Sunday, November 06, 2022

VOTING DST -- DEMOCRACY -- TIME & HEALTH

REPUBLIC -- "If you can keep it."  [Democracy] 

      Accountability for Jan. 6 insurrection.

U.S. Select House Committee on Jan. 6th Hearings


QUESTION:  Will the 45th President, DJT, respond by November 14th to the Committee's subpoena extension he was able to receive to give his deposition and to provide requested documents? 


DROUGHT UPDATE -- We actually received some rain showers last week where I live in SoCal.

Encouragingly we are being told to expect some hard rain, snow in the mountains for a couple days this week.  Promises!  Promises!  Hopefully the moisture arrives here with snow in Northern California mountains plus more to come in the weeks and months ahead, normally our wet months for decades in past years.  

VIRAL COMBAT -- I have my flu shot -- was given the high-dose version this year.  In two weeks I'll seek the latest and final Covid vaccine.  Continued wearing of the N95 mask when I'm in contact with most others will continue to be the order of the day for me.  

I could still contract a virus but the severity of my illness would likely be minimal, might not even require hospitalization much less result in my death.   I like those odds -- better than my winning the lottery.

MIDTERM ELECTION VOTING -- I chose to submit my ballot in a local drop box again this year.  I will receive an email confirmation my ballot has been received and votes counted within the next few days.  

What a tragedy with the suppressing effort to thwart this means as an an individual voter's right in some other states.  There are those who promote proven deliberate lies discounting the trustworthiness of our election system.  

DEMOCRACY PRESERVATION -- I continue to believe our democracy's preservation is the primary issue that needs to guide voters in their candidate selections.  Candidates who are deniers of the legitimacy of the 2020 election results and conspiracy believers unable to discern fact from fiction pose a danger to our democratic constitutional republic's freedoms, true justice with genuine law and order.

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME AGAIN!

Barbra Streisand -- Everything Must Change & I Didn't Know What Time It Was                   Performed at Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York on Saturday 6 May 2017

Barbra was 75 (!) when she sang these songs with a voice showing minimal age-related effects.


Barbra's dedications were tributes following recent deaths then of Sandy Gallin who was a talent manager adored and respected by many stars you can read about HERE

Virginia Kelley, is a nurse anesthetist and mother of former President Bill Clinton who came to be warmly regarded by many you can read about HERE.   Coincidentally, a friend of mine described her baby's birth as being "midwifed" by Virginia.

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME and OUR HEALTH -- Did you remember to "fall back" one hour effective Sunday, Nov.6th at 2 a.m.?

Once again in the U.S. we all must change our clocks for daylight savings time adjustment except for Arizona and Hawaii who did not adopt this DST change system years ago.  I won't go into the whys and wherefores for all this but maybe this will be the last year we will be required to make this time change on our clocks.

You can read the DST history (not simply to accommodate farmers) in this succinct informative PBS News Hour transcript along with what has been learned about the effect of all this time manipulation on our health HERE    

Seems research studies have shown these time changes may be having a more serious impact on our health than we ever knew beyond our own experiences considered merely anecdotal in official scientific 'worldom'.

Our U.S. Senate did finally act based on legislation passed in several states to end this change by establishing daylight savings time year 'round.  That bill has stalled in the House of Representatives since some states, including my own California, desire returning to regular time, which I prefer, too.   This difference must be resolved between both branches of government before officially being signed into law.

Meanwhile, I'm coping with my clock-radio purchased many years ago to automatically "spring forward" and "fall back".  I was delighted to never have to bother with manually changing this clock twice each year -- just my wristwatch and other clocks in my house.  At least one clock would have the correct time to begin the day if I hadn't noticed the time change was occurring. 

Then, a few years ago officials altered the days DST would be in effect so my clock-radio's date for time change has been out of synchronicity ever since.   For example, this past week my clock "fell back" an hour several days before official time changed.  What an annoyance!
I'll patiently await our Congress to finally act to establish the time system we will use, quite willing to accept whichever one they decide to use -- standard time or daylight savings time.  Then I will determine what to do about my clock-radio.  Maybe I can turn off the automatic date/time change feature as I like the device's size for my bedside table and the other functions.   Otherwise, to dispense with adjusting my clock twice a year, I'll be shopping for a new clock-radio.  

What do you think?  

Do you want to continue the system we have, "springing forward" an hour in early March and "falling back" an hour in early November?   

Would you prefer to adopt standard time or daylight savings time year 'round?  

Your response will have no known influence on how this government policy is decided but perhaps you'll feel better having expressed your point of view.  We can see at least how our legislator's actions reflect our point of view on this one matter -- if and when they act and we live long enough to see the results.       

 


19 comments:

  1. I am sick of the changes in time and as one correspondent pointed out, heart attacks are greater during these weeks! I will never understand why people feel safer under a despotic ruler. I will get my second booster in December, but it appears this virus is evolving faster than oilon water and already has over 10 variants.

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    1. I, too, am tired of the time changes. As for the people feeling safer under a despotic ruler, I think some people don't welcome the responsibility of making decisions in their life so want to be dictated to -- then they can blame their leader if their life doesn't go as perfectly as they want. These additional variants are worrisome, but reportedly should we contract one we won't become as ill if we've had the latest booster.

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  2. This was my first year with a mail in ballot and I love it. It makes it so easy for me to research the candidates and proposals. Besides with my age and health issues, this is so much better than standing in line.
    As for time change, just wish they would pick one.

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    1. I, too, have come to appreciate not having to stand in line to vote on election day. I mailed my ballot the first year but the past two elections I've used the drop box before election day where I used to vote in person.

