BENJAMIN FRANKLIN FLEW A KITE

Benjamin Franklin was a man of many talents. Politician, diplomat, lover, writer, scientist.

On this day in 1792, Franklin made a big time discovery. He was able to finally prove his theory regarding lightning and electricity.

Franklin flew a kite during a thunderstorm. He caught an ambient electrical charge in a Leyden jar. Such enabled him to demonstrate the connection between lightning and electricity.

Key West has had many noteworthy persons among its residents. Two of significance today.

The first is Captain Manuel “Pete” Fernandez. A Korean War hero. An ace fighter pilot. He shot down 14 MIGs.

Key West was his home. He returned to Key West following his Korean tour of duty this day in 1953. A huge crowd welcomed him. He made Key West proud.

The other Key West resident was Sally Rand. An entertainer. A fan dancer.

She lived in Key West for several years. She got behind with the IRS.

Sally owned two properties. On this day in 1953, the IRS ordered both her proprieties sold for back taxes.

I knew Sally Rand. Met her in 1964 at a police convention at Grossinger’s in the Catskills. A wonderful woman!

A story for another time.

Key West’s track record for accidental deaths and injuries stinks.

A year or 2 ago, we learned Key West was experiencing the highest number of bicycle deaths and injuries.  No wonder. A tourist problem. Tourists have no respect for rules of the road, traffic signs, traffic lights, making left turns after warning, etc.

I actually feel sorry for them. Many are senior citizens. They come visit. Have not ridden a bike in 40 years. Wobble down the middle of streets hoping they will not fall. They fall. In front of a car, of course.

Monroe County recently received a distinction it wishes it had not. Last year, Monroe County had the highest number of accidents and injuries generally. An overall classification.

Includes bicycles. Also boats. Boats are a major cause of accidents and injuries in the Keys.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently announced a roll back in regulations due to the coronavirus outbreak.

I suspect more politics than good involved in the decision.

In the Keys, it appears to be having an immediate impact. The company Oxitec. The British Company that is supposedly expertise in eliminating mosquitoes. The company does it by somehow screwing up the male species genetically.

Several years ago, Oxitec wanted to come to our area to test. At the time, I lived in Key Haven. One of the places it was going to spray via plane was Key Haven. Purportedly the most affluent Key West area people live in.

It was up in arms! A referendum resulted. Thirty one of 33 precincts approved the Oxitec testing. One of the 2 not was Key Haven.

For whatever, the Oxitec testing never occurred.

Since then Oxitec has partnered with the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District. Both now pushing the genetically modified male mosquito. Oxitec claiming to have made improvements to its “product.”

Oxitec has added a new partner. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. To the tune of $4.1 million.

Bill Gates is excited. He understands mosquito problems. Claims he fears them more than sharks.

No citizen group will be able to defeat this partnership. Oxitec announced it will begin testing this summer in Florida and Texas.

To my knowledge, no one yet has tested to determine what affect the new program will have on humans. Such was the reason the move failed before. Now the competition is too great. The Keys will find out the hard way. Hopefully there will be no impact on humans.

Ollie Kofoid was one of the opposition leaders in 2016. Knowledgeable. Educated. Thought the Oxitec plan was a bad thing.

Ollie has been employed for 20 plus years with the Sewer District. At the moment, he is heading up a study which hopefully will lead to a new and better system. The study being done in conjunction with Arizona University.

To Washington and Donald Trump.

The black steel fence erected roughly 2 weeks ago to keep protesters away from the White House supposedly is to come down today.

Amazing. Always a number of starving families in the U.S. Coronavirus additionally has left many without jobs and monies to support their families. Down to a basic like putting food on the table.

Trump wasted a lot of money with the fence and bringing all kind of troops into Washington with all kinds of equipment. Don’t know if billions involved. Millions at least. To satisfy Trump’s lust for power, I’m the man, no one knows more than me, etc.

U.S. Park Rangers will be removing the fence.

