TRUMP A CARNY PITCHMAN RE INFRASTRUCTURE

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Today it begins. Trump plans on spending the whole week selling his infrastructure plan to the American people.

Good luck! Typical Trump. Good for corporate America, bad for the American people.

Past Presidents for many years have avoided repairing and maintaining our highways and bridges. Trump says he is going to fix them. With few taxpayer dollars.

Trump is selling a $1 trillion overhaul. His plan is to make corporate America pay. Trump wants to sell American highways and bridges to corporate America. If he can’t sell, then lease long term. Like 30-50 years.

The corporations will do the needed work.

The system will improve roads and bridges. To the detriment of the American people.

Corporations are in business to make money. The plan is not a give away one.

Tolls will be charged. Even on roads not presently charging tolls. The tolls will increase periodically as the corporations desire to make more profit.

Blackstone is the corporation in line to benefit. Over $400 million contributed to Trump PACs in the last election. Blackstone has been getting ready for almost a year to do the job.

I have spent considerable time in recent years in northern Italy. Italy has a program similar to the one Trump will be trying to sell. The Italian highways and bridges are in perfect shape. Through out  Italy.

The Italian people are unhappy. Tolls charged everywhere. Even on roads never charged before. The tolls constantly increasing.

My Italian friends all look for back narrow roads to drive in order to escape the tolls. The back roads do not provide for a healthy drive. Narrow. Like 1 1/2 lanes.

It is chicken time while driving on one. Two cars approach each other. Each waits for the other to pull off the road onto the shoulder in order to pass. A last second thing. Heart in your throat time.

The Garden of Eden was a Hemingway novel not published during his lifetime. It was discovered after his death. Then published. Hemingway spent 15 years off and on writing the book.

The theme of the novel is threefold. The exploration of male and female relationships, evidences an interest in androgynous characters, and the reversal of gender roles.

For many years, the roof of the Bull and Whistle on Duval has had a clothing optional rooftop bar. Its name Garden of Eden. Its reputation hot. In my reality, not so. In my many years in Key West, I have only been on the roof top a half dozen times. The only nudity was the bar maids breasts. A disappointment. The lack of nudity, not the bar maid’s breasts.

I have always wondered if the roof top Garden of Eden is named after Hemingway’s novel. Sex played a significant part in the book. Sex is intimated at the roof top bar.

If so, Hemingway would be disappointed in the rooftop’s misnomer.

The bocce season is over. Playoffs were this weekend. I did not attend. Don’s Place did not make the playoffs. First time in years.

In 1927, what is described as the New Overseas Highway between Key West and Big Pine was opened to traffic. This date to be exact.

A 30 minute drive today. Wonder what it was then?

Today a sad one in American history. Robert Kennedy was assassinated this date in 1968. He had just won the California primary for President. He was leaving the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angles at the time of the shooting.

The year was a tempestuous time in American history. The anti-
Vietnam War movement was peaking. Martin Luther King had been assassinated. Johnson announced he would not run for a second full term. The country was in general unrest. Riots everywhere.

Enjoy your day!

 

 

YANKEE JACK IS GONE

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My good friend, everyone’s good friend, Yankee Jack, died March 14. As he was arriving at the Bull and Whistle for his afternoon gig.

I just learned of Yankee’s death yesterday. Thus far, no obituary.

I first met Yankee nearly 20 years ago. There was a group of us that met wednesday mornings to play golf. 8:45 religiously each week.

Yankee was a big guy. Overwhelmingly so. Four hundred pounds plus. A heart as big as his body.

Yankee would periodically diet. Knock off 70 pounds. Nothing at his weight. Then give up and begin eating again. He required big time fueling.

Yankee knew the best places to eat and where he got the most for his money. A double course of everything.

Yankee was a composer and entertainer. Always writing songs. When I first met him, he had divorced for the first time. He wrote a song with a line that fit his situation: I can’t get over her till she gets out from under him!

He played all over the Keys. Had two steady jobs in addition. For many years at the now long gone Quay. Then, the Bull and Whistle.

Summers he left Key West and worked his way up the eastern seaboard. His ultimate goal Saranac Lake. Deep in  the Adirondack Mountains of New York State. He would spend two months at a resort in the woods entertaining. The same gig for years.

A humble man. Always ready with a joke.

A hell of a golfer. When he got his ass into his swing, the ball went miles. Yankee suffered one golfing problem. One that confronts most golfers. He rarely hit the ball straight. It was either to the right or left.

Yankee always thought he hit farther than he did. He would be 50 yards ahead of his ball looking. It was always far behind him. He was lucky he never got hit by a ball from the rest of our group hitting behind him.

I liked Yankee. Everyone liked Yankee.

A friend is gone.

Spent yesterday afternoon researching for tonight’s blog talk radio show. Interesting topics. Including 40 New York millionaires who wrote Governor Cuomo saying that taxes on the rich should be increased, coming attacks on Hillary Clinton, a paradise where everyone is divorced.

Also the move to have pornography declared a public health crisis, California self help re the drought, the Jewish mass migration from France and eastern Europe to Israel, Count Victor Lustig, Pope Francis being marginalized, and a California town getting rich growing cannabis.

Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou will air at 9 my time this evening. Join me. www.blogtalkradio.com/key-west-lou.

I am occasionally asked why I always say 9 my time. I have listeners worldwide. They need to know my time so they can figure out their time to listen.

The Chart Room first last night. I had to get out. I was in 3-4 days. Glad I picked the Chart Room for my first stop.

Met Charlie at the bar.  A Key West bartender. A Libertarian. As is the Chart Room bartender. Two interesting hours discussing politics and government with them.

Then to Outback. I craved prime rib. Sat at the end of the bar, read the newspaper and enjoyed a big red juicy slice.

Terrorists strike again! All over the news this morning. Responsible for 2 explosions at the Brussel’s airport and one at a metro station. Thirteen reported dead so far.

I let this thought out. Whenever attacked, reaction by that country follows. Generally, successful. Why can’t countries be proactive? Bring the fight to the terrorists. Do not wait for them to attack first.

Enjoy your day!