TODAY IS LEAP DAY

 Today is February 29, leap day.  Why do we have this?  

• Through the course of a whole year, to keep our season stable, you would need to add nearly 6 hours.  
• In other words, over the course of 120 years, the world would gain a month, and if this continued, agriculture, for one, would be affected.

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  So you make this up every four years.  
• Actually, the gain is 5 hours, 48 minutes and 20 seconds.
• Note that the world skipped leap years in 1700, 1800 and 1900, but not 2000.  The next leap year to be skipped will be in 2100.

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  Leap year was recognized by the Egyptians more than 5000 years ago, but it took them 2700 years to establish a new calendar.
• In time Hebrew, Chinese and Buddhist time-keepers added a full month every 120 years.

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  However, Rome in 46 BC, then ruled by Julius Caesar, added an extra day at the end of February every four years, which for them was the last month of the year.  Thus the Julian Calendar.

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  Pope Gregory XIII in 1586 decreed that 10 days be skipped, creating the Gregorian Calendar.  Only a few countries complied.

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  The USA and many other countries embraced the Gregorian Calendar in 1752, where the legal new year was moved from March 25 to January 1.  
• To do this, the month of September only had 19 days that year.
• But Japan did this in 1872 and shortened that year by 12 days, and countries like Russia, Greece and Turkey switched to the Gregorian Calendar in the 20th century, omitting 13 days.
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  It took more than 300 years for all countries to use the calendar of today.
• The gap in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars will go up to 14 in the year 2100.

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  What if you were born on February 29?  Do you need to skip getting a birthday three out of four years?  Not really, for leaplings mostly do this on March 1 in non-leap years.
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  Oh, one more.  Heard of the Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar?
• Proposed by two Johns Hopkins University professors, Steve Hanke and Richard Henry.
• There were previous attempts to do this in the 1930's when the League of Nations met, and again in the 1950s by the United Nations.  Both failed.
• Hanke and Henry said they would have convinced then president Donald Trump to do this, but couldn't get 30 minutes with him.  If they had succeeded, Donald Trump would have been up their with Julius Caesar and Pope Gregory, for the U.S. would have initiated the Trumpian Calendar, with the extra week at the end of December Trump Week.
• January 1 will always be on a Monday, and your birthday always on the same day of the week, forever.
• The year is 364 days long, divided into four three-month quarters.
• Each month will begin and end on the same day every year.
• The first two months of each quarter are 30 days long, while the third has 31 days.
• Or 364 days across 52 seven-day weeks.
• To account for calendrical drift, the world will have an extra week at the end of December every five or six years.

• All federal holidays would fall on a Monday, except for the fourth of July and Thanksgiving.
• There would be no leap year.
• You can just paint the calendar on a wall, for it won't change, save for that extra week in December.
• According to the professors, their permanent calendar would simplify life in general.

From the New York Times: 

• The Supreme Court agreed to hear Trump’s claim that he is immune from prosecution, delaying a federal criminal case involving his actions on Jan 6. The court scheduled arguments for late April.

• The court’s decision to hear the case reduces the chances of a verdict in the criminal trial before Election Day. Trump’s actions suggest he wants to delay the trial. Read Alan Feuer’s analysis.
• SCOTUS has not yet ruled on whether states can disqualify Donald Trump.  Chances are that he will be made eligible, but he will not be immune from prosecution.

Other U.S. and international developments.

• The CDC recommended that older Americans should get a dose of the latest Covid vaccine now.
• About Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell decision to step down at the end of this year, and he has held that position for 17 years, three Johns are at the top of the list to replace him:  Thune, Cornyn and Barrasso.

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  Apparently, the meeting with President Biden was effective, for the House today did vote on and pass another short-term measure to keep federal agencies operating some departments until March 8, and the rest through March 22.  Amazingly enough, the vote was 320-99.  The Senate will do the same later today for signature by Biden tomorow.
• About those 100,000 uncommitted Michigan votes showing the effectiveness of Muslim protestation of Biden's role in the Gaza Strip humanitarian disaster, this will be final primary backlash.  In any case, the situation should improve in the 250 days to the presidential election.  Plus, protest is one thing, but the decision to actually vote for Trump is another.  Thus, this bad blip should not be a major concern to Biden's campaign.
• Numbers are difficult to confirm, but, according to the Gazan health ministry, more than 30,000 people have been killed there in the Hamas-Israel War.
• Russia continues to move westward in the Ukraine War.  No sign of help from the U.S. House.

Star943 says these are the best five Leap Day songs, with Van Halen's Jump at #1.  Gioachino Rossini was born on 29February1792.  He wrote 39 operas, so why not William Tell Overture, but by Spike Jones and his City Slickers.  Sometimes known as Beetle Bomb.  

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