Something amiss in the Trump administration when it comes to truth. Little to be found.

It begins at the top and runs down. Trump unquestionably a liar. His subordinates picking up on it. Pompeo a most recent example.

Re the Soleimani killing, Pompeo tweeted Iraqis were “dancing in the streets…..for freedom; thankful that General Soleimani is no more.”

He even offered a 22 second video to support his statement.

The video showed 20-30 persons running down a street. Their voices, if any, not audible.

The tweet went viral. More than 5 million have seen it.

Turns out the persons in the video were running down the street, not dancing. There was a voice. One voice. Of a man standing next to whoever was videoing the scene. He was praising the killing. His comment had nothing to do with the people in the street.

Why do they lie? It galls me. It further bothers me that half the people believe the lies.

War is a concern. Those who think not are fooling themselves.

My hope is that Trump’s decision will end short of war. “Short of” being the operable term.

Pompeo and Trump claim Americans are safe because of the killing. They are not. Anywhere on this earth, including U.S. soil.

This morning’s news tells us that Trump gave Israel advance notice of the plan to kill Solemani. Good going, Donald! Tell your buddy Netanyahu. Fail to tell Congress.

I have said in the past I think Netanyahu plays Trump as Putin does. Netanyahu for years has wanted Iran destroyed. He believes Iran is a constant danger to Israel.

The problem is Netanyahu is afraid Israel cannot conquer Iran alone. He therefore wants the U.S. to initiate an attack first. Israel would then join in the war.

Now for lighter matters. Involving Key West one way or another.

More to share re the Key West of the 1970’s.

Another author of prominence bought a home in Key West. James Kirkwood Jr. Co-author of A Chorus Line for which he won a Pulitizer Prize in 1976.

In the early 1970’s, Kirkwood became one of the first owners of a house in the Conch Grove Compound in Old Town. He was a frequent Key West visitor till his death in 1989. He was one of several gay writers who purchased homes in the 1970’s.

His thoughts re Key West interesting.

Key West is “not Florida, maybe even not America, but a city and a state of mind. It’s the end of the line, even the world.”

He was of the opinion that “Key West always had a great attraction for people who are a little tilted, a little crazy…..a little off center, even kinky.”

My yesterday began with breakfast at Harpoon Harry’s. Amazing the business the place does. Diner food. Good for the soul, sticks to the ribs.

Four o’clock found me at Jack Flats to watch the Syracuse /  Georgetown game. Syracuse lost again. By one point 88-87. The lead changed hands 18 times.

Watched the game with Syracuse area fans Don and Chris and Dan and Lisa. Ollie, too. Other than Ollie, I have not seen the others in roughly a year. It was good to be with them again.

Dan and Lisa have owned a restaurant in Skaneateles, N.Y. for many years. They sold November 1. Good for them.

Not easy running a restaurant. Dan the cook. Worked 7 days a week. Lisa the hostess. Retirement time! May they enjoy.

Stopped at my Lisa’s on the way home. Finished the family’s dinner left overs. Chatted a while. Then home.

Ollie mentioned yesterday a cold front was coming in. It came. It was here this morning. When I started doing this blog at 6, the temperature was 70 degrees. It will not hit 70 or better again today. The temperature will level out at 66.

Winds gusty. I can hear them as I work. Winds 20-30 mph.

Can’t complain. The weather the last 10 days has been fantastic. Hovered around 80.

Two significant events occurred this day. In different years, of course.

In 1531, Pope Clement VII forbade Henry VIII from remarrying. Henry was anxious to dump Catherine and wed Anne Boleyn.

In 1920, the New York Yankees announced the purchase of Babe Ruth. One of the greatest acquisitions in all sport history.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Back to Key West in the 1970’s. A time of discovery. The beginning of rediscovery for this gem of an island.

Today, writers. So many have populated Key West. A bit of history re where they lived in the 1970’s.

Many ended up renting small cottages on Windsor Lane. Across from the cemetery. It became known as the Writers’ Compound.

The authors found it a good place write. Something about Key West made it conducive.

