Key West Lou / PHIL MICKELSON VICTORY EXCITING

Yesterday an exciting one in sports. At age 50, Phil Mickelson won the PGA. The oldest player ever to do so.

Golf is a game that can be played till death. As one gets older, his score increases with age. What Mickelson achieved is therefore especially noteworthy.

Besides his winning, two things occurred worthy of mention.

First, he appeared to be tiring on the back nine. At 50, no wonder. Again age takes its toll.

The other was the crowd. I have been a golf fan forever. I have had the good fortune to travel and attend professional golf tournaments all over the U.S.

Never have I seen the crowd that followed him to the 18th green. And appeared to swallow Brooks Koepka as he approached the green. Amazing! Koepka got lost in the crowd. I wondered if he ever was going to appear.

If Mickelson never wins another tournament, it will make no difference. His lifetime record speaks for itself: One of the greatest golfers of all time. He’s done it all and at the age of 50 won another big one!

One of the sad news articles this morning involves the crash of an Italian cable car on a mountain overlooking Lake Maggiore. Fourteen killed. The sole survivor a 5 year old Israeli boy.

Reminded me of my trips to Italy. I spent some time in Courmayeur in northern Italy. Stayed in a Swiss chalet half way up Mont Blanc. Each visit was in the summer.

There was a somewhat small central square. The place the locals spent time chatting and drinking. I was in Courmayeur enough times to have made friends and be considered a “local.”

Towering in all its majesty above us was Mont Blanc. A number of cable cars made the trip up a mountain adjoining Mont Blanc. Tall in itself. However, nothing as tall as Mont Blanc which is the highest mountain in Europe.

Cable cars were taking tourists up the mountain. Stopped at the top. Some took a second cable car from that point to Switzerland.

I was anxious to see Switzerland. My Courmayeur friends suggested I take the 2 cable cars. The view terrific and the cable car trip easier than driving.

I declined. Openly admitting each time I was concerned the cable car I was on would crash and I would be killed. I was the butt of local jokes. However, I remained adamant.

The Italians tried to convince me it so rarely happened, that it would not. I was not swayed. I was happy to be a coward.

You never know when danger will strike as it did yesterday.

Where oh where is bipartisanship? Where oh where is Manchin’s dream?

Gone! As it has for many years. Bipartisanship requires two to dance. The Republicans refuse to dance.

Democrats who still believe are dreamers, not realists.

In order for the Democrats to get helpful legislation passed, they must do the necessary. Including getting rid of the filibuster.

Another weekend of mass shootings! Twelve. Will they ever stop? Will the necessary legislation ever get passed to help move gun safety forward? Never seems to be enough votes to get the job done.

Black Lives Matter is a fervent group. Out there to do what is right for persons of color.

BLM is not only a U.S. group. Many countries have BLM chapters.

One is Great Britain.

Sara Johnson is an English BLM leader. She was shot yesterday in the head.

Johnson has been very active in the movement. She played a leading role in the BLM movement last summer in England. She is described as a “young mother and fearless.”

I fear what happened to Johnson may occur in the U.S. If so, it will ignite retaliatory action not yet experienced.

I have been critical of the U.S. Bishops organization for several years. Not all Catholic bishops are members. Maybe half.

The group does not think as Rome does. The U.S. Bishops rebellious re many issues. One is abortion. Their most recent goal was a plan to deny Biden and any other politicians who supported a woman’s right to chose from receiving Communion.

Note that the U.S. Bishops have grown in power once they became subject to/joined up with the Republican far right. The Communion denial was more to embarrass Biden.

Note also that the Vatican wrote to the U.S. Bishops several weeks ago and told them to cease and desist re the Communion issue. Pope Francis warned them to stay away from it.

The U.S. bishops are anti-Pope Francis also. They want him deposed. For real. U.S. political leaders who have been working with them in this regard are Steve Bannon and Newt Gingrich.

It seems what the U.S.Bishops want to do pretty much lacks precedent. One cleric said, the effort is “pretty distinctly American…..I don’t have a sense of bishops in any country doing anything like this.”

Cocaine keeps washing up on the shores of the Keys. Last wednesday and thursday, several packages washed up onto Islamorada. Each package weighed 2.4 pounds.

I have four medical visits this week. The first two wednesday. If my blogs are shorter or I miss one, such is the reason why.

Enjoy your day!

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