Ridley’s Believe It Or Not May 14, 2021
CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues the new year with cases now over 162 million at 162,438,045 cases (161,830,354 yesterday), 17,751,570 of which are active, 143,617,340 closed with 140,248,379 recoveries (97.65% and 97.65% yesterday ,and 3,368,961 deaths (2.35% and 2.35 % yesterday) to continue the slow trend of increased cases with increased recovery percentages and decreased death percentage with some plateaus, dips, and rises.
CV USA Cases: Total cases now over 33 million at 33,650,248 (33,608,310 yesterday) with 6,350,239 active cases of which 8,411 (8,647) yesterday and 8,599 on 3/25/2021) (now down to .14% of active cases and now another blip down to decrease the number of serious or critical cases to increase the reduction from the 29,271 peak on 12/31/2020 to 20,860), 27,299,919 closed, with 599,109 deaths (2.19% and 2.20% yesterday) and with 26,700,810 recoveries (97.81% and 97.80% yesterday). Our death rate percentage continues to slowly improve and after many months is now .16%’ lower than the world rate.
Standing: On a deaths per million population measurement on a steady climb to 1801 the U.S. ranks behind Hungary the new number 1 which has had a huge continuing surge in deaths with the increase barely slowing down and 4.60% of its closed cases have died (3013), aping Hungary in terms of increase in deaths Bulgaria (2491), Belgium (2118), Italy (2052), Brazil (2023) which has been hit with a rapid rise in deaths and cases and passed us, Peru (1957), Poland (1886)and the UK (1872) which had passed us despite leading world in testing and now has new deaths barely increasing), and slightly better than Spain (1696), Mexico (1690), Portugal (1671), France (1643), Romania (1538), Argentina (1520), Chile (1436), Sweden (1406) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a steady rise in deaths, Switzerland (1232), and Bolivia (1135). Tests: We have now conducted 463,820,352 tests (now at 1,394,193/M) compared to number 2 now France at 1,233,951/M) as we are conducting more tests in number and 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 2,478,319/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 moved up to 11th on my list of deaths from the pandemic at 1690/M 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: Activecases: 12,869 431Deaths/M
Honduras: Activecases: 135,837 587Deaths/M
El Salvador: Active cases: 2,319 334 Deaths/M
US Vaccinations: As of 5/14/2021 268.4 million doses and finally after a third day of increases dropping for the second day to 1.95 million per day in the last week sounds impressive but if the rate does not increase it will take us now back to some 4 months to have 75% of the population vaccinated which many believe is necessary to develop herd immunity. In California 34,319,950 total doses have been given (78.0% of doses received now less than the U.S. average of 78.5%), but even with the pressure of a recall to be scheduled this fall which hopefully end Newsom’s term, California has moved up from 26th tied with Maryland to 30th out of the 50 states in terms of the percentage of doses administered as a percentage of doses delivered to the states and at 37.1% of its population fully vaccinated compared to the U.S. average of 36.2% has moved up from 25th to 24th tied with Ohio among the 50 states. A long way to go 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: As another example of why we need term limits at the federal level to prevent the establishment of an aristocratic ruling class, Maxine Waters has been demanding air marshals be on her flights even the flight to Minneapolis to present at the Chauvin verdict pulling air marshals away from flights deemed high risk (sadly this tyrant is alone as more and more members of Congress are demanding Marshals on board making commercial air travel for them more like a concierge service); on the anniversary of Israel’s creation in 1948, the nation looks headed for war against Hamas as it calls up now 9,000 reservists and rockets continue to be launched against it (the progressive side of the Blues is condemning Israel and the BLM shows its true Marxist colors by standing with the Palestinians); rising star in the Reds Elise Stefanick was elected by the Reds to replace an ousted Liz Cheney pledging unity in the party and a goal to regain the House in 2022; a fully vaccinated Bill Maher has tested positive for CV, is asymptomatic, and “is feeling fine” (hopefully he is also unable to spread the virus which would likely imperil the push to get more people vaccinated); the CDC hopefully in its last flip flop has indicated that fully vaccinated people do not need to wear masks indoors or outdoors or heed social distancing as some critics of Biden allege the change is due to the need to distract attention from the growing number of crises the administration seems incapable of handling from the border surge to the Colonial Pipeline ransomware to looming Israeli Hamas armed conflict; concerned over the barrier to going back to work that the enhanced unemployment compensation is creating, 16 states will be terminating those benefits this summer as businesses are complaining they can’t find workers to fill vacant jobs; NYC continues to spiral downward in terms of public safety with the latest being a spree of stabbings on the subway system and instead of more uniformed officers, DeBlasio’s latest brilliant idea is to of have municipal workers use a buddy system when using the subways.
