August 25, 2020 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Women's Equality Day

 Ridley's Believe It Or Not August 26, 2020

     CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues with 344,903 new cases (a 1.44%  increase compared to a .77% increase yesterday) to bring the total over 24 million to 24,216,417 cases, 6,675,639  of  which  are active, 17,540,778 of which have been closed with 16,714,175 recoveries (95.29% compared to  yesterday’s 95.25%) and 826,603 deaths (4.71% compared to yesterday’s 4.75%) to continue the trend of increased recovery percentages and decreased mortality percentages.

    CV USA Cases: New cases of 81,532 with total cases nearing 6 million at 5,890,706 (a 1.38% increase compared to yesterday’s .47% increase) with 2,530,073 active cases of which 16,484, on a downward trend with slight blips from over 19,000 in the last 3 weeks (16,477 yesterday), are in serious or critical condition as trend continues to go down, and 3,442,165 closures, 182,988 of which have been deaths (5.32% compared to yesterday’s 5.33%) and 3,259,177 of which have been recoveries (94.68% compared to yesterday’s 94.67%) (our death rate percentages continue to improve and are finally in single digits since Cuomo repealed on May 10 his order sending CV positive patients to nursing homes and ADL facilities and on a deaths per million population measurement at 552 ranks behind Belgium (862), Peru (847, Spain (620), UK (610), Italy (587), Sweden (575), and Chile (574) and only slightly worse than Brazil (550) and Mexico (476). We have now conducted    78,632,566 tests (more than 709,000 more tests than those done yesterday).
      Non CV Case News: New medical evidence filed by the defense lawyers of the police in Minneapolis charged with the death of George Floyd revealed that he had fatal levels of fentanyl in his system which is why he was claiming while in the police car he was having trouble breathing; Kenosha even with 125 National Guard troops deployed was hit with another night of rioting, looting and burning down businesses that provide employment to some of the city’s residents and last night turned deadly with 3 people shot, 2 of whom died, by a 17 year old suspect who has been arrested,  prompting Trump to announce he is sending in federal agents and Wisconsin to send in 500 National Guard to help control the violence (what happened to Jacob Blake if the video is a complete and accurate depiction of what led to his shooting is an absolute intolerable outrage but riots and business destruction is about as counterproductive as can be to advance the cause of social justice and improve race relations); in what has to be a major miracle Blake is still alive and in stable condition after surgery as his mother was pleading that the violence is not something her son would ever approve (sadly like the pleas of Rodney King on TV  during the L.A. Riots of “Why can’t we just get along?” that were ignored, don’t get your hopes up that the rioters will heed the plea); in a penny wise pound foolish move that is costing the city millions in riot damages and potential use of unlawful force damages, Kenosha failed to buy body cams for its officers back in 2017 and has pushed that purchase back before the Blake shooting to 2022; Laura is now a CAT4 Hurricane bearing down on Texas and Louisiana with the potential of great storm surge and wind damage as residents are fleeing inland; Melania Trump displayed in her speech from the newly restored Rose Garden what an incredible class act as she chose not to attack Biden as the time for divisiveness has passed while the left like Bette Midler ranted and demeaned her like a xenophobic idiot (the strength of diversity the Blue preach when trying to justify illegal aliens disappears in a New York City Second when the immigrant is legal and a Republican); BLM must have seen an old clip of Maxine Waters demanding people get in the face of Trump supporters and office holders as BLM protesters are shown descending on D.C. outdoor restaurants demanding the patrons raise their fists in support of the BLM.

   Chicago/Baltimore Gun Violence: In Chicago as of August 25, 2020, the number of shootings increased by 11 poorly aimed shootings to 2,711 of whom none have  died in 2 straight days to keep the total at 450 (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 still 236 behind Chicago at 214 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 with significantly less frequency?).
    As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to “I’ll Never Smile Again” by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra, with Frank Sinatra and the Pied Pipers as vocals, the fact that you are not pervicacious and, and a quote by Simon Winchester on the eruption of Mt. Krakatoa, secure in the knowledge that if you want to find a gift for any memorable events like Father’s Day, college graduations, birthdays, weddings, or anniversaries, you know that the Alaskanpoet can provide you with a unique customized poem at a great price tailored to the event and the recipient. You need only contact me for details.
    1. Women’s Equality Day—created by Presidential Proclamation by President Nixon in 1972 to the commemorate the 19^th Amendment and to promote the gaining by women and girls of equality.

