Monday, December 20, 2021
Today could end up being one of the worst days in stock market history. At 6 a.m., the futures were down almost 1000 points.
How much did Joe Manchin’s idiocy have to do with this? I have no idea. I do know I wish I had never heard this man’s name.
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Musk says his tax bill is $11 billion. That has to smart. I do not pay a lot of attention to Musk. I know, perhaps, more than the man or woman in the street, but that is not saying much because they are idiots. What I am trying to say is that I have no strong opinion about him. I am neither a fan nor not a fan.
He has, however, earned my respect because, unlike many other super rich people, he is paying his taxes. I must assume he is not cheating as no one pays that much but cheats a little.
If everyone paid the amount of taxes they should, our deficit problem would be not nearly as bad. There are statistics on this that I have not taken the time to look up. I do know that part of the blame is on the IRS, which has horrible enforcement/collection procedures. We would be better off outsourcing tax collection. Pay me the percentage of what I collect, and I will stop being a family law lawyer and become a collection lawyer. That is how I started out when I opened my own office in 1968.
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Trump is taking on McConnell. I love it because it is just plain dumb on Trump’s part. Do not think I am a McConnell fan. I am not. However, I recognize smart when I encounter it and McConnell has forgotten more about politics than Trump knows or could ever know. Putting up Einstein against a fifth grader of average intelligence is a more equal fight than Trump against McConnell.
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Had a really nice time at the football game with our daughter Beth. Tomorrow is her birthday and her choice to celebrate is going to the Heat game. What a great daughter. Neither of our sons is into sports nearly as much. Go figure.
Among our grandchildren, most will humor me and go to an occasional baseball game, but only two really enjoy it -- one grandson, Holden, and one granddaughter, Alanna. I have a couple of years before I lose them to college, so I am really rooting for the labor issues to be settled and we have baseball.
The Dolphins are not great. The Jets are worse. The most pleasant surprise was the play of Duke Johnson, who went to the University of Miami. He played hard and really impressed me. The Dolphins may have found a running back they did not know they had.
On the other hand, if I were the Jet quarterback, I might shoot my offensive line. They gave up six sacks and on a couple of occasions, no Jet even touched the tackler. The quarterback is a tough kid, but he had no chance at all. The thought occurred to me that there should be a new penalty along the lines of criminal neglect, maybe even criminal attempted homicide. I think the Jets had 54 yards of offense in the second half.
As I mentioned, it is almost always a pleasure to be with Beth. She is our one child who tells us just about everything. Both sons are much less open about what is going on in their lives and families. I do not like what I always hear from Beth, but I’d rather hear it than not.
I do try to stay away from her fantasy football problems. Yesterday, she was in the semifinals and I do not think she did too well. I tried to not get involved.
However, a concert that her daughter, our granddaughter Kasey, was really looking forward to was cancelled due to Covid. There were lots and lots of tears as I understand it.
That got me thinking back to when I was young. I am sure that there were times I cried, but honestly, I cannot remember a single occasion. I can remember several when I was pissed as hell. One was that, because I was away at prep school, I was the only one in my family to not be at Larson’s perfect game in the World Series. Another was when my Mother was three hours late picking me up to go home for the weekend from that same prep school
I also was very disappointed when, at the age of 6 or so, I realized I would never be a jockey. That is a different story.
Today is grandson Ryan’s birthday. He is waiting on his college acceptances. Michigan, not surprisingly, is his first choice so we all have our fingers crossed. He has been accepted, as I think I previously mentioned, at Indiana, so he is already in a very good school.
My bet is grandson Jaden did well his first semester at Vassar, but no grades have come yet. If you have not already guessed, education and academic excellence are a big thing in our family.
Barbara’s grandfather used to send her letters back to her corrected for grammar. If I got A minus, I received no reward because I was expected to get A. “Minus” was a dirty word.
Going to podiatrist today hoping I can get some relief from a very painful toe. Barbara is even going with me which will, I expect, create some fireworks.
As I ended this post, I turned on the market it is still way down but not nearly as bad as earlier.
I still will be able to buy lunch after the doctor particularly since I only have my Wife.
Have a nice week. See you tomorrow.
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