SOLEMN DAY / SAD DAY

Most speak of today as an historic one. Trump will officially be impeached by the House of Representatives.

After the first of the year, the trial will take place before the Senate. The odds are Trump will be found not guilty. Not because he is not. It will be that the Republicans control the Senate and have the votes to “exonerate” him. A result lacking in truth.

There is some historic value to the day. However, I consider it more a solemn one. Impeachment is heavy stuff. Sufficiently solemn that it is sad. Joy does not attach.

Trump deserves the black mark history will place on him. The U.S. does not deserve what he has done to it.

Strange weather Key West is experiencing. It is raining every day! Not the time of the year for Key West to be getting dumped on. Summer and early Fall is Key West’s rainy season.

These days it rains in the morning, afternoon and evening. Never know which. Sometimes all. I had dinner last night at La Trattoria. When I was ready to leave, it was pouring. I sat at the bar and waited a while. The rain finally stopped.

It was 3 blocks to my car. I made it one block. As I crossed Southard, it began raining again. Just like that poured!

I got soaking wet.

Key West sits in Monroe County. The County has an excellent Sheriff. Rick Ramsey. He has been Sheriff many years. By the book, a straight shooter.

Captain Penny Phelps has been a member of the Sheriff’s Department many years as her rank denotes. She was in charge of the Detective Division.

She screwed up and lost her job. She has been made to turn in her badge and gun. Her years of service could not protect her wrongdoing.

A suspect was being interviewed for a 2017 murder. A black man.  Phelps told a subordinate to interrogate the suspect and act like a racist cop in an attempt to pressure the black man to confess. Her actual words were to act like a “white racist cop.”

Audio picked up her directive.

Tomorrow, a big day at the Key West Airport and for the City of Key West.

American Airlines has added a new direct round trip Key West to Dallas-Fort Worth to its flight list. All year long.

First flight tomorrow. The 124 passengers scheduled to arrive will be met with a water cannon salute, music, and a party of Key West citizens in welcome.

The flight arrives at 3:30. Anyone wishing to participate should arrive at 3:15.

PBS’ Samantha Brown recently visited Key West and certain other lower keys. Brown is in her third year doing a 30 minute travel show for PBS. Samantha Brown’s Places to Love.

The show will be aired on PBS in January. Date and time not certain yet.

The Florida Keys News yesterday reported the film will show Samantha doing a food taste in downtown Key West, spending time learning about Key West’s past and present authors while participating in a literary walking tour, show a sunset and song with Howard Livingston, learning about lionfish, and visiting the Marathon Turtle Hospital where she will participate in the release of a now healthy sea lion back into its ocean home.

A good and a bad sometimes attaches to an event. It has as regards Cuban/American relations.

Five years ago on 12/17/14, Obama and Raul Castro agreed to the reestablishment of diplomatic relations. An historic event. It followed 60 years of open hostility.

The Obama-Castro reconciliation lasted 2 years. Till Trump became President. Trump has destroyed the relationship. Today it is as if the 2 nations had never come back together.

Trump has spent roughly as much time undoing detente as Obama spent constructing it. Relations today are at their lowest ebb since the end of the Cold War. Such has made it difficult once again for visits to take place and economic assistance provided.

One of the reasons for Trump’s actions against Cuba involve Venezuela. Venezuela supported Cuba for many of the 60 years the U.S. and Cuba were not on friendly terms. Though Venezuela has all kinds of dire problems today, Cuba refuses to turn its back on its friend of many years. Trump is anti-Maduro and insists Cuba must abandon its relationship with Venezuela.

Man flew for the first time. December 17, 1903. The place Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first successful air flight in history. The plane stayed aloft 12 seconds and traveled 120 feet.

Amazing! Even more amazing is how far the world has come with air flight. Man on the moon, outer space in the beginnings of its development.

Justice does move slowly. Especially in southern states where black justice is involved. Even to today.

Black man Curtis Flower was arrested 23 years ago and charged with perpetrating a quadruple murder. He has been tried 6 times since. Each trial resulted in a hung jury or a reversal in his favor on appeal.

Authorities have kept Flowers in jail for 23 years hoping to obtain a conviction against him that would stick.

In each trial, the prosecutor had intentionally excluded persons of color from sitting on the jury.

