Ridley’s Believe It Or Not August 16, 2021
CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues on an increasing basis with cases now over 208 million at 208,263,868 cases (207,830,053 yesterday); 17,150,854 of which are active, 191,113,014 closed with 186,733,402 recoveries (97.71% and 97.71% yesterday, and 4,379,612 deaths (2.29% and 2.29% yesterday) to continue the slow trend of increased cases with increased recovery percentages and decreased death percentages with some plateaus, dips, and rises.
CV USA Cases: Total cases now over 37 million at 37,469,989 (37,465,037 yesterday) with 6,677,409 active cases of which 20,044 are serious or critical, (20,500 yesterday and 8,599 on 3/25/2021) (now on a serious upswing due to Delta virus to .30 % of active cases and now a steady increase in the number of serious or critical cases to an increase the reduction from the 29,271 peak on 12/31/2020 to 9,227, 30,792,580 closed, with 637,572 deaths (2.07% and 2.07% yesterday) and with 30,155,088 recoveries (97.93% and 97.93% yesterday). Our death rate percentage is no longer stuck at 2.08% since July 12, 2021 and now .22% lower than the world’s death rate.
Standing: On a deaths per million population measure on a steady but slow climb to 1914 the U.S. ranks behind Peru (5893) 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 to have a fatality rate of 9.26% of total cases now; Hungary the new number 2 has had a huge continuing surge in deaths with the increase now slowing down and improving slightly to 3.77% of its closed cases have died (3118), aping Hungary in terms of increase in deaths Bulgaria (2662), Brazil (2651) which has been hit with a rapid rise in deaths and cases and passed us and Italy, Columbia newly added to the list (2396), Argentina (2386), Belgium (2171), Italy (2128), Poland (1992), and the UK (1918) which had passed us despite leading world in testing and now has new deaths barely increasing), and slightly better than Mexico (1902), Chile (1885), Romania (1799), Ecuador newly added to list (1776), Spain (1763), Portugal (1728), France (1722), Bolivia (1532), Sweden (1438) that never closed its economy down like we did, and Switzerland (1252).
Tests: We have now conducted 555,423,035 tests (1,667,073/M) just passed by France at 1,708,163 who is now 1st on a per capital basis for all nations (other than those nations that contain small populations like Bahrain, Denmark, Israel, Malta, Singapore and UAE) other than the U.K. which remains as king of the mountain with respect to tests at 3,740,491/M.
CV Open Gate: Lost in the pronouncements by Biden and his lackeys that there is no crisis of illegals surging across the border is that fact that COVID-19 is alive and well and spreading in the Northern Triangle and Mexico which has been passed by Argentina and newly added Columbia to move down to 12th on my list of deaths from the pandemic at 1902/M with a fatality rate of 9.30% of closed cases and the 3 countries in the Northern Triangle in terms of active cases and deaths per million are as follows even though the data may be suspect as underreported (regardless of number we need no more cases):
Guatemala: Active Cases: 42,521 Deaths/M 610
Honduras: Active Cases: 203,766 Deaths/M 831
El Salvador: Active cases: 9,572 Deaths/M 428
US Vaccinations: As of 8/15/2021 356.4 million doses, down from .738 million per day to .722 million per day (down to 6 months to go for 75% of population vaccinated) and in California 82,240 per day (86,593 yesterday) which means if the rate does not increase it will take us still some 4 months to have 75% of the population of California vaccinated which many believe is necessary to develop herd immunity (other than Flip Flop Fauci who may believe that 90% is required). In California 46,466,637 total doses have been given (88.4% of doses received to exceed the U.S. average of 85.8%), but even with the pressure of a recall to be scheduled this fall which hopefully end Newsom’s term, California has moved up from 17th to 15th of the 50 states in terms of the percentage of doses administered as a percentage of doses delivered to the states and at 54.2% of its population fully vaccinated compared to the U.S. average of 50.7% has not moved from 17th among the 50 states. A long way to go still to get herd immunity in terms of getting vaccines received into arms and the percentage of the population fully vaccinated compared to other states which means a great reason to recall this inept and hypocritical governor.
