May 22, 2021 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Canadian Immigrant Day

 Ridley’s Believe It Or Not May 21, 2021

      CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues the new year with cases now over 167 million at 167,026,921 cases (166,467,940 yesterday), 17,520,849 of which are active, 151,408,445 closed with 147,940.444 recoveries (97.71% and 97.701 yesterday ,and 3,468,001 deaths (2.29% and 2.29 % 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 33,862,398 (33,862,398 yesterday) with 5,880,552 active cases of which 7,235 (7,392) yesterday and 8,599 on 3/25/2021) (now down to .12% 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 22,036), 28,073,331 closed, with 603,862 deaths (2.15% and 2.15% yesterday) and with 27,469,469 recoveries (97.85% and 97.85% yesterday). Our death rate percentage continues to slowly improve and after many months is now .14% lower than the world rate.
      Standing: On a deaths per million population measurement on a steady climb to 1815 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 improving to  4.24% of its closed cases have died (3058), aping Hungary in terms of increase in deaths Bulgaria (2534), Belgium (2132),  Brazil (2096) which has been hit with a rapid rise in deaths and cases and passed us and Italy (Italy (2073), Peru (2024), Poland (1928) and the UK (1873) which had passed us despite leading world in testing and now has new deaths barely increasing),  and slightly better than Spain (1702), Mexico (1700), Portugal (1673), France (1659), Argentina (1617), Romania (1563),  Chile (1474), Sweden (1415) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a steady rise in  deaths,  Switzerland (1237), and Bolivia (1173).
     Tests: We have now conducted 472,525,753 tests (now at 1,420.179/M) compared to number 2 now France at 1,257,820/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 2,560,859/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 11^th on my list of deaths from the pandemic at 1700/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:     12,165     438Deaths/M
                   Honduras:     Activecases:   141,921     611Deaths/M
                   El Salvador:   Active cases:     2,499     339 Deaths/M   

    US Vaccinations: As of 5/22/2021 283.9 million doses and a day of daily stuck at 1.88 million on 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 36,714,358 total doses have been given (79.4% of doses received to trail the U.S. average of 79.5%), but even with the pressure of a recall to be scheduled this fall which hopefully end Newsom’s term, California has  moved from  29^th up  down to 25^th out of the 50 states in terms of the percentage of doses administered as a percentage of doses delivered to the states and at 40.7% of its population fully vaccinated compared to the U.S. average of 38.9% has moved up  from  24^th tied with Delaware to 23^rd 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: The cease fire between Hamas and Israel, that Biden had nothing to do with despite his hollow brags, appears to be holding hopefully not for the reason that Hamas may be out of rockets but there is no cease fire in anti-Semitism here in the U.S. as pro-Palestinian protestors, probably emboldened the over the top rhetoric of Illan Omar demanding Israel be charged with war crimes are raging across the nation; Monica Lewinsky won the Twitter response prize of the decade when in answer to a Twitter question of her highest risk lowest reward moment she posted only an emoji of two rolled eyes; Where’s Waldo is still MIA on the border, doing everything she can to appear relevant and president by 25^th Amendment in waiting as she had time to attended a Clinton Foundation event on empowering women with Bill (wonder how empowered Monica Lewinsky feels given her involvement with this reptilian brain driven sexual predator?); hopefully the outrages directed by parents against the Palm Beach School Board for their CRT and Project 19 agenda to judge whites by the color of their skin spreads as the push for “equality” is a push to end meritocracy; we may never learn what Where’s Waldo’s plans are to curtail the wave of illegal immigration but from Biden a hint as the DHS is busy expanding shelters for illegal unaccompanied minors so no more photos of crowded facilities at the border as still more illegals are released into the country; 4300 Notre Dame students signed a petition objecting to Catholic President Joe Biden addressing commencement due to his stand on abortion and he has withdrawn his acceptance; any illusions that teachers unions care about the kids they teach was dashed when Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers that has held our schoolchildren hostage over CVOVID-19 was ranting on social media that her teacher members are tired from on line teaching; an AP news staffer on the job for only 17 days has learned the lesson that one should be careful when tweeting as she was fired when pro-Palestinian biased tweets were discovered;  a blockchain analytics firm, Elliptic, has revealed that the DarkSide has  received $17 million in ransomware extortions since March.
     Mayor Lightfoot of Chicago smarting under racist allegations as she refuses to give any interviews to any reporters who are white has picked up a well-deserved no confidence vote from the Chicago Police Department; in an example of judicial independence, District Court Judge Roseanne Ketchmark, a Republican but appointed by Obama, has denied College of the Ozarks’ request for a temporary restraining order against Biden’s executive order that would require this Christian college from having to house biological males who identify as females in female dormitories;  as vaccinations rise and infections and death rates fall, leave it to the political cartoonist to point out the absurdity of requiring fully vaccinated people to wear masks indoors or outdoors:                                            

