Those of us born in the early years of the baby boom are in or approaching our 70s and that's scary shit. Can we say the world is a better place than we discovered it in our teens? In some ways, yes. But then we got older, had families, got corporate, and lazy. Now it feels like we're again staring into the abyss, and I wonder what, if anything, we're going to do about it.
Sending in my last estimated tax checks for the year. Never fun but particularly painful the past two years. I’m helping to pay for that insane person in the white house and all the terrible things this government has done in the past two years. At least with the budget impasse many of them aren’t working and can’t do any more harm. Unfortunately many good people are also not working.
I think we should all just say no more tax payments until the tramp is gone.
I always thought that as I got older Life would make more sense, but just the opposite happened
The horizon is nearer and the options and possibilities are fewer.
I was just looking through some old idea books/journals and got depressed that so much that’s wrong with the world hasn’t changed in the past 10, 20, 30 – 50 years.
Greed, racism, intolerance, child and spousal abuse, environmental neglect, crime … all as bad today as in the late 1960s when I graduated from college as part of a generation that was sure it would make a difference. We made some superficial changes but we certainly haven’t changed anything fundamentally. And in fact with the current mad man president we’re seriously regressing.
Entry from August 3, 1991: “We have grown so cynical with politicians, and the examples of corruption and self-interest are so extensive/pervasive that they seem to have lost all impact. Would have to be truly heinous to have any impact and maybe not even then.”
It’s easy to blame the University of Maryland for the death of Jordan McNair, and it was the UMD president who almost immediately admitted the university’s culpability.
Then it got messy and political. The Board of Regents took over and they are controlled by the republican governor – Hogan. Hogan is a typical lying politician who will do and say anything to get and keep his job. The Board of Regents ignored all evidence that the football program under the head coach was unhealthy for the players (and not successful on the field). It is unbelievable that they retained the coach and athletic director who were directly responsible for the players death and forced the school president to resign because he had taken the moral high ground and admitted that the university had failed to protect the student.
The powerful alumni donors who keep the football program alive are the same people who support the governor and other lying republican politicians. They have shown us how callously uncaring the republican establishment is toward everyone else.
The weakness of a complacent democracy is clearly evident in the confirmation of lover boy Kavanaugh.
The right wing idiots are a minority but a powerful and organized one, led by a man who has no morals or sense of right and wrong. He’s a bully and many love that. Sad.
But the saddest thing is that this is much more damaging to our country that a temporary head of the EPA or even Justice. This is for the life of this person who does not represent anyone other than the conservative rich.
The only way out of this problem is to amend the constitution to require a 2/3 vote of the senate to confirm a supreme court justice. That would prohibit any party from this kind of terrible bludgeoning of democracy.
Will the outcome be any different?
Bets are that #metoo and others will not succeed when there is so much power at stake. The establishment will sacrifice many but not the ones who will hold true power and who are proven ideologues, beholden to the financial and political elite.
Tramp is used to “reading” patsies and those who he can take advantage of, primarily by lying to them or threatening them. But he’s the dope who’s being duped by two experienced dictators – Putin and Kim. And we’re the ones who will pay the price for his arrogance and stupidity.
Nothing hits you quite like a big shock to the wallet. No big tax benefit for yours truly. Just on the fringe of the upper percentages, the biggest impact was thousands of dollars into the AMT pothole.
Where the hell is the outrage about the tax benefits for the very wealth and the fact that Tramp has never released his tax statements? What other politician would get away with that? And only because he doesn’t give a shit what normal people think about him.
I’ve had this idea for years as a form or protest – first to Regan, then Bush Sr, and definitely to Bush the lesser. What if we all filed our returns on time, meeting the legal requirement, BUT DON’T PAY ANYTHING. Let them come after millions of us. And in the meantime see how they can spin that as anything other that a popular uprising against what a mess the government has come to be.
And I blame the do-nothing-but-bend-over Democrats as much as anyone. Politics as usual is getting us into an awful situation with the economy, the environment, peace, and just pure decency.
I just wish I had the guts to do it.
The sun is shining. 80+ degrees with slight wind from the south. No humidity. A perfect day after a long, cold, winter and a spring that sputtered but never really started. Nice enough that yesterday I picked up my golf sticks for the first time in many years. Other than a couple of rounds at various clubs, it has been over 50 years since I was a player in college with a 9 handicap.
Aside- I’m not going to my 50th reunion after all. I think that’s my final decision, but I won’t swear to it.
But I’m really excited about golf because we just joined a country club where I can play. I resisted this for 50 years for various reasons, many forgotten and many silly in hindsight. I grew up in a country club environment/family, and I finally decided that it would be good for my youngest daughter to have that experience. I don’t know how my older daughters will feel about that, but apologies in advance if necessary.
I went to the driving range at the club with full expectation that I would embarrass myself. Late morning, there would only be other old duffers like myself. That was true, but much to my surprise I wasn’t half bad. Maybe it was the stiff back and the gimpy knees that kept my swing from doing the stupid things it used to do. I had watched hours of the Masters last weekend and noticed that the old guys – Nicklaus and Watson and Player – all had modified their swings with age and still managed to hit a ball straight and pretty far. I’ll be damned if I didn’t do the same for most of a bucket of practice balls.
Now the real test will be to tee it up on the first tee and swing away.
Just finishing a trip to Palm Beach, getting out ahead of the arrival of Tramp aka not-my-president
After days at the high society clubs and fancy restaurants (all courtesy of my mother who lives here) I realize that there is a change, subtle as it may be, to the tone of the conversation regarding the idiot-in-chief. This heretofore very loyal crowd is murmuring discontent and actually beginning to question the blinders-on faith they had in him just because he’s a republican. If it can happen to this group, the only group in America that benefits from the recent tax cut, then it could happen anywhere. I hope.