ANNOUNCEMENT: I have COVID-19. To be clear: my entire family has it as well… Rita, Diana, and I are all positive and have been in quarantine in our home since last week. It all started the Wednesday before Thanksgiving when our first family members fell ill and eventually it spread to our house. I first noticed symptoms an hour before last week’s show with Richard Dolan… by the end of the show I felt like I was hit by a truck and thrown down the stairs. It came on in a matter of minutes. Scary stuff. Diana’s test results came back on Thursday and Rita and I got tested on Friday. Our results didn’t come back until last night, although we knew how sick we were getting we wanted to wait until we had the tests back and confirmed before saying anything. How am I feeling? Well, today is the worst day yet… head to toe body aches that start with my bones… headaches from the spawn of Satan… this thing is NASTY. Temperature goes up and down… and for now it has stayed away from my lungs… I’m five days in and hopefully I’ve seen the bad parts and I’ll start to see some sign of improvement soon. Listen, everyone… you DO NOT WANT THIS. Forget about the drama, the conspiracy theories… the BS… don’t listen to it… listen to ME: Avoid contact, wear a friggin’ mask, wash your hands… do everything you can… do not play around. You do not want your family sick… be a leader… make sure you are doing everything you can to protect you and your family. FADE to BLACK will be running re-plays this week… after this notice to all of you I’m heading back to bed. I’m taking my meds, vitamins, CBD, Zinc, liquids… and if I have the energy I’ll report back with everyone tomorrow.
Shock announcement comes from the President himself in a tweet today.
“Get better soon Rudy, we will carry on!!!” the president tweeted.
Giuliani has been all over the country in the past week, appearing in person sans mask at hearings before state legislatures attempting to get them to overturn results.
A vast number of people who get COVID-19 recover.. There is no fear and no scare necessary to speak that truth. However, there is a mystery of those who are completely healthy that have harsh case, and those who you’d think wouldn’t last a day with it that end up being largely asymptomatic. Is that just the game of chance? Science needs to research that.
What however is becoming an increasingly troubling piece of information, about 5% or so of those who get COVID not only don’t recover, but instead carry strange symptoms for the “long haul.” With the virus being new, it is difficult to tell just how long the “long haul” will be for this subset of those afflicted.
A well respected doctor who we have been following since even before the pandemic began in 2020 is James Campbell. His daily updates have made him a household name around the world. His November 28 2020 update actually discusses the long haulers in great detail, and it is worth the viewing:
I believe there are thousands of people with long haul covid-19 who are overdoing it and making themselves ill with these relapses, across the whole spectrum of conditions. Many have fatigue, and overreaching causing relapse seems common. NICE guidelines from 2007 emphasise an individualised approach, and this is correct. We need people around us that listen and treat us with kindness, as we learn how to learn how to accommodate the illness. Websites and self-help apps may help, but alone are insufficient. A group of four of us have formed a pacing group, meet online weekly, and support each other daily. It really helps.
Teeth falling out without any blood loss is unusual, Dr William Li, president and medical director of the Angiogenesis Foundation, a nonprofit that studies the health and disease of blood vessels, said.
He said his team were investigating some of the ‘bewildering’ problems Covid-19 patients are having months after illness.
Dr Li said it’s possible that the virus damages blood vessels that keep the teeth alive, and that’s why there is no pain when it falls out.
One of our yearly traditions since we began this website back in 1999 was the imagery and pageantry of Black Friday madness! Brawls and fights.. people going out to shop but landing in a coma, all while old terrible quality cell phone videos caught the rampage..
None of that this year.
NOTHING.
It was quite quaint and orderly. We did not even get sent one fight, one punch… one scream.. The masks kept those who actually shopped quite quiet!
The raging coronavirus pandemic kept crowds thin at malls and stores across the country on Black Friday, but a surge in online shopping offered a beacon of hope for struggling retailers after months of slumping sales and businesses toppling into bankruptcy.
Talk about depressing!
But is it all the virus?
For years, we have seen spending habits changing.
Big box chains have been slowly bleedings for years, and “local Saturday” shops have been closing.. Cyber Monday has immersed from the shuffle with the grand prize!
A graphical representation:
This year, Black Friday is a story of the haves vs the everyone else!
People in line for a Playstation 5 may have been equipped with the hundreds to spend to get it, but were shocked to hear their local game stop only had 2 per store for the most part!
Meanwhile, the rest of the country is seeing a spike in hunger and food lines..
While you may not see in on the American media cable channel of your choice, the world is watching a nation spiral out of control..
In what is traditionally a season of celebration, less than half of US households with children feel “very confident” about having enough money to afford the food needed over the next month, according to the US Census Bureau’s latest pandemic survey. A staggering 5.6m households struggled to put enough food on the table in the past week.
