Remember The Big Beef of the Stamp Act Congress? Has History Repeated Itself?

You got to give it to Trump. He hid and still hides his tax returns. Now we know why. I’m just looking at this article on his son-in-law Jared Kushner who is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and pays just about no income tax. Extrapolating from that I assume that’s also Trump’s gig. It is such a racket but what makes is so abhorrent is that it is all ostensibly legal.

It’s all legal? Well sort of. It’s legal because these rich people with money have been able to influence the way the tax code is written. Our fine Congressmen in our nation’s capital have decided that some people will pay to carry the country while others, mainly the rich, will enjoy its benefits without having to contribute. It ain’t gonna change without a revolution so if you’re a working stiff on a salary just pony up and shut up. Pretend the deck isn’t stacked against you.

I never realized how bad the situation is. I knew of the scam by Congressman Dan Rostenkowski a genius at manipulating the tax code from his perch as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in the House. He wanted to help a friend avoid taxes. He knew he couldn’t put into the code that his friend John Rooster was allowed to pay taxes at a reduced rate. What he would do instead was say that “the owner of any building of seven stories on Michigan Avenue between East 41st and East 42nd Streets” could have the reduced rate. Only one person, John Rooster, fit that description.

I figured that wasn’t so bad giving a guy a break here and there but to give the richest of the rich the ability to avoid taxes is for me a bridge too far. I remember a president who said “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for youask what you can do for your country.”  I was wearing a Marine officer’s uniform at the time. His words reflected my thinking. I thought most in America felt that way probably because the people I knew did. How naive I was. Little did I know how much we would have been scoffed at by the Trumps, Kushners and other New York City real estate types like the Hemsleys.

You do recall Leona Hemsley. Yes, like Trump a big New York real estate dealer. She, reflecting the attitude of those people. She notoriously said:  “We don’t pay taxes; only the little people pay taxes.” 

It is bad enough they don’t pay taxes but there are two other really bad aspects to this. These rich avoid the servicing the nation in uniform as well as avoid paying social security taxes. How many of these real estate barons have put on the country’s uniform to defend it? The Jared Kushners and Trumps of the world haven’t served. I don’t suppose many others of their ilk have.

That president who asked us to think of the country first served in the Navy. Other members of his family also served, two died while serving. You got to wonder how did the nation go from that to what we have now? The most greedy people have gained power – the people who really believe the rest of us are little people.

I wonder if this the way things have always been done, the rich make the rules for the rest. They do absolutely nothing for the nation but take. They pocket millions upon millions every month yet they still claim to have no income. That allows them to even avoid paying that nasty social security tax that comes out of our checks each month. To add icing to the cake, they want to cut back on the benefits to those who do pay.

Next April 15 you can think of how it is the “little people” who are doing what you are doing. Think of how you are paying taxes and are not being properly represented. Didn’t that happen before?

If I recall correctly the Stamp Act Congress met in 253 years ago today in New York City. Nine Colonies declared the English crown had no right to tax Americans who lacked representation in British Parliament. You know what that lead to. What will the little people do now?

 

32 Comments

  1. Wa-llahi! Tad’s died of spite. All that anti-intellectual racist venom killed him.

  2. John King McDonald

    I’m trying, Abe . We’re trying to flush the Old Eagle out of political cover !!!

  3. John King McDonald

    TADZIO WAS HERE !!!

    Berlin Wall graffiti .

  4. John King McDonald

    Abe :

    You are interpreting clearly. ANTIFA is the goon squad for the Left . Right ?!?

    OWN IT !!!

  5. John King McDonald

    Guess I erred. This is not an index on valor. Undoubtedly, you would act so.
    Certainly we know your father and brother would. From what we have gleaned of your character from your writings this would not be remarkable.
    You don’t address just why you would be jammin’ it on the corner with your ANTIFA political soulmates, for indeed they are that , man . How could this happen ?!?

    This is the irony .

    Unfortunately, the lady in the NYPD baseball cap could not be reached for comment .

    Man ..Asshole … Whatever you are comfortable with, understood. Whatever you call them I would rather have her in a foxhole with me than any ten men you can think of . Talk is cheap.

    I … SAW … HER … IN …. ACTION .

    • “You don’t address just why you would be jammin’ it on the corner with your ANTIFA political soulmates, for indeed they are that , man . How could this happen ?!?”

      I wish you would stop aligning me with ANTIFA. I sincerely hate the bunch of them. Am I misinterpreting something?

    • And where is Tadzio??? I hope he is OK. Does anyone on here know him? I hope he didn’t go to Venice.

