Stuff Happens

Oh Canada! Since the Canadians failed to support us in our fool’s errand in Iraq, many Americans have gone out their way to intensify jokes about the rubes to our north. But those of us who fear a terrorist attack on the U.S. might well pay attention to what the say, “Eh?” folks have discovered in plain sight. Home grown terrorists are a real possibility and they understand symbolism. The alleged plot uncovered in Ontario called for blowing up the Parliament Building and for the assassination of the Prime Minister. Trying to learn from this, would it be way off base to surmise that Washington, New York, and Los Angels might rank higher in terrorist minds than Fairbanks, Alaska?

Do you have a job with a company or a government? Are you retired and living on somewhat of a fixed income? Do you own a small business that has almost no chance of being worth more than $5million? Absent winning the lottery, are your chances of leaving an estate worth in excess of $5 million almost zilch? If you answer in the affirmative to the substance of these questions, the Republican president and the Republican Congress have surprise gift in store for you: a bill for $600 million over the next ten years that you or your children will have to pay if these lawmakers have their way in repealing the estate tax, the death tax as they call it. By the by, a goodly number of those supporting the measure have conflicts of interest in casting their votes on this as they will be saving their poor little old kin folks from having to pay taxes on their own estates.

As they did during early years of The Great Depression, Republicans are doing their damnedest to assure that moneyed interests are defended in these uncertain times at the expense of the middle classes. During the horrible Hoover years, while small farmers went bankrupt and millions of unemployed went hungry, it was the president’s program to lend money to still solvent farmers to feed their cattle, but there could be no dole for those agrarians too broke to borrow or for the urban workers without food on their tables. The Republican president and his Republican leaders in Congress went out of their ways to assure that cattle but not men, women, or children might eat.

Today the richest of the farmers are getting huge subsidies as are the large oil companies. Top corporate executives are getting huge compensation packages while middle class wages are stagnant. Please write your member of Congress and your Senator to assure that the estates of these plutocrats are passed without taxation to the next generation. They need your help if they are to continue living the lives that some of you may have fantasized.

The only thing that supports my optimism in life is the belief that no matter how clever, greedy, and craven those in charge may be, it’s shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations. Of course, there’ll be some wild living in the interim.

As my mother always told me, “Billy, no matter how badly you may want to think about people, always remember that they’re the same the world over.” It took me seven decades to realize how right she was and, more importantly, how sad it is.

Well, it’s four o’clock somewhere in the world. Cheers!

Blog on!

Wild Bill