August 2, 2016 Ridley's Believe It Or Not National Night Out Day

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For August 2, 2016 Only 98  days to go before we elect a new president and 241 days since Hillary has held a formal press conference (although she has finally did an interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News last Sunday; where is the outrage of the press?); Trump continues to go off message by attacking a fire marshal who sought to limit the number of attendees at a Trump rally; while China and Russia are conducting joint live fire exercises in the South China Sea, Obama is in Singapore again touting that Trump is unfit to be president and touting his support for TPP which his third term nominee Hillary Clinton now opposes; Warren Buffet became the third billionaire after Mark Cuban and Michael Blumberg to endorse Clinton  and made a joint appearance in Nebraska with her; in what will likely be an increasing trend Red Congressman Richard Hanna of New York announced that although he disagreed with Clinton, he could not vote for a man who is “nonrepentant in all things” (sadly just as Obama cannot and will not use the phrase radical Islam, Trump’s vocabulary is totally devoid of the use of “apology” by him); finally Obama authorized limited bombing of ISIS targets in Libya which like our bombing in Syria and Iraq against ISIS is a piss poor substitute for a strategy to defeat ISIS;  14 Zika cases in a one mile neighborhood of Miami prompts health concerns; in a leaning tower of Pisa like moment, the Millennium Tower, San Francisco’s ultra luxurious high rise apartment building is starting to sink and lean.

      Going to www.lyingcrookedhillary.com is a great way to start your day along of course with www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com

    As always, I hope  you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, a music link to Bobby Lewis, factoids of interest, a relevant quote from Lyndon Johnson, while looking forward to enjoying some ice cream sandwiches, blessed with a positive attitude and  secure in  the knowledge that if you want to find a gift for any memorable events like birthdays, weddings, or  anniversaries, you know that the Alaskanpoet can provide you with a unique customized poem  at a great price  tailored to the event and the recipient. You need only contact me for details.

1. National Night Out Day—celebrating police community relations which in neighborhoods of color have been strained and calling on neighbors to get to know neighbors in order to take their streets back from the criminal elements that prey on neighborhoods.

2. National Coloring Book Day—another whimsical observance on a day like today when holidays and observances worthy of note are few and far between; who knows but coloring with a box of crayons (introduced to the market by Crayola in 1903 and sold at the rate of 3 billion a year today) might bring out the kid that resides within us all.     

3. 1961 Number One Song—celebrating the number one song in 1961 on a run of seven weeks in that position “Tossin’ and Turnin’” by Bobby Lewis. Here is a link to Bobby Lewis’ recording of the song with stills from the movie American Graffiti.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghFBvBmXv4E

4. National Ice Cream Sandwich Day—celebrating another great snack to enjoy in this heat.    
5. If You Don’t Succeed Try, Try Again—celebrating the birthday on this day in 1932 of iconic actor Peter O’Toole who struggled with alcohol abuse throughout his career but managed to win 8 Oscar nominations for best actor but was never successful in taking Oscar home.     

On this day in:

a. 1776 56 members of the Continental Congress signed the U.S. Declaration of Independence which had been ratified by Congress on July 4, 1776. 

b. 1873 in a what gives San Francisco its tourist charm the Clay Street Hill Railroad began operating its first cable car.  

c. 1937 the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was passed rendering marijuana and its byproducts illegal.

d. 1943 PT-109 skippered by Jack Kennedy was rammed and sunk by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri with the loss of two crewmen.  

e. 1964 in the first step toward massive U.S. involvement in Vietnam the USS Maddox was attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats in the Gulf of Tonkin; sadly for us on the 4^th of August another attack which never occurred on the USS C. Turner Joy was used as a pretext for passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorizing use of force and entering us into the nightmare known as the Vietnam War.    

Reflections on the march to war in the Vietnam War: The determination of all Americans to carry out our full commitment to the people and to the government of South Viet-Nam will be redoubled by this outrage. Yet our response, for the present, will be limited and fitting. We Americans know, although others appear to forget, the risks of spreading conflict. We still seek no wider war.” President Lyndon Johnson’s address to the nation on August 4, 1964 three days before the adoption of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Over 58,000 names on a granite wall and hundreds of thousands of lives shattered by physical and mental wounds suffered as a direct result of an attack on the USS C. Turner Joy that never occurred.  Please enjoy the poems on events of interest on my twitter account below (if you like them, retweet and follow me) and follow my blogs. Always good, incisive and entertaining poems on my blogs—click on the links below. Go to www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com for Ridley’s Believe It Or Not—This Day In History, poems to inspire, touch, emote, elate and enjoy and poems on breaking news items of importance or go to Ridley's Believe It Or Not for just This Day in History.

© August 2, 2016, Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
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