From now on, just 50% of capacity.
Oh, and no serving booze after 10 PM.
Used to be we could serve it until 2 AM, then 12:30 AM, and now just 10 PM.
It’s because the virus is smart. It’s learning to come out earlier at night, not just after midnight. It’s clearly more intelligent than we originally thought.
Thank God we have an equally impressive intellectual team working in the Health Department!
Without those wizards of medicine, how would we even still be alive right now?
Presidential Medal of Freedom time?
You’re damn right it is!
The Old
Of course, those wizards of medicine here in the Berkeley of the North can’t do everything, everywhere, and at all times...no matter how much they like to play God.
Consider our nursing homes. There ain't nothin' snarky about the mess their in.
And I wouldn’t have expected NBC to put up a story like this, but they did - The hidden Covid-19 health crisis: Elderly people are dying from isolation.
Here are some excerpts from the story:
“He still had no coronavirus symptoms — he was just withdrawn, according to Roberg and an administrator at Copperfield Hill. Roberg was hopeful that he would bounce back with more hands-on attention from the facility. But four days later, on June 2, she got another call: She should come right away. Her father was dying.”
…
“The isolation is robbing them of whatever good days they have left — it accelerates the aging process,” Joshua Uy, associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, said.
“You see increased falls, decrease in strength and ability to ambulate. You see an acceleration of dementia, because there is no rhythm to your day. There isn’t a single part of a person’s life that isn’t affected.”
…
“Sometimes the doors to their rooms are open, and you just see someone sitting in a chair with tears running down their face,” Aronson, who is assisting San Francisco’s response to the pandemic in long-term care facilities, said. “People ask me, ‘Is this the rest of my life? If so, I don’t want to go on.’”
…
“We’ve locked these older adults in their rooms in the name of safety without thinking about the unintended consequences here,” Grabowski said. “In many respects, the side effects are worse than the potential harm of a slightly higher risk of infection.”
…
Noody had always thought of her mother as the no-nonsense type, true to her German roots. But in July, when she was helping to move her mother’s possessions into the nursing home, she found a letter that White had written during the pandemic, but hadn’t given her.
"Beverly, I want to come home for good. I don’t know how to get out of here,” her mother wrote. “I would do anything to get away. I was told today this was forever. Do you know how I can get away?”
…
“When a staff member brought her out in a wheelchair, Rose Violet, 91, instinctively stretched out both arms to touch Markese, then broke down sobbing when the aide told her that they had to remain at least 6 feet apart.
“My baby, my baby...” she wept, her arms still reaching for her granddaughter, who was also in tears. “She’s my baby.”
It was a wrenching experience for Markese, who was seven months pregnant and had been waiting to tell her grandmother in person. “To me it was almost more tortuous being there, so close but not being able to touch,” she said. “It was like being punched in the stomach.”
It’s a damn shame what we’re doing to people in this country, a damn shame.
The Uprisings
While visiting NBC, I saw another article that seemed like it didn’t belong on that corporate, anti-Trump site.
It was this one, Protests against new Covid-19 restrictions hit Italy.
Why are Italians protesting? Because of this:
“The new measures ordering Italian restaurants and bars to close from 6 p.m., shutting down cinemas and gyms and imposing local curfews in several regions of the country were met with protests, both peaceful and violent.”
Those protests were in Rome, as well as three other major cities. They’re expected to continue today.
Spain and France are following the same draconian shutdown measures as Italy, and they’ll see protests as well.
Here’s how a protester put it in France:
“We’re in complete despair. When they shut us down, they humiliate us,” said restaurateur Bernard Marty.
“This doesn’t just penalise the restaurateur behind the till. It’s an entire sector plunged into crisis: suppliers, event organisers, discotheques. Do they expect us to die in silence?”
What we’re seeing is a new form of populism rising up, one that’ll combine unlikely allies. All because they oppose the lockdowns, which have been put in place by overreaching governments.
If the people do not get what they want in the streets they’ll try the ballot box.
