January 12, 2021 Ridley's Beleive It Or Not National Pharmacists Day

 Ridley’s Believe It Or Not January 12, 2021

      CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues the new year with  surging cases over 92 million at 92,035,548 with 787,145 new cases (a .86% increase and .64% yesterday)  24,182,398 of  which  are active, 67,853,150 closed with 65,882,548 recoveries (97.10% and 97.09% yesterday) and 1,970,602 deaths (2.90% and 2.91% yesterday) to continue the trend of increased cases with increased recovery  percentages and decreased death percentages with some plateaus.

      CV USA Cases: Total cases now over 23 million at 23,196,299 with 173,433 new cases (a .75% increase and .84% yesterday)  with 9,163,873 active cases of which 29,222 (.32% of active cases and a decrease of 49 from a peak of 29,271 on December 31) are in serious or critical condition 14,205,859 closures,  389,621 of which have been deaths (2.74% and 2.76% yesterday) and 13,816,238 of which have been recoveries (97.26% and 97.24% yesterday). Our death rate percentage continues to improve and after many months is now .17% lower than the world rate and .16% 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 1173 ranks behind Belgium (1738), Italy (1321),  UK (1222) which had passed us despite leading world in testing), and Bulgaria (1196), and only slightly worse than Peru (1156), Spain (1127), Hungary (1125), France (1053),  Mexico (1046), Argentina (987), Switzerland (975), Brazil (960), Sweden (954) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a rapid rise in deaths, Chile (895) that we recently passed, Bolivia (894) and  Ecuador (798) and we have now conducted 2,361,374 more tests to bring the total to 275,604,865 (now at 830,036/M compared to Russia at 645,963/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, Malta, Singapore and UAE) but for the U.K. which remains off the testing charts with tests at 898,410/M.

      Non CV Case News: Vice President Pence has politely told the Wicked Witch of the West to get back on her broom and said he would not initiate the 25^th Amendment so the Blues with of all icons of patriotic fervor Eric Swalwell named by Pelosi as one of the prosecutors (Fang must be so pleased her boy is in the spotlight of power again; Blues commence impeachment proceedings tomorrow with a few Fed defectives including Liz Cheney who is the Chairman the  House Republican Conference Committee that has prompted calls that she should be removed from her post; In an internal memo, the FBI has issued a warning that it has credible threats of armed protests at state capitals during the Biden inauguration; Pelosi in what In what is a real threat to our democracy  and Constitution is moving forward to impeach the president with 8 days left in his term after trying to get Pence to invoke the 25^th which was never designed for this (what would Pelosi do if Trump resigned and Pence as the new president pardoned Trump, his family members, cabinet members and anyone one in authority who worked on the campaign?—can one imagine the howl of the Blues wanting every last ounce of flesh from Trump’s body?); Biden is going to start his 100 days of Unity Agenda with an impeachment trial that will not please the 75 million or so Americans who voted for Trump as it is almost guaranteed the Blues will have enough votes to impeach him to send him to a Senate impeachment trial that will not start before the 19^th; Alabama ended the college impacted CV season with a crushing destruction of Ohio State 52-24 (if there is an NFL expansion slot open, could not go wrong with Alabama as a team and Sabin as a coach); Newsom’s vaccine rollout continues to be a disaster with California an epicenter of new cases and deaths but fortunately the recall petition for Gruesome Newsom has now surpassed 1,000,000 signatures and only needs 500,000 more to put the recall Newsom petition on the ballot: https://recallgavin2020.com/petition/

         Chicago/Baltimore Gun Violence: In the new-year gun violence is unchecked primarily with shooters of color shooting and killing victims of color but it looks like my data site Hey Jackass.com has now been blocked from giving out daily data.

As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” by Rupert Holmes, the  fact that you do not suffer from pseudodosmia, and a quote on human cloning by Lewis Thomas, 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 the details on the pricing.

         1. National Poetry at Work Day—created by the editorial staff of Tweetspeak to be celebrated on the second Tuesday in January starting in 2013 to promote not poetry per se but poetry created in the workplace and by the workplace as many poets were forced to have day jobs while they create their poetry.
          2. National Pharmacists Day—commemorating the contribution to our health care system by pharmacists who may be become even more indispensable as  distribution centers for the COVID-18 vaccine which is experiencing great logjams in terms of getting the vaccine into the arms of more Americans.

          3.  1980 Number One Song—the number 1 song in 1980 on this day with a run of 1 week in that position was “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” by Rupert Holmes, joining 16 other number one songs. Here is a recording of Rupert Holmes singing “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb6l38eP-4w Holmes is a noted singer, songwriter, playwright and author. He is still going strong at age 73.

         4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “pseudosmia” which means a false perception of odors which sadly seems to be one of the symptoms of CV infection.

          5. Cracking the Brass Ceiling---celebrating the birth on this day in 1944 of Cynthia Robinson, one of the founding members of the Sly and the Family Stone as a vocalist and a rarity an African American female trumpet player whose trumpet was finally taken from her for good on November 23, 2015 at the age of 71 from cancer.

On this day in:

a. 1967 James Bedford who had just died from cancer was cryogenically preserved to await the day when cancer has been cured so he can be unthawed and rejoin the human race and his friends and relatives who are at least 53 years older.

          b. 1991 the U.S. Congress authorized President H.W. Bush to use military force to force Iraq out of Kuwait, an act which Hussein foolishly chose to ignore,

c. 1998 in a great move for humans as human beings, 19 European nations agreed to ban cloning of human beings.

d. 2004 the world’s largest ocean liner as opposed to a cruise ship, the RMS Queen Mary 2 made its maiden voyage.

         e. 2010 a massive earthquake struck Haiti near its capital Port-au-Prince which was almost totally destroyed, killing 200-300,000 people and injuring thousands more.

