January 17, 2019 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Benjamin Franklin Day

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For January 17, 2019 House Majority Leader Hoyer has ridiculed Pelosi’s claim that barriers are ineffective and immoral leaving her with the straw man that the wall  is too expensive as she ignores the savings that would be realized in benefits paid out to illegal aliens (if there were only some more Blue Dog Democrats in this increasingly to the left party, we would be sparred on disaster of having her as Speaker of the House); AOC who is clueless on economic reality with her socialist agenda is making a name for herself as the Twitter queen and will be teaching a class to members of the Blue caucus on how to effectively use social media (at least she is good at trying to package socialist ideas that have failed in the past and will continue to fail in the future); Ilhan Omar, a Somalian- American Blue Representative, is being slammed for retweeting Rhule’s claim without any evidence that Lindsay Graham has been compromised by Trump (aka he is gay); Blues fall over themselves in condemning Reds who become targets of the MeToo Movement but when they are involve in sexual harassment or rape only the sounds of silence and retaliation; Blue Texas Representative Sheila Jackson’s staffer and supervisor, Damien Jones is claimed to have raped a female intern in October, 2015 and when she reported it and her intention to sue, she was fired; Cack News Network Chris Cuomo was on the anti-religious warpath, attacking the Second Lady for her working part-time at a religious private school that bans transgenders, homosexuals and lesbians (nice timing Chris as your slam came on the same day as Religious Freedom Day); Bruce Ohr who has not been questioned by Mueller has revealed that he disseminated details on the Steele fake anti-Trump dossier to persons who became lieutenants on Mueller’s team (without the dossier there would never have been FISA warrants and the Mueller witch-hunt would have never started); my daily source for murders and shootings has stopped publishing so this feature will no longer appear in Ridley's Believe It Or Not-This Day In History.

     As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, a music link to Mariah Carey and  Boyz II Men, factoids of interest for this day in history, the fact that you are not too officious unless for a good cause and a relevant quote from Anthony T. Hincks on the Doomsday Clock,  secure in the knowledge that if you want to find a gift for any memorable events like college graduations, 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 Bootleggers Day—created by Infinium Spirits in June, 2015 to commemorate the birthday on this day of Al Capone and an original bootlegger Meryl Kirkoff and the introduction of Templeton Rye during Prohibition and is still made today in Templeton, Iowa.

2.  Benjamin Franklin Day—celebrating that noted polymath and founding father Benjamin Franklin whose faces appears on our $100 bills.

3. 1996 Number One Song— the number one song on this day in 1996 on a run of 16 weeks in that position was “One Sweet Day” by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men. Here is a recording of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXxRyNvTPr8

4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day as we move from words beginning with “n” to words beginning with “o” is “officious” which means volunteering one’s services too quickly, a trait that most soldiers learn quickly to avoid.

5. Lamb Chop—celebrating the birth on this day in 1933 of noted ventriloquist, puppeteer and children’s entertainer Phyllis Naomi Hurwitz better known as Shari Lewis who unfortunately died too early from cancer at the age of 65.

     On this day in:  

a. 1961 President Dwight Eisenhower three days before the expiration of his final term gave a farewell televised address to the American people warning them of the “military-industrial complex” and the dangers of increased spending and deficit spending.

b. 1991 the Gulf War’s aerial and naval component began with air strikes and naval launched tomahawk missiles in the early morning hours led by the F-117 stealth bombers.

c. 1994 the Northridge Earthquake with a force of 6.7 struck Los Angeles with its epicenter at Northridge, killing 57, injuring more than 8700 and causing $20 billion in property damage.

d. 1998 Matt Drudge broke news of the Monica Lewinsky Bill Clinton sexual scandal on the Drudge Report.

e. 2007 the Doomsday Clock in response to North Korea nuclear testing is set a five minutes to midnight (sadly it is now set to two minutes to midnight as very little if any progress is being made to get North Korea to denuclearize.

    Reflections on the Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists: “It's no use talking about the 'Doomsday Clock' when it has already chimed. But, alas, the chimes fell on deaf ears.” Anthony T. Hincks noted author of Author of Life and Verbs in Story Land
    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  www.Alaskanpoethistory.blogspot.com for just This Day in History.

© January 17, 2019,  Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

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