@Macy's - Cool Minnie Mouse

Huge sales at Macy's today.

They seem to be trying to get rid of all the merchandise built up during Coronavirus.

On line was this stylish lady in an orange dress with a white handbag.

On her arm were happy, playful tattoos, including a Minnie Mouse with her tongue out on her upper arm.

Life goes on with Disney characters cheering us up with or without a global pandemic.  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

@Macy's - Cool Minnie Mouse

Good One for Rosh Hashanah

It's Tisha B'Av tonight.

But this is a good one for Rosh Hashanah in 2 months. 

Got to contain the spray from the blowing of the shofar. 

It's a coronavirus time of year.  ;-)

(Source Photo: Facebook)

Good One for Rosh Hashanah

Planning Ha Ha

Man Plans and G-d Laughs!

So in retrospect, in 2015, not a single person got the answer right to 'where do you se yourself 5 years from now?'

Where you gonna be in 2020?

Stuck at home for almost the entire year!

But you are a fortune teller and are so smart you should've rolled your dice in the ever exploding  bubble of a stock market.

Oh, that's right, you did!  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Planning Ha Ha

Even Dogs Wear Masks

Even Sophie the dog wears a mask against Coronavirus.

- If giver doesn't wear mask and receiver does - 70% chance of transmission

- If giver wears mask and receiver doesn't - 5% chance of transmission

- If giver wears mask and receiver wears mask - 1.5% chance of transmission

That's doggie good statistics to avoid the Coronavirus plague.

People can learn just like dogs.  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Even Dogs Wear Masks

Missing Florida Vacations

So many months into Covid now, and probably so many more to go unfortunately.

Just missing getting out and down to Florida for a little vacation.

The palm trees.  The sun.  The beach.  A little fun. 

This isn't forever, right?

Hopefully, let's pray, Covid will be over and we can live again in freedom and without fear of contagion every moment of every day, day, day.  ;-)

(Credit Photo of artwork: Andy Blumenthal)

Missing Florida Vacations

IMHO Warning: Stock Market MAJOR Correction Imminent

I went to the mall today.

This is a few weeks into reopening phase 2!

I expected people would have pent up demand and be swarming the stores even while keeping their social distance.

They weren't at the mall! 

The stores were nearly void of people.

The shelves were virtually empty of goods.

Whatever merchandise there was seemed to marked "sale, sale, sale" even on the already deeply-discounted clearance items.

It was completely frightening--like the economy is dead or on severe life support!

Most stores had 3 or more associates standing around or sitting twiddling their thumbs.

This while the stock market keeps ticking up and the NASDAQ is reaching new highs almost daily.

Coronavirus is surging again across much of the U.S. and there is almost 140,000 dead in the U.S. after just 5 months even though much of the population was in self-quarantine.

The economy looks to me in sh*t shape, despite the U.S. pumping $3 trillion dollars more of debt to artificially prop up the economy and the fed lending out money at super low rates.

It makes NO sense for the market to be hitting all time highs as if everything is all roses when the economy is still a true mess!

The New Yorker magazine wrote back in May of a post coronavirus "decade of depression" with an L shaped recovery, yet we keep seeing a V-shaped one and no one seems to be able to offer any plausible explanation for it.

Two-months ago, even before the recent stock run-up to higher levels, Business Insider reported that "the Stock Market is trading at its highest valuation in 18-years."

Last month, Forbes reported that "the stock market appears to be reaching unsustainable highs."

Yesterday again, Bloomberg reported that the "economic recovery is faltering."

Almost daily, I read that companies are laying off their workers (in Travel, Transportation, Entertainment, Retail, Energy, etc.) or declaring bankruptcy (e.g. Hertz, JC Penny, Neiman Marcus, Chesapeake Energy, and more).

This while we are still, in the best case scenario, maybe half a year away from the possibility of a tested, approved vaccine. And then it will still need to be mass produced and mass distributed to hundreds of millions of people in this country and billions globally.