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  3. When I was a kid, I was always fascinated by the changing of the clocks. It felt magical to me, this leaping about of time and the loss and gain of an hour so capriciously. Once I had my own kids, I grew to hate it. It really messed with their sleep/wake/feeding schedules no matter how I tried to accommodate it. Now, I find it so ridiculous and archaic--almost primitive--in this high-tech and digital age. Why are we still doing it? The science clearly says we should stay with Standard Time for so many reasons. Let's just Do That.

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    1. I, too, hope we simply go to Standard Time -- we'll see what system is adopted.

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  4. FWIW I deposited my ballot in the drop box Thursday, Nov. 3rd. I just discovered this message from late afternoon Nov. 4th in my email: "...a message from the California Secretary of State on behalf of Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters. Your ballot for the November 8, 2022, General Election was received and counted. Thank you for voting!"

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  5. I wish we could just stay at the same time all the year round and end all this laborious clock-changing. The British government is being asked constantly to keep to the same time throughout the year but for some reason it won't do so.

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    1. Maybe it takes a grass roots effort at various lower levels of government that ultimately allow citizens to vote on the issue as happened here. The desire for change finally rose to a level citizens in various states voted for such a change. Then, a state Senator (Florida) introduced this bill that awaits further action. This all took place over years -- no quick fix. Maybe that's all been done in Britain and still nothing is happening. Good luck!

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  6. Ramana Rajgopaul11/07/2022 7:39 AM

    I am glad that you had some rain finally. We do not have change of time over here and the same pattern continues the whole year. I am one of those that have been wanting three time zones here as a county as large as ours is, definitely needs them.

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    1. One of our small states, Indiana, use to have 3 time zones and was very challenging for some business activities when I was working in TV, but in a large country as you describe perhaps that would make sense. Currently, the U.S. has three time zones which works well with the rising and setting of the sun, but then adding this daylight savings time approximately seven months of the year in all but two of our states is a complication.

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  7. One oddity: in the UK it's almost impossible to buy an electric digital clock for the bedside that doesn't have a radio within its tripes. Why would I want such a low-fi cheapo when I've gone to enormous effort to ensure hi-fi VHF reception elsewhere in the house.

    Your answer may well be: it's more congenial to be wakened by music rather than an electronic buzz noise. That's what I thought when I lived in Philadelphia and had to get up pre-dawn to catch a train into the centre. And so I chose the classical channel and discovered two problems: One: might I feel obliged to listen to the piece of music all the way through and suppose it happened to be a Bruckner symphony one of which lasts an hour? Second. almost any volume at all was too loud, leaving me feeling assaulted for a minute or two after I'd returned to the land of the living. In the end I switched to a bland, MoR channel (music with zero aesthetic value) and backed off the volume to a level normally associated with bats. So low that it was virtually inaudible if I happened to be already awake.

    It wasn't a satisfactory solution but help was on hand. I got a better job in Pittsburgh a city I had strangely fallen in love with. These days, aged 87, it isn't waking I'm after, it's going to sleep.

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    1. I can appreciate what you say about radio music. I've not been too keen on the music selections programmed by any of our L.A. stations most of the time for many years -- they often don't coincide with what I'm in the mood to listen to, assuming I like their artist/music selections in the first place. I don't use the alarm on my clock radio -- have a separate little digital alarm with a low and gentle sound, and snooze button I use whenever I need to be sure I'll be awakened at a specific time. Most mornings I don't use an alarm at all. My clock-radio is set on our Los Angeles all news FM station, KNX, which I choose to turn on or off manually. I haven't setup a system to play my music to sleep or awaken by as I had many years go when young and single. I have considered I could benefit from doing so to have music to aid my going to sleep.

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  8. Dear Joared, I would prefer standard, but, like you, I'd be content with either standard or daylight, but I do want one or the other. Since last Friday, I've been in a news-free bunker. I just couldn't face listening to predictions form pundits. Then, this morning a Minnesota free sent me an e-mail that assured me that the outcome was more to my liking than I'd suspected it would be. There's always 2024 looming, but today it looks as if a majority of Americans want to embrace an enduring experiment in self-government. A republic. By the way, I always learn from your thoughtful analysis. I'm wondering if you get the daily briefing from the noted historian Heather Cox Richardson? It's free and it always provides background to what's happening politically. (She is an American historian steeped in the last 150 years or so.) Peace from Dee Ready (cominghometomyself.blogspot.com)

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    1. I, too, am encouraged that more Americans voiced support with their votes to retain our Republic than the pundit pollsters suggested would occur. Hopefully, future elections will reflect a recognition that continued such monitoring of candidates more closely and voter participation is required, IMHO. I don't subscribe to any daily news briefings but do read or listen to a variety of news sources, domestic and international. Richardson sounds interesting.

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  9. I remember being at a Joan Baez concert where she talked of singing opera every day for several hours to keep her voice pure as she aged. I am sure Barbra does the same.
    As to Trump and accountability? I hope I am surprised but.......
    But I am heartened by the slightly pink wave rather than the red avalanche. Here in Canada we liken the US to an elephant in our bed, if he rolls over, we're crushed.
    Thank you for not rolling over. And Biden has regained respect for the US in uncountable ways as your global rating was in the toilet.
    XO
    WWW

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    1. I, too, am apprehensive about full accountability at the highest levels of our government will occur. As for our midterm votes -- we needed to get far more people to cast their ballots. Too many seem not to realize the seriousness of our nation's situation which does impact Canada and the world. I agree, President Biden has regained our nation some of the respect 45 lost for us which is important. We have a long road ahead of us to reestablish and preserve our republic and freedoms, I think.

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  10. Yay! Just heard we got Nevada! Thank goodness!
    We all got our Flu/COVID shots this week. And we're still wearing our masks too.

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    1. Glad to read you are all as protected from the flu/Covid as possible.

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