MY BOOKS DON’T BALANCE

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I have difficulty making my check book balance. And I have only a measly Social Security check to be concerned with.

The federal government on the other hand has tons of money. Especially the Department of Defense/Pentagon. Should be easier. Especially with hundreds of thousands of employees. A number I assume bookkeepers.

No, the Pentagon has trouble balancing its check book.

Congress hired Ernst & Young to do an independent audit of the Pentagon’s finances. Hard to believe, but the Pentagon had not audited itself for decades. A serious error. Especially since 2 of every 3 federal tax dollars collected goes to the Pentagon.

On November 15, Ernst & Young advised it could not complete its audit. Too many bookkeeping deficiencies, irregularities, and errors. A reliable audit impossible.

The amount Ernst & Young could not trace/account for $21 trillion.

Beside poor bookkeeping habits, graft has to be involved. Too many dollars unaccounted for not to have been.

Cold yesterday. Required long pants. Nothing fits because of my 62 pound weight loss. Found an old pair of khakis. Fit. Tucked my shirt in.

I looked terrific! Straight! Did not even have to suck in my stomach!

The proof was when I walked into Lori’s for a haircut. Lori looked at me with bright open eyes and exclaimed “Louis, you look terrific!” One of her associates said, “Oh, my God!”

I threw my arms up in victory and exclaimed “Love it!”

Oh, vanity. However, I deserve to be vain in this instance.

Last night Blue Macaw for a while. One drink. Then off to Publix. Most of the food I had purchased before I got sick I threw away. No longer edible.

Tomorrow is World AIDS Day.

Key West’s gay community was hard hit. I have been here 30 years. I saw it when I began coming down. Sad. Men wasting away.

The interesting thing was the the love. Evident everywhere. Partners taking care of those afflicted. Gays taking care of each other. Straights helping the gay community in every conceivable way.

Key West took the problem in hand. Organized. Worked at the problem.

Today, life can be sustained if a person is afflicted.

A lovely AIDS Memorial sits at the end of White Street at the opening to the bridge. The day will be commemorated with a procession from City Hall to the AIDS Memorial where a service will be held.

No question, it will be sensitive and heart warming.

Syracuse/Cornell tomorrow night at 8. Syracuse should win by 20 points.

A special significance to the game. Coach Boeheim has 2 sons, Jimmy and Buddy. Jimmy plays for Cornell, Buddy Syracuse. Going to be interesting. Mom Juli will be cheering for both teams.

Trump and his defense team have been out foxed.

For over a year, Trump’s lawyers have been fighting Mueller re interview, depose, have the President answer written questions with written answers? Finally, last week the President provided Mueller with written responses. Trump proudly said he prepared the answers himself, not his attorneys.

Trump’s attorneys only permitted Trump to answer collusion with Russia. Refused to have Trump answer obstruction inquiries. Probably because it had to be obvious Mueller had much evidence obstruction wise to charge. However, it appeared little to nothing re collusion.

Yesterday, Trump’s former personal attorney Cohen plead guilty in federal court to lying to Mueller about a host of situations connecting Trump up with Russia. Collusion!

The President is in deep shit trouble. Collusion obviously viable. Big time!

I blame the President for the fix he is now in. His fault. Instead of retaining the best lawyers available, he took on hacks. Lawyers like Rudy Giuliano. Over the hill or incompetent, or both.

Again, Mueller’s play brilliant! Sucked the President’s lawyers right in.

Disease at the border. It now exists. Did not earlier when some were saying illnesses like leprosy were being carried by the immigrants.

Trump has created a situation where more than a thousand migrants are stuck in a small area at the border. Caused by Trump denying them the right to apply for asylum which would have resulted in the prolonged crowding not to have occurred.

Food not plentiful. Showers similarly. Sewage a problem. Portable toilets overused, plugged with crap on the floors. Disease inevitable. TB, chicken pox, and AIDS.

Good job, Mr. President. Everything you touch becomes a disaster.

Enjoy your day!

 

 

BOCCE PARTY

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I joined the Sons and Daughters of Italy last year. Actually, a reinstatement. I had been a member years earlier in Utica.

Glad I did! The Key West group are at the top of the fun list. Everyone friendly. Typical Key west, but more so.

The summer is dead. Why not have a party! And so it was last night. A bocce party.

A good crowd. Most had never held a bocce ball before. All anxious to learn. Prior to actually playing, dinner. Pizza, beer, wine and soda.

I did not play. Probably never will again. Amazing! I had to retire from bocce in my old age.

I participated. Sat with players and made suggestions, gave advice. Quietly and non offensively.

Allan Wimer. Loquacious, charming, humorous, considerate, a gentleman. The worst thing he could be accused off is that he left Key West. Transplanted himself to Naples.

Wimer a Facebook aficionado, also. We are FB friends. Came across an Amazing Stuff video he reran: If methadone is free to addicts because they have a disease…..Why is chemo not free for cancer patients?

Allan one smart man!

Some of us forget. Some of us are not even aware. There were times when certain diseases were horrendous. Killed or debilitated many yearly. Cures discovered. The diseases plagued us no more.

In days long gone by, Key West had its share of such diseases. The Key West Citizen in its Today in Key West History section made note of some over the past two days.

On July 16, 1887, the Marine Hospital reported 282 cases of yellow fever. Sixty three resulting in death.

A year later on July 16, 1898, the Army hospital reported a U.S. Army private had died of tuberculosis.

Finally on this day in 1954, 35 cases of polio had been reported for the year to date.

God bless medical research!

As one gets older, time remaining occasionally enter’s one’s thoughts. I know being 82.

Clive Cussler commented on the time issue in The Solomon Curse…..Time is a thief. It steals our memory, our hopes, and our strength, leaving only the sense there’s never enough of it.

The June 2016 meeting involving Donald Trump, Jr. The number in the room is now 8. Amazing how it grows almost day by day.

Truth a winner. A lack of it most always a guarantee of losing.

Again I revert to the saying of old…..Woe the web we weave when first we seek to deceive.

Enjoy your Sunday!