RIDLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT January 17, 2022
CV World Cases: The planet continues
on an increasing basis with cases now over 329 million at 329,863,894
cases, 56,056,896 of
which are active, 273,806,998 closed with 268,246,568 recoveries
(97.97%), and nearing the 5,600,000 barrier 5,560,430 deaths (2.03% )to
continue the low trend of increased cases with increased recovery percentages
and decreased death percentages with some plateaus, dips, and rises.
CV USA Cases: Total
cases now exceeding 67 million at 67,021,487 with 23,052,957 active cases
of which 25,779 are serious or critical, (8,599 on 3/25/2021) (back to
steady decreases despite the increase in active cases due to the relative
mildness of the Omicron variant) to .112% of active cases (back to back steady
decreases despite the increase in active cases due to the relative mildness of
the Omicron variant and to decrease the
reduction from the 29,271 peak on 12/31/2020 to 3,492, 43,968,580 closures with
873,635 deaths (1.99%) and with 43,094,945 recoveries (98.01%). Our death rate
percentage is .04% lower than the world’s death rate.
Standing: On a deaths
per million population measure on a steady but slow climb to 2616 the U.S.
ranks behind Peru (6039) the new number 1 which has had a quantum leap in
deaths previously unmatched which was a change in the classification to give
Peru the a new method of reporting; Bulgaria the new number 2 (4672), Hungary
(4210), Romania (3112), Brazil (2890)
which has been hit with a rapid rise in deaths now slowing down passed by
Romania, and Poland (2708) and slightly better than Argentina (2575), newly
added to the list Columbia (2533), Belgium (2452), Italy (2334), Mexico (2301), UK (2222),
Russia (2205), Chile (2036), Spain (1945), France (1939), Portugal (1905),
Ecuador newly added to list (1895), Bolivia (1698), Sweden
(1517) that never closed its economy down like we did, and Switzerland (1439).
Tests: No need
to tally tests as testing programs are functioning well but the free rapid
tests which the Biden Administration was caught flatfooted on the ease of
transmission of the Omicron Variant and failed to order are not yet being
produced.
US Vaccinations: As of
01/17/22 515.16 million doses, 1.33 million per day over last week; my
data from Bloomberg no longer available.
Non CV
News: The observes Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with the markets closed
and Blues using it to promote passage of their misnamed Voters’ Rights Bills as
King’s niece appeared on Fox to urge an end to the great divide in this
country, promote the achievement of the American Dream by all based not on
color of skin and call for a return to bringing God in our lives (if only
Martin Luther King were alive today to address the folly of critical race
theory and urge an end to divisiveness; the hostage situation created by Malik
Faisal Akram by entering a Jewish synagogue in Colleyville, Texas was ended
with their release by law enforcement killing him but the FBI is being
castigated for claiming that Akram’s rationale for seizing the hostages was to
obtain release of a jihadist terrorist serving 86 years in a nearby federal
prison for killing American solders in Afghanistan was not directed against the
Jewish community (déjà vu claim by the Obama Administration that the mass
shooting at Fort Hood by Army Major
Nidal Hasan was caused by workplace violence not jihad); the NCAA is under great
pressure to amend its rules governing competition by transgender females in
women’s sporting events after scientific studies are showing that even with
testosterone suppression, transgenders have an unfair advantage (if some common
sense does not return to this issue to require transgenders compete in their
biological class, say goodbye the Title IX and the progress made in the name of
equality for women’s sports; Virginia has a Red governor largely due to the
teachers’ unions and school boards insistence that parents should have no
involvement in their kids’ education, a fact which the Blues in Michigan seem
oblivious to as the party’s website posted a statement to that effect adding if
parents didn’t like the curriculum they could send their kids to private
schools (uproar quickly caused the post to be pulled but not before voters had
another chance to realize the teachers’ unions have not been acting in the best
interests of their kids); emails have revealed that although Education
Secretary Cardona has denied, he was involved in encouraging the National
Association of School Boards to write to the DOJ complaining that parents in
Virginia appearing at school board meetings to protest the teaching of CRT were
domestic terrorists which has caused 41 Red lawmakers to in a letter to Biden
demand he be fired or resign; as long as
crime is confined to poor neighborhoods little if any lasting attention or MSM
uproar but when it strikes the affluent the thugs and mentally ill homeless should
be alarmed as Brianna Kupfer, a graduate student at UCLA was stabbed to death
by a homeless black while working at a high end furniture store Croft House in
L.A.; the move to use race as a criteria to determine who obtains scarce
medical treatments has rightfully been hit with setbacks as a Midwestern
Catholic hospital chain SSM after pushback has eliminated the criteria; Cuomo’s
sex scandal claimed another victim as the Chancellor of SUNY resigned after
harassing one of Cuomo’s sexual abuse accusers;
as more and more grocery shelves look like those of the Soviet Union
before its collapse, leave it to the political cartoonist to portray the
reality of shopping and the obliviousness of Biden to shoppers’ concerns:
Chicago
Gun Violence: Hey Jackass.com is alive and well to collect data to show that
through January 16, 2022, gun violence involving mostly persons of color
shooting mostly persons of color in Chicago is alive and well with 124 persons
shot of whom 21 have died while 2021 shootings numbers compared to 2020 are
4544 to 4248 and deaths are 846 compared to 797.