    2. Congressional Start Up Day—created by former Rep. Darrell Issa and former Rep. and now Governor of Colorado Jared Polis in 2013 to promote start-ups which are the backbone of this country in terms of innovation to meet with their Congressional representatives while they are home in their districts during the Congressional Recess as startups are not blessed with vast dollars to hire lobbyists to beat down Congress’ doors to have them address their needs.

     3. 1940 Number One Song— the number 1 song in 1939 on a run of 12 weeks was “I’ll Never Smile Again” by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra with Frank Sinatra and the Pied Pipers on the vocals. Here is a recording of the song:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il7DWoLySW8 This talented band leader and trombone player had a successful TV series featuring his orchestra and guest musicians including in January, 1956 introducing a young Elvis Presley to the TV viewing world; sadly Tommy was often taking sleeping pills and after a heavy meal at his Greenwich, Connecticut home and sedated he choked himself to death in his sleep on November 26,1956.
    4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “pervicacious” which means very obstinate which is often the sign of a small mind unwilling to consider new facts or ideas.

     5. No One to a Bullet Block—celebrating the birth on this day in 1987 of Juan Joseph, an American college football and Arena football player who had the misfortune to try to deescalate a confrontation between two groups of men outside the Allure Nightclub in Baton Rouge on November 16, 2014 and for his efforts was shot by Jamarcus Goodman twice in the chest and died. Goodman was sentenced to 40 years in prison for his deed.

      On this day in:

      a. 1883 the final eruption of Mt. Krakatoa which ended the next day and destroyed 70 percent of the island began. 
      b. 1940 Chad became the first French colony to break from Vichy France and join the Allies under the administration of Félix Éboué, France's first black colonial governor.
      c. 1944 Charles de Gaul triumphantly reentered a liberated Paris.
      d. 2009 Kaycee Dugard who, had been kidnapped by  a convicted sex offender Philip Garrido, while walking to a school bus stop in 1991 was discovered alive with her two daughters that Garrido had sired with her while she was held in captivity. Garrido and his wife Nancy pled guilty to kidnapping and received long prison terms that will enable them to be eligible for parole hearings in 2034 and Kaycee received a $20 million settlement from the State of California for failure to have discovered her and her children during encounters with Garrido and his parole officers.

       e. 2015 Allison Parker and Adam Ward of CBS affiliate WDBJ of Roanoke, Virginia were interviewing live, Vicki Gardner, the head of the Moneta, Virginia Chamber of Commerce, when Vester Flanagan, who had been previously fired from the station for disruptive conduct, approached the 3 and shot them, killing Parker and Ward, fleeing the scene but not taking the video camera with him which was used to identify him and the car he had rented which was stopped and sped away to crash off the road and kill himself.
     Reflections of the eruption of Mt. Krakatoa: “The story of Krakatoa had a small beginning—seven newsworthy words, buried well down in the pages of a single London newspaper. As the summer of 1883 wore on, it was to become a very much greater story indeed. And when it was over, three months later, it was to have implications for society—for the laying of the foundations of McLuhan’s “global village”—that have reverberated in a far more important way, and for far, far longer, than anyone at the time could ever have supposed.”― Simon Winchester, Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 

       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. 

 © August 26, 2020 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

August 25, 2020 Ridley's Believe It Or Not National Park Service Founders Day

 Ridley' Believe It Or Not August 25, 2020

     CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues with 182,413 new cases (a .77%  increase compared to a .76% increase yesterday) to bring the total over 23 million to 23,871,514 cases, 6,642,971  of  which  are active, 17,228,543 of which have been closed with 16,410,283 recoveries (95.25% compared to  yesterday’s 95.20%) and 818,260 deaths (4.75% compared to yesterday’s 4.80%) to continue the trend of increased recovery percentages and decreased mortality percentages.

