Things Which Make Me Wonder Nth Iteration

Things Which Make Me Wonder, n^th Iteration

       How long must we wait for Trump to blame those dastardly Clintons for “monkeying around with the bond market” and causing warnings of a recession? We will surely see that added to Epstein's un-lamentable death, dandruff, mass shootings, and uranium mining, in the seemingly endless litany of blame shifting and avoidance.    

       I mean after all, the Cheeto in Chief’s economic acumen (tariffs, etc.) is certainly unassailable, right?  Anyone with a semi-serious appreciation of economics has, from the get-go, warned that his initially unilaterally imposed China tariffs are a bad idea, but never let it be intimated that Trump is either approachable or teachable.

        Certainly, don’t tell that to the mid-American soybean farmers who have seen Chinese markets dry up and are now on the federal dole for, so far, something around $27 billion. Let us also never forget that, although he touts himself as a genius and that simply attending the Wharton School at UPenn was “super genius stuff,” he didn’t even graduate with honors, meaning he was not in the top 15% of his graduating class! What? Donald Trump a liar?  

        Sometimes, not often enough, but sometimes, even a skeptic such as me is tempted to believe in the concept of karma. Although a non-believer, I routinely hold up traffic, if necessary, and move errant turtles to safety, as do a gratifying number of my fellow Villagers. Sadly, I fear a number of those folks have less compassion for some of their fellow humans. But, that aside, recently in Daytona Beach, Dame Karma came roaring home with a vengeance.

       Apparently disenchanted with the level of music coming from a neighbor’s car in the parking lot near his apartment, one Larry Adams decided that direct action was appropriate, so even though he was under no physical threat from any of them he took his nunchucks and a can of Raid to the parking lot (Did I mention he’d been drinking? Do I have to?) and, after spraying all four “offenders” in the face with the insecticide, began a demonstration of his ninja skills with a display of nunchuck prowess, abruptly self-terminated, when he struck himself in the head, badly cutting himself. One assumes the police, who arrived shortly thereafter, stemmed the flow of blood before arresting him. Citing rustic philosopher Ron White: “You can’t fix stupid!”

       

        In another “they know not what they do” moment, the Trump administration, in the face of vigorous opposition by highway safety advocates, has decided to “relax” federal rules  which limit the amount of road time long haul drivers can spend behind the wheel without mandated rest stops. Of course, truckers and the companies they contract for are generally fine with this because of the “It won’t happen to me” school of unacceptable risk.

       Asking comedian Tracy Morgan might get you another opinion, as he was all but killed several years ago by a Walmart driver in his Walmart truck who was far too long in the saddle between sleeps.

        Anyone, relatively observant, who has traveled on a motor coach tour in the EU has seen the card slot in the vehicle’s dashboard which the driver must place a “chipped” card which allows him to drive and, which additionally tracks hours spent driving. There are strict (and checkable/verifiable via the card system) rules regarding how long a driver may drive without a rest and how much down time a commercial driver must have in a legally specified period. In some cases, this even results in the use of a local driver for a day, so the regular may get the required rest.

        About every 15 minutes, in the United States, a person is killed or seriously injured in an accident caused by tractor trailers, (18-wheelers, “big rigs” or semi-trucks).  In fact, around 500,000 trucking accidents occur each year in the United States, with about 5,000 per year resulting in death.  According to a 2017 survey conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration NHTSA), the main reason behind commercial truck crashes are fatigued and overworked drivers.

       The NHTSA also estimates that drowsy driving was responsible for 72,000 crashes, 44,000 injuries, and 800 deaths in 2013. However, these numbers are underestimated (because it’s hard to determine if the corpse was asleep when the fatal injury occurred) and up to 6,000 fatal crashes each year may be caused by drowsy drivers. In the case of automobile accidents under these circumstances, many cause the death only of the driver. “Semis” and busses, however, are a different story. “Doing the data”, shows roughly, nationwide, a factor of 7 times as many deaths per event for truck and bus crashes.

       Of course, the long-haul company owners only lose a load, which is insured, and too many of the drivers have an “It won’t happen to me” mindset. Instead of loosening already lax standards we should be insisting on safer highways, like the EU does. However, the politicos who preach “less regulation” rarely (never) have the public interest in mind.