Ahem, when I drive I don’t move slowly.
I frequently take moderately long road trips, anywhere from an hour or three up to 14 straight. I used to be able to do 22 but now I find my butt gets numb and I have to find someone to pry me from behind the wheel at the end.
How far can I travel in 14 hours? About 1050 miles or from New York City to Minneapolis, Des Moines, Meridian Mississippi, or either Tampa or Port St. Lucie Florida. With a 10 hour layover (you need to sleep and shower you know) I could be in Los Angeles in 3 days easily.
Seem pretty amazing? It’s the law of averages.
In order to achieve such phenomenal distances I have to keep my speed at an average of 75 miles an hour.
Oh, that’s easy ek. I drive at 75 all the time.
Only, you don’t.
It’s not as simple as setting your Cruise Control at 75 and watching the miles unfold. You have to account for Pit Stops and Pee Breaks (you can eat on the road) and all that time you spend navigating not on Super Highway at speeds much lower than 75 and for traffic, construction, and accidents (not yours hopefully) that slow you down. When driving for time efficiency my cruise control is set for 80 just to remind me not to slow down too much. 85 is the target and I practice what I call “visibility” driving. If you can see the road for 3 or 4 miles ahead and there are no County Mounties with a speed trap…
Well, how fast are you comfortable driving? I once did Eire Boulevard at 110 just to see if the light timing was the same as it is at 55 (for the record, yes).
Anyway you can gain as much as 8 minutes an hour which you pay for in stress, anxiety, and concentration as well as the occasional ticket. Every minute you’re stopped though costs you a little less than a minute and a half (1.4 @ 85).
It is extremely difficult to raise your average and very easy to lose it so what’s remarkable about this story is that Unidicted Co-conspirator Trump has been able to go from a 5 to a 10.
Trump has made 7,546 false or misleading claims over 700 days
By Glenn Kessler, Salvador Rizzo, and Meg Kelly, Washington Post
December 21, 2018
The numbers are astonishing.
In the first eight months of his presidency, President Trump made 1,137 false or misleading claims, an average of five a day. In October, as he barnstormed the country holding rallies in advance of the midterm elections, the president made 1,205 claims — an average of 39 a day.
Combined with the rest of his presidency, that adds up to a total of 7,546 claims through Dec. 20, the 700th day of his term in office, according to The Fact Checker’s database that analyzes, categorizes and tracks every suspect statement uttered by the president.
The flood of presidential misinformation picked up dramatically as the president campaigned across the country, holding rallies with his supporters. Each of those rallies usually yielded 35 to 45 suspect claims. But the president often tacked on interviews with local media (in which he repeats the same false statements) and gaggles with the White House press corps before and after his trips.
The second biggest month was November, with 866 claims, and that’s largely because of the president’s rallies just before the Nov. 6 election. Four of his five most prolific days for falsehoods fell in November.
- Nov. 5, when he held rallies in Fort Wayne, Ind., Cape Girardeau, Mo., and Cleveland: 139 claims.
- Nov. 3, when he held rallies in Pensacola, Fla., and Belgrade, Mont.: 130 claims.
- Nov. 2, when he held rallies in Indianapolis and Huntington, W.Va.: 97 claims.
- Nov. 26, when he held two rallies in advance of a special election in Mississippi: 90 claims.
More than a quarter of Trump’s claims, 2,032, came during campaign rallies. An additional 1,921 came during remarks during press events, and 1,266 were the result of the president’s itchy Twitter finger.
The president’s proclivity to twist data and fabricate stories is on full display at his rallies. He has his greatest hits: 124 times he had falsely said he passed the biggest tax cut in history, 110 times he has asserted that the U.S. economy today is the best in history, and 92 times he has falsely said his border wall is already being built. (Congress has allocated only $1.6 billion for fencing, but Trump also frequently mentioned additional funding that has not yet been appropriated.) All three of those claims are on The Fact Checker’s list of Bottomless Pinocchios.
In terms of subjects, false or misleading claims about immigration top the list, totaling 1,076. Claims about foreign policy and trade tied for second, with 822 claims, followed by claims about the economy (765) and jobs (741).
Recent Comments