Viral

COVID-19 has claimed an astonishing number of American lives -- surpassing half a million Sunday -- more than we lost on the battlefield in three combined wars.

Compare the numbers .... there were 291,000 American deaths in WWII. There were 47,434 American battle deaths during the Vietnam War. There were 33,739 American battle deaths in the Korean War.

Compare those numbers to COVID ... as of this post 502,000 Americans have died, and the numbers keep going up. Despite the vaccines, some doctors and scientists believe there could still be a new, devastating wave of deaths because of highly-transmissible variants.

The good news, of course -- the vaccines are going into arms at a rapid pace .... lately around 1.5 million per day. Still, we are nowhere close to vaccinating enough people to achieve herd immunity. Around 70% of Americans -- possibly even more -- must be vaccinated to achieve that goal.

As you know ... there's a lot of skepticism over the vaccine for various reasons. Some people think it was rushed, and others -- especially African-Americans who endured shocking abuse in the disgraceful Tuskegee experiment -- just don't trust it or the government when it comes to vaccines.

There has been a slew of stories about the vaccines, suggesting they may not be effective as variants arise ... and lots of people resistant to the vaccines seem to be saying, what's the point?

In any case, we've lost more than half a million Americans to COVID.

The sick George Floyd Valentine's Day gag in L.A. found legs and went on over to Nevada, where a high school student used a twisted line as a Sadie Hawkins dance invite.

This photo was captured recently on a sports field at Foothill High School in Henderson, NV -- not too far outside of Vegas. It depicts what appears to be a female high school student holding up a poster with a request that someone be her date to the Sadie's dance.

The poster features a hand-written message and a crude drawing of Floyd. The writing reads, "If you went to SADIES w/ me it would take my BREATH away! George Floyd."

Yeah ... nothing subtle about that at all.

The Clark County School District says it's investigating the matter, and Foothill also posted this message on its site -- "Foothill and CCSD will not tolerate racially insensitive behaviors that contradict an inclusive community and impact the school culture of our students."

This is in the same vein as a Valentine with George Floyd's photo that was being shared among LAPD officers -- which captioned, "You take my breath away." Someone reported it to higher-ups and it too is now being investigated. LAPD also said it had a zero tolerance for such behavior.

Ted Cruz may have come up with a bright idea on his flight back from Cancun -- if no one else gives him props, he'll do it himself.

Cruz posted pics Saturday of him delivering water to his desperate constituents. You see Cruz carrying a case of H2O ... shaking hands with a fellow Texan.

And, speaking of cases ... this may be one of too little, too late. As you know, while Texans were freezing and dying, the Senator from Texas and his family jetted down to Cancun for some fun in the sun. He blamed his daughters for the trip and even suggested he was merely escorting them down and flying right back. That was a lie, although he did fly back the next day after being almost universally shamed.

What's super interesting ... AOC flew to Texas this week to help the folks and raised millions for relief efforts, and it ain't even her state! BTW, the Congresswoman, who's way more liberal than most of the state, was received warmly and enthusiastically.

So, regarding Ted ... is it true -- better late than never?

Huge pieces of a plane started raining down from the sky and onto the front yards of a handful of Colorado residents, but luckily ... everyone seems to be okay.

Check out these photos that were captured and posted out in Broomfield, where police shared images of massive chunks of debris from what appears to be the turbine engine and other parts of the plane laid scattered about on the lawns of folks in neighborhoods below.

It's pretty freaky ... but it sounds like, for now, nobody was struck by any of this stuff falling from the sky -- which appears to have broken off from the wings and other parts of the aircraft.

Broomfield PD is instructing folks not to touch the debris and to leave it where it landed, so that the National Transportation Safety Board -- the federal agency that investigates situations like this -- can come out to take a look, and determine what's what.

BPD posted more photos of other parts of the plane, which seem to have landed at a park ... on a turf field, no less. Again, it's a miracle no one was hit by any of it -- just about anything falling from that high of an altitude could easily kill someone who wasn't paying attention.

It sounds like if you were in the area and outside, you couldn't have missed this ... because people captured footage of the plane when it first started going up in flames -- and it apparently made a loud boom noise. You can see a huge cloud of black smoke it left behind in the air too -- and it certainly disrupted neighbors in the area.

BTW, people on the flight itself caught some of the malfunction live ... and it looks terrifying. Imagine being on board and having to wait for this to be resolved ... not being able to do a thing about it.

