Musings:
•Would you believe, dear reader, that T. Rump and The Chas are on the same page on something?
The “something” is Daylight Savings Time (DST). The man who would be king thinks that DST is “inconvenient,” while the man who is smarter than he is thinks it is ”unnecessary,” not to mention ”unhealthy.” T. Rump has flip-flopped on DST once already, and he may flip-flop again (he is a past master of flip-flopping when it suits him). The Chas, on the other hand, follows the science.
The history of Daylight Savings Time (an oxymoron through and through) dates back to 1918 with the Standard Time Act, enacted on 19 March of that year. The Act was repealed in 1919 but was restored during World War II. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 called for standardization of DST from the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. Beginning in 2007, a change was made from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November.
The raison d’etre for DST, according to the retail-store industry, was that shoppers would have one “extra” hour in the evening to shop after the work day and that the use of energy to light up the streets would be “saved” as a result. In case you slept through the twentieth century, dear reader, you missed the evolution of economic activity in the U.S. of A. In yesteryear, businesses closed down when the Sun set, no matter what time it was. Today, we live in a 24/7 society, and we can shop, if we like, around the clock as businesses now remain open anywhere from eighteen to twenty-four hours a day seven days a week. And then there is the Internet, a twenty-four-hour-seven-days-a-week shopping bonanza. Daylight Savings Time no longer has any usefulness (if it ever had any to begin with).
DST’s major problem is the effect it has on physical and mental health. Switching the clock twice a year throws our Circadian cycle out of whack – particularly one’s emotional equilibrium. Confusion, irritability, and aggressiveness comes to the fore, causing all manner of accidents and/or deaths more commonly than they used to be.
The Chas sincerely hopes that the Great Orange One is not passing gas when he says he will eliminate DST. He will have finally done something right if and when he does.
•Who ya gonna call? Trumpbusters!
On New Year’s Day, a Tesla Cybertruck driver plowed into a crowd of celebrants in New Orleans, killing 14 outright and seriously injuring many more. Fox News reported the incident and added a tidbit it had received describing the crossing of the U.S.-Mexico border by a similar vehicle two day earlier. This “news” was not fact-checked, and the audience had to fill in the blanks as best they could. Instantly, the hue-and-cry from MAGA creatures went up that the driver of the suspect vehicle was an “illegal immigrant” who wanted to kill as many Americans as he could. The hue-and-cry spread like wildfire, and His Royal Majesty was obliged to add his two-cents’ worth. The ranting and raging continued until more reliable information about the suspect could be reported. Fox “News” was forced to retract its original “news” report.
As it happened, the suspect was not an “illegal immigrant.” Rather, he was a born-and-raised white Texan who had converted to Islam and who hoped to kill as many American “infidels” as he could. The MAGA creatures and their noble leader had been so obsessed about “open borders” that nothing else mattered – not even the truth.
And we have been promised by the man who would be king that, on Day One of his reign, all the “illegal immigrants” will be removed and that Americans will be safe in their beds. Can’t wait – can you?
Just a thought.