   CV USA Cases: New cases of 27,507 with total cases nearing 6 million at 5,890,706 (a .47% increase compared to yesterday’s 2.11% increase) with 2,517,660 active cases of which 16,477, on a downward trend with slight blips from over 19,000 in the last 3 weeks (16,719 yesterday), are in serious or critical condition as trend continues to go down, and 3,400,553 closures, 181,226 of which have been deaths (5.33% compared to yesterday’s 5.39%) and 3,219,327 of which have been recoveries (94.67% compared to yesterday’s 94.61%) (our death rate percentages continue to improve and are finally in single digits since Cuomo repealed on May 10 his order sending CV positive patients to nursing homes and ADL facilities and on a deaths per million population measurement at 547 ranks behind Belgium (862), Peru (842, Spain (617), UK (610), Italy (586), Sweden (575), and Chile (570) and only slightly worse than Brazil (543) and Mexico (471). We have now conducted     77,923,405 tests (more than 1,058,000 more tests than those done yesterday).
     Non CV Case News: Kenosha even with 125 National Guard troops deployed was hit with another night of rioting, looting and burning down businesses that provide employment to some of the city’s residents (what happened to Jacob Blake if the video is a complete and accurate depiction of what led to his shooting is an absolute intolerable outrage but riots and business destruction is about as counterproductive as can be to advance the cause of social justice); in what has to be a major miracle Blake is still alive and in stable condidtion after surgery; quite a contrast to the DNC as the first night of the RNC was uplifting and touting the accomplishments of the Trump Administration and affirmation that he is not nor are his supporters racists (Herschel Walker’s speech and the speech of the father of Meadow Pollack shot to death in Parkland were stunning and Nikki Haley on Biden said it best –“He’s a nice guy and that is the problem” (shades of Leo Durocher’s astute comment); California  in its headlong rush to sustainable green energy may have hit the wall of energy shortages with the heat wave hitting the state with the threat of more rolling blackouts (watch for Gavin Newsom to start heaping the blame on for profit electrical utilities); Biden is rightfully spooking the country even more than his plans to raise taxes in threatening to shut the country down to deal with the virus; Laura has been upgraded to a CAT3 as it heads toward the Texas and Louisiana coastlines.

    Chicago/Baltimore Gun Violence: In Chicago as of August 24, 2020, the number of shootings increased by 23 poorly aimed shootings to 2,700 of whom none have  died to keep the total at 450 (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 236 behind Chicago at 214 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 with significantly less frequency?).
     As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to “Moon Love” by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, the fact that you would do not let pertinacity prevent you from reaching agreements, and a quote by Benjamin Wallace-Wells on the Cajun Navy and Hurricane Harvey, secure in the knowledge that if you want to find a gift for any memorable events like Father’s Day, college graduations, birthdays, weddings, or anniversaries, you know that the Alaskanpoet can provide you with a unique customized poem at a great price tailored to the event and the recipient. You need only contact me for details.
    1. National Secondhand Clothing Day—celebrating a great way to turn items of clothing you no longer can or want to wear by turning them into tax deductions and helping those buy clothing at reduced prices with proceeds going to charitable endeavors.

    2. National Park Service Founders Day—commemorating the founding of the National Park Service on this day in 1916 and the dedicated park rangers that oversee our 88 million acres of national parks.

    3. 1939 Number One Song— the number 1 song in 1939 on a run of 4 weeks was “Moon Love” by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra. Here is a recording of the song:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFPlit3K7rQ This talented band leader and number 1 recording artist from 1939-42 until he volunteered to entertain troops for the U.S. Army garnered 16 number 1 records and 68 top ten hits compared to 38 top ten for Elvis Presley and 33 for the Beatles for their entire respective careers. Sadly, the music stopped for Glenn on December 15, 1944, the Eve of the commencement of the Battle of the Bulge, while on a flight that crashed while over the English Channel en route to Paris to make arrangements to move his band to France to be closer to the troops.
    4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “pertinacity” which means unyieldingly holding on to a position which in the political world we live results in gridlock.

    5. Punk Rock Ground Zero—celebrating the birth on this day in 1950 of noted singer and songwriter Willie DeVille who formed the band Mink DeVille and performed at CBGB, a NYC night club that was the birthplace of punk rock in the mid 70’s as one of the house bands from 1975-1977. Willie had a long career of 35 years fortunately enhanced when he gave up a 2 decades old heroin habit in 2000 but not soon enough to have avoided being infected with HCV for which he was diagnosed in Febraury, 2009 which led while being treated to the discovery of pancreatic cancer in May of that year which killed him shortly thereafter on August 6, 2009 at age 58.