In the meantime, we certainly could be up for a second wave of Coronavirus on top of the flu in the fall/winter. And then the Coronavirus may mutate and become more virulent requiring annual vaccines like the flu shot--more hit or miss.

All this while U.S.-China trade war is imperiling our economy further, and arch-enemies Iran and North Korea remain national security threats.

To me this all points to that we are nowhere near out of the woods and perhaps that there is a wildfire raging and no one seems to be paying any attention!

The stock market euphoria is a common trap and is the definition of "irrational exuberance" but comes after investors have been robotically indoctrinated to buy the dips!

IMHO, buyer beware, beware, beware. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

IMHO Warning: Stock Market MAJOR Correction Imminent

Never Any Rest In Life

First day in 15 weeks! that we went to a real store yesterday.

Dick's Sporting Goods was open, but still not much else.

It was refreshing to look around again.

Nearly all the bicycles were cleaned out with people forced to do their own exercise routines these days.

People walking around mostly like they were on Mars.

Had some restaurants with just their patios open and people are sitting outside in the good weather.

Also, some eateries open for takeout.

Best part is still nature, and all the closures have brought us back to it.

This turtle was tanning in the warm sun on the rocks and swatting the snake away with its rear foot.

Sort of funny that even a turtle can never get any rest in life. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Never Any Rest In Life

Shopping Up A Pole

Wondering if this is also part of social distancing. 

Shopping cart up a pole. 

No one else up there. 

Safe from Coronavirus, hopefully. 

Maybe some illusive toilet paper to be found in the sky mall? 

Desperate times calling for desperate measures or an anxious society is losing its mind. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Shopping Up A Pole

Keep The F*** Away From Me

Social distancing is the new norm.

Shaking hands is a no-no!

Even in the park yesterday, they had a sign prominently displayed that read:

Thank you for practicing social distancing. Please stay 6 FT apart.

We might as well all just wear t-shirts or little reminder signs on each of us with:

Keep the F*** away from me!

That about sums it up without putting up a specific distance range. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Keep The F*** Away From Me

Stock Market Pinocchio Style

Look folks, Pinocchio's nose is getting longer by the minute.

The market continues on a tear, even while the economy is heading in the other direction. 

I know people have been conditioned to buy on the dips, but I'm not sure that applies while we're in the middle (or maybe still just in the beginning) of a pandemic that has claimed 286,000 lives in just over 2 months (and that's with a global shutdown)!

Somehow, there is a notion that when things start to reopen that all the problems will just magically go away, including the $3 trillion we just added to our national debt, all the bankruptcies being declared, and all the job losses that are becoming permanent. 

If you believe this, perhaps you'd like to buy the Brooklyn Bridge.

The greater fool theory is alive and well.  ;-)

(Credit Graphic: Andy Blumenthal)

Stock Market Pinocchio Style

The Coronavirus Stock Market

I believe this photo best summarizes where we are with the Coronavirus stock market.

As they say:

Don't count your chicken before they hatch.

This market has gotten way ahead of itself and the pending economic realities of the Coronavirus and the consequences of the trillions of response fund debt. 

Remember:

- The virus does not yet have a vaccine, and it is mutating and may become even more virulent!

- The deaths continue to soar in the U.S. with now over 75,000 dead in just two months.

- The deaths involve much pain and suffering both for the victim and his/her grieving loved ones. 

- The unemployment is at all time highs since the Great Depression. 

- Companies are starting to move from temporary layoffs to permanent firings and contraction, and many eventually to bankruptcy. 

- Profitability and gross domestic product are way down and may be even worse in the next quarter.

- Price Earning ratios are around their 10-year highs even looking out toward a possible 2021 recovery. 

- Restarting the economy does not mean a return to what was as the extreme trauma from the pandemic, shutdown, and social distancing rebalance us to a "new normal."

- A second and third wave of Coronavirus may be as bad or even worse than the first. 

- The two biggest global economies of the U.S. and China are facing a deteriorating and toxic relationship.

- The lingering $3,000,000,000,000 that we just added to our National Debt is going to increasingly strangle our future economic outlook. 

