Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For April 16, 2020 the CV pandemic continues unabated with 86,638 new cases increasing the total to 2,172,924 cases, 1,481,720 of which are active, 691,204 have been closed with 546,272 recoveries (79.03%) and 144,932 deaths (20.97%); in the U.S. which has the dubious distinction of leading the world, new cases of 26,582 have brought total cases to 684,575 with 582,895 active cases and 91,690 closures, 34,458 (37.58%) have been deaths and 57,232 (62.42%) have been recoveries while total testing has ramped up to 3,385,821; in a complete example of being MIA while ice cream splurging Pelosi is enjoying her gourmet ice cream the House under her leadership is on a paid recess as the SBA has stopped taking PPP loan applications as it has run out of it its $350 billion initial authorization (anyone of the 22,000,000 Americans now out of work and not receiving unemployment because the California system like many states has crashed who live in her district or for that matter any district with a Blue Congressperson needs to vote against the incumbent in November); while Kavanaugh was brutally and relentless attacked on spurious allegations of sexual harassment allegations from 3 decades ago, Biden is the beneficiary of kid glove treatment from MSM and the #Metoo movement; the Cack News Network took a breather from 24/7 attacks on Trump to falsely attack Musk for his failure to live up to promise to produce for hospitals 1,000 ventilators prompting one of the more brilliant men on this planet to tweet total surprise that this network still exists (right on Elon; millions wonder also); witless Whitmer of Michigan has been sued by two groups over her draconian stay at home orders that at least sheriffs of four counties have vowed not to enforce (she is trampling the Constitution in order to be named as VP on Biden’s ticket); Wisconsin’s governor has extended his state’s shutdown for another month (with 22 million out of work, good question is which will spread faster, the CV or number of protesters nationwide demanding to be able to go back to work); G7 leaders met by video to discuss the need to reform W.H.O. in view of its abysmal and biased performance on the CV and its relationship with China; in Chicago, as of April 15, 2020, 658 shootings of whom 124 have died but none yesterday; Baltimore with a fraction of Chicago’s population and hoping against all hopes that 2020 will not be a record in terms of deaths now stands at 37 behind Chicago with 87 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 more deadly and more numerous than random mass shootings?).
As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical video link to Falco, the fact that if you do suffer from opsomania, the object of your desire is easy to procure, and a quote by Justice Jessica Cooper to Kevorkian before sentencing him,secure in the knowledge that if you want to find 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. You need only contact me for details.
1. National Healthcare Decisions Day—created in 2008 by Nathan Kottkamp, a Virginia-based health care lawyer, to provide clear, concise, and consistent information on healthcare decision-making to both the public and providers/facilities through the widespread availability and dissemination of simple, free, and uniform tools (not just forms) to guide the process which given the pandemic that is sweeping across this country is more useful than ever.
2. Foursquare Day—created by Foursquare Labs, Inc. in 2008 and introduced in 2009 as a mobile app designed to locate points or shops of interest based on a user’s locations.
3. 1986 Number One Song— the number 1 song in 1986 on this day on a run of 3 weeks in the position was “Rock Me Amadeus” by Falco. Here is a recording of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVikZ8Oe_XA This very popular and successful Austrian born singer/song writer who was planning a comeback was killed in the Dominican Republic in a automobile accident on February 6, 1988 at the age of 40.
4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “opsomania” which means an abnormal love for a certain kind of food which for this poet might be lobster.
5. Tackled and Burried by a Coronary—celebrating the birth on this day in 1950 of noted actor Philip Graf, best noted by his role as the gun loving police officer, Ernest Tackleberry in the Police Academy series of films who sadly died just before his 51st birthday on a heart attack.
On this day in:
a. 1917 with the aid and complicity of Germany, Vladimir Lenin returned from Switzerland where he was in exile to arrive in Petrograd, Russia.
b. 1947 Bernard Baruch applied the term “Cold War” to described the relations between the United States and the Soviet Union.
c. 1990 Jack Kevorkian, “Doctor Death” participated in his first assisted suicide.
d. 2007 at Virginia Tech Seung-Hui Cho who emigrated from South Korea at the age of 8 as was a student at Virginia Tech killed 32 and wounded 17 before killing himself as police breached the barricades to the building he was holed up in.
e. 2012 the Pulitzer Prizes were announced and for the first time in its award history no prizes in fiction ware announced.
Reflections on Kevorkian at his trial for murder on an assisted suicide: “This is a court of law and you said you invited yourself here to take a final stand. But this trial was not an opportunity for a referendum. The law prohibiting euthanasia was specifically reviewed and clarified by the Michigan Supreme Court several years ago in a decision involving your very own cases, sir. So the charge here should come as no surprise to you. You invited yourself to the wrong forum. Well, we are a nation of laws, and we are a nation that tolerates differences of opinion because we have a civilized and a nonviolent way of resolving our conflicts that weighs the law and adheres to the law. We have the means and the methods to protest the laws with which we disagree. You can criticize the law, you can write or lecture about the law, you can speak to the media or petition the voters.” Judge Jessica Cooper who presided over his trial and sentenced him to 10 to 25 years.
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.
© April 16, 2020 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
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