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

      Chicago Gun Violence: Hey Jackass.com is back to show that through May 21, 2021,  gun violence involving mostly persons of color shooting mostly persons of color in Chicago is alive and well with 1327 persons shot of whom 231 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 “Marie, Marie” by Santana feat. The Product G&B by Ricky Martin, the fact that you enjoy the brick reveted as decorations and a quote from Colin Powell on the importance of our Merchant Marine, 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. U.S. National Maritime Day—created by the U.S. Congress on May 20, 1933 to honor the contributions and importance of our maritime industry and celebrated on the 22^nd of May which is the anniversary of this day in 1819 that the USS Savannah, the world’s first ocean going steamboat, left Savannah, Georgia bound with for Liverpool, England with no passengers and very little cargo powered by sail and a steam engine to power side paddle wheels which were used only 10 percent of the time in the 29 day voyage. 
       2. Canadian Immigrants Day—celebrating the contributions to our culture, economy, sports and society of those Canadians, including my mother, a nurse par excellence, and her siblings who migrated here during and after World War II.
       3. 2000 Number 1 Song USA—the number 1 song in 2000 was “Marie, Marie” by Santana feat. The Product G&B on a run of 10 weeks in that position to join 17 other songs reaching number 1 and 9 other acts that achieved their first number 1 song. Here is a video recording by Santana feat The Product G&B of “Marie, Marie”:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPLV7lGbmT4  

       4.  Word of the Day—the word of the day is “revet” which means to face with masonry which unless tied down has a bad tendency to shear off walls during an earthquake.             
        5.  Bipolar Is No Laughing Matter Even for a Comic—celebrating the birth on this day in 1970 of noted comic and podcaster Brody Stevens who had been diagnosed with bipolar disease in 2010 and after years of medication had stopped and then shortly after restarting his medications, hanged himself on February 22, 2019.
         On this day in
         a. 1900 The Associated Press was founded in New York City.
         b. 1964 President Lyndon Baines Johnson announced The Great Society.
         c. 1967 Egypt, in a move that would result in the Six Day Way that started on June 5m 1967, closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping.
         d. 1985 Salman Abedi, a Libyan born in England, headed toward Manchester Arena with a suicide bomb in a ruck sack and was spotted by a suspicious girl who was fearful of being branded a racist, walked past her and minutes later as fans were leaving an Ariane Grande concert there, punched his one-way ticket to Paradise killing himself and taking 22 innocents with him while injuring some 800 people.
         e. 2017 President Donald Trump visited in Jerusalem the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Wailing Wall, the first sitting president to do so.
         Reflections on the worth of the U.S. Merchant Marine Service: “Since I became Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I have come to appreciate first-hand why our Merchant Marine has long been called our Nation’s fourth arm of defense. The American seafarer provides an essential service to the well-being of the nation as was demonstrated so clearly during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm…We are a maritime nation. We must be able to project power across the seas.” General Colin Powell

        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 22, 2021 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet
Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire
Poet Extraordinaire, Beyond Compare
A Unique Gift, All Recipients a Lasting Gift

 

May 20, 2021Ridley's Believe It Or Not National Rescue Dog Day

 Ridley’s Believe It Or Not May 20, 2021

         CV World Cases: The CV pandemic spread across the planet sadly continues the new year with cases now over 165 million at 165,830,638 cases (165,231,548 yesterday), 17,878,113 of which are active, 149,952,921 closed with 146,508,268 recoveries (97.70% and 97.68% yesterday ,and 3,444,253 deaths (2.30% and 2.32 % 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 33,832,355 (33,777,624 yesterday) with 5,873,554 active cases of which 7,583 (7,738) yesterday and 8,599 on 3/25/2021) (now down to .13% 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 21,688), 27,958,801 closed, with 602,611 deaths (2.16% and 2.16% yesterday) and with 27,356,190 recoveries (97.84% and 97.84% yesterday). Our death rate percentage continues to slowly improve and after many months is now .14% lower than the world rate.
        Standing: On a deaths per million population measurement on a steady climb to 1811 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 worsening to  4.54% of its closed cases have died (3048), aping Hungary in terms of increase in deaths Bulgaria (2528), Belgium (2129),  Brazil (2078) which has been hit with a rapid rise in deaths and cases and passed us and Italy (Italy (2067), Peru (2015), Poland (1917) 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 (1702), Mexico (1697), Portugal (1673), France (1652), Argentina (1596), Romania (1557),  Chile (1462), Sweden (1413) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a steady rise in  deaths,   Switzerland (1235), and Bolivia (1159).
        Tests: We have now conducted 470,026,143 tests (now at 1,412,689/M) compared to number 2 now France at 1,245,210/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 2,543,985/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 11^th on my list of deaths from the pandemic at 1697/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:     11,720     435Deaths/M
                   Honduras:     Activecases:   140,037     602Deaths/M
                   El Salvador:   Active cases:     2,374     338 Deaths/M   