Most were winter residents. Lived elsewhere other times of the year . Generally in luxurious homes. The Writers’ Compound provided only small cottages. Their winters a different lifestyle.

Too many writers to list. A few will be named.

Richard Wilbur was a prime mover in bringing his compatriots to Key West. He was the U.S.’s 2nd Poet Laureate. A Pulitzer Prize winner.

Another Pulitzer Prize winner John Hersey. Most famous for A Bell for Adano. He also wrote Key West Tales, a series of short stories.

John Ciardi wrote poetry and prose. Frequently spoke on National Public Radio.

Famous movie actor Richard Burton’s foster father Philip Burton took up winter resident in Key West, also.

An interesting observation., Most of the early authors were not gay. They were straight and lived in the Writers’ Compound with their wives. It was not till the 1980’s that the gay community discovered Key West.

I was out and about last night. Felt good.

Fist stop of course was the Chart Room. John bartending. A bunch of Chart Room friends seated at the round table. Room was made for me.

Enjoyed being with them again. Steve and Cindy, Jean and Joe Thornton, and Sheila.

Steve and Cindy are experts when it comes to the 1970’s. They lived and worked in Key West those years and are still here.

I learn much about the old days when I chat with Steve. Last night was Richard Boone time. Paladin in Have Gun, Will Travel. A successful TV series back in those days.

Boone was visiting Key West. He discovered the Chart Room. Steve says he kept himself happily inebriated the whole trip.

Jean, Joe and I were off to the Hot Tin Roof afterwards for dinner. First time for me in quite a while. Food, help and atmosphere still the best.

New menu was terrific to choose from.

Jean and Joe were my benefactors during Irma. I was an escapee to their home in Birmingham. A close relationship developed from the experience.

We had a good time.

As I was leaving the Chart Room, I heard “Louis.” It was Bob from Pandora, Ohio. Bob and his charming wife Cathy. We had never met before. Bob told me the connection. He has been reading this blog for years.

Love you, Bob!

Bob and Cathy have visited before. The last time 5 years ago. They are staying at the Pier House. Bob is the owner of a window and door business. Cathy is retired. Became bored. Returned to work part time. At an Arby’s! Children grown and out on their own.

Nice people. Wish I had more time to chat with them. Jean and Joe were waiting outside for me, however.

This afternoon at 4 at Jack Flatts. Syracuse/Notre Dame with my friends, Syracuse fans Don and Chris and Dan and Lisa. I look forward to seeing them. It has been almost a year since their last visits.

New Year visitors still here.

I have said it before and I say it again, Key West is way overcrowded this time of year and during season. Even the tourists are complaining.

Traffic an abomination. Took me 15 minutes to travel U.S.1 to the Boulevard from the golf course.

Tourists pay no attention to cars. They walk in front of you without looking. Bicycle riders all over. Each an accident in the making. Key West has had the most bicycle accidents in the State of Florida 2 years running.

Duval too crowded to walk on.

The City fathers are killing the goose that lays the golden egg. Tourism will eventually cut back. Because even the visitors will be upset. They will go elsewhere to vacation.

Money talks. No question about it. The Hill.TV Democratic Presidential Poll came out yesterday. Bloomberg tied for third with Warren.

And he has only just begun!

The funeral for the Iranian general killed in Iraq a couple of days ago was yesterday. Mourners walking next to the car carrying his body and behind it chanting “Death to Americans!”

Yesterday, they wept. Today they will weep. Eventually the weeping will stop and be replaced with revenge. How and in what form will it come?

A world wide conflict could occur because of the general’s death. The Middle East is a hot bed. Muslims must have their revenge. Someone has to pay. The Americans first. It was a U.S. drone intentionally aimed at the general’s car that caused his death.

Trump, Pompeo or someone else in our government said, “The strike was aimed at deterring future Iran attack plans.”

Recognize that the death of one person can cause a major conflict. Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination in 1914 eventually led to World War I.

Enjoy your day!

Brief and to the point.

Was the killing of Qassem Soleinani intentional or accidental?

