Key West Lou / GASPING FOR BREATH…..AN EXPERIENCE FOR COVID NON-BELIEVERS

A CNN headline this morning: India Sets COVID-19 Infection Record For Fourth Straight Day With Hospitals Desperate For Oxygen.

What a way to die!

The India situation so bad the crematoriums are unable to handle the bodies.

What more proof do the non believers require to recognize the virus is real? Perhaps the experience itself might awaken them if they were gasping for breath. Not die. Merely share a similar experience as those who are dying.

Not all police officers can be bad. There are no absolutes. There is some form of good in every group.

Visualize the bad apple cop in the barrel. One to a barrel. Yet not that way. With all the shootings and deaths, there has to be a number of bad cops. More than one in a barrel. Tough demented guys.

Cops get bad news on a regular basis. Deservedly so. Note however there are some good police officers. There stories may not get out because the bad deeds overwhelm the good.

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, police departments across the nation functioned under an Officer Friendly Program. Today no more, except in unique situations.

This story isn’t about an Officer Friendly. Rather is about a friendly officer. His name Donald Rizer. A Sheriff’s Deputy in Hillsborough County, Florida.

His department had received a motorcycle safety grant. He was out seeking motorcycles and/or drivers not operating properly. He pulled over a motorcyclist for an illegal exhaust. A young man.

Rizer’s body cam was operating at all times.

Rizer asked the person if he was ok. He responded in a shakey voice, “I had a terrible experience last week. Riger responded, “We’ll talk about it. You’re not going to get a ticket.”

“I saw my friend die in front of me.”

They talked. Rizer calmed the young fellow down. Advised him to keep focused on the road.

Rizer wrote up a warning about the exhaust pipe, however. He provided the warning and a safety list. In addition and the point of this story, Rizer wrote his personal cell phone number and gave it to the cyclist with the admonition, “If you ever need to talk.”

The young man, “You’re the first person I can actually talk to.”

Bottom line: Not all police officers are bad. Concededly too many. More like Rizer needed.

Rizer was interviewed the next day. He said, “The biggest tool in anybody’s belt is in my opinion your ears. The ability to listen, let someone speak.”

Mae West is suddenly in my life!

Recall I wrote about her a few days ago. Her first movie She Done Him Wrong. Cary Grant her co-star. The dialogue raunchy.

Turned on the TV upon waking this morning. It was on one of the movie channels. Lo and behold, there was Mae West. I had caught the last few minute of the movie.

In the scene was a shifty looking character. Spoke not. Looked like the villain in silent films. Thin mustache and beady eyes.

Looked like John Wayne to me. It was.

He apparently was a nobody in the film. Mentioned rarely in reviews of the movie.

The year was 1933 and Wayne had not yet achieved stardom. It took him another five yeas and Stagecoach.

The dialogue primarily uttered by Mae West. Doubt it would fly under today’s movie restrictions. Pre-Code anything was proper.

Her lines sexy. Very sexy. Racy dialogue turned into innuendo and double entendre.

I learned in my quick research that although the movie had two of the greatest screenwriters of the day, it was Mae West who revised and rewrote the script to include the dialogue she wanted.

Recall she was paid by Paramount $5,000 a week. She could write and say anything she wanted!

Matt Gaetz. What goes around, comes around. He bad mouthed so many people. He stands alone today. No “friends” running to support him.

The purported incident with a 17 year old girl has blossomed into all sorts of inquiries. None good.

One which recently came out involves a 2018 Bermuda trip to the Bahamas with several young women. The implication suggests the ladies were paid for.

There is a further news report suggesting the trip was part of an effort to illegally influence Gaetz with regard to medical marijuana.

If there is truth to any of the allegations, Gaetz has a troubled road before him.

I seem to continue being mentally disposed to staying in evenings. The quarantine obviously affected me.

Friday and saturday evenings good times to be out on the street. I opted each evening to remain in. Read and watched some TV.

Glad I am locked in to have dinner tomorrow night with the Thorntons at La Te Da.

Enjoy your day!

CRUISE SHIP BATTLE…..GOVERNMENT OVERREACH

Posted: 24 Apr 2021 08:03 AM PDT

The handwriting is on the wall. The State will win the battle. At this point. Does not mean the war.

