The Charity Question
It figures that once Robert Mueller and his band of merry Hillary supporters failed to discover a bromance between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, Trump-haters in Congress and the media would begin once begin beating the drums, demanding that the President release his income tax returns.
It figures that once Robert Mueller and his band of merry Hillary supporters failed to discover a bromance between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, Trump-haters in Congress and the media would begin once begin beating the drums, demanding that the President release his income tax returns.
Offhand, I don’t recall which idiot started all this nonsense about disclosing tax information, but I’m against it. Okay, maybe I’m not against it so much as I’m against it being limited to presidents and presidential candidates. If everyone needs to see those returns, why not the returns of those running for every public office in the land. After all, governors, mayors and even city council members, very often have a more direct effect on my life than this president or any president has.
What’s more, if we’re going down this road, I’d like to see the returns of those who are paid to report the news. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see if those who rail the loudest against fossil fuels, guns and the military-industrial complex, own stock in Shell, Remington Arms and/or Boeing?
Bernie Sanders was the first of those vying to run against Donald Trump in 2020 to share his tax records with us. I suspect he’s at least a little surprised to be pilloried for being a millionaire. But what did he expect after spending years calling millionaires and billionaires the human plague?
But, surely, even he must have expected to lose a few supporters after admitting that he saw no reason why he should pay the feds even a nickel more than he was legally obliged to pay. So much for paying his fair share. Apparently, it’s only all those other rich guys who should be squeezed like oranges so that their wealth could be re-distributed among the party faithful.
Some people have even taken Bernie to task for donating a mere pittance of his earnings to charity. But I don’t. I really don’t think it’s any of my beeswax what someone else does with his money. Two other people I think it’s safe to say won’t be attacking him, at least on those grounds, are Kamala Harris and Beto O'Rourke.
That’s because Sen. Harris only contributed 1.4% of her earnings to charities and Beto kicked in a scant one-third of 1%. But, then, skateboards aren’t as cheap as they used to be.
Speaking of charities, there are only a few to which I ever contribute. I always do my best to avoid donating to those outfits whose chief executive receives a six or seven-figure salary and that spend more on travel, office rent and something called miscellaneous expenses, than they do on medical research or providing the promised services.
Speaking of charities, the folks I really don’t understand are those who regularly line up to be plucked on behalf of the poor and suffering in places like Haiti or Ethiopia. I think those countries where nothing ever improves, whether it’s because of corrupt politicians or limited natural resources, should be auctioned off to interested parties. Most places can be turned into profitable commodities if the right people have reason to invest the time and money.
I’m sure that Disney could turn Haiti, to take a handy example, into one huge theme park that would convert the island nation from a swamp into a money machine if provided with an incentive to do so. But until things change radically, Haiti will continue to be a disease-riddled basket case no more capable of providing for itself than a maternity ward full of newborns.
As more and more Democrats enter the competition for their party’s presidential nomination, the more likely it becomes that no single candidate will arrive at the convention with the requisite number of delegates to ensure his or her nomination.
If, for instance, Joe Biden shows up with 30%, Sanders arrives with 25%, and the other 4,000 contenders, including Harris, O'Rourke, Booker, Castro, Gillibrand, Klobuchar, Buttigieg and Swalwell, divide the other 45% between them, how do you imagine it will be resolved? Unless I miss my guess, there’s only one person who could help the party avoid a true blood-letting and could unite the various factions in the mission to defeat Donald Trump. And that person, God help us, is Michelle Obama!
Joe Neuner has grown as weary as I have of listening to dunces like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey carrying on as if the only uses for gas and oil are to power planes and cars and to heat our homes, so that once we all come to our senses and quit depending on anything other than wind and solar, we’ll all be residing in the new, improved, snake-less Garden of Eden.
As Mr. Neuner patiently points out, there are thousands of everyday items that require petroleum in their production. What’s more, without that other left-wing bugaboo, coal, you can’t produce coke, and without coke, you can’t manufacture iron or steel.
One 42-gallon barrel of oil creates 19.4 gallons of gasoline. The other 22.6 gallons goes into producing the plastic that goes into our cars, our computers, our toys and, until very recently, our straws. Asphalt is a petroleum product, as is synthetic rubber, as are fertilizer, pesticides, detergents, furniture, ballpoint pens, motorcycle helmets, skis, epoxy paint, electrical tape, fishing rods, lipstick, soft contact lenses, fan belts, artificial limbs, hearing aids, etc.
You get the idea. A world without fossil fuels wouldn’t be paradise, it would be hell. Just the opposite of what a world without liberals would be.
Years ago, I recall hearing that a study of self-esteem among teenagers disclosed the fact that white teenagers tended to suffer from low self-esteem and were often driven to depression and even suicide if they felt they didn’t measure up to others when it came to their looks, their intellect and their place in the pecking order of their particular peer group.
Black teens, on the other hand — including those who were fat, unattractive, stupid and even lacked the ability to dunk a basketball — possessed remarkably high degrees of self-esteem.
It struck me as very odd at the time that adolescents could view themselves so differently based solely on their race. It seems even odder these days when blacks have been indoctrinated for so many years to believe they are the innocent victims of white privilege.
But it does explain why morons such as Al Sharpton, Maxine Waters, Elijah Cummings, Hank Johnson, Bobby Rush, Jim Clyburn, Sheila Jackson Lee, Al Green, Frederica Wilson, Hakeem Jeffries, Barbara Lee and Ilhan Omar, never seem to be even slightly embarrassed when it comes to flaunting their ignorance in public.
Bob Hunt reminded me that Steve Martin once made me burst out laughing when he observed some years back that “Sex is the most beautiful, natural and wholesome thing that money can buy.”
(Because I am unable to comment below, I want you all to know that if you wish to communicate directly with me, my email address is [email protected].)
