TWO NOTEWORTHY EVENTS TONIGHT

Tuesday night always busy in Key West. Two events occur with regularity tuesday evenings. Aqua Idol and Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou.

Aqua Idol a fundraiser. This year’s beneficiary the Waterfront Playhouse.

Aqua Idol is Lynda Frechette’s baby. Conceived, organized and directed by her. A tough job to keep going. Requires a slew of good singers willing to perform weekly. Lynda obviously knows what she is doing. Aqua is standing room only every week.

I suggest you get to Aqua by 5:30 if you wish to sit. The seats fill quickly.

The other tuesday event is my podcast. My blog talk radio show. Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou. In its third year, the show’s numbers increase weekly. To the point the show has advertisers. Like GEICO Insurance and Old Navy.

Tuesday Talk is a quick moving half hour of me pontificating on world events. Listeners may not always agree. They return weekly, however.

Join me tonight at 9 my time. www.blogtalkradio.com/key-west-lou.

Last night was Aqua and the Green Parrot. Aqua for Dueling Bartenders. The Green Parrot for dinner. I assume the restaurant next door/attached is now part of the Green Parrot. Whatever, I had dinner there.

Catherine joined me for the evening.

Dueling Bartenders was especially sweet. My beloved Terri White the guest performer. Together with Tom Luna and Rick Dery, the singing was over the top.

I sat with Bear. Except for barking a few times when Terri was singing, he was exceptionally good. Sitting at our able were Catherine, George, Art, and Stacey. At the bar, Liz, David, and Sheila.

Tried Antonia’s and La Trattoria for dinner. No room at the inn. Season packing the restaurants. That is why I ended at the place next door to the Green Parrot. Enjoyed ribs and wings.

Cold again! Another northeaster burying Boston and the Cape. We feel the cold this far south. Never fails to work that way.

Last night 61 again. I still without heat. You could hang meat in my bedroom. The cold will continue today. The high 68. Tonight, 63.

A major announcement just came over TV. Secretary of State Tillerson gone. Trump let him go and replaced him with CIA Director Pompeo.

Tillerson was ineffective. Not a diplomat. An oil man. Not qualified for the position as many Trump Cabinet persons. Tillerson’s main qualification when appointed was that he was a close friend of Putin. He now joins the some dozen other key Trump appointees who have gone along the wayside.

One of Tillerson’s problems is he spoke too candidly for Trump. They were not always on the same page.

Pompeo has all kinds of credentials. Whether the man for job remains to be seen. Pompeo a West Point graduate, Harvard Law graduate and most recently Director of the CIA.

An observation. Perhaps improper. I am not sure. Trump avoids confrontation in certain instances. Like when firing a main support person. Both Comey and Tillerson were out of town when they got the ax. TV is reporting Tillerson first heard of his firing via Twitter.

What happened to our political leaders being Americans first and politicians second? It has been obvious from day one that the House Intelligence Committee in its review of the Trump/Russia/collusion issue has been pro Trump and anti truth. The Committee’s Republican majority concluded yesterday there was no evidence of collusion between Trump’s Presidential campaign and Russia during the 2016 election. Recognizing however that Russia had interfered with the election.

Fortunately, the Mueller investigation remains ongoing. The truth will out.

Trump has appointed a Commission on School Safety. A typical move. He has a pattern of passing the buck rather than making the hard decisions. Commissions and Committees have always been a Washington way of avoiding decision making re sensitive issues.

Trump has appointed Education Secretary Betsy DeVos as Chairman. Her intellectual level is on a par with Sarah Palin’s. DeVos was interviewed a few days ago on national television. Her responses to questions shocking. Evidenced a definite lack of mental acumen.

Woe the safety issue and woe the education of American children.

Enjoy your day!

 

 

BEAR AND BASKETBALL

Great dinner last night at Donna and Terri’s. Stone crabs. My favorite food. Their favorite food. We pigged out!

Amazing how rapidly Bear is growing. Twelve weeks old. I see him generally once a week. Bigger each time. Much bigger.

After dinner, I was watching the Syracuse/Boston College game. Bear came over and sat on the floor to the front of me. He looked up at the TV screen. His eyes remained glued.

I called Terri over. He’s watching the game with me. I don’t believe it!

She said, he is. Does it all the time when basketball is on. She believes Bear can hear the sneaks hitting the floor and that is what keeps his attention.

Whatever, he sat there for a whole half. Not budging.

Too bad it was not a good game. Syracuse lost again.  85-70.

The pain of it all!

Bad news. Jean and Joe Thornton in Hawaii. I received word from Jean that daughter Laura had emergency gall bladder surgery. Two gall stones the size of walnuts removed also. I could not figure out if Laura was with them in Hawaii or home in Birmingham.

Fortunately, the surgery was able to be done laparoscopally. Laura was released the same day as the surgery.

I can recall gall bladder surgery when I was young. Not to me. To others. Left an impact in my mind. The patient in bed with tubes in every part of the body. A 10 day hospitalization at the time. How medical science has advanced that it can now be done in a same day surgery.

Deviate sex goes both ways. Man alone is not the perpetrator. In some instances, the woman.

Stephanie Peterson Ferri is a 26 year old school teacher at the New Smyrna Beach Middle School. She was arrested yesterday. Charged with having sex with a 14 year old male student over a period of several months. Occasionally supplied him with marijuana, also.

Ferri further sent the 14 year old nude photos of herself over the cell phone. Her face showing.

Not the first time I have come across an older woman and boy in a sexual relationship. The occurrence rare, however. Apparently there are fewer female pedophiles than male ones. Much fewer from what I could determine.

The youthfulness of the boy was apparent when his mother confronted him. She had discovered the naked pics of the school teacher on his cellphone.

The boy cried.

Libby Schaaf is mayor of Oakland. One of America’s larger cities. Oakland is a sanctuary city. And proud of it.

The federal government is aware of which cities have declared themselves sanctuary ones. Thus far there have been only threats from the federal government to cease and desist. No other action against the sanctuaries.

Mayor Schaaf became aware that there was going to be a mass arrest by ICE the next day in northern California. Especially the cities of San Francisco and Oakland. She became aware not from official sources.

The Mayor went public with the news. ICE came in the next day expecting to make roughly 1,000 arrests. Only made 150. The illegals had gone into hiding.

Mayor Schaaf is being threatened with arrest. She does not believe she violated any laws since the information she spread was received by her from unofficial sources.

The Mayor claims she would it again and that she would go to jail to protect Oakland’s sanctuary city status. From her perspective, blowing the whistle was the right thing to do.

Mayor Schaaf said, “What I did was my job as the mayor of Oakland and reflective of the values of the people that I represent.”

I say…..Good for Mayor Schaaf!

Trump has blown the immigration problem out of context and control. Federal agents in the form of ICE arresting people on the street and out of their apartments. Followed by quick deportation.

Appears similar to the Nazi raids on the Jews in Germany in the mid 1930’s.

I doubt the Mayor would be convicted if arrested. There is something called jury nullification. Juries permit defendants to walk if they believe the crime charged is wrong in itself.

Mayor Schaaf is a hero.

A recent study shows that the student debt is $1.5 trillion. The U.S. is on the hook for that amount. Said another way, the $1.5 trillion is listed as an asset on the U.S.’s balance sheet. It represents 30 percent of the government’s assets.

Collection of all questionable. Even half questionable. The total amount always out there. Increases daily. Not dischargeable in bankruptcy.

A phony asset. Misrepresentative.

Enjoy your day!