Disney World reopened yesterday, and Florida public schools are supposed to open next month. The Republican National Convention is coming to Jacksonville on August 24. Then there’s this:
Florida breaks nationwide record with 15,300 coronavirus cases
TAMPA — In the last 24 hours, Florida’s Department of Health says 15,300 testing kits have come back positive for the novel coronavirus — shattering the previous record for cases reported by any state in a single day.
It was the highest daily total reported since the start of pandemic, surpassing previous highs — in California July 8 and in New York during mid-April — by more than 3,600 cases, according to data collected by the collaborative Covid Tracking Project.
We are so fucked.
I don’t just mean Florida; I mean America. It’s increasingly clear this virus can’t be controlled without national leadership, and we don’t have any and won’t have any until late January, at the earliest. It would be a kindness for another country to do a humanitarian intervention, but that seems unlikely.
At least the hummingbirds haven’t left us:
Here’s a different wee birb, also from this morning:
Hummingbird hanging out in the bamboo. Check out its vermicelli-like tongue at the :15-sec mark! (Apologies for the caffeine jitters camera work.) pic.twitter.com/oqxAlZPTrW
— Betty Cracker ? (@bettycrackerfl) July 12, 2020
I frequently see aerial sorties when a hummingbird encounters another plying the same firecracker bush and chases the rival away. I swear I’ve seen them fly upside down during these skirmishes. I don’t think I’ll ever manage to get a photo of that. They’re so damned fast.
Open thread.