The President is sick.

We have all seen several times on TV the video of the 75 year old Buffalo man knocked to the ground by a police officer. His head struck the concrete street. Blood started coming out of one ear. Clearly seen on the video.

The officer who hit him never stopped. A multitude of police officers ran by the man. Left him lying there.

His name Martin Gugino.

Trump wants further proof of the legitimacy of the fall. Claims Martin “fell harder than was pushed.” Trump also suggests Martin possibly was an “ANTIFA provocateur.”

Next he will suggest it is not George Floyd in the coffin buried in Houston yesterday.

Nineteen States are seeing a rise in coronavirus cases. Arizona’s numbers on the extreme side. Arizona State officials have asked the hospitals to activate emergency plans.

I worry  about Florida and the Keys in 3-6 weeks. Disaster has to strike again before people learn.

Abraham Lincoln made an interesting comment. One that fits Washington today.

Lincoln said, “This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.”

The first Salem witch hanging occurred this day in 1692. Bridget Bishop after being found guilty of the practice of witchcraft was hung.

A product of group insanity!

I had a good time last night! No, I did not go out. It was tuesday. I did my blog talk radio show Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou.

I always enjoy doing the show. For some reason last night, I felt extremely good doing it. Perhaps the anti-Trump rhetoric.

Cocktails at 7 tonight.

Enjoy your day!

 

39 comments on “BENJAMIN FRANKLIN FLEW A KITE

  1. Please tell me that Trump was kidding around again when he said that the old man who fell might be in Antifa. That would make him the World’s oldest nerd.

  2. Illegal immigrants protected by an Obama-era amnesty for adults who came to the U.S. as children are among the rioters arrested and charged with crimes in Arizona

    • Sandy is a well known troll of this blog, and often posts unsubstantiated garbage and other misleading information, including racist and vulgar rants he openly admits is intended to create arguments. This is just ANOTHER one of those Bull Sh*t rants, not even pretending to be his opinion.

  3. It is very unlikely that Martin Gugino is a member of Antifa, although he may approve of the radical group. His friends describe him as a mild, likable senior, a retired computer programmer. He is also a lifelong activist who has demonstrated for liberal causes for more than 50 years, going back to the Peaceniks of the 60s. Over the years he has taken part in demonstrations against military drones, climate change, nuclear weapons, police brutality and more. There’s nothing wrong with any of that, but I don’t buy the media’s image of him being just some random old guy shuffling along the street. There is a reason he walked toward the moving line of police officers in riot gear, and not away from them.

    • Of course Trump uses Antifa, as a designated opponent. Antifa is an anti Fascist movement, and as a Fascist himself, he’s scared to death they will come for him.

      Being an anti fascist is a good thing, right? Shouldn’t all Americans be anti fascism and anti fascists?

      • The problem with Antifa is not their anti fascist rhetoric. They can, of course, believe whatever they want. The problem is their method of protest, too often involving brutal street beatings and destruction of private and public property.

        • But they haven’t actually been found as such, only labeled as that by the fringe media and Trump (& company) without any proof. This is Fake News designed to create an enemy that doesn’t actually exist, in any formal or official way. It’s a ruse.

          • Okay. My bad. Antifa doesn’t exist. They have never left someone hospitalized or bleeding in the street, never shattered a store window, never burned a building. Someone sure did, but not them because they don’t exist. It’s all fake news. My apologies. You may return now to watching the elves frolicking in your garden and the unicorns grazing in your yard.

            • Please don’t put words in MY mouth. I never said ANY of those things. You are twisting everything to make it fit YOUR narrative.

            • Yes, your bad!

              These bad things you say have happened, may have happened, but there is NO evidence that “Antifa’ had anything to do with that. Trump’s own DOJ say they can find NO evidence of any links with any of this to any ‘Antifa.”

