The Very Rich Are Different Than You And Me - They Can't Take The Heat

I drove down to Palm Beach, Florida from Stuart yesterday afternoon. As expected, that bastion of wealth was pretty quiet on a hot summer Sunday afternoon. Unlike during the season, there were open parking spaces at both the beach and on Worth Avenue. And not surprisingly, there were few if any Bentley convertible sports cars, Aston Martins, Rolls-Royces or Ferraris parked on that glitzy street. The very rich are no doubt staying at one of their other mansions up north or in Europe until "The Season," when the temperatures are much more moderate, no doubt a precaution to make sure they don't melt. Many of their superyachts are gone from their berths on Lake Worth, and the ones that remain, such as the one in the photograph on the left, are sitting empty. And I couldn't help but notice that back in Stuart, I have neither seen nor heard a single private jet land or take off from Witham Field since I arrived here. During the winter and early spring, one of those jets would be landing every 5 minutes on Friday afternoons and leaving like clockwork on Sunday afternoons or Monday mornings.

And, of course, Mar-a Lago, Donald Trump's private club, was also completely deserted, except for the police cruisers surrounding it. As everyone knows, Donald Trump definitely can't stand the heat, which is why he lashes out at anyone who says or writes something he doesn't like. But he also does not seem to like the hot weather in Florida, either. His club closes down after Mother's Day in May, and does not reopen until Halloween, when one of the many parties held at that club takes place. What did surprise me was that the road that goes past Mar-a-Lago has reopened to traffic, which is how I obtained the photograph on the right. Usually, this road would close when Trump was in town, and reopen after he returned to Washington, but after the Iran War started, it was closed "until further notice" due to "enhanced security measures," to the delight of everyone who had to take a long detour if they needed to drive south on Ocean Boulevard. The road finally reopened to traffic on May 4th, no doubt when town officials finally realized that damn war was probably never going to end.