November 30, 2019 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Small Business Saturdayit Or

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For November 30, 2019 Kelly Mehlenbacher, Kamala Harris’s top campaign aide who has left her sinking ship to join the Bloomberg campaign has slammed Kamala’s abysmal treatment of her staff;  Hunter Biden has demand that his income and financial statements filed in his divorce case be kept confidential to avoid embarrassment (normally a valid request but here the income received from his quid pro quo Burisma Board Seat and his equity interest in a Chinese investment company merit disclosure); in the stabbing attack in London, the number of wounded has increased to five as tales of heroism by bystanders one of whom was a chef wielding a narwhale tusk  who disarmed this Islamic jihadist recently paroled after serving 6 years for terrorism (supposedly this jihadist showed no remorse which begs the question why he was ever released?); in another example of why Social Media’s censorship of Reds must be reined in, Twitter has banned Omar’s Red opponent for tweeting that if Omar is proved to have transmitted classified material to Iran, she should be hanged for treason (news flash Dorsey, that’s a definition of treason and the penalty can be death); on the good news front for the holidays, Stanford alum and 49er CB Richard Sherman has discharged the lunch school debt of a Santa Clara middle school and given $20,000 to fight hunger in Seattle public schools; great news for retailers that Black Friday sales set records but bad day for our social fabric as numerous fights broke out in malls across the land and climate change activists hindered many shoppers from entering and leaving stores (hopefully Small Business Saturday will be more civilized); the left is is aping the elephant that never forgets as ex HRC aide Fallon’s “non profit” Demand Justice is on a rant claiming Gorsuch’s and Kavanaugh’s appointments were illegitimate and slamming Facebook for posting ads from major law firms supporting of the Federalist Society’s dinner; to the angry howls of leftists ICE deported  38 year old illegal alien Delmer Palma from Honduras who had been working construction for 18 years but had the misfortune of working on the Hard Rock Hotel that collapsed in New Orleans (construction pays well and many Americans seek those jobs which in certain industries like drywall have been taken over by illegals); in Chicago with a new interim police chief as of  November 29, 2019, 2541 have been shot, of whom, 431 have died; Baltimore with a fraction of Chicago’s population, is coming in second place in the amount of gun deaths as 312 have been murdered, a number which has passed all of 2014’s death and is closing in on 2016 yearly total of 318’s fatalities (when will Chicago and Baltimore 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 people of color by people of color and when will the left focus on the problem of color on color shootings in Blue run cities which have been more deadly and more numerous than random mass shootings?).

    As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to Whitney Houston,  the fact you avoid pseudodox; a relevant quote on the effects of Desert Storm by Mark Moyar,  secure in the knowledge that if you want to find a gift for any memorable events like Father’s Day, 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. Small Business Saturday--celebrating a way to avoid the unruly crowds and lack of parking spaces at the malls to shop at the neighborhood shops that are the backbone of our economy—small businesses.

2. Computer Security Day--created in 1988 to promote the need to protect computers and other smart electronic devices from hacking which causes major financial and security problems to the government, businesses non profit organizations and individuals.

3. 1995 Number 1 Number One Song— the number one song in 1995 on this day on a run of 1 week in the position was “Exhale ( Shoop, Shoop)” by Whitney Houston. Here is a recording of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrTuV4Szxzo   Sadly, this singer with an incredible voice died way too early on February 11, 2012 after passing out and drowning in a bathtub due to ingestion of cocaine.

4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “pseudodox” which means false doctrine or opinion which is what one hears when a socialist like Sanders extols the virtues of socialism.

5. The Fountain of Youth--celebrating the birthday on this day in 1912 of the “World’s Oldest Teenager” Dick Clark, best known for his longtime hosting of American Bandstand on TV and the New Year’s Eve Celebration in New York
City whose eternal youth finally failed him on April 18, 2012. 

On this day in: 

      a. 1982 Michael Jackson released his sixth album Thriller which became the largest selling album of all time until passed by the Eagles’ Eagles Greatest Hits. 

        b. 1995 the official end of Operation Desert Storm. 

    c. 1999 Exxon and Mobil signed a $73.7 billion agreement to merge, creating ExxonMobil, the largest corporation in the world. 

   d. 1999 anti-globalization protestors rioted in Seattle over the meeting of the World Trade Organization, forcing the cancelation of opening ceremonies.

   e. 2018 a 7.0 Earthquake occurred only 15 miles from Anchorage, causing significant property damage but no deaths.