         Reflections on Human Cloning: “The cloning of humans is on most of the lists of things to worry about from Science, along with behavior control, genetic engineering, transplanted heads, computer poetry and the unrestrained growth of plastic flowers.” Lewis Thomas, noted 20^th Century physician, essayist and yes poet.
        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.

© January 12, 2021 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet

Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire

Poet Extraordinaire, Beyond Compare

A Unique Gift, All Recipients to Receive a Lasting Gift

January 11, 2021 Ridley's Believe It Or Not National Human Trafficking Awareness Day

 Ridley’s Believe It Or Not January 11, 2021

      CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues the new year with  surging cases over 91 million at 91,248,403 with 576,096 new cases (a .64% increase and .81% yesterday)  24,177,089 of  which  are active, 67,071,314 closed with 65,119,841 recoveries (97.09% and 97.09% yesterday) and 1,951,473 deaths (2.91% and 2.91% yesterday) to continue the trend of increased cases with increased recovery  percentages and decreased death percentages with some plateaus.

      CV USA Cases: Total cases now over 23 million at 23,196,299 with 192,881 new cases (a .84% increase and 1.26% yesterday)  with 9,140,814 active cases of which 28,905 (.32% of active cases and a decrease of 366 from a peak of 29,271 on December 31) are in serious or critical condition 13,965,485 closures,  384,917 of which have been deaths (2.76% and 2.76% yesterday) and 13,580,568 of which have been recoveries (97.24% and 97.24% yesterday). Our death rate percentage continues to improve and after many months is now .15% lower than the world rate and .17% 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 1159 ranks behind Belgium (1728), Italy (1311),  UK (1304) which had passed us despite leading world in testing), and Bulgaria (1198), and only slightly worse than Peru (1154), Spain (1118), Hungary (1112), France (1041),  Mexico (1031), Argentina (980), Switzerland (963), Brazil (952), Sweden (931) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a rapid rise in deaths, Chile (894) that we recently passed Ecuador (798) and Bolivia (797) and we have now conducted 1,911,093 more tests to bring the total to 273,243,491 (now at 822,950/M compared to Russia at 643,293/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, Malta, Singapore and UAE) but for the U.K. which remains off the testing charts with tests at 864,649/M.

      Non CV Case News: In an internal memo, the FBI has issued a warning that it has credible threats of armed protests at state capitals during the Biden inauguration; Pelosi in what In what is a real threat to our democracy  and Constitution is moving forward to impeach the president with 9 days left in his term after trying to get Pence to invoke the 25^th which was never designed for this (what would Pelosi do if Trump resigned and Pence as the new president pardoned Trump, his family members, cabinet members and anyone one in authority who worked on the campaign?—can one imagine the howl of the Blues wanting every last ounce of flesh from Trump’s body?); Biden is going to start his 100 days of Unity Agenda with an impeachment trial that will not please the 75 million or so Americans who voted for Trump as it is almost guaranteed the Blues will have enough votes to impeach him to send him to a Senate impeachment trial that will not start before the 19^th; Alabama ended the college impacted CV season with a crushing destruction of Ohio State 52-24 (if there is an NFL expansion slot open, could not go wrong with Alabama as a team and Sabin as a coach); Newsom’s vaccine rollout continues to be a disaster with California an epicenter of new cases and deaths but fortunately the recall petition for Gruesome Newsom has now surpassed 1,000,000 signatures and only needs 500,000 more to put the recall Newsom petition on the ballot: https://recallgavin2020.com/petition/

         Chicago/Baltimore Gun Violence: In the new year, as of January 11, 2021 93 shot of whom 21 have died. Final 2020 numbers in Chicago with comparisons to 2019 are 4,174 (+51%) of whom  719 (+55%) 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); (when will Chicago and other urban areas get serious about this carnage or is this the case of true racism as  Blue run cities turn deaf ears and blind eyes 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),

As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to “Too Much Heaven” by The Bee Gees, the  fact that you enjoy a good magic show pseudodopsia and a damming quote of human trafficking by Josh Hawley, 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 the details on the pricing.

         1. National Cigarettes Are Hazardous to Your Health Day—commemorating the day on 1964 when the U.S. Surgeon General released a report detailing how cigarettes were so hazardous to one’s health at a time when 48% of the population smoked, a percentage which thanks to banning of advertisements, higher cigarette taxes, anti-smoking ads on the deadly effects of smoking and a growing acceptance of the fact that second hand smoke also kills has fallen to a point where some 14% of adults played the cigarette Russian Roulette.

          2. National Human Trafficking Awareness Day—commemorating the passage by the Senate on June 22, 2007 of a resolution designating January 11 as Human Trafficking Awareness Day, a terrible and heinous practice that is believed to have affected some 50,000 mainly very young or illegal aliens each year.

          3.  1979 Number One Song—the number 1 song in 1979 on this day with a run of 2 weeks in that position was “Too Much Heaven” by The Bee Gees, joining 23 other number one songs. Here is a recording of The Bee Gees singing “Too Much Heaven”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nREV8bQJ1MA&list=RDmGq1ozFu1vsindex=17 

         4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “pseudopsia” which means an optical illusion, something that can be seen on a hot day in the dessert.

          5. From Child Star to Adult Hard Path While Riding Horse---celebrating the birth on this day in 1982 of noted actor Blake Heron note childhood actor who after graduating from high school moved to adult roles but had previously fought with heroin and died of an accidental overdose on September 8, 2017 at age 35.

On this day in:

a. 1908 The Grand Canyon National Monument was created.

          b. 1922 Leonard Thompson at age 14 with Type I diabetes became the first person to be injected with insulin and lived another 13 years with insulin injections until dying from pneumonia.

c. 1936 Amelia Earhart became the first flyer to fly solo from Hawaii to California.

d. 1973 the Major League Baseball owners approved the vote by the American League to add the designated hitter.

         e. 2003 Illinois Governor George Ryan 2 days before leaving office commuted the death sentences of 167 inmates on death row to life sentences primarily due to the scandal of tortured confessions by the Chicago Police Department under Jon Burge as a Commander to force confessions.

