April 15, 2016
Dear Everyone:
Technically, today is
Tax Day, the day every Good Little American is expected to file his
or her
tax
return. Or at least an
extension. In the past,
local news programs would station camera crews outside
Post Offices to film people driving up at midnight to mail their
returns in. Today, thanks to
computers and the
Internet, most people file
electronically,
so there’s really no reason for the Postal Service to stay open This One
Night.
Back in the 1980s, when “Jeannie” and I lived together in “Alamo”, I
happened to drive to the local public library one evening.
The parking lot was completely full.
Apart from wondering, “What in the world…?” I didn’t think too
much about it. Finally
someone pulled out of a space and I pulled in and walked into the
library.
There was a huge crowd of people in one corner of the main floor,
milling around a large table.
Again, I only wondered vaguely why all those people were
there…until I noticed a large printed sign hanging from the ceiling,
with an arrow pointing down towards the table.
The sign read, “Tax Forms”.
That’s when I realized that the date was April 15th
and all these people had just now realized that they needed some form or
other to complete their taxes, which they had left until the last
minute.
However, this year today is NOT Tax Day.
Next Monday, the 18th, is officially Tax Day.
Why?
Emancipation
Day, of course. In the
District of
Columbia, Emancipation Day, which celebrates
President
Lincoln’s signing of the
Emancipation Proclamation, falls on April 16th and is an
official holiday. Because
the 16th falls on Saturday this year, the nearest weekday is
designated the holiday instead.
Consequently, no one is working at the
IRS
this Friday and that gives the whole country one extra weekend to try
and get their financial ducks in a row.
Big (temporary) sigh of relief.
In other news…
The scramble for the nomination of a
Republican Candidate for the 2016 Presidential Election continues.
Most recently,
Donny the Trumpet
has been bellowing his dismay at discovering that this is not really
just a big popularity contest.
Getting the “highest ratings” does not automatically make someone
the “winner”.
More specifically, there is something called
The National Convention, in which each state and territory gets to
recommend who they think is the best individual to represent their
political party in the election.
Each state and territory also decides how to determine who to
send to the Convention.
Some states use caucuses,
others prefer
primary elections. Some
states give all delegates to whoever wins the most votes, while others
dole them out proportionally.
This always reminds me of the old rule we had as kids:
Whoever cuts the cake is last to choose a piece.
When the state of
Colorado decided to use a state convention to choose its delegates,
instead of open elections, Donny sort of got left out in the cold.
He is now braying that the system is “rigged”.
Well, of course the system is rigged!
So is a game of
chess. A person can’t
just plop down in the middle of a game and expect to win when they
haven’t studied the rules.
Donny likes to boast that he is not a “typical politician”.
That what the country needs is a “successful businessman” to
apply “business rules” to solve a multitude of problems.
Some of us are “seasoned” enough to remember when
Donald Rumsfeld
was named
Secretary of Defense during the
George W. Bush Administration.
That Donald announced that he was going to run the Military “like
any other business”. It
didn’t work out too well.
Especially when that Donald, along with
Dick Cheney,
decided it made “good sense” to invade
Afghanistan and
Iraq in a “hostile takeover”.
Now Donny the Trumpet, when he got caught in a
deer-in-the-headlights moment over what he would do to women who
might consider getting an abortion, complained that “no one ever asked
me that” when he was being a “successful businessman”.
So, apparently his ineptitude at garnering delegates and his
failure to be prepared for such an obvious question is supposed to be
excused by of his lack of experience.
Huh???
And just suppose he does win the Nominating Convention and actually
becomes the Republican Candidate for President.
Will anyone have the temerity to tell Donny about another “rigged
system” called the
Electoral College?
Two words:
Grover Cleveland.
Love, as always,
Pete
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