This story has a happy ending ... the plane -- a United flight -- is said to have landed safely at Denver International Airport -- where it had departed on its way to Honolulu. Investigators are looking into what caused the engine failure.

Jim Henson's sense of humor is getting a shout-out on the heels of his beloved series hitting Disney+ -- but as we look back, it's clear his puppets weren't always made just for kids.

The 'Muppets' creator used to work on TV commercials for Wilkins Coffee back in the day (from the late '50s through the early '60s) in which he used early versions of puppets he had to peddle java for the food brand. Millennials are just discovering them ... and are in awe.

One guy wrote, "can't stop laughing at these early jim henson commercials where one guy just kills another for not liking wilkins coffee." Yep, that's the gist of these throwback spots -- it's basically one Henson puppet murking another puppet who refuses to drink the Wilkins.

Some of the pranks are harmless, like kicking the puppet off a tree they're both resting on -- but as you watch on ... you'll see some of the sketches become increasingly violent.

In some of the ads, the stockier puppet gets shot at with a gun, bonked over the head, cut with a razor, electrocuted, boiled alive, tossed off buildings and hot air balloons ... and a lot more. It's all in good fun -- but many are pointing out just how graphic they seem to be. Somebody uploaded a full 14-minute clip of all the Henson Wilkins ads, and it's eye-opening.

Henson also had a stint of doing ads with Claussen's Bread -- in which Kermit himself appeared -- and they too are pretty damn dark ... albeit somewhat watered down.

Of course, "The Muppets" is laced with a ton of adult humor too -- so it's no surprise, really, that some of Henson's material with his prized creations pushed the envelope. Just check out this early 'Muppets' toy commercial, where the dolls threaten violence onto the viewers if they don't buy them.

A lot of this stuff aired in the '50s, '60s and '70s ('Muppets' have been around a long time) ... so something tells us Henson and co. could get away with edgy scripts back then. By the time the '90s rolled around, though, 'Muppets' underwent major rebranding ... to be more kid-friendly.

Anyway, most episodes of "The Muppet Show" are now available to stream -- and folks are remembering the genius who brought it all to life. Henson died of pneumonia in 1990.

He was 53.

Metallica tried rocking out in front of millions of viewers watching their virtual concert -- but the platform hosting their set got cold feet ... and muzzled them to cover their own ass.

This is pretty hilarious (and educational) ... James Hetfield and co. were performing earlier Friday for BlizzCon -- a gaming convention put on by Blizzard Entertainment ... which often uses Twitch to host its festivities. Metallica was booked for a pandemic-friendly gig.

When it was their time to shred ... it appears the admin team at Twitch played it safe, and muted their set for a bunch of people who were streaming it from their website. Instead of 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' ... a lot of people heard some cheesy, generic 8-bit folk music ... which had the exact opposite vibe Metallica was trying to communicate -- low key and chill.

Based on different users who were monitoring the set live, it appears the concert was heard just fine as is through Blizzard's official YouTube and Twitch page, but on Twitch's homepage ... you only heard Zelda-esque tunes. Twitch reportedly dubbed over Metallica's entire performance ... and what's being speculated is they did it over copyright concerns.

In case you hadn't heard, A LOT of Twitch gamers and streamers have been getting hit with DMCA takedown requests ... because they were playing parts of songs they didn't own the rights to, or the whole thing. It's been a big Twitch issue throughout 2020.

The irony is ... Metallica was instrumental in forming the current DMCA laws in this country ... due to lawsuits they spearheaded against Napster and other file-sharing services from the early 2000s. It was a big thing back then.

A man who allegedly attacked and injured several New York Transit officers was wrestled to the ground and pummeled ... and the takedown was captured on video.

The incident went down Tuesday in a subway station. Cops say Alex Lowery was smoking a cigarette which is a violation of MTA rules. They approached him and escorted him out of the station, but as they walked up a flight of stairs to the exit, Lowery allegedly spat in an officer's face.

Lowery began to struggle with the cops, and allegedly punched one of them in the face and head-butted another officer. Cops say Lowery and one of the officers tumbled down the stairs and Lowery again punched a cop in the face.

The Transit cops subdued Lowery, and when he was on the ground an officer threw 11 punches at his head.

Several officers were injured. One had lacerations to his head and injured his knee. Another officer injured his elbow in the struggle.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump went on the attack, saying, "What we're seeing all over America is EXCESSIVE abuse of power by police! Regardless of what happened, NOWHERE in police procedures does it say to punch a suspect in the face multiple times! Police need to be held accountable for their actions, not just when someone is killed!"

