Saturday, August 8, 2020

 

Quarantine Day 144.

Last night I went to bed at 10:45, got up once during the night, again at 5am, finally waking at 6am and getting up 7am.

Last night I played 4 games on Chess.com, winning 2, losing 1 and drawing 1. I had the white pieces for 3 of the games. In the game I lost I was clearly winning when I blundered a piece and after that I was only slightly better. I eventually lost on time but my opponent was winning anyway. My new rating is 1258.

I won in parcheesi today 5 games to 4.

 

It’s only been about 2 weeks since my last self haircut but the sides were getting a bit long so I gave myself another and cut the sides a little shorter.

Because of the virus we’ve decided it would be prudent to just stay in our current apartment for another year. Teresa will contact the agency on Monday.

 

"Put your tray-table up in the upright and locked position. It’s going to be a tough fall," Vaccine expert Dr. Peter Hotez told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace.

 

Florida, ravaged by a historic spike in COVID-19 cases for weeks, is showing signs of progress in statistics such as hospitalizations and positivity rates according to its governor — but stories of the human toll of the virus on young and old in the state continue to emerge this week.

 

A reporter was booed by attendees at President Trump's news conference at his Bedminster golf club when Trump was asked why people in the room were not following New Jersey's coronavirus guidelines.

 

Covid-19 precautions need to stay consistent -- whether or not the numbers are coming down -- because the more Americans move around the more the virus does too, a health expert said.

 

Very much a student of New Deal economics, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has often stressed that helping the unemployed during an economic downturn not only helps those who are out of work — it also benefits the economy on the whole. Krugman made that point many times during the Great Recession, and in a column published this week, the liberal economist warns that the “coronavirus recession of 2020” will become even worse if unemployed Americans don’t receive the help that they need.

 

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Friday that the chances of a coronavirus vaccine having 98% or more guaranteed protection are "not great".

 

During a Friday evening press conference at his Bedminster golf course, the esteemed President Donald J. Trump finally announced a momentous step in the sweeping healthcare reform plan he's been promising for years:

“Over the next two weeks I’ll be pursuing a major executive order requiring health insurance companies to cover all preexisting conditions for all companies. That's a big thing. I've always been very strongly in favor. We have to cover pre-existing conditions so we will be pursuing a major executive order requiring health insurance companies to cover all pre-existing conditions for all of its customers. This has never been done before.”

The decade-old Affordable Care Act that already did this was not available for comment.

 

A Catholic bishop from Kentucky, Rev. John Stowe, recently criticized President Donald Trump's stances on abortion only a week before candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden was attacked by Trump for his stances on religion and the Second Amendment.

The bishop called out the president by saying that he's "only concerned about himself," and isn't really pro-life.

 

President Trump pledged on Saturday to pursue a permanent cut to the payroll taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare if he wins reelection in November, a hard-to-accomplish political gambit that some experts see as a major headache for the future of the country’s entitlement programs.

 

President Trump on Saturday attempted to bypass Congress and make dramatic changes to tax and spending policy, signing executive actions that challenge the boundaries of power that separate the White House and Capitol Hill.

At a news event in Bedminster, N.J., Trump said the actions would provide economic relief to millions of Americans by deferring taxes and, he said, providing temporary unemployment benefits. The measures would attempt to wrest away some of Congress’s most fundamental, constitutionally mandated powers — tax and spending policy. Trump acknowledged that some of the actions could be challenged in court but indicated he would persevere.

       

The US has 4,879,202 ð 4,932,093 ð 5,003,607 coronavirus cases with 159,500+ ð 160,500+ ð 161,900+ deaths.

Per Medellin Guru, as of this afternoon Colombia has a total of 357,710 ð 367,196 ð 376,870 cases with 12,540 deaths.  Medellin has 24,785 ð 25,991 ð 26,889 cases, an increase of 895 from August 7^th to 8^th. Envigado has a total of 1,530 cases, an increase of 29 from August 7^th to 8^th. New cases appear to have plateaued but we’ll see if that continues.

 

Joke of the day

Story from a Kansas State Highway Patrol officer:

I made a traffic stop on an elderly lady the other day for speeding on U.S. 166 Eastbound at Mile Marker 73 just East of Sedan, KS.

I asked for her driver's license, registration, and proof of insurance.

The lady took out the required information and handed it to me.

In with the cards I was somewhat surprised (due to her advanced age) to see she had a conceal carry permit. I looked at her and ask if she had a weapon in her possession at this time.

She responded that she indeed had a .45 automatic in her glove box.

Something - body language, or the way she said it - made me want to ask if she had any other firearms. She did admit to also having a 9mm Glock in her center console. Now I had to ask one more
time if that was all.

She responded once again that she did have just one more, a .38 special in her purse. I then asked her what was she so afraid of.

She looked me right in the eye and said, "Not a damn thing!"