Friday, September 25, 2020

 

Last night I went to bed at 10:30, fell asleep quickly, got up once about 1:30, woke up at 5am (it was raining) and got up at 5:15. Well, that is about 6 ½ hours so that’s not too bad. Strange thing, when I sat up at 5am a 500-peso coin fell to the floor. It must have been tucked in my sheet somewhere.

Last night I played 4 games on Chess.com, winning 2, drawing 1, and losing 1. I had the black pieces in 3 of my games. The game I was winning but lost on time. My rating inched up to 1488.

I completed my one hour walk from 8am to 9am.

Teresa left to take her mother for a walk.

I watched the first 45 minutes of the Today show and left the apt and walked to the mall. I recycled a plastic bottle then had a café con leche in Todo Fresa. I withdrew 80mil from the Davivienda ATM hoping to get 4 20s but it gave me 1 50, 1 20, and 1 10. Sigh!

I picked up 3 bags of milk and 2 bananas from Exito and took a taxi back to the apt.

Teresa returned a few minutes later. She informed me that 3 of her cousins have the coronavirus and are recuperating at home.

 

About 7:15 Teresa asked if we could go for patacones tonight. Teresa called the lady who makes them to make sure she’s open and placed our order. She called her mother (MT) and invited her to join us. We went down to the porteria and she asked the porter to call us a taxi. About 10 minutes later this nice SUV pulls up and Teresa gets up and starts leaving the porteria. I slowly walked behind her as I didn’t know what was happening. I started getting in back when Teresa asked me to sit in front. I got in next to this masked young lady with 2 cellphones balanced on her lap. We drive towards downtown then head downhill and pick up MT across the street from the library. Then we finally head to La Mesa barrio. It cost 9,500 pesos for the trip but we arrived at least 30 minutes after Teresa placed the order. Which is probably why the patacones with avocado and shredded beef weren’t hot as usual. I ate most of mine and drank most of my Coca Cola. We walked a block away were we quickly caught a taxi. Drops started hitting the windshield on our way. We dropped MT off near her apt and she almost fell after getting out of the car. We returned to the apt by 9:30.

 

 

The Metropolitan Opera will skip an entire season for the first time in its nearly 140-year history and intends to return from the pandemic layoff next September.

 

President Trump on Wednesday suggested he may not approve more stringent standards for issuing an emergency use authorization for a coronavirus vaccine from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

"We're looking at that and that has to be approved by the White House," Mr. Trump told reporters during a press briefing at the White House. "We may or may not approve it."

The Washington Post reported this week the FDA is issuing new, more rigorous guidance for an emergency use authorization of a coronavirus vaccine, which would make it more difficult for a vaccine to be ready by Election Day.

The president has repeatedly suggested a vaccine would arrive before November 3, though top public health officials have thrown cold water on Mr. Trump's speedy timeline, warning a coronavirus vaccine likely will not be ready for distribution to the general population until well into 2021.

Mr. Trump told reporters the tightened standards from the FDA "sounds like a political move," and cited the pharmaceutical companies — Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna — that are developing coronavirus vaccines and have begun final-stage testing.

The president said delaying a vaccine by "two or three weeks" would cost lives.

 

CALIFORNIA AND MICHIGAN on Wednesday announced new steps to combat climate change, as wildfires continue to tear across the West Coast and hurricane season stretches into the Greek alphabet for named storms.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, issued an executive order on Wednesday that will require sales of all new passenger vehicles to be zero-emission by 2035 – essentially putting a deadline on a ban of the sale of new gasoline-powered cars and trucks in the Golden State. This measure would yield a 35% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions statewide, according to a news release from Newsom's office. Californians will still be allowed to own and sell used gasoline-powered cars.

 

In the space of a single sentence uttered Thursday, FBI Director Christopher Wray unwound months of wild conspiracy theories pushed by President Donald Trump and his allies about mail-in ballots in the 2020 election.

"Now, we have not seen, historically, any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election, whether it's by mail or otherwise," Wray said in response to a question about the safety of voting by mail, which millions of Americans are expected to do amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Wray was testifying in front of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Under oath. Meaning that if he didn't tell the truth about his knowledge in regard to what he knew about the record of fraudulent voting by mail, he would be committing a crime.

House Democrats are set to introduce a bill next week that would impose 18-year term limits on future Supreme Court justices, allowing a president to nominate two justices during each term in office.

The big picture: The bill, sponsored by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.), seeks to depoliticize the process of placing new justices on the court — a fight that has taken on new light after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last week.

• Americans across the political spectrum support the idea of Supreme Court term limits, per SCOTUS Blog.

Worth noting: Under the bill, the term limits would not apply to justices who are already seated on the Supreme Court.

 

Fox News got to claim victory on Thursday after a new ruling in a lawsuit brought against the company came out in its favor, but the win arrived at a steep cost. To deflect an allegation of defamation, the network was forced to claim that one of its highest-profile personalities [Tucker Carlson] can't reasonably be expected to consistently provide accurate information to viewers.

 

The number of novel coronavirus cases in the United States topped 7 million - more than 20% of the world's total - as Midwest states reported spikes in COVID-19 infections in September.

 

The only presidential election Donald Trump will accept as legitimate is the one he wins, he told a crowd of supporters Friday night at a rally in Virginia. If he loses in November, Trump declared,” We’re not going to stand for it.” 

Trump’s speech in Newport News was the latest ominous sign that he may refuse to leave office if he’s voted out. Asked at a press conference Wednesday if he would “commit to a peaceful transferal of power” if he lost the November election, Trump said ominously: “Well, we’re going to have to see what happens.”

Trump declared Friday that the only way he’ll lose the election is if the Democrats cheat.

“We’re not going to lose this except if they cheat,” Trump told the crowd. “Our country is at stake.” 

To me that’s treasonous talk! Imagine that coming from the president of the United States.

 

The US has 6,948,359 ð 7,002,564 ð 7,050,317 coronavirus cases with 201,500+ ð 202,600+ ð 203,400+ deaths.

Per Medellin Guru, as of this afternoon Colombia has a total of 784,268 ð 790,823 ð 798,317 cases with 25,103 deaths.  Medellin has 62,217 ð 62,853 ð 63,562 cases, an increase of 707 from September 24^th to 25^th. Envigado has a total of 3,653 cases, an increase of 84 from September 24^th to 25^th

 

Joke of the day

What’s the difference between a jellyfish and a lawyer? One is a spineless, poisonous blob. The other is a form of marine life.