Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For April 9, 2020 The Trump
Administration is moving to stop China Telecom’s ability to provide international
service to and from the U>S>; The CV pandemic continues
unabated with 1,593,499,637 cases worldwide (+6.26%), 355,262 of whom have
recovered (22.3% an improvement from 21.32%) although the jury still on how
long before they can still transmit CV and 95,047 deaths (+8.22% and a fatality of 6%) and in the U.S. which now
ranks 1st in total number of cases, the number of cases has risen to 462,391
(+5.94%), 27,464 recoveries (+13.3% and
a recovery rate of 5.44%) and 16,454 deaths (an 8.88% increase and 5.94%
fatality rate); New York which is the epicenter of the virus in the U.S. with
over 160,108 cases has the dubious distinction of having more cases of any
country other than the U.S. with 7,069 deaths (4.4 % fatality rate) and 13,000
recoveries (8.12 % recovery rate); in a Garfield or McKinley déjà vu Biden has
turned his basement podcasts in to a digital campaign porch in an attempt to
remain relevant and in the news while Trumps is in the news (remains to be seen
given his gaffes how productive that will be even assuming he has mastered the
use of a teleprompter); on the California homeless front, San Diego is drawing
fire for its plans to move over 800 homeless into the San Diego for fears of an
outbreak of COVID-19 among those who also have major health problems, LA and
San Francisco are scrambling to find hotel rooms for large numbers of homeless
as concern increases that homeless tent encampments are ticking time bombs to
spread the virus; in a if you can’t go to a bar to drink it keep it with you
and spray it, some 600 distilleries have announced they are producing hand
sanitizers which is great news to shoppers tired of looking at empty shelves
where sanitizers use to be and a great testimony of the ability of American
business to react to adversities; convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein has survived
the coronavirus and is out of quarantine but fortunately not out of jail
awaiting sentencing and Boris Johnson is still in the hospital with the virus
but out of the ICU which is goods in terms of recovery; while this pandemic has
brought the best in us it also has attracted the worst as Johnwill Baldonado of
Buena Park was arrested for price gouging after selling a box of N95 masks for
$300; Senators Graham and Coons signed a letter along with other bipartisan
senators and sent it to the Chinese Ambassador to the United States demanding
China immediately close down its “wet markets”; in Chicago, as of April 8,
2020, in a deadly day the total of shootings jumped to 611 of whom 111 have
died; Baltimore with a fraction of Chicago’s population and hoping against all
hopes that 2020 will not be a record in terms of deaths has fallen to 36 behind
Chicago with 75 murders (when will Chicago and Baltimore 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 and when
will the left focus on the problem of color on color shootings in Blue run
cities which have been more deadly and more numerous than random mass
shootings?).
As always, I hope you enjoy today’s
holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a
musical link to Blondie, the fact that you do not suffer from ophidiophobia,
and a quote by General Edward King on his surrender at Bataan, secure in the
knowledge that if you want to find a gift for any memorable events like
Father’s Day, 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. National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day--created by Congress
in 1988 to commemorate the surrender of American and Philippine on Bataan to
the Japanese on April 9, 1942 in what was the largest surrender by Americans in
our history.
2. National Alcohol Screening Day—created by the NIH in 1999 and
celebrated on the Thursday of the first full week to promote awareness of alcohol
abuse and alcoholism, the diseases associated with it and means to recovery
from it.
3. 1981 Number One Song— the number 1 song in 1981 on this day on a run of 2 weeks
though in the position was “Rapture” by Blondie. Here is a recording of the
song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHCdS7O248g
This band formed by Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, who both overcome drug
abuse early in their career, is still going strong.
4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “ophidiophobia” which means a fear
of snakes which describes a fear of Indiana Jones and probably most of us to a
tee.
5. No Sequels with
Needles—celebrating the
birth on this day in 1974 of Megan Connolly, noted Australian TV actress who
was found dead from a heroin overdose on September 6, 2001 at the age of 27.
On this day
in:
a.
1965 in the end of rain checks for baseball, the first indoor MLB game was
played at the Houston Astrodome.
b. 1992
a Federal District Court found former Panamanian Dictator Manuel Noriega guilty
of drug charges and racketeering for which he would be sentenced to 30 years in
prison.
c. 2005
Prince Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles in a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall.
d. 2014
at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, Pennsylvania, 16 year old Alex Hribal, a student, stabbed 20
students and a security guard before being subdued. He pled guilty to the offenses
and was sentenced to 23.5 to 60 years in prison.
e. 2017 in a caught on
camera chilling rebuke of “Fly the Friendly Skies” moment, Doctor David Dao Duy
Anh refused to give up his seat on an overbooked United Airlines flight
and was forcibly removed by airport security police.
Reflections on jthe
surrender at Bataan: "We have no further means of organized resistance, we are low on
ammunition, have virtually no medical supplies, and our food is all but gone.
Our front lines are destroyed and both flanks severely weakened. The situation
has become hopeless. If I do not surrender all forces to the Japanese today,
Bataan will be known around the world as the greatest slaughter in
history." General Edward King, commander of U.S. and Philippine forces on
Bataan, April 9, 1942.
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.
©
April 9, 2020 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
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