To hear Trump, it was planned. The U.S. had to get him. He was planning to do further harm to U.S. personnel and interests.

Trump however is not speaking about the incident with the same bravado he normally does. I think the death was part of an unusually harsh retaliatory action. The dead man had nothing to do with it.

U.S. responses proportional? I don’t know. Everyone shooting and killing. However, the U.S. doing most of the killing.

Khomenei promises “harsh retaliation.” It will come. Trump has unreasonably treated Iran since he “cancelled” the U.S./Iran 2015 agreement.

Are we at war? You tell me. Assume Vice President Pence  was intentionally or inadvertently killed at the Toronto Airport by Iranians. Would we then be in an open war with Iran? A declared one? Of course.

I am concerned Trump’s bombing which resulted in Soleinani’s death was not authorized or decided upon following consultation with Congress. Only Congress has the right to declare war. It’s in the Constitution. I forget. Trump pays no attention to the Constitution.

The Middle East has been a boiling cauldron for years. Wars everywhere. Not the “big one,” however. This could be the beginning. Iran has the capacity/influence to bring other Middle Eastern countries together in some sort of jihad against the U.S.

Nuclear bombs dropping all over the place.

An Apocalypse.

Found a parking place yesterday and was able to lunch at Harpoon Harry’s. Grabbed the only seat at the bar. Fortuitous. Sitting next to me was Devon Callahan.

Devon is my Chart Room friend. He is a snowbird. Owns a home here. Visits several months a year.

Love speaking with Devon! A source of knowledge. Important information.

Devon and his brother operate a large farm in northwestern Illinois. Soybeans, wheat, corn and the like. All sold through brokers. Generally to China.

Devon has been getting killed the past 2 years. Trump’s sanctions. He told me things are getting a bit better. Corn is beginning to move. Not yet soybeans.

He and his brother are getting hurt. However they are large enough to sustain the downturn in cash flow. As compared to many smaller farmers who have gone under.

He continues to be patient and wait. Nothing he can do. Not a happy camper.

Syracuse fans are in town. Don and Chris from Syracuse, Dan and Lisa from Skaneateles. We are going to watch the Syracuse game tomorrow at 4. Against Notre Dame.

All die hard Syracuse fans. Love watching the games with them!

Paul Pasqualoni is one of the nicest guys I have met. Soft spoken, easy going, a gentleman.

I knew Paul when he was Syracuse football coach back in the 1990’s and early 2000’s.

Not the best, not the worst as a coach. Better than most in recent years. His Syracuse record was 107 wins, 4 Big East titles, and 7 AP top 25 finishes.

Pasqualoni announced his retirement from football recently. The past few years, he has been defense coordinator for the Detroit Lions.

I wish him well in retirement.

I noted somewhere that former Syracuse quarterback Eric Dungey has been designated THE Syracuse Football Player of the Decade. He was. A great quarterback. He could run as well as pass.

Trump has mentioned on occasion he would like to be President forever. He admires world leaders who rule forever.

On this day in 1925, Benito Mussolini declared himself Dictator of Italy. He appointed himself Prime Minister forever. Forever lasted to 1943. Eventually his own Italian people shot him and his mistress, took them to a gas station, and hung their bodies upside down from a metal gas station pole.

Another “leader forever” was Mussolini’s friend Adolph Hitler. He was handed the Chancellorship of Germany on a civil platter. In effect begged to become Chancellor. One year later, he was designated Fuhrer.

Hitler did not waste time securing his position. He had the Reichstag pass the Enabling Act which gave Hitler’s cabinet power to enact laws without the consent of the Reichstag for 4 years and also the power to deviate from the German Constitution.

Hitler was Germany’s #1 from 1933 to 1945. In 1945, Hitler committed suicide and his body was burned together with Eva Braun’s outside the bunker in Berlin.

The Wright Brothers were the first to successfully fly. The year 1903.

Others previously tried. All failed.

One of the earlier attempts was by Leonardo da Vinci. He tried on January 3, 1496.

