No maps, no pictures since WordPress can’t handle it…
Rigged
April 15th is next week. Are you ready to pay your taxes?
I’m a pogue, so I pay what I’m told I owe. Are you a pogue too?
I learned the term ‘pogue’ when I was fighting fires for the US Forest Service.
Pogues do what they are told, even when they know better.
The slope is indefensible, and the fire is below, but we would dig and cut across. When the black smoke came up, we’d find shelter and survive. We knew the idiots who were directing us would too. But we’d get the GS 3 or 4 rate, time and a half or even time and three quarters with hazard pay. 60- or 80-hour weeks, it added up to a decent summer.
Pogues survive. And we pay our taxes.
Others might not.
Maybe that’s the difference between pogues and the real people we elect. We just shuffle along and take the measly wage they’ll pay us. Real people know the strings to pull.
Elon Musk is in the news a lot.
He gets to fire people right and left. Republicans love his sense of justice. If you aren’t doing worthwhile work, you’re done. And his AI program somehow knows who should go.
That line we cut above the fire would never hold. It was not worthwhile. It was destructive and wasteful. But us pogues did it. We survived and so did the idiots who told us to do the work. But, honestly, at times, we wanted to kill them.
Instead, we paid our taxes.
And it turns out, they probably didn’t.
Mr. Musk is the richest man in the world. Maybe that makes him the smartest. President Trump claims to be rich, so maybe he’s smart too.
But know this. Tesla, Musk’s company paid no taxes in 2024, even though they reported a $2.3B income. That makes them smart, right?
Yeah, you can try to sell your CO2 planet saving car, but can you really try to change this mess?
This taxation thing is rigged.
Republicans claim only the rich pay taxes and the rest of us are government sucking pogues. I’m sorry. I’m writing a big check to the IRS this coming week. And it seems Elon may not be.
But he probably got a big bump from the stock market gyrations manipulated by our President. Threatened global tariff war made the equities markets and even the bond markets very nervous. Stock assets shed this last week faster than a crowning lodgepole pine.
But then they bounced back when our President flinched on the tariff war threat.
He even tweeted, “BUY NOW.” Minutes before he tweeted he was calling off the tariff war.
I guess I’m just getting worn down.
I’ve dug the line. I’m filthy and sweaty. The day is hot, the wind is picking up and the line won’t hold.
Fire is a force of nature. I learned humility on those sweaty slopes with a Pulaski.
And us pogues have humility when we don’t have health insurance.
Maybe the rich getting richer is just a force of nature too. I should just watch the flame front move on past as I move into the black, the burn, where it is safe.
But it’s hot, and ugly and filthy.
Maybe that’s just what we pogues get.
While those with the inside scoops are making bank, I’m writing checks to the IRS.
Maybe they won’t notice if I don’t pay.
Most people pay what they owe. Us pogues.
But since the IRS is getting gutted by Elon, maybe they won’t miss some of us pogues skipping this year.
I guess it comes down to just what you expect from government.
By that, I mean, what one expects from oneself.