August 27, 2018 Ridley's Believe It Or Not National Petroleum Day

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For August 27, 2018 McCain’s farewell statement was read out loud as Schumer proposed renaming the Russell Senate Office Building to the McCain Senate Office building (here is a link to McCain’s farewell statement http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/08/27/farewell-statement-from-john-mccain.html) ;Iran hit by crippling sanctions that are killing its economy is lashing back, threatening to close the Straits of Hormuz to the passage of oil from Saudi Arabia which has prompted a strong reaction from the U.S. (Iran can kiss its navy goodbye in a New York City second if it tries); on the Ocasio-Cortez wanna be front, Julia Salazar campaigning for a New York State Senate seat as a Jewish immigrant has been exposed as having been born here and as a Christian conservative (shades of Elizabeth Warren and her false claims of American Indian heritage to obtain favors at Harvard); Jamele Hill, an unabashed anti-Trump hater on ESPN, is leaving the network (what took ESPN so long to realize sports and political bias is a toxic mix for ratings); the death at a sober living facility of Jackson Odell the 20 year old star of the Goldbergs has been ruled by the coroner of Los Angeles as an accidental overdose of heroin and cocaine (just another example of how deadly and pervasive our opioid epidemic has become); stung by claims of a rigged primary in favor of Hillary Clinton, the DNC has made changes to the role of super delegates by eliminating their vote until a second ballot; Trump has announced a trade agreement with Mexico to replace NAFTA and urged Canada to join the negotiations and the market has soared in response); Trump in what has to be a petty display of anger nixed a White House statement praising John McCain’s accomplishments (really pathetic on his part); FBI agents searched the residence of David Katz, the shooter at the Jacksonville Madden tournament who killed two and wounded eleven before killing himself; in Chicago while Rahm Emanuel continues to  imitate Nero playing the fiddle and Chicago’s top cop lays the blame directly on prosecutors and lenient judges not sending armed thugs to jail, through August 26, 2018 2031 people mostly of color have been shot by mostly people of color, of whom 324 have died (when will Chicago get serious about this carnage or is this the case of true racism as a Blue run city turns a deaf ear and a blind eye to the slaughter of mostly people of color by mostly people of color and when will Emanuel who has been MIA resign or be voted out of office).

        As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, a music link to the Bee Gees,
factoids of interest for this day in history, the day when we have more mugwumps in the Swamp and a relevant quote from James Buchan on petroleum’s importance to mankind, 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 Petroleum Day—celebrating the discovery of petroleum at Titusville, Pennsylvania by Edwin Drake on this day in 1858.

2. Lyndon Baines Johnson Day—celebrating in Texas the birthday of President Lyndon Baines Johnson who died in 1973.

3. 1971 Number One Song— the number one song in 1971 on a run of 4 weeks in that position was “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” by the Bee Gees. Here is a recording of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZInWGC5L2T8

4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “mugwump” which means someone who is neutral politically which given the partisanship in the Swamp would be a very rare creature indeed.

5. A Mustang in Clothes—celebrating the birthday on this day in 1961 of Tom Ford, a noted fashion designer from Texas who became the creative director of Gucci and increased its sales to over $3 billion before being a acquired and then went on to form his own fashion company.

 On this day in: 

a. 1928 15 nations sighed the Kellogg-Briand Pact which outlawed war and was ultimately signed by 61 nations; unfortunately the agreement postponed World War II for only 11 years.

b. 1956 the nuclear power station at Calder Hall in the United Kingdom was connect to the country’s power grid making it the world’s first commercial nuclear power plant.. 

c. 1979 an IRA bomb killed retired Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten and three others while they were boating near Sligo, Ireland. 

d. 2003 the first six nation talks concerning North Korea’s nuclear program involving North Korea, South Korea, China, Russia, Japan and the United States were held without success in dismantling North Korea’s nuclear program.

e. 2011 Hurricane Irene struck the U.S. East Coast killing 47 and causing approximately  $15 billion in damages.

    Reflections on petroleum: “A century ago, petroleum - what we call oil - was just an obscure commodity; today it is almost as vital to human existence as water.” Tom Buchan, noted Scottish historian and novelist.

   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.

© August 27, 2018 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

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