         US Vaccinations: As of 5/209/2021 279.4 million doses and finally a second day of daily increases in doses from 1.8 to 1.83 million on 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 36,053,888 total doses have been given (79.0% of doses received to trail the U.S. average of 79.4%), but even with the pressure of a recall to be scheduled this fall which hopefully end Newsom’s term, California has  moved from  27^th down to 28^th out of the 50 states in terms of the percentage of doses administered as a percentage of doses delivered to the states and at 39.8% of its population fully vaccinated compared to the U.S. average of 38.1% has  not moved 22^nd  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: Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire after the Hamas rocket count of rockets launched into Israel is over 4,000 while Biden who did not broker the ceasefire is trying to take credit (what a failing mental wimp); at a time when the more dollars we send to Israel to expand Iron Dome the less likely Hamas will be launching missiles that will be destroyed, in a move that has to embolden Hamas to launch more rockets the dynamic duo of bias and anti-Semitism AOC and Tlaib have introduced a resolution calling for a disapproval of an arms sale to Israel; Jewish patrons at a Beverly Glen sushi restaurant were attacked by a mob of Palestinian supporters (expected fallout from the anti-Semitic rants of Rashida Tlaib?); we are witnessing another example that “bipartisan commission” means only the Blue can appoint the staff and control the agenda as the House has created a “bipartisan” commission to investigate the January 6 protests at the Capitol and has sent the bill to the Senate where it faces strong opposition; some sense of sanity may be appearing among Blues, as Biden’s plan to raise capital gains tax to 39.6% and eliminate the step up in basis on death to donees is facing headwinds in his party; Peloton has announced a software fix to its treadmill to shut it down when the exercise equipment is inactive that would have prevented the death of a small child sucked under the moving treadmill with no one on it; as more and more evidence is surfacing that the COVID-19 came out of the Wuhan Lab, the White House has gone silent and is not producing any evidence to contradict the allegations: Ryun King, a tattoo artist at the Gallery X Art Collective in Murrey, Kentucky, is doing his part to lower the hate and divisiveness in this country by offering one day a week to cover up any racist or hateful tattoos for free (kudos to him!); in what some might call what took you so long moment, the IRS has announced that cryptocurrency transactions over $10,000 must be reported; Sanders, perhaps prodded by AOC’s and Tlaib’s  resolution to ban arms sales to Israel, has introduced a resolution to have a vote on a $735 million sale of arms to Israel to be held on the Senate floor; Cuomo desperate to shift attention away from his scandals has unveiled an inducement to be vaccinated—a free $5 million lottery ticket; the Iowa governor fed up with the control freaks at the CDC and in the Swamp, has signed a billing banning mask mandates in schools.
          As Israel is trying to defend itself from Hamas rocket attacks now in excess of 4,000, leave it to the political cartoonist to reveal the bias of the Progressives and the DNC lackeys, the MSM, in favor of the Palestinians and against Israel as  the rockets from Hamas rain down:                                                                                                                                                                  

                                                                                                                                                   Chicago Gun Violence: Hey Jackass.com is back to show that through May 19, 2021,  gun violence involving mostly persons of color shooting mostly persons of color in Chicago is alive and well with 1280 persons shot of whom 221 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 “Livin’ La Vida Loca“ by Ricky Martin, the fact that you support our opposition to revanche by Putin  and a quote from Elie Wiesel on Auschwitz, 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. World Bee Day—created by the United Nations in December 2017 to acknowledge the importance of bees and other pollinators to our ecosystem and food supply and celebrated on this day because it is the anniversary of one of the great beekeepers, Anton Janša born in 1734 who became a pioneer in apiculture and the study of bees.
         2. National Rescue Dog Day—created to promote awareness of the large numbers of dogs in shelters that need to be adopted by Lisa Wiehebrink of Tails That Teach that teaches children how to be kind to pets and celebrated since this day in 2018 and celebrated by adopting a dog from a shelter, volunteering or contributing to a shelter, and spaying or neutering your dogs.

3.  1999 Number 1 Song USA—the number 1 song in 1999 was “Livin’ La Vida Loca” by Ricky Martin on a run of 5 weeks non continuous in that position to join 14 other songs reaching number 1 and 10 other acts that achieved their first number 1 song. Here is a video recording by Ricky Martin of “Livin’ La Vida Loca”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p47fEXGabaY Ricky Martin is a Puerto Rican singer who started performing at age 12 and after selling 70 million records is known as the “King of Latin Pop.”

         4.  Word of the Day—the word of the day is “revanche” which means a policy designed to recover territory which fits Putin to a tee in terms of his goals.

5.  The Goddess of Pop—celebrating the birth on this day in 1946 of the singer and actress Cherilyn Sarkisian known as the “Goddess of Pop” and to her fans better known as Cher and still performing and going strong.

         On this day in

a. 1940 the first prisoners arrived at Auschwitz in Poland, later to be joined by some 1.1 million who would follow and be gassed and cremated as part of Hitler’s “Final Solution.”

         b. 1941 German Paratroopers, who were later supplemented by glider troops, successfully invaded the island of Crete but suffered large numbers of casualties that resulted in Hitler never using paratroopers in an airborne invasion again which meant that Malta was never invaded from the air and Rommel ended up having so many of his supplies sunk by plane and submarines operating out of Malta that he lost the Battle of El Alamein.            c. 1983 the first publication of the existence of the HIV Virus that causes AIDS was published in Science by Luc Montagnier.
        d. 1985 Radio Marti began radio broadcasting to Cuba and is still broadcasting and televising today.
        e. 1996 SCOTUS in the case of Romer v. Evans struck down a Colorado law that banned any city, county or town from taking any legislative, judicial or executive action to prevent discrimination against gays or lesbians.
      Reflections on the barbarity of Auschwitz: “At the time of the liberation of the camps, I remember, we were convinced that after Auschwitz there would be no more wars, no more racism, no more hatred, no more anti-Semitism. We were wrong. This produced a feeling close to despair. For if Auschwitz could not cure mankind of racism, was there any chance of success ever? The fact is, the world has learned nothing. Otherwise, how is one to comprehend the atrocities committed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia…”― Elie Wiesel, Open Heart When the Holocaust is part of your history it is easy to understand why Israel reacts to the barbarity of Hamas with overwhelming force.

        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 20, 2021 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet
Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire
Poet Extraordinaire, Beyond Compare
A Unique Gift, All Recipients a Lasting Gift

May 19, 2021 Ridley's Believe It Or Not World IBD Day

 Ridley’s Believe It Or Not May 19, 2021

        CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues the new year with cases now over  165 million at 165,231,548 cases (164,873,728 yesterday), 17,510,870 of which are active, 147,720,678 closed with 144,296,099 recoveries (97.68% and 97.68% yesterday ,and 3,424,579 deaths (2.32% and 2.32 % 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 33,777,624 (33,773,707 yesterday) with 5,921,299 active cases of which 7,738 (7,751) yesterday and 8,599 on 3/25/2021) (now down to .13% 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 21,533), 27,856,325 closed, with 601,413 deaths (2.16% and 2.16% yesterday) and with 27,254,912 recoveries (97.84% and 97.84% 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 1808 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 improving to 4.33% of its closed cases have died (3043), aping Hungary in terms of increase in deaths Bulgaria (2518), Belgium (2127), Italy (2064), Brazil (2054) which has been hit with a rapid rise in deaths and cases and passed us, Peru (2001), Poland (1911) 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 (1700), Mexico (1696), Portugal (1673), France (1652), Argentina (1575), Romania (1554),  Chile (1454), Sweden (1413) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a steady rise in  deaths,   Switzerland (1235), and Bolivia (1154.
         Tests: We have now conducted 468,131,555 tests (now at 1,407,040/M) compared to number 2 now France at 1,252,788/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 2,525,792/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 11^th on my list of deaths from the pandemic at 1696/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:     11,627     435Deaths/M
                   Honduras:     Activecases:   139,182     599Deaths/M
                   El Salvador:   Active cases:     2,377     338 Deaths/M   

         US Vaccinations: As of 5/19/2021 277.3 million doses and finally a second day of daily increases in doses from 1.77 to 1.8 million on 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 35,767,717 total doses have been given (78.9% of doses received to trail the U.S. average of 79.4%), but even with the pressure of a recall to be scheduled this fall which hopefully end Newsom’s term, California has  moved from  24^th down to 27^th out of the 50 states in terms of the percentage of doses administered as a percentage of doses delivered to the states and at 39.3% of its population fully vaccinated compared to the U.S. average of 37.8% has  moved down  from  21^st tied with Michigan to 22^nd  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: The evidence appears to get clearer each day that the Wuhan Virus that has devastated the world came from the Wuhan Lab as China loses more and more credibility with its denials; Biden had a call with Netanyahu indicating that he expected a de-escalation of the Israeli responses to the now more than 3,400 rockets fired from Gaza toward Israel and Netanyahu diplomatically told Biden to pound sand; hundreds of protestors demonstrated outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, many of whom were calling for the destruction of the Jewish state; the District Attorney for Elizabeth City, North Carolina has ruled that the shooting of Andrew Brown “while tragic was justified” as Brown in trying to flee drove his car towards the police which decision is not being well received by BLM who are demanding an independent prosecutor and threatening a boycott of the city (some body cam footage was released which appears to show Brown almost hitting an officer as he tries to flee); Pelosi is on a control binge, as 4 Reds protesting the idiocy of requiring the wearing of masks on the House floor were each fined $500 and 7 others were warned (Blues are so quick to demand we follow the science then ignore the latest guidelines on mask wearing for vaccinated people); Christhian Rivera, the illegal alien who brutally stabbed Mollie Tibbets to death, is now in court as his trial for 1^st degree murder has begun; Where’s Waldo who continues to be MIA on the border crisis is front and center on the hypocrisy stage as she has her assets in a family trust that Biden vowed to eliminate for federal officials as the assets therein escape financial disclosure requirements; Texas has just adopted a law banning abortions after 6 weeks even though a woman might not even know she was pregnant but bans officials from enforcing it but gives private citizens the right to sue abortion providers who violate it; Letitia James, the AG for New York, has announced that her office’s investigation of the Trump Organization is now a criminal one, no longer civil; one small step to return some balance and sanity to our ivy covered walls does not a victory make, but refreshing to learn that the University of North Carolina has denied tenure to Nicole Hannah-Jones, the founder of the 1619 Project, and instead is considering her for a 5 year contract; after Liz Cheney was ousted from her leadership position in the Reds in the House, leave it to the political cartoonist to reveal that TDS sadly crosses the aisles:                                                                                       

