June 25, 2019 Ridley's Believe It Or Not World Vitiligo Day

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For June 25, 2019 The bloom may be off the rose for Mayor Pete and his campaign may be headed for defeat as he was heckled by blacks for the shooting of a black and his police union for calling for FBI on the shooting is fighting back (shades of Dukakis’ Alfred E. Newman moment in a M-1 tank); Stephanie Grisham who was formerly spokeswoman for Melania Trump has been named to replace Sarah Sanders; Biden is facing rough sledding as “Middle Class Joe” as it was revealed he made millions giving speeches after leaving office, has purchased a $3,000,000 beach house and living in a 12,000 square foot mansion  and a NYT columnist blasts Biden’s appearances as an actor who can’t remember his lines (you have to be in trouble when the left leaning NYT attacks you); Booker has revealed once again his lack of spine in pursuing the nomination after attacking Biden’s remarks on working with segregationists opened up possibility of meeting with noted anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan who has called Jews “termites”; on the collateral damage front on Blues’ plan to increase federal minimum wage to $15 an hour a franchisee of Hooters in Florida and Alabama has written an op-ed that the plan will put him out of business (plan must be also eliminating or reducing tip credit which allows employers to count tips up to $5.12 per hour); Trump ran on transparency when it came to justices and produced a list of potential conservative SCOTUS nominees but Biden the front runner has a list which he has as of yet refused to reveal (Red ads soon coming out to blast him over his secrecy); Blues on a open border are like a Massiff that won’t release his powerful grip on a bone and have loaded up the $4.8 billion emergency funding bill for humanitarian aid to the illegals with restrictions on enforcement of our immigration laws that may result in veto by Trump (the most effective humanitarian aid is a clear message that if you come here illegally you will be deported); Megan Rapinoe, a star player for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team is being blasted by Trump for her refusal at the World Cup to stand for the National Anthem, put her hand over her heart or sing it (thank you very much Colin Kaepernick for starting this mess); the Russian Bear keeps coming out of its lair as one of its more advanced cruise missile frigates has docked on a visit to Cuba; through June 25, 2019 1177 people  have been shot in Chicago of whom 222 have died (what makes the Smollett case so frustrating and why the appointment of a special prosecutor should be applauded,  is that it forced the city of Chicago to allocate scarce detective resources when in only 9% of the shootings resulting in murder have a suspect being charged this year).

1. National Catfish Day—created by the U.S. Congress by proclamation and celebrated since 1987 to recognize and promote the aquaculture of catfish as an inexpensive sustainable source of protein and the creator of thousands of jobs.                                  

 2. World Vitiligo Day—created in 2011 to promote awareness of the defect which causes a loss of pigmentation and affects 1-2% of the population, the most famous of which is Michael Jackson who died on this day in 2009. 

 3. 1954 Number One Song—the number one song on this day in 1954 with 10 weeks in that position was “Little Things Mean a Lot” by Kitty Kallen. Here is a recording of the song:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C7SzKv2uLU   She lost her voice at the London Palladium for 4 years in 1955 but came back under a pseudonym singing in small venues to record 13 career hit songs but lost her life at age 94 on January, 7, 2016.

4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day as we move from words beginning with “o” to words beginning with “p” is “pernor” which means one who takes rents or received benefits from estates, properties or other things of value which if in California with its sky high rents means if a pernor you are in seventh heaven.

5. Sing a Song of Vanity:—celebrating the birth on this day in 1945 of noted singer and songwriter Carly Simon who was once married to James Taylor and is still performing today. Here is a recording of her number one song “You’re So Vain” the second verse of which she revealed in 2015 was about Warren Beatty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQZmCJUSC6g Here is the 4^th verse she wrote for the song that she never included and to this day the person mentioned has not been revealed:  “A friend of yours revealed to me that you’d loved me all the time / Kept it secret from your wives / You believed it was no crime.

 You called me once to ask me things / I couldn’t quite divine / Maybe that’s why I have tried to dismiss you, tried to dismiss you / And you’re so vain.”

     As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances,  music links to Kitty Kallen and Carly Simon, 5 factoids of interest for this day in history, the fact that you are wise enough to have become a pernor, a quote by Bruce Cummings on the lack of exit plans for wars, 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.

    On this day in:                                        

a. 1910 Congress passed the Mann Act which outlawed the transportation of females across state lines for “immoral purposes” a vague standard that was used to selectively prosecute those out of favor for years; it was amended to delete “immoral purposes” with “any sexual act for which a person can be charged with a criminal offense.”

b. 1950 the Korean War began with the invasion of South Korea by North Korea.

c. 1978 the rainbow flag was flown for the first time in San Francisco’s Gay Freedom Day Parade.

d. 1984 Prince released his most successful album Purple Rain which sold 1.5 millions copies.

e. 1998 in a blow to fiscal sanity SCOTUS ruled in the case of Clinton v. United States that the Line Act Veto of 1996 was unconstitutional.

 Reflections on wars including the Korean War: “In fact the United States has had no exit strategy since 1945, except in places where we were kicked out (Vietnam) or asked to leave (the Philippines): American troops still occupy Japan, Korea, and Germany, in the seventh decade after the end of World War II. Policymakers – almost always civilians with little or no military experience (Acheson is the archetype) – get Americans into wars but cannot get them out, and soon the Pentagon takes over, establishes bases, and the entire enterprise becomes a perpetual-motion machine fuelled by a defence budget that dwarfs all others in the world.”
― Bruce Cumings, The Korean War: A History Wise observation but in Vietnam we did not leave soon enough and over 58,000 soldiers paid the ultimate price and in the Philippines World War II preempted our decision to leave in 1946.

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 oe 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 for just This Day in History go to www.Alaskanpoethistory.blogspot.com.

June 25, 2019 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet