alaskan poet: August 10, 2023 Ridley's Believe It Or Not.

The fire news out of Maui is pretty grim with the death toll having risen to at least 53 and the town of Lahaina having suffered major damage with fires still raging thanks to the Cat 4 Cyclone Dora some 500 miles to the south. 10 Oregon legislators in order to block a quorum on legislation they opposed went AWOL for more than 10 days and the Oregon Secretary of State citing the Measure 113 passed in 2022 has decertified them to run for reelection which should be challenged in court by them as Oregon moves further and further to becoming a Banana Republic like its neighbor California to the south. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin who must feel more and more like a Senator without a party and facing a severe reelection challenge in 2024 is seriously joining Krysten Sinema as an Independent. Noted Country and Western singer Tim McGraw confessed that his 15 years of sobriety have often been a struggle but credits his wife of 27 years Faith Hill for her support in maintaining sobriety. Jack Smith is calling for Trump’s trial for his involvement in January 6^th commence on January 2, 2024 with an estimate the trial would take 4-6 weeks which many commentators believes underestimates the actual duration time significantly. In August on the one year anniversary of his signing the PACT Act Biden in a speech said all his grandkids have Secret Service protection but still no confirmation from the White House whether Navy Joan is covered (another false claim like Biden’s vow he never discussed Hunter’s business with him?). In another example of the left’s proclivity to force social media to censor criticism of their policies and acts, we now learn the Governor Kate Hobbs when she was Arizona’s Secretary of State was demanding Twitter accounts of those who criticized her for comparing Trump supporters as Nazis be canceled (with Musk at the helm instead of Rasputin look alike Jack Dorsey those requests today would fall on deaf ears). Biden inanely has added a sweetener to the swap of 5 American hostages held in Iran for Iranians imprisoned for violating sanctions against Iran by agreeing to release $8 billion of Iran’s assets seized and now held in South Korea (any American visiting or doing business in nations like Iran, Russia, and China may feel the chill of a potential price on their head if arrested). Romney, who has touted that if he runs he will win, looks like he will be facing strong primary opposition from the Utah Speaker of the House Brad Wilson who has been endorsed by 60 Utah State Legislators. In the World Cup Spain and the Netherlands faced off today with Spain winning 2-1.
             August 10, 2023 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet
   Noted Holidays: National Shapewear Day: Created by Pink Room in 2017 and celebrated since then on August 10, to provide awareness of the benefits of shapewear which has been used since Greek and Roman times to improve one’s appearance. While “clothes may make the man,” shapewear improves that making with superior fit.
Word of the Day: the word of the day is “asinine” which means stupid which sadly seems to define a trait possessed by many of our long serving politicians in safe seats.
            Song of the Day: The number 1 song on this day in 2021 as we have left 1940 and leaving the present going back on our daily backwards musical journey continues to “Butter” by BTS on a run of 10 weeks noncontinuous to share number 1 status with 18 other songs achieving number 1 ranking while 9 acts achieved number 1 status for the first time and Taylor Swift’s song “All Too Well” became the lap dancers’ most disliked song, clocking in at 10 minutes 13 seconds. Here is a music video with lyrics of BTS performing: “Butter”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMweEpGlu_U
            August 10 Birthdays: “Out with the Old, in With the New”: Sophie Smith, born on this day in 2000 in Windsor, Colorado, was a member of Stanford’s 2019 NCAA Women’s Championship Soccer Team and a power forward on the USWST who has all the talent to make Rapinoe a fading memory.
  August 10, Historical Events In Rhyme
      1.     On this day in 2020 5 states in the Midwest were by a massive derecho hit/For 10 hours severe wind, hail, small tornadoes and flooding rain before it quit/4 people in its path died and $11 billion in damages to structures and crops/Cedar Rapids almost totally blackout and parts of which would so remain weeks after derecho had stopped.

2. On this day in 2018 Richard Russell a ground service employee for Horizon Air/Stole a Bombardier Q400 from a Horizon hanger at Sea-Tac and flew it into the air/As a precaution against a terrorist attack 2 F-15’s were scrambled well-armed/Ready to if the pilot show signs of crashing into structures to cause deadly harm/ATC’s tried to talk him down as he was showing the world he knew how to fly/ Asking the ATC’s if Alaska Air would hire him “Yes” was the reply/ He put the plane through a barrel roll ending above the ground only 10 feet/But his death wishes he could no longer defeat/After over an hour in his hijacked plane ride/He dove into sparsely populated Kenton Island in Puget Sound to commit suicide.

               3.     On this day in 1988 Reagan signed the Civil liberties Act providing for a $20,000 payment/to those Japanese-Americans who were either interned or from their homes to other locations sent/The hysteria caused by the Pearl Harbor was on this nation a great stain/The payment long delayed not adequate to compensate for the pain/Which makes the million dollar or more black reparations demand seem insane/Too much national debt but an inflation adjusted $52,000 might have a chance to obtain.
4.      On this day in 1977 David Berkowitz aka “The Son of Sam” the killer who had terrorized for a year NYC residents with a .44/ caused 6 murders and attempting 7 more to be arrested to shortly thereafter plead guilty to kill no more/sentenced to 25 years consecutively for each death but eligible for parole in 2002/ But he cancelled the hearing perhaps fearful his kill urges were not through/By 2016 his attitude had changed and for parole he now would insist/Though parole was unrealistic, he claimed a threat to the public did no longer exist/ Called prison staff a model prisoner, he has another parole hearing in 2024/ If granted he will be 71 when he opens his cell.
5.      On this day in 1961 the U.S. commenced in South Vietnam the 9 year Operation Ranch Hand/On millions of acres of South Vietnamese rural lands/With the goal of depriving the Viet Cong of jungle to hide/Deadly to humans Agent Orange and other herbicides that took years to subside/Too many U.S. troops exposed along with civilians and thousands of birth defects/Outcries from medical professionals that continued use we should reject/ As the Tet Offensive proved the Viet Cong despite the spraying were able to their forces conceal/To launch major attacks in cities across the nation to the Westmorland myth of “we are winning” reveal.
Famous Quote by Ronald Reagan on the Signing of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988: “The legislation that I am about to sign provides for a restitution payment to each of the 60,000 surviving Japanese-Americans of the 120,000 who were relocated or detained. Yet no payment can make up for those lost years. So, what is most important in this bill has less to do with property than with honor. For here we admit a wrong; here we reaffirm our commitment as a nation to equal justice under the law… And now in closing, I wonder whether you'd permit me one personal reminiscence, one prompted by an old newspaper report sent to me by Rose Ochi, a former internee. The clipping comes from the Pacific Citizen and is dated December 1945…   After General Stilwell made the award, the motion picture actress Louise Allbritton, a Texas girl, told how a Texas battalion had been saved by the 442d. Other show business personalities paid tribute -- Robert Young, Will Rogers, Jr. And one young actor said: ’Blood that has soaked into the sands of a beach is all of one color. America stands unique in the world: the only country not founded on race but on a way, an ideal. Not in spite of but because of our polyglot background, we have had all the strength in the world. That is the American way.’ The name of that young actor -- I hope I pronounce this right -- was Ronald Reagan. And, yes, the ideal of liberty and justice for all -- that is still the American way.
Thank you, and God bless you. And now let me sign H.R. 442, so fittingly named in honor of the 442d.”