       Chicago Gun Violence: Hey Jackass.com is back to show that through May 18, 2021,  gun violence involving mostly persons of color shooting mostly persons of color in Chicago is alive and well with 1270 persons shot of whom 219 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 “Too Close“ by Next, the fact that you don’t retrovert from challenges worth meeting  and a quote from Timothy Murphy on illegal immigration, 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. World Family Doctor Day— founded by the World Organization of Family Doctors in 2010 to highlight the role of and contributions by family doctors and primary care teams in healthcare systems around the world. 
           2. World IBD Day—celebrated since 2010 to promote awareness of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative and to promote efforts to find better treatment modalities for conditions that can really be debilitating.

3.  1998 Number 1 Song USA—the number 1 song in 1998 was “Too Close” by Nest on a run of 5 weeks non continuous in that position to join 15 other songs reaching number 1 and 9 other acts that achieved their first number 1 song. Here is a video recording by Next of “Too Close”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwEZRPkAAu8 Next is a R&B group consisting of Robert “R.L.” Huggar and 2 brothers Rapheel “Tweety” Brown and Terry “T-Low” Brown formed in 1992 and still performing today.  
          4.  Word of the Day—the word of the day is “retrovert” which means a turn back which Biden seems to be doing pedal to the metal to return to Obama/Biden policies of the past from Trump’s economic policies. 
          5.  The First Hippy-Cowboy—celebrating the birth on this day in 1940 of noted  singer and Songwriter Hall of Fame member Mickey Newbury, who was a dynamic force in country music in the 60’s and 70’s and a prolific songwriter whose songs were recorded by other artists and hit the charts. Sadly, a smoker with a genetic disposition to lung problems, he suffered from emphysema and was dependent on oxygen in his later life and died on September 29, 2002 at age 62.
           On this day in
          a. 1921 Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act which imposed quotas for the  numbers of immigrants allowed into the United States from various countries.
          b. 1950 4 transfer barges and several railroad cars loaded with some  420  tons of explosives  and munitions suddenly detonated at loading facilities in South Amboy, New Jersey, killing 31 people and injuring 350 and destroying a good portion of the town near the port facilities.
         c. 1986 as a result of growing reports that agents of the ATF were harassing and wrongfully arresting Federal Firearms Licensees, Congress passed and President Reagan signed into law the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986.
        d. 2015 near Refugio State Beach near Santa Barbara, a 28 year old pipeline transporting oil from offshore oil platforms and not equipped with automatic shutoff valves, sprung a leak and before operators were alerted to the leakage and shut down the pipeline, 3400 barrels of oil were leaked into the surrounding ocean.
         e. 2018 Prince Harry married Meghan Markle who many believe was already pregnant  with her son Archie in a televised wedding at Windsor Castle that was viewed by some 1.9 billion viewers.
          Reflections on illegal immigration not legal immigration: “Illegal immigration is crisis for our country. It is an open door for drugs, criminals, and potential terrorists to enter our country. It is straining our economy, adding costs to our judicial, healthcare, and education systems.” Timothy Murphy, Irish-American actor and legal immigrant

           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 19, 2021 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet
Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire
Poet Extraordinaire, Beyond Compare
A Unique Gift, All Recipients a Lasting Gift

May 18, 2021 Ridley's Believe It Or Not World AIDS Vaccine Day

 

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not May 18, 2021
        CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues the new year with cases now over  164 million at 164,873,728 cases (164,256,136 yesterday), 17,655,622 of which are active, 147,218,106 closed with 143,800,392 recoveries (97.68% and 97.67% yesterday ,and 3,417,714 deaths (2.32% and 2.33 % 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 33,773,707 (33,745,541 yesterday) with 5,924,886 active cases of which 7,751 (7,849) yesterday and 8,599 on 3/25/2021) (now down to .13% 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 21,520), 27,848,821 closed, with 601,308 deaths (2.16% and 2.16% yesterday) and with 27,247,513 recoveries (97.84% and 97.84% 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 1807 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 improving to 4.37% of its closed cases have died (3037), aping Hungary in terms of increase in deaths Bulgaria (2518), Belgium (2125), Italy (2062), Brazil (2054) which has been hit with a rapid rise in deaths and cases and passed us, Peru (1992), Poland (1902) 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 (1700), Mexico (1695), Portugal (1672), France (1652), Argentina (1575), Romania (1551),  Chile (1452), Sweden (1408) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a steady rise in  deaths,   Switzerland (1234), and Bolivia (1148.
        Tests: We have now conducted 467,961,604 tests (now at 1,406,529/M) compared to number 2 now France at 1,252,788/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 2,513,205/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 11^th on my list of deaths from the pandemic at 1695/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:     11,627     435Deaths/M
                   Honduras:     Activecases:   138,626     595Deaths/M
                   El Salvador:   Active cases:     2,381     337 Deaths/M   