Non CV News: Biden caught by apparent complete surprise by the collapse of the Afghan military and the absence of any useful warning by his intel services addressed the nation this afternoon as the chaos of Afghans trying to leave the country had 7 desperate people clinging to planes loaded with evacuees falling to their deaths as the plane took off; he may have misled the American people by saying the Afghan forces would not fight the Taliban when they have but once the U.S. pulled its air support and intel they were severely damaged and did not reveal that the military leaders called for a retention of a small number of troops backed by air power not a complete withdrawal of all forces; in typical Biden fashion dished out blame but took none for himself and then fled back to Camp David to continue his vacation; the big potential winners in this collapse are China which appears angling to recognize the Taliban and move into the vacuum left by the withdrawal of the U.S. and Iran which shares a border with Afghanistan; anti-Trumper Liz Cheney pulled no punches attacking Biden for ignoring the military and withdrawing military forces comparing it to the fall of Saigon only much worse; Leon Panetta, former Secretary of Defense, blasted Biden and compared the disaster and impact on the president like the fiasco in the Bay of Pigs in 1961; after receiving severe backlash on its decision to abandon the impeachment investigation, Blue Assembly leaders in New York reversed themselves to continue the investigation of Cuomo’s potential criminal activities; heads should role in the Biden Administration over the Taliban’s defeating the Afghan government with former Obama adviser Brett Bruen, director of global engagement strongly urging Biden to fire his national security adviser Jake Sullivan; NYC’s vaccine mandate requiring anyone who wants to dine in, work out in a gym or attend an indoor concert must show proof of at least one vaccine shot (since Blues have attacked voter ID laws as discriminating against blacks because they are not as likely to possess a driver’s license wonder if same argument can be made since blacks are proportionately less likely to be vaccinated that whites); as chaos is seen at the Kabul Airport as hundreds of terrified Afghans are trying to board planes trying to leave, leave it to the political cartoonist to bring back memories of the fall of Saigon: 
1. National Rum Day—celebrating the third most popular spirit in the United States and with the tax on molasses, rum and sugar imposed by the British on the colonies by the Sugar Act of 1764 was instrumental in creating the unrest that helped lead us into the Revolutionary War.
2. National Roller Coaster Day—commemorating since 1986 the thrill seeking ride that today is typically goes faster and faster with riders emitting more and more screams as it rocks, rolls and weaves to the ground from higher and higher heights and patented on this day in 1898 by Edwin Prescott.
3. 1989 Number 1 Song USA—the number 1 song in 1989 on this day was “Right Here Waiting” by Richard Marx for 3 weeks in that position to join 31 other songs that achieved number 1 status as 12 acts achieved their first number 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Here is a music video of “Right Here Waiting” by Richard Marx: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_E2EHVxNAE Marx is an American singer who began his career at age 5 singing commercial jingles and released his first album in 1987 and between 1987 and 1994 released 14 top 20 singles and is still performing today at 57.
4. Word of the Day—the word of the day is “scuttlebutt” which in addition to meaning rumor and idle gossip also a cask of drinking water on a ship.
5. The Longest Suicide—celebrating the birth on this day in 1929 of noted American jazz composer and pianist William Evans who battled heroin addiction to beat it through methadone only to move on to a cocaine habit while still working but slowed down by his brothers suicide in 1979 to die on September 15, 1980 shortly after being admitted to Mount Sinai Hospital in NYC with cirrhosis, a peptic ulcer, pneumonia and untreated hepatitis in what his friend and music critic Gene Lees called the “longest suicide in history.”
On this day in:
a. 1896 Slocum Jim Mason, Dawson Charlie and George Carmack discovered gold at Rabbit Creek, a tributary to the Klondike River in the Yukon Territory in Canada kicking off the Klondike Gold Rush which saw 100,000 prospectors descend into the Klondike, most of whom found not enough gold to pay their expenses.
b. 1954 to the joy of sports fans and later swimsuit lovers, the first issue of Sports Illustrated was published.
c. 2008 in Chicago the International Trump Hotel and Tower was topped off at 1389 feet to become at that time the tallest residence above ground level in the world. d. 2017 the Minamata Convention which was signed October 10, 2013 to prevent mercury contamination and emissions became effective.
e. 2020 lightning strikes starting on this day and ending on the 17th started 37 fires in Northern California which merged into one fire that burned 1614 square miles by the time it was put out on November 12, killing one firefighter and destroying 935 buildings.
Reflections on the dangers of traversing the Chilcott Trail to get into the Klondike during the Klondike Gold Rush: “ The scene was a weird and terrible one. Small air holes sometimes appeared in the snow to mark the spot where a man or woman had been buried, and somewhere beneath them, the searchers could hear the muffled cries of the victims… Relatives above called out their last good-byes to those entombed below. Many people were saved, pulled from the depths by their fellow stampeders, but approximately 70 died. As the hours wore on, those who were not rescued at once slowly became anesthetized by the carbon dioxide given off by their own breathing; they began to feel drowsy, and drifted off into a dreamless sleep from which few awoke,” Pierre Burton, The Klondike Fever: The Life and Death of the Last Great Gold Rush, describing an avalanche on the Chilcott Trail on April 3, 1898 with 30 feet of snow cascading down to kill 70 prospectors climbing up to get into the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush.
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© August 16, 2021 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet
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