  6. Abe :

    The light changed, not dimmed . Glad you seem to have made it across the street . Wearing your brother’s beret, or no.

    Fair enough .

    • Not my brother’s beret. He was 11th ACR. Armored Cavalry. George Patton’s son was his commanding officer. A lunatic that was probably the guy Robert Duval played in A-pack-of-lips Now. “Find the enemy and pile on” was their motto. The whole regiment got a Bronze Star after Tet.

      I never used the word ‘man’ like many others did back then. In the situation you described it would be replaced with the word ‘asshole’, fer sure.

      By the way, if I was present during the viral video you mentioned, several or all of those bastids would be drinking their meals through a straw for a good while.

  7. John King McDonald

    Abe :

    The light changed .

    • The light changed but the world has not.

      On October 15, 1969, I skipped going to Walpole Agricultural School (I was a 13th year student) and went to Boston Common. It was the first Moratorium against Vietnam across the country. My brother was in Vietnam at the time and a number of my friends and relatives were, too. I had already been talked out of joining the USMC by my brother (“You do NOT want to be here!”), who had been in Vietnam since December 14, 1967. Certain dates tend to stick in one’s mind.

      I went to the gathering, they say about 100,000 strong, for the experience. I had long hair and was dressed in what probably looked like the uniform of the hippie crowd. What people probably overlooked was the green beret on my head with the small Bomb Hanoi button on the side.

      Sometimes its hard to pick a side. Sometimes a young guy or gal really doesn’t know what the fuck he or she is doing. They just need to do something.

  8. John King McDonald

    ★ B-17 ★

  9. John King McDonald

    Abe negation ;

    Your Father was a conscientious and courageous man. His service speaks for itself. There is a viral video right now of a woman wearing an NYPD cap , at nighttime, in Portland, USA , waiting for a traffic light. A passive aggressive ANTIFA COWARD , and his pals, dresed all in black like goth girls on their way to a satanic mass, began harassing her.
    The lady was quite equable and calm. She pointed out that she had to wait for the light to change as her principal attacker sidled just about right up her ass as he began .. FOR NO REASON …to heckle her.
    A disgusting little diatribe, too tedious to detail, as one almost expected her to offer to change his bib after applesauce time , then ensued : Our creepin’ on the curb ANTIFA hero of Social ” JUST US “. and the rights of women ( which include not being molested by strange men in black bandannas at night ) let her know he would not hit her .. ” the way your husband does.” She quietly and moderately said she was not married. He then reviled her wearing of the NYPD cap . She turned, pointed to it and said … My husband died on 9/11.
    Your Fellow Travelers ( thus far ) then basically told her this pleased them and that she and her dead policeman husband could go fuck themselves.

    CUT TO : Abe on Portland street corner. ANTIFA TOOL up his ass as Abe waits for light .A similar tale of unwarranted harassment of Abe , wearing Dad’s bombing jacket with hard won insignia gleaming in the rainy night,…. Ensues :. Hey man, says Abe … My dad was a radioman in a B-52 , a FLYING COFFIN they called them , man, during the war !!!!

    CUT TO : ANTIFA ” FELLOW DEM TRAVELER OF ABE’S ” RESPONSE :
    ( Abe, forgive our remedial role play therapy for you , here, but , this is INTERVENTION TIME !!! ) ………. ANTIFA PAL TO COURAGEOUS ABE’S FATHER’S KID ABE : …. Hey , go fuck yourself and your virtue signalling B-52 you flew in on !!!!!!! ….. Your father was a militant war mongering White Supremacist Fascist just like you , MORON !!!!!!
    Abe, you and Matt do not get it . These Fellow Travelers LOATHE YOU WHITEY !!!!!!! ….. Abe, you cannot die soon enough !!!!

    As far as they are concerned .

    Again, your dad was courageous, and we thank your father for his service !!!

  10. True, but re-read the Civil War epic, Stephen Crane was it?, “The Red Badge of Courage.” A coward, one day, can become a hero who picks up the fallen banner, or blunt sword, and saves the next day’s battle.
    Invictus. the poem, too.

    • I agree, Bill. Cowardice is reversible. Apologies can be made. But one thing for absolutely sure is that the real past cannot be changed.

      My father told his CO in the Army Air Corps that he was against all forms of violence to settle disputes of any kind. His hero of heroes was Albert Schweitzer. But he was a radio man in a B 17 in WWII. He served. He was a consciences objector to the war but he was also willing to die for his country. Flying over Europe in what the Germans called The Flying Coffin was against his principals, but serving his country was 100 times more important to him.

      • Abe,

        Courageous dad. My godfather and uncle was a bomber navigator on a B-17. He didn’t make it to Europe. Went down in a training flight in Texas.