      US Vaccinations: As of 5/18/2021 275.5 million doses and finally after one day of a significant drop an increase of .15 million to 1.77 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 35,518,035 total doses have been given (79.0% of doses received to trail the U.S. average of 79.5%), but even with the pressure of a recall to be scheduled this fall which hopefully end Newsom’s term, California has  moved from 27^th to 24^th tied with Indiana and Tennessee out of the 50 states in terms of the percentage of doses administered as a percentage of doses delivered to the states and at 39.0% of its population fully vaccinated compared to the U.S. average of 37.5% has  moved  up from  24^th  to 21^st tied with Michigan 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: Rashida Tlaib seems to be the point person on the left attacking Israel for apartheid policies and terrorist activities against the Palestinians and had a heated 8 minute on the tarmac before Biden’s meeting with autoworkers (not sure what the two talked about but he called her Rasheed and praised her later from the podium); Blues will not support any condemnation for its rocket attacks on Israel causing many to wonder how solid there support of Israel is or whether they are going through the motions only; Pelosi will not let go of remote voting for the House despite the huge number of House members that have been vaccinated; Mark McCloskey, who with his wife with guns in hand to defend their home when BLM “protestors” broke through a gate to his gated community, will be running for Senate in Missouri; Consumers Information a nonprofit consumers’ group founded to provide product information to consumers has launched a new ad campaign against companies like Nike, American Airlines and Coca-Cola putting woke politics over the needs of their consumers; Black Lives Matter was showing its Marxist colors as it announced it was standing with Hamas as Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli civilians have killed 12 Israelis while over 200 Palestinians have lost their lives in Gaza due to Israeli air strikes (Blues in increasing numbers are demanding Biden be more forceful in obtaining a cease fire in the conflict); Mayor Lightfoot, who has been from day one MIA on the color on color shootings in Chicago, evidently is practicing her own brand of racism by refusing to be interviewed by any journalist other than one who is brown or black.
       Where’s Waldo is still MIA in her position on Immigration Czar and 56 days have come and gone and not peep out of this political hack on the border; as a barometer of how unsafe and troubled Americans are on the issue of safety, gun sales are going through the roof as background check requests are up 31% in the first 4 months of this year compared to the same period last year; as America is trying to reopen its economy and return to its way of life, leave it to the political cartoonist to reveal the establishment’s reluctance to allow that to happen as evidenced by Fauci:                                                

                                       
       Chicago Gun Violence: Hey Jackass.com is back to show that through May 17, 2021,  gun violence involving mostly persons of color shooting mostly persons of color in Chicago is alive and well with 1262 persons shot of whom 218 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 “Hypnotize“ by Notorious B.I.G. the fact that you don’t allow retrophilia from diverting you from the present or preparing for the future  and a quote from George Will on the success of the Tennessee Valley Authority, 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. World AIDS Vaccine Day— prompted by President Clinton’s Commencement Speech at Morgan State University where he challenged the medical and scientific community to develop a vaccine for AIDS by the end of the next decade and first celebrated on May 18, 1998; despite massive efforts thus far we are not close to a vaccine for this deadly disease.
            2. National Speech Pathologists Day—honoring the work of speech pathologists who help those with speech issues caused by injury or disease to enable them to be more effective oral communicators.

 3.  1997 Number 1 Song USA—the number 1 song in 1997 was “Hypnotize” by The Notorious B.I.G. on a run of 3 weeks in that position to join 9 other songs reaching number 1 and 6 other acts that achieved their first number 1 song and The Notorious B.I.G. became the 5^th artist to reach that status posthumously. Here is a video recording by The Notorious B.I.G. of ”Hypnotize”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glEiPXAYE-U The Notorious B.I.G. was a rapper who in his short career sold 21 million records and caused The Rolling Stone to name him as the most influential rapper of all time. He was killed in a drive by shooting while in a car in L.A. on March 9, 1997 at the age of 24 and his murderer has never been identified.

           4.  Word of the Day—the word of the day is “retrophilia” which means a love of things of the past which can sidetrack you from learning how to cope and master new things and ideas of the future.

5.  I Went to a Fight the Other Night and a Hockey Game Broke Out—celebrating the birth on this day in 1963 of Marty McSorley who played for 17 years in the NHL and was one of the most feared enforcers in the league and who has the dubious distinction of having criminal charges brought against him for assaulting an opposing player resulting in a concussion and his suspension and retirement from hockey. An avid fan of the Kings a team he played on for 8 seasons he ended his career as number 4 in terms of penalty minutes at 3381.

