Friday, October 13, 2023

October 12, 2023 Ridley's Believe It Or Not

 

            On the House Speaker front, Steve Scalise has been elected by the House Republicans to be the Speaker of the House with a vote of the full House expected today and it will be interesting in a show of bipartisanship with the nation facing funding requirements on 2 fronts and with China licking its chops in anticipation of a weakening of resolve a third front in Taiwan a real probability to see some Blue votes vote in favor of him.
             On the Israeli-Hamas War front, Israel has released photos of the atrocities committed by its terrorist after they invaded Israel and the English language lacks the words to sufficiently describe the depravity of these killers. Blinken is in Israel meeting on the hostage situation and was appalled over the Hamas depravity. Israel is dropping flyers warning residents in Gaza City to depart to avoid being killed by air strikes and the upcoming invasion but sadly in the court of world opinion it is in Hamas’ best interests and goals to have the Gazan civilian body count killed by Israelis soar. The U.S. death toll from Hamas now stands at 27 with 14 still missing and an unknown number of American hostages in Hamas’ hands.
             On the question of involvement with Hamas on its attack on Israel front continues to assert there is not direct evidence to link Iran to the attack and as outrage over the unfreezing on $6 billion in Iranian assets continues to grow the Biden Administration is “allaying” fears that the money will be released by Qatar to fund terrorism by informing Blues in Congress that we have a “quiet understanding” with Qatar that the money will not be released for an “indefinite” period of time which should do nothing to calm our fears. While other countries have launched evacuation flights to enable their citizens to evacuate Israel, the U.S. sat on its hands and essentially warned Americans they are on their own until finally after outrage, the U.S. announced it will begin evacuation flights on Friday.
             On the political hypocrisy front, Senator Fetterman is mocking our political process for not sending our best and brightest to Washington, D.C. which if he would just look in the mirror he would see he is so verry right.
              On the Hamas Israel War Aftermath front that once over heads will roll in the Israeli military and intelligence organizations for the failure to uncover the attack that was being planned right under their noses. We should follow their example and show advisers like Jake Sullivan who has a record of policy failures the proverbial door for assuring us that the Middle East was calm days before the surprise attacks.
            On the live concert tour front Country Star Chris Stapleton having come down with a case of laryngitis and bronchitis has cancelled his upcoming concert tour dates on his doctor’s to rest his vocal chords so he can later perform.
            On the Woke front on college campuses an Associate Professor of Global Studies and Anthropology at UVA was promoting a Students for Justice in Palestine  Event offering college credits for students that attended the event to blame Israel for the damages caused by Hamas when civilized people watching babies butcher would rail that support for Hamas must be lost.
            On the Red’s we can critique but cannot govern  front, Steven Scalise voted to be the Speaker of the House by Reds but not having enough votes to  be a majority to be seated as the Speaker of the House has withdrawn his name to the Republican chances of showing they can rule going up in flames. Back to Square one and the clock ticking fast so until the minority members of the Freedom Caucus climb aboard, Republican chances to regain the Senate, expand the House majorities and reclaim the White House will not last.
             On the deadly microbes can kill you front, the deadly Naegleria fowleri amoeba has been found in the Lake Mead Hot Springs which can enter the human body through the nose to cause the brain eating disease known as  amebic meningoencephalitis which has only a 3% survival rate.
             On a canine may be a man’s best friend but not make the Uber passenger cut, an Uber driver responded to a Washington D.C. call to pick up 19 year old Dak Wilson and his pet dog but the driver refused so in crime ridden D.C. his solution was to carjack the car. Fortunately he was soon arrested as Uber knew he was and is heading for jail but we hope his dog is not viewed as an accomplice and headed to the pound.
            October 12, 2023 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet 
            Noted Holidays: World Arthritis Day created in 1996 by the Arthritis and Rheumatism International Foundation and celebrated on this day to promote awareness of rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases and promote better treatment options for these painful and crippling diseases.
            Word of the Day: The word of the day as we proceed with words starting with “b” is  “bantling”  which means a brat which for a parent has to mean one’s worst nightmare.
             Song of the Day: The number 1 song on this day in 1964 was “Oh Pretty Woman” by Roy Orbison on a  run of 3 weeks to share number 1 status with 22 other songs, 6 of which were by the Beatles, achieving number 1 ranking while 11 acts, including the Beatles, achieved number one status for the first time.  Here is a recording of Roy Orbison  performing “Oh Pretty Woman”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KFvoDDs0XM
