Thursday, April 13, 2017

April 13, 2017 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Jefferson's Birthday

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For April 13, 2017  As expected, the Russians vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning Assad’s sarin attack on his own people in Syria and China abstained; the news from Moscow from Tillerson is that Russian U.S. relations are at an all time low; United Airlines is really taking it in the chin for its disastrous decision to drag a 69 year old doctor off a flight to make room for 4 UA employees as two of those officers were put on administrative leave (very good chance that the CEO of United Airlines will be out of a job even as the CEO of Delta defends overbooking as having a valid business purpose); we have learned that the FISA court issued a secret warrant to the FBI to surveil Carter Page on grounds that he was a foreign agent for Russia which he vehemently denies (scary thought when a presidential candidate and president-elect are monitored by the government whose candidate lost); finally Ms. Lerner is not out of the legal woods yet as Sessions is being asked to reopen her case that Holder and Lynch refused move forward; in another city returning to sanity, Lansing, Michigan reversed itself on becoming a sanctuary city; good news for the Brian Terry family as the suspected shooter of Brian Terry whose death exposed one of Holder’s most pathetic schemes the Fast and Furious gun running operation has been arrested in Mexico and should be extradited soon to face justice; Fresno State announced its full cooperation on the feds investigation of Fresno State professor Lars Maishak’s dog whistle condemnation of Trump and urging his hanging the execution of Reds (the rhetoric on this has gone over the top and the next sound this idiot should hear will be knocking on his door by Secret Service agents serving arrest warrants); almost like a stuck record or a remake of Groundhog Day, Chicago style,  the carnage in Chicago continues unabated with total shootings in 2017 through April 12 increasing by 142 to 857 and the death toll increasing by 2 to 157 (God help those poor minorities being shot mostly by minorities when the weather gets warmer and the shooters’ aim gets really better and there is more daylight to find and shoot victims) and yet nothing, absolutely nothing, appears to be occurring to address this blight on blacks and minorities which is what racism from a black mayor really looks like who appears to care only about the rights of illegal aliens in his sanctuary city  (when will Chicago residents through the city council try to impeach this pathetic, inept mayor?). 
    As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, a music link to Prince, factoids of interest for this day in history, a relevant quote from Steven Foner on the Colfax Massacre, hoping you do not need an application of zopissa, 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.  Jefferson’s Birthdaycommemorating the birth on this day in 1743 of our third president Thomas Jefferson as a result of a Presidential Proclamation issued by President Roosevelt on March 23, 1938.
2.  Scrabble Day—celebrating that great board game that improves one’s vocabulary and was invented by Alfred Mosher Butts in 1938; playing it gives another justification for reading Ridley's Believe It Or Not-This Day In History as it contains the “word of the day” that can be useful in scoring a win.  
3. 1986 Number One Song—celebrating the number one song in 1986 on a run of 2 weeks in that position “Kiss” by Prince.  Here is a recording of him performing the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEPTN-oJlk8 Hard to believe we are fast approaching the one year anniversary of his death from a drug overdose of fentanyl at his Paisley Park recording studio on April 21, 2016. What a waste.  
4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “zopissa” which refers to a mixture of pitch and tar, impregnated with salt water, scraped from the sides of ships, formerly used in external applications as having resolutive and desiccative properties.
5. Out of the Closet?—honoring the birth on this day in 1890 of the last Governor General of the Philippines, former Detroit Mayor, former governor of Michigan and a Supreme Court Justice who was rumored to be gay which he managed to hide until his death at 59. 
On this day in:                                                                                   
a. 1742 Handel’s oratorio Messiah made its debut in Dublin, Ireland.
b. 1829 in a better late than never moment, Parliament passed the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 which gave Catholics the right to vote and sit in Parliament.     
c. 1873 the worst racial massacre to occur in our nation’s history occurred at Colfax, Louisiana where black freedmen and Republicans were defending the courthouse against a mob of angry whites. After the smoke had cleared upwards of 150 blacks had been killed, many of whom had put down their weapons while three whites were killed.
d. 1943 retreating German forces discovered in the Katyn Forest in Russia mass graves of Polish officers who had become Russian prisoners of war. Some 22,000 Polish officers, police officers and members of the Polish intelligentsia were executed there and in other prisons in Russia. Another example of why we need to rebuild our military as Putin is cut from the same clothe as Stalin.
e. 1953 CIA Director Allen Dulles launched a secret mind control program known as MKUltra which involved the illegal administration of drugs such as LSD as methods of enhanced interrogation; what is amazing and chilling is that the CIA engaged the services of some 80 institutions like universities, prisons and hospitals to perform the research and the program was not officially halted until 1973.    
Reflections on the Colfax Massacre:“ The bloodiest single instance of racial carnage in the Reconstruction era, the Colfax massacre taught many lessons, including the lengths to which some opponents of Reconstruction would go to regain their accustomed authority. Among blacks in Louisiana, the incident was long remembered as proof that in any large confrontation, they stood at a fatal disadvantage.” Steven Foner, noted historian and expert on the Civil War and Reconstruction. Hard to believe the atrocities that were committed less than one hundred years ago.  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.
© April 13, 2017 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet.
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