- The election is in November and brings increasing instability and likely volatility. 

In summary, the term used by former Fed Chairman, Alan Greenspan of "irrational exuberance" seems like a gross understatement when it comes to our current stock market.  

Get ready to see the froth come painfully off this drunken market--these eggs are about ready to crack.  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

The Coronavirus Stock Market

Lockdown In Coronavirus

This photo is sort of what it feels like to be in lockdown during the Coronavirus pandemic. 

You're stuck inside, but still have to keep everything moving anyway!

As we enter the next phase with people itching to go back out and "restart" life and the economy and the second wave where more people unfortunately get sick, we are really as they say:

Stuck between a rock and a hard place. 

And that's where bad things can happen (G-d forbid) and it's never a good place to be. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Lockdown In Coronavirus

Standing Tall

Thought this was a pretty cool statue at Baltimore Penn Station.

No people though on a Sunday or because of COVID-19. 

I imagine this is what a ghost town looks like. 

The statues stand tall but the remnants of the people are hiding in shelters.

End of times or a new beginning...we'll see. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Standing Tall

Matzo Ball Soup For The Soul

It's a pretty well-known Jewish tradition that Chicken Soup is almost like an cure all. 

Our moms for centuries have preached chicken soup whenever you didn't feel well or felt like you may be coming down with something. 

Hmm...I wonder if it even works on Coronavirus. Heck, I'd try it for sure. LOL

From an alternative medicine perspective, like it says on the package:

It's penicillin in a pot.

Anyway, I thought this package kit of matzo ball soup was pretty cute. 

With the old lady that looks like she's about to fall in the soup saying:

Good. Not as good as mine. But good. 

Hey, I guess there is no package matzo ball soup that is going to be as good as homemade. 

Especially as I was taught that the magic ingredient is not chicken, but love!  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Matzo Ball Soup For The Soul

Bacteria Vs. Virus--The Cure!

There is an old adage that:

The enemy of my enemy is my friend

Both bacteria and viruses are enemies of people in that they often make us sick. 

If they can make us sick, why can't they be used to fight and make each other sick (i.e. destroy each other). 

Thus, bacteria can be our friend, if we use them to destroy viruses, like Coronavirus. 

Why can't we create a "virus-eating bacteria" (and vice versa "bacteria-eating virus") to destroy these little monsters that are infecting and killing us?

Let our enemies kill each other!  ;-)

(Credit Graphic: Andy Blumenthal)

Bacteria Vs. Virus--The Cure!

Reach Out And Grab Ya

This is a candleholder. 

But in a bizarre way it looks almost like a toilet. 

The place for the candle is the toilet!

Sort of would make a pretty scary toilet in real life if the back of it (ie. tank) has a body with arms that looks like it is reaching out to grab you as you take your royal seat. 

Hey, someone let me out of here!

Ok, I have definitely been shut in too many days due to this Coronavirus thing. 

I am imagining the world's scariest toilets. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Reach Out And Grab Ya

The Doctor Is Out!

So one huge downside to this Coronavirus shutdown is that you can barely get any help for other medical conditions or elective surgeries. 

I just heard this morning from a relative about family members that can't get shots they need for pain control or surgeries for breathing problems.

Everything now is COVID-19.

That's the priority (maybe all of the top ten priorities)!

But does it really make sense to completely triage COVID-19 above Cancer, Heart Disease, Respiratory Disease, Strokes, Alzheimers, Diabetes, Kidney Disease, Liver Disease, Parkinson's, and more. 

Coronavirus patients are who the hospital and ICU beds are for now. 

And the respirators. 

The testing. 

The new research dollars. 

Perhaps, the global medical community has gone a little Coronavirus crazy, extreme, radical, overboard in their singular focus, panic, and chaos over just one virus to the exclusion of everything else!

Apparently, our totally "overwhelmed" medical system can't "walk and chew gum at the same time."

Certainly, we have a lot to be grateful for to the dedicated and selfless doctors and nurses in the medical community for everything they are doing to help people with Coronavirus under very trying circumstances.