         On this day in

a. 1927 Andrew Kehoe angered that he had lost in the election for the town clerk and facing foreclosure of his farm, had previously planted explosives under the Bath Elementary School in Bath Township, Michigan and on this day killed his wife and as the explosives under the school went off he blew up his farm and then drove his explosive laden truck into the school yard as rescuers were combing the wreckage and detonated it killing himself. When it was over, he had killed 38 elementary school children and 6 adults including himself and wounded 58 people. The massacre remains the deadliest school killings in our history.

           b. 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed legislation which created the Tennessee Valley Authority.

c. 1980 Mt. St. Helens in Washington after weeks of seismic activity erupted, killing 57 people and causing 3 billion dollars of damage in the deadliest and costliest in terms of destruction in U.S. history.

          d. 1990 a modified French TGV train achieved a world rail speed record of   320.2 m.p.h.

e. 2018 Dimitrios Pagourtzis, a student at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas entered the school and started shooting, killing 8 students and 2 teachers and wounding 13 before surrendering after being wounded. He is undergoing psychiatric treatment and has been adjudged unfit to stand trial at the present moment.

      Reflections on the creation of the TVA: “The Tennessee Valley Authority and the Interstate Highway System were not just good in themselves. They were good for the morale of government, which periodically needs some inspiring successes.” George Will, noted conservative columnist Newsweek July 25, 1988.

        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, 2021 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet
Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire
Poet Extraordinaire, Beyond Compare
A Unique Gift, All Recipients a Lasting Gift

May 17, 2017 Ridley's Believe It Or Not World Hypertension Day

 Ridley’s Believe It Or Not May 17, 2021

        CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues the new year with cases now over  163 million at 164,256,136 cases (163,583,358 yesterday), 17,878,458 of which are active, 146,377,678 closed with 142,973,955 recoveries (97.67% and 97.67% yesterday ,and 3,403,723 deaths (2.33% and 2.33 % 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 33,745,541 (33,701,226 yesterday) with 5,949,355 active cases of which 7,849 (7,999) yesterday and 8,599 on 3/25/2021) (now down to .13% 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 21,422), 27,796,186 closed, with 600,515 deaths (2.16% and 2.17% yesterday) and with 27,195,671 recoveries (97.84% and 97.83% yesterday). Our death rate percentage continues to slowly improve and after many months is now .17% lower than the world rate.
         Standing: On a deaths per million population measurement on a steady climb to 1805 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 4.42% of its closed cases have died (3031), aping Hungary in terms of increase in deaths Bulgaria (2513), Belgium (2124), Italy (2058), Brazil (2043) which has been hit with a rapid rise in deaths and cases and passed us, Peru (1975), Poland (1896) 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 (1698), Mexico (1694), Portugal (1672), France (1649), Argentina (1559), Romania (1546),  Chile (1450), Sweden (1406) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a steady rise in  deaths,   Switzerland (1234), and Bolivia (1144).
        Tests: We have now conducted 467,023,949 tests (now at 1,403,733/M) compared to number 2 now France at 1,249,144/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 2,495,025/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 11^th on my list of deaths from the pandemic at 1694/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:     11,586     434Deaths/M
                   Honduras:     Activecases:   138,157     594Deaths/M
                   El Salvador:   Active cases:     2,385     336 Deaths/M   

       US Vaccinations: As of 5/17/2021 272.9 million doses and finally after one day of a small increase a significant drop to 1.62 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 35,114,892 total doses have been given (79.4% of doses received to equal the U.S. average of 79.4%), but even with the pressure of a recall to be scheduled this fall which hopefully end Newsom’s term, California has not moved from 27^th out of the 50 states in terms of the percentage of doses administered as a percentage of doses delivered to the states and at 38.4% of its population fully vaccinated compared to the U.S. average of 37.1% has  moved  down from 23^rd tied with Alaska to 24^th 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: The debilitating virus of Wokeness appears to be spreading in the last bastion of our society that most people still trust as Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier has been relieved of his Space Force Command for writing a article condemning critical race theory and Marxism (the left idiots don’t understand the being PC or woke is counterproductive to deter aggression and defeat it if you can’t deter it; most of us believe that every member of the House has be vaccinated and protected against the viral spread but Pelosi rejecting the science of the CDC is keeping remote voting in the House till July 3^rd  instead; Witless Whitmer caught lying on her charted trip to Florida is facing more flack when we now find that the chartered plane was not licensed to passengers to fly ( this pathetic excuse for a governor adheres to the rule that laws are for you and I can as governor defy); Blue Governor Wolf of Pennsylvania had to post that June 19^th which the polices unions in Pennsylvania support was to be observed because of the racism of shooting blacks by the police (no wonder the unions whose members put their lives on the line to protect all races were outraged); while Blue Governors adhere to the mantra of shut down the economy to prevent CV spread, Texas has just report a day when no one from COVID-19 ended up dead; in an all too familiar story, to Maryland Police officers trying to serve a warrant in Charles County were shot but managed to leave the residence where the shooter was found dead from either a  self-inflicted gunshot or by a police bullet; in the armed struggle between Hamas and Israel, over 3,100 rockets have been fired into Israel with Israel responding with massive air strikes against the homes of Hamas commanders and miles of underground tunnels; the Blue mayor of Del Rio, Texas is blasting Biden and his Blues for the chaos of an open border, so bad that illegals storming the border, cut the fence around a school causing it to be shut down.
          A petition has been signed by 1500 people and growing to have the NFL retire the jersey number of Pat Tillman of the Arizona Cardinals who volunteered as a Ranger after the attacks on this country and was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004; leave it to the political cartoonist to follow the money unfortunately from Obama/Biden to Iran to Hamas to the rockets that are in a deadly swarm being shot into Israel:                                                    