The cruise lines, politics, and certain local businessmen have called in the IOUs. To the legislators, dance with us on this issue.

The City will be left with one alternative. Appeal!

The City has already spent a ton of money on the referendum and the fight since. More money will have to be spent. Do the right thing. The City owes the voters that much.

If the cost of an appeal is a concern, think of all the money pissed away when the City makes contract mistakes, overpays someone, etc. Don’t blow it here. Be on the side of the righteous. Those who put you in office.

What galls me is even some of our State representative(s) initially supported the cruise lines, etc. Till some one brought to their attention they did not know what they were talking about.

Another galling aspect is the excuses being given on the floor of both State Houses. The real reason for the battle with the cruise lines is it is not being described properly by the shipping magnates to State representatives.

Let’s not get screwed. This is a battle that must be fought. Regardless of cost.

It will also send a message. Don’t tread on little Key West! The town can be a David when required.

On April 23, 1982, the Florida Keys seceded from the Union. The reason being the Border Patrol having established a road block at Florida City to check the citizenship of everyone leaving Monroe County.

Dennis Wardlow was the primary defector. He had become the Prime Minister of the new naton. Aptly named the Conch Republic.

The Conch Republic seceded the same day it was formed. Surrendered that same day shortly after seceding. Demanded reparations and financial assistance.

Big trees from little acorns grow! The creation of the Conch Republic has become a big deal. Offices, flags, passports, a navy and air force, etc.

Each year a big celebration is had celebrating the event. From my perspective, the best part of the celebration is the War between the Conch Republic and the U.S.

The Conch Republic fighting from pirate ships. Their crews dressed as pirates. Throwing rotten tomatoes, heads of lettuce, etc. at the U.S. vessels. The vessels being modern ships of today’s U.S. Coast Guard.

Jets from Boca Chica fly over to engage the Conch Republic’s bi-planes. The Conch Republic bombing the Coast Guard vessels with unfurling rolls of toilet paper.

The celebration is a perfect example as to what Key West is all about. How we live and act.

I wish the Pier House would hurry and reopen the Chart Room. I am out in the world again and miss my old hangout.

I met and chatted with many people every night at the Chart Room. About 10 years ago, a tourist who was the Chief of Police of some community in the midwest.

From 1962-1965, I was General Counsel to the Police Conference of New York Inc. Two years out of law school when I got the job. Had an Albany office. I was a registered lobbyist.

One of my primary tasks was getting legislation passed that would protect police officers. It was the beginning. Protections did not exist. Today, police have formal unions representing them. The unions have been successful in getting laws adopted that we did not even think about in the early 1960s. Like qualified immunity, for example.

The Chief and I had an interesting 2 hour discussion in the Chart Room. I was shocked by the stories he was telling me. The black problem. How dangerous it was to be a policeman. Etc.

A different world had developed. The world that exists today. The world which hopefully now is in a state of flux because of the conviction in the Floyd case.

I believe Biden is doing a good job. Fighting the forces of evil so as to make the U.S. a better place to live. Also, to correct many Trump created problems.

I sense a different problem developing, however. Is the U.S. going to spend itself into oblivion? A trillion here, a trillion there. It adds up. Soon the U.S. debt payments per year will exceed the country’s next most expensive budget item.

My sense is Biden hopes/anticipates increasing corporate taxes as one way of paying the bill. The other is to get programs such as infrastructure moving. Increased wages alone will increase tax collections.

Never forget what Biden is facing today as regards money was faced by Franklin Delano Roosevelt when he first took office. The depression at its peak.

He had programs pushed into law. Each required the government to spend heaps of money.

Republicans knocked him constantly. He was going to bankrupt the nation.

Roosevelt succeeded and Biden can too.

The U.S. yesterday lifted its “pause” on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Ok to use. Safe.

The facts support the result. Thus far, nearly 8 million Johnson & Johnson vaccine shots have been given. Are you aware of the number of the number of the 8 million persons who developed blood clots? Fifteen!

As U.S. officials said yesterday, the benefits of the shot far outweigh the risk of a rare blood clot disorder.

The question at the moment is how the public will react to receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. There are 9.5 million doses siting on shelves waiting to be used.

Enjoy your day!

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