Last night I went to bed at 10:30pm, got up once at 5am, finally waking/getting up at 7:15.
I left the apt at 9:30
and walked my old route then cut over to Aymará where I turned east and
walked down Transversal 32A Sur to the “end” where it was stopped by a stream
that probably runs into the Medellin river. On one side of the street was a
basketball court (with soccer goals naturally) next to a small exercise area.
There was a small playground on the other side of the street. I stopped on my
way back to the apt and picked up 3 bags of milk.
I was back at the apt by
10:45.
Teresa left at 11:15 for
her dentist appointment.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said Tuesday he's fed up with
how "vile" and "vituperative" American politics have
become, placing the blame largely on President Donald Trump.
"I have
stayed quiet with the approach of the election," Romney said in a
statement posted to Twitter. "But I'm troubled by our politics, as it has
moved away from spirited debate to a vile, vituperative, hate-filled morass
that is unbecoming of any free nation — let alone the birthplace of modern
democracy."
"The
president calls the Democratic vice presidential candidate "a monster;" he repeatedly labels the
speaker of the House "crazy;" he calls for the Justice
Department to put the prior president in jail; he attacks the governor of Michigan on
the very day a plot is discovered to kidnap her," Romney said of comments
Trump has made within the last week in Fox News interviews and on Twitter.
Johnson &
Johnson has paused its clinical trials for a Covid-19 vaccine candidate after a
participant fell ill, just weeks after it announced that trials were in their
final stage.
A pause is
not entirely unexpected in vaccine trials. When another vaccine trial was temporarily
stopped last month, experts hailed the move as an example of the scientific
rigor that is being maintained despite the understandably intense public
interest in a Covid-19 vaccine.
The Johnson
& Johnson trial was paused in compliance with regulatory standards after
one of its participants developed an "unexplained" illness, the company said in a news release Monday night.
It said the participant's condition was being reviewed and evaluated by the
ENSEMBLE independent Data Safety Monitoring Board.
The
US still holds the number one spot for the most coronavirus cases and the most
deaths worldwide. According to one analysis, cases in more than 20 states (many in the
Midwest) have hit new record highs in the last week. And with flu season around
the corner, experts fear things could get way worse. One study estimates another 181,000 people in the US could die of the virus by
February. But President Trump is telling Americans they shouldn't be afraid of COVID-19, and Congress still can't seem to agree on a new coronavirus relief bill.
Meanwhile, some of our international allies are bracing for a second wave.
The former
Navy SEAL known for his role in the operation that killed Osama bin Laden is
pushing back after President Donald Trump amplified conspiracy theories that
the terrorist leader's death was a hoax.
Robert
O'Neill, who says he killed bin Laden in the 2011 raid, has rebuffed Trump and
others in several tweets for promoting the conspiracy theory that bin Laden's
body double was instead killed.
"Very brave men said [goodbye] to their kids to go kill
Osama bin Laden. We were given the order by President Obama. It was not a body
double," O'Neill tweeted on
Tuesday. "Thank you Mr. President. Happy birthday @USNavy."
Two
months ago, President Donald Trump went on with conservative radio talk show
host Hugh Hewitt to talk about a MAJOR scandal involving, among others, former
Vice President Joe Biden.
"We're talking about unmasking, yes," Trump told
Hewitt on August 11. "That was a big deal. Horrible deal
where they unmasked him so many times. I think he's got to have the record for
unmasking. Maybe I do, you know, because we're still looking how many times did
they unmask me. Let's find that out, too, because look, they were spying on our
campaign."
What Trump was referencing -- since it's, uh, hard to figure out
from his quote -- is the practice of senior administration officials requesting
to know an individual's name in order to better understand an intelligence
report. (As a matter of policy, all names of individuals are redacted in
intelligence reports.) The process, which is known as "unmasking," is
relatively rare but not entirely unheard of.
In May, Republican Sens. Ron Johnson (Wisconsin) and Chuck Grassley
(Iowa) released the
names of a number of Obama administration officials who might
have sought to unmask Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn's identity
in intelligence reports in the run-up to Trump taking office. (The names were
on a document that had been recently declassified by Director of National Intelligence
Richard Grenell.)
Among the names on that list? Biden.
Trump, who embraces any conspiracy theory that suits his own political interests,
immediately seized on the news as evidence of (yet another) plot against him
and his allies by the previous administration.
"The unmasking is a massive -- it's a
massive thing," Trump said shortly after the release of the names.
"It's -- I just got a list. It's -- who can believe a thing like this? And
I watched Biden yesterday on 'Good Morning America' being interviewed by one of
your colleagues, George Stephanopoulos, and he said he knew nothing about
anything. He has no idea. He knows nothing about anything."
(Sidebar:
In a letter responding to Grenell's request to declassify the unmaking requests, the
head of the NSA wrote that the "unmasking was approved by
through NSA's standard process, which includes a review of the justification
for the request," adding: "While the principals are identified below,
we cannot confirm they saw the unmasked information.")
So important to Trump was this unmasking news that Attorney General
William Barr tasked John Bash, the US Attorney in San Antonio, in late May with
conducting an
investigation into whether the unmasking was politically motivated.
That
investigation has ended, according to
The Washington Post. And it has ended without any charges being
brought against Biden or any other
Obama administration official. Or even any public report of its findings.
Trump, despite amplifying the initial reports if unmasking, has yet
to offer any thoughts about the investigation ending without any sort of
findings of wrongdoing.
I haven’t been able to
get into my USCF account since June. I’ve tried logging in so many times I’ve
probably messed it up royally. Requesting to reset my password hasn’t helped
either. I called them and they had a voice message that everyone is working
from home. They did give me an email address and I emailed them asking for
help.
I still haven’t received
my election ballot so I sent an email to the Cook County Board of Elections
hoping they can help me. If not, soon my only recourse will be to send what I think
they call a backup ballot.
I left the apt at 12:30 and
walked a block and a half to the bus stop. I only had a 1-minute wait for a
metro bus and there was only one other person onboard. The last hundred yards
before the metro station the bus parallels the expressway. Nothing express
about it today as it was filled with cars and trucks absolutely not moving. After
I climbed the stairs to the pedestrian bridge I saw the reason why. A truck had
hit a car broadside and neither were being removed. All too common here in
Colombia. They may sit for hours inconveniencing all those behind it that can’t
get by.
It’s been 6 months since
I’ve been on the metro so I had no idea how much cash I had remaining on my
metro card. Luckily, I saw that I had 36,000 pesos so I was good. The metro was
pretty full but fortunately not cattle car full. I got off at the Poblado
station and walked to the Monterrey mall. I went up to the second floor and
asked a young man, playing with his cellphone outside the door of a store named
Tecno Shopping, where I could find an external battery for my cellphone.
He went inside and quickly came back and showed me an APC Mobile Power Pack for
50mil. The description on the outside of the package was in English. I didn’t understand
everything technical but it appeared I could charge a cellphone twice for 4
hours and there were 2 USB output ports. I bought it and took the metro to Envigado
station where I walked to the mall. I waited in line inside Exito for 15-20
minutes to pay my bills only to find out that their system still isn’t working.
Luckily, the lady sent me to Baloto where I paid Une and epm.
The good news is now I know I can pay for them there also, not just Direct
TV.
I had lunch in Sr. Wok
again, same as yesterday. I was having coffee in Todo Fresa when Teresa
called me at 4pm from the apt. She asked me to bring her a pastel de guayaba. I
told her I’m not in Parva so she changed her request to a slice of
carrot cake from Juan Valdez instead. When I got there they only
had 1 slice remaining so I gambled that it would still be fresh and I bought
it. I took a taxi back to the apt; good decision because it started raining
while I was still in the taxi. The rain didn’t last long however.
I sent an email to the US
embassy in Bogota informing them of Alex’s death. I also sent one to 2 email
addresses that Alba gave me, supposedly belonging to his adult children. I also
submitted an addition to Alex’s Wikipedia page announcing his death.
I received my ballot and
voted. Now I have to print it and send it to the US.
I received an answer from
the USCF about how to reset my password so I’ll give that a try tomorrow.
The
US has 7,839,577 ð 7,894,994 ð 7,948,603 coronavirus cases
with 214,900+ ð 215,700+ ð 216,600+ deaths.
Per
Medellin Guru, as of this afternoon Colombia has a total of 919,083 ð 924,098 ð 930,159 cases with 28,306 deaths. Medellin has 77,533 ð 78,230 ð 78,940 cases, an increase of 667 from October 13th
to 14th. Envigado has a total of 5,112 cases, an increase of 74 from
October 13th to 14th.
Joke of
the day
Knock on the door.
"Hello sir, would you like to
contribute something to the old folks home?"
"Yes,
actually." beams the old man.
"Barb, put your
jacket on and pack a suitcase!"
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