Another rant about cats and deer

Two species have a deleterious effect on Pennsylvania’s natural environment–cats and deer.  House cats kill millions of birds each year.  The Audubon Society reports that many bird species are in major decline, and one of the big reasons is cats.  We actually have a local organization that takes care of feral cats, raises money for them, and feeds them.  The cats are neutered, but neutered cats kill birds.  But the cates are so cute and furry and cuddly.  No, they aren’t.  They are killing machines.

And deer.  Tonight I counted 23 deer in our fields behind our house.  We rent out those fields to a friend and nearby farmer.  This year I will tell him not to pay me.  With a deer herd that big eating soybeans down to the ground, how can he make any money?  In the Poconos you can see though the forest.  There’s a “browse line.”  The deer eat all the vegetation as far as they can reach.  And people feed them!  But the fawns are so cute.  No, they aren’t.  They are destroying crops and forests.  The only natural predators are coyotes, and there aren’t nearly enough of them.

Raising the retirement age

Social Security was enacted in 1935 and payments began in 1937.  Life expectancy for men and women at that time was in the low Sixties, although, like today, it was roughly two years higher for women than men.  The retirement age for collecting Social Security was 65.  

Now recipients can retire earlier.  I retired at age 62, although I did continue part-time employment for another five or six years.  The average life expectancy for men is about 79, although it is inching upward.  This means that more people are receiving Social Security payments for more years, and it is putting a strain on the system.

A number of proposals have been advanced to ensure that the system does not go bankrupt.  One is to have more undocumented workers, since they often pay into the system but don’t collect the benefits.  This seems both unfair and immoral.

Another proposal is to raise the retirement age.  Who advances that idea?  If you check, you will find it is often proposed by members of Congress, economists, and the Republican business class.  You will not find it proposed by janitors, long-haul truck drivers, warehouse workers, miners. and construction workers.  

My idea is to peg the year you collect Social Security to the life expectancy of the workers in your field.  It should be relatively easy to figure that out.  Then you pass a law that you can collect your payments five years before your average life expectancy.  You’d probably need to factor in incomes and the availability of medical care.  If you are working as a college professor and you didn’t like that system, then become a construction worker or a miner.  I think that would work.

Return of the Flip Phones

Quite a large number of members of the Gen Z generation are turning in their Smart Phones for old-fashioned flip phones.  According to a recent article by Matthew Shaer, there are “Luddite clubs” at some high schools and on college campuses.  There is even a phone-free campaign known as the “Reconnect Movement” which has as its slogan, “We’re all craving something real.”  According to a recent poll, over half of the Gen Z respondents had experimented with “digital detoxing,” far more than baby boomers.

I am always so pleased when I am on the cusp of a new trend.  

Trump threatens genocide; claims major victory

Obviously, I’m guessing about the second part.  The first part is clear.  Trump did threaten genocide.  Destroying a civilization fits the definition of genocide, the killing of a people.

The second part I am predicting.  Trump will point out that the stock market has jumped, oil prices are dropping, and the Strait of Hormuz is open.  All of those things were actually in place BEFORE Trump launched his war, but he will still claim victory.  The Iranian regime is still in place, oil shipments will go back to where they were five weeks ago, gas prices may decline to what they were before the war started.

What is different from before the war started is that we have spent billions of tax dollars, a number of young American service members were killed or wounded, the NATO alliance was wrecked, and thousands of Iranians are dead, including school children.  If this is a victory, I’d hate to see a defeat.

What is the latest stupid thing he's done?

I thought of re-naming my blog using that as the title.  You all know to whom I am referring, and I am reasonably sure I could find something every day.  Sometimes it would be hard to choose.  That Easter message about opening the “fuckin’ strait” wasn’t really his, however, since there is no way he would have known to put in an apostrophe.  I’m thinking little Marco might have helped on that.

Now he wants to reopen Alcatraz as a prison.  It’s been closed as a prison for about 60 years and was always difficult to supply and maintain.  It would be incredibly costly to bring it up to prison standards, although Trump obviously doesn’t care about wasting tax dollars.  And while we are at it, let’s do one of those renaming things like the Gulf of America.  Instead of Alcatraz, we can call it Epstein Island Two and use it for pedophiles. 

Working on my income tax return

That’s what I spent most of Easter Sunday doing.  I’m not very good at it, but at least this year I should get it in early.  It is always a bad time for me.  Did you ever see the photos of people lined up at a post office to get their returns postmarked before the midnight deadline on April 15?  I’ve been in those lines more than once.  At least this year, if the preliminary figures are correct, I won’t need to sell the car to pay the tax bill.  (Yes, that really happened.)

It does seem to me that a country as advanced as the U.S. is should be able to produce a reasonably simple tax form.  Why should we have to pay someone to fill it out for us?  That shows to me the forms are way too complicated.  

Where do I put money I got for selling scrap metal and aluminum cans?  Is the small check I get for my New York Times stock a qualified dividend?  What makes it qualified or unqualified?  And that worksheet on what percentage of social security benefits are taxable is beyond my comprehension.

Plus the I.R.S. wants me to make quarterly payments.  Really?  They want me to do this FOUR times a year.  The heck with that.  I just pay the penalty.

It also amuses me when people talk about their refunds.  They forget that they still paid taxes.  I also bet that I pay more income tax than Donald Trump.  (I’ll be happy to compare if he would ever release his tax return.)

Trump's moods

My friend Anne sent me a link to a Wall Street Journal article by Peggy Noonan entitled “A Republic, Not a Mood.”  Noonan quotes Ronald Reagan late in his presidency:  “You don’t become president of the United States.  You are given temporary custody of an institution called the presidency which belongs to our people.”  He said he thought the presidency was “a sacred trust.”

Noonan points out that Trump governs by his “moods.”  The weightiest decisions depend on the President’s mood, how he feels personally at any given time, and people around him try to anticipate those moods.

Noonan explains that we live in a “democratic republic,” and both words are essential.  Democratic is the adjective; republic is the noun.  “In a democratic republic the people choose [their] representatives through elections with broad suffrage.  The republic brings with it constitutional limits, separations of power.”

Trump, of course, understands none of this.  Nor do his followers.  In a recent poll over 90% favor the war against Iran.  Note–these are not Republicans; these are MAGA.  MAGA is a cult made up of people who have no idea what a “democratic republic” involves.  Many of them are in Congress.  One of them is my Congressman, Ryan Mackenzie.