Medina Spirit, the winner of the Kentucky Derby whose disqualification is still up in the air, has been cleared to run in the Preakness; former MLB player Johnny Damon who was arrested for a DUI with a BAT of .3% has cut a deal with prosecutors in Florida to avoid jail time with community service and a donation to charity; (had he been arrested in Boston given his role in bring the Red Sox a World Series Championship the police would have probably issued a warning and then driven him home); even though it may be hard to link Biden to the Colonial Pipeline ransomware, leave it to the political cartoonist to gauge the public’s thinking of who to blame:
Where’s Waldo, who has not been to the border, has border state mayors and governors and the Border Patrol rightfully feeling abandoned and mystified as to what if anything she has in mind to address the crisis other than the platitude “address the root causes” has higher negatives than positives which should surprise no one.
Chicago Gun Violence: Hey Jackass.com is back to show that through May 13, 2021, gun violence involving mostly persons of color shooting mostly persons of color in Chicago is alive and well with 1189 persons shot of whom 206 have died.
As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a video musical link to “Freak Me” by Silk , the fact that you want resipiscence from the Progressives in the Blues and a quote from Burt Rutan on the Space Lab and space travel. 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 on the pricing.
1. Underground America Day—created by architect Malcom Wells in 1974 to promote the idea of creating housing underground which some 6,000 Americans have followed and who died in 2009 and who true to the holiday he created is probably now buried permanently 6 feet underground.
2. Shades Day—created in 2016 by the Family Holiday Association, a UK charity helping cope with issues such as disability, severe and sudden illness, bereavement, mental health issues and domestic violence and founded on the on the belief that holidays are a lifeline, not a luxury with many of their donated holidays at the beach which usually will involve the need for wearing shades.
3. 1993 Number 1 Song USA—the number 1 song in 1993 was “Freak Me” by Silk on a run of 2 weeks in that position to join 10 other songs reaching number 1 and 5 other acts achieving their first number 1 song. Here is a video recording by Silk of “Freak Me”:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry6XUsow4Vg Silk was formed as a quintet in Atlanta, Georgia and after a one year hiatus in 2002 is still performing today, having released 7 albums.
a. 1878 in a “you have to be kidding me” moment, in Salem, Massachusetts, Lucretia L. S. Brown, an adherent of Christian Science, accused fellow adherent Daniel H. Spofford of attempting to harm her through his “mesmeric” powers. Fortunately, the judge quickly dismissed the case which gives it the distinction of the last attempted witchcraft trial in the United States.
b. 1943 a Japanese submarine torpedoed and sunk the Australian Hospital Ship the AHS Centaur, off the coast of Queensland, killing all but 64 of the 334 patients, staff and crew aboard.
c. 1955 the Soviet Union and 7 Eastern Europe Communist Countries signed a mutual defense pact to counter NATO.
d. 1973 Skylab, America’s first space station, was successfully launched and was occupied by 3 different crews for a total of about 24 weeks until 1974 and since the Shuttle was not yet available to reboost its orbit higher, the orbit decayed and ended up disintegrating over the Indian Ocean on July 11, 1979.
e. 1988 on Interstate 71 near Carrollton, Kentucky, Larry Mahoney, DUI driver driving the wrong way ran head on into a church youth group bus carrying 67 people, killing 27 and injuring 34. Mahoney was tried for multiple counts of manslaughter, convicted, and served 9 ½ years in prison.
Reflections on Skylab and missed opportunities: “By 1973, we had a space station, the Skylab, and we had multiple probes going up to planets. So, all this wonderful stuff happened in 10 to 15 years. About that time, there should have been enormous initiatives to make it affordable for people to fly in space, not just a handful of trained NASA astronauts and Russian cosmonauts.” Burt Rutan, noted aerospace engineer and designer.
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.
© May 14, 2021 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet
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