              Your attempts to blame everything you don’t like on so called ‘Antifa’ is just YOUR way of a cheap and false narrative. It is also lazy. No wonder everybody on this blog says you can’t be trusted for anything,

  4. Antifa, as a practical matter, does not exist. It is an anti FACISTS movement, mostly in Europe, without any formalized organization that is, here in the United States, used mostly nowadays ONLY by the Trump organization to create a foe it can accuse of anything it wants. This guy Martin Gugino has been a long time liberal activist with out any actual anti fascists history, although who amongst us all would admit to admiring the Fascists – OK, OK aside from all those white supremacists Trump supporters

    • All true. Antifa has been able to operate below the radar in the US because they are loosely organized, with no headquarters or easily identifiable leadership. But they are becoming bolder. There are reports today that Antifa has seized six blocks in downtown Seattle, set up barricades and declared it an “autonomous zone” with armed guards at the perimeter. This is likely to earn them the kind of attention and harsh crackdown that they have avoided so far.

      • Let’s wait and see if this is really Antifa, or actually someone else. No responsible News source is blaming Antifa, only FOX and the fringe, so far and then mostly as the “radicals” etc., etc.

        • Fair enough. Let’s see where this goes. For now I suspect Antifa because they are known to be very active in Seattle and Portland. I would be surprised if they were not involved.

          • Just because FOX news, Infowars and another half dozen people CALL them “Antifa,” does not make them so. The DOJ found there was no (that’s ZERO) evidence of those same people during the original demonstrations when Trump and the above so called news organizations tried to label them as such.

            Trump needs an enemy to blame for anything and everything, his attempts to make China that didn’t work, he cant use ‘commies’ (they’re his friends) so he’s invented “Antifa” which doesn’t otherwise actually exist. As a Fascist himself, he’s got to be afraid they’re coming for him anyhow and needs to try and persuade everybody they are the problem, they are not. Being an anti fascist is a good thing, right? Shouldn’t all Americans be anti fascism and therefore anti fascists?

      • You have this wrong and it looks deliberate.

        That area of Seatle is known as the ‘Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone’ and was created by the residents of that area, with the city’s approval and help and definitely not seized by ‘Antifa.’

        This has nothing to do with the ‘Antifa’ and no one, apart maybe from the right wing press, is claiming it does.

        You should not be posting such false and misleading information, just because you may disagree with liberals and other honest people.

        • I’ve been following this thread about Antifa with interest. Does it really exist? This week three people were arrested in Austin, TX, for looting a Target store. Those arrested SELF-IDENTIFY themselves as members of Antifa, and Austin police also identify them as part of a local Antifa affiliate. So my question is- if Antifa doesn’t exist then who are these people who claim to be Antifa, and why were they looting a Target store?

          • Don’t know, did they say anything more about these people, were they locals? Did they have any ‘Antifa” ID? were they bailed out. Sounds like maybe they may have been false flag, to me.

          • Could be one of those fake Antifa sites Facebook is frequently talking about shutting down, or maybe one of the Antifa rallies the Russians are rumored to be organizing.

          • I know that Antifa doesn’t really exist because you all say so. But you might find some interesting information about this non-existent organization if you google Rose City Antifa.

            • Thank you, I will liik that up.

              But let me ask you a personal question. Are you yourself against Fascism, and Fascists?

              • Fascism is usually defined as a far-right dictatorial form government where opposition and criticism are forcibly suppressed. So my answer is no, I don’t support that or anything that might lead to it. To be honest, I don’t get very triggered by anti-fascist movements or rhetoric in this country because I know that fascism cannot gain a significant following here. Our Constitution does not permit a dictatorship, and the First Amendment prohibits suppression of free speech. I am a firm supporter of the Constitution above all else. And if anyone cares, I am neither a Democrat nor Republican. I usually vote Libertarian. I sometimes post here on Lou’s blog as John Galt. Have a good evening.

                • Regardless of your naive ramblings of what could or could not happen here, your ‘attitude’ could then easily be referred to as anti fascism, couldn’t it? It’s also possible anyone clever enough could refer to the town you live in as having anti fascist residents, because of you, couldn’t they? Should that be by itself a bad thing?