Excluding black persons under such a situation from jury duty and keeping a man in jail for 23 years without obtaining a conviction both no no’s in the law.

A court finally admonished the prosecution for their wrongdoing. Flowers was released after 23 years on $250,000 bail.

Some form of justice finally done.

It is uncertain whether Flowers will be tried again.

A surprising fact. College enrollments in the past 8 years are down. Dramatically. At the same time college loans have skyrocketed. Even more dramatic! And nonsensical.

More women attending college today more than men. A “stunning” revelation.

In the Fall of 2011, 20.14 million students were enrolled in colleges. Today, 17.97 million. Such represent a 10.8 percent drop, 2.17 million students.

At the same time, student loans surged 74 percent. Does not make sense! Student loans went from $940 billion to $1.64 trillion. A trillion dollars plus! Something stinks.

Profit colleges are taking the biggest hit. The Harvard, Yales. Since 2010, enrollment is down 56 percent. From 1.64 million in 2010 to  750,000 today.

Since 2011, male enrollment has dropped 13 percent while female enrolment has increased 19.4 percent.

Two reasons suggested as to why the declining numbers.

Young people go to college to get a degree which would make it possible to earn more dollars over the course of their lifetime than those who did not attend college. Not true any more. Persons holding bachelor degrees are working in McDonald’s and Popeyes.

Many of the young are reluctant to attend college if they are going to be faced with overwhelming college loans to pay following graduation.

Trump says the economy is good. Wall Street says the same thing.

I disagree.

The economy is good for the rich/wealthy. Not for every day persons.

The proof is in the pudding. Facts speak.

Look at auto loans and home mortgages. Two things the lower economic class are sure to do.

Auto rejection loans (rejection the operative word) are up 8.1 percent this past October from October last year.

Mortgage and mortgage refinancing applications approvals are down dramatically from 2018.

People cannot meet bank “loaning standards.” The standards have not changed in recent years. Peoples’ cash flows have. One reason, earnings have remained static too long.

Moody’s warns the only way banks can get back into the auto and home loan businesses big time is to change “loaning standards.” In other words, loan to those with “spotty credit.”

The banks will do it. They are in business to loan money to make money. They will worry about customer paybacks a couple of years down the road. First things, first.

The problem, and an obvious one, is it could be the 2008 bank financial disaster all over again. Such was the result of banks loaning money to most people regardless of their ability to pay back. The game got its start in 2006 when the banks would loan mortgage money to anyone, bundle loans, and then sell them to investors. A new trading product.

The banks made a ton of money in 2-3 years. Then disaster befell them. People could not repay the mortgage loans. Millions lost their homes in foreclosures. Banks were in trouble. The government had to bail the banks out. No one bailed the people out.

Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou last night. One of my better shows I thought. You can find it archived if you are interested.

Tonight Syracuse/Oakland. I try not to think about the games any longer this season.

Enjoy your day!

 

 

 

 

54 comments on “SOLEMN DAY / SAD DAY

  1. I never consider it a sad say when good triumphs over evil, when crime does not pay or when Justice prevails. I’d say all that is a very good day indeed.

    • I am inclined to agree with Lou on this one.

      “Trump deserves the black mark history will place on him. The U.S. does not deserve what he has done to it.” But add that only half of us in America do not deserve this.

      It is a somber time when the President of the United States of America is impeached with cause, as now has Donald Trump.

  2. Hey Lou, what’s with that new Popeye’s chicken fast food restaurant on Roosevelt Road where Burger King used to be? I’ve driven past it a bunch of times and there doesn’t ever seem to be anybody there. What’s going on? Do you think they’ve laid an egg or are the the locals just not interested in another national fast food chain when they have so many other good choices?

  3. If the Dems are truly acting solely on moral grounds to punish an immoral President, then good for them. There are few enough moral victories in our world today. But if their actions are based on political motivations and hopes for future election results, then I fear they have made a mistake. The voters will be less inclined to support a political motivation over a moral one. Following Bill Clinton’s impeachment in 1998, the Republicans unexpectedly lost five seats in the House and Speaker Gingrich was forced to resign. Clinton emerged more popular than ever. How will it all turn out this time?