Everyone considers da Vinvi to have been only an artist. He had other talents. In addition to designing a plane of sorts, he worked on a tank, concentrated solar power, and an adding machine.

I frequently mention the blind cannot see. In those instances, I am making reference to people who refuse to understand what is real, what is truth.

My comment not original. I learned this morning that da Vinci is given credit for it. He wrote, ” There are three classes of people: Those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.”

A 30 year old English town counselor wanted all government owned facilities to be gender neutral. He was referring to gender neutral toilets. Campaigned on the issue.

He was recently arrested. Charged with 9 counts of sexually touching a child. He resigned his position immediately.

Some persons are fortunate to work in a field where everything they do creates/inspires happiness and joy. Such a person was Jerry Herman. The Broadway legend. The Broadway composer.

Hello Dolly one of his biggest hits.

Herman died December 26.

I mention him because he was once a Key West resident. Lived at 626 William Street. Composed music while residing there. Also had another source of income. He purchased dilapidated homes, renovated them, and then sold them.

May he rest in peace.

Jean and Joe Thornton have returned. I am meeting them at 5:30 at the Chart Room and then going to dinner with them later.

Enjoy your day!

Johnny Cash!

One of the world’s greatest singers, writer of music, and lyricists. He began life as a bad guy. Spent years in prison. Came out redeemed and went on to make the world a better and more understanding place to live.

Cash did 2 concerts venued in a jail. Not as a prisoner. His time done.

The first was in 1956. His concert performance at Folsom Prison. His Folsom Prison Blues made the top ten.

He wrote and sang Walk the Line for the first time in 1968.

His second concert was performed at San Quentin Prison on New Year’s Day 1968. Cash had spent his longest term of confinement at San Quentin. He returned to be with “his people.”

Merle Haggard was a prisoner at San Quentin at the time. His starring days to come later.

Haggard was 20 years old when sentenced to 15 years. He served only 2 years.

He watched the Cash’s San Quentinn concert. He credits Cash with giving him the inspiration to launch a career after prison. That career included 38 #1 hits. Songs like Sing Me Back Home, Okie From Muskogee, and Today I Started Loving You Again.

Regarding Cash’s San Quentin performance, Haggard said, “He had the right attitude. He chewed gum, looked arrogant, and flipped the bird to the guards – he did everything the prisoners wanted to do. He was a mean mother from the South who was there because he loved us. When he walked away, everyone in that place had become a Johnny Cash fan.”

JustSaying brought to my attention a Linda Ronstadt interview conducted over CNN by Anderson Cooper.

Cooper asked her about Trump. Her response direct and to the point. She said Hitler had destroyed Germany and centuries of intellectual history. He made people afraid to speak out. She also believes Mexicans are the new Jews.

Pretty good from my perspective. She calls things as she sees them!

Anderson Cooper another story. He is a CNN star. Fifty years old. Purportedly knowledgeable about everything.

He disappointed me and probably Ronstadt when he said her comments surprised him. The comparisons between Trump and Hitler. Like it was the first time he was hearing it. He thought most people did not think of such a comparison.

Something is wrong with Anderson! I have been saying for 3 years to BEWARE!. Trump is in effect Hitler reincarnated. Everything he does is similar to what Hitler did in the 1930’s.

The blind cannot see. Some persons refuse to see.

This morning’s Key West Citizen has photos of Bourbon Street Pub and Sloppy Joe’s at midnight New Year’s eve. Sushi and the Conch Shell falling.

The crowds were comparable vision wise to Times Square.

Key West a great place to be New Year’s eve!

Florida’s anti-texting law in effect. Texting illegal.

A good law. I know from my own experience the times I almost caused an accident because I was driving and texting. One’s attention is automatically on the cell phone for a few seconds. That’s all it takes.

The Citizen began today publishing excerpts from the diary of a Key West resident from long ago. May L. Johnson. The first excerpt dated January 2, 1896. It will run every day til the diary runs out.

May was 19 at the time. Her first day experiences interesting. How a 19 year old lived back then.