      On this day in:

      a. 1939 the U.K. and Poland signed an agreement that promised military intervention by the U.K. if Poland were invaded by a foreign power an agreement which proved to be useless to the Poles and dragged the U.K. into WWII. 
      b. 1950 President Truman signed an executive order requiring the Secretary of the Army to seize railroads threatened by a strike on 4:00 p.m. on August 27, 1950 to insure non disrupted movement of military supplies for the Korean War that had just erupted.
       c. 1967 George Lincoln Rockwell the head of the American Nazi Party after exiting from a laundromat yards from his house was assassinated by a former member of the party that he had expelled for wanting to pass out Marxist literature.
       d. 1997 Egon Krenz the last Prime Minister of East Germany was convicted for his shoot to kill orders against East Germans trying to escape from East Berlin an was sentenced to 6 ½ years in prison from which he was released after almost 4 years. 
       e. 2017 Hurricane Harvey, a CAT4 made landfall in Texas as one of the most destructive hurricanes to hit the U.S., killing 106 people, causing massive flooding and over $125 billion in damages and because of the extent of the damage, Harvey had the dubious distinction of having its name retired from the list of names for future hurricanes.
    Sour Grape reflections on the heroic work of the Cajun Navy during Hurricane Harvey: “There is a cyclic pattern to the erosion of faith in government, in which politics saps the state’s capacity to protect people, and so people put their trust in other institutions (churches; self-organizing volunteer navies), and are more inclined to support anti-government politics,” Benjamin Wallace-Wells, staff writer for the New Yorker who grudgingly admitted the Cajun Navy were heroes but bemoaned Texas’s independent culture that resulted in “insufficiency of Houston’s city planning” and “willful ignorance of climate change” that gave rise to the need for private citizens like the Cajun Navy—failed message of do not rely upon yourself when you should rely on the government to take care of you.

    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. 

 © August 25, 2020 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

August 24, 2020 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Weather Complaint Day

 Ridley' Believe It Or Not August 24, 2020

     CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues with 177,850 new cases (a .76%  increase compared to a 1.03% increase yesterday) to bring the total over 23 million to 23,689,101 cases, 6,732,798  of  which  are active, 16,956,303 of which have been closed with 16,142,022 recoveries (95.20% compared to  yesterday’s 95.18%) and 814,281  deaths (4.80% compared to yesterday’s 4.82%) to continue the trend of increased recovery percentages and decreased mortality percentages.

   CV USA Cases: New cases of 88,061 with total cases nearing 6 million at 5,890,706 (a 2.11% increase compared to yesterday’s 1.53% increase) with 2,539,878 active cases of which 16,719, on a downward trend with slight blips from over 19,000 in the last 3 weeks (16,729 yesterday), are in serious or critical condition as trend continues to go down, and 3,350,828 closures, 180,765 of which have been deaths (5.39% compared to yesterday’s 5.41%) and 3,153,012 of which have been recoveries (94.61% compared to yesterday’s 94.59%) (our death rate percentages continue to improve and are finally in single digits since Cuomo repealed on May 10 his order sending CV positive patients to nursing homes and ADL facilities and on a deaths per million population measurement at 546 ranks behind Belgium (862), Peru (837, Spain (617), UK (610), Italy (586), Sweden (575), and Chile (570) and only slightly worse than Brazil (540) and Mexico (468). We have now conducted    76,865,390 tests (more than 706,000 more tests than those done yesterday).
     Non CV Case News: Fires are still raging our of control in California as 14,000 firefighters are desperately fighting the blazes that have now killed 7; to no one’s surprise after a shooting of  black Jacob Blake released on social media, a riot occurred in Kenosha, Wisconsin and a pre-owned car for sale business with 140 vehicles a block away for the court house was torched and destroyed;