        When I was at Atsugu in Japan. A plane there was called a flying coffin. First time on it the pilot said this is the bell I press to let you know the plane’s going down. He the pressed it. He added I don’t press it on take off or landing because then there’s nothing you can do. He then told us to strap on our parachutes.

  11. A coward is a coward.

  12. Babies in the womb are living. No sympathy for them? The average wage in America is $27 an hour. Give credit to Trump for his great work. A job is the best anti poverty program. Not a government handout. Most of the taxes are paid by the rich. Half of Americans pay no income tax to the Feds. $400 billion in charitable contributions last year. Most donations by the rich. America is the most charitable country on the planet. Trump’s program of tax cuts. deregulation, energy independence and better trade deals invigorated the economy. Obama’s last year in office we grew at 1.6%. Now we are over three. ISIS was on the march. Now largely defeated. Capitalism works. Socialism is a failure. Look at Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

  13. “It ain’t gonna change without a revolution so if you’re a working stiff on a salary just pony up and shut up. Pretend the deck isn’t stacked against you.”

    Or maybe take the first option? They can’t gun everyone down in the streets like Arab regimes…can they?

    • Da

      Americans aren’t the revolution type. It takes courage as we know from those who fought in them. Most Americans seem to be afraid of the 1,000 or so women and children who are coming north through Mexico to invade our country of 325 million. Trump is going to call out the military on them. He is still pondering whether to go to Congress to get a declaration of war against them.

      As to whether they can gun us down in the streets, we’ll see after seeing how they repel this invasion force.

      • John King McDonald

        VENEZUELA .

      • The Tax Laws could change and be made FAIR with the stroke of a few pens. It takes balls, guts to oppose the Lobbyists, who control both DEMS and REPUBS.

        One stout hearted man, followed by ten, then ten thousand more, could change the TAX LAWS, eliminate the IRS, TaxLawyers, TaxAccountans, TaxLobbyists, the whole wicked scheme . . .

        One MAN or WOMAN standing tall could FIX the whole rotten TAX System . . .but the Big Brother, Big Government Types, Lobbyists, stand in the way.

        Yes, Americans are the Revolution type . . .that’s how we started . .. . .that’s what the Civil Rights Movement was . . . .we need a new Revolution to downsize government . . .make it less invasive, less oppressive, fewer FEDs,simpler taxes, lower taxes . . .

        As the song said, Give me ten men who are stout hearted men and I’ll soon give you ten thousand more . . .

        What we have in DC are thousands kowtowing to Lobbyists and their Big Government Allies . . . .

        It takes guts and gumption to change a system . . . .Martin Luther KIng, Thomas Sowell, Bobby Kennedy, Jack Kennedy, the South Boston Allied War Veterans who welcomed the NAACP to march in the 1964 St. Patrick’s Day Parade in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement . . .those folks had guts and gumption . . .

        The same revolutionary spirit is needed today to GUT the FEDS, GUT BIG Government, FED and STATE, reform tax laws and Prosecute the Persecutors who abuse Federal Prosecutorial Power and other Federal/State Powers.

        Step One: Prosecute the Federal Prosecutors in Boston.

        Step Two: Downsize Lobbyists, by requiring all lobbying be limited to one written page per issue per year per citizen. That way lobbyists are equal to all citizens. Businesses are equal to private citizens. EVERYONE GETS ONE PAGE PER ISSUE PER YEAR TO SEND TO ONE CONGRESSMAN OR ONE STATE SENATOR OR REP PER YEAR.

        THAT FIXES THE UNDUE POWER OFLOBBYISTS.

        3. TO FIX TAX LAWS; REDUCE FILINGS TO A POST CARD.

  14. Who creates the jobs in America? The investors, the real estate developers or government? Working people enjoy their employment. Record low unemployment 3.7%. 7 million job openings. The best economy ever. A stronger military and two great appointments to the Supreme Court. 400 thousand new manufacturing jobs. 4 million new jobs. Over 3% economic growth. These are the best of times. Trump’s energy program is on track to increase oil production by five million barrels a day. Our economy is the envy of the world. 2. Sunday’s readings at Church included Jesus admonishing his flock to Not Bear False Witness against his Neighbor. How timely considering the Kavanaugh smear by the Democrats and the media. How much tax one pays isn’t comparable to the pernicious Democrats alliance with Planned Parenthood and the millions slaughtered by the abortionists. Choose Life.

