FLORIDA.

Is there really any point saying something about Florida?

I don't want to waste a lot of time on this (Thee Optimist is viciously self-disciplined and hates wasting time), so I will just bullet point a few things and leave it at that.

* Thee Optimist lives in Florida half the year.  It is a beautiful place.  The natural beauty is astounding, in fact.

* The governor of Florida, Ron Desantis, is an archaic human who isn't bright enough to run an ice cream stand.  He isn't bright enough to open an envelope.


* What happened in New York and New Jersey back in March and April was a result of poor preparation, combined with a brief period of confusion and inaction at the beginning of the disaster.  

In essence, New York and New Jersey were hit with something they didn't understand, and it took them a while to get a handle on what to do.


* What is happening in Florida is entirely voluntary, and political.  Covid-19 was well understood long before Desantis chose to reopen the economy.  Many experts warned against doing exactly what Desantis did, and suggested that this monster outbreak would happen as a result.

Desantis plunged ahead because a) he didn't want to (or couldn't) pay the unemployment benefits of everyone who lost their jobs; b) he is a freedom-loving whatever it is those people claim they are; c) he does what his master Donny tells him to do; and d) he is not smart.


* Many people in Florida, including some of my friends and neighbors, are what video gamers refer to as NPCs, or "Non-Player Characters."  

Non-Player Characters are mindless drones who do what the machine tells them to do.  I cannot possibly overemphasize how many people in Florida, when the economy reopened, were suddenly in a mad rush to rip their masks off and go to the nearest crowded restaurant, beach or bar. 


* Florida is cooked.  

* At this point, only the most severe lockdown measures can reverse the upward trend of coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and the soon-to-be upward trend in coronavirus-related deaths.

* No, I am not in Florida at the present time.  

* Yes, I know they closed the beaches and bars again.  Too little, too late.