if the seven shots fired at him under the mistaken belief by the officers he was reaching for a gun as opposed to a license and registration killed him, brace yourself as not obeying a police command to halt is not a death warrant and blacks and white should be outraged (destroying a business that also sells to the minority community in no way can be justified and explains why the governor has sent 100 National Guardsmen to the city tonight); Portland the former City of Roses and now the City of Rocks and Riots in diverting 35 officers to riot duty each night has seen unanswered 911 calls soar (watch for continued sales of guns as citizens are going to be forced to arm themselves for their own protection); the DNC put on a show of a Biden-Harris Love Fest but a released tally of delegate voting showed 1000 delegates voting against the platform; the disgruntled RINO movement is alive and well as 2 dozen ex-Red members of Congress have come out against Trump as he in accepting his nomination slammed Blues for trying to use COVID-19 to steal the election; Scott Peterson who killed his pregnant wife 15 years ago and has been rotting on death row received a get off the gurney card as the California Supreme Court tossed out his death sentence and ordered a new penalty trial (since death penalties do not deter murder and an execution in California has about as much odds of being carried out in our lifetime as winning the Powerball Lottery, hopefully the D.A. will seek life without possibility of parole to cut back on legal fees incurred by the state); contentious hearing at the House Oversight Committee with Blues jumping on the false bandwagon that DeJoy is trying to ruin the elections by preventing mail in ballots (only in a Pelosi run Alice In Wonderland Circus can you throw $25 billion at a problem then after passing bill hold hearings to try to determine what if any was the problem).
    Chicago/Baltimore Gun Violence: In Chicago as of August 23, 2020, the number of shootings increased by 14 poorly aimed shootings to 2,677 of whom none have  died to keep the total at 450 (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 237 behind Chicago at 213 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?).
     As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to “A Tisket-a Tasket” by Chip Webb and His Orchestra with vocals by Ella Fitzgerald, the fact that you would like to perstgringe your representatives for their partisanship, and a quote by Bruce Norcross on Hurricane Andrew, secure in the knowledge that if you want to find a gift for any memorable events like Father’s Day, college graduations, birthdays, weddings, or anniversaries, you know that the Alaskanpoet can provide you with a unique customized poem at a great price tailored to the event and the recipient. You need only contact me for details.
    1. National Waffle Day—celebrating that toasted breakfast treat often covered in berries and fruits with copious amounts of whipped cream and celebrated in the U.S. on the date a U.S. Patent was issued for a waffle iron.

    2. Weather Complaint Day—commemorating a topic which is almost like a universal solvent to bring friends and strangers together to have something in common to complain or talk about--what the weather is or may become during the day.
    3. 1938 Number One Song— the number 1 song in 1938 on a run of 6 weeks was “A Tisket-a Tasket” by Chick Webb and His Orchestra with vocals by Ella Fitzgerald.  Here is a recording of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYEwJujSHV8 Chick a noted drummer and bandleader at the time was in fading health due to Pott Disease and he died on June 16, 1939 at age 34 with his last words being, “I am sorry but I have to go.” Ella led the band until 1942 to pursue her solo career and the band was dissolved. The “First Lady of Song” had a career that spanned over 50 years and won numerous Grammys and a Presidential Medal of Freedom but endured complications from diabetes in her later years until she joined her former bandleader on June 16, 1996.
    4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “perstringe” which means to censure which many of us feel we must do to the politicians who are dividing us due to bias.

    5. If You Want to Be Happy—celebrating the birth on this day in 1942 of James McClese better known to his fans as Jimmy Soul who is best known for his hit “If You Want to Be Happy” but sadly that success he was never able to replicate, quit his musical career and went into the U.S. Army and later in life picked up a drug habit and some felony drug possession charges and died at the age 45 on June 25, 1988.

      On this day in: 
      a. 1981 Mark David Chapman was sentenced to 20 years to life for murdering John Lennon outside his apartment in New York City and will be before the Parole Board for the 11^th time in August to see if he will continue to rot in prison. 
      b. 1989 Cincinnati Reds Manager Pete Rose was banned for life from MLB for gambling on baseball games by Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamati including, as the votes have been cast over the years, from a place in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
       c. 1992 Hurricane Andrew, a CAT 5, made landfall at Homestead, Florida causing 44 deaths and some $25 billion in damages ($46.17 in 2020 dollars.
       d. 1995 Microsoft Windows 95 was released to the public in North Ameerica. 
       e. 1998 the first radio frequency identification human implant was tested in the UK.
    “Making specific forecasts in uncertain situations was, is, and will always be problematic and often misleading. This lesson stands today. The bigger the potentially threatened population, the earlier the risk discussion must begin because preparation is more complicated. The earlier the alarm is raised, however, the more often, in the end, preparation will not have been not required.”― Bryan Norcross, My Hurricane Andrew Story: the story behind the preparation, the terror, the resilience, and the renowned TV coverage of the Great Hurricane of 1992.

