Airliner Down: An Ethiopian Airlines flight with 157 people on board  crashed early today shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa, en route to Nairobi, Kenya. There are no survivors.

  The jet was a newer model Boing  737 Max 8, the same as a Lion Air flight that went down in Indonesia last October, killing all 189 people on board. Investigators suspect the cause of that crash was a change in the aircraft’s automatic flight system that put the plane into a nose dive the pilots were unable to correct. 

  The circumstances of today’s crash already seem similar. 

The Countdown:Satellite imagery of two North Korean facilities indicates that the North is preparing to launch a ballistic missile or space rocket in the near future.

  If it’s a military missile, that would be a huge annoyance to President Trump, whose talks with North Korea have stalled, but some analysts believe the North is following through on a plan to launch two satellites into space.

  A State Department official said any kind of launch would be unacceptable to the US.  “Let me just say, in our judgment, launch of a space launch vehicle from [Sohae] in our view would be inconsistent with the commitments that the North Koreans have made,” the official told reporters.

Twitter Rage:President Trump is in open revolt against conservative Valkyrie Ann Coulter, calling her a “Wacky Nut Job.” Coulter is believed to hold the ear of a good deal of Trump’s political base. Reporters even think Trump balked at the first budget deal this year because of Coulter’s opposition.

 Trump was also advertising his greatness on Twitter this morning. He has to do it because no one else will. He said, “Despite the most hostile and corrupt media in the history of American politics, the Trump Administration has accomplished more in its first two years than any other Administration. Judges, biggest Tax & Regulation Cuts, V.A. Choice, Best Economy, Lowest Unemployment & much more!”

Time Out:As America woke this morning to the confusion of losing an hour to Daylight Savings Time, a movement is growing to end the twice-a-year time switch and stay on Daylight time all year.

   Time activist Scott Yates writes for CNN that, “Researchers have also found an increase in heart attacks, workplace injuries and traffic accidents, especially in the days after the ‘spring forward’ clock change, all due to the disruptions in sleep.

  Florida’s Republican Sen. Marco Rubio has reintroduced a bill to make daylight savings time the year-round national standard. Rep. Vern Buchanan of Florida introduced matching legislation in the House. The moves come in the wake of a vote in the Florida legislature last year to adopt Daylight time year-round.

  This is one of those arguments similar to how to make a martini. As Earth revolves around the sun, the amount of daylight remains the same no matter what time it is. The question is whether you want to go to work or school in the dark or come home in the dark during winter.

  Rubio argues that more light in the evening leads to a drop in crime because bad guys are not early risers. Maybe this is another problem that could be solved with a wall.

  And anyway, we’re late because we woke up and didn’t know what time it really is. 

-30-