January 14, 2019 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Ratification Day

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For January 14, 2019 The government remains partially shut down with the Blues showing no sign of blinking or even negotiating (total gridlock and a broken system); while 800,000 federal workers have missed a paycheck, in Puerto Rico a large delegation of Blues and their families are being wined and dined by lobbyists; Trump is still weighing in on declaring a national emergency to fund a large portion of the wall powers he believes Congress has already given him; just when you thought members of the bar could not go lower than the antics of Avenatti, El Chapo’s lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman who is married is evidently in a sexting scandal with a former client Sarma Menglaisis who was convicted of defrauding investors and served 4 months in jail; Republican Steve King has been stripped of his committee assignments over controversial remarks about white supremacy and white nationalism and is facing two censure resolutions filed by two Blue Representatives; Stormy Daniels already reeling from a judge’s order to pay Trump’s legal fees of $300,000 is fighting back by suing the Columbus, Ohio police department for arresting her for inappropriately touching patrons at a strip club last summer; fiery exchange on The View as Women’s March co-founder Tamika Mallory was grilled by Meghan McCain and Sunny Hustin over her ties with noted anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan (breath of fresh air for a usually biased anti-Trump anti-conservative program); on the employment front unemployment among veterans has dropped to all time lows thanks to the Trump agenda; PG&E intends to file for bankruptcy due to potential liability for wildfires in 2017 and 2018 including the Camp Fire, the largest in the history of California, the could top $30 billion; my daily source for murders and shootings has stopped publishing so this feature will no longer appear in Ridley's Believe It Or Not-This Day In History.

     As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, a music link to Whitney Houston, factoids of interest for this day in history, the fact that today you can enjoy the odiferous odors emanating from your morning  coffee and a relevant  quote from Elliott Abrams on the Arab Spring,  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.  Ratification Day—celebrating the ratification on this day in 1784 of the Treaty of Paris bringing an end to the Revolutionary War.

2.  Caesarian Section Day—commemorating the first caesarian section on this day in 1794 by Doctor Jesse Bennett on his wife without anesthetics; the operation was successful and his wife lived for another 36 years.

3. 1993 Number One Song— the number one song on this day in 1993 on a run of 8 weeks in that position was “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston. Here is a recording of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JWTaaS7LdU Sadly the possessor of one of the most talented voices on the planet died of a drug overdose on February 11, 2011.

4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day as we move from words beginning with “n” to words beginning with “o” is “odiferous” which means the emitting of usually pleasant smell which would not describe the lobbying and politics coming from the Swamp.

5. Hippocratic Oath Be Damned—bemoaning the birthday on this day in 1946 of British doctor Harold Shipman who was one of the most prolific serial killers in history, believed to have killed almost 250 patients mostly elderly women; he was tried, convicted and sentenced to life for 15 homicides and hung himself one day before his 58^th birthday while in prison.

     On this day in:  

a. 1943 President Roosevelt became the first president to fly in an airplane when he flew from Miami to Morocco to meet with Winston Churchill at the Casablanca Conference to plan the next steps to be taken against the Axis in World War II.

b. 1967 in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco the first Be-In was held marking the Summer Of Love.

c. 1967 The New York Times reported that the U.S. Army had been conducting secret germ warfare experiments.

d. 1980 Indira Gandhi became the prime minister of India of India for the second time.

e. 2011 Tunisian President Zine El Abidene Ali fled to Saudi Arabia after nationwide protests against his rule, marking the Tunisian Revolution and the Arab Spring.

    Reflections on the Tunisian Revolution and the Arab Spring: “Al Qaeda's message that violence, terrorism and extremism are the only answer for Arabs seeking dignity and hope is being rejected each day in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Bahrain and throughout the Arab lands. Elliott Abrams lawyer, diplomat and political pundit who served in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations
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© January 14, 2019,  Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

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