Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For May 18, 2020 The CV pandemic
across the planet continues with 75,512 new cases (a 1.58% increase
compared to a 1.58% increase yesterday) to bring the total to 4,848,238 cases, 2,650,306 of which are
active, 2,197,932 of which have been closed with 1,880,137 recoveries (85.54%
compared to yesterday’s 85.44%) and 317,795 deaths (14.46% compared
to yesterday’s 14.6%); in the U.S. which has the dubious distinction of leading
the world in total cases with new cases of 16,945 have brought total cases to 1,532,949 (a
1.12% increase compared to yesterday’s .93% increase) with 1,880,137
active cases and 438,321 closures, 91,096 of which have been deaths (20.78% compared
to yesterday’s 20.97%) and 347,225 of which have
been recoveries (79.22% compared to yesterday’s 79.03%) while total
testing has increased to 12,300,097 an increase of 199,209 from
yesterday; Trump revealed in passing that he has been taking hydroxychloroquine
for two weeks as added insurance of not contracting the virus; Biden held another
basement bunker video interrupted by geese honking, birds chirping and an
iPhone ringing but still managed to attack Trump for spreading xenophobia and
not getting money to small business (faded memory of the Blues on recess not
getting additional PPP funds added as millions more were thrown out of work); after
taking steps to free this country from dependence on Chinese made
pharmaceuticals and supplies, on May 27 we will free ourselves from Russia as
the sole space human delivery source with SpaceX sending 2 American astronauts
to the International Space Station (great testimony to private enterprise and
in particular the vision of Elon Musk); Hidin’
Biden and Obama must be breathing a sigh of relief as the AG the left loves to
attack, Barr, has announced he does not see a criminal investigation arising
out of Durham’s probe; Judge Sullivan in the Flynn case is looking more and
more like the Mad Hatter every day as he has appointed former Clinton appointee
District Judge John Gleeson to submit an amicus curiae brief on whether the DOJ
can dismiss the charges (poor Flynn still incurring legal fees he cannot afford
facing Gleeson’s request he submit his brief on June 10 and then followed by
oral arguments at court’s convenience—political flack notwithstanding to him
from the usual cast of sufferers of TDS, Trump should end this travesty and
pardon Flynn); Dr. Oxiris of the “I don’t care two rats’ asses” fame hopefully
due to intervention by de Blasio has apologized to the NYPD for her remarks
although it is not clear whether the masks requested have been delivered; Ken
Osmond best known for his role as Eddie Haskell on “Leave It to Beaver” has
died at age 76; like a breath of fresh air Marianne Williamson is back on the
political scene endorsing Shahid Buttar, a progressive leftist of the most extreme
kind against Nancy Pelosi who took 74% of her district’s primary vote (poster
child for term limits to prevent political fiefdoms); in Chicago, as of May 17,
2020, 964 shootings of whom 174 have died (so much for the effectiveness of
Chicago’s stay at home order); Baltimore with a fraction of Chicago’s
population and hoping against all hopes that 2020 will not be a record in terms
of deaths now is 66 behind Chicago with 108 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 Wiz Khalifa
featuring Charlie Puth, the fact that you are not going to be overset in
pursuit of your goals and a quote from John Marshall Harlan’s dissent in Plessey
v. Ferguson, 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. World AIDS Vaccine Day—celebrated first on this
day in 1998 to promote awareness of the need to develop a vaccine for AIDS
which kills some 1 million a year and infects some 1.7 million new victims a
year with a disease that is no longer an automatic death sentence but treating
it costs some $14,000 to $20,000 a year which explains why a vaccine is truly
needed.
2. International Museum Day—created by the International Council Of
Museums to promote awareness of the contributions to our culture and society of
museums.
3. 2015 Number One Song— the number 1 song
in 2015 on this day on a run of 12 weeks not continuous in the position was “See
You Again” by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth Here is a recording of the
song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgKAFK5djSk .
Khalifa has been a long time pot user and is now sponsored by the Cookie
Company, a medical marijuana dispensing company which sells his Khalifa Kush.
Charlie Puth aped Justin Bieber and used YouTube to launch his musical career.
4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “overset”
which means to upset which Reds want to do in spades to take over control of
the House and Blues want the same in the Senate.
5. Hard to Hurdle
a Vat—celebrating the birth on this day in 1950 of Olympic Hurdler Rod
Milburn who won a gold in the 110 meter high hurdles in the 1972 Munich Olympics but
after graduation with no prospect of playing professional football and unable
to endorse commercial products signed up with the newly formed professional
Track Association until it folded in 1976. He was prevented from defending his
title in the 1976 Olympics because of his time with the ITA and when the rules
changed he tried out for the 1980 Olympics only to have a boycott ordered by
President Jimmy Carter. He retired from competitive athletics in 1983 and coached
track at Southern University until 1987 and finally procured work as a utility
crewman at a Georgia Pacific Paper Mill where on November 11, 1997 he fell into
a sodium chlorate tank and died.
On this day
in:
a. 1896 SCOTUS in the
case of Plessey v. Ferguson ruled 7-1 that segregation in public facilities
did not violate the 14th Amendment as long as the facilities were separate
but equal which subjected blacks in the Jim Crow South to segregation in
unequal facilities for the next 68 years until the SCOTUS recognized the error
of its ways in Brown v. Board of Education.
b. 1953 Jackie Cochran
became the first female to break the sound barrier.
c. 1974 under the code name Smiling Buddha,
India detonated a nuclear weapon becoming the sixth nation to join the nuclear
weapons club.
d. 1980 Mt. Helens in Washington erupted,
killing 57 people and causing $1.1 billion in property damages as sending large
amounts of ash into 11 states and 5 Canadian provinces.
e. 2018 a 17 year old Santé Fe
High School student Dimitrios
Pagourtzis, went to the school and started shooting killing 8 students
and 2 teacher, and wounding 13 students before suffering a wound and being
taken into custody to be charged with multiple counts of murder and assault; he
was judged not be fit for trial and was sentenced to a mental institution for
up to a year of evaluation to determine if he will be fit to stand trial.
Reflections
on Plessey v. Ferguson from someone who had it right: ““The sure
guaranty of the peace and security of each race is the clear, distinct,
unconditional recognition by our governments, national and state, of every
right that inheres in civil freedom, and of the equality before the law of all
citizens of the United States, without regard to race. State enactments
regulating the enjoyment of civil rights upon the basis of race, and cunningly
devised to defeat legitimate results of the war, under the pretense of
recognizing equality of rights, can have no other result than to render
permanent peace impossible, and to keep alive a conflict of races, the continuance
of which must do harm to all concerned.”― John Marshall Harlan’s Dissent
in Plessey v. Ferguson Think of all the chaos and hatred we endured because
of the decision and all the harmony we could have gained had it been decided
the other way.
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.
© May 18, 2020
Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to
Admire
Poet Extraordinaire Beyond Compare
The Perfect Gift,
All Recipients to Receive a Lasting Lift
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