Pat Piper

President Biden and a number of Think Tanks (read: Brookings Institution) support the idea of giving us a day off in order to go to the polls in November. The result will be increased participation in voting because, suddenly, we all have time to do it.

There’s precedent: it’s done in Australia and turnout is near 90%. For comparison, turnout averages a little over 50% in the United States.

Put another way, the logic is providing time to do something you should do is a good idea. Nowhere do I see the idea of a person saying this is important and that’s why I’ll make the time to vote.

Do we let kids out of school that day? If so, then parents who work may find themselves in a job that doesn’t observe the “national holiday,” meaning they need to find someone who can be available. Are grocery stores closed that day to allow employees time to vote? You see where this is going?

We are given the right to vote. This doesn’t mean we have to be given a day off to do it. That’s just……not right.

1-President Biden said Russia’s Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power” which everybody but Putin agrees would be a nice idea. As instructed, the Kremlin says there “is cause for alarm” about those words. And they have a point because the US shouldnt be working to get rid of a country’s leader. For the record, Vlad has held the gig for 22 years and has assigned himself a term that ends in another decade.

2- Will Smith smacked Chris Rock at the Oscars about a reference to Smith’s wife. That was the lead story on newscasts after the event.  And yes, it makes the already-troubled Oscars all the more troubled. In case you didn’t hear, Coda won Best Picture.

3-The Trucker Convoy is leaving the Washington Beltway and heading to the West Coast. They accomplished the goal of screwing up traffic while not understanding traffic was a mess before they arrived. The good is that Senator Ted Cruz got to go for a ride with them. That bad news is Ted Cruz isn’t making the trip with them to the West.

(1) The “People’s Convoy’ of truckers ticked off about mask mandates drove from as far away as California to make their case known. They’ve made at least three 64-mile circles of the Washington Beltway to show America how ticked they are. The good news is there’s been no issues and they even got to meet with Texas Republican Ted Cruz and Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson.

But:

Did anyone consider loading their truck with supplies and making stops along the way for grocery stores or homeless shelters or food banks as they traveled to DC?

(2) There’s a ban on importing oil from Russia and President Biden is well aware this is going to hike gas prices.

But:

Anyone whining about the price of gas on the next fill up should see this as their way of supporting Ukraine, and it hurts less than what they’re dealing with right now..

(3)  Political geniuses like Sean Hannity have suggested someone knock off Vladimr Putin as a way to end the Russian episode in Ukraine. It makes for great television,

But:

This isn’t a video game.