The first super clear images from NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover are in, and ... wow!

You can see it's going to be a rocky road -- literally -- for the Rover when it gets going and cruises around the red planet. NASA had a little fun with these images when the spacecraft's Twitter account (yes, it's got its own) tweeted the images ... saying, "I love rocks. Look at these right next to my wheel. Are they volcanic or sedimentary? What story do they tell? Can’t wait to find out." Same, TBH.

NASA also showed a clear image of the open horizon. The pics come one Earth day after the Mars Rover stuck the landing Thursday ... the tail end of an incredible 293 million mile journey.

As we reported ... Perseverance blasted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral back in July and touched down at exactly 12:56 PM PT on Thursday. Pretty cool moment when the folks over at NASA's mission control celebrated the landing and fist-bumped from California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

It's going to be fun seeing more images rolling in soon. As we told you ... the SUV-sized spacecraft also brought along a small helicopter along for the first time ever.

Hillary Clinton is piling on Sen. Ted Cruz for leaving his poor pup behind in his "freezing" Houston home during his infamous trip to Cancun ... she says it's a huge red flag for voters.

The former Secretary of State took a not-so-thinly veiled shot Friday at Cancun Cruz, tweeting ... "Don't vote for anyone you wouldn't trust with your dog." Zing!!!

HC has clearly seen the sad New York Magazine photo of the Texas Senator's pooch, Snowflake, who was left behind in the same home Cruz's wife said was "freezing" after a lengthy power outage from the deadly winter storm.

Cruz quickly hightailed it back to Texas after tons of backlash, and now admits he made a huge mistake by flying south during the Texas crisis back home ... but he's been mum on Snowflake.

The man who allegedly assaulted the 52-year-old Chinese mother of Olivia Munn's friend has been arrested ... and the actress is thanking the Internet for helping cops nab the guy.

According to the NYPD ... Patrick Mateo from Queens was arrested Thursday and booked on charges of assault and harassment.

Cops say they responded to a 911 call Tuesday for an assault outside a bakery. According to police ... the suspect got into a verbal dispute with the 52-year-old woman, then pushed her and caused her to hit her head. The incident was captured on surveillance cam before the guy fled the scene.

Munn put the word out on social media Wednesday that her friend's 5'3" Asian mother had been attacked, and shared a photo of the suspect in order to try to generate tips leading to his arrest.

Olivia's tweeting out praise, saying ... "F**k this guy. The internet is undefeated. Thank you thank you thank you." She added the hashtags #StopAsianHate and #ProtectOurElders.

Law enforcement sources tell us the alleged victim told cops she was waiting in line at the bakery when her attacker approached and began yelling at her. The woman was transported to the hospital and treated for minor injuries.

Tessica Brown's Gorilla Glue ordeal is NOT over ... her attempt to pay it forward is getting blocked because too many people think she's a fraud.

TMZ broke the story ... Tessica's planning to donate $20k -- the lion's share of the money in her GoFundMe account -- to a charitable org that provides reconstructive surgery ... but now she can't withdraw the cash.

Tessica says GoFundMe has frozen the account after it got flooded with claims she's pulled a fast one. As you probably know, there's a conspiracy theory out there that Tessica didn't really Gorilla Glue her hair, and she cooked this all up to milk the Internet for sympathy dough.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... GoFundMe has asked Tessica for an update on where the $23,000 in the account will be donated. We're told she's provided that info, and is now waiting for a response.

When she first set up the fundraiser -- to cover medical costs -- she only asked for $1500, but as the saga dragged on for more than a month, the money kept coming.

Tessica's donation is going to the Restore Foundation. As we first reported, Dr. Michael Obeng -- who got the glue out of Tessica's hair for free -- is also reaping benefits. His Bev Hills practice has been flooded with new customers ... for regular plastic surgery, not glue removal.

A high school in Wisconsin is following the Washington Football Team's lead and ditching its racist nickname ... with officials announcing the "Red Raiders" will now be known as the "RiverHawks."

La Crosse Central HS made the move during a school board meeting Monday night ... officially making the switch due to the old nickname's historically derogatory meaning towards Indigenous people.

FYI -- the school previously used a Native American in its logo until it switched to a knight on horseback in 1994 ... while maintaining the "Red Raider" name.

Now, Central is getting a fresh start altogether -- with the school revealing the new non-racist name and logo that was voted on by students and staff.