         Reflections on Human Trafficking:“ More than 150 years after Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, slavery is illegal almost everywhere. But it is still not abolished - not even here, in the land of the free. On the contrary, there is a cancer of violence, a modern-day slavery growing in America by the day, in the very places where we live and work. It's called human trafficking.” Josh Hawley, Junior Red Senator from Missouri since 2019.
        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.

© January 11, 2021 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet

Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire

Poet Extraordinaire, Beyond Compare

A Unique Gift, All Recipients to Receive a Lasting Gift

January 10, 2021 Ridley's Believe It Or Not National Houseplant Appreciation Day

 Ridley’s Believe It Or Not January 10, 2021

      CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues the new year with  surging cases over 90 million at 90,672,307 with 728,230 new cases (a .81% increase and 1.07% yesterday)  23,933,332 of  which  are active, 66,738,975 closed with 64,796,320 recoveries (97.09% and 97.09% yesterday) and 1,942,545 deaths (2.91% and 2.91% yesterday) to continue the trend of increased cases with increased recovery  percentages and decreased death percentages with some plateaus.

      CV USA Cases: Total cases now nearing 23 million at 22,913,418  to 22,628,935 with 284,493 new cases (a 1.26% increase and 1.62% yesterday)  with 9,051,478 active cases of which 28,940 (.32% of active cases and a decrease of 330 from a peak of 29,271 on December 31) are in serious or critical condition 13,861,950 closures,  383,275 of which have been deaths (2.76% and 2.77% yesterday) and 13,364,779 of which have been recoveries (97.24% and 07.23% yesterday). Our death rate percentage continues to improve and after many months is now .18% lower than the world rate and .18% 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 1154 ranks behind Belgium (1725), Italy (1309),    UK (1196) which had passed us despite leading world in testing), and Bulgaria (1174), and only slightly worse than Peru (1153),Spain (1109), Hungary (1104), France (1037),  Mexico (1027), Argentina (980), Switzerland (952), Brazil (952), Sweden (931) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a rapid rise in deaths, Chile (890) that we recently passed Ecuador (797) and Bolivia (795) and we have now conducted 2,149,254 more tests to bring the total to 271,332,398 (now at 817,194/M compared to Russia at 640,553/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, Malta, Singapore and UAE) but for the U.K. which remains off the testing charts with tests at 864,649/M.

      Non CV Case News: Pelosi in what In what is a real threat to our democracy  and Constitution is moving forward to impeach the president with 9 days left in his term after trying to get Pence to invoke the 25^th which was never designed for this (what would Pelosi do if Trump resigned and Pence as the new president pardoned Trump, his family members, cabinet members and anyone one in authority who worked on the campaign?—can one imagine the howl of the Blues wanting every last ounce of flesh from Trump’s body?); if Biden does not take a “With malice toward none” Lincoln approach and is a party to this Blue lynching his first 100 days are going to wallow in the cesspool of massive divisiveness; rats live on gold courses as the PGA has pulled the PGA Championship from Trump Properties Bedminister Golf Course in New Jersey; while Pelosi is off in idiotic impeachment ranting land, Blue Delegate to the House from the District of Columbia appears to be a voice of reason indicating impeachment is the wrong idea and will derail Biden’s agenda and the only sane measure would be a vote of censure (we need more than ever a chilling out and ramping down of the rhetoric not the dog whistles of divisiveness out of Pelosi’s Botox ingested lips); Red Representative Van Drew who switched parties in 2019 is stating sound advice that the in order to move forward Pelosi and her cohorts need to drop calls for impeachment (if only a few more Blues agreed to the wisdom of that statement and switched to oust Pelosi, we might actually get something done in Washington); Browns blew the Steelers out with 4 turnovers in the first half and won their first playoff game since 1994 and fittingly ended a 4^th quarter desperate drive by the Steelers with a game ending interception; AOC was in rare form pouring gasoline on the impeachment fires claiming that we nearly lost half of Congress during the attempt to storm the House Chambers; Newsom’s vaccine rollout is a disaster but fortunately the recall petition for Gruesome Newsom has now surpassed 1,000,000 signatures and only needs 500,000 more to put the recall Newsom petition
on the ballot: https://recallgavin2020.com/petition/

         Chicago/Baltimore Gun Violence: In the new year, as of January 9, 2021 86 shot of whom 19 have died. Final 2020 numbers in Chicago with comparisons to 2019 are 4,174 (+51%) of whom  719 (+55%) 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); (when will Chicago and other urban areas get serious about this carnage or is this the case of true racism as  Blue run cities turn deaf ears and blind eyes 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),

As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to “How Deep Is Your Love?” by The Bee Gees, the  fact that you avoid pseudologia when speaking or writing; and a prophetic quote from Harold Nicolson on the Versailles Treaty, 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 the details on the pricing.

            1. National Houseplant Appreciation Day—created by the Gardeners Network to promote the use of indoor houseplants to add to the décor and warmth of one’s home or office and if maintenance is a concern go the succulent route as these plants are very low maintenance and attention.

            2. National Cut Your Energy Costs Day—celebrating the steps one can do to reduce consumption of energy from more insulation, to solar power, EV’s, lowering the thermostat for heating and raising it for air conditioning, switching over to electronic bills and better errand management to save money and lower greenhouse carbon emissions.

            3.  1978 Number One Song—the number 1 song in 1978 on this day with a run of 1 week in that position was “How Deep Is Your Love” by The Bee Gees,  joining 19 other number one songs. Here is a recording of The Bee Gees singing “How Deep Is Your Love?”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpqqjU7u5Yc The Bee Gees were a successful English brothers trio band known as the “Kings of Disco” who wrote most of their songs that resulted in over 120 million records being sold with Barry still performing at 74 but his 2 fraternal twin brothers have already passed. 

