OT: Florida Suspends Alcohol At Bars

Submitted by UNCWolverine on June 26th, 2020 at 11:54 AM

Florida is suspending the drinking of alcohol at bars, according to a tweet from Halsey Beshears, the secretary of the Department of Business & Professional Regulation.

The move comes as Florida on Friday announced a record-breaking number of coronavirus cases.

It also comes just days after Gov. Ron DeSantis threatened to pull the liquor licenses of bars that didn’t follow the state’s re-opening guidelines.

“If you go in and it’s just like mayhem, like Dance Party USA and it’s packed to the rafters, that’s just cut and dry. That’s not just an innocent mistake,” DeSantis said.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

93Grad

June 26th, 2020 at 12:03 PM ^

Texas just ordered bars closed too.  Not surprised at all.  This is what happens when people are idiots and it explains why we can't have nice things.  

dragonchild

June 26th, 2020 at 12:29 PM ^

Not "people".  Americans.  America, and a few other equally stupid countries, are having this problem of getting its citizens to follow common sense advice even out of self-preservation.

And to pre-empt the usual stupid deluge of "b-b-b-but America is unique" exceptionalists, I'll use this soapbox moment to say that. . . yes, America is unique.  It enjoyed unique ADVANTAGES that other nations (which did considerably better) did not have.  America had by far the easiest path to containment in practically every category and all of those were wiped out by "Americans are incredibly stupid assholes".

It's getting to the point that I wonder if I can get some Americans to shit their pants if I told them I'm liberal and it hurts my feelings and makes me cry like a wussy baby whenever someone wipes their ass with toilet paper.  At least then I'd be able to smell the morons coming.

BoFan

June 26th, 2020 at 3:49 PM ^

This isn’t about idiot Americans not wanting to follow advice.  This is a lack of leadership.  This is about idiot leadership.  I guarantee you if the leader (formerly known as the leader of the free world) stood up and led from the beginning, followed science, ignored the election, led by example, and told people to wear a mask and stay home, the rest of the 37% (and shrinking) of the nation would follow.  And we wouldn’t have this situation in the linked graph where our nation looks like a nation of idiots. 
 

https://images.app.goo.gl/vyNbL9mTdxNZobFf6
 

We’d be opening up, testing, and tracing. 

will

June 27th, 2020 at 4:10 PM ^

Lets be real:

Everyone knew Trump needed the economy to be in good shape in November to have a chance at re-election. 

Trump knew this and had to pit the good of the country in the short term against his re-election - which Im sure HE believes is in the long term good of the country.

Why cant we just redo the primaries or forget them and all vote for some moderate like Kasich that no one would love or hate?

jmblue

June 26th, 2020 at 1:45 PM ^

America, and a few other equally stupid countries, are having this problem of getting its citizens to follow common sense advice even out of self-preservation

You can't realistically expect people to be holed up at home forever.  And no place in the world can sustain an economic shutdown for more than a couple of months.  Reopening is less about "freedom" and more about governments realizing they were going broke.  

In March I thought it'd be a good idea for a nationwide shutdown and obviously a lot of state governments shared that view.  But in hindsight it was a mistake, because the virus had barely reached much of the country.  So you now have places like Florida that have shot their lockdown wad already and can't go back to that, but now the virus is in full force.  The same is happening in much of Latin America.

The biggest problem of all was the terrible messaging.  First, we spread this idea that lockdown was the only way to fight the virus, so people took reopening as a sign that the pandemic was over.  Worse was how we handled masks.  We feared so much that people would hoard them that we spread this nonsensical message that they wouldn't work for the general population but would work for medical professionals (go figure).  And as people tend to form impressions quickly about new information and then hold on to them, we have a large number of people who still parrot the "masks do nothing" line from March.  

It's easy to blame the average guy but this is on our political leadership, from 1) not stockpiling masks in the first places; 2) adopting an all-at-once shutdown policy; 3) lying about mask use and 4) trying to score political points over a health crisis.   

GoBlueTal

June 26th, 2020 at 4:37 PM ^

With all the people in this very thread calling large numbers or even most of our country idiots for one reason or another, do you want to be part of the majority?

In the past ... ever, a Democrat has successfully succeeded a living Democrat once, the first time, Van Buren after Jackson.  Every other time there have been 2 democrats in a row it's because the first one died or was unfit to serve.  

And Yay!  the Electoral College is working exactly as intended!  Hurray!  Thank goodness!  

SharkyRVA

June 26th, 2020 at 8:26 PM ^

Is it really a problem???  increased number of cases yes. How many healthy people actually have a problem with this virus, how many kids.  Most people get it and either have zero symptoms or mild cold like symptoms.  Yet the only option is to shut the country down.

If this wasn't an election year this virus would just be an 'if your unhealthy, watch the F out'  otherwise, go about your business.  Come November, you will not see near the amount of coverage about covid as today.

