Friday, December 25, 2020

December 24, 2020 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Christmas Eve

 

Ridley's Believe It Or Not December 24, 2020
        CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues with 506,853  new cases (a .64%  increase compared to a .92% increase yesterday) to bring the total over  79 million to 79,564,075, 21,826,864 of  which  are active, 57,737,211 closed with 55,990,962 recoveries (96.98% compared to  yesterday’s 96.97%) and 1,746,249 deaths (3.02% compared to yesterday’s 3.03%) to continue the trend of increased cases with increased recovery  percentages and decreased death percentages.

        CV USA Cases: New cases of 131,951 (a .70% increase compared to yesterday’s 1.39% increase) to bring the  total over 19 million  to  189,049,103 with 7,544,784 active cases of which 28,747 (.38% of active cases and a new peak), recently on a disturbing upward trend with no dips from a high of 19,155 on July 23  (28,728 yesterday), are in serious or critical condition as trend has shifted and is still continuing to go up, and 11,504,354 closures,  336,142 of which have been deaths (2.92% compared to yesterday’s 2.92%) and 11,168,177 of which have been recoveries (97.08% compared to yesterday’s 97.08%). Our death rate percentage continues to improve and after many months is now .10% lower than the world rate and .30% 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 1013 ranks behind Belgium (1631), Italy (1173). Peru (1123),  Spain (1065), and UK (1023 which has now passed us despite leading world in testing), and only slightly worse than Bulgaria  (1008) and newly added to the list and just passing France (953), Argentina (932),  Mexico (928), Hungary (905 and (839) four days ago so added to the list;  Brazil (888),  Chile (849 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 (772) and we have now conducted 1,883,858 more tests to bring the total to 240,135,749 (now at 723,444/M compared to Russia at 596,707/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 760,346/M.

        Non CV Case News: The  American public is being crucified on Pelosi’s non CV related cross of expenditures as she refuses to lower spending to enable Americans to receive $2,000 as opposed to $600 (the blame for this mess is on her big time and she must go as she has outlived her usefulness as a Red lightning rod and clearly is not a Speaker for all the people); Reds are rightfully concerned over mail-in ballot fraud but it appears that one avenue of chicanery of counting ballots received after the deadline may have been lessened as the USPS has announced Express Mail treatment for mail in ballots; SCOTUS has once again proved what Eisenhower learned to his dismay after appointing Earl Warren, a noted conservative, as Chief Justice , that SCOTUS is an independent branch of government as it ruled that responses on Trump’s challenge to the election in Pennsylvania will not be due to after the Inauguration of Biden on the 20th (impossible to imagine after the inauguration, SCOTUS would set aside Biden’s assumption of office); Fauci who has the facade of convincing us he listens to the science only now based on polling of people who indicated they would take the vaccine is claiming 90% will have to be vaccinated to get herd immunity for the nation; as Biden, buffeted by demands from the left of more and more diversity,  is in the process of filling his cabinet, a leading candidate, Marty Walsh, the Mayor of Boston, is facing headwinds because you guessed it, he is white ( new word for his administration pigmentocracy—rule by color of skin); D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser in what looks like a typical leftist War on Christmas has pronounced Christmas Eve to be Doctor Fauci Day in honor of his 80th birthday; Oregon Governor Kate Brown is in the running for the most pathetic clown as she extends her crippling emergency order locking businesses down into March (as more and more bankruptcies await where is the science that justifies that fate?); as NYC sees thousands of residents fleeing the high tax high crime defunded city, Miami’s Red Mayor is making the pitch to Wall Street to the tax haven of Florida and Miami (if a parent their schools have been open not closed by the De Blasio clown.

         Chicago/Baltimore Gun Violence: In Chicago as of December 21,  2020,  the number of shootings increased to 4,121 of whom  701 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 371 behind Chicago at 330 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 “Daytime Dreamer” by the Monkees, the fact that we are getting a handle on our prosodemic “friend” from China and a quote from two WWI soldier present at the Christmas Truce, 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. Feast of the Seven Fishes—celebrated in Italian-American communities to observe the Catholic tradition of on Christmas Eve of avoiding meat until the Christmas Day Feast.

        2. National Egg Nog Day—celebrating the end of the Christmas shopping season on Christmas Eve with a pleasing libation consumed here since colonial times, spiced and topped with nutmeg and mixed with an appropriate spirits to prepare parents for staying up late to wrap gifts for their eager children to put under the Christmas Tree to await the early rising children.

        3. 1967 Number One Song— the number 1 song in 1967 on this day on a run of  4 weeks was “Daydream Believer” by The Monkees to join 18 other number 1 songs and join 7 other acts with their first number one song.  Here is a recording of The Monkees  singing the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvqeSJlgaNk . The band was a band created around a TV series which when it faded the band faded.

       4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “prosodemic” which means contagious or infectious which describes our unwanted CV to a tee.

        5. A and S a Deadly Cocktail---celebrating the birth on this day in 1961 of noted English comedian and actress Carole Ahern who struggled with binge drinking, heavy smoking and finally succumbed to lung cancer when it caught up with her on July 2, 2016 at age 52.

         On this day in:

         a. 1826 following the smuggling of a large quantity of whiskey into the West Point Barracks two days earlier a drunken celebration involving some 70 cadets erupted  and ended the next day and was followed by the court martial of 20 cadets.

         b. 1914 on the Western Front German , French and English soldiers climbed out of their trenches in some case only a few yards apart to exchange small gifts, play soccer and stop shooting at each other in what became known but not repeated as the “Christmas Truce.”

       c. 1943 General Dwight D. Eisenhower was named the Supreme Commander for the invasion of Europe on D-Day.

         d. 1964 Viet Cong operatives detonated a car bomb underneath the Brink’s Hotel in Saigon which housed American military personnel, killing 2 Americans and wounding 60 others, proving their ability to attack even the most guarded installations in South Vietnam.

        e. 1973 the District of Columbia Home Rule Act was passed granted D.C. residents the power to elect their own Blue representatives.

         Reflections on the Christmas Truce 1914: “What a sight - little groups of Germans and British extending almost the length of our front! Out of the darkness we could hear laughter and see lighted matches, a German lighting a Scotchman’s cigarette and vice versa, exchanging cigarettes and souvenirs.”- Corporal John Ferguson of the Second Seaforth Highlanders

“What I had still believed to be madness several hours ago I could see now with my own eyes. Bavarians and English, until then the greatest of enemies, shook hands, talked and exchanged items. A single star stood still in the sky directly above them, and was interpreted by many as a special sign. More and more joined, and the entire line greeted each other.”- Josef Wenzl, German soldier. Sadly the generals on both sides reacted with fury to insure humanity would not be able to emerge from the killing trenches again..
        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 24, 2020 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet

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