Wednesday, December 30, 2020

December 29, 2020 Ridley's Believe It Or Not National Heroes Day

 

Ridley's Believe It Or Not December 29, 2020
        CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues with 612,667  new cases (a .75%  increase compared to a .64% increase yesterday) to bring the total over  82 million to 82,270,531, 22,192,947 of  which  are active, 60,077,584 closed with 58,282,828 recoveries (97.01% compared to  yesterday’s 97.01%) and 1,794,756 deaths (2.99% compared to yesterday’s 2.99%) to continue the trend of increased cases with increased recovery  percentages and decreased death percentages.

         CV USA Cases: New cases of 168,421 (a .85% increase compared to yesterday’s 1.06% increase) to bring the  total nearing 20 million  to  19,950,045 with 7,788,918 active cases of which 28,920 (.37% of active cases and an increase for a new peak), recently on a disturbing upward trend with no dips from a high of 19,155 on July 23  (28,912 yesterday), are in serious or critical condition as trend has shifted and is still continuing to go up, and 12,161,118 closures,  346,628 of which have been deaths (2.85% compared to yesterday’s 2.85%) and 11,814,859 of which have been recoveries (97.15% compared to yesterday’s 97.15%). Our death rate percentage continues to improve and after many months is now .14% lower than the world rate and .28% lower than Canada which has the socialized type medicine Biden may well want to implement here  and on a deaths per million population measurement on a steady climb to 1043 ranks behind Belgium (1656), Italy (1209). Peru (1132),  Spain (1079), Bulgaria (1070) and UK (1051) which has now passed us despite leading world in testing), and only slightly worse than France (981), Hungary (963) and (839)  seven days ago so added to the list, Mexico (948), Argentina (948),  Brazil (903), Switzerland (863) and (830) three days ago, Chile (859 that we recently passed), Switzerland (848) and (830) two days ago so added to list, Sweden (837) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a rapid rise in deaths, Ecuador (788) and Bolivia (775) and we have now conducted 1,058,251 more tests to bring the total to 250,172,246 (now at 753,609/M compared to Russia at 617,980/M so Trump was telling truth that we conduct more tests in number and on a per capital basis for nations (other than those nations that contain small populations like Bahrain, Denmark,  Israel, Singapore and UAE) but for the U.K. which remains off the testing charts with tests at 795,118/M.

        Non CV Case News: Newsom’s regional stay at home order has been extended in San Joaquin County and Southern California as capacity at ICU’s has dropped to 0 percent with no date of termination but smart money would bet 3-4 more weeks; on the recall front for Gruesome Newsom, money is starting to pour into the effort (his mismanagement of the pandemic response and his arrogant Marie Antoinette dinner at the French Laundry should be the defining moments to put him on the recall ballot and on a one way ticket out of Sacramento); on news that we need like a hole in the head Colorado officials have confirmed that the new strain of CV which is supposedly far more contagious has been confirmed in a case in Colorado; Big Fredo is threatening criminal prosecution against ParCare’s vaccinating those not on a priority list and anyone else who commits the same act (it may be a law of humanity for the first responders, nursing home patients and those with preexisting conditions but may not be a criminal statue but helps obscure Big Fredo’s mismanagement of the response to the pandemic especially sending infected into nursing homes to kill the residents); in a case involving an attempt by Republicans to purge illegal voters in Georgia, a federal district court judge appointed by Obama  who happens to be the sister of Stacy Abram refused to recuse herself from the obvious conflict of interest and ruled against the Republicans (why does this poet feel concern that the Blues have adopted the Stalin voting rule that “I don’t care who gets to vote as long as I count the ballots?); 41 year old Red Congressman-Elect Luke Letlow from Louisiana has just died from COVID-19 after being diagnosed on December 17, 2020; Massachusetts legislation overrode its governor’s veto of a bill requiring 16 year olds seeking abortion to have parental consent; Koby Francis, who had been arrested, handcuffed in back, and being delivered to the McKeesport Police Station for booking and managed to get his cuffs in front of him and conceal his weapon to shoot a police officer opening the door to remove him, has been caught in West Virginia after a week long manhunt.

