Overnight News: What special kind of genius does it take to put the employee most likely to die of COVID in charge of COVID cleanup?

Before the lockdowns, I used to shop at Fry’s. A little grubby and crawling with dragged-along kids, but close to home. When Arizona went into temporary insanity mode, a manager at Fry’s decided he had to impose traffic flow – crowding people outside in the cold, doubly stupid – so I switched to Safeway.

Also a trade-off – everything in commerce is – since they’ve never known how to take the money there, the sort of retail mistake I normally like to punish all the way to bankruptcy. But their viral hysteria was better contained, and I’ve been going there since – weekly, since I took over the big-bulk shopping as my own bit of hysteria.

Here’s what’s interesting to me: Safeway has its own viral rituals – plexiglas, arrows on the floor for a while, social-distancing guides. They also have people assigned to go around spraying things with disinfectant, since religious rituals, once enacted, are thereafter impervious to facts. They were lying about surface contamination, y’all. Sweet Doctor Birx was lying her ass off about everything, and Doctor Fauci won’t stop lying until he lands himself in prison.

But: In the early-morning hours, the kid in charge of diligently spraying and wiping down uncontaminated surfaces weighs at least 400 pounds. His circumference easily exceeds his height. We are each of us shards of perfection, but I cannot imagine why this individual was hired in the first place. Nepotism? Exceptional zeal in the job interview? Fear of fair-hiring persecution? Was there actually a manager in a store that can’t take the money who said, “Dagnabit, health insurance costs be damned, the future of Safeway is rotund!”

But: Yet: Even so: Which manager thought it was wise to put the employee most likely to die of COVID in charge of COVID clean-up? Is that a sick joke, or just more of the same cluelessness?

My bet is on the latter, sadly, No one, anywhere, is penalized for being a fool, and, accordingly, we are led at all levels by fools.

In other news:

Christopher Rufo: Compassionate Enforcement: Cities must balance public services with public order to reduce homelessness.

Roger Simon: Why Did the US Hand Afghanistan to China?

Townhall.com: The War Against Covid-19 Is Over. It’s Time For Unconditional, Unequivocal Surrender.