    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. 

 © August 24, 2020 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

August 23, 2020 Ridley's Believe It Or Not European Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Stalinism and Nazism

 Ridley' Believe It Or Not August 23, 2020

     CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues with 238,785 new cases (a 1.03%  increase compared to a 1.11% increase yesterday) to bring the total over 23 million to 23,511,251 cases, 6,672,104  of  which  are active, 16,839,147 of which have been closed with 16,028,255 recoveries (95.18% compared to  yesterday’s 95.15%) and 805,901  deaths (4.82% compared to yesterday’s 4.85%) to continue the trend of increased recovery percentages and decreased mortality percentages.

   CV USA Cases: New cases of 88,061 with total cases nearing 6 million at 5,768,900 (a 1.53% increase compared to yesterday’s .9% increase) with 2,523,559 active cases of which 16,729, on a downward trend with slight blips from over 19,000 in the last 3 weeks (16,785 yesterday), are in serious or critical condition as trend continues to go down, and 3,333,402 closures, 180,390 of which have been deaths (5.41% compared to yesterday’s 5.42%) and 3,153,012 of which have been recoveries (94.59% compared to yesterday’s 94.58%) (our death rate percentages continue to improve and are finally in single digits since Cuomo repealed on May 10 his order sending CV positive patients to nursing homes and ADL facilities and on a deaths per million population measurement at 545 ranks behind Belgium (861), Peru (831), Spain (617), UK (610), Italy (586), Sweden (575), and Chile (567) and only slightly worse than Brazil (538) and Mexico (467). We have now conducted    76,159,378 tests (more than 684,000 more tests than those done yesterday).
     Non CV Case News: News out of the Hermit Kingdom have to be accepted with a grain of salt but news today is that Kim Jong Un is in a coma and his sister is now in charges; in Kenosha, Wisconsin police responding to a domestic call ended up shooting a black when he exited from the passenger side and walked over to the driver’s side and shot 7 times in the back (brace yourself for another repeat of angry riots if he dies); newly declassified documents reveal the double standard was alive and well at the echelons of the FBI as it briefed Hillary on foreign interference  and then moved to obtain a FISA Warrant before “briefing” Trump (the Senate Homeland Security Committee has authorized subpoenas of to top Obama officials concerning the origins of the Russian probe—have to believe Obama and Biden were both in the loop on the investigation that they thought would be the downfall of the Trump candidacy); the nation is enduring a counter culture war by the left with attacks on statues of Jefferson, Washington, Columbus, Roosevelt and Grant and ex-NYT reporter Kurt Eichenwald attacks Melania Trump as a foreign piece of trash for restoring the Rose Garden to its Kennedy footprint (what a total scumbag); Andrew Pollack, the father of a student killed in the Parkland School shootings will be one of the speakers at the RNC; Houston is not one of the cities following the inane defund the police movement and is actively recruiting officers who have been let go from cities shrinking their police forces; Trump announced to the nation that the FDA had approved the use of plasma from recovered CV patients for treatment of those infected with the disease (if treatment is effective as many believe it will be bad news for Biden who needs economy to be daily devastated by the CV pandemic; bombshell from Kellyanne Conway that she is stepping down from her position as White House counselor and senior Trump advisor by the end of this month and her rabid anti-Trump husband is stepping down from his involvement with the Anti-Trump PAC Lincoln Project; Trump has declared a national emergency due to the massive California wildfires plaguing the entire state with more lightning strikes being forecasted.
    Chicago/Baltimore Gun Violence: In Chicago as of August 21, 2020, the number of shootings increased by 26 poorly aimed shootings to 2,663, of whom 2 died to raise the total at 450 (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 239 behind Chicago at 211 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?).
     As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to “Sailboat in the Moonlight” by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians, the fact that you are usually perspicacious, and a quote by Augustern Burroughs on the Stockholm Syndrome, secure in the knowledge that if you want to find a gift for any memorable events like Father’s Day, college graduations, birthdays, weddings, or anniversaries, you know that the Alaskanpoet can provide you with a unique customized poem at a great price tailored to the event and the recipient. You need only contact me for details.
    1. International Day of Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition--created by UNESCO in 1998 and celebrated on this day as it marks the anniversary of a slave revolt on the island of  Haiti from August 22-23,1791 that was instrumental pushing toward the movement for the abolition of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. 
    2. European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Stalinism and Nazism—created by by the European Parliament on September 23, 2008 and observed today as it marks the execution of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact on this day in 1939 that led to the division of Poland, annexation of the Baltic Republics and portions of Romania and freed Hitler from the fears of a two front war so he could invade Poland. 
    3. 1937 Number One Song— the number 1 song in 1937 on a run of 3 non continuous weeks was “A Sailboat in the Moonlight” by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians.  Here is a recording of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt2wf38qTkY This Canadian violinist and band leader was active in the business for 53 years right up to his death on November 5, 1977 of a heart attack and perhaps best remembered for his New Year’s Eve Musical Celebrations before Dick Clark claimed title to that unique gig.
    4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “perspicacious” which means astute, clear headed, which are well desired traits. 
    5. Under the Boardwalk—celebrating the birth on this day in 1936 of rhythm and blues singer Rudy Lewis of the Drifters who was a closet homosexual, suffered from binge eating disorders and was addicted to heroin and who died from an overdose on  May 20, 1965, the night before the Drifters were to record “Under the Boardwalk” that would have featured his talents. Rudy became a member of the 27 Club, a collection of artists, actors and musicians like Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix and Jim Morrison who overdosed at age 27.

