Ridley's
Believe It Or Not December 27, 2020
CV World
Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues with 978,796 new
cases (a 1.22% increase compared to a .55% increase yesterday) to
bring the total over 81 million to 81,142,113, 22,079,011
of which are active, 59,063,102 closed with 57,291,218
recoveries (97.00% compared to yesterday’s 96.99%) and 1,771,884 deaths
(3.00% compared to yesterday’s 3.01%) to continue the trend of increased cases
with increased recovery percentages and decreased death percentages.
CV USA Cases: New cases of 210,558
(a 1.09% increase compared to yesterday’s 1.65% increase) to bring
the total over 19 million to 19,573,847 with
7,736,834 active cases of which 28,672 (.37% of active cases and a fall from a
28,747 new peak), recently on a disturbing upward trend with no dips from a
high of 19,155 on July 23 (28,579 yesterday), are in serious
or critical condition as trend has shifted and is still continuing to go
up, and 11,837,013 closures, 341,138 of which have been deaths (2.88%
compared to yesterday’s 2.90%) and 11,495,875 of which have been
recoveries (97.12% compared to yesterday’s 97.10%). Our death rate
percentage continues to improve and after many months is now .12% lower than
the world rate and .29% 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 1028 ranks behind Belgium
(1650), Italy (1190). Peru (1129), Spain (1065), UK (1040 which has now
passed us despite leading world in testing), and Bulgaria (1035) and only
slightly worse than France (960), Mexico (945), Argentina (939), Hungary
(938 and (839) five days ago so added to the list; Brazil (896), Chile
(857 that we recently passed), Sweden (817) that never closed its economy down
like we did but has recently been experiencing a rapid rise in deaths, Ecuador
(787) and Bolivia (774) and we have now conducted 1,468,467 more tests to bring
the total to 246,709,973 (now at 743,203/M
compared to Russia at 613,270/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 767,804/M.
Non CV Case News: From DNA evidence and a vehicle VIN police
have identified Anthony Quinn Warner as the individual who detonated the bomb
in his RV that, thanks to police evacuations, injured only 3 but damaged 41 businesses
in the Nashville Christmas morning bombing but the motive for it and the
suicide are not clear; Trump has blinked and signed the omnibus funding bill
and CV relief bill but has sent to Congress a red lined version of what he
would like changed (chances of any spending cuts from Pelosi’s House almost nil
so we are stuck with a thank you Nancy $600 lump of coal); Fauci who has been
imitating a yo-yo in his estimates of percent of vaccinations needed for herd
immunity has now settled on 75-80% and how believes that by summer we will have
achieved that goal (assuming Biden does not screw up on the Trump vaccination
plans); news uncovered recently reveals that Anthony Quinn Warner transferred 2
houses in Antioch, 1 in January, 2019
worth $160,000 and the other valued at $250,000 last month to Michelle Steel,
an artist development manager at AEG Presents; Blue Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance
Bottoms is finding her popularity approaching her name as murders in the city
amidst a defund the police movement have risen to 158, the highest number since
1998 ( the total may now be 159 as this 0 year old shot while in a car with her
mother and aunt shopping has died on Saturday):
Phil Niekro has died at
age 81
to join 6 other Hall of Famers,
including pitchers Tom Seaver, Whitey Ford, and Bob Gibson, who have died this
year.
Chicago/Baltimore
Gun Violence: In Chicago as of December 26, 2020, the
number of shootings increased to 4,151 of whom 710 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 now 378 behind Chicago at 332 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 “My Sweet Lord/Isn’t It a Pity” by George Harrison, the fact that do not tolerate
will protervity and a quote from Arthur Koestler, In the God That Failed ed. Richard
Crossman, 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 Third Day of
Christmas—celebrating
St. John the Apostle who wrote The Book
of Revelations.
2. National Visit a
Zoo Day—not sure
when established or by whom but clearly created to encourage families to visit
zoos in this nation, the first of which, the Philadelphia Zoo, was opened on
July 1,1874 after having had its planned opening delayed by the Civil War.
3. 1970 Number One Song— the
number 1 song in 1970 on this day on a run of 1 week was “My Sweet Lord/
Isn’t It a Pity” by George Harrison to join 23 other number 1 songs and join 13
other acts with their first number one song. Here is a recording of George
Harrison singing the songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNrAoMwbm9g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPM6DIzYyQU
This Ex-Beatle went on to a great career as a solo performer and with the
Traveling Wilburys and survived 40 stab
wounds and a punctured lung when a mentally deranged person broke into his house
but was beaten off by his wife with a fireplace poker but sadly his earlier 4
pack a day habit caught up with him and he died from lung cancer at the age of
58 on November 29, 2001.
4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “protervity”
which means peevishness, petulance which seems to describe progressives to a
tee when they feel they are not getting their way.
5. Go Doing What You
Love to Do Best---celebrating
the birth on this day in 1976 of noted
Polish mountaineer Piotr Morawski who was the first person to make a successful
winter climb of Mt. Shishapangma, the 14th
tallest mountain in the world which is located in Tibet and is 26,335 feet tall
but had the misfortune while on an international climbing expedition in Nepal of
Dhaulagiri/Manasluunture, the 7th and 8th tallest mountains
of falling into a crevasse on April 8, 2009 while acclimating at 5,000 meters
and died at age 32.
On
this day in:
a. 1929 General Party Secretary Joseph Stalin ordered the liquidation of the “kulaks”
as a class which the Soviets proceeded to do by systematic starvation of the population
of Ukraine which explains why when the Germans invaded in 1941 they were initially
welcomed as liberators
b.
1935 Regina Jonas was ordained as the first female rabbi in the history of Judaism.
c. 1945 the International Monetary Fund
was created with the signatories of 29 nations.
d. 1983 Pope John Paul II visited Mehmet Ali AÄŸca, a Turk in prison for attempting to
assassinate him in the abdomen on May 13, 1981 in St. Peters Square and forgave
him for his attempt. Mehmet was sentenced to life and served 19 years and was
released to Turkey where he served 10 years for prior criminal activity and
having converted to Catholicism in 2007 came to Rome on December 27, 2014 to
lay white roses on St. John Paul II’s tomb.
e. 1985 in 2 coordinated
attacks 4 terrorists attacked El Al’s ticket counter at the Rome International
Airport with automatic rifles and grenades, killing 19 and wounding 99 before 3
were killed by security forces and the 4th wounded and captured.
Moments later in Austria at Vienna’s International Airport, 3 terrorists
attacked the El Al ticket counter with grenades, killing 2 and wounding 40
others, one of whom died on January 22, 1986 before fleeing in a car after a
gun battle with Italian police and El Al security but brought to bay with 1
terrorist killed and the other 2 wounded. The Rome terrorist was sentenced to
30 years in 1988 and was released due to good behavior in June, 2010 and the 2
surviving Vienna terrorists were sentenced to life and are still in prison
rotting away.
Reflections on Stalin’s
starvation induced genocide of Ukraine: I saw the ravages of the famine of 1932-33 in the Ukraine:
hordes of families in rags begging at the railway stations, the women lifting
up to the compartment window their starving brats which — with drumstick limbs,
big cadaverous heads, puffed bellies —looked like embryos out of alcohol
bottles…” Arthur Koestler, In the God That Failed ed. Richard Crossman
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© December 27,
2020 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet
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