    • No one, objectively looking at the grounds for impeachment in the Trump case, would consider any part of it as politically motivated, unless they are either a fool or themselves trying to spin the issue for political reasons. The FACTS are clear and speak for themselves. This is especially true with the charge of obstruction. Furthermore, there was no rush to judgement by Democrats to pursue impeachment nor is Trump being bombarded with ample other impeachable articles which could have easily been included as pile ons. Democrats took many months, years really, before finally stepping up to what is their duty and obligation with such obvious and flagrant wrongdoings by this President (Trump), all the while knowing that the dishonest supporters of Trump, would spin this in any way they good.

      Yes, Republicans lost 5 seats in the house after the Clinton impeachment, frequently attributed to their impeachment fiasco. That number of seats lost is not a particularly large swing in any congressional election and some have said that they should have lost far more considering the circus and farce that particular impeachment was. New Gingrich was forced to resign by members of his OWN party, because he had led the drawn out and obviously VERY politically motivated and embarrasing witch hunt against Bill Clinton. Remember how Gingrich gave a nightly press conference through the nearly 4 years of investigations by a Special Prosecutor (Ken Star) never missing even once at reminding the public that the “President should NOT be above the Law.” Clinton was impeached for having lied to Congress about one part of his involvement with Monica Lewinsky, he was not convicted by the Senate because they felt his offense did not warrant his removal from office. Bill Clinton was reelected president because (and he didn’t cheat in doing so) the American people felt he was the best choice, even with his obviously politically motivated impeachment.

      Times are different now, so is the crime and so are the reasons and procedures taken for impeachment. This time there are countless facts of impeachable offenses with an obvious impeccable cover up that can NOT be denied. Democrats are well aware of the potential pitfalls of impeachment, in spite of your Paul Revere warnings you must think only you can predict. Trump will be, one way or another, not removed in what looks like will be a shameful collection of stunts by a morally corrupt GOP majority in the Senate. No fair trial here.

      I say Bravo the Democrats for having done the right thing, all the while knowing that the Senate will not do it’s part fairly.

      The Democrats in the Congress are NOT just acting solely on moral grounds, they are also and at some level of peril, doing their duty as described constitutional duty, by impeaching the President of the United States for grievous wrong doing, possibly saving our Democracy in the process.

    • You are welcome, someone needs to respond to your distortions which all seem to be nothing but right wing obfuscations – pure GOP ‘talking points’ you simply repeated on Lou’s blog.

      Paul Revere was indeed right, but you were not, you rarely are (Roy Moore, Virginia voting, etc., etc.), which only adds to the embarrasment.

      • Tim
        You seem to be confused in your labeling me as a Republican conservative. In Fact, I did not vote for Donald Trump, nor will I in 2020. You might not know it, but there are more than two political parties in this country. I tend to vote with those who are less extreme in their views. My opinions here on Lou’s blog are my own, not some political party talking points.

        As Ygritte of the Free Folk famously said in Game of Thrones, “You know nothing, Jon Snow”.

        • You are a liar too! No balls OR honesty. Do you think we haven’t read your past posts? Do you think we don’t know who you really are?

          • You and several like you, (including you, JustSayin), so badly want everyone on this site who disagrees with your TDS rantings, to be the work of one person. There are several posters here who are not who you think they are and definitely not the work of just one person.

            Sorry to burst your world-view bubble but you are going to hear from a lot of us at the next election.

            Enjoy your teardrop soup next November.

            • No one knows yet who we’ll be hearing from this next election, but more than one person who votes against America (not including Donald’s vote itself) is one too many.

              One thing is for sure. Donald Trump knows he is unlikely to win an honest vote and will CONTINUE to do what ever he can to rig the election for himself. That alone is reason enough to vote for someone else. It is time for you and all the other people who have dank the cool aide, to put aside your mal contempt tendencies and do the right thing. If you were smart you would support his impeachment now and start over with someone else, rather than go with what EVERYBODY knows is a bad guy and jeopardize what’s left of our democracy.

                • Isn’t it really weird it is to hear Trump supporters complain that Democrats have something they call Trump Derangement Syndrome, when they are willing to automatically chant “lock her up” about Hillary Clinton, in reference to her having used an insecure cell phone while working as Secretary of State ten years ago. Don’t any of them get the irony in this stupidity? Don’t they realize this undercuts their credibility? Don’t they realize this makes them look like complete fools? What’s a matter with you people?