      On this day in: 
      a. 1927 Italian anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti after a lengthy and controversial trial with a large almost worldwide outcry over their guilty verdict and protests over their execution are executed in the electric chair. 
       b. 1973 a career criminal Jan-Erik Olsson while on a work furlough attempted to rob a bank in Stockholm and failed but took 4 people inside as hostages who despite threats to kill them refused to testify after police with tear gas caused the hostage taker to surrender which led to the term “Stockholm Syndrome” in describing the hostages’ view of their captor.
       c. 1990 East and West Germany announced that they will reunite on October 3, 1990. 
       d. 1991 the World Wide Web was opened to the public. 
       e. 1994 Eugene Bullard, the only African American pilot in World War I who flew for France was posthumously awarded the rank of lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. 
    Reflections on the Stockholm Syndrome: “Maybe it was a Patty Hearst thing. Stockholm syndrome or whatever it's called when you're being held against your will but then you become sucked in and fall in love. Or if not exactly love, you fall into something you can't see out of. 'I can't shoot a machine gun' becomes 'Hey, this hardly has any kick-back!” Augusten Burroughs, noted American author.

    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. 

© August 23, 2020 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

August 22, 2020 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Earth Overshoot Day

 Ridley’s Believe It Or Not August 22, 2020

     CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues with 254,945 new cases (a 1.11%  increase compared to a 1.41% increase yesterday) to bring the total over 23 million to 23,272,466 cases, 6,648,304  of  which  are active, 16,624,152 of which have been closed with 15,818,261 recoveries (95.15% compared to  yesterday’s 95.13%) and 805,901  deaths (4.85% compared to yesterday’s 4.87%) to continue the trend of increased recovery percentages and decreased mortality percentages.

