Ok, lessee what’s been goin’ on since my last post.

Basically…nuttin.

We had (well, Neil anyway…Connie was tossing her cookies that morning so she rescheduled hers) routine dental cleanings. Neil needs a crown replaced but otherwise all is fine. She still didn’t feel very well so we cancelled Date Night last Friday and rescheduled it for Sunday since we were going to Sarasota for an orchestra concert anyway. Excellent concert…they played the Dvorak 6th Symphony which we’ve never heard (his 9th or the New World Symphony is the most popular of his works)…and they both enjoyed it so it will be added to our bedtime music selection rotation. In the second half…the opening work was the Ravel Piano Concerto in G. In the program notes it said that Ravel believed that in a concerto the soloist virtuosity should be highlighted and the orchestra play a minor part…and on that the concerto easily delivered as the soloist delivered some pretty fireworks playing. That was only outdone by the fireworks of her outfit though. She is a US citizen of Russian descent and she wore a relatively short bright pink dress with very low cleavage and let’s say a very robust figure…good thing for double sided tape as otherwise in her gyrations there might have been one of those ‘wardrobe malfunctions’ they talk about these days. She matched that with a pair of 4 inch tall neon chartreuse to lime green shoes…and while the combination certainly would have gone well at a party type thing it seemed a bit over the top for a concert soloist…but maybe that’s what the well dressed Russian piano player wears these days. 

This week…well Connie has been and will continue to be very busy. Monday she had Mastersingers rehearsal for their performance this week of the Beethoven 9th Symphony (that’s the one everybody is pretty much familiar with that uses Schiller’s Ode to Joy set to music in the 4th movement) on Friday and Saturday evenings. Tuesday’s she’s off (well Mastersingers at least but she does have a Ladies of Elks meeting and lunch followed by choir rehearsal) and then Wednesday and Thursday she’s got more evening rehearsals with the orchestra and the concert Friday and Saturday. 

Next week we’ve got her rescheduled dental cleaning and Neil’s crown prep and scheduled oil changes in both cars along with rehearsals Monday evening (Mastersingers) and Tuesday (choir) but other than that we have a slightly less hectic schedule next week.

Last week he got our new Epson ET8550 printer setup…it will print up the 13×19 inches and is designed for both normal letter/office printing as well as photographs. He did his first test today on the high quality photo paper and all I can say is…wow, that looks pretty darned good. We’ll use normal copier paper for everyday letters and bingo sheets and the like…but the more expensive (like $4 a sheet for 13×19) paper to print out some of our photos and hang them around the homestead. He’s gone through and picked out 35 or so candidates from our 2024 images and they’ll negotiate together to pick out what he wants to final process and print. Mostly we’ve just used their images for the blog as you know but it’s time to put some of them up where we can see, enjoy, and remember the places we’ve been. We’ve ordered some 13×19 picture frames and as soon as they do their culling and he finishes the editing and printing process I’ll post some shots of the finished pieces up on our walls.

And oh yeah…it’s the Presidential Inauguration next week too…and Congress will start to work on the President’s agenda…and the Democrats will complain about ‘the rich need to pay there fair share’ and all that jazz…but I would call their attention to
this put out by taxfoundation.org using actual data from the IRS rather than the admittedly (by both sides) carefully edited soundbites.

The top 1% pay an average 25.9%, more than 8 times the 3.3% average paid by thew bottom 50%.

The top 50% pay 97.7% of all income tax and the bottom 50% the other 2.3%

Since 2001…the top 1% share of total income tax paid has risen from 34% to 45%…all other groups percentage of the total has declined.

So…what I’m wondering is…why does the left and Democratic Party insist that the rich are not paying their fair share? Looking at income tax paid…they are certainly paying their fair share and more. Looking at wealth…yes…a lot of left people compare their income tax dollars to their wealth dollars and come up with absurdly low tax rates…but that is an apples to oranges comparison designed solely to stoke outrage. We do not and cannot tax wealth in this country…it is specifically unconstitutional and even to have an income tax required the 16th amendment back in 1913. Passing a wealth tax as Senators Sanders and Warren demand…well, in the first place it would require another amendment and given today’s toxic political environment that isn’t happening…but that’s not the real problem. The real problem is defining wealth.…that’s pretty easy with things like stocks and bonds…but how does one determine the price of a Picasso or Da Vinci painting…the government simply doesn’t have the technical capacity or knowledge to determine those things…and even if they did if the value next year is less does the owner get a rebate from last year’s tax due? Nope…they’re not interested in that…people that demand a wealth tax are really interested wealth confiscation and transference from the people that either earned or inherited it to use that money to buy votes and voters. 

