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 Birthday—commemorating 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.
Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire
Poet Extraordinaire, Beyond Compare
The Perfect Gift, All Recipients to Receive Lasting Lift
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