Families of color are suffering disproportionately with 27% of black and 23% of Latino respondents with children reported not having enough to eat sometimes or often over the past week – compared with 12% of white people.
Overall food insecurity has doubled since last year due to record unemployment and underemployment rates. For families with children, hunger is three times higher than in 2019, according to analysis by Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, director of the non-partisan Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University.
A staggering 5.6 million people struggled to put enough food on the table in the past week according to US Census survey data, while an estimated two million people are expected to go hungry in New York this holiday season.
From New York to California, people waited for hours on end to claim their parcels for the holidays and celebrities including Snoop Dogg, Tyler Perry and Tracy Morgan have lent a hand.
AstraZeneca said it plans to conduct a new global clinical trial to assess the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine’s efficacy. The news comes after the company and the university acknowledged a dosing error in trials.
More: In a statement Wednesday, Oxford University said some of the vials used in the trial didn’t have the right concentration of vaccine so some volunteers got a half dose. The university said that it discussed the problem with regulators, and agreed to complete the late-stage trial with two groups.
The manufacturing problem has been corrected, according to the statement.
The titles are words of warning from a North Carolina woman in the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine study who is in her 50s..
“If this proves to work, people are going to have to toughen up,” she said. “The first dose is no big deal. And then the second dose will definitely put you down for the day for sure. … You will need to take a day off after the second dose.”
Public health officials and drugmakers need to warn people that coronavirus vaccine shots may have some rough side effects so they know what to expect and aren’t scared away from getting the second dose, doctors urged during a meeting Monday with CDC advisors.
AND
“We really need to make patients aware that this is not going to be a walk in the park,” Fryhofer said during a virtual meeting with the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, an outside group of medical experts that advise the CDC. She is also a liaison to the committee. “They are going to know they had a vaccine. They are probably not going to feel wonderful. But they’ve got to come back for that second dose.”
Will you be contagious?!
“If they have to miss 14 days of work, that’s a huge amount to miss,” said Lee, who is a member of the ACIP, told the CDC. “I think we do have to think about that the vaccine itself. While there may be some short term work loss issues, I do think that has to be balanced with the risk of getting an infection.
It’s coming!
Federal agencies are already sending vaccination plans around to staff. Five agencies have started telling employees they could receive Pfizer’s or Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine in as little as eight weeks, a person with firsthand knowledge of those plans told CNBC on Friday.
There soaring stock markets the other day with press releases that vaccines were 90% or 95% effective!
But reality is setting in..
AstraZeneca said Monday that its coronavirus vaccine reduced the risk of symptomatic Covid-19 by an average of 70.4%, according to an interim analysis of large Phase 3 trials conducted in the United Kingdom and Brazil.
The COVID situation steadily increasing in seriousness, and Thanksgiving in full bloom.
But there will be few movie theaters to watch anything in by the time the turkey is devoured by your family.
646 movie theaters in the U.S. closed down again virtually overnight this past weekend amid an alarming surge in COVID-19 cases, according to Comscore. There were also 60 cinemas reclosures in Canada, meaning that in the span of several days, the North American box office lost 706 locations compared to a week ago..
The holiday season is virtually over before it begins..
What hope will future theaters have?
Paul Dergarabedian of Comscore gave the Hollywood Reporter a rosy scenario:
“Movie theaters over the decades have proven to be extraordinarily resilient and have survived every challenge from the pandemic of 1918, through the Great Depression to the introduction of TV through the home theater revolution and now the streaming boom,” says Dergarabedian. “COVID-19 has presented a modern-era challenge unlike no other and weathering this storm will be no easy task, but if history tells us anything it’s that the movie theater experience is an essential component of the entertainment ecosystem and thus will find a way to survive.”
This reporting exclusive on the WALL STREET JOURNAL
The bodies of hundreds of people who died in New York City during the Covid-19 surge in the spring are still in storage in freezer trucks on the Brooklyn waterfront.
Many of the bodies are of people whose families can’t be located or can’t afford a proper burial, according to the city’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner. About 650 bodies are being stored in the trucks at a disaster morgue that was set up in April on the 39th Street Pier in Sunset Park.
Let’s be honest, this year has been bleak for many restarants.
Yes, there are some shining examples of how take out only can work, but other major chains and small restaurants are feeling the burn of COVID.. The early spring and summer lockdowns throughout the United States did not do the industry favors.. And when dining finally was allowed throughout parts of the nation, few places were able to boast of a thriving night life.
And now with the media and politicians warn of what most have suddenly deemed a “dark winter,” dining is slowing again to a crawl..
A DARK WINTER?! Was it even a bright summer!?
One of the biggest attractions that many fair weathered states had was the luck of the sun. OUTSIDE DINING.. places soaked up the ability to lessen its dim fate with tables on sidewalks and closed down streets… Inside was limited, but the air outside led to some cities coming up with unique abilities to close down alleyways and less busy roadways for table side service in the open air.