   CV USA Cases: New cases of 51,927 with total cases nearing 6 million at 5,768,900 (a .9% increase compared to yesterday’s .98% increase) with 2,507,173 active cases of which 16,785, on a downward trend with slight blips from over 19,000 in the last 3 weeks (16,823 yesterday), are in serious or critical condition as trend continues to go down, and 3,313,654 closures, 179,640 of which have been deaths (5.42% compared to yesterday’s 5.42%) and 3,134,014 of which have been recoveries (94.58% compared to yesterday’s 94.58%) (our death rate percentages continue to improve and are finally in single digits since Cuomo repealed on May 10 his order sending CV positive patients to nursing homes and ADL facilities and on a deaths per million population measurement at 542 ranks behind Belgium (860), Peru (825), Spain (617), UK (610), Italy (586), Sweden (575), and Chile (564) and only slightly worse than Brazil (534) and Mexico (464). We have now conducted    75,475,175 tests ( 800,000 more tests than those done yesterday).
     Non CV Case News: Brace yourself as another black was killed by police in Lafayette, Louisiana after wielding a knife and tasing was not successful which was the 10^th person shot and killed in the state and prompted outrage by the ACLU; the PC Warriors are out in full force and effect howling for a Cleveland radio announcer who had the gall to refer to Harris as the nation’s first “colored woman” nominated as vice president (the term colored is supposed be offensive leading one to ask when will the NAACP change its name?); the House met historically to vote not on a stimulus Americans are crying for but a $25 billion down the rat hole funding which also included a goody bag for trial lawyers the right to sue the Post Office for misfeasance in its mail duties (Costa Mesa must live a charmed life as the mail is delivered on time like clockwork); our Blue run cities like Portland are in the darkness of night after night of riots and in those like Chicago are in a daily and nightly wave of color on color shootings and killings where Mayor Lightfoot justifies police protection for her while the rest of her citizens cower praying a stray bullet will not end or maim their life while from the Blues total silence; students at dozens of universities and colleges are demanding tuition cuts as they embrace more and more on line classes (a sliver lining of this pandemic might be the need to review the exorbitant salaries being paid to administrators and faculty members on campus especially when far too many students leave with massive debt and sheepskins that are useless in the job market); California has been hit by thousands of lightning strikes resulting in some 560 fires burning across the state and we are not in the really worst part of our annual wildfire season. 
    Chicago/Baltimore Gun Violence: In Chicago as of August 21, 2020, the number of shootings increased by 31 poorly aimed shootings to 2,637, of whom 3 died to raise the total at 448 (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 237 behind Chicago at 211 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?).
     As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to “When I Am with You” by Hal Kemp and His Orchestra, the fact that you rarely use persiflage, and a quote by Colin Higgins on Devil’s Island, secure in the knowledge that if you want to find a gift for any memorable events like Father’s Day, college graduations, birthdays, weddings, or anniversaries, you know that the Alaskanpoet can provide you with a unique customized poem at a great price tailored to the event and the recipient. You need only contact me for details.
    1. Earth Overshoot Day—created by Andrew Simms to mark the day on which we have consumed more of the planets resources than we can regenerate in a year which because of conservation has been extended from July 28, 2018 to today.
    2. Southern Hemisphere Hoodie Hoo Day—created by holiday creators Ruth and Thomas Roy of Wellcat Holidays to chase away the winter and welcome the spring in the Southern Hemisphere on September 22 or 23 with cries of “Hoodie Hoo” outdoors but probably without the aid of a groundhog and the presences or absence of his shadow. 
    3. 1936 Number One Song— the number 1 song in 1936 on a run of 2 weeks was “When I Am with You” by the Hal Kemp and His Orchestra. Here is a recording of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teWT_Jo5tpQ Sadly, this promising band leader was hit by a truck near Madera, California on December 19, 1940 and died from pneumonia in the hospital on December 22 at the age of 36.
    4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “persiflage” which means banter or idle chatter which drives many of us up a wall when trying to get things done. 
    5. Cleveland Rocks—celebrating the birth on this day in 1952 of noted guitarist, singer and songwriter Peter Laughner who was a catalyst for Cleveland’s alternative rock scene but how struggled with alcohol and drug abuse and died from acute pancreatitis on June 24, 1977 at age 24.

      On this day in: 
      a. 1953 to the joy of present and future French felons, the penal colony at Devil’s Island was permanently closed. 
       b. 1978 the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment was passed by Congress but to the joy of Reds was never ratified by the states.
       c. 1989 the Ryan Express with his 100 m.p.h. fastballs struck out Ricky Henderson

to become the first pitcher to strike out more than 5,000 batters but he was not done and would end his career with 5,714. 
       d. 1991 Iceland was the first country in the world to recognize the independence of the Baltic Republics. 
       e. 2003 Alabama Associate Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore was removed from the Alabama Supreme Court for failing to remove a rock from the courthouse inscribed with the Ten Commandments and later resurfaced to become the Republican nominee to replace Jeff Sessions in the Senate and lose in the general election. 
    Reflections on Devil’s Island: “Dreyfus once wrote from Devil's Island that he would see the most glorious birds. Many years later in Brittany he realized they had only been seagulls... For me they will always be glorious birds.” Colin Higgins noted director and screenplay writer who died from AIDS on August 5, 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. 

© August 22, 2020 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