           4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “pseudologia” which means lying in speech or writing, which describes far too many politicians when they are campaigning to get elected or reelected.

           5. Ageless in the Ring and in Business---celebrating the birth on this day in 1949 of two time heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman who won the crown for the second time at the age of 48 and after retirement become the spokesperson for the George Foreman Reducing Grill and now the Inventors’ Network.

On this day in:

a. 1870 John D. Rockefeller incorporated Standard Oil.

          b. 1920 the Versailles Treaty went into effect, ending World War I and planting the seeds for World War II less than 20 years thereafter.

c. 1956 representatives from 51 nations gathered at Methodist Central Hall in Westminster, England for the first meeting of the UN General Assembly.

d. 1985 Daniel Ortega became President of Nicaragua, vowing to transform the country into socialism and conjunction therewith be “elected” to 4 terms as president becoming more and more like a dictator as the economy deteriorated due to socialism.

         e. 1990 Time Warner was formed by the merger of Time, Inc. and Warner Communications.

         Reflections on the Treaty of Versailles:“ ...we were very stupid men...the treaties imposed upon our enemies were neither just nor wise." Harold Nicolson. British Diplomat, 1919 who handed Britain’s Declaration of War against Germany to the German Ambassador to Great Britain.

        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.

© January 10, 2021 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet

Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire

Poet Extraordinaire, Beyond Compare

A Unique Gift, All Recipients to Receive a Lasting Gift

Janaury 9, 2021 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Law Enforcement Appreciation Day

 

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not January 9, 2021

      CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues the new year with a surging cases now at 89,944,077 with 958,426 new cases (a 1.07% increase)  23,658,969 of  which  are active, 66,295,108 closed with 64,363,125 recoveries (97.09%) and 1,931,183 deaths (2.91%) to continue the trend of increased cases with increased recovery  percentages and decreased death percentages with some plateaus.

     CV USA Cases: Total cases now total over 20 million  to 22,628,935 with 360,826 new cases (a 1.62% increase)  with 8,883,263 active cases of which 29,083 (.33% of active cases and a decrease of 188 from a peak of 29,271 on December 31) are in serious or critical condition 13,745,452 closures,  380,673 of which have been deaths (2.77%) and 13,364,779 of which have been recoveries (97.23%). Our death rate percentage continues to improve and after many months is now .14% lower than the world rate and .18% 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 1147 ranks behind Belgium (1721), Italy (1298), Peru (1146),  Bulgaria (1,158),  UK (1188) which had passed us despite leading world in testing), Bulgaria (1,167), and Peru (1149) and only slightly worse than Spain (1109), Hungary (1094), France (1034),  Mexico (1019), Argentina (975), Switzerland (950), Brazil (950), Sweden (931) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a rapid rise in deaths, Chile (887) that we recently passed Ecuador (797) and Bolivia (793) and we have now conducted 2,899,464 more tests to bring the total to 269,183,144 (now at 810,747/M compared to Russia at 636,444/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, Malta, Singapore and UAE) but for the U.K. which remains off the testing charts with tests at 864,674/M.

      Non CV Case News: In permanently banning Trump, Dorsey has became the new Stalin, far more effective than that mass murderer ever was with his Twitter Curtain replacing the dreaded Iron Curtain (complete double despicable standard with 12,000 tweets trending “Hang Pence;”); Pelosi’s idiotic idea to seek impeachment on Monday the 11^th is going to go nowhere in the Senate as it is on recess until January 19 and unless 100 senators elect to hear the impeachment papers which they will not (nice distraction to further divide the nation and enable her to vent her bile); the Social Media Iron Curtain is still coming down as Apple, Google and other social media giants have suspended the Parler App as 1.5 million people downloaded the free app and though number is not in, Twitter accounts are being cancelled by users; another Boeing 737 has crashed into the ocean 4 minutes after takeoff from Jakarta but fortunately for Boeing, the model was not the 737 MAX 8 that had been previously grounded for 20 months following two crashes on in Indonesia and the other in Ethiopia; Newsom’s vaccine rollout is a disaster but fortunately the recall petition for Gruesome Newsom has now surpassed 1,000,000 signatures and only needs 500,000 more to put the recall Newsom petition on the ballot: https://recallgavin2020.com/petition/

         Chicago/Baltimore Gun Violence: In the new year, as of January 8, 2021 70 shot of whom 19 have died. Final 2020 numbers in Chicago with comparisons to 2019 are 4,174 (+51%) of whom  719 (+55%) 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); (when will Chicago and other urban areas get serious about this carnage or is this the case of true racism as  Blue run cities turn deaf ears and blind eyes 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),

As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to “You Don’t Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show) by Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr., the  fact that you can easily reveal pseudodox and a quote from Sheriff Dave Brown on law enforcement duties, 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 the details on the pricing.

          1. National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day—started by the National Concerns of Police Survivors in 2015 to promote appreciation of the hard and dangerous work the Thin Blue Line has endured and continues to endure with the rising BLM movement and the cries to Defund the Police.
           2. Balloon Ascension Day—commemorating the first hot air balloon flight on this day in 1793 by French balloonist Jean Pierre Blanchard in Philadelphia in a Hydrogen gas fueled balloon.

           3.  1977 Number One Song—the number 1 song in 1977 on this day with a run of 1 week in that position was “You Don’t Hve to Be a Star (To Be in My Show)” by Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. joining 17 other acts with their first number 1 song and joining 28 other number one songs. Here is a recording of Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. singing “You Don’t Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show)” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nb9jJg_wIU Billy Davis, Jr. was the founder of the 5^th Dimension and Marilyn McCoo was its lead singer. The couple are still performing and have been married since July 26, 1969.

         4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “pseudodox” which means a false doctrine or opinion which sadly describes to a tee some of the opinions coming from the mouth of the progressives.

