Happy Birthday, America

Happy Birthday, America. 

It's an odd one this year. I think there's a saying floating around out there in the universe that America is a country that will try literally everything else before doing the thing they know they're going to need to do in the first place. President Trump got his big, beautiful bill. We get no tax on overtime until 2028. Seniors get a $6,000 tax cut just because, and the rich get yet another tax break, and the social safety net gets shredded a little more.

I might be inclined to believe that things will work out in the end, and they might, in a half-assed, mediocre sort of way, because President Trump seems to have preternatural amounts of luck. We heard a lot of talk about the Biden Economy and how people were suffering under the Biden Economy, and there were people who felt that, but a lot of people didn't see any difference at all. What if the script flips? What if some people get burned, and for a lot of people, their tax refunds get bigger, and life continues on more or less the same way it has before? Will people care?

I mean, I'll take a bigger child tax credit. I'll take no tax on overtime (though apparently that's only for three years, and who knows what kind of catches are buried in the minutia-- it might be a good thing, it might not). But at what cost? 

We're going to find out, I guess. 

The biggest thing I mourn these days is my loss of faith in people. That's the thing I resent the most-- before this election, I thought I understood people. I thought that at their core, people were basically decent. After this election, I'm not sure anymore, and more than any piece of legislation, that's what makes me the angriest about it all. I can't trust people the way I thought I could. Maybe I was naive to think I could do that, to begin with, but I thought I could. And now I just can't.

What makes a country? To me, it's how we treat the least amongst us. I think it's obvious by now that our current Elites are not Andrew Carnegie types. They're no longer sending their best or building schools or libraries. It all, 'fuck you, I got mine.' We shouldn't have to pay for anything? Nobody should have to pay taxes? How the fuck is that going to work for regular people? How is that going to work for people with kids? What happens when you call 911 and nobody picks up on the other end?

Do I like taxes? No, but I'm willing to pay them because that's what keeps the lights on. That's the social glue. The contract. The whatever. I don't know-- I try to be a good citizen, but now you gotta wonder, what for? School lunches can't be free. The kids can't eat. Fuck them, kids. Everyone on Medicaid is lazy and living in their Mom's basement playing video games, except whoopsidoodle, Meemaw, and Pop-pop need that shit. So does Uncle Billy and what's going to happen to them? I am so tired of people voting for policies they are convinced will only apply to other people. What's the thing that pops up on TikTok now and again: if you think the government couldn't do that to you, remember: yes it fucking could.

I think the tariffs are stupid and aren't going to work. I think if the President would recognize what a cancer the nativist garbage is to his legacy, we'd all be a lot better off because ICE having a bigger budget than the Marine Corps is straight-up crazy talk. 

But there is a universe where a tight labor market produces upward pressure on wages. There is a universe where Conservatives do what they always do, which is: "Let's get rid of that thing!" And then they get rid of it and six months later go, "Fuck, we kind of need that thing!" No one knows what AI is going to do to the economy over the next 5-10 years, and there are cases short of the techo-optimist view of AI that wouldn't put us in a bad place. The whole process of funding research at universities has probably needed a reform anyway, and I think in a creaky, sclerotic way, academia will figure it out. 

The 35-year-old dude playing video games in his Mom's basement is a myth. Democrats are insisting that illegals can't get Medicaid, and Republicans are insisting that the costs are so high because they can-- one side is going to be wrong.

We were outside a few nights ago, just looking at the stars, and the stars always put things into perspective for me. The Missus is going to give me shit for this until the end of time, but we really are tiny in the grand scheme of the universe. We're just apes on a rock, falling through space. We are here for an eyeblink of time, and I am fortunate in that I have a house, a job, a beautiful family, and my health. 

Two hundred and forty-nine years ago, America stood up and declared its independence. It hasn't always been pretty, and honestly, right now it feels like the Hot Mess Express pretty much most of the time. But I have to believe that little by little, we'll get somewhere that, if not good, then a place we can all live with.

Mark Twain said, "Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it."

Words to remember.