      Reflections on Desert Storm: “Within a mere one hundred hours, the Iraqi army lay vanquished. American casualties totaled 147, a pittance in comparison with other wars. The stunning success of Operation Desert Storm was to shape world military affairs for decades to come. The efficacy of American precision weaponry convinced most other nations that they could not hope to compete with the United States in conventional warfare. Devoting greater attention to “asymmetric warfare,” they pursued capabilities such as ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons that could deter or thwart superior American forces. In the ensuing wars in Somalia, Afghanistan, and Iraq, insurgent groups devised new tactics and weapons that impeded the use of American technology. A few peer competitors—China and Russia—sought to catch up with the United States by investing in high-tech military capabilities. They are still trying to catch up today, but are now a good deal closer than they were in 1991.”´Mark Moyar, noted military historian at the Hoover Institution.

  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.             

© November 30, 2019 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire

Poet Extraordinaire Beyond Compare

The Perfect Gift,

All Recipients to Receive a Lasting Lift

No Turkey Only Crow for MSM and Schiffites

The chefs at the MSM executive dining rooms were in a tizzy and uproar

They had watched the Schiff Circus and now knew impeachment would not soar

Like a lead balloon or one leaking a major amount of gas

They knew the time for celebration had past

They watched morosely at the pardoning of two huge birds

While growing by the numbers the Independents said impeachment was absurd

Sadly they shook their heads knowing impeachment support would no longer grow

Despite all the boasting that impeachment was for certain and Trump would have to go

Knowing now that the executives and the Schiffites would face a bitter harvest from what they sowed

Worse after fat zeros and spent taxpayer dollars failure was all the executives and Blues had to show

Time now for the executives to suck it up and eat crow

Forget the turkeys it would have to be crow instead

Prompting great joy among those rare true journalists who are objective and red

No crow recipes in all the cook books could be found

So from the kitchens a rising wailing sound

“They sounded so sage and so pious

No longer can they hide their anti-Trump bias”

The MSM pseudo journalists can moan all they want in Swamp City

From the Heartland outside the Bubble not a shred of pity.

© November 29, 2019 Michael P. Ridley

November 29, 2019 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Black Friday

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For November 29, 2019 London Bridge may not be falling down but the terrorist wielding a knife and fake bomb shot by police is; Roger Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Network has opined that the election is Trump’s to lose due to the fact of his belief that none of the current crop of Blue presidential candidates are capable of winning; aides to Kamala Harris are recognizing reality by admitting the illegal alien supporter queen’s plunge in polls stems from her attacks on Tulsi Gabbard as a Russian agent and Tulsi’s withering responses against her (time for this “let me be clear” candidate to quit embarrassing herself and fleecing her dqindling band of donors and drop out); in a life imitates art but with consequences two Korean K-pop stars were sentenced to five and six years in prison for raping an intoxicated unconscious woman; the Charles Schwab and Ameritrade comes with an almost $ one billion break-up fee and if consummated results in the combining companies moving to Texas (thanks to California’s high tax, high regulation and anti-business environment); Starbucks is in the proverbial public relations hot water as a barista at a Starbuck’s in Glenpool, Oklahoma wrote “pig” on a police officer’s coffee order and a report surfaced that five police officers were asked to move from a complaining customer’s line of sight or leave a store in Tempe, Arizona; AOC continues to move the party to the left and is in the news for slamming Peter Buttigieg for attacking tuition free college (how many more unemployable majors like gender studies to we really need?); in Chicago with a new interim police chief as of  November 28, 2019, 2536 have been shot, of whom, 429 have died; Baltimore with a fraction of Chicago’s population, is coming in second place in the amount of gun deaths as 312 have been murdered, a number which has passed all of 2014’s death and is closing in on 2016 yearly total of 318’s fatalities (when will Chicago and Baltimore 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 people of color by people of color and when will the left focus on the problem of color on color shootings in Blue run cities which have been more deadly and more numerous than random mass shootings?).

 As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to Boyz II Men,  the fact your psephology of the 2020 elections show a Trump victory and a relevant quote on the Korean War and the Vietnam War by Helen Thomas,  secure in the knowledge that if you want to find a gift for any memorable events like Father’s Day, 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. Black Friday—celebrating the official beginning of the Christmas shopping season which brings most retailers out of the red and into the black which has crept up to and passed Thanksgiving afternoon to earlier in the week in a déjà vu in 1939-41 when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving up to the third Thursday to boost holiday sales to help end the Great Depression.    

2. Buy Nothing Day--created by Vancouver artist Ted Dave and first celebrated on September of 1992 until moved in 1997 to the Friday after Thanksgiving to protest the consumerism foisted upon consumers by retailers anxious to achieve profitability.

3. 1993 Number 1 Number One Song— the number one song in 1994 on this day on a run of 14 weeks in the position was “I’ll Make Love to You” by Boyz II Men. Here is a recording of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV8vB1BB2qc

4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “psephology” which study of election results which the MSM had to eat crow big time in 2016 when they blew their predictions big time.

5. You Are Only As Old As You Think You Are Or Your Genes Let You Be--celebrating the birthday on this day in 1899 of Emma Morano of Italy who daily ate a raw egg and eschewed relationships until the age of 38 and lived to be 117 years old, dying on April 15, 2017. 

On this day in: 

      a. 1947 the General Assembly approved a plan for the partition of Palestine which guaranteed decades of Arab-Israeli Wars and strife still involving the Palestinians today. 

      b. 1952 President Eisenhower fulfilled a campaign promise and traveled to Korea to see for himself what could be done to end the Korean War, hostilities for which ended July 27, 1953. 

      c. 1967 Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara submitted his resignation to President Johnson shortly before the Tet Offensive in 1968 that rocked the nation and led to President Johnson not seeking reelection. 

 d. 1972 Atari released Pong, the world’s first video game which compared to today’s games was about as primitive as primitive could be.

 e. 2009 Maurice Clemons entered a coffee shop in Parkland, Washington and shot and killed four Lakewood Policemen and fled with a wound to his torso. Despite help by five friends and family members he evaded capture for two days only to be cornered, shot and killed by the members of the Seattle Police Department. The accomplices were charged, convicted and sentenced only to have the convictions overturned due to prosecutorial misconduct.

 Reflections on the Korean and Vietnam War: “Truman fired the popular Gen. Douglas MacArthur because he disobeyed orders in the Korean War. Johnson knew that he had reached the endgame in Vietnam when Gen. William Westmoreland, the top commander in Vietnam, requested 240,000 more troops in 1968 for the prolonged war that also could not be won.” Helen Thomas, noted American author and journalist, best known for her long standing tenure as a member of the White House Press Corps.

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.             

© November 29, 2019 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire

Poet Extraordinaire Beyond Compare

The Perfect Gift,

       All Recipients to Receive a Lasting Lift

November 28, 2019 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Thanksgiving Day

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For November 28, 2019 A very Happy Thanksgiving to all even those impeachment zealots like Schiff, Nadler and Pelosi who will after the Schiff Circus will be feasting on crow; President Trump aped former President H.W. Bush with a surprise visit to the troops in Afghanistan; former Blue governor Martin O’Malley must have been celebrating Black Wednesday with too much to drink as he launched into a loud tirade against Ken Cuccinelli and his hard line illegal immigration stance causing Ken to leave the Dubliner Restaurant (if you can’t reason with someone with whom you disagree, the Blue way is to shout them down and in this case out); as a result of Trump’s efforts to build the wall, and  return illegals to Mexico and their country of origin while awaiting a hearing on their asylum status, illegal border crossings have been cut by half; in another example of why the Blues need to pull their heads out of the sand and join with Reds to pass Kate’s Law, ICE arrested Olga Franco del Cid, a Guatamalian bus driver who killed 4 people in 2008 and served 8 years before being deported for illegally reentering the United States; in an ongoing sting operation, ICE has arrested another 90 illegals, mostly from India seeking to attend bogus Farmington University in Farmington, Michigan; Governor of Texas Greg Abbott responded eloquently to a mean spirited tweet that God put him in his wheel chair by responding that God gave his the strength of overcome his handicap to succeed and become governor of Texas; Illinois State Senator Martin Sandoval has resigned from office effective January 1, 2020 due to an FBI bribery and corruption probe; although Chicago gun violence is still raging, Chicago police announced that they had seized more than 10,000 guns in 2019 (how many of these were used in crime or were possessed by law abiding citizens for protection in this battle ground city was not disclosed); in what should rank in chutzpah award of the year, Jussie Smollett has sued the city of Chicago for malicious prosecution for its trying to recover the costs of investigating his false police report of being racially attacked; UPS in Arizona may have to change its name to United Peyote Service as 4 out of the 11 in Tucson arrested in a decade old drug smuggling ring were UPS drivers and supervisors; in Chicago with a new interim police chief as of  November 27, 2019, 2529 have been shot, of whom, 429 have died but none on the 27^th ; Baltimore with a fraction of Chicago’s population, is coming in second place in the amount of gun deaths as 312 have been murdered, a number which is closing in on 2016 yearly total of 318’s fatalities (when will Chicago and Baltimore 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 people of color by people of color and when will the left focus on the problem of color on color shootings in Blue run cities which have been more deadly and more numerous than random mass shootings?).