         Chicago Gun Violence: Hey Jackass.com is back to show that through May 14, 2021,  gun violence involving mostly persons of color shooting mostly persons of color in Chicago is alive and well with 1236 persons shot of whom 212 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 “Always Be My Baby“ by Mariah Carey, the fact that you are able to avoid retromorphosis  and a quote from Dan Siegel after meeting with SLA members Bill and Emily Harris in 1975 to discuss their possible surrender and book deal, 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. World Hypertension Day— created by World Hypertension League on May 14, 2005 and celebrated thereafter on May 16, 2016 and celebrated since then on May 17, 2006 to promote awareness of what many have called “the Silent Killer and the need to monitor one’s blood pressure with a diet and appropriate exercise.

2. Stepmother’s Day—created in 2000 by 9 year old Lizzie Capuzzi to honor her stepmother Joyce and who sent a letter to Senator Santorum indicating stepmothers should be honored which the Senator placed in the Congressional Record. Being a stepmother is a difficult position to step into and those children who have been blessed with loving and caring ones are very lucky indeed.
         3.  1996 Number 1 Song USA—the number 1 song in 1996 was “Always Be My Baby” by Mariah Carey on a run of 2weeks non continuous in that position to join 8 other songs reaching number 1 while 8 acts achieved their first number 1 song. Here is a video recording by Mariah Carey of ”Always Be My Baby”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfRNRymrv9k Mariah with her 5 octave range singing voice to go with her estimated over $500 million net worth is known as the “Songbird Supreme” and is going strong at the young age of 52.
         4.  Word of the Day—the word of the day is “retromorphosis” which means a change for the worse which many conservatives believe where the Progressives like The Squad want to take this nation.
         5.  Drugs Make It Hard to Surface—celebrating the birth on this day in 1955 of David Townsend, noted musician and guitarist for the band Surface who had great success from 1989-91 and disbanded in 1994 to reform again in 1999 to release their 5^th studio album Love Zone and were planning a reunion tour which was cancelled since Townsend died from a drug overdose on October 26, 2005.
         On this day in
         a. 1974 400 officers of the LAPD and other federal and state agencies surrounded a house located at 1466 East 54th Street, Los Angeles that was occupied by 6 members of the Symbionese Liberation Army and engaged in a massive shootout with them for over 2 hours with the police firing 5,000 rounds and the SLA members shooting 4,000 before 2 SLA members were shot and killed and the 4 others succumbed to the fires that finally started from the numerous cannisters of tear gas lobbed into the house.
         b. 1983 in response to a FOIA request filed by the Appalachian Observer, the Department of Energy released classified documents detailing the largest mercury contamination event ultimately revealed to be 4.2 million pounds at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
        c. 1990 the General Assembly of the World Health Organization eliminated homosexuality from the list of psychiatric diseases.
        d. 1995 Shawn Nelson, an Army veteran, stole a M60 Patton tank, fortunately with no ordinance aboard, from the California National Guard Armory in San Diego, to go on a televised rampage, knocking down utility poles and fire hydrants and crushing 40 parked vehicles before getting stuck on a highway median and losing a track which enabled a California Highway Patrolman who was also in the Marine Corps Reserve to climb up on the turret and cut the bolts holding the hatch closed with bolt cutters and shoot Nelson to death when he would not stop trying to move the tank and refused to climb out and surrender.
        e. 2006 the USS Oriskany, one of the few Essex Class aircraft carriers completed after World War II, after serving in the Korean War and Vietnam War and decommissioned on September 30, 1976 and on this day was sunk in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida landing upright in waters shallow enough to not be a hazard to navigation but accessible to recreational divers to create an artificial reef.

       Reflections on the Symbionese Liberation Army: “They were incredibly naive and simplistic. They had an attitude or view of the world that reminded me of people who didn’t read the newspapers or hadn’t any sense of history. They actually believed that by carrying out these so-called revolutionary activities they were going to draw great support from a majority of the working class and poor people.” Dan Siegel, an active former activist while at Berkeley, after a 1975 meeting with Bill and Emily Harris, 2 SLA members, to discuss negotiating their surrender and possible book deal.
       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 17, 2021 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet
Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire
Poet Extraordinaire, Beyond Compare
A Unique Gift, All Recipients a Lasting Gift