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Thursday, October 8, 2020

THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE GETS EVEN MORE BIZARRE

MY WORLD IS CHANGING.  THE SHIFT TO A NEW SYSTEM BY GOOGLE IS LIMITING THIS BLOG SITE.  I WILL CONTINUE A WHILE IN THE PRESENT FORM, BUT THIS LOCATION WILL SHORTLY BECOME THE SITE OF MY FUTURE BOOK DRAFTS FOR YOUR COMMENT.  MOSTLY, THOUGH, I WILL JUST TOSS IN INTERESTING STUFF.  THIS WILL CONTINUE AT LEAST UNTIL I REACH #1 OF MY FAVORITE SONGS AROUND THE EVE OF  THE NEW YEAR.


YOU ARE INVITED TO MY NEW BLOG SITE IF YOU WISH TO CONTINUE READING WHAT I'VE BEEN DOING FOR MORE THAN A DOZEN YEARS:



           DAY USA   WORLD   Brazil      India   South Africa
June      9    1093    4732        1185       246          82
July     19      412    4606          715       675          85
           22     1205    7128       1293     1120        572
Aug      1    1462     6429       1191       765        193
          10       534     4813         593     1013        198
          12     1504     6556       1242       835        130
          30       369     4182         398       960          47
Sept     3     1094     5886          830    1083        174
            6       432     4129          456    1008        110
            9     1208     6222        1136    1168          82
           13      392     3905          389    1140          20
           14      480     4374          454    1054          52
           15    1197     6001        1090    1283        142
           16    1012     6085          967    1139          64
           19      657     5141          708    1149          83
           20      294     3891          330    1135          13  
           21      384     4129          455    1056          39
           22      979     5725          809    1056        126
           23    1112     6328          906    1152          88
           24      942     5872          818    1144          77
           27      276     3933          335    1040          22
           28      355     3837          385      777        188
           29      977     5846          849    1178           81
           30      955     6203          952    1179           67
Oct 1    1      920     5583          805    1096         132
             2      864     5603          664    1071           43 
             3      755     4795          580      937           29
             4      332     4066          364      902           38
             5      421     4259          398      886           40
             6      790     5553          798      991           87
             7      930     5901          733      930         145

Summary:  this pandemic might be worsening.


It was damning enough that the boorish performance by Donald Trump in his debate with Joe Biden last week hurt his cause.  Then soon thereafter Trump contracted COVID-19.  He could have blamed Biden, but it was all too clear that the unmasked nomination ceremony at the White House of Amy Barrett to the Supreme Court was probably the super spreader source.  More than 20 people working there have now been infected, and it is the world hotspot, in cases/million, for this disease.

Wonder why Amy Barrett escaped this ambush?  No Neanderthal gene? (scroll down to my previous posting) Not sure, but the primary reason is that she already suffered from this coronavirus a few months ago.  Oh, an aside, she is (was?) a church leader for a secret church society known as People of Praise, which is severely anti-abortion and where only men are ordained to head family and church.  The Democrats will have some fun if enough Republicans can stay healthy for the confirmation process.

Watch out for those large gatherings in DC for this reason determined by researchers at Georgia Tech:

  • There is "only" a 55% chance that someone will have COVID-19 in a group of 100.
  • However, the odds jump to 98% for a crowd of 500.
Who knows now if there will be another presidential debate, as Donald Trump purportedly pulled out of the second session because the affair will be performed virtually, meaning that the moderator could pull the plug on him at any time.  Or is it getting more and more embarrassing for him?  He saw what happened to Mike Pence against Kamala Harris.  Every time Pence opened his mouth, he was lying or exaggerating on some White House policy.  The consensus was that Harris won, but the Biden-Trump numbers did not change much.

Then just when you thought it couldn't get any more bizarre, 13 members of the pro-Trump Wolverine Watchmen cell were arrested for plotting to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in an attack of the state capitol building.  This is the group that sent out those robo calls to African-Americans last week and brandished rifles in protests this summer.  The plan was to accomplish all the above before November 3 to somehow help Donald Trump.  What were they thinking?

In every way, this was a call to follow-up on Trumps tweet to LIBERATE MICHIGAN.  In preparation, Attorney General just yesterday overstepped long-standing Justice Department policy by urging state federal prosecutors to interfere with elections.  This is my exaggeration, but appropriately so.  Trump is actually taking steps to become president for life with the help of the Department of Justice and pro-Trump terrorist organizations.  Hope those retired generals have enough eminence to maintain some control over the Department of Defense, whose leader is the Commander in Chief.

Clearly related to Trump's attitude regarding the pandemic, Midwest battleground states and several red states in the South are seeing a surge of infections.  Then again, somebody up there must be concerned.  What states?  Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Iowa.  You can add Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Indiana, as these states are known to take a cavalier attitude about COVID-19.  These and Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma are showing new hospitalizations much higher than their previous peaks in the past.

I'm further retrogressing in time to #82:

Let me start with Robin Luke, who graduated from Punahou a year after me from McKinley.  When I first heard SD and learned that the singer was from Hawaii, I instantly liked it.  Still do.  Here is his story:

  • He recorded the song in his bedroom using a primitive Ampex portable tape recorder, and placed one track over the other seven times.  This is why it sounds so strange.
  • The original title was All Night Long, but was changed to Suzie Darling for his 5-year old sister.  Nothing to do with anything gruesome, for in 2020 she is alive and well in Missouri.
  • He tried a singing career but gave that up to get a PhD in marketing from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and retired from Missouri State University in 2011, where he was department  head for 34 years.
  • That was his only hit, but he did appear on the Dick Clark Show singing Bad Boy.
  • This was 10 years ago, but see him being interviewed.
  • Watch him sing this song 8 years ago.

Interestingly enough that the pool reception of the Los Angeles DJ which produced #88, Patricia, also was responsible for #82, Nel Blu Dipinto De Blu (Ed Sullivan Show) by Domenico Modugno, more popularly known by Dean Martin as Volare.  Must have been one heck of a party to produce two songs in my favorite 100.  Exactly how I don't remember.

Modugno's life is also of interest.  He is considered to be Italy's first canatautori (singer-songwriter).  He lived a full life:

  • In 1958 NBDDB, which he co-wrote with Franco Migliacci, won him first place in the Sanremo Music Festival.  He went on to represent Italy in Eurovision Song Contest that year, and came in third.  He returned in 1959 with Ciao Ciao Bambina, and came in 6th.
  • With his NBDDB money, he bought a Ferrari, and totaled it, gaining an Allan Sherman song for that accident.
  • Migliacci said that in 1957 he was inspired by Marc Chagall's Le cog rouge of a man suspended in midair of blue.  After getting drunk on wine, he fell asleep, and when he awoke began penning a song about a man who dreams of painting himself blue and being able to fly.  This he discussed with Modugno, who wrote the music.  Volare means to fly.
  • He acted in 44 movies.
  • In 1984 he suffered a stroke, so turned to fighting for social rights.
  • He was elected Congressman in 1987.
  • Passed away in 1994 from a heart attack.
This is a roundabout way to say that my #82 song is Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu.  As I said, what a life.

Hurricane Delta raked the Yucatan Peninsula, weakened, then again strengthened into a Category 3.  It is possible for further upgrade into a Category 4, but this graphic, upon which Category 4 Hurricane Lane is placed, shows a weakening to Category 2 before making landfall at essentially the same spot as Lane:

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