I panicked yesterday. Someone messaged me that Facebook was going to start charging $39 a word for messages beginning today. Did not make sense. However, you never know.

I tossed the problem over to Sloan and asked she investigate it. Sloan’s response in effect don’t worry. A scam. She attached 2 e-mails from July last summer. One asking if the charge was true.

Facebook’s response: “…..a scam. We will always keep Facebook a free service for everyone.”

Time brings changes. Weed is in and plastic bags out.

On January 1, 1892, Ellis Island was opened as a U.S. Immigration site. Now long closed, it nevertheless became the gateway to the U.S. for more than 12 million people. Including my Mother, grandparents on both sides, and a number of aunts, uncles and cousins.

Each made a contribution. Some small, some large. Each was a value to their new country.

As will Mexicans, Latinos and others who seek entry today.

Maine’s Senator Sue Collins has decided any Senate impeachment should require a trial. Witnesses, questions, and answers. She stands in opposition to Majority McConnell in this regard. She believes “it is inappropriate for McConnell and even Democrats to pre-judge a trial itself.

Several days ago, Kim Jong Un spoke at a North Korean conference. He made it clear. He no longer felt bound by his self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long range missile testing.

Kim has been cheating most of the time the moratorium was supposedly in effect. Trump did nothing, except talk about his “love affair” with one of the world’s most treacherous leaders.

Haircut today. With Lori. My barber/friend for 20 years.

She has been gone for 2 months. An extended vacation. She is back!

Enjoy your day!

The 1920’s were the roaring 20’s.

So named because of an exuberant, free wheeling popular culture at a time when many people defied Prohibition, indulged in new styles of dancing and dressing, and rejected many traditional moral standards.

The 10 years of the decade were like there was going to be no tomorrow. Everything up and up. Excitement wise and economically. Money and illicit alcohol flowing in abundance.

Why not? The U.S. had been on the winning side of World War I. The country was excited. Nothing was impossible.

All good things come to an end unfortunately. The Great Depression was born in late 1929. Everything downhill from that point till World War II.

A couple of things representing good and bad occurred early in the 1920’s. The 18th Amendment had been ratified. Prohibition the law of the day. Women benefited from the 19th Amendment. The right to vote.

Will the 2020’s in any way be similar to the 1920’s.

I think so. However, in reverse.

The U.S. already engaged in many wars. A major Middle East conflict threatens. Could easily become reality.

The economy said to be booming. I do not agree. The stock market riding high only because of the huge tax breaks Trump gave corporations. Everything good comes to an end. I see the market and the economy falling.

The U.S. is in a precarious position.

My goal last night was to watch the Pirate Wench come down the mast of a vessel at midnight. Never made it. Instead watched CNN and the ball dropping. A few minutes after, CNN switched to Key West 3 times for Sushi and activities in front of the Bourbon Street Pub.

Also saw some of Nashville and New Orleans.

Did not get to sleep till 2. It was like I had been out on the street all night.

The reason I stayed in had to do with traffic and parking. I was out during the day running several errands. Traffic horrendous! Creeping!

I stopped at Publix and bought all kinds of bad foods to enjoy at home in the evening. Why not?

I finally was able to get to Popeyes with no trouble. Dion’s has nothing to worry about! Says it all. Popeyes was with me for several hours after consuming it.

Weather not normal yesterday. Eighty degrees and humid. A summer day.

The Casa Marina is without question one of Key West’s finest hotels. Always has been, always will be.

Proof of the pudding is 20 years ago I held my daughter Lori’s wedding there. I have 3 daughters. Hers was the best wedding! Cost me $100,000. Worth every penny! That good!

It was on this day in 1921 that the Casa Marina formally opened for its first season. It would remain open till April 1. Back then, few hotels remained open during the other months of the year. The heat/humidity difficult to handle. Doubt air conditioning existed back then.

“Death to America!” These Iraqis are nuts! As are those other Middle East countries who hate us. U.S. citizens do not run up and down streets shouting “Death to Iraqis!”

Blame Trump.