          5. Work!---celebrating the birth on this day in 1935 of noted television actor Bob Denver best remembered for his portrayal of beatnik and iconoclast Maynard G. Krebs on Dobie Gillis and his role as Gilligan on Gilligan’s Island. Sadly the free spirit he portrayed was also a heavy smoker and died from pneumonia after complications from throat cancer.

On this day in:

a. 1916 Allied troops previously landed at Gallipoli in a failed invasion that almost ruined Winston Churchill’s political career to save Britain in World War II completed the withdrawal under the nose of the unsuspecting Ottomans.

          b. 1991 representatives of the United States and Iraq met in Geneva to try to get Hussein to the folly of his invasion of Kuwait and failed to obtain a peaceful resolution of the Iraqi invasion.

c. 1992 in a we may not be alone moment, astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail announced the discovery of the first extrasolar planets orbiting pulsar PSR 1257+12 which is located 2,300 light years away from the Sun.

d. 2007 Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone at MacWorld in San Francisco as the first Smart Phone.

          e. 2015 the two terrorists who had attacked Charlie Hebdo 2 days earlier were cornered and shot to death by French police while in Vincennes, Paris, jihadist Amedy Coulibali attacked the Hpercatcher Kosher Market, killing 4 and taking 15 people hostage before police stormed the facility, killing him. 14 accomplices to the attack were later arrested, tried and convicted on December 20, 2020 but could not find out how much time in prison the guilty would be rotting.

         Reflections on the duty of law enforcement: ““Go to college. Get an education. Understand the law, the profession and our constitution so you understand your responsibility to the people and the trust you are granted – and to stay true to it.”-Sheriff Dave Brown, newly appointed Chicago Superintendent of Police quoted on criminaljusticedegreeschools.com

        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.

© January 9, 2021 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet

Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire

Poet Extraordinaire, Beyond Compare

A Unique Gift, All Recipients to Receive a Lasting Gift

January 8, 2021 Ridley's Believe It Or Not War On Poverty Day

 

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not January 8, 2021

      CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet is welcoming the new year with a surging case note with total cases now at 88,985,651, 23,243,800 of  which  are active, 65,741,851 closed with 63,827,212 recoveries (97.09%) and 1,914,639 deaths (2.91%) to continue the trend of increased cases with increased recovery  percentages and decreased death percentages with some plateaus.

     CV USA Cases: Total cases now total over 20 million  to  22,268,109 with 8,087,008 active cases of which 28,993 (.36% of active cases and a decrease of 278 from peak of 29,271 on December 31) are in serious or critical condition 13,540,217 closures,  375,758 of which have been deaths (2.78%) and 13,164,459 of which have been recoveries (97.22%). Our death rate percentage continues to improve and after many months is now .13% lower than the world rate and .19% 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 1132 ranks behind Belgium (1716), Italy (1290), Peru (1146),  Bulgaria (1,158),  UK (1173) which had passed us despite leading world in testing), Bulgaria (1,158), and Peru (1146) and only slightly worse than Spain (1109), Hungary (1082), France (1023),  Mexico (1011), Argentina (972), Switzerland (946), Brazil (940),  Chile (884) that we recently passed), Sweden (931) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a rapid rise in deaths, Ecuador (797) and Bolivia (791) and we have now conducted 1,140,086 more tests to bring the total to 266,283,680 (now at 802,328/M compared to Russia at 636,445/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, Malta, Singapore and UAE) but for the U.K. which remains off the testing charts with tests at 864,686/M.

      Non CV Case News: Pelosi and Schumer are beating the impeachment drums to file against Trump, claiming he incited the storming of the Capitol by a small percentage of the protestors protesting the election due to their belief Biden won the election by fraud (so much for the Biden campaign of bringing the country together);  Pelosi has become unhinged in her claims Trump is an “unhinged president” and made an unprecedented call to General Milley on the issuance of access to the nuclear codes; Pelosi and Schumer are also beating the drums demanding Pence invoke the 25^th Amendment to remove him which is clearly even more ridiculous as Trump is not physical or mentally incapable of performing his job (Harris will be taking notes and paying close attention as she may be in that position sooner or later given the perception Biden is not up to the job mentally); Biden’s address to the nation on the storming of the Capitol showed that his unity campaign was a sham when he used the racist card to denounce the response of the Capitol police to that of police in BLM “protests” that quickly morphed into riots (he must have been blind to the fact that in a year of BLM riots across the country I believe 2 rioters were shot and killed but here in less than 90 minutes a white woman protester was shot and killed by police); Biden has not yet been sworn in and already his plans on how to distribute the vaccine are being severely condemned as they defy the need to provide for the booster shot that must be administered to increase effectiveness to over 95%; Cuomo consistent with his mishandling of the elderly in nursing homes during the initial phase of the pandemic, initially banned vaccinating anyone over the age of 75 until all health care workers were vaccinated which caused de Blasio to protest vehemently, forcing Cuomo to rescind the ban so the elderly can start being vaccinated; the recall petition for Gruesome Newsom has now surpassed 1,000,000 signatures and only needs 500,000 more to put the recall Newsom petition on the ballot: https://recallgavin2020.com/petition/.  
         Chicago/Baltimore Gun Violence: In the new year, as of January 7, 2021 39 shot of whom 14 have died. Final 2020 numbers in Chicago with comparisons to 2019 are 4,174 (+51%) of whom  719 (+55%) 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); Philadelphia  with a fraction of Chicago’s population ended 2020 with 499 homicides (40.2^ over 2019) and for 2021 as of January 7, 14 (+83%) (when will Chicago, Philadelphia and other urban areas get serious about this carnage or is this the case of true racism as  Blue run cities turn deaf ears and blind eyes 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),

As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to “Saturday Night” by the Bay City Rollers, the  fact that you are not plagued with pseudoblepsis and a quote from Robert Filner on lack of funding for the No Child Left Behind Act, 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 the details on the pricing.

