© December 11, 2023 Ridley’s Believe It Or Not
On Hamas Israel war front the
UN is warning that the humanitarian crisis created by the Hamas Israel war is
reaching a point that to survive may be forced to flee into Egypt which does
not want to accept any refugees into the Sinai as Israel relentlessly continues
with precision guided air strike by the IDF to assist ground forces in their
tunnel to tunnel, house to house campaign to destroy Hamas.
On the antisemitism front, Harvard
President Gay has dug her heals in and has refused to resign, probably due to
the support of a large number of Harvard faculty opposing her resignation which
appears to have been joined by the Board of the Harvard Corporation which has
aped the Board at MIT while over 700 alumni of MIT have slammed MIT’s President
for her needing context to find calls for genocide as a violation of MIT’s code
of conduct but not demanding her resignation.
On the bankruptcy front,
Smile Direct Club, the maker of teeth clear plastic retainers cheaper and more
sightly than metal retainers having previously filed for Chapter 11 Protection
announced it is shutting down operations and liquidating the company. In
Argentina populist and admirer of Trump, Javier Milei, who was elected as Argentina’s President was sworn in calling for
cuts in public spending but increases in infrastructure which has been ignored
and in a sad state of repair.
In Texas, 31 year old Kate
Cox, married with 2 kids and 20 weeks pregnant for third time, discovered her
fetus had trisomy 18 a condition almost always fatal and who sued to be able to
have an abortion in violation of Texas’ anti-abortion law and prevailed only to
have Paxton, the AG appeal to the Texas Supreme Court which despite requests
for an expedited ruling could not rule in time so she went to another state to
abort the fetus. December 11, 2023 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet
Noted Holidays: National
App Day: Created by CJ Thompson of Platinum Edge Media, a firm that creates
Apps, on December 10, 2017 and first celebrated on December 11, 2017 and each
year thereafter to promote the creation and use of apps, the numbers of which increase each year to over
2 million today.
Word of the Day: The word of
the day as we continue with words starting with “b” is “bleisiloquent” which means
to speak with a stammer or lisp which sadly those suffering from the tendency
are too often subjected to ridicule or bullying.
Song of the Day: Leaving
the number 1 songs on this day in 1940’s to come back to the number
song in 2014 in the U.S.A. was “Blank Space” by Taylor
Swift on a run of 5 weeks to share number 1 status with 9 other songs, while 13
acts reached number one status with 6 achieving their 1st number 1
single. Here is a recording with lyrics of Taylor Swift performing “Blank
Space”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-ORhEE9VVg
December 11
Birthdays: “Like Father Like Son”: celebrating the birth on this day in 1961
in Leeds, U.K. of Marco Pierre White, who dropped of school to become a chef
like his father and by age 33 had become the youngest chef to acquire 3 Michelin
stars but tired of the long hours and not making sufficient money as a chef and
retired after returning his stars to later reinvent himself as a restauranteur
with number successful restaurants in his portfolio.
December
11, Historical Events in Rhyme
1.
On this day in 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic surging here and worldwide/The
FDA in an Emergency Use Declaration approved the first vaccine to be developed
at warp speed to try to stem the rising death tide/Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine which
was quickly rushed to the most vulnerable, the elderly and immune compromised,
to be vaccinated free of charge/As vaccines increased people were still being
hospitalized but the admissions to the ICUs once growing rapidly were no longer
being enlarged.
2. On
this day in 2008 financier Bernie Madoff was arrested by the FBI in a $50
billion Ponzi scheme/Due to the fact he had confessed to his sons it was a
Ponzi in the extreme/Maybe to political contributions or more likely ineptness
of SEC investigating staff/But the SEC investigating customer complaints found
no violations so Madoff could continue his fraudulent craft/But Madoff after conviction
but before sentencing stated they never looking at his stock trading books/That
would have shown the amounts of money he wrongfully took.
3.
On this day in 1936 British King Edward VIII’s abdication of the throne removed
him as king/As soon as divorcee Wallace Simpson finalized her second pending
divorce on her finger he could place a wedding ring/They were married on June
3, 1937 and remained so until Edward’s death from throat cancer on May 28,
1972/Simpson did not age well and soon was very frail/And her health continued
to fail/By 1980 she lost her ability to speak/Dementia was raging as the few
remaining functioning synapses to destroy it would seek/She died bedridden on
April 24, 1986 at age 89/Edward’s abdication led to the British enjoying the
reign of Elizabeth II, longest serving British monarch of all times.
4. On
this day in 1934 Bill Wilson the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous took his
last drink/Then entered rehab to be pulled back from death’s brink/To found AA
with Doctor Bob/To help others fight a disease that would life, health liberty,
marriages, relationships and careers too often from sufferers rob.
5. On this day in 1792 during the French
Revolution King Louis XVI was put on trial before the National Convention/For
treason seeking to save the monarchy with foreign intervention/Found guilty as
he expected/But hoping a death sentence would be rejected/By a vote of 361 to
360 he was condemned to the guillotine/On January 21, 1793 he mounted the steps
to the scaffold and after brief last words his head attached to his body was
not to be seen.
Quote on the Madoff’s Massive Ponzi Scheme by Diana B. Henriques, The
Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust : “Judge Chin
found no mitigating factors. “In a white-collar fraud case such as this, I
would expect to see letters from family and friends and colleagues. But not a
single letter has been submitted attesting to Mr. Madoff’s good deeds or good
character or civic or charitable activities. The absence of such support is
telling.” Given Madoff’s age, Judge Chin acknowledged that any sentence above
twenty years was effectively a life sentence.”
© December 11, 2023 Ridley’s Believe It Or Not
www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com
Poems on Events of the Day
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