Speaking of Presidential things…Neil found this comment earlier in the week on fark.com…he can’t find the exact site again to pass along but basically the article said that Mr. Trump says a lot of outrageous things because he wants to be on the front page every day and that the media puts him there because they want the headlines. He thought to himself that is pretty much the case. 

Now…we’re not really fans of Mr. Trump personally or as a Presidential acting person…but overall we like his policies better than those of the left which is what we got the last 4 years and would have gotten a lot more of if the election had gone the other way. But really…most of the things he’s said are just meant to rile up his opposition and are not going to happen.

Deport 11 million illegal immigrants…and yes, they are illegal, not undocumented. Isn’t going to happen since the government doesn’t have the capacity to do it and the courts aren’t going to allow it anyway.

Deploy the military to accomplish the aforementioned deportation…yeah, the Posse Commitas Act of 1978 pretty much limits that possibility. The Insurrection act of a little later does give him a little leeway in the event of an ongoing insurrection or emergency but again…the courts aren’t going to allow him much latitude there.

Making Canada the 51st state. Well…there could be some advantages to our two countries joining up as one…but there are also a considerable number of disadvantages as well. Should/could our two governments talk about it? Why not…but any joining would surely require a vote in both of the countries because nobody really knows whether either country’s citizens are interested in joining up…and there would be a lot of problems to be worked out. First…Canada has 10 provinces and 3 territories and that probably would mean 10 states and 3 territories or more likely 13 states rather than just one. There are two in our opinion insurmountable barriers to this happening though. First up…culturally the two countries are just so different that most citizens are not likely to vote in favor of it but the biggest problem is that of those 13 new states some would be red and some would be blue. The eastern provinces would probably be blue but at least 6 or 7 would be red and neither party is going to vote for something that gives more seats in the House or Senate to the other side. Given that impasse…this ain’t happening either.

Greenland…again nobody has asked the general population of the self governing territory of Denmark what they think about becoming a state in the US…and the last thing we need is another territory that is really an economic drain on Denmark. We already have military bases there and could easily negotiate for more so security is taken care of. Economically…US companies can already go there and mine their natural resources as long as appropriate environmental, permit, and agreements are hammered out. So…again, not happening and this is just a rile up the opponents thing.

Panama Canal…ditto…we signed it over to Panama and short of an invasion it’s not coming back…and we’re about as likely to invade them as either Greenland or Canada. I know that  he said he would not rule out either military or economic intervention in all 3 cases…but as the President he would be a fool to rule out anything at this point. Not ruling it out most certainly does not mean the invasion will start next Wednesday as a lot of the left media is screaming about.

I see that long time Washington post reporter Jennifer Rubin has resigned because…and this is her words…the owner wants to take the paper back to the center politically rather than be a liberal rag. She said that “the Post no longer safeguards democratic values”…when all Mr. Bezos said he was going to do was move the paper to the center politically but would still cover the news…ya know, do actual journalism instead of being a liberal mouthpiece. Methinks that news media being journalists instead of opinion writers is a very good thing and we should get back to it.

As everybody knows…there are massive wildfires out in Los Angeles burning up both the homes of Hollywood elites and the common folk. I’m not going to minimize the damage and disruption the fires are causing…but to some extent it is really the fault of both state and local governments. Let’s be honest…California has had Santa Anna winds, wet winters, and dry summers pretty much forever and the state has…for decades…not done the things that experts told them they needed to do to try and minimize those fires. Water management, fire prevention management, and firefighting management have for a long time been subordinate to their demands for climate change mitigation and other environmental causes. Yes…those things are important…but just like here in Florida where concrete block homes are very common to protect against hurricanes…controlled prescribed burns to remove the fuel, better funding of fire prevention and fighting efforts a opposed to high speed trains to nowhere would have enabled the fires to be less out of control than we’ve seen this week. Dry brush is eventually going to catch fire and burn…and you can either let it happen in a controlled manner when the weather is good or you can let it build up to the point that controlling the inevitable wildfire is basically impossible.