         1. World Typing Day—started by STC (Speed Typing Contest) Team from Junior Chamber International Mines and Team TAC (Typo Auto Corrector) to promote speed, accuracy and efficiency in written communications among the public and celebrated first on this day in 2011.

          2. War on Poverty—celebrating the declaration by President Lyndon Johnson of his War of Poverty announced in his State of the Union Address on this day in 1964.

           3.  1976 Number One Song—     the number 1 song in 1976 on this day with a run of 1 week in that position was “Saturday Night” by the Bay City Rollers joining 14 other acts with their first number 1 song and joining 25 other number one songs. Hear is a recording of the Bay City Rollers singing “Saturday Night’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BKKaKT_dtM. The band was from Edinburgh and known in the 70’s as the “tartan teen sensations from Edinburgh” and with many personnel changes are still playing today.

          4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “pseudoblepsis” which means hallucinations which are often the natural result of heavy drug use.

5. Long Live the King---celebrating the birth on this day in 1935 of the singer known as the “King” Elvis Presley who after a storied career as a singer and actor, succumbed to prescription drug abuse and died of an overdose on August 16, 1977 at the age of 42.

          On this day in:
         a. 1835 President Jackson announced a celebratory dinner to mark the reduction of the U.S. National Debt to 0, the first and last time it has achieved that milestone.

          b. 1973 the trial for the 7 accused of breaking in to the Democratic Party Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. began.

c. 3003 President George W. Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act.

d. 2005 the nuclear submarine USS San Francisco struck an undersea mountain at flank speed killing one seaman but fortunately was able to surface and ultimately be repaired.

         e. 2011 Jared Loughner attempted to assassinate Representative Gabby Gifford, shooting her in the head, and killing 6 others and wounding 12 others at a Safeway in Casa Adobes near Tucson; after initially being ruled incompetent to stand trial he was adjudged competent after administration on anti-schizophrenic drugs to stand trial and he instead pled guilty and was sentenced to 7 life sentences plus 140 years and is now rotting in prison.
        Reflections on the No Child Left Behind Act: “We have seen that, in another unfunded mandate, the so-called No Child Left Behind Act, which created tougher standards, and we all support that, but Congress did not provide the money to attract and hire the best teachers.” Bob Filner, former Blue Congressman and Mayor of San Diego who resigned as mayor and was convicted of sexual harassment.
        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.

© January 8, 2021 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet

Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire
Poet Extraordinaire, Beyond Compare
A Unique Gift, All Recipients to Receive a Lasting Gift

January 1, 2021 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Polar Bear Plunge

 

Ridley's Believe It Or Not January 1, 2021
        CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet is welcoming the new year with a surging case note with 828,945 new cases (a .73%  increase compared to a .99% increase yesterday) to bring the total over  84 million to 84,318,010, 22,887,418 of  which  are active, 61,430,592 closed with 59,596,684 recoveries (97.01% compared to  yesterday’s 97.01%) and 1,833,918 deaths (2.99% compared to yesterday’s 2.99%) to continue the trend of increased cases with increased recovery  percentages and decreased death percentages with some plateaus.

        CV USA Cases: New cases of 332,219 (a 1.64% increase compared to yesterday’s 1.61% increase) to bring the  total over 20 million  to  20,603,784 with 8,087,008 active cases of which 29,179 (.36% of active cases and a decrease of 92 from peak of 29,271 on December 31), recently on a disturbing upward trend with no dips from a high of 19,155 on July 23  (29,271 yesterday), are in serious or critical condition as trend has shifted and is still continuing to go up if today’s number is not a dip, and 12,516,776 closures,  356,328 of which have been deaths (2.85% compared to yesterday’s 2.85%) and 12,160,448 of which have been recoveries (97.15% compared to yesterday’s 97.15%). Our death rate percentage continues to improve and after many months is now .14% lower than the world rate and .24% 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 1073 ranks behind Belgium (1681), Italy (1235). Peru (1136),  Bulgaria (1099),  UK (1089) which had passed us despite leading world in testing) and Spain (1087), and only slightly worse than Hungary (1002), France (991),  Mexico (971), Argentina (952),  Brazil (915), Switzerland (882) and (830) six days ago and so added to the list, Chile (868 that we recently passed), Sweden (861) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a rapid rise in deaths, Ecuador (790) and Bolivia (780) and we have now conducted 1,140,086 more tests to bring the total to 254,682,726 (now at 767,159/M compared to Russia at 625,117/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 806,468/M.

        Non CV Case News: In the Georgia Senate runoff races, Perdue though testing negative has gone into quarantine while he and Reds are blasting Ossoff’s initially unreported payments from PCCW Limited, a Honk Kong company believed to be linked to China a claim which Ossoff dismisses as nonsense and refuses to respond; Warnock and Ossoff are both playing the race card against Loeffler claiming a selfie with former white supremacist Chuck Doyle at a campaign rally proves she is “campaigning with a Klansman” as she denies she even knows the man and candidates oblige selfie requests from almost anyone in public as a matter of course: Warnock caught with his hands in the anti-Semite jar has tried to walk back comments made in 2019 comparing Israel’s policies toward Palestinians to apartheid practiced by South Africa; on the college football front Alabama has just blown out Notre Dame in the College Football Championship Semifinals 31-14 to advance to play Ohio State who defeated Clemson 49-28; not sure if this will be typical of bridge burning acts for Trump following the inauguration of Biden, but he has tweeted that South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem should mount a 2022 primary challenge against Senator Thune who he has labeled a RINO; California which is already seeing businesses leave in droves can expect more as a state law going into effect today require public companies to have at least 1 racial or sexual minority on their board of directors which minimum number will be increased based on size of board to at least 3 if board is 9 or more and all companies with more than 100 employees disclose diversity statistics to the state—for a short summary of new laws across the nation- https://www.foxnews.com/us/new-state-laws-2021-police-reform-health; prosecutors of the 4 officers charged in the death of George Floyd have asked for a 3 month delay of the trial citing CV concerns which means Minneapolis have another riot delayed if the officers are not convicted; De Blasio who is the mayor most people ridicule and detest in a do as I say moment and totally stupid or oblivious after shutting down Times Square for New Year’s Eve celebrations danced the night away with his wife on an empty stage (this is the mayor who is boosting he will have 1,000,000 New Yorkers vaccinated by end of January  and must have been smoking dope when he made that promise); the Senate as expected overruled Trump’s veto of the Defense Authorization Act; NFL put on its Grinch hat and fined Alvin Kamara for wearing red and green cleats on Christmas Day while tying Ernie Nevers TD rushing record of 6 (this ex Alaskan commercial fisherman thought since the colors were on the wrong feet for navigation purposes, the Vikings were confused and missed tackles); Portland ended the 2020 as sadly could be expected with another mini-riot throwing fire bombs at police and damaging businesses; during the peak of the pandemic and shut downs, stores ran out of hand sanitizers and small distilleries stepped up to meet the shortage only to find out that the federal government left hand knows not what the right is doing and the FDA levied fines of $14,000 per distillery which the DHSS  brought some needed sanity and banned the fines.

