Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Monday, September 14, 2020

 


Last night I went to bed at 10:30, got up once during the night, woke up at 6:45 and got up at 7.

Last night I played 4 games on Chess.com, winning 1 and losing 3.

We left the apt at 10:15 and arrived, via taxi, at Dr. Sierra’s building by 10:40. The guard said only Teresa could go up so I waited in the lobby. About 30 minutes later Teresa called me and said I could come up. I paid for botox injections in her face. We went to the mall where Teresa shopped for a while in Zara. I made the mistake of playing 3 games on Chess.com and with Teresa’s interruptions I lost all 3. I’ll try to be more careful with that in the future. We had lunch at J&C Delicias – just like old times except there was only one other couple and everyone wore masks until the food arrived. I noticed that Dunkin Donuts was closed permanently as their usual space has been gutted. We shopped a little more until finally she settled on a dress in Zara for 130mil. We took a taxi back to the apt returning by 2:30.

We finished watching the TV series Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich. Btw, there are photos of Jeffrey with Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein and Prince Andrew.

She wanted to watch a movie and she settled on Gerald’s Game (6.6). I know I saw it before but I don’t think she wanted to watch it then. We started it but again she gave up after about 30 minutes.

 

On January 28th National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien tells Trump “this [the virus] is the biggest challenge you’re going to face in your entire presidency.”

February 2nd Trump: “We pretty much shut it down, coming in from China.”

February 7th Trump tells Bob Woodward that the virus is five times more deadly than ordinary flu, that it spreads when “you just breathe the air” and that it would soon become a worldwide pandemic.

February 10th Trump attends a campaign rally in Manchester, NH.  “I think the virus is going to be it’s going to be fine. A lot of people think there’s a way in April. As the heat comes in. Typically that goes away in April.”

February 14th Trump “We have a very small number of people in the country, right now, with it.  It’s like around 12.  Many of them are getting better.  Some are fully recovered already. So we’re in very good shape.”

February 19th Trump “I think it’s going to work out fine. I think when we get into April, in the warmer weather, that has a very negative effect on that and that type of virus.”

February 24th Trump “The coronavirus is very much under control in the USA.  We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries.  CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart.  Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”

February 25th Trump “CDC and my administration are doing a GREAT job of handling coronavirus. I think that’s a problem that’s going to go away.  They have studied it.  They know very much.  In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.”

February 26th Congress, recognizing the coming threat, offers to give the administration $6 billion more than Trump asked for in order to prepare for the virus.

·      Trump mocks Congress in a White House briefing, saying “If Congress wants to give us the money so easy - it wasn’t very easy for the wall, but we got that one done. If they want to give us the money, we’ll take the money.”

·      Trump “This is like a flu.  This is like a flu.  It’s a little like the regular flu that we have flu shots for.  And we’ll essentially have a flu shot for this in a fairly quick manner…Fifteen, within a couple of days, is going to be down to zero.”

February 27th Trump “One day it’s like a miracle it will disappear”.

February 28th Trump attends a campaign rally in North Charleston, NC.  He describes the coronavirus as a “new hoax” of his political rivals. “Now the Democrats are politicizing coronavirus.  And this is their new hoax.”

February 29th Trump “Everything is really under control.”

This is the lost month (February) when Trump knew the danger of the coronavirus and did little to contain it. Now the US has over 6,000,000 infected with over 190,000 dead. He could have done a lot more than just stop a few people coming in from China.

 

Over the weekend, as some notable new 2020 polls were released, including this one from Fox News, which showed Joe Biden leading Donald Trump among likely voters by five points nationally. Take a look, however, at the issue-by-issue breakdown:

Likely voters trust Trump over Biden on just one issue: the economy, by 5 points. Biden is favored on racial inequality (+12), coronavirus (+8), health care (+8), Supreme Court nominations (+7), and immigration (+7 points).

The latest New York Times/Siena College poll of four key battleground states pointed in a very similar direction: voters preferred Biden on race relations (+19), unifying the country (+15), coronavirus (+11), handling protests (+9), violent crime (+2), and law and order (+1). Trump, however, led Biden on the economy, again by five points.

Given the importance of the issue, there are a handful of basic, demonstrable facts the electorate probably ought to be aware of:

1. Trump inherited a healthy economy from the Obama/Biden administration.

2. U.S. job growth slowed after Trump took office -- even before the pandemic.

3. In 2019, Trump's third year in the White House, American job growth fell to an eight-year low, even as he pretended otherwise.

4. As a candidate, Trump set specific targets for U.S. economic growth, and as a president, he failed spectacularly to deliver. What's more, the best year of GDP growth in Trump's first term fell short of the best year of Obama's second term.

5. The economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic is partially the result of Trump's ineptitude in responsibly dealing with the crisis.

The Washington Post published an interesting analysis about a year ago, "[I]f we are linking economic numbers to presidential performance, Trump's insistence that his abilities are unparalleled are rendered somewhat suspect in that he ranks second out of the last two presidents" on several key economic indicators." That, of course, was before this year's severe downturn.

The president's insistence that he created the strongest economy in history is plainly ridiculous. But looking at the polling data, the problem isn't just that Trump is lying; it's that much of the country doesn't realize the extent to which he's lying.

 

The US has 6,502,467 ð 6,521,289 ð 6,565,583 coronavirus cases with 193,500+ ð 193,700+ ð 194,200+ deaths.

Per Medellin Guru, as of this afternoon Colombia has a total of 708,964 ð 716,319 ð 721,892 cases with 23,123 deaths.  Medellin has 54,653 ð 55,405 ð 56,111 cases, an increase of 706 from September 13th to 14th. Envigado has a total of 3,075 cases, an increase of 58 from September 13th to 14th.

 

Joke of the day

A magazine writer named Bing

Could make copy from most anything,

But the copy he wrote

Of a ten-dollar note

Was so good he now lives in Sing Sing.

1 comment:

  1. Terry, I read an article on chess I think you might find interesting. You will need to copy and paste it into your browser. Jack W.

    https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/09/ai-ruined-chess-now-its-making-the-game-beautiful-again/?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits

    ReplyDelete