Monday, May 18, 2020

May 18, 2020 Ridley's Believe It Or Not World Vaccine Day


Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For May 18, 2020 The CV pandemic across the planet continues with 75.512 74,267  new cases  (a 1.58%  increase compared to a 1.58% increase yesterday) to bring the total to 4,848,238   cases, 2,650,306 of  which  are active, 2,197,932 of which have been closed with 1,880,137  recoveries (85.54% compared to  yesterday’s 85.44%) and 317,795  deaths (14.46% compared to yesterday’s 14.6%); in the U.S. which has the dubious distinction of leading the world in total cases with new cases of 16,945   have brought total cases to 1,532,949 (a 1.12% increase compared to yesterday’s .93% increase)  with 1,880,137  active cases and 438,321   closures, 91,096  of which have been deaths (20.78% compared to  yesterday’s 20.97%) and 347,225 340,727 of which  have been recoveries (79.22%  compared to yesterday’s 79.03%) while total testing has increased to  12,300,097   an increase of 199,209 from yesterday; Trump revealed in passing that he has been taking hydroxychloroquine for two weeks as added insurance of not contracting the virus; Biden held another basement bunker video interrupted by geese honking, birds chirping and an iPhone ringing but still managed to attack Trump for spreading xenophobia and not getting money to small business (faded memory of the Blues on recess not getting additional PPP funds added as millions more were thrown out of work); after taking steps to free this country from dependence on Chinese made pharmaceuticals and supplies, on May 27 we will free ourselves from Russia as the sole space human delivery source with SpaceX sending 2 American astronauts to the International Space Station (great testimony to private enterprise and in particular the vision of Elon Musk);  Hidin’ Biden and Obama must be breathing a sigh of relief as the AG the left loves to attack, Barr, has announced he does not see a criminal investigation arising out of Durham’s probe; Judge Sullivan in the Flynn case is looking more and more like the Mad Hatter every day as he has appointed former Clinton appointee District Judge John Gleeson to submit an amicus curiae brief on whether the DOJ can dismiss the charges (poor Flynn still incurring legal fees he cannot afford facing Gleeson’s request he submit his brief on June 10 and then followed by oral arguments at court’s convenience—political flack notwithstanding to him from the usual cast of sufferers of TDS, Trump should end this travesty and pardon Flynn); Dr. Oxiris of the “I don’t care two rats’ asses” fame hopefully due to intervention by de Blasio has apologized to the NYPD for her remarks although it is not clear whether the masks requested have been delivered; Ken Osmond best known for his role as Eddie Haskell on “Leave It to Beaver” has died at age 76; like a breath of fresh air Marianne Williamson is back on the political scene endorsing Shahid Buttar, a progressive leftist of the most extreme kind against Nancy Pelosi who took 74% of her district’s primary vote (poster child for term limits to prevent political fiefdoms); in Chicago, as of May 17, 2020, 964 shootings of whom 174 have died (so much for the effectiveness of Chicago’s stay at home order); 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 is 66 behind Chicago with 108 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,  musical links to Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth, the fact that you are not going to be overset in pursuit of your goals and a quote from John Mashall Harlan’s dissent in Plessey v. Fergusonsecure 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. World AIDS Vaccine Day—celebrated first on this day in 1998 to promote awareness of the need to develop a vaccine for AIDS which kills some 1 million a year and infects some 1.7 million new victims a year with a disease that is no longer an automatic death sentence but treating it costs some $14,000 to $20,000 a year which explains why a vaccine is truly needed.
2. International Museum Daycreated by the International Council Of Museums to promote awareness of the contributions to our culture and society of museums.
3. 2015 Number One Song— the number 1 song in 2015 on this day on a run of 12 weeks not continuous in the position was “See You Again” by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth Here is a recording of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgKAFK5djSk . Khalifa has been a long time pot user and is now sponsored by the Cookie Company, a medical marijuana dispensing company which sells his Khalifa Kush. Charlie Puth aped Justin Bieber and used YouTube to launch his musical career.
4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “overset” which means to upset which Reds want to do in spades to take over control of the House and Blues want the same in the Senate.
5. Hard to Hurdle a Vatcelebrating the birth on this day in 1950 of Olympic Hurdler Rod Milburn who won a gold in the 110m high hurdles in the 1972 Munich Olympics but after graduation with no prospect of playing professional football and unable to endorse commercial products signed up with the newly formed professional Track Association until it folded in 1976. He was prevented from defending his title in the 1976 Olympics because of his time with the ITA and when the rules changed he tried out for the 1980 Olympics only to have a boycott ordered by President Jimmy Carter. He retired from competitive athletics in 1983 and coached track at Southern University until 1987 and finally procured work as a utility crewman at a Georgia Pacific Paper Mill where on November 11, 1997 he fell into a sodium chlorate tank and died.
On this day in:               
 a. 1896 SCOTUS in the case of Plessey v. Ferguson ruled 7-1 that segregation in public facilities did not violate the 14th Amendment as long as the facilities were separate but equal which subjected blacks in the Jim Crow South to segregation in unequal facilities for the next 68 years until the SCOTUS recognized the error of its ways in Brown v. Board of Education.
 b. 1953 Jackie Cochran became the first female to break the sound barrier.
 c. 1974 under the code name Smiling Buddha, India detonated a nuclear weapon becoming the sixth nation to join the nuclear weapons club.
 d. 1980 Mt. Helens in Washington erupted, killing 57 people and causing $1.1 billion in property damages as sending large amounts of ash into 11 states and 5 Canadian provinces.
 e. 2018 a 17 year old Santé Fe High School student Dimitrios Pagourtzis, went to the school and started shooting killing 8 students and 2 teacher, and wounding 13 students before suffering a wound and being taken into custody to be charged with multiple counts of murder and assault; he was judged not be fit for trial and was sentenced to a mental institution for up to a year of evaluation to determine if he will be fit to stand trial.
 Reflections on Plessey v. Ferguson from someone who had it right: ““The sure guaranty of the peace and security of each race is the clear, distinct, unconditional recognition by our governments, national and state, of every right that inheres in civil freedom, and of the equality before the law of all citizens of the United States, without regard to race. State enactments regulating the enjoyment of civil rights upon the basis of race, and cunningly devised to defeat legitimate results of the war, under the pretense of recognizing equality of rights, can have no other result than to render permanent peace impossible, and to keep alive a conflict of races, the continuance of which must do harm to all concerned.”― John Marshall Harlan’s Dissent in Plessey v. Ferguson Think of all the chaos and hatred we endured because of the decision and all the harmony we could have gained had it been decided the other way.
 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 18, 2020 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
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