I don’t mind telling y’all that I am really stressed out right now. Not only have I cut back on my carb intake because I am becoming An Old and having to do so is making me extremely cranky, but the world is just awful right now. The heartbreaking war in Ukraine continues, with the images that we do see becoming fewer but also worse every day. I grew up in the Cold War and I don’t remember this level of dread and fear ever lasting this long before.
And it looks like Covid cases are going to rise again as the world pretends that’s it’s all over and we can go back to our old lives. They are on the rise in Europe and the numbers have slowed their fall in my area. Great. And on Tuesday the Democrats had to give up on a spending bill to fund further Covid relief efforts because Senate Republicans threatened to filibuster it (naturally the media blamed “Congress”, which is also depressing).
I just want to note that included in that Covid relief bill was funding to buy antivirals and monoclonal antibodies for Americans who get infected and need medical intervention and the Republicans have demanded an accounting of every penny spent before they will approve any more spending. I guess the GOP is hungering for the 1 million US Covid deaths milestone.
However there is one thing that all the Senators did agree on Tuesday: making Daylight Saving Time permanent. There was no filibuster, no contentious debate, no nail-biting vote count; just a voice vote passing it.
Not only is it a bad idea, it’s a slap in the fact to Americans still struggling with low wages, a lack of affordable housing, and, oh yeah, Covid. The fact that any time at all was spent on this shows just how out-of-touch the entire Senate is.
Now we could have a long discussion on why a permanent move to Daylight Saving Time is bad, but this is all you need to know: Jonah Ryan, the worst character on HBO’s Veep–itself a show about the worst people–ran for Congress on a platform of abolishing Daylight Saving Time. Yes, Jonah Ryan wanted to ban Daylight Saving Time instead of permanently to it, but that is just the other side of the same coin.
He had a compelling rationale for his position, too:
Jonah: And plus, the day after Daylight Saving Time, you’re all messed up. One time, my mom brought in my breakfast an hour late like an idiot, so I just threw it on the floor and I said, “Mom, if I wanted to eat this, I would’ve eaten it an hour ago.” But it threw off my whole bathroom schedule and I ended up having to poop in a Sunoco bathroom.
Covid is still raging around us and the US Senate is worried about pooping in a Sunoco.
I’ll leave you with this thought:
