Ridley's
Believe It Or Not December 19, 2020
CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the
planet continues with 507,381
new cases (a .67% increase compared to a .52% increase
yesterday) to bring the total over 76 million to 76,500,150, 21,212,910
of which are active, 55,287,240 closed with 53,597,854
recoveries (96.94% compared to yesterday’s 96.94%) and 1,689,386 deaths
(3.06% compared to yesterday’s 3.06%) to continue the trend of increased cases
with increased recovery percentages and decreased death percentages.
CV
USA Cases: New cases of 133,892 (a .75% increase compared to yesterday’s 1.46%
increase) to bring the total over 18
million to 18,018,499 with 7,241,714 active cases of
which 27,961 (.39% of active cases), recently on a disturbing upward trend with
no dips from a high of 19,155 on July 23 (28,107 yesterday which
means the peak of 28,206 on December 17 may
finally has been reached), are in serious or critical condition as trend
has shifted and is still continuing to go up, and 10,776,785
closures, 322,440 of which have been deaths (2.99% compared
to yesterday’s 3.00%) and 10,454,345 of which have been recoveries (97.01% compared
to yesterday’s 97.00%). Our death rate percentage continues to improve and
after many months is now .07% lower than the world rate and .34% 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 971 ranks behind Belgium (1589), Italy (1133). Peru (1114),
Spain (1046), and UK (986 which has now passed us despite leading world
in testing), and only slightly worse than Bulgaria (938) and newly added to the list and just
passing France (925), Argentina (918), Mexico (905), Brazil (873), Chile
(839 that we recently passed), Sweden (789) that never closed its economy down
like we did but has recently been experiencing a rapid rise in deaths, Ecuador
(785) and Bolivia (769) and we have now conducted 2,125,437 more tests to bring
the total to 232,596,953 (now at 700,777/M
compared to Russia at 581,679/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 728,540/M.
Non CV Case News:
On the elusive stimulus front Reds and Blues are arguing over whether Fed
credit programs that were supposed to expire on 12/31 and if extended as
demanded by Blue politicians who will propose barrier busting policies to
combat climate changes and destroy the Fed’s independence; Biden continues to
fill out his cabinet and top official posts in his administration (look for a
resurrection of the Obama War on Fossil
Fuels, a massive roll back of fracking, and a loss of energy independence now
enjoyed); the Guided Missile Destroyer
USS Mustin transited the Taiwan
Strait tailed by Chinese forces accompanied by rants accusing the U.S. of
escalating tensions (hope this was normal rants and an not an omen of Chinese
perceptions of a compromised weak president compared to Trump); Louisiana
House-Elect Cori Bush, the first BLM member elected to the House and another
addition to the Squad, has been appointed by Pelosi to a seat on the House
Judiciary Committee; Pfizer has shipped out 2.9 million doses of the vaccine
this week and next week with Moderna being approved on Friday the two companies
should ship 7.9 million dosed next week; in another example of the generosity
of Americans, in South Daytona Beach, Joe DeCicco, age 70, who has been working
at Taco Bell for 20 years and known as “Taco Bell Joe” to locals received a
$6,095 tip from a local group; in a don’t pop the corks yet moment, in the
U.K., researchers have identified a new strain of the CV virus which appears to
spread far easier as cases have soared in the country; De Blasio is in the news
again vowing to fight “systematic racism” in NYC schools by reallocation of
funds; a stand your ground law passed by the Red controlled Ohio’s legislature
awaiting Governor De Wine’s signature which he has not indicated he will sign.
Chicago/Baltimore Gun
Violence: In Chicago as of December 18, 2020, the number
of shootings increased to 4,069 of whom 691 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 369 behind Chicago at 321 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 “Dominque” by The Singing Nun, the fact that you are able to tune out people
with prolix characteristics and a quote on the impact of British rule up to
1997 on the people of Hong Kong’s attitudes by Steve Tsang, 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. National Wreaths
Across America Day—created
by Morril Worcester in 1992, a wreath maker who started laying his 5,000
surplus wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery and other cemeteries to honor
the veterans resting there on the second Saturday in December from 1992 to 2015
and then moved to the third Saturday in December starting in 2016.
2. Super Saturday—celebrated
on the last Saturday before Christmas and created by retailers looking for a
catchy slogan to drive last minute procrastinating shoppers to open up their
wallets to charge their credit cards.
3. 1963 Number One Song— the
number 1 song in 1963 on this day on a run of 4 weeks was “Dominque” by The
Singing Nun to join 20 other number 1 songs and 18 other acts with their first
number 1 song. Although the record was a great success, she received only a
fraction of the royalties due her and left her Dominican Order and lived in
poverty with her female partner with whom she committed suicide on March 29,
1985 at the age of suicide by overdosing with barbiturates and alcohol. Here is
a recording of The Singing Nun singing the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO7cD6qmydo .
4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “prolix”
which means long winded which describes far too many politicians to a tee.
5. Stopped Marching Way Too Early--celebrating the birth on this day in 1940 of noted
protest singer and songwriter Phil Ochs, whose songs excoriated the military
industrial complex and the War in Vietnam but who struggled with being bipolar
and alcohol and committed suicide at age 35 on April 9, 1976. Here is a
recording of one of his best known songs “I Ain’t Marching Anymore.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv1KEF8Uw2k
On this day in:
a. 1912 William Van Schaik, the captain of the PS General Slocum which caught fire on June 15, 1904 on the East
River, killing over 1,000 people, was pardoned by President William Taft after
being convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years and having served 3 ½
years of that sentence in Sing Sing.
b. 1946 hostilities
commenced between France and the Viet Minh in the First Indochina War which
ended on August 1, 1954 in a Viet Minh victory and planted the seeds for the
Vietnam War that would follow after several years.
c. 1984 China and
The United Kingdom signed the Sino-British Declaration providing that China
would take over Hong Kong and The United Kingdom would relinquish sovereignty
on July 1, 1997 subject to requirements of China to maintain certain freedoms
enjoyed by the people of Hong Kong.
d. 1998 President Bill Clinton became the 2nd
president to be impeached by the House, only to be acquitted on strict party
lines by the Senate.
e. 2016
jihadist Anis Amri, a Tunisian who had been denied asylum, car jacked a truck
in Berlin, killing the driver and drove it into a Christmas Market next to the
Kaiser Wilhelm Cathedral in Berlin, killing 11 shoppers and injuring 56 others
before fleeing on foot to be cornered by Italian police in Milan 4 days later
and killed in a shootout with police. Reflections on the protests in Hong Kong over the repressive hand of
the Chinese Communist Party: “British rule also left its mark on Hong Kong in a
more important and sustainable way. It led to the rise of a people that remains
quintessentially Chinese and yet share a way of life, core values and an
outlook that resemble at least as much, if not more, that of the average New
Yorker or Londoner, rather than that of their compatriots in China.”
― Steve Tsang,Modern History of Hong
Kong: 1841-1997. Probably explains the anger felt by the residents of Hong
Kong.
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 19, 2020 Michael
P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
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