Big day in Key West yesterday! The U.S. Navy’s newest vessel, the USS Spruance, was commissioned. The crowd attending the ceremony was overwhelming.
Key West has been a sigificant naval base since the 1820s. However, this is the first time a ship has been commissioned here.
The Spruance is a guided missle destroyer. It is named after the Admiral Raymond Spruance who led the U.S. Naval forces during the battles of Midway and the Philippine Sea in world War II. It is 509 feet log.
Spruance’s granddaughter formally commissioned the ship At her command to “man the ship”, 285 sailors rushed up two gangways. Impressive!
A deep feeling of pride and nationalistic feeling permeated those in attendance.
I watched the Alabama/Florida football game last night. Was I impressed! Alabama won 38-10. The ten points Florida scored were an accident early in the game. What a team!
Bad things are happening in this country. Maybe, good. I don’t know anymore.
I am referring to the Wall Street protests. Two weeks old and growing. The groups are protestiong financial and corporate greed. Many of the demonstrators are recent college graduates who cannot find jobs. Nor can they pay their rent nor put proper food on the table.
The protests spread to Boston, Los Angeles and Albuquerque this weekend.
Some are describing the protests as preparation for an American revolution. Strong words.
Several months ago, Egypt had similar demonstrations in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.Yesterday on one of the internet news sites there was a video of a Tahrir Square protestor giving verbal support to his compatriots on Wall Street via a cell phone. The Tahrir Square demonstarations which toppled Mubarek were basically by college graduates who could not find jobs.
Two weeks ago, New York’s Mayor Blumberg went on television and warned we could have “…riots in the streets.” He further indicated that most of the complainers were college graduates who could not find work. Similar to those in Tahrir Square.
I have been suggesting/stating street demonstrations could occur for two years on my radio and internet shows, as well as in some of my writings. I have been emphasizing the danger more frequently in recent weeks. A nation cannot have one per cent making all the money and the other ninety nine per cent hurting.
The cost of basics has gone out the roof. I refer to gasoline, food, and rent. It becomes increasingly difficult for the ninety nine per cent to adequately exist.
The financially comfortable middle class of the past two generations is gone. We have become the very rich and the poor.
The Wall Street protests remind me of the Vietnam ones. However with Vietnam they started smaller. Four or five people silently walking in protest in communities across the country. As the war got larger, so did the demonstrations. Till there were thousands in the streets with resultant injuries and property damage.
The Wall Street demonstration is significantly larger in its beginnings than the early Vietnam ones. I am concerned they will go farther. As I have been warning for two years, I sense an impending violence in the streets.
I am curious how Meet the Press is going to handle the issue this morning. A brief comment? Or more?
We are in serious times.
While our government in Washington fiddles, the fires are about to start.
Enjoy your Sunday.
The street violence was initiated in Liberty Park near Wall Street by the NYPD. There was no violent response by the demonstrators.
Anne is correct, NYPD acted every bit like Muammar Gaddafi's henchmen. If the Constitution these guys swore to protect means anything anymore the excessive force lawsuits should pay some tuition bills and student loans.
As for violence in the streets, I have my doubts. Mainstream America is numbed by TV and media (Bread & Circuses) and that lesson of Caesar as relayed by Juvenal is well used by the elite who control the media and culture. However, the greed has become so rampant at the corporate level and the sell-out of Congress and the remainder of our federal government so complete, that we maybe reaching an untenable point, the "tipping point" when even the World Series, Dancing with the Stars and that 2-1 Big Mac Deal fails to appease the masses as their homes are foreclosed upon and their children's future tossed aside for yachts and Net jets.
I agree Lou, interesting and serious times. Times that call for leadership and everywhere, literally everywhere I look, I see a vacuum of taking heads and party hacks spewing the rhetoric of failure as Sting once crooned.
What bothers me most is I love this nation and the ideals it was founded upon (call me a native Virginian). There is plenty of wealth and opportunity here for all, if only we would share the toys in the sand box with our fellows joyfully and in a "win-win" for all. Instead of a few bullies building sand castles for themselves while everyone else dodges the tide.