Friday, August 20, 2021

August 19, 2021 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Afghanistan Independence Day (Ironic But True and Not Because of the Taliban)bec

 

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not August 19, 2021       

            CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues on an increasing basis with cases now over 210 million at  210,796,650 cases (209,997,063 yesterday); 17,645,653 of which are active, 193,151,007  closed with 188,734,785 recoveries (97.71% and 97.71% yesterday, and 4,416,222 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 38 million at 38,231,787 (38,029,940 yesterday)  with 7,198,006 active cases of which 21,335 are serious or critical, (20,978 yesterday and 8,599 on 3/25/2021) (now on a serious upswing due to Delta virus to .296 % of active cases and now a steady increase in the number of serious or critical cases to an decrease the reduction from the 29,271 peak on 12/31/2020 to 7.936, 31,033,781 closed, with 643,112 deaths (2.07% and 2.07% yesterday) and with 30,390,669 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 1930 the U.S. ranks behind Peru (5902 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 (3119), aping Hungary in terms of increase in deaths Bulgaria (2676),   Brazil (2673) which has been hit with a rapid rise in deaths and cases and passed us and Italy, Columbia newly added to the list  (2406),  Argentina (2405), Belgium (2173), Italy (2131), and Poland (1992),   and slightly better than the UK which we just passed on the 18th  (1924), Mexico (1920), Chile (1892), Romania (1801), Ecuador newly added to list (1776), Spain (1775), Portugal (1733), France (1728), Bolivia (1539),  Sweden (1438) that never closed its economy down like we did, and Switzerland (1253). 
              Tests: We have now conducted 563,367,465 tests (1,690,784/M) just passed by France at 1,708,112 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 3,807,936/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 12
th  on my list of deaths from the pandemic  at 1920/M with a fatality rate of 9.18% 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:  46,575 Deaths/M 620
                     Honduras:    Active Cases: 210,466 Deaths/M 846
                     El Salvador:  Active cases:   10,76 Deaths/M 432   
             US Vaccinations: As of 8/19/2021 359.6 million doses, up from .784 million per day to .823  million per day (down to 5 months to go for 75% of population vaccinated) and in California 94,569  per day (90,205 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 46,827,191 total doses have been given (88.0  of doses received to exceed the U.S. average of 85.3%), but even with the pressure of a recall to be scheduled this fall which hopefully end Newsom’s term, California has not moved up from 20th to 17th of the 50 states in terms of the percentage of doses administered as a percentage of doses delivered to the states and at 54.6% of its population fully vaccinated compared to the U.S. average of 51.1% has not moved from 16th . 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: The new more tolerant face of the Taliban may be proving to be a myth as reports out of Kabul are of reports of women being removed from their homes and being hauled over to what most likely will be a violent fate: Blinken like the Blynken was dreaming and evidently did nothing when warned in mid July of the catastrophe that would descend on Kabul after the U.S. troops withdrew so we are no facing the problem of thousands of Americans unable to leave because the airport is blocked by Taliban fighters (Senator McCain warned us this man was not fit for the job he was appointed to in 2014 but all had deaf ears; the Biden Administration is moving to require nursing homes which receive federal aid must have staff and personnel vaccinated; the FDA is moving to approve vaccine booster shots while the WHO troubled by the fact that in many parts of the world there is not enough vaccine doses to administer any significant percentages of the population; California is struggling to fight 13 major wildfires as the small town of Grizzly Flats in Northern California was mostly destroyed by the Caldor Fire, 1 of the 13 raging; 3 fully vaccinated senators have been infected with COVID-19, 2 Blues and 1 Red; 
 with concern over the fallout of Biden’s poorly executed withdrawal plan feared to have dire consequences for us on the world stage, leave it to the political cartoonist to portray what sure looks like total ineptitude on the behalf our military leaders, the Joint Chiefs of Staff of which looks so corpulent and out of shape he probably needs a chauffeur to be taken to the officer’s club for cocktails and dinner:
               Chicago Gun Violence: Hey Jackass.com is alive and well to collect data to show that through August 18, 2021, gun violence involving mostly persons of color shooting mostly persons of color in Chicago is alive and well with 2894 persons shot of whom 501 have died.
               As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a  music video link to  “End of the Road”  by Boyz II Men, that you that you are a sedulous person in your activities and  quotes by Canadian historian Pierre Berton and Victoria Cross winner Patrick Porteous on the Dieppe Raid, 
secure in the knowledge that if you want to send a gift for any memorable events like Labor 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 details on pricing.
              1.  Afghan Independence Day—celebrating in Afghanistan the independence from Great Britain on this day in 1919 but if celebrated by Afghans today good chance of being shot by the Taliban which occurred when some celebrants displayed the Afghanistan flag.
              2.  
National Aviation Day—proclaimed by President Roosevelt on this day in 1939 to commemorate the development of aviation and the birthday of one of its living pioneers Oroville Wright, born on this day in 1871.
              3. 1992 Number 1 Song USA—the number 1 song in 1992 on this day was “End of the Road” by Boyz II Men for 13 weeks in that position to join 11 other songs that achieved number 1 status and join 7 other acts that achieved their first number 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Here is a music video of “End of the Road by Boyz II Men:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDKO6XYXioc Boyz II Men started out as a quartet vocal group in Philadelphia in 1987 and are now a trio with the distinction of ranking 6th in the number of weeks their various records have ranked Number 1 on the charts.
              4.  
Word of the Day—the word of the day is “sedulous” which means describing a person or activity which is diligent which would not describe our Commander in Chief in terms of anticipation of the crisis unfolding in Afghanistan.
              5.  Blue Dress Sagacelebrating or bemoaning the birth on this day in 1946 depending on your political point of view of Bill Clinton the 2nd President of the United States to be impeached and not convicted and who morphed experience of quid pro quo for nights in the Lincoln Bedroom into the quid pro quo art into the stratosphere with the Clinton Foundation.
              On this day in:
               a. 1942 in one of the more misnamed operations for the mostly Canadian 6,038 attacking forces Operation Jubilee landed at Dieppe on the cost of Northern France and in less than 10 hours was forced to withdraw by the responding German who inflicted on the Canadian landing troops 907 killed and 2460 wounded and captured 1946.