The problem is that in the meantime, people that have new or other chronic conditions are being left out and sometimes to rot. 

Unless of course you are a big fan of telemedicine, which may be good to get something routine looked after, but something major, and I think you're in big trouble. 

After this Coronavirus (assuming there is an after), there is going to be a lot of pent up demand for medical care. 

I think a lot of people are suffering now with conditions that they were waiting to take care of until they were absolutely necessary, but unfortunately when it became necessary, then the care was not there. 

Makes you wonder whether and when you should do or put off medical procedures in the future: just because the care is there "today," doesn't mean it will be there tomorrow. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

The Doctor Is Out!

Count Your Blessings

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, "Count Your Blessings."

I just wanted to share a short reflection with everything going on in the world these days with coronavirus and the economic shutdown: I see people are scared and confused, under lockdown and feeling financial strain, and many are getting sick and dying. But I remember the words of my dear father who used to say: "Count Your Blessings!" And he was so right. There are so many things, literally every moment of every day, for us to be grateful for:

Certainly, we all face extreme difficulties or challenges at times in our lives, but things can always be so much worse, and there is still so much for us to be grateful for. Therefore, truly thank you G-d with a hundred blessings—and more—for every moment of every precious day. And we affirm that surely the L-rd who created us will continue to sustain us, and that ultimately all will be for the good.

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Count Your Blessings

The Great COVID-19 Lie

We have been told that the first case of Coronavirus/COVID-19 death in the U.S. was in February 2020. 

First, we were told it was February 29 in Kirkland, Washington. 

Then that is was earlier on February 6 and 17 in California. 

But I and others who I have spoken to believe that the first cases of COVID-19 were with us many months earlier. 

Both I and my wife developed extreme coughing around the September/October timeframe. 

The coughing didn't go away for months!

As is now being reported with COVID-19, it was like it reactivates again and again, 

I went to the MinuteClinic and was prescribed antibiotics. 

The cough lingered and got worse a second time. 

I think I went another time to Minute Clinic or to Urgent Care and got a stronger antibiotic. 

The cough lingered and got worse yet a third time. 

As I become weaker and more sick (with fever at some point(s)), I found myself waking up and barely able to even get out of bed. 

I forced myself back over to Urgent Care again. 

I was given the flu test and it was not the flu. 

And no one seemed to know what it was!

They told me that they were getting so many cases...I believe they said each location was seeing about 100 patients a day!

I was so weak I just laid on the doctors exam table half falling asleep and barely able to move to get up. 

I was given yet an even stronger antibiotic and I believe some steroid medication. 

After about 3-4 horrible months and almost near collapse, it finally started to get better. 

I don't remember ever getting anything like this! 

I hadn't traveled anywhere either. 

Lots of people seem to have had a similar experience. 

Was this COVID-19 or some precursor to it?

I/We may never know the truth. 

But these symptoms and sickness was not normal.

And the high number of cases I was hearing about was beyond anything I can remember. 

As we know everything about this COVID-19 is not normal as we can all attest to after weeks and months of global lockdown. 

The reason that you are hearing all the confusing and contradictory communications and crisis from the "experts" and in the media is because the professionals are confused!

And we are left to wonder: when will we find out the truth about what this is, when it started, what the real dangers to us are now and into the future, and whether there will really ever be a cure for it? ;-)

(Credit Graphic: Andy Blumenthal)

The Great COVID-19 Lie

Free COVID-19 Cure

This sign was just too great. 

Advertisement with the little slips at the bottom to tear off. 

Free Cure for COVID-19.
Please take an information strip below

And what do the strips say:

Stay the F**K at home

I wonder why no one took any of the strips? LOL

Like every meaningful issue, we have people on both sides of the aisle fighting it out what is the right thing to do. 

And when it comes to life and liberty, passions certainly run high. ;-)

(Credit Photo to my son-in-law Itzchak for sharing this with me from his friend in California)

Free COVID-19 Cure