Central principal Troy McDonald spoke about the decision to rebrand ... saying, "The previous logo and nickname is one that all the previous alumni, I believe, should feel pride in, but I'm hoping they continue to support our move forward as we try and make Central a safe place for all students," according to the La Crosse Tribune.

The situation is similar to the controversy in pro sports and shouldn't come as a surprise -- the Washington Football team, the CFL's Edmonton Eskimos and the MLB’s Cleveland Indians all have recently decided to change their nicknames due to their racist and offensive nature.

Central is wasting no time ditching the old mascot ... with the plan to have the "RiverHawks" brand ready to go in time for spring sports.

One could argue Donald Trump's 2021 has been a bit of an implosion so far ... which makes what happened to his former Atlantic City hotel and casino very fitting.

Trump Plaza succumbed to a controlled blast provided by 3,000 sticks of dynamite Wednesday morning in New Jersey's gambling mecca ... where the former President's presence used to be huge.

The Plaza was the first of 3 casinos Trump owned in A.C., and was the site of some marquee boxing matches and other big events after it opened in 1984. All 3 casinos eventually went bankrupt and Trump left town.

Since its closing in 2014, it's been known more as an eyesore on the boardwalk than anything else ... so many locals, including the Mayor, were happy to see it go. Seats were even sold for the event, which seemingly went off without a hitch.

The only downer for folks looking forward to Trump Plaza's demolition is that the auction to push the implosion button was called off last month.

Apparently, the current owner of the building didn't like it ... but he donated money to the Boys & Girls Club of Atlantic City in lieu of the auction.

The inside of a Baltimore grocery store looked like a Wild West scene when cops and an armed security guard exchanged gunfire ... and the terrifying scene is all on video.

The Baltimore Police Department released the body cam footage from last month's shootout inside a Compare Foods supermarket. You see 2 cops walk into the store as bystanders tell them a security guard is walking around with his handgun out -- and then all of a sudden gunshots rang out, sending the officers ducking for cover.

One officer returned fire, and the shootout continued as he scrambled to find a better position -- he eventually made his way up a flight of stairs to a room filled with terrified workers.

Get nervous, Shooter McGavin ... HAPPY GILMORE'S STILL GOT IT!!!

On the 25th anniversary of "Happy Gilmore" -- arguably the greatest golf movie EVER -- Adam Sandler hit the links to recreate his old protagonist's iconic swing -- and it was epic!!

Adam dusted off his clubs ... explained this was the first time he's taken the old 3-step approach to hit a tee shot in a quarter of a century -- and then he launched a golf ball into outer space!!!

The best part? ADAM TALKED SMACK TO SHOOTER WHILE DOING IT!!!

"Shooter McGavin, this is for you," Adam said, before piping the shot. "I'm not lying to you. That is smashed. Smashed. That went pretty well. You're dead, Shooter!"

Of course, back on Feb. 16, 1996 ... Happy came back from down 4 strokes to beat Shooter to win the gold jacket -- and the movie has been legendary in the sports world ever since.

In fact, if you go to a local Top Golf to hit shots, the rules there even state there's no Happy Gilmore swings allowed!!

"Happy loves you all!" Adam captioned his video on Tuesday. "Thanks for everything!"

Now if we could just find a way to get Bob Barker back on the course with Sandler ... we'd really bring back memories!!

Kendall Jenner is blazing a new trail within her famous family -- diving headfirst into tequila ... and is finally ready to introduce what she's been working on.

KJ announced her new tequila line Tuesday -- which she's dubbed "818," the area code in Calabasas -- while going on to explain the years-long journey she's been on to get to make what she considers the best spirit.

She writes, "after dozens of blind taste tests, trips to our distillery, entering into world tasting competitions anonymously and WINNING (🥳) ..3.5 years later i think we’ve done it!"

Kendall added this too ... "this is all we’ve been drinking for the last year and i can’t wait for everyone else to get their hands on this to enjoy it as much as we do! @drink818 coming soon 🥃🤤"

She attached a video of herself doing a taste test, which appears to have led to a final approval of her new product. There are also photos of her and friends downing her concoction, plus photos of a bunch of harvested agave plants.

This isn't a total shocker, BTW -- there've been subtle hints ... especially based on photos she posted from a recent getaway down to Mexico.

It also looks like 818's been in a bunch of tequila competitions recently (winning several) ... but has yet to hit the market widely. Up until now, there was a ton of buzz over 818 -- but no one knew how to get it, when it would officially launch or who was behind it.