                  That’d be true probably of any city wouldn’t it, say in Seattle or Austin, wherever. Maybe any town where there was a peaceful, or non peaceful demonstration, such as we’ve witnessed these past few weeks. Seems to me anti-fascists are everywhere aren’t they?

                  Clever people can make such a thing anything they want (it’s a free country) even a sinister thing that can be feared by large groups of Americans

                  So I say to you now, are you an Anti-Facsist, or have you ever been a part of any anti-fascist organization?

                  Do you know anyone who has ever been a part of any anti-fascist organization?

                  Can you please give us the names of anyone you know who is an ant-fascist !

                  Do you listen to any anti-fascist music?

                  Have you read any anti-fascist books or seen any anti-fascist movies?

                  Need I go on, even with your azzurances that that kind of thing can’t happen here in America, “because of our Constitution,” or can you see how foolish that statement really is?

                  • The question about my “attitude” toward fascism has already been asked and answered. I don’t feel a need to repeat myself. As to your other questions, I can honestly say that I have never met anyone who describes himself as fascist or anti-fascist. No one in my world talks like that. I have a neighbor who will quickly tell you that she is a die hard democrat. Fine with me. I have another neighbor who i’m pretty sure will vote for Trump. Okay, no problem. But someone describing themselves as fascist or anti-fascist? Who does that? What does fascist music sound like? Other than history books, where do you go to find a book solely about fascism, and why would you?

                    A dialog with others about fascism is something you might be more likely to find in Europe. Mussolini was a fascist by definition, as was Hitler and Franko. There are sftill fascist elements in Europe that would like to overthrow their governments, but their chances of actually doing that are slim to none.

                    If Antifa takes their name from being anti-fascist, then hooray for them. They could have just as easily been a group of anti – socialists, populists, neoconservatives, ultraliberals, or alt-right lunatics. Who cares? Or how about this one that I just dug up. How about anti-Neoplatonist? No, I don’t know what it means either. Something about Plato I guess. No one has called me that yet. You could be the first.

                    • I am concerned for your level of comprehension. No, they could not have just as easily have been named “anti-whatever” the whole point is they are anti fascists, which is,by your own standard’s. a good thing – get it? AND it IS a dialog we ARE having here.

                      If you are not an anti-fascist you ARE a fascist, there can be NO middle ground, period.

                      The questions above in my post were NOT meant to be re-answered, they were meant to show how being anti-fascist (a good thing) is being turned against people like you and me (anti-fascists) in a way that is similar to the how the commie witch hunt was conducted in the 1950s by Joe McCarthy, only with you the one being interrogated as the anti-whatever.

  5. Benny Franklin’s influence in the scientific world was powerful. He postulated that electricity flowed from the positive charges (+) to negative (-). So powerful was his influence that the whole world believed him and adopted that as fact. It’s called the “Franklin convention.”

    Unfortunately, ole Benny was wrong. We now know electron flow in electricity is from negative (-) to positive (+).

    Still… most people in the world go with the “Franklin convention” today. Yep… ole Benny is still with us.

    Sorry for letting my inner-geek out.

    Kokomo Man

    • Benny was also an idiot for being outside in a thunderstorm and messing with lightning. But it resulted in his invention of the lightning rod, so I guess it was okay. He invented a lot of other stuff, including the Franklin stove and, of all things, the urinary catheter!

    • Don’t try and tell a Right Wing patriot that, you’ll ruin his day and compel him to post something outrageous on Lou’s blog in retaliation for your nerve.

  6. The founding premise of Antifa is that if someone had physically fought back against the Nazis in Germany in the thirties, the rise of Hitler would have been stopped and WW2 and all of it’s destruction would have been avoided. So there.

    t

    • Actually most places are saying in beyond 120K cases already and that’s just what’s reported, which is widely believed to be significantly underreported.

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