06-26-2020, 03:14 PM
Over one eighth of a million in America alone. That is nearly four times our usual highway death toll (which has tended to decrease due to better roads, stricter law enforcement, better medical treatment, and safer vehicles).
How big is that death toll?
Bigger than such college towns as
Ann Arbor, Michigan (University of Michigan)
Berkeley, California (University of California)
College Station, Texas (Texas A&M)
Provo, Utah (Brigham Young University)
Norman, Oklahoma (University of Oklahoma)
Columbia, Missouri (University of Missouri).
and the toll likely surpasses Athens, Georgia today (University of Georgia)
Already well more than South Bend, Indiana (Notre Dame -- which is surprisingly not a giant university despite its reputation) and Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Boulder, Colorado (University of Colorado)... and a city best known for Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
all respected colleges in their milieus, Aggie jokes notwithstanding.
Do you remember the movie Fargo? Fine piece of black humor. The city is the biggest in North Dakota, and bigger than I thought it was. 124,682. Also in the group as biggest cities in their states that the COVID-19 plague has surpassed include Billings, Montana and Manchester, New Hampshire. Next biggest city in a state to be surpassed: Charleston, South Carolina.
State capitals?
Hartford, Connecticut.
Springfield, Illinois. (Abraham Lincoln, whose tomb is there, would not be proud of the job that Donald Trump is doing).
Lansing, Michigan.
Topeka, Kansas.
Columbia, South Carolina -- next on the list to surpass.
Also noteworthy? I'm trying to avoid suburbs that you would not know about unless you live in the area, as their populations can spike
Independence, Missouri, best known as the political base of a President who shares the first four letters of his surname with you-know-who. Yes, Harry Truman would be disgusted.
It's bigger than Lafayette, Louisiana, the unofficial capital of Cajun Country in Louisiana. I didn;t realize that that city was as large as it is.
Peoria, Illinois? If you are old enough you remember the expression "It won't play in Peoria", referring to theatrical flops... need I say more?
About 20,000 more than the population of Green Bay, which is the smallest city to have one a major-league sports team (MLB, NFL, NBA, or NHL ) without being a suburb of a bigger city. (I'm not counting Inglewood , California; the team isn't called the "Inglewood Lakers") -- but it has 100,000 + residents and is known for little else, aside from being a dump, as where the Los Angeles Lakers play their home games. COVID-19 of course surpassed Inglewood.
If you are wonder about such infamous dumps as Flint, Michigan and Gary, Indiana -- having crossed the 100,000 mark on the downside, they are no longer among America's most infamously-awful big cities. They are now among America's most infamous small cities.
OK, I may get into some heat for calling some cities "dumps"... but for his incompetence and inattention, President Trump deserves far more heat for all the dead bodies associated with COVID-19.
It's all for perspective, folks. As Josef Stalin said, one death is a tragedy and a million is a statistic.
Just imagine taking a Michigan map and finding that Ann Arbor or Lansing has disappeared.
(I think I will cross-post this in "Obituaries". I think it fits there).
How big is that death toll?
Bigger than such college towns as
Ann Arbor, Michigan (University of Michigan)
Berkeley, California (University of California)
College Station, Texas (Texas A&M)
Provo, Utah (Brigham Young University)
Norman, Oklahoma (University of Oklahoma)
Columbia, Missouri (University of Missouri).
and the toll likely surpasses Athens, Georgia today (University of Georgia)
Already well more than South Bend, Indiana (Notre Dame -- which is surprisingly not a giant university despite its reputation) and Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Boulder, Colorado (University of Colorado)... and a city best known for Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
all respected colleges in their milieus, Aggie jokes notwithstanding.
Do you remember the movie Fargo? Fine piece of black humor. The city is the biggest in North Dakota, and bigger than I thought it was. 124,682. Also in the group as biggest cities in their states that the COVID-19 plague has surpassed include Billings, Montana and Manchester, New Hampshire. Next biggest city in a state to be surpassed: Charleston, South Carolina.
State capitals?
Hartford, Connecticut.
Springfield, Illinois. (Abraham Lincoln, whose tomb is there, would not be proud of the job that Donald Trump is doing).
Lansing, Michigan.
Topeka, Kansas.
Columbia, South Carolina -- next on the list to surpass.
Also noteworthy? I'm trying to avoid suburbs that you would not know about unless you live in the area, as their populations can spike
Independence, Missouri, best known as the political base of a President who shares the first four letters of his surname with you-know-who. Yes, Harry Truman would be disgusted.
It's bigger than Lafayette, Louisiana, the unofficial capital of Cajun Country in Louisiana. I didn;t realize that that city was as large as it is.
Peoria, Illinois? If you are old enough you remember the expression "It won't play in Peoria", referring to theatrical flops... need I say more?
About 20,000 more than the population of Green Bay, which is the smallest city to have one a major-league sports team (MLB, NFL, NBA, or NHL ) without being a suburb of a bigger city. (I'm not counting Inglewood , California; the team isn't called the "Inglewood Lakers") -- but it has 100,000 + residents and is known for little else, aside from being a dump, as where the Los Angeles Lakers play their home games. COVID-19 of course surpassed Inglewood.
If you are wonder about such infamous dumps as Flint, Michigan and Gary, Indiana -- having crossed the 100,000 mark on the downside, they are no longer among America's most infamously-awful big cities. They are now among America's most infamous small cities.
OK, I may get into some heat for calling some cities "dumps"... but for his incompetence and inattention, President Trump deserves far more heat for all the dead bodies associated with COVID-19.
It's all for perspective, folks. As Josef Stalin said, one death is a tragedy and a million is a statistic.
Just imagine taking a Michigan map and finding that Ann Arbor or Lansing has disappeared.
(I think I will cross-post this in "Obituaries". I think it fits there).
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.