Gov. Newsom Gives OC What Its Worst People Want Most

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“Haay, bring menother ‘RONA!” Thirsty Los Angeles bar patrons will be coming to OC, like it or not!  Thanks, idiots who threaten county health officials!

 

[Update, 7/2: The state announced yesterday that, as of today, OC’s bars wave been closed until further notice.  Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, and Laguna Beach (which started the trend), will apparently be closed.  Beaches south of Laguna will apparently be open. though, so they can still expect a horde of Angelenos over the 4th of July weekend.  That is, though, a less deadly prospect.]

[Update, 6/30: Newsom has now asked OC to provide additional health care data, and — if it’s in the same category as Riverside & San Berdoo below, to issue its own order.  OC’s Supervisors presumably won’t.]

I would normally blast Gavin Newsom for the stunt he pulled this past weekend, which will likely lead to a large number of deaths in Orange County — especially North, West, and Central County.  But I find that I can’t really blame him.

Given the actions of its Supervisors, its Sheriff, and its unbridled hooligans, Orange County clearly wants to have its own big ‘rona plague.  People from LA want to prove their freedom by getting drunk — ideally without wearing masks.  I guess that letting them come here and get smashed, delivering that county’s stupendous growth in CoVid cases to us with a shit-eating grin and a pool of vomit, makes some sense.

I’m personally a bit disappointed, as I have hoped that I and my wife and kids and grandkids could live at least until Inauguration Day.  (And to be fair, the odds for the younger generations aren’t that bad.)  But I have no good excuse.  I can’t claim that I haven’t known for years that this county was bullfrog crazy, so I guess at some level I knew that someday the rest of the state would just leave us alone to die.

In case you didn’t hear the news, here’s what I’m talking about: Gov. Newsom has issued an order closing bars in seven counties, including Los Angeles County, unless they serve hot dine-in meals and implement other conditions that are an affront to free-dumb —  and we know from what happened with the beach closures what happens next: a good portion of the ten million Angelenos flock to our bars where they enjoy the anti-social undistancing that they crave.  You put enough drunk skunks into a small county and anyone who isn’t completely secluded has a decent chance of meeting ‘rona.

In case you haven’t clicked the link, here are the basics:

“The order shuts down any bar, brewery or pub that sells alcoholic drinks without serving food at the same time. Those that sell food will either be subject to the stricter dine-in rules or asked to focus on takeout and patio service.”

Citing the rapid pace of coronavirus spread in some parts of California, Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered seven counties including Los Angeles on Sunday to immediately close any bars and nightspots that are open and recommended eight other counties take action on their own to close those businesses.

“THASH NO FUN!  LESS GO TUH THE OC!”

The order takes effect immediately.  It applies right now to seven counties that have done a bad job of keeping the rise of the ‘rona in check: north to south, they’re San Joaquin, Fresno, Tulare, Kings, Kern, Los Angeles, and Imperial.

State also asked eight other counties — Sacramento, Contra Costa, Stanislaus, Santa Clara, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Riverside — to issue local health orders closing bars.

If I were an Orange County bar owner, I flat-out don’t think that I’d open.  If I were an employee of such a bar, I don’t think I’d go to work.  (There’s got to be an Cal-OSHA rule about this somewhere.)  We are the closest “wet county” under these rules to most of Los Angeles, and I don’t think that the sorts of people who will come that far because they desperately need the bar experience are going to be social distancing and wearing masks.


About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)