I know people will bash me for this but look at the numbers.  Healthy people and kids are not at risk.  This election is driving it all.

Go Blue in MN

June 26th, 2020 at 7:36 PM ^

Nowhere were there more protests than here in Minnesota, but the number of Covid cases is much less than it was a month ago.  They've offered free tests to protesters, and 1.5% have tested positive, compared to 3.5% of all tests coming back positive.

 

Michael Burnham

June 28th, 2020 at 2:36 AM ^

Funny how those who have fought to efforts to make the US a "more perfect union" and to extend rights to those who have long been denied them, always cast those who are eventually shown to be on the right side of history to be "bad" or "destroying our way of life."

Piston Blue

June 26th, 2020 at 2:16 PM ^

As a kid I was lucky enough to live in China because of my Dad's career. The points you make, while uncomfortable, are undeniably true. When masks were first becoming a thing, I thought to myself, "There is NO way the majority of America will commit to wearing a mask in public because it's shaking up the status quo and they don't want to look weird", and now we're seeing this among all subgroups of the population. Countries like China, who (while they have many things wrong in their own right) are much more willing to make sacrifices to help the whole, wear masks to prevent transmission of the common cold during normal circumstances, so I assume that they've been as conscious as they can during the COVID crisis (I'm talking about the Chinese PEOPLE here, and not the government).

Reality is there are so many Americans who feel entitled to a certain way of life that includes not being affected by things happening around the world, as if America is not just the center of the Earth but the center of the galaxy as well. And for those like Fish: I love this country dearly and am beyond proud to represent it and reside in it, but that doesn't mean that I believe it is flawless.

kehnonymous

June 26th, 2020 at 2:44 PM ^

 And for those like Fish: I love this country dearly and am beyond proud to represent it and reside in it, but that doesn't mean that I believe it is flawless.

Well said.  I have a somewhat different perspective in that I am a first-gen son of HK/China immigrants (who's spent waaaaay less time in China than you.)  

So it's not hyperbole to say that I owe everything about my life to the USA and in a way that I can only begin to articulate with words.  And that same ineffable gift of American citizenship also carries a certain obligation to strive for a country that treats others as well as it has me, and necessarily includes criticizing it when it's warranted.

Blue Me

June 26th, 2020 at 3:48 PM ^

I really don't even give Trumpkins credit for being "conservative" at all -- more reactionaryMcCarthyites than anything.

And, yes, it has been the Trump and Pence leading from behind on masks and social distancing, for certain. Pence was just on the tube again today, without a mask, talking about "inalienable freedoms" in that regard.

He's a freaking idiot. And Trump's base ain't gna get it done for him this time.

GoBlueTal

June 26th, 2020 at 7:20 PM ^

To every blind-bigot democrat (it's not all but too many) on this site...

"'I really don't even give Trumpkins credit for being "conservative" at all -- more reactionaryMcCarthyites than anything."

THIS.  RIGHT HERE.  This is A) bigotry, B) why Trump got elected.  C) Why if you don't learn anything he'll do it again.

You don't have to love the other side, you don't even have to agree with them, but stop this.  

GoBlueTal

June 27th, 2020 at 12:34 PM ^

"to the blind-bigots"  I was trying to be specific.  I intentionally pointed out that I wasn't talking to all democrats, simply those that use bigotry towards their fellow citizens.  Lumping all of any group into one pile and calling them one thing, especially a derogatory thing is about as textbook a example of bigotry as I can imagine.  Read the post I was replying to, which lumped anyone who supports the current president and called them reactionary McCarthyites 

Based on the negbang, and your reply, there is an assumption that I was attacking someone.  Well aside from bigotry, which one would hope we could all agree is a BAD THING, my only intent was to point out something that was pretty obvious to me...  On the morning of the last election, I heard serious reporters say that the election was a formality, that Sec. Clinton was all but assured the victory.  The reason she lost is because of the assumption that the, "deplorables" wouldn't react or worse, didn't matter.  That's the same sentiment to which I replied, that they don't matter.  Guess what, everyone matters.  Their desires, and dreams, even if they don't conform to what you or I think is important, they all matter - ignoring that did cost an election, will cost it again unless the left can prove they have remembered this basic truism.

Anyway, I wasn't name calling, I was trying to be specific.  But hey, the Internet isn't a great place for subtlety, alas.  

ldevon1

June 26th, 2020 at 3:17 PM ^

It's because "America" doesn't have a standard to live by. The Pres, doesn't want to piss off his base so he is leaving it up to the states to come up with their own standards, and varying standards cause people to look across the street and see that they have better lawn and they want the same lawn, as the people in Texas and Florida. 

Sopwith

June 26th, 2020 at 4:32 PM ^

I strongly suspect that in a year we will look back and realize that the pandemic was two different issues: the indoor problem and the outdoor problem. The indoor problem is a 500 pound gorilla in a bad mood. 
The outdoor problem is Bonzo the Chimp.