    • NC

      The problem with folk who talk about choosing life is that they lose concern for it when a child is born. You know like spending any money to ensure the health of the child or the education of the child. I never could quite figure out why that is the case. When people try to come to this country with its economy that is the envy of the world and all the new jobs these people have no complaint that their kids are taken from the parents and suffer life damaging trauma.

      Yes, things are good here but in other parts of the world people are suffering and dying. In Yemen there is widespread famine. Do the lives of those people matter? Should we not be trying to relieve suffering among those who did choose life and now cannot feed themselves. We have always look to help others. Remember the Peace Corps. What do we have in its place, two judges who want to bring the country backwards.

      The anti-abortion people only yell and shout about something that does not affect them personally. They want to tell other people what to do with themselves. But when it comes to something affecting themselves they close their pocketbooks and hearts and say tough luck. Did you ever realize that? Did you ever realize how easy it is to demand of others things that you don’t demand of yourself. If you are really for life you should be urging the government to do more to better the lives of the living.

      As for the economy, the numbers you mention in new jobs are less than what Obama produced over a similar period. You want to blame Obama for the wars even though Trump has conducted them for two years while you want to give credit to Trump for the economy which he was handed on a silver plate by Obama.

      The attitude who creates the jobs in America reminds me of the time when the mill owners gave work to the poor Irish and Canadian girls some as young as 12-years-old in Lowell and Lawrence paying them a pittance and working them 12 hours a day. When the states tried to pass child labor laws the Supreme Court overturned them. It reminds me of the many strikes where workers were under paid by the industrialists. Yes, they provided the jobs but treated the workers worse than animals. The national minimum wage is $7.50 an hour which comes out to about 10,000 a year after taxes, etc. You think someone should be thankful that the employer gave him or her the job. For some people it is worse than the mill days.

      From what you write I guess it is all right with you that the little people pay the taxes while the rich avoid them.

      • All falsehoods and Leftist spin. None are more committed to defending life from the moment of conception, through infancy, through adolescent, into adult years until natural death, that the Right to Life Community.

        Leftist Dems salve their consciences for supporting the butchery of the unborn, by saying, Yuh but we care more for the born. Another Great Satanic Lie.

  15. Draft dodgers shouldn’t be president.

    • Trump complied with the Draft Laws as he’s complied with the tax laws. Are you aware of any indictments of any presidential candidates for draft dodging? Or any prosecutions. I know a man a picked up thumbing in Ohio who spent several years in Danbury Federal Prison for Draft Evasion . . .he had his dog with him as he thumbed along the Interstate . . .turns out he knew a lifelong friend he served some time with . . .he had an unforgettable name, I’ll not publish her, but he was a man of conscience, who refused to be drafted as he was against the Vietnam War . . .he stood his ground, he followed his conscience, he was, in my book, a great American, a conscientious objector . . .

      • Spin it any way you like, Hill Billy. He is a coward and you should be ashamed for defending that part of his bio. I’m not anti his administration as much as some and I give him credit for the good things he has done, but I call a spade a spade. He ran from service and other brave young men and women fought and died in his place. It is water under the bridge but it is real water.

  16. Adding insult to injury, as Trump, Hemsly, and the rest of these amoral cheats exit their Limos, they brush aside the workers they stiffed in their bankruptcy strategies. How any working person can support these evil people boggles the mind.

    • It’s no more evil for the rich to follow Congress’s Tax Laws (and loopholes) than for the non-rich.

      The evil comes from Congress and Bureaucrats (RuleMakers) setting up UNFAIR TAX LAWS, favoring some.

      In a FAIR World: Taxes would be simplified: 95% of tax lawyers, tax accountants, and FED/STATE TAX workers (IRS etc) would be unemployed. END the TAX TYRRANNY that Big Government (FED & STATE) has imposed on us.

      When Helmsley said “Only the little people pay taxes.” It was a statement of FACT, not of SCORN.

      When HIllary described Deplorables it was a statement of SCORN.

      LET THEM EAT CAKE! if only they had cakes during the Irish Potato Famine.

      You see, the real racists are those in the identity-politics business who call others racists . . . .same with the real sexists, etc . . . .they construe the world not FAIRLY but FIXED like the TAX LAWS; they see the world not of individual human beings, but of races, ethnic groups, sexes, orientations, and Deliberately divide us.

      They Diss.

      They Hate.

      They feel morally superior, when they say, Yes we kill one million unborn human beings a year, but we take better care of the ones we let live.

      They feel morally superior by stoning the businessman who is driven in a Limo like Jack Connors, say, who has created more jobs and raised, generated and given more money to schools, hospitals and other charities in his life than most.

      They feel morally superior by claiming they’re for the poor, when they promote Big Government Plantation Mentality Programs that keep the poor subservient and dependