don’t look back coronavirus stimulus payments...car dealerships, car washes and jewelry stores,...
TRANSCRIPT
VOL. 7 ED. 4 • APRIL 13, 2020 • NO BAD NEWS
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Coronavirus Stimulus Payments
BY ORLANDO GOTAYBY DAVID BEYER
When the CARES Act was enacted, I hesitated to write about the Coronavirus stimulus payments. Official information changed daily, causing great confusion. Things have settled a little, so I feel comfortable com-menting now. Again: informa-tion changes rapidly. This may change yet again!
For payment purposes, there are two main groups of
eligible people within the stim-ulus “universe”: those who have filed returns for 2019 (and/or 2018), and those who have not (and are not normally required to file a return). They have dif-ferent pathways to get paid.
If you aren’t required to file a return, the IRS asks you to go to their website (at https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/economic-CONTINUED ON PAGE 8CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
Don’t Look Back“Keep Your Hands on the Wheel,Your Eyes Upon the Road”
The “Brave New World” has come and gone. Sorry if you missed it.
People born in the ear-ly 1950’s have seen a plethora of progress technologically. From cruising in cars with fins, while wearing bell-bottom pants and drinking cherry Cokes, we evolved into participants in a maelstrom of dizzying propor-tions.
The advent of the internet, wifi, social media, cell phones, GPS, space travel, the man on the moon, the Hubble Tele-scope, GPS, cars that drive themselves, Windows, satel-lite technology (available to any billionaire with a vision to share, i.e., Ted Turner’s CNN), 3-D copiers, ATMs, cloning, cryonics, heart transplants, synthetic body parts, all came
about so quickly that no one had a chance to fully compre-hend them prior to having to master their next release. Sam-sung 12? How high will it go?
In the midst of all this, people with little or no imagi-nation attempt to profit from the vision of others.
Scammers use the internet to prey upon people’s fears or gullibility, tricking people out of their life savings by promis-ing them a better life, such as Trump University, fraudulent accounts for cancer victims or veterans’ benefits; chances of having one’s identity and personal information stolen by scammers are always a threat to
April 13, 20202
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State labor office sends 40,000 home. Due to the CO-VID-19 contingency, Sergio Moctezuma, head of the State labor office, announced that they had sent more than 40,000 workers home and closed more than 127 busi-nesses statewide.
Only businesses that are in the "essential activities" are able to remain open, thus authorities have been active-ly closing cell phone stores, pawnshops, clothing and shoe stores, school uniform stores, car dealerships, car washes and jewelry stores, among others.
Baja expected to have a high number of COVID-19 cases. Our state is third place in the country in confirmed cases of Coronavirus with just under 400 cases.
The only two others that have more cases are Mexico City and Mexico State, which have more than four times the population of Baja.
Dr. Alonso Rico, head of the state health office, stated
that Baja also has the second place nationally in mortality rates due to COVID-19, with just 30 fatal cases at press time.
Patients who died had other problems like obesity, hypertension, diabetes. Their age range was from 55 to 65 years old, and they were 80% males.
Tijuana hospital suffers coronavirus outbreak be-tween staff. We recently made national news when it was
announced that more than 24 health practitioners from the same IMSS (Mexican Institute for Social Security) hospital
were infected with the virus. The hospital was already over-whelmed with the cases they had, and the staff had been complaining for days that they didn't have enough safety gear to treat patients. This was the fifth IMSS hospital in the country that had an outbreak, confirming the rumors that
the staff there doesn't have the adequate protective gear to do their work safely.
Federal authorities from the IMSS have continuously stated that these outbreaks are isolated cases, or in the case of the Tijuana outbreak, that it didn't come from the hospital but that the medics and nurses where infected somewhere else.
This response has triggered great outrage from concerned citizens, who say the Institute is not doing enough to protect their staff.
Governor Bonilla has al-ready come out to say that he does believe the IMSS is not taking the virus seriously enough and that the staff in there is "dropping like flies".
Sanitary filters installed statewide. Several sanitary fil-ters have been installed across our State, where police officials and doctors work together to look for Coronavirus symp-toms in drivers and passengers.
They are also asking some people to state the motive of their trip, as authorities are still highly recommending to stay home and only go out for es-sential activities like groceries or medicine shopping.
Businesses dismayed with AMLO's plan to reactivate the economy. The private sector all over the country has stated their disproval of President Obrador's plan to revive the economy, which doesn't help businesses in any way.
AMLO has stated that he will not allow businesses to send workers home without pay, but he has not been will-ing to offer a tax cut or an extension for firms to be able to do that. This has caused sev-eral businesses to have to close their doors permanently as they don't have enough money to maintain their workforce without having any income.
Medicine interns sent home. Local university UABC has stated that they have or-dered all their interns and social services students to leave their posts at their assigned medical institutions and go home.
The decision was taken after several of the students were found to be positive for Coronavirus.
Altough Baja California governor Jaime Bonilla asked the UABC to reconsider their decision in lights of the high need of medical assistance, UABC said that the students just didn't had enough experi-ence to handle the pandemic without putting their own health at risk.
April 13, 2020 3
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OPENING SOONReluctantly Leaving Baja
BY MARLA O'BRIEN
We were watching pelicans dive bomb for lunch offshore from the beach at Juncalito, south of Loreto, when Canada’s Prime Minister issued a global travel advisory and urged all citizens abroad to get home as soon as possible. Within min-utes, the texts, phone calls, and opinions started flying among the RV-traveling crowd.
“Ridiculous ... it’s just a flu,” said a fellow camper on the beach from Vancouver Island.
“Someone said they are cutting off our emergency travel medical insurance,” said another.
“I don’t even have any in-surance and am not going back to snow,” texted a friend further south.
My husband and I had been in Baja since the beginning of November 2019 enjoying another sunny winter in our tiny trailer home set up on San Pedrito beach outside Pes-
cadero. We first heard about the Coronavirus when a friend scheduled to fly down for a visit in early February consid-ered canceling her plans.
“Coronavirus? I thought that was what Mexican travelers got from hav-ing too much cerveza,” I quipped. No one is laughing now.
As Feb-ruary pro-g r e s s e d , we started h e a r i n g more about how the new virus was rav-ag ing C hina and Italy. But it still seemed so far away. Those posting dire projections on social media about an inevita-ble worldwide epidemic were scoffed at as sensa-tionalists and Chicken
Littles.In early March we stocked
up at the big-box stores in Cabo before heading north and thought nothing of it. This was weeks before any rumours of local COVID-19 cases. But sitting on the beach in Juncali-to, hearing my government’s increasing alarm and research-ing the epidemiological mod-els of transmission, I started to become really conflicted about what to do.
As any visitor to Baja knows, the most important thing is to separate fact from fiction. The Ameri-
can press is noto-riously harsh on
Mexico, paint-ing a picture of the country
as unsafe chaos. We k now t he
truth - that Baja is a wonderful, wel-
coming place and, with common-sense precau-
tions such as not driving at night to avoid wan-dering cattle, safer than many North American
urban centers. However, with Coro-
navirus, neither rumors nor borders would stop
the potential infection. The facts were it was spreading and we had to respond. And it be-came a fascinating exercise in human nature, witnessing the varied reactions of seasoned travellers to this new threat.
This community of fellow campers is one of the things we love most about winters in Baja. Each year we meet and reunite with a group of Canadians, Americans and Europeans of all ages and walks of life with one thing in common - the joy of indepen-dent exploration through this beautiful region. We rely on each other for advice, com-panionship, and help. And it was more true this year than ever before.
One couple from British
Columbia had visited Baja several times in the past via air, but this was their first time driving in an RV through the States and down the length of the peninsula. As one member had a pre-existing condition that put her at a higher risk of complications should she con-tract the virus, they decided to pack up and head north immediately. Within an hour, we were saying good-bye.
At the other end of the spectrum was a solo traveler who declared this was all me-dia hype and that he wasn’t going to change his plans one iota.
Another fellow camper hailed from Germany and cur-rently had a residence in Italy. CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
April 13, 20204
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Given the strict travel sanc-tions imposed in the European Union, he had long ago re-signed himself to the fact he’d be staying in Baja indefinitely.
For days my husband and I, along with another couple from Canada who were regular snowbirds to Baja, debated on a course of action. We all agreed we felt safer from the virus in Baja. Certainly, there was the potential of exposed visitors to the popular resort centers, but much less chance of transmission among the sparsely-populated villages of central Baja. At least that reasoning made sense.
But then as news came of border closures and changes to health insurance policies, the virus itself became less a threat than the risk of running into obstacles getting home. If the U.S. decided to only allow
their own citizens to cross the border, we could end up spending several more months in Baja. On the surface, this sounded just fine to us, until we realized all our insurances - medical and vehicle - would be void at the end of April. Also whether we’d be able to renew given the circumstances would be a crapshoot.
All these possibilities were discussed as nauseam among our traveling family. Some left and some decided to stay
put. The two of us reluctantly picked up stakes and left Jun-calito five days after the global travel advisory was issued. This was our tenth journey along the length of the pen-insula and definitely the most bittersweet. Each stop for gas or groceries was fraught with somewhat irrational fear. I was careful about everything I touched and used disinfectant wipes after each store trip.
We decided to pass on what would have been a raucously fun time at Playa Buenaven-tura’s annual St. Patrick’s Day party in Bahia Concepcion. Our overnight stops at favorite campsites in San Ignacio and San Felipe were tempered with dread about what the next day’s news would bring.
Even under these circum-stances though, Baja always has the ability to surprise and delight. In one desert camping spot south of Cuidad Constitu-tion, we encountered swarms of gentle bees that fed on bowls of water we put out for the dehydrated honey-makers. At Rattlesnake Beach near the Puerto Escondido marina, we enjoyed the extensive moun-tain trail system built and maintained by the local grin-gos and the incredible views of the Sierra de la Gigantica it offered.
Now that we’ve crossed two borders and are in a two-week quarantine, we are wistfully looking at all the photos and videos from another amaz-ing experience in Baja. The immediate future seems so uncertain right now, but one thing is for sure: we will be back!
April 13, 2020 5
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a generally honest and hard-working society.
The most despicable ex-amples of such reprehensible behavior are occurring right now, in the midst of a horrific worldwide health epidemic.
Merchants are pr ice-gouging essential products. Why? Because they can. While a fearful public attempts to ensure that they and their children will have enough to eat, some retailers are raising their prices of goods by 300% or more, as if the goods on the shelves were the last to be had, that we are witnessing an apocalypse; all the while, these merchants know full well that the supply chain continues to operate, that there is really no shortage of meat and pota-toes...or, for that matter, toilet paper.
The internet is a virtual hunting ground for bad peo-ple, people who strive to make a profit on the misery and fear of others. Such people are marketing, for astronomical prices, masks which have not been approved by medical pro-fessionals. Some of them also try to market “cures,” drugs that haven’t been successful in laboratory tests.
These people, however
shocking as it may be, are willing to put the lives of others at risk so that they can make money by doing so.
This is one time in the modern world during which people are dying without the “luxury” of having their loved ones at their sides, due to the fact that the corona virus is so highly contagious.
C onvers e ly, this is also a
time when so many people are risking their own lives in order to save others’.
This is one time when ev-erybody’s true nature is re-vealed.
Remember the old adage, “If you’re not part of the solu-tion, then you’re part of the problem.”...?
The generation gap is in the midst of a continuing cycle of technological, medical and sci-entific advancements. Now it’s the millennials whose turn it is to assimilate the onslaught of an exponentiality of progress.
Their “brave new world” is one in which robots will re-place most of the jobs now per-
formed by blue-collar workers (that trend is already in prac-tice and will only become more and more prevalent); cash will become a thing of the past, as a new international monetary system replaces dollars, yen, pesos, rubles, and all other forms of nationalistic currency. AI (artificial intelligence) will replace the obsolete system of document i.d., again becoming an international rather than a
national methodology. We al-ready have seen its beginnings by way of facial, eyeball and fingerprint recognition tech-nologies. Scotland Yard, the CIA, FBI, INTERPOL, MI5 will all be centralized into one international agency.
The corona virus has al-ready shown us that many institutions may be eliminated by the crisis.
Children are having class-rooms at home via the internet. So who needs brick-and-mor-
tar schools?Many jobs are being per-
formed at home. So why have huge monolithic office build-ings? Why waste so many re-
sources building and maintain-ing freeways that are constantly clogged with traffic, especially at rush hours, and take up so much valuable space?
Live performances will become a relic. Digital stu-dio recordings far exceed the quality (at least soundwise) of live performances, and, again,
eliminate the need for costly venues that can only accom-modate a finite number of fans, all of whom pay exorbi-tant prices to see their heroes perform.
Who needs gigantic retail emporiums when you can or-der anything you want online and have it delivered in min-utes...by drone? Costco will be Costco.com. Starbucks.com.
People are already shopping on Cars.com!
The future of cars? Who knows? They already are ca-pable of driving and parking themselves. Which begs the question: Why have people at all?
But seriously, folks, the problem with this kind of brave
new world is that it greatly re-duces human interaction.
Already we spend an in-ordinately greater amount of time staring at the display on our phones than we do into our lovers’ eyes.
Those who are young: The world is your oyster. Share it with someone you love. You know what they say: “It’s never too late.”
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April 13, 20206
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Baja, Mexico
Writing about food is always great, even when I have to write about things that I don’t par-ticularly enjoy, or even worse … recipes I believe are not truly Mexican. But hey this isn’t about me, is it?
Lately, I have been trying to please my readers, and this edition’s recipe is for Cheryl in particular.
Empanadas! The origin is uncertain, but let’s dig in. The word comes from “enpanar” which literally means to put be-tween bread, or something along
that line; to surround something with dough and cook it. There are thousands of variations of the same idea, from Greek Gyros to Italian Calzone. They are all basically under the same um-brella, have you realized? There is one thing that is probably the reason why empanadas are not believed to be Mexican; the dough is wheat flour. In Mexico, corn or maize, to be more exact, is consumed a little more than wheat, taking into consideration that in the northern states wheat tortillas are the norm.
Maize empanadas are what most people call quesadillas fritas, and then there is a huge debate as to if quesadillas must include cheese or not. Which, I am not about to get into, but I believe that no, cheese is not a fundamental part of quesadil-las. Anyway, empanadas made their way to Mexico through the conquista, traveling from Europe and the Middle East through to this paradise.
I will take this opportunity to write about a recipe in particular, but I want to let you know that during these times, you can make empanadas with pretty much any leftover. Maybe not spaghetti and meatballs, but you can transform the protein in the meatballs into a stuffing for empanadas and kill two birds with one stone.
The food in the Baja has had a very long adaptation process, after all, Baja is a strip of desert along the ocean, and produce was once very limited. Wheat was common in Sonora and its surroundings, so it became popular here. Back in the fif-
teenth century, Cortez tried two times to conquer the Baja, and did not succeed.
It wasn't until the third time when his people could disem-bark in La Paz in 1533 and sent word that there were black pearls here, which made him finally travel all the way to the Baja. Around 1769, Spanish conquis-tadors started bringing flour tortillas to the Baja, since they could only carry flour, fat and salt. In fact, the lack of food was what ultimately made his port fail and his people return, also the local tribes were too hostile to them.
Ingredients for the dough: 2 lb of regular wheat flour 3 tablespoons of warm water ½ teaspoon of salt 8 or 9 oz of pork lard (veg-
etable lard can be substituted, or vegetable oil, but keep on checking the consistency before adding all of the listed measure-ments)
For the meat stuffing: 1 lb of beef tenderloin2 large potatoes, diced and
sautéed (a little al dente)2 laurel leaves¼ of a large onion, whole ¼ of a large onion, chopped½ teaspoon of salt Cooking oilGrilled poblano pepper,
sliced in thin strips30 small olives (optional)5 pasilla chiles, cooked in
water 1 tomato, cooked in water ½ cup of the beef broth (in
case the stuffing is too dry)
Procedure: Bring water to a boil in a large
pot, add the laurel leaves and onion and place the meat and simmer until cooked.
Take the meat our and chop very finely, so it is easy to eat in the empanada. Set aside.
In a blender, place the pasilla chiles and the tomato with a little salt, blend into a thick sauce (add beef broth if needed)
In the pot, add a tablespoon of vegetable oil and the chopped onion, stir until tender and add the chopped meat and let it concentrate with the flavor of the onion for five minutes, then add the chile tomato sauce.
The stuffing can not be too wet, otherwise, the empanada will tear.
In a large bowl, place the flour and the fat, and massage together. Add the water and salt gradually, until a nice smooth dough is formed. You’ll know when it is ready when it stops sticking to your hands, and it stretches without ripping.
Make several small balls, depending on how thick and big you want your empanadas to be.
Roll out on a flat surface, flouring both the surface and the rolling pin, until you have thin circles.
Stuff one by one, right after rolling them out adding poblano chile, olives and potatoes to your liking.
Pinch closed with a fork or in any special way you’d like.
Fry on both sides until crisp and golden.
Enjoy with some queso fres-co and beans!
To make sure they are not as oily, fry them when the oil is scorching hot, this way they will not absorb too much fat.
You can also try to bake the empanadas instead of frying, experiment!
The dough can be used to make flour tortillas also, and to make dessert empanadas stuffing them with fruit jams, chocolate spreads, cream cheese, and anything your mind can come up with! You can find me at [email protected], I am always happy to hear from you!
April 13, 2020 7
The Best Memes We Could Find
April 13, 20208
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impact-payments) to enter your info in a special portal for non-filers. The page will ask for basic identifying info to ensure you are qualified, and for how much. The website allows for entering qualifying child info (remember, less than 17 years old) to get that part of the Re-lief payment ($500 per eligible child). Lastly, the website also provides for direct payment through your bank account, or a paper check to your mailing address, if that’s your choice.
For those who are required to file a return-- the IRS will open another portal (actually it’s another section at the same web page above) in the coming weeks. You would enter bank information, much like the first portal. The IRS knows that many taxpayers file a return with no bank information for refunds. Here’s how you tell the IRS where to send your payment. Oddly enough, it seems that if you had banking info previously on file, there’s
CORONAVIRUS STIMULUS...
continued from page 1
AskAsk a a MexicanMexicanWhat have you learned so far during the quarantine?
Moises Beltran, 46, unem-ployed.
I learned that we are not ready as a country to face something like this. That we all worry about things that are not truly important and that money is not forever. I thought I would never have to say this, but I honestly wish I had an OXXO or something like that because far from the riots and the looting, it’s one of those businesses that are still open today and producing money. I also learned that we all love our families to a distance and that no one is forced to be a part of any family activity, we truly choose to be there.
Patricia Palacios, 54, sec-retary.
I have learned many valu-able lessons, but one of the biggest ones is that we don’t hate being locked in, we hate being told to. All of us have
those Sundays where there’s nothing you’d rather do than sleep all day and nothing else. We just don’t like being told what to do. We think we are so entitled to our freedom that when it is threatened, we jump and scream at the first little chance.
Salma Nuñez, 30, teacher. This pandemic has taught
me that we are more depen-dent on each other than we want to admit, that some-times we are just not present enough. I feel like we had nev-er realized how much we like physical contact until now, and that is a little strange. I hope this keeps teaching us about how to make commu-nity in other ways and keeps us as strong as we are trying to be now. As soon as this is over, I hope we all take a chance to look at what we had to give up and really count our blessings.
Perla Arteaga, 19, stu-dent.
This pandemic is very weird. I have heard my par-
ents say it’s not the first one, and some people say it’s the first of many. I have learned there are many things we can do with our time that do not need real interaction, some meetings, classes, and events. I have learned that some of us are more prone to panic than others, and that is very dangerous. I feel like this is part of a movie; like someone is going to come out with a camera at any moment.
Luis Hernandez, 76, re-tired.
This quarantine has helped me value and realize how much I love my family, how some of us are very lucky to not be alone, and others have to make their life by themselves, and I feel sad for them. I have learned that life is more fragile than I thought it was and that the healthcare system needs a good reinforcement, as well as the health workers need more recognition.
Fernando Calles, 87, for-mer builder.
The Coronavirus has a lot of knowledge for us, like how useless money and wealth
are, how fragile our health is and how much we depend on one another. We need to understand that our family is the most important and that we are not alone in this. I wish we were all healthy and happy, but some of us don’t take this seriously, and that is why this is killing us, because we do not understand.
no way to update pre-existing banking information. Yes, I know. That seems odd, and it ought to be fixed.
Special categories of indi-viduals: Recipients of Social Security payments (SSDI) or Railroad Retirement (that do not file returns) need not do anything. The government will deposit Relief payments directly. However, non-filer SSI recipients and Veterans Administration pension/dis-ability recipients, still have to go to the first portal, unless the IRS chooses to find a way to direct deposit automatically. They could and should.
There are still plenty of loose ends on Relief payments. One example out of many: it is still unclear if joint filers with a non-resident alien spouse (or joint filers with a spouse with an ITIN number) would qualify for payments.
One thing is sure: I’ve never seen so many people wanting to file a tax return. Ever!
Orlando Gotay is a Cali-fornia licensed tax attorney (Master of Laws in Taxation) admitted to practice before the IRS, the U.S. Tax Court and other taxing agencies. His love of things Mexican has led him to devote part of his practice to federal and state tax matters of U.S. expats in Mexico. He can be reached at [email protected] Facebook: GotayTaxLawyer or WhatsApp at +17604491668. This is just a most general out-line. It is informational only and not meant as legal advice.