No maps, no pictures since WordPress can’t handle it…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rigged<\/p>\n\n\n\n
April 15th<\/sup> is next week. Are you ready to pay your taxes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m a pogue, so I pay what I\u2019m told I owe. Are you a pogue too?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I learned the term \u2018pogue\u2019 when I was fighting fires for the US Forest Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pogues do what they are told, even when they know better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The slope is indefensible, and the fire is below, but we would dig and cut across. When the black smoke came up, we\u2019d find shelter and survive. We knew the idiots who were directing us would too. But we\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pogues survive. And we pay our taxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Others might not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe that\u2019s the difference between pogues and the real people we elect. We just shuffle along and take the measly wage they\u2019ll pay us. Real people know the strings to pull.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elon Musk is in the news a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He gets to fire people right and left. Republicans love his sense of justice. If you aren\u2019t doing worthwhile work, you\u2019re done. And his AI program somehow knows who should go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, we paid our taxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And it turns out, they probably didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Musk is the richest man in the world. Maybe that makes him the smartest. President Trump claims to be rich, so maybe he\u2019s smart too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But know this. Tesla, Musk\u2019s company paid no taxes in 2024, even though they reported a $2.3B<\/a> income. That makes them smart, right<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah, you can try to sell your CO2 planet saving car, but can you really try to change this mess?<\/p>\n\n\n\n This taxation thing is rigged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Republicans claim only the rich pay taxes and the rest of us are government sucking pogues. I\u2019m sorry. I\u2019m writing a big check to the IRS this coming week. And it seems Elon may not be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But then they bounced back when our President flinched on the tariff war threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He even tweeted, \u201cBUY NOW<\/a>.\u201d Minutes before he tweeted he was calling off the tariff war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I guess I\u2019m just getting worn down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve dug the line. I\u2019m filthy and sweaty. The day is hot, the wind is picking up and the line won\u2019t hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fire is a force of nature. I learned humility on those sweaty slopes with a Pulaski.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And us pogues have humility when we don\u2019t have health insurance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it\u2019s hot, and ugly and filthy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe that\u2019s just what we pogues get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While those with the inside scoops are making bank, I\u2019m writing checks to the IRS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe they won\u2019t notice if I don\u2019t pay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most people pay<\/a> what they owe. Us pogues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But since the IRS is getting gutted by Elon, maybe they won\u2019t miss<\/a> some of us pogues skipping this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I guess it comes down to just what you expect from government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By that, I mean, what one expects from oneself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" No maps, no pictures since WordPress can’t handle it… Rigged April 15th is next week. Are you ready to pay your taxes? I\u2019m a pogue, so I pay what I\u2019m told I owe. Are you a pogue too? I learned … Continue reading