But even with those few months of profit, the restaurant industry lost $120 bil by the middle of summer.
The National Restaurant Association released new data outlining the grim COVID-19 impact so far. The Association said restaurants lost $40 billion in May, bringing the three-month total to $120 billion after March dropped $30 billion in an abbreviated window and April sank $50 billion as stay-at-home policies covered the entire month. Overall, restaurants are expected to lose some $240 billion by year’s end.
As the summer ended and fall began, the pandemic showed signs up picking up in intensity.
Domino’s Pizza and Papa John’s are among the most obvious winners, as consumers quickly transitioned to order their pizzas for delivery during lockdowns. But burger chains like McDonald’s and Wendy’s, which saw sales take deeper dives in March and April, also reported relatively speedy rebounds to their U.S. businesses. The disparity between the fast-food sector and full-service restaurants is also reflected in restaurant stocks. Shares of Olive Garden parent Darden Restaurants have fallen about 8% this year, while Dine Brands, owner of IHOP and Applebee’s, has seen its stock tumble 32%. On the flip side, McDonald’s stock is up 11% and Wendy’s shares are flat in 2020. Shares of fast-casual chain Chipotle Mexican Grill have gained more than 50% year to date, adding more than $11 billion to the company’s market value. Jim Stevens, president of the Golden Chick restaurant chain, said the company saw its sales dive 15% at its more than 190 locations in Texas, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Florida during the five weeks after stay-at-home orders were put in place. But the fried chicken chain’s second-quarter same-store sales rose 21%, and its third quarter is on track for a 26% increase. Drive-thru sales account for about 85% of its business now, compared with about two-thirds before.
This was that game trailer:https://www.youtube.com/embed/Fgvo-9pJ1EU?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&autohide=2&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent
November 13, another Friday, charts out where we are now so many months later:
Daily tests have increased all year, but daily cases have come in waves.. This looks to be a third wave that does not seem to be relenting.. Hospital rates were back twice this year.. now they appear to be raging.. and while deaths were down for most of the summer and early fall, things seem to be rebounding into negative territory..
Is it just West Philly or is this the slowest Friday ever?
What followed were tons of comments, still being written, from around the United States..
Comments like these from people throughout the United States on Friday the 13th, November 2020, during the pandemic:
Slow in NJ. I made $30 last night
Slow in Maryland tonight
The slowest Friday I’ve worked in years in Ohio
Slow texas i worked from 8:30am to 2 manage to make $90 but only had like 10 tables
Dead in Western New York
New Hampshire Quiet Too
Sooooo slooooooww in Metro Detroit today
San Diego is super quiet tonight
Slow in north west pa. Waiting to be shut down again
Slow in Tampa, fl
Ne Georgia.. Slowest night I can remember in a long time barely walked with 70 for 5 hours
Dead as fuck here in Charleston WV. We had a 30min wait at 6pm and then it just flatlined. Staff ready to leave in 15min
It’s the slowest friday ever. Pa
My day in Memphis was SUPER slow. I thought it was at least 4 and it was only noon
Yes because everyone is sick or afraid of getting sick we have a huge outbreak right now in western Michigan
Illinois: It’s horrid. The slowest night since we reopened in May!
I’m 20 minutes out of Philly on the Main Line. Totally dead.
Slow here in md. We’re adding more restrictions to gatherings here on Sunday so people are panic shopping and ordering takeout.
I was watching the news tonight (I live in the suburbs of Philly) and they were going on about how there’s going to be a set of new covid restrictions announced on Monday
Are you like me? Is there a certain for building sense of doom for Tuesday’s election? 2020 has brought with it a dose of dread and birthpangs of fear.election? 2020 has been weird. It might be weirder after tomorrow.
Now, there might be a chance that will know the president by 8 PM and there will be a landslide. Maybe that Blue wave will occur, or perhaps surprising moments in the Trump world will happen again and he will win just like he did in 2016
The “maybe not” is what gives us the sleepless night.
The maybe not comes from states where voting has been extended until after the election, like Pennsylvania where you can still have a vote be counted days from now, and in a close election every minute will matter.
Maybe those fears are evident best in places such as South Carolina, as Charleston gets ready by boarding up local businesses. Same in New York City, and the same at the White House where fencing has been installed to control any potential rioters if things go awry Tuesday night..
We hope and pray to whatever God may exist that this election is just boring like all the other ones. But elections haven’t been boring lately.
Yes, there is that sense of dread. Perhaps that Dread is in your stomach too, bubbling up towards your heart and beyond, bringing with that a series of chills and nervousness about how our country will vote, the more importantly how have the nation will react to the other half when they find out how they voted.