He was going to bring the troops home, end all the wars.

Instead, U.S. engagement with Middle East nations could be on the verge of all out hostilities. A full blown war with nuclear warheads flying. Even to U.S. shores.

Trump began to screw up when he “cancelled” the Iran Agreement and then to add fuel to the fire sanctioned Iran.

Iran is behind what is going on today in Iraq. Also in other countries in the Middle East over the past 2-3 years. Iran hates the U.S. Maybe properly so. I don’t know. What I do know is that everything seems to be getting out of hand.

No more diplomacy. In recent times, threats of war. One of these threats could easily be actuated. Don’t forget, mostly nuts are running the countries involved. Including the U.S.

Instead of bring troops home, the U.S. will now be sending more of its boys and girls into harm’s way. One hundred Marines have already been sent to Baghdad. Seven hundred fifty U.S. Army personnel are in the air.

The U.S. embassy in Baghdad the most recent example. As you read this blog, it is under siege by Iranian led Iraqi protesters. All because several days ago Trump took a retaliatory action. One U.S. contractor was killed and several U.S. soldiers wounded in an Iraqi attack.

Retaliation involved amongst other things the U.S. bombing of Iraq. Twenty seven Iraqis were killed.

Baghdad is protesting! Thousands in the streets. They are trying to take over the American embassy. Apache helicopters are doing their best. The few Marines present also. Protecting the wall surrounding the embassy.

U.S. tactics thus far have not worked. The embassy walls are on fire, the main gate and a security passage damaged and under constant attack. Flags of the Kataib Hezbollah hang on the walls of the embassy.

An interesting sidelight. Hadi al-Amiri is one of the Iran military leaders on the streets surrounding the embassy. He is leading the Iraqis in their violent protest and attempt to take over the embassy.

Al-Amiri visited the White House in 2011. He was Transportation Secretary in Iraq. He visited Obama with the then Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Malike.

Prominent Americans are comparing the Baghdad embassy attack as another Benghazi or Iran 1979. I see it as the attack on the U.S. Saigon embassy on April 29-30, 1975. The last day of the Vietnam War as far as the U.S. was concerned. The U.S. was a beaten foe.

The Vietcong were already in the embassy. Going up the stairs. A handful of Marines remained on the roof. Helicopters had been evacuating embassy personnel, loyal Vietnamese and Marines all day. All via helicopters on the rooftops. The evacuation has been described as the largest helicopter evacuation on record.

The last helicopter landed. The remaining Marines jumped inside. One delayed. He went to take the American flag down. He then ran to the helicopter with it.

You could see the Vietcong rushing to the roof. You could see the Marines rushing to get off the roof. Would they make it?

I watched in awe on TV. I doubted we could ever be beaten. The U.S.? The strongest nation in the world! Yet our asses were being handed to us that day and our remaining Americans were scurrying to safety.

From Saigon to Baghdad to Philadelphia.

The Betsy Ross story. The true one.

Betsy was born this day in 1752.

The story retold for years is that Betsy operated a flag store in Philadelphia. Actually, an upholstering shop. The story goes George Washington visited her in the shop and asked her to make a flag for the new nation. They had never met before.

It is claimed she made the flag. Our flag. The American flag.

Every historian will tell you the tale is not based on fact. It is a lie made up by Betsy’s grandson many years later to make a buck.

Betsy died in 1836. Some 50 years later, her grandsons was in need of money. He was not a good sort. Lived by lie and sly.

He went to Harper’s Monthly claiming family knowledge of the Betsy Ross flag and would be glad to write it up and sell it to Harper’s Monthly. He did.

The story was published June 1873. The “story” took hold and has since been thought to be factual by many.

It cannot be said that Betsy was of no use to Washington and his men. Her upholstery shop had a back room where the ladies sewed. The place was also a house of ill repute. Betsy ran a whore house. She was the madam.

The British soldiers who frequented her ladies had loose tongues. Valuable information was obtained by the ladies, provided to Betsy, who saw it got to American authorities.

Enjoy your first day of the New Year!