As always, I
hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for
this day in history, a recording link to “Don’t Let the Stars Get
Into Your Eyes” by Perry Como, the fact that you are not a slugabed, and quotes
from Lance Armstrong denying and admitting doping, secure
in the knowledge that if you want to send a gift for any memorable events
like Valentine’s Day or Martin Luther King, Jr. 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 details on pricing.
1. Martin
Luther King, Jr. Day—signed into law by Ronald Reagan on November 2, 1983 and first
celebrated on January 20, 1986 to celebrate his birthday on January 15, 1929
and honor his accomplishments toward civil rights and peace and now celebrated
on the third Monday of each January. The day is also honored as one of two
National Days of Service to honor the work of Martin Luther King in less
advantaged neighborhoods.
2. National Bootleggers Day—created by Infinium Spirits
in June, 2015 and first celebrated on
this day in 2016, the 86th anniversary of the commencement of the
failure experiment known as Prohibition to promote a bootleg rye whiskey
produced in Templeton, Iowa and distributed throughout the Midwest and Chicago
where it was one of Al Capone’s favorites. It is a small distillery which
restarted in 2006 and distributed in the U.S. since 2013.
3. 1953
Number 1 Song—the number 1 song in 1953 on this day was “Don’t Let the Stars Get
In Your Eyes” by Perry Como on a run of 5 weeks in that position to join 9
other songs that achieved number 1 status. Here’s a recording of Perry Como
singing “Don’t Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmkg_E2evbg Perry Como or “Mr. C” as known was noted
American singer and television personality who signed with RCA Records and
recorded exclusively for them for 44 years, avid golfer, married to his only
wife for 65 years before she died and his talent died 6 days before his 89th
birthday on May 12, 2001. Billboard Magazine’s epitaph summed up his
life best: “50 years of music
and a life well lived. An example to all.”
4. Word of the Day—the
word of the day is “slugabed” which means someone who spends too much time in
bed due to laziness” which might describe our president who seems to need more
sleep and naps than Trump ever did.
5. Aping
Sports Illustrated—celebrating the birth on this day in 1921
of “The First Lady of Television” comedian and actress Betty White who in
addition to a 7 decade career was the first person to appear in front of and
behind the camera. Definitely loved and admired by her fans and cohorts in the
business. The reference to Sports Illustrated is that many times after
an athlete was feature on its cover that athlete’s career or season went into
the tank. People Magazine’s cover and lead story that hit the newsstand
on December 29th and started arriving in subscribers’ mailboxes on
the 31st celebrated her career and birthday, having no clue of the Sports
Illustrated jinx as she died on the 31st.
On
this day in:
a. 1917
fearful that Germany would seize the Virgin Islands for submarine bases, the
U.S. after several years of negotiations purchased the islands for the sum of
$25 million.
b. 1945
Swedish diplomat Raul Wallenberg was taken into Soviet custody in Hungary and
never seen again.
c. 1969 Bunch Carter, founder of the Southern California Chapter of the
Black Panther Party and John Huggins, another Black Panther Party member met
with members of a rival black group the Organization Us at the Black Student
Union at UCLA and were shot and killed. The alleged shooter was never found and
three members of Organization U.S. were convicted of conspiracy to commit
murder one of whom was sentenced to the Juvenile Authority while George and Larry
Stiner were sentenced to life where both escaped with George never being caught
and Larry a fugitive with his family in Surinam for 20 years before agreeing to
turn himself in to allow his wife and 3 children to escape destitution in
Surinam, an agreement which authorities reneged on after Steven returned. In
view of the controversy over the presence of FBI agents present at the Capitol
to urge protestors to attack Capitol police and enter, we should not be
surprised to learn the FBI was planting false flags causing both organizations
to believe the other was plotting to
violently attack them.
d. 1991
Coalition Air Forces led by the F-111 Stealth Bomber commenced air operations
in Desert Storm against Iraq while Scott Spreicher in a F/A Hornet launched
from the US Saratoga was shot down by a Mig-25 to become the first
combat casualty of the Gulf War.
e. 2013 U.S. Cyclist Lance Armstrong
in a better late than never moment confessed to doping to win his Tour de
France record number of wins on the Oprah Winfrey’s Oprah’s Next
Chapter.
Reflections
on doping before and after from the doping king Lance Armstrong:
Jan 2011: "If
you're trying to hide something, you wouldn't keep getting away with it for 10
years. Nobody is that clever."
Jan 2013: "All
the fault and all the blame here falls on me. I viewed this situation as one
big lie that I repeated a lot of times. I made my decisions. They are my
mistakes, and I am sitting here today to acknowledge that and to say I'm sorry
for that.".
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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.
© January 17, 2022, 2021 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet
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