         Chicago/Baltimore Gun Violence: In Chicago as of December 31,  2020 with preliminary numbers as 2020 ends, compared to 2019 numbers,  the number of shootings increased to 4,174 (+51% of whom  719 (+55%) 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 and thrilled that 2020 was not a record in terms of deaths at 335 ahead of 2016 (318) and 2018 (309) but behind 2019 (348) and 2017 (342) and ending behind Chicago by 384 (when will Chicago, Baltimore and other urban areas 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),

As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to “Angie Baby” by Helen Reddy, the the fact that you are not plagued with pseudacusis and a quote from the American Academy of Pediatrics on placement of cigarettes in movies and TV, 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 the details on the pricing.

         1. Polar Bear Plunge—started in Boston in 1904 to slowly spread across the country for brave or foolish souls to plunge into frigid waters on New Year’s Day to welcome the New Year and perhaps shock the coming hangover from a New Year’s Eve party out of their system.

2. National Bloody Mary Day—created for those New Year’s Eve party goers suffering the overindulgence but not willing to plunge into frigid waters, the perfect holiday hangover solution fortified with Vitamin C and Vodka to ward of the CV virus.

3. 1975 Number One Song— the number 1 song in 19754 on this day with 3 days left of its 1 week run that started on December 28, 1974 was “Angie Baby.” Here is a

recording of Helen Reddy singing “Angie Baby”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQKyGt_I5L4.

        4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “pseudacusis” which means hearing sounds that don’t exist.

        5. King and No I Is Deadly---celebrating the birth on this day in 1919 of  noted actress aka ”The Ping Girl”  Frances Lillian Mary Ridste better known to her fans as Carole Landis who racked up more miles visiting the troops with USO during WWII than any other actress, was married 4 times but while being separated from her last husband had an affair with Rex Harrison who given her marital track record wisely refused to divorce his wife Lilli Palmer and thus devastated, she committed suicide on July 6, 1048 at age 29.

         On this day in:
         a. 1902 the first post season bowl game, named the Tournament East-West football game, the predecessor to the Rose Bowl, was played in Pasadena’s Tournament Park and sadly for this dies hard Cardinal was won by Michigan 49-0 over Stanford.

         b. 1971 at 11:50 p.m. the last cigarette ad allowed on TV aired on the Johnny Carson Show as legislation signed by Nixon on April 7, 1970 banned cigarette ads on radio and TV effective midnight January 1, 1971, enabling Big Tobacco to fill the airways watching the floats and bowl games with the last ads for their deadly product.

        c. 1983 ARPANET changed over to TCP/IP, the official internet protocol and the internet is officially established and off and running.

        d. 1994 the disastrous North American Free Trade Agreement which proved to be a disaster to American manufactures came into effect.

      e. 2010 starting off the year with a deadly bang a suicide bomber in a SUV believed to be a Taliban detonated 400 pounds of TNT next to a soccer game at the village of Lakki Marwat in Pakistan, killing 105 players and spectators and wounding over a 100, many seriously.

        Reflections on the Whack-a-Mo game of tobacco marketing: “"The case is strong for the argument that smoking shown in entertainment media plays a causal role in smoking onset. Certainly, it is time to eliminate all tobacco advertising and to decrease the depiction of smoking in mainstream media," American Academy of Pediatric Astute observation that removal of TV, radio, and print advertising just shifts the ad dollar to product placement on movies and TV; the real solution to the problem is a campaign that appeals to the fact that second hand smoke kills just like not wearing a mask spreads COVID-19.

         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.

© January 1, 2021 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet

Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire
Poet Extraordinaire, Beyond Compare
A Unique Gift, All Recipients to Receive a Lasting Gift

December 31, 2020 Ridley's Believe It Or Not First Night Happy and Prosperous CV Free New Year

 

Ridley's Believe It Or Not December 31, 2020
        CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues with 635,501  new cases (a .73%  increase compared to a .71% increase yesterday) to bring the total over  83 million to 83,489,065, 22,558,177 of  which  are active, 60,930,888 closed with 59,110,913 recoveries (97.01% compared to  yesterday’s 97.01%) and 1,819,975 deaths (2.99% compared to yesterday’s 2.99%) to continue the trend of increased cases with increased recovery  percentages and decreased death percentages with some plateaus.