 As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to Meat Loaf,  the fact you do not suffer from psellium and a relevant quote on Thanksgiving by President Abraham Lincoln,  secure in the knowledge that if you want to find a gift for any memorable events like Father’s Day, 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 Family Health History Day—commemorated since 2004 in recognition of the importance that genes play in susceptibility to disease by assembling your family health history to be able to take necessary steps to minimize diseases.    

2. National Day of Mourning—created by the United Native Americans of New England to create awareness of the genocide resulting from the European settlement of this nation and the treaties broken by Washington, D.C.

3. 1993 Number 1 Number One Song— the number one song in 1993 on this day on a run of 5 weeks in the position was “I Will Do Anything for Love (But I won’t Do That)” by Meat Loaf. Here is a recording of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X_ViIPA-Gc

4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “psellium” which means a defect in pronunciation which is not a good trait to have if you are a public speaker.

5. When It Comes To Estate Planning Age Never a Hindrance--celebrating the birthday on this day in 1967 of Vicki Lee Hogan better known to her admirers as Anna Nicole Smith who was Playmate of the Year in 1993, married 89 year old billionaire J. Howard Marshall who died the following year creating litigation that went all the way to SCOTUS and back and ultimately ended up with Smith’s estate receiving nothing and died on February 8, 2007 from an overdose of prescription drugs.  

On this day in: 

      a. 1942 a fire broke out in the Cocoanut Grove Nightclub which killed 492 (30 more than authorized to be present there by building codes) and injured 130 others. Barney Wellansky,  the owner was charged with and convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years, serving only 4 but dying from cancer nine weeks after his release. 

      b. 1943 President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and Prime Minister Stalin met in Tehran, Iran to discuss strategy against the Axis Powers.

      c. 1965 heeding President Johnson’s call for more flags in South Vietnam, President-Elect Ferdinand Marcos announced that he would send a little over 2000 troops to South Vietnam. 

 d. 1972 Claude Buffet and Roger Bontems had the dubious distinction of being the last two convicts guillotined in Paris at the La Santé Prison for the murder in 1971 of a prison warden and prison nurse they took hostage while both were serving prison sentences at a high security prison, Clairvaux Prison.

 e. 1990  the Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher, resigned as head of the Conservative Party and therefore Prime Minister of the UK to be succeeded by John Major.

 Reflections on Thanksgiving Day: “I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him…they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.” Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln, October 3, 1863.

 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.             

© November 28, 2019 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire

Poet Extraordinaire Beyond Compare

The Perfect Gift,

       All Recipients to Receive a Lasting Lift

Thanks and Giving on Thansksgiving

Like the celebrations for Janus, Thanksgiving is the only holiday with two sides to measure

When we observe both we can bask in an unsurpassed treasure

The first part is to give thanks for the bounty with which we are blessed

To find gratitude in our daily lives no matter the amount of stress

To heed the thoughtful words of Charlie Brown

Read, reflect then live them and in sharing pass them around

“What if, for today, we were grateful for everything”

Feel the sense of joy and hope and contentment within to spring

The second part is “giving” as we possess a lot

To share with those who have less or close to naught

Be it your volunteer time at a food bank collecting or packaging food

For distribution to those on this day and others the pangs of hunger wooed

Or volunteering on a food line to serve a turkey meal

If without time a check to Second Harvest to make the holiday for the less fortunate real

If on this day a part of your bounty however small you share

The rewards you will feel will be beyond compare

After Grace on this day please enjoy with family and friends you Thanksgiving Day feast

Having celebrating both parts you will have maxed out never to experience least

© November 28, 2019 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

Put the Thanks Back in Thanksgiving

As we approach Thanksgiving with a chuckle that Trump has pardoned two birds

A pause, a hope, and a dream that at least on Thanksgiving divisive rants will not be heard

A nation not in an external war but sadly only with itself

As the economy booms putting more jobs and higher wages on its shelf

A time to be thankful as Charlie Brown’s thoughts to us bring

“What if, today, we were grateful for everything?”

