Sunday, July 19, 2020

Self-isolation Day 124.

Last night I went to bed at 10:30, fell asleep quickly, got up once during the night about 4:45, woke/got up at 6am. Teresa got up at 7am.

Last night I played 3 games on Chess.com, winning all 3 and raising my rating to 1302. They were all short games, none over 16 moves.

 

Well, Laura married Lenny approximately noon today in or near Boston, Massachusetts.

 

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday that many parts of the United States didn't do enough to combat the coronavirus -- but New York did, he said.

“We've got to do the things that are very clear that we need to do to turn this around," he told PBS News Hour. "Remember, we can do it. We know that when you do it properly, you bring down those cases. We've done it. We've done it in New York."

 

Citing briefings he has received on the issue, former Vice President Joe Biden said Friday that Russia is again working to interfere in a U.S. election and expressed concern about foreign efforts to sow doubt about the outcome.

 

President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are campaigning for the White House in an unusual economic atmosphere for a presidential election: double-digit unemployment.

Since the start of the Great Depression, there have been just three presidential races when the nation faced double-digit joblessness during the final four months of the campaign: 1932, 1936 and 1940.

The 2020 election may join the list. 

 

In a video clip released Friday by Fox News, "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace previewed his interview with President Donald Trump, in which he fact-checked Trump in real time by questioning his assertion that Joe Biden wants to "abolish" the police.

In the interview, Trump accused Democrats of running major cities "poorly," and then went on to repeat his campaign's lie that the former VP and presumptive Democratic Party nominee for president wants to rid the country of police.

"Sir, he does not," Wallace shot back.

Trump doubled down, saying Biden had "signed a charter" with Sen. Bernie Sanders, a reference to a 110-page document with policy recommendations crafted by allies of the former vice president and his former rival for the presidency.

"It says nothing about defunding the police," Wallace pointed out. Trump wasn't having it, responding, "Oh really? It says abolish, it says. Let's go, get me the charter, please."

The video clip stopped there. But when Wallace previewed his Sunday interview with Fox anchor Bill Hemmer, he offered a hint as to what happened next.

Wallace said Trump "went through" the charter and "found a lot of things that he objected to that Biden has agreed to but couldn't find any indication -- because there isn't any -- that Joe Biden has sought to defund and abolish the police."

 

“The national testing scene is a complete disgrace,“ Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “So, every test we send out to private lab partners nationally, Quest, Labcorp, seven days, eight days, nine days — maybe six days if we're lucky. Almost useless from an epidemiological or even diagnostic perspective.“

 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom was told by the White House at the height of the coronavirus pandemic that he’d have to personally appeal to and express gratitude to President Donald Trump if he wanted the federal government to help his state get swabs for COVID-19 testing, The New York Times reports. Sources cited by the Times say it was White House adviser Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, who voiced the apparent quid pro quo in April. Kushner reportedly told one of Newsom’s advisers that the administration could aid in getting 350,000 swabs for the state if the governor would call up Trump and personally request his assistance. “The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, had to call Donald Trump, and ask him for the swabs,” Bob Kocher, an adviser to Newsom and former White House health care official under Obama, told the Times. Newsom, who was also reportedly told he would have to thank the president, held a press conference later that same day where he credited Trump with the “substantial increase in supply.” 

 

Conducting over two dozen interviews with senior administration and public health officials, and consulting a cache of previously unavailable documents, the New York Times has uncovered what now seems obvious to everyone except perhaps Trump’s dwindling and ignorant base of supporters: the Trump administration deliberately sought to shift blame for its botched handling of the Covid-19 pandemic to the states, in what the Times authors aptly characterize as a “catastrophic policy blunder” and “one of the greatest failures of presidential leadership in generations.”

 

It's been a month of harrowing milestones set across the country, with the US beating its own daily record of total new coronavirus cases at least nine times.

On July 16, the country reported its latest single-day record with at least 77,255 new cases, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The second highest number was reported a day later: 71,558. Saturday's number: 63,698.

 

I finished watching the series Manhunt: Unabomber (8.1) on Netflix.

Teresa beat me in parcheesi today 6 games to 2.

 

Teresa is thinking that summer is finally here and she will be able to soon start work on the finca wall.

 

I finished reading Ken Follett’s A Column of Fire. Instead of starting a new book, since I’m behind on my Reader’s Digest I started with the March edition.

 

The US has 3,572,085 ð 3,649,718  ð 3,716,404 3,784,924 coronavirus cases with 138,994 ð 139,800+ ð 140,300+ deaths.

Per Medellin Guru, as of this afternoon Colombia has a total of 182,140 ð 190,700 ð 197,278 cases with 6,736 deaths.  Medellin has 7,124 ð 8,005 ð 8,459 cases, an increase of 452 from July 18^th to July 19^th.  Envigado has a total of 412 cases, an increase of 26 from July 18^th to July 19^th.

 

Joke of the day

A man, called to testify at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), asked his accountant for advice on what to wear. 

"Wear your shabbiest clothing. Let him think you are a pauper," the accountant replied. 

Then he asked his lawyer the same question but got the opposite advice.

"Do not let them intimidate you. Wear your most elegant suit and tie." 

Confused, the man went to his priest, told him of the conflicting advice, and requested some resolution to the dilemma. "Let me tell you a story," replied the Priest. 

"A woman, about to be married, asked her mother what to wear on her wedding night. 'Wear a heavy, long, flannel nightgown that goes right up to your neck." But when she asked her best friend, she got conflicting advice. "Wear your most sexy negligee, with a V neck right down to your navel." 

The man protested: "What does all this have to do with my problem with the IRS?!" 

"Simple", replied the Priest. "It doesn't matter what you wear, you are going to get screwed!"