But I don’t think the people are going to wait that long. France won’t have a presidential election until 2022; Spain and Italy won’t have theirs until 2023.
So the pitchforks will come out.
I suspect we’ll see a string of political assassinations all across Europe as fall turns to winter and slowly changes to spring...all the while with the lockdowns in place.
I think we’ll see the same in America beginning next week as well.
Nancy Pelosi...Mitch McConnell? I wouldn’t be surprised for one second if there were some attempts on their lives, not just threats of such.
People are angry, damn angry...and it’s gonna get a lot worse starting next week when one side finally realizes that they won't be the winner.
That's when the violence in the streets will really start. Most of the politicians will cower in their gated communities while the suburbs burn. This country's going to erupt.
The Money
With about 150 hours to go until election day, let’s take a look at how much the Montana statewide, lesser-race candidates have raised for the general. I’ll focus on the reports that ended October 20.
AG
When it comes to AG, good luck using COPP.
I tried digging through the AG fundraising reports, but it’s difficult to discern what’s what because of all the filed reports, and then amended reports (more than 15 for each candidate). I gave up and went to the GF Trib for the numbers:
“Graybill reported having $242,868 cash to spend on the race. Knudsen had about $166,566.”
Clearly the Dems have the money advantage...and that might be all it takes.
But what good is that money? How many of us had our mind changed because of one of the hundreds of pieces of junk mail or negative TV ads we saw?
Auditor
In September’s report, Morigeau had $133,000, spent most, and had around $31,000 left in the bank as of last week.
Downing had raised/had $76,000, spent a little, and has around $73,000 left in the bank as of last week.
What is Downing doing? Morigeau made his final push in October, around the time ballots went out.
But Downing is sitting on a boatload of cash. Maybe he expects to lose and wants to keep that campaign warchest for the next race, maybe U.S. House (2nd seat?) or possibly a different statewide in four years.
Or he might just smother us with radio and TV ads over the last week, trying to convince whatever undecided voters are still out there.
SoS
By mid-September, Bryce Bennett had $314,000 in the bank, spent half a quarter million of it over a month, and had $78,000 left in the bank by mid-October.
Nearly all of that spending went to Santa Monica’s Left Hook for TV ads.
Christi Jacobsen is not winning the money game by any stretch of the imagination. She had just $33,000 in the bank as September was progressing, and by mid-October she had 35 cents.
Nearly all of her spending goes to some Las Vegas outfit named McShane, which is doing robocalls, Facebook, TV ads, and probably just about everything else for her.
I will add, in the previous few fiance reports, Jacobsen did raise another $100,000 for the general. Still, if we go by money, Jacobsen has already lost. If we go by coattails, she could swing into office using Trump’s. We’ll find out next week.
OPI
Melissa Romano had a whopping $343,000 in the bank by mid-September, spent $286,000 over the month, and had $58,000 left by mid-October.
Arntzen had $100,000 in the bank in September, spent $82,000 and now has about $18,000 left.
PSC #4
I’ll let the other regional blogs tell you about the PSC race in their neck of the woods (spoiler: they won’t).
For the Missoula, Bitterroot area...Monica Tranel is the Dem and Jennifer Fielder is the GOPer.
Tranel had nearly $120,000 in the bank last month, spent $86,000 and had $33,000 in mid-October. She’s raised a few thousand more since then in the daily reports the state forces you to file this close to the election. Those reports are a pain to read.
Fielder had $24,000 last month, spent most of it, and has $600 in the bank now. She hasn’t raised anything since October 20.
From the primary to September she raised about $12,000. So the money game isn’t her route. She’s got name recognition and lots of support already, plus the Missoulian endorsed her. Then they retracted it, causing more people to notice the original endorsement. Good job, Gwen.
The Humor
This is going to be a dry, humorless country unless we get this man back in the White House.
Enjoy these videos.
M-A-G-A! □□ pic.twitter.com/k9wELCLKEJ
— Team Trump (Text VOTE to 88022) (@TeamTrump) October 27, 2020