Ridley's Believe It Or Not December 16, 2020
CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues with 717,871 new cases (a .97% increase compared to a .91% increase yesterday) to bring the total over 74 million to 74,404,331, 20,551,413 of which are active, 53,852,918 closed with 52,200,236 recoveries (96.93% compared to yesterday’s 96.93%) and 1,652,592 deaths (3.07% compared to yesterday’s 3.07%) to continue the trend of increased cases with increased recovery percentages and decreased death percentages.
CV USA Cases: New cases of 240,304 (a 1.36% increase compared to yesterday’s 1.41% increase) to bring the total over 17 million to 17,314,853 with 6,887,662 active cases of which 28,310 (.41% of active cases), recently on a disturbing upward trend with no dips from a high of 19,155 on July 23 (27,874 yesterday which means sadly the peak has not been reached), are in serious or critical condition as trend has shifted and is still continuing to go up, and 10,427,231 closures, 313,665 of which have been deaths (3.01% compared to yesterday’s 3.02%) and 10,113,566 of which have been recoveries (96.99% compared to yesterday’s 96.98%). Our death rate percentage continues to improve and after many months is now .06% lower than the world rate and .31% 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 945 ranks behind Belgium (1565), Peru (1110), Italy (1101), Spain (1039), and UK (963 which has now passed us despite leading world in testing), and only slightly worse than Argentina (908), France (908), Mexico (888), Bulgaria (867 and newly added to list and just passing Brazil), Brazil (862), Chile (832 that we recently passed), Ecuador (783), Bolivia (768) and Sweden (770) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a rapid rise in deaths and we have now conducted 1,733,489 more tests to bring the total to 226,675,901 (now at 682,971/M compared to Russia at 574.577/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 717,266/M).
Non CV Case News: On the Hunter Biden scandal front, emails surface that he will have to amend his tax return to report an additional $400 thousand of income and his communication to Chairman Ye of the now bankrupt CEFC urging him to wire the $10 million to fund and operate the joint venture with CEFC and the Biden family; the MSM and #MeToo double standard being played out in the sexual harassment allegations leveled against Big Fredo and those hysterical charges levied against Justice Kavanaugh are sickening (Big Fredo should be on his knees thanking God that even if the accuser is a Blue as a Blue governor the charges are ignored); in an example that although the wheels of justice move slowly, they do ultimately move as reports coming out of the DOJ indicate that the DOJ is close to charging Abu Agila Mas’ud, the Libyan bomb maker and intelligence officer involved in the Pan Am Lockerbie bombing; Twitter has expanded its algorithms to ban false and misleading information about the CV vaccines (why in our right minds would we trust Twitter to determine what is misleading and false?); the stimulus relief bill may be moving closing and may now include direct checks to $600-$1200 to people earning less than $99,000; Big Fredo who has never acknowledged his culpability in the death of thousands in NY nursing homes has indicated that 80,000 of the 87,000 first doses of the vaccine will go to residents of nursing homes that have now 85,000 residents. Chicago/Baltimore Gun Violence: In Chicago as of December 15, 2020, the number of shootings increased to 4,033 of whom 686 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 367 behind Chicago at 319 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); in another example of do as I say not as I do, the Governor of Rhode Island 4 days after hectoring everyone to stay home, was caught on camera in a wine bar with associates (in this unlike Newsom’ French Laundry faux pas, she wore a mask save when drinking and her activity was not in violation of any existing orders but still fares poorly on the hypocrisy scales).
As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to “Please Mr. Postman” by The Marvelettes, the fact that you are loathe to be profligate until more Americans are vaccinated against the CV pandemic and a quote from an unnamed SS Colonel on the effects of the loss in the Battle of the Bulge, 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 details.
1. Boston Tea Party Day—celebrating the first major opposition to British rule in the colonies when on the night of December 16, 1773 some 100 Sons of Liberty dressed as Mohawk Indians boarded the British ships Dartmouth, Beaver and Eleanor and to protest the imposition of a tax by Parliament without their consent on the Colonies’ favorite beverage, tea, proceeded to dump 342 chests of tea containing over 90,000 pounds of tea after opening them with tomahawks to expose the tea to the salt water of Boston Harbor.
2. Reconciliation Day—celebrated in South Africa since 1995 to mark the end of apartheid and promote racial harmony between blacks and whites.
3. 1961 Number One Song— the number 1 song in 1961 on this day on a run of only 1 week was “Please Mr. Postman” by the Marvelettes to join 18 other number 1 songs and 15 other acts with their first number 1 song. Here is a recording of The Marvelettes singing the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igHCZla4hps The group marveled listeners in the earlier 60’s until eclipsed by the Supremes, made a comeback in 1966 and faded away in 1970.
4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “profligate” which means rashly extravagant which describes Blue’s spending habits to a tee, sadly followed by it seems Reds in a close second.
5. Reaching New Highs--celebrating the birth on this day in 1928 of noted and prolific science fiction author Philip K. Dick with over 120 short stories and 44 novels but may have reached the paranormal inspirations with drug use and died of a stroke on March 2, 1982 at age 53 having survived 5 marriages and 5 divorces.
On this day in:
a. 1907 at the behest of President Theodore Roosevelt, the Great White Fleet of battleships began its circumnavigation show the flag of the globe, arriving back in the U.S. on February 22, 2009.
b. 1944 in what proved to be Hitler’s last gamble on the Western Front, German forces launched a surprise attack of 3 armies through the Ardennes Forest, reminiscent of the same maneuver during the 1940 Battle of France, in what became known as the Battle of the Bulge and after initial successes turned into a crushing disaster for the Wehrmacht.
c. 1968 in a what took you so look moment, the Second Vatican Council revoked the Edict of Expulsion of Jews from Spain issued on March 31, 1492.
d. 1978 Cleveland, Ohio, infamous for having its Cuyahoga River catch fire, became the first major city in the U.S. to default on its major financial obligations since the Great Depression.
e. 1979 to the dismay of motorists and consumers, Libya and 4 other nations raise the price of oil.
Reflections on the cost of failure of the Ardennes Offensive: "Berlin will be the most practical as our headquarters, we'll soon be able to take the streetcar from the eastern to the western front". An unnamed SS Colonel reporting after the failure of the Ardennes Offensive on January 15 as bad news was pouring in on Russian activity on the Eastern Front, prompty provoking Hitler to laugh wanly joined by officers in the room.
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 16, 2020 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
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