                  • And why did the fanatic Trump supporters rebrand the acronym TDS into “Trump Derangement Syndrome” in the first place, when that had always (and Historically) been known as “Tiny Dick Syndrome” – something itself often attributed to Donald Trump himself. Talk about clueless fools!

                    • TDS was a term Patrick used to use all the time when he used to post using his own name. I think he liked using it because his child like brain felt it was a little naughty and didn’t realize that he only made himself look foolish when and how he used it.

                    • Once again you have your FACTS wrong, this time regarding the meaning of TDS – look it up on the Urban Dictionary website – be sure to look at the dates aszociated with the meanings given.

                      Perhaps you want to apologize for getting this wrong too?

                    • Silly Libtard.., first learn to spell. And We don’t care what your doctor or your favored learning tool says about TDS. Its a disease of your simple mind. It has nothing to do with what you and your urologist have obviously discussed.

                      It’s all about your mental deficiencies. Derangement can lead to vast hatred (already evidenced with your furious vexation with non-libtards), outbursts of anger (pretty much every one of your poorly constructed posts) and a complete denial of the real world around you (evidenced by your denial of current economic supremacy of the USA).

                      But it’s ok. We are here for you. We do care about you and we want you to get better.

                    • You really don’t have a clue do you? No wonder people think you are Patrick, it’s the comprehension problem again. People aren’t deranged because you choose to label them for something you can’t understand or wish to spin. It’s the same as you calling them a libtard because you can’t discuss things rationally and would rather smear your way to false superiority. You’re not clever Patrick, you’re handicapted.

                    • The TDS is worrisome with you. I believe it may have morphed into a PDS now. A Patrick Derangement Syndrome. In order to treat your mental illness, we must first uncover who Patrick is and why you are obsessed with him. But don’t worry. We are here to help you. #MAGA

            • Frankly, I can’t recall insinuating that opposing views are the work of one person. Now I can insult you, Trump style, for your misrepresentation and over-reach but I’ll let your support of #3 speak for itself. Often it is enough to be judged by the “company” you keep.

            • Seems to me more like James Taggart than John Galt, both not real. After all, what kind of person wants to regularly come on this blog, where their ideas are quickly challenged and refuted with facts. Someone with NO shame or good sense, just for fun? Probably a wannabe, who has no respect for America or it’s values and blindly willing to support and promote an ignoramus president who is vile and vulgar and leading this country down a path to destruction.

              • OMG. I’m surprised to find someone here who actually reads books. As a reader, you likely understand Rand’s concept of objectivism, and Galt’s philosophy of reason and individualism. You may not agree with Rand or with me, but I am impressed by your awareness. I accept your insults without responding in kind. There is enough of that in this blog already.

                • Those are not insults, those are objective analysis. And your smug superiority is exactly why objectivism is more a disease and cult, than anything useful or worthwhile.

      • Yes, thank you for your non-partisan response. Very well written and your thoughts will be borne out by the election results in November. The American public will come out in large numbers and fully support your non-partisan position.

        I can’t wait.

  4. I can distinctly remember that just before the disastrous economic collapse of 2008, the Bush administration was touting how strong the economy was. Even after things were obviously collapsing John McCain, the then Republican candidate for president was touting how all economic indicators were good and no one needed to worry.

    We were lied to then, let’s not be lied to again. Things may look good, but real experts are shouting cautions. DON’t BE FOOLED AGAIN.

    • I was unaware there was a problem till after midnight when I decided to do a bit of research since I could not sleep. I published then. Thank you for letting me know there was a problem. Five minutes later, everything not working. We thought WordPress a couple of weeks ago. Turned out to be Go Daddy. Sloan obviously sleeping. Did not want to wake her. We communicated at 5 this morning. Everything working. A problem in itself. Neither WordPress or Go Daddy can help unless we contact them when the problem is ongoing. Yesterday’s blog Thomas Paine’s American Crisis. Everyone please read. I will be doing today’s blog in an hour or so. Everyone will have 2 blogs to read today. Today’s blog will be shorter than normal. Don’t want to bury everyone.

  5. Ironic that Republicans, well some republicans, are obsessed that Democrats are too obsessed with Trump!

    Don’t they read their own sh*t?

  6. I remember Patrick, he was that guy who used to always try and correct spelling errors of other people who posted on this blog. That was always kind of creepy.

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