         Chicago/Baltimore Gun Violence: In Chicago as of December 27,  2020,  the number of shootings increased to 4,163 of whom  715 have died (total travesty of BLM when blacks are shot and killed by blacks in droves and only sounds of silence and complete absence of any protests in front of City Hall demanding action to curb the killings and shootings); Baltimore with a fraction of Chicago’s population and hoping against all hopes that 2020 will not be a record in terms of deaths but now seems to be shooting less and killing less and is still 381 behind Chicago at 334 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 way  more  deadly and way more numerous than shootings by  police or by random mass shootings which occur far fewer times).

As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to “Me and Mrs. Jones” by Billy Paul, the fact that you enjoy a protreptic as opposed to criticism in dealing with subordinates and a quote on genocide by Allyson Schwartz, secure in the knowledge that if you want to send 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. Please contact me for the details on the pricing.

         1. The National Pepper Pot Day—celebrating the creation of pepper soup by the quartermaster of the Continental Army on this day in 1777 ten days after Washington had arrived at Valley Forge to set up winter headquarters from the provisions his troops had foraged from the surrounding countryside lavishly spiced with peppercorns.
        2. 
National Heroes Day—first celebrated on this day in 2020 but like the true heroes who shy away publicity and do not seek recognition when events or circumstances prompt them to perform heroic act, the creator is probably basking in the shadows of anonymity.

        3. 1972 Number One Song— the number 1 song in 1972 on this day on a run of 3 week was “Me and Mrs. Jones” by Billy Paul to join 20 other  number 1 songs and 17 other acts who had their first number 1 song. Here is a recording of Billy Paul singing the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If4di0jmE5A Paul was born in Philadelphia and because of his high voice was influenced by female singers, especially Billie Holiday. He had a long and productive career singing in clubs and other venues after his “retirement” in 1998 and is known for successfully suing Nike for their using his “Me and Mrs. Jones” to promote Olympic star Marion Jones who won 5 Gold Medals that were ultimately stripped from her. He died of pancreatic cancer at age 81 on April 24, 2016.

        4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “protreptic” which means an utterance to instruct or persuade.

        5. Come Hither Now and Get Cozy Dangerous---celebrating the birth on this day in 1947 of noted drummer  Colin Trevor Frocks better known to his fans as Cozy Powell who for 30 years played with a number of bands but had the misfortune of dating a married woman who called him distraught wanting him to come immediately over  which he was in the process of doing so at 104 m.p.h. when she called again demanding “Where are you” only to hear “Oh shit” and the sound of a car crashing which killed him, under the influence and not wearing a seat belt on April 5, 1998 at age 50.

         On this day in:

         a. 1972 Eastern Airlines Flight 401, a Lockheed 1011 TriStar enroute from JFK to Miami, had its crew distracted by a malfunctioning landing gear light and while circling at 2000 feet to manually check whether the gears had been extended failed to notice the auto pilot was no on and the plane slowly lost altitude to crash in the Everglades outside the airport, killing 101 and injuring 75 of the occupants in the first crash of a wide body aircraft.

         b. 1975 a bomb went off in the TWA Baggage Claim area in La Guardia Airport, killing 11 and wounding 74; sadly the perpetrators were never identified.

      c. 1989 in a what goes up must come down moment, the Nikkei 225 for the Tokyo Stock Exchange hit its all-time intra-day high of 38,957.44 and closing high of 38,915.87, serving as the single that the Japanese asset price bubble had burst and a long and massive decline was about to begin.

         d. 1997 Hong Kong began to kill some 1.25 million chickens to stop the spread of deadly bird flu.

        e. 1998 in a what took you so long moment, leaders of the Khmer Rouge publicly apologized for its genocide in killing 1.5-2.0 million Cambodians from April, 1975 to January, 1979.

        Reflections on the deafness to “Never Again”: Yet, only years after the Nazi-era, millions were sent to their deaths in places such as Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda, and the world once again took too long to act.”Allyson Schwartz, former Blue Representative from Pennsylvania and now the CEO of the Better

Medicare Alliance.

          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.

© December 29, 2020 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet

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