Our social fabric in politics has been rent and tattered

Yet on both sides of the aisle  a mantra of lower your head and batter

Before the drums are beaten yet for another Blue versus Red holy war

Can we not step back and see the harm our divisiveness brings, how can we still ignore?

Divided across lines deeper than any time since the Civil War

Intense ad hominem attacks on the other side in number and vitriol soar

Partisan ears shut to discourse with attacks which we should abhor

How to avoid the chaos between us the future seems to have in store?

Even at Thanksgiving can we somehow civility and mutual respect restore

How close are we to leave hateful words and move to violence and gore?

This nation has problems like poverty, immigration, homelessness, drugs and loss of for one’s neighbors care

Feelings that a remote elite in far off cities or the Swamp we believe do not share

Before we heed the dog whistles of violence and strife

Acknowledge we are mostly blessed with a prosperous and good life

Good be improved no doubt

But with outstretched hands not angry shouts

So on this Thanksgiving as you feel the turkey helpings warm and soothe

Eyes hard to stay open but time to find the compromise bipartisan groove

Let not Black Friday obscure the truth and facts

It is time to stop on each other bitter partisan attacks

Even when on Friday in the malls you want to erupt if a store the new hot gift lacks

You can always take a breath and know tomorrow when crowds are smaller you can come back

Put the “thanks” back into Thanksgiving and allow it to last

Leave the rancor and hate and ad hominem attacks to the past

© November 27, 2019 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

November 27, 2019 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Adopt a Turtle Day

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For November 27, 2019 Sondland has been hit with a report alleging he sexually harassed three women which he vehemently has denied; in a reversal of the adage of sins of the father weigh upon the son, Joe Biden is receiving great flack and downward poll drift due to more revalations about Hunter Biiden’s roll in a Chinese investment firm owned by the Chinese government which is making investments in U.S. companies some of which have sensitive relations with the U.S. military (with no investment experience just like not oil and gas experience (this looks more and more like quid pro quo leveraging on Hunter’s relationship with his father to the potential detriment of national security which has Reds in the Senate demanding answers); the U.S. Cavalry in the form of Medicare for all spending and higher taxation reality has descended upon Pocahantas’ campaign and her standing in the Blue polls is dropping faster than a hot rock; in something out of feudal times, two daughters of deceased Elijah Cummings have come out in support of his long time aide against his second wife in a crowded primary to see who will be the Blue running in a special general election on April 28 (given Baltimore’s murder rate and the dreary litany of problems of urban areas being represented by Blues, the voters could do much better by having a Red represent them in Congress and city hall); in addition to fighting a never ending war against the entry of illegals, the CBP is at the forefront of stopping the flow of counterfeit goods, mostly made in China, and seized $100,000 of Oral-B tooth brush heads; Michelle Presley, a school bus driver in Auroa, Illinois, has been arrested for stopping at a convenience store, buying two beers, and sipping from one after loading 32 students aboard and heading to school due to a clerk who called the school bus company who called the police who arrested her as video cameras showed her drinking while driving the kids; AOC may be the new darling of the left and socialists with here inane ideas faces a primary candidate in the form of Scherie Murray, a legal immigrant from Jamaica who voted for Obama but now claims he did nothing for the residents of her community and the “Trump has done more for African Americans than any other politician in my lifetime”; Obama District Court appointee Kentaji Jackson who was also interviewed to fill the seat on SCOTUS vacated by the death of Justice Scalia has issued a stay of her order requiring Dan McGanh to appear pursuant a subpoena before the House Intel Committee; in Chicago with a new interim police chief as of  November 26, 2019, 2523 have been shot, of whom, 428 have died as the two day hiatus of shooting deaths has expired; Baltimore with a fraction of Chicago’s population, is coming in second place in the amount of gun deaths as 311 have been murdered, a number which exceeds all of last year’s fatalities (when will Chicago and Baltimore 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 people of color by people of color and when will the left focus on the problem of color on color shootings in Blue run cities which have been more deadly and more numerous than random mass shootings?).

