Sunday, May 3, 2020

May 3, 2020 Ridley's Believe It Or Not World Free Press Day


Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For May 3, 2020 The CV pandemic across the planet continues with 73,967 new cases  (a 2.2%  increase in total cases compared to 1.65% yesterday) to bring the total to 3,555,338  cases, 2,157,225 of which  are active, 1,398,113  of which have been closed with 1,150,482 recoveries (82.29% compared to  yesterday’s 81.83%) and 247,631 deaths (17.71% compared to yesterday’s 18.17%); in the U.S. which has the dubious distinction of leading the world in total cases with new cases of 23,718 have brought total cases to 1,184,490 (a 2.14% increase compared to yesterday’s .99%  increase)  with 937,864 active cases and 246,626 closures, 68,407  of which have been deaths (27.74% compared to  yesterday’s 29.2%) and 178,219 of which  have been recoveries (72.26%  compared to yesterday’s 70.8%), while total testing has increased to 7,174,746,  an increase of 675,916 (great improvement from several weeks ago); the slogan of the NYT of “All the News That’s Fit to Print” needs to be changed to “All the Views That Are Fit to Mock” as it comes out with a call for the DNC to create a “independent panel” to investigate the charges against Biden which was rightfully ridiculed by journalists (what are they smoking there with that idea?); Tara Reade is standing by her story and alleging she didn’t file a police report after experiencing the treatment Anita Hill was subject to during the Clarence Thomas hearings and is complaining against death threats and online harassment against her and her family; Witless Whitmer extended her draconian stay at home orders as peaceful protestors entered the Capitol some with open carry weapons which is allowed under Michigan law and blasted the demonstrators as the worst kind of racists; on the homeless front, hundreds of homeless in Denver have tested positive and FECES City has fallen way short of leasing 8,250 hotel rooms to house the homeless as only 2,741 rooms have been leased with 1,130 of those being unoccupied due to lack of hotel staff or other “failures of preparation”; if planning a trip to France might want to reconsider as France is extending its health emergency to July 24 and requiring all travelers arriving to quarantine themselves for 2 weeks; good news on the carnivore lovers front as beef output in the U.S. has tumbled as more closed meat processing plants are beginning to open; in another example of the CV bringing out the best in people, Larry Connor, founder and CEO of the Connor Group summoned his employees by video conference and informed them he would be giving them as a bonus the $1.6 million he had made in the stock market recently; in Chicago, as of May 2, 2020, 813 shootings of whom 148 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 is now 58 behind Chicago with 90 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 Santana feat. The Product G&B, the fact that you are a competent in orthographer and a quote  by Tom Wicker on freedom of the press, 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. Sun Day—created by proclamation of President Jimmy Carter in 1978 to promote the expansion of solar power.
2World Press Freedom Day—created by UNESCO to promote a free press an institution which is under assault in dictatorial countries like China and Russia but also here as the MSM becomes more and more the bastion of advocacy journalism and more and more like the publicity arm of the DNC through acts of commission and more troubling acts of omission (like initially near silence on Tara Reade’s allegations against Biden).
3. 2000 Number One Song— the number 1 song in 2000 on this day on a run of 10 weeks in the position was “Maria Maria” By Santana feat. The Product G&B. Here is a recording of the song:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPLV7lGbmT4  The band albeit with many personnel changes other than Carlos Santana who will turn 73 in July is still going strong.
4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “orthographer” which means a correct speller, a skill rapidly fading away with Windows Spell-check.
5. Put Your Money Where Your Beliefs Arecelebrating the birth on this day in 1940 of David Koch, a co-owner of Koch Industries, one of the largest privately held companies in the U.S., who became a fund raising nemesis of the Democratic Party contributing millions to Republican candidates while also do the same in philanthropy and to the joy of liberals died on August 23, 2019.
 On this day in:               
 a. 1957 to the joy of baseball fans in Los Angeles, Walter O’ Malley agreed to move the Brooklyn Dodgers to Loas Angeles.
 b. 1978 in an omen for the future Digital Equipment Corporation sent the first unsolicited commercial e-mail (later to be known as Spam) to every known ARPANET address on the West Coast.
 c. 1999 southwestern Oklahoma City was hit by a F5 tornado with the highest winds ever recorded at 301 +or- 20 m.p.h which killed 45 people, injured 665 and caused over $1 billion in damages.
 d. 2001 the United States lost its seat on the UN Humans Rights Commission which it had held since the Commission’s founding in 1947 when countries with stellar human rights records like Russia, People’s Republic of China and Saudi Arabia are members.
 e. 2015 2 Islamists attacked an anti-Muslim event in Garland, Texas at the Curtis Carswell Center held in response to the Charlie Hebdo attack and after shooting an unarmed guard in the ankle were sent to Paradise by an off duty police officer.
Reflections on freedom of the press: “If the true freedom of the press is to decide for itself what to publish and when to publish it, the true responsibility of the press must be to assert and defend that freedom… What the press in America needs is less inhibition, not more restraint.” Tom Wicker, noted deceased political reporter and columnist for the New York Times. Sadly in the era of advocacy journalism too often the decision is also made on what not to publish that which conflicts with the “journalist’s” advocacy.
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 3, 2020 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
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