              October 12 Birthdays: “Blow the Whistle Loudly Then Die”— Li Wenliang, a Chinese ophthalmologist, born in Beizhen, Jinzhou, Liaoning, China in 1986 who was one of the first to sound the alarm over COVID-19, despite warnings from Chinese authorities, in Wuhan who sadly was infected by a patient with COVID-19 to die far too early on February 6, 2020.
             October 12 Historical Events in Rhyme
             1.      On this day in 2002 Islamic terrorists once again declared on the world war/ detonated two bombs in two tourist bars in Bali to over the 200 the death toll would soar/300 more were wounded and managed to survived/The 3 terrorist who plotted the attack would a firing squad survive/Another reminder that against Muslim terrorists there can be no quarter/They must be tracked down with out pity to insure their time on the planet is much shorter.
              2.      On this day in 1998 Matthew Shepard a gay student at the University of Wyoming died/6 days earlier he had been lured into a truck by two men pretending to be gay for a ride/ Only to be robbed, pistol whipped, tortured  and left to die tied to a fence/The two assailants returned to town but like most criminals lacked any common sense/Instead of cleaning the truck bed of Shepard’s blood, hiding the blood spattered gun, tossing his shoes and credit cards and calling it a night/They went into a bar and got into with 2 patrons a fight/Police were called and found the evidence of the crime in McKinley’s truck/Charged with assault but when Shepard died they were out of luck/Their defense that Shepard was caressing one of the assailant’s knees failed/Off to prison each for 2 consecutive life terms was the sentence the crime entailed/But Shepard’s brutal death was not in vain/Finally on   October 28, 2009 President Obama signed  the Matthew Shepard Act adding crimes based on sexual oriental as those of hate to attacks on gays refrain.
              3.      On this day in 1984 the IRA attempted to Margaret Thatcher and members of her cabinet slay/By planting a month earlier a bomb under the bath with a delayed timer in a room 5 stories above the suite where she was scheduled to stay/ The bomb exploded with Thatcher in her suite but awake working on a speech/none of the damage caused by the bomb came close to her reach/No cabinet members died, but 5 attendees at the conference killed/31 people injured but the sturdy Brighton Hotel did not collapse which would have added greatly to the butcher’s bill/ Patrick McGee the member of the IRA who planted the bomb was sentenced to 8 life terms/But after serving 14 years due to the Good Friday Accords his freedom was earned.
               4.      On this day in 1979 just north of Guam enroute to Korea and Japan Typhoon Tip/Reached CAT5 status with winds as high as 190 m.p.h. as a path of death and destruction it ripped/Strongest tropical  typhoon in history and one of the most measured with 60 flights through it/Before on  October 24 its status a storm dissipated and quit.
               5.      On this day in 1945 Desmond Doss became the first conscientious objector to the Medal of Honor receive/Already a Bronze Star for heroism in the Philippines achieved/On Okinawa he single handed dragged wounded to the edge of a cliff and to safety lowered them below/His heroism under fire without a gun to him protect was memorialized in the Hacksaw Ridge movie show/Proof that a soldier does not have to kill to be a true hero/With faith in a loving God his chances to survive rise far above zero.
            Quotes on attempt to assassinate Margaret Thatcher and members of her cabinet at a conference of the Conservative Party at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England:
             IRA Announcement claiming responsibility: “Mrs. Thatcher will now realize that Britain cannot occupy our country and torture our prisoners and shoot our people in their own streets and get away with it. Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once. You will have to be lucky always. Give Ireland peace and there will be no more war.
              Margaret Thatcher October 13, 1984: “That is the scale of the outrage in which we have all shared, and the fact that we are gathered here now—shocked, but composed and determined—is a sign not only that this attack has failed, but that all attempts to destroy democracy by terrorism will fail.
              Patrick McGee in a interview in 2000 with the Sunday Evening Daily Post on England’s strategy of confining the troubles to Northern Ireland: “As long as the war was kept in that context, they could sustain the years of attrition. But in the early 1980s we succeeded in destroying both strategies. The hunger strike destroyed the notion of criminalization and the Brighton bombing destroyed the notion of containment [...] After Brighton, anything was possible and the British for the first time began to look very differently at us; even the IRA itself, I believe, began to fully accept the priority of the campaign in England.”

© October 12, 2023 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet”
www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com
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