     As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to The Heights,  the fact you do not need a proxemics because you are pleased with it and a relevant quote on gratitude by Robert Dear justifying his murder and wounding at a Planned Parenthood Center in Colorado Springs,  secure in the knowledge that if you want to find a gift for any memorable events like Father’s Day, 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. Blackout Wednesday—commemorating since 2004 what has become one of the largest party days of the year as college students return home for Thanksgiving to meet with friends a celebrate at local bars and taverns. If one is to celebrate consider Kyft or Uber as your drvie of choice so any driving after celebration will not turn into a permanent blackout.   

2. Adopt a Turtle Day—created by Christine Shaw on a blog post on Found Animals promoting the rescue of abandoned or distressed animal on November 25, 2011 which achieved observance status two days later and was selected by this poet because there are two Ridley marine turtle species that are endangered.

3. 1992 Number 1 Number One Song— the number one song in 1992 on this day on a run of 1 week in the position was “How Do You Talk to an Angel” by the Heights. Here is a recording of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csATriX8Ed0 written by several members of the TV series The Heights.

4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “proxemics” which means the study for personal space a need which most humans have.

5. Cyber Bullying Just as Lethal--celebrating the birthday on this day in 1996 of Amanda Todd born in British Columbia who met a man online who seduced her to photograph her breasts at age 12 and then he blackmailed her and cyberbullied her, causing her to make a videoe with flash cards that will bring tears to your eyes. No one anwered her call for help and she committed suicide on October 12, 2012 by hanging herself at home.  

On this day in: 

     a. 1945 in an affirmation of American generosity, CARE was formed to send donated food packages to the civilian population of Western Europe. 

     b. 1965 the nightmare in Vietnam continued as the Pentagon informed President Johnson that to carry out planned operations the number of troops would have to be increased from 120,000 to 400,000.

     c. 1973 in a show of bipartisanship rarely since seen, the U.S. Senate confirmed Gerald Ford as vice president 95-3 following the resignation of Spiro Agnew (the bipartisanship continued as the House also confirmed him 387-35). 

     d. 1978 San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and openly gay supervisor Harvey Milk are shot and killed by former supervisor Dan Whte who escaped the death penalty with the infamous Twinkie defense and convicted of manslaughter and served five years of a seven year sentence; he committed suicide two years after being released.

     e. 2015 at a Colorado Sprigs Planned Parenthood Center, Robert Lewis Dear, Jr attacked the facility killing three people including a police officer who responded and wounding five police officers and four civilians before surrendering. He was found incompetent to stand trial and confined indefinitely to a Colorado state mental institution where he remains today.

 Justification in the eye a deranged shooted: “"In a war, there's gonna be casualties. Are you gonna name the hundred million babies that were killed, that nobody talks about, nobody represents them, they have no voice, but yet our Constitution says we have the right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness? I feel no guilt. I am in a war" Robert Dear, Jr. in an interview after the Planned Parenthood shooting in Colorado Springs..

     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.          

© November 26, 2019 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire
Poet Extraordinaire Beyond Compare
The Perfect Gift,
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November 26, 2019 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Good Grief Day

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For November 26, 2019 Lockdown scare in the White House and Capitol as unidentified airplane entered restricted air space; if the adage that the more you promise in politics the more likely voters will not believe you is true which this poet believes to be the case, then Warren with her promise of a creating a million new good paying jobs is scraping the bottom of the voter barrel;  just as support for impeachment is being eroded big time among Independents and faltering among Blues, Horowitz is soon to release his report on potential FISA abuses as a leak that a FBI lawyer falsified material for submission to the FISA Court (nore ammunition for Trump to claim witch-hunt and attempt to overthrow a duly elected president); Bloomberg News, 88% of which is owned by Michael Bloomberg, has made of mockery of the free press by announcing it will do no investigative reporting on Michael Bloomberg and any Blue candidates for president but will continue to investigate Trump (nothing like a bias news outlet with 2700 “journalists” in your back pocket to spew fake news by omission and commission against Trump); Obama probably deeply troubled that Trump will destroy Warren or Sanders has warned the party about going too far left and pointedly has not endorsed his VP and in fact has castigated him for losing rapport with voters; before heading off to Florida for a campaign rally, President Trump pardoned two large white turkeys “Bread” and “Butter” while mocking Schiff; Ford foolishly challenged Tesla to a truck tug-of-war which Elon Musk accepted and won and now Ford is demanding a recount due to the heavier weight of Tesla’s truck; in the news versus “fake news” derby Tucker and Hannity and Fox bested MSNBC and CNN for the 215^th straight month in terms of ratings (when will the executives of the MSM get it through their biased thick skulls that “fair and balanced” trumps bias every day of the week?); as Oberlin College is allowing a memorial erected by students in praise of Palestinian terrorists who have been killed by Israeli air strikes, Israel’s Iron Dome missile has shot down the second rocket fired from Gaza into Israel; with her campaign mired in an absence of ideas and running out of cash, the illegal alien supporter queen lashed out at Mayor Pete for comparing the struggle of the black community with that of the LGBT community while taking another dig at Trump demanding that his Twitter account be suspended (free speech is a right granted only to those who agree with you is her philosophy); in Chicago with a new interim police chief as of  November 25, 2019, 2519 have been shot, of whom, 426 have died but none in the last two days on the 24^th and 25^th ; Baltimore with a fraction of Chicago’s population, is coming in second place in the amount of gun deaths as 311 have been murdered, a number which exceeds all of last year’s fatalities (when will Chicago and Baltimore 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 people of color by people of color and when will the left focus on the problem of color on color shootings in Blue run cities which have been more deadly and more numerous than random mass shootings?).

