COVID-19: Riots in Time of Pandemic

From Worldometer,  COVID-19 new deaths:

DAY           USA   WORLD  Brazil  India South Africa

May     13    1772     5314

            14    1715     5317
            15    1595     5072
            16    1218     4360
            17      865     3618
            18    1003     3445
            19    1552     4589
            20    1403     4685
            21    1418     4934         1188     150         30
            22    1293     5252           966     142         28
            23    1036     4183           965     142         10
            24      617     2826           703     156         22
            25      505     3096           806     148         52
            26      774     4048         1027     172         43
            27    1535     5283         1148     190         28
            28    1223     4612         1067     177         25
            29    1212     4873         1180     269         34

Summary:  Brazil is catching up with the U.S. in new deaths and passed us in new cases, 29,526 versus 25,069.

The USA is now further in chaos, sparked by a white officer (Derek Chauvin) killing a black "gentle giant" 6'6" tall victim in Minnesota.  George Floyd has been portrayed as almost a saint.  The reality is that he supposedly was attempting to pass a counterfeit $20 bill, bringing police to the site.  In Texas, he was convicted of armed robbery and spent time in jail.  Further, he six years ago left his wife and daughter in Houston.

So how can a killing (police killings of citizens, usually black) that happens a thousand times annually trigger a national outbreak of protests?  According to the U.S. News and World Report, Minnesota is the healthiest state in the nation, while ranking #3 in opportunity and the natural environment.  It is 83% white and 6% black.  Nearly half the adult population have a college degree.

Apparently, this has little to do with the people of Minnesota.  Certainly in Minneapolis-St Paul, but probably too across the country, peaceful protests have been hijacked by outside agitators.  Interestingly enough, most of them are not black, but white supremacists and other organized anarchists.  Minnesota Governor Tim Walz believes 80% of those taking part in the rioting are not local people.

The nation regularly suffers from race riots.  In 1967, three years after the Civil Rights Act became law, racial riots occurred throughout the country.  However, few remember the Red Summer of 1919, when the Spanish Flu Pandemic was sweeping the world.  The racial riots that year featured white supremacists in a three dozen cities attacking African Americans.  There were at least 43 lynchings and a thousand deaths.

Rioting is the nature of our country.  Here is a list, and I stopped counting when I reached 100.  You try.

But why did Minnesota spark the national outcry?  It could have been the recent string of white killing black incidences--Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, Breona Taylor in Kentucky, and now Floyd--the pressure was building.  Then compound the above with the quarantine, and opening up of the economy, leading extremists to explode onto those scenes.  Some coincidence that the nation is also suffering through a pandemic.

Unfortunately today we have Chaos in Chief Donald Trump leading the country, known for egging on white supremacists and having lost control of this pandemic.  Watch a characterization of our Fool in the Oval Office by REPUBLICAN Steve Schmidt:

I'm into 1998:

• Clinton's Monica Lewinsky impeachment.
• Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.  I was on sabbatical at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, where my office saw Mt. Fuji when you could see it.  Never went to an event.  Everything is on television.
• Moon has water.

• Titanic earns a billion dollars and wins the Oscar for Best Picture.  The movie only got 89%/69% ratings by Rotten Tomatoes.
• The $3.8 billion Akashi Kaikyo Bridge links Shikoku Island with Honshu, becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world.  Was driven over soon thereafter, for a karaoke session at the Sheraton.
• Final episode of Seinfeld.
• India and Pakistan test nuclear weapons.
• Opening of Hong Kong International Airport.
• Google founded.

#1 hits of 1998 in less than 3 minutes.  The #1 pop song of the year was My Heart Will Go On from Titanic.

Two days to go and I'm FREE.  Not sure what I'll actually do on Monday.  Probably first see if my car starts.  In any case...

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