Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Self-isolation Day 91.

Last night I went to bed at 10:30, got up once at 1:30, again at 5am, finally gave up getting back to sleep and got up at 6am.

My back feels much better this morning.

Last night I played 6 games on Chess.com, winning 4 and losing two, increasing my rating to 1354. With my private chess lessons Juan Castro promised to increase my rating to 1500 by the end of the year. I’m still learning my new chess software – Chessbase. It’s very sophisticated.

Wilson came over and delivered quite a few (32mil) arepas de chocolo.  While here he took a closer look at our old refrigerator.

 

Very strange! Reviewing my checking account balance this morning I found I was charged about 2% less for the refrigerator and groceries I purchased last Friday. My only guess is its somehow connected with the IVA discount I thought didn’t start until June 19^th.

Teresa talked to someone at 10:15 then told me the new refrigerator will be here in about 30 minutes.

At 11am they delivered the new refrigerator which is noticeably larger than the other. I understand Wilson will come over tomorrow and make the water connection before taking the old refrigerator.

 

·      An Iowa poll for the Des Moines Register by respected pollster Ann Selzer last week showed Trump up by just one point (44-43), after it showed him up 10 in March (51-41). The new poll tied for Trump’s smallest margin to date — in any poll — in a state he won by nine points in 2016.

·      A Wisconsin poll for Fox News early this month showed Biden up nine points (49-40) after leading by five (46-41) in January. The new poll tied for Trump’s biggest deficit to date in a state he won by one point in 2016.

·      A CNN poll last week showed Biden up 14 points (55-41) nationally after it showed him up five points (51-46) last month.

·      A Washington Post-ABC News poll from late May showed Biden up 10 points nationally (53-43) after it showed him up just two (49-47) in March.

·      A Fox News poll in late May showed Biden up eight points nationally (48-40) after it showed him tied with Trump (42-42) in April.

·      A CNBC poll in late May showed Biden up seven nationally (48-41) — his biggest margin to date in a poll that earlier in the month showed him up three.

On the other hand, the Trump administration claims they received 1 million requests for this weekend’s rally in Oklahoma. (So, like Covid-19 tests, I’m sure anyone who wants a ticket, can have a ticket. LOL)

 

President Donald Trump signed an executive order that he said will encourage police departments to adopt higher standards related to the use of force and de-escalation training.

 

President Donald Trump went off-topic during an address outside the White House on police reform Tuesday, declaring that the coronavirus pandemic will go away without a vaccine and that scientists have “come up with the AIDS vaccine.”

 

The COVID-19 pandemic is giving fresh energy to corporate plans to move supply chains out of China, according to a new survey. Seventy-six percent of finance chiefs whose companies have manufacturing in China indicated in a survey by Swiss lender UBS that the pandemic has reinforced their company’s goal of moving at least some of that production elsewhere. Thirty-four percent of the more than 450 executives surveyed represent companies with manufacturing in China. (Don’t assume that means they will be moving to the US.)

 

A widely used and cheap steroid treatment appears to be the first to show a definitive lifesaving benefit for people with severe covid-19. The drug is called dexamethasone. It's been used for decades to treat conditions such as arthritis and asthma. Because patients with advanced COVID-19 disease can have severe lung inflammation, scientists wanted to see if dexamethasone could treat that condition. In a large clinical trial funded by the UK government and others, the drug dexamethasone was found to reduce the odds of death in patients who needed a ventilator to breathe by a third, compared to standard supportive treatment; it also seemed to help save people sick enough to need supplemental oxygen.

 

On June 6, after over 100,000 Americans had already been killed by the new coronavirus, over a dozen friends went out to party at Lynch's Irish Pub in Jacksonville Beach, Fla., including (incredibly) a healthcare worker. Now, 16 of them have tested positive for COVID-19.

 

A Trump replay from March 17^th: US has 7,786 confirmed cases and 118 deaths. Trump: “This is a pandemic and I called it a pandemic long before anyone called it a pandemic.”

 

The US has 2,082,921 ð 2,117,268 ð 2,147,506 coronavirus cases with 115,382 ð 116,079  ð 116,958 deaths.

Per Medellin Guru, as of this afternoon Colombia has a total of 48,746  ð 53,063 ð 54,931 cases with 1,801 deaths.  Medellin has 854  ð 904 ð 939 cases, an increase of 35 from June 15^th to 16^th. Colombia has average 75 deaths daily over the past 3 days. Colombia’s rolling 6-day average of new cases is increasing now even faster than before. Medellin is now included in the 15 cities with the most increasing cases. Envigado has a total of 52 cases, an increase of 2 from June 15^th to 16^th.

Joke of the day

MICHELANGELO'S JEWISH MOTHER:
"Why can't you paint on walls like other children?  Do you know how hard it is to get that schmutz off the ceiling?"