         As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to Michael Bolton,  the fact you are protreptic towards your children in a good way and a relevant quote on gratitude by Charlie Brown,  secure in the knowledge that if you want to find a gift for any memorable events like Father’s Day, 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. Good Grief Day—commemorating the birth on this in 1922 of Charles Schultz, the creator of the Peanuts comic strip on October 2, 1950 which was run in newspapers for almost 50 years until ending on February 13, 2000, one day after his death. The phrase “Good grief” was synonymous with Charlie Brown, the main character in the strip.   
        2. National Cake—celebrating that sweet desert that traces its origins back to Roman times and still enjoyed today and an essential item at any wedding reception after the birde and groom have tied the knot.
        3. 1991 Number 1 Number One Song— the number one song in 1991 on this day on a run of 1 week in the position was “When a Man Loves a Woman” by Michael Bolton. Here is a recording of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUuNDb-nm5M This very successful singer born in 1953 is still performing and has sold over 75 million records.
       4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “protreptic” which means exhorting which parents do all the time to their children.

       5. One of the Five Amigos--celebrating the birthday on this day in 1983 of one of the 5 co-founders of Facebook of Christopher Hughes who helped run Barack Obama’s successful social network campaign in 2008 but backed the wrong horse or she did not listen to him in 2016.  

On this day in: 
      a. 1863 President Abraham Lincoln designated the 4^th Thursday to be Thanksgiving ever since same for an interlude in 1939-1941 when it was moved to the third week by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to stimulate sales during the waning days of the Great Depression.
      b. 1976 the record “Anarchy in the U.K.” was released by the Sex Pistols heralding the onset of punk rock.
      c. 1998 Tony Blair became the first British Prime Minister to address the Parliament of the Republic of Ireland. 
      d. 2003 in an end to an era of supersonic flight that spanned 27 years, the Concorde made its last flight over Bristol, England.
      e. 2008  ten members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamist terrorist group based in Pakistan launched attacks on 12 sites which lasted for 4 days in Mumbai, India, killing 165 people and wounding some 300 before 9 of the terrorists were killed and the 10^th who was captured was hanged in 2012.
     Reflections on Thanksgiving Day: “What if, today, we were grateful for everything?” Charlie Brown.
     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.             
© November 26, 2019 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

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Cockroach Hell

Cockroaches are supposedly the only ones to survive nuclear war Problem if we boycotted restaurants closed for infestation we wouldn't ear out any more Diners need to call Orange County Health Authority if evidence they observe Problem is low level of lighting is not often just to energy conserve Dim lights make it hard for diners to see Cockroaches on an infestation spree Collateral damage on the cockroach war That maybe we should not ignore Many a pesticide that was lethal to this filthy pest Government regulations the use of which may came to their use arrest Despite most efforts the threat of cockroaches in most restaurants loom Insects on the prowl looking for food of any kind to consume Mi Casa in Costa Mesa had to close its doors for a day Due cockroach infestation on display Nothing like a shutdown to impose a chill On diners wanting to go there for their cuisine fill Despite most efforts the threat of cockroaches in most restaurants loom Insects on the prowl looking for food of any kind to consume Sadly with wage costs increasing, expanded bug prevention not a safe bet Making most owners worried claims "we have had no cockroaches yet"