ROARING 20’s

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!

 

 

 

8 comments on “ROARING 20’s

  1. This is election year and Trump needs a war to help him win the election. Don’t believe anything you hear about this mess, half of it is just War Stories.

  2. I just read where some US Vietnam war vets are moving there to live because it is cheaper. How about that? What a crazy World.

  3. Prohibition lasted 11 years and what did that accomplish besides making the Mafia stronger and making drinking more popular. You know, forbidden fruit and all that.

  4. Happy New Year Lou,

    Thank you for the story about Betsy Ross. It put a grin on my face. And who knows… she was probably the first Madam spy for the United States of America. It makes me giggle to think that her brothel helped win independance. God Bless America.

    Thank you Betsy and your girls for all you did.

    Kokomo Man

  5. Happy New Year Lou

    BTW – ONLY the rest of the world knows that Popeyes chicken isn’t all THAT good.

    Why is it that people in the Keys want so much to have all the sh*t food available in the rest of the world and the reason the rest of the world wants to come to key west is because the local food scene is soooooo good.

    Come on Lou, a Denny’s on Duval Street?

    • Bull Sh*t – wasn’t that long ago you were singing the praises of Popeye’s and talking about how bad Dion’s chicken was.

      You are just full of crap. For a person who seems to hate anything to do with Key West, you sure seem to spend a lot of time meddling in everything to do with it.

  6. Louis, if you have time, check out Linda Ronstadt’s interview with CNN. She expresses an opinion of Trump you may find a bit strong but I think is spot on. It has the pro trump blogs in full derailment.

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