July 30, 2018 Ridley's Believe It Or Not National Whistle Blower Appreciation Day

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For July 29, 2018 CBS’s Board is meeting today to determine the fate of CEO and Board Chairman Les Moonves after allegations by 6 women of unwanted sexual advances; Justice Ginsburg who looks like she struggles to stay awake during oral argument has assured supporters she hopes to remain on the bench for at least 5 years; Blues are in full on delay mode with Kavenaugh and are demanding millions of pages of documents involving the time he was employed by President Bush (why cannot the over 300 judicial decisions be sufficient to take a measure of the man’s judicial philosophy and record; firefighters are working 48 hour shifts in appalling high temperatures battling the 17 wild fires that are devastating California (Jade Bell and Jack Fannin of Redding have been arrested for looting houses subject to mandatory evacuation notices due to the Carr Fire that has destroyed more than 650 homes); Maxine Waters is becoming more and more unglued suggesting in a church sermon on Sunday that she has been sent here by God to stop Trump ; on the divisive political front a Tennessee Blue communications official has lambasted Trump and scoffed at reaching out to Trump supporters, calling them idiots (the only idiot is this person as calling voters idiots for supporting Trump is a guaranteed way to end any chance of discussion of common problems); on the shark front during “Shark Week” fishermen off the coast of Rhode Island landed a 6 foot long Great White Shark only to catch and release the huge fish; in Arkansas 69 year old Patricia  Hill shot and killed her husband Frank because he had purchased pornographic materials;  through July 28, 2018, 1687 people mostly of color have been shot by mostly people of color, of whom 273 have died (when will Chicago 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?).

        As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, a music link to the Nat King Cole,  factoids of interest for this day in history, the fact that you are able to buy goods from a modiste, a relevant quote from Lionel Fisher of whistle, 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.

1. International Day of Friendship—first proposed In Paraguay in 1958 to promote friendship within a culture.

2.  National Whistle Blower Appreciation Day—created in 1778 with the passage of the Whistle Blower Protection Statute and dedicated to protecting Whistle Blowers who with great courage bring fraud and malfeasance in government agencies to our attention.

3. 1950 Number One Song— the number one song in 1950 on a run of 5 weeks in that position was “Mona Lisa” by Nat King Cole. Here is a recording of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIDX18Xl16s

4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “modiste” which means a maker or seller of fashionable dresses and hats.

5. I’ll Be Back—celebrating the birth on this day in 1947 of former governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger who defeated Gray Davis in a recall election and is best known for his three Terminator movies.

 On this day in: 

a. 1974 Richard Nixon turned over subpoenaed Watergate Scandal recording tapes as required by SCOTUS.

b. 1975 Jimmy Hoffa disappeared from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox Restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan at 2:30 p.m. never to be seen again.

c. 2003 the old style Volkswagen rolled off the assembly line in Mexico for the last time.

d. 2006 the longest running music show “Pops on Tops which had aired for 42 years aired for the last time on BBC Two.

e. 2012 a power grid failure which lasted 2 days left over 300 million Indians without power in the largest power outage in history.

    Reflections on whistle blowers: “Curmudgeons speak up because they have to, because it’s become critically important for them to tell the truth as they see it. Telling the truth is as natural to them once more as it was when they were children. The fact that no one cares to listen is inconsequential. Curmudgeons speak up, raise their voices, stand for something too right to be silent about anymore, whatever the cost, despite a world that deals with what it doesn't want to hear by crucifying the messenger.
Increasingly these days, they're being called by another name: whistleblower.” Lionel Fisher, noted author and columnist,

    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..             

© July 30, 2018 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

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