun.

Most thought a suicide. Some, not.

Bolstering the suicide theory was that Hemingway had become plagued with an inability to write. He lost it. Could not put even an acceptable sentence together.

He was also suffering at the time from acute depression.

It should be recalled that suicide ran in the family. His father, grandfather, brother, sister, and a granddaughter had committed suicide.

Key West has geared up this past week preparing for the July 4 weekend. Thirty six banners are being raised on Duval Street. The hanging will be complete today. Each reminding tourists to wear masks.

A thoughtful move. Every little bit helps. Add to it that the beaches and bars will be closed.

I hope that no tourists or visitors arrive for the weekend. Things are bad coronavirus wise in Florida. Key West numbers have had a dramatic increase to 88.

We do not need anyone. Our sole purpose should be to protect ourselves.

Yesterday was a bad day number wise for new coronavirus cases nationally Yesterday’s one day total the highest ever: In excess of 50,000. The fifth time in the last 8 days that the number has been the “highest ever.”

Florida a major contributor. Primarily because of our inept Governor DeSantis who blindly follows Trump.

On February 27, Trump said the virus would “disappear.” He said it again yesterday.

He doesn’t learn. Donald is doing real good. The U.S. is at the point of most infections and most deaths.

Even worse, Fauci announced yesterday that the number of new coronavirus cases could go as high as 100,000 per day if we continue to fail to test and wear masks.

Trump continues to lose ground in the election race. Biden moves ahead a bit more each day.

Trump and his followers do not understand. A prominent Republican said yesterday that it is being part of a “cult” to be wearing a mask.

Then there are other Republicans who see the light. Most Congressional leaders. All of a sudden, they were all over television yesterday. Their mantra…..Stay safe, wear masks!

The word this morning is the bounty paid by Russia for killing U.S. service men was $100,00 per. Sounds awful big! Hard to believe on first impression. I thought when the bounty news first broke maybe $100 or $200.

However $100,000 could be. Small change if Putin could make the U.S. look bad.

One reason coronavirus is beating us is that we have no national strategy to fight it. No battle plan. It was Trump and the federal government who should have led. Covid-19 a national calamity of major proportions.

Trump failed. Why, I cannot understand.

My notes next indicate that as of yesterday, Monroe County had 270 new confirmed cases of the virus, Key West 89. For each, the highest number thus far.

I expect the numbers to continue to rise. The fault lying with the barricades coming down and bar and business reopenings permitted. Blame it all on the greed of certain businessmen and merchants who valued money over health.

May Johnson’s day in 1896 interesting. This 20 year old school teacher lets no grass grow under her feet.

She wrote a 17 page letter to “her darling.” Then she was off to La Brisa to dance and party.

La Brisa had to be a big time fun place. May is there almost every day while her love is on the mainland working.

President James Garfield was shot this day in 1881 at the train station in Washington, D.C. He died more than 2 months later.

A “nut” by the name of Guiteau was the assassin. He was tried, convicted, and hung in 1882.

I wrote a lengthy article some time ago either in this blog or KONK Life. Garfield died because the doctors screwed up. They killed him.

A true story.

I will search for the article later today. If I can find it, will rerun it tomorrow. That interesting!

Enjoy your day!

 

 

10 comments on “MORNING STEW #42

  1. I disagree with you and Tom Friedman, a little on Biden using the slogan “Respect science, respective nature, respect each other.” I think that’s to long to shout!

    How about just plain “RESPECT”

    Easy to shout, easy to print on baseball hats and on signs and would envoke more a movement than any one idea or person.

  2. As COVID-19 case numbers continue to rise, it must be time to turn away from the advice by Trump’s Coronavirus Response Team (Pence, Fauci, Birx, Azar, the CDC, etc.) and turn to Joe Biden’s response plan instead. I’m having trouble remembering the major elements of the Biden plan, at least those proposed initiatives that are not already underway under Trump. Perhaps someone here could list the key points of the Biden plan so that we can all get behind it.

        • OK, but then that would be an entirely different post than the TROLL post you posted attempting to be clever, instead of honest and forthright, even when posting off topics.

          It is your method that is dishonest, not your opinion. No wonder people reading this blog complain about you.

          Please try not to insult me

          • According to Norwegian folk lore, trolls live under bridges or in caves. That’s not me. I live in a castle high on a hill where complaints are rarely heard. And I’m sure it would be impossible to insult you.

            • According to Wikipedia a TROLL is a person who tries to start flame wars or intentionally upsets people on the Internet by posting inflammatory and digressive, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the intent of provoking readers into displaying emotional responses and normalizing tangential discussion, either for the troll’s amusement or a specific gain.

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