               b. 1960 U-2 pilot Gary Powers downed by a Soviet anti-aircraft missile that was capable of reaching a height not thought possible by the U.S. was sentenced to 10 years in prison but after serving 1 year, 10 months and 9 days was released in exchange for capture Soviet spy Colonel Abel. 
               c. 1989 during the Pan-European Picnic held near Sopron, Hungary at the Austrian Hungary border, after a pigeon had walked through the barbed wire border fence, hundreds of East Germans crossed unhindered into Austria which marked the beginning of the end soon to follow of the Berlin Wall, the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union.
               d. 2005 in a potentially chilling omen, China and Russia had joint military exercises under the soothing name of Peace Mission 2005.
               e. 2017 a fish pen at a salmon farm on Cypress Island, Skagit County, Washington broke releasing over 240,000 farmed Atlantic salmon into the wild, prompting the Washington Fish and Game to authorize unlimited fishing of Atlantic salmon but only portion of the escaped fish were caught. Washington which had been the only state on the Pacific Coast in 2018 in response to the spill banned salmon aquaculture effective 2025.
               Reflections on the disastrous Dieppe Raid: “Canadian historian Pierre Berton wrote: “How ironic it is that for Canadians the defining battle of the Great War was a glorious victory [Vimy Ridge], while its counterpart, twenty-five years later, was a bitter defeat.” Canadian historian Pierre Berton For a more direct and scathing reflections: “The people who planned it should be shot.” Captain Patrick Porteous who was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions during the battle as quoted in his obituary in the Toronto Globe and Mail of 16 October 2000.
          
   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.

© August 19, 2021 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet
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