        CV USA Cases: New cases of 321,540 (a 1.61% increase compared to yesterday’s .82% increase) to bring the  total over 20 million  to  20,271,565 with 7,911,209 active cases of which 29,271 (.37% of active cases and an increase of 162 for a new peak), recently on a disturbing upward trend with no dips from a high of 19,155 on July 23  (29,089 yesterday), are in serious or critical condition as trend has shifted and is still continuing to go up, and 12,360,376 closures,  351,752 of which have been deaths (2.85% compared to yesterday’s 2.84%) and 12,008,624 of which have been recoveries (97.15% compared to yesterday’s 97.16%). Our death rate percentage continues to improve and after many months is now .14% lower than the world rate and .27% 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 1060 ranks behind Belgium (1674), Italy (1237). Peru (1133),  passing Spain, Bulgaria (1086), Spain (1084) and UK (1080) which has now passed us despite leading world in testing), and only slightly worse than France (989), Hungary (988) and (839)  nine days ago so added to the list, Mexico (964), Argentina (948),  Brazil (910), Switzerland (880) and (830) five days ago and so added to the list, Chile (865 that we recently passed), Switzerland (874) and (830) two days ago so added to list, Sweden (861) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a rapid rise in deaths, Ecuador (790) and Bolivia (775) and we have now conducted 1,776,746 more tests to bring the total to 253,542,640 (now at 763,537/M compared to Russia at 621,028/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 806,479/M.

        Non CV Case News: Looks like we can kiss idea of $2000 stimulus checks goodbye Chuck and his Blues won’t let Social Media Iron Curtain die; the rhetoric in the “most dignified debating house, the Senate” is going over the top with Blue Senator Jeanne Shaheen ranting that Senator Hawley’s plan to challenge Biden’s win in the Electoral College borders on “Sedition and Treason”(would be better if the Senator from New Hampshire toned it down as those allegations are capital offenses); people are celebrating the end of 2020 around the globe with masks and some attempts at social distancing and in some cases virally as in the case of Times Square as no spectators will be allowed to watch the ball drop; sick news on the CV vaccination front, as a pharmacist has been arrested and fired for removing hundreds of vaccine doses from refrigeration to have them spoil (not identified yet nor any motive yet); despite the fact we have a lot of issues on our plate, the frenzy continues over Hillaria Baldwin’s past contentions she was born in Spain when in fact she was born in Boston (who cares other than her 5 kids probably embarrassed over her claiming something she is not); Lori Lightfoot is light on the truth as released emails show notice of a botched police raid on the wrong address to her months before she claimed she was first noticed (Anjanette Young, a social worker who is black was cuffed nude while the CPD searched her residence in February 2019); Indian casinos are not subject to federal or state regulation so the Cache Creek Casino Resort in Brooks and the Thunder Valley Casino are holding gala New Year’s Eve celebrations; Blue Progressives are demanding Pelosi allow a Medicare for all vote in exchange for their support of her as Speaker ( If vote is held before the Georgia Runoff, would be a great boost to the 2 Red Senators running); Florida is now the third state after Colorado and California to have its first case of the CV variant B.1.1.7

         Chicago/Baltimore Gun Violence: In Chicago as of December 30,  2020 with a few hours left to end to the carnage of 2021,  the number of shootings increased to 4,172 of whom  719 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 385 behind Chicago at 334 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),

As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to “Angie Baby” by Helen Reddy, the psammous nature of our Southern California beaches and a quote from Bill Clinton on the Y2K problems thought to be facing the world, 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 the details on the pricing.

         1. First Night—ca North America artistic and cultural celebration held in various cities across the land from noon till midnight probably in the past designed to cut down on New Year’s Eve parties and the resulting DUI carnage that sadly follows which the CV pandemic has probably replaced with viral events  this year.
        2. World Peace Meditation Day—created by 1986 calling on all people around the globe to mediate on the lure of and happiness generated by peace.
        3. 1974 Number One Song— the number 1 song in 1974 on this day on a run of 1 week was “Angie Baby” by Helen Reddy to join 35 other number 1 songs Here is a

Recording of Helen Reddy singing “Angie Baby”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQKyGt_I5L4. This very popular Australian-American performed very successfully from 1966 =2002 and retired in 2002 but lure of performing live brought her out of retirement in 2012 but was later diagnosed as having dementia and died this year on September 29, at the age of 78.

        4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “psammous” which means sandy which describes to a tee most of our Southern California beaches.
       5. Like Father Life Son---celebrating the birth on this day in 1977 of Donald Trump, Jr., the eldest son of President Trump and who like his father was infected with the COVID-19 virus and like his father and his girlfriend Kimberley Guilfoyle recovered from the infection.

         On this day in:
        a. 1951 The Marshall Plan ended after distributing $13.3 billion to aid in the recovery of Western Europe (worth $133,117,142,308) in today’s currency.

 worth   to restore the damages done to Western Europe.

        b. 1992 Czechoslovakia was peacefully dissolved into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in what many would call the Velvet Divorce.

        c. 2000 the last day of the 20^th Century and 2^nd Millennium and the last day before the Y2K computer bug was supposed bring havoc to computers around the world which it did not.

        d. 2014 a stampede resulted at a New Year’s Eve fireworks display in Shangai killing 38 and injuring 49 people.

        e. 2019 the WHO was belatedly informed by China on the existence of a new form of pneumonia in Wuhan, China which as of yesterday has killed 1,819,975 persons worldwide.

        Chicken Little and the Y2K falling of the sky that never happened while IP consultants had a field day lining their pockets.:  "I came here today because I wanted to stress the urgency of the challenge to people who are not in this room.... Clearly, we must set forth what the government is doing, what business is doing, but also what all of us have yet to do to meet this challenge together. And there is still a pressing need for action.... In the business sector just as in the government sector, there are still gaping holes. Far too many businesses, especially small- and medium-sized firms, will not be ready unless they begin to act. A recent Walls Fargo bank survey shows that of the small businesses that even know about the problem, roughly half intend to do nothing about it. Now, this is not one of the summer movies where you can close your eyes during the scary parts." -- President Bill Clinton, in a speech about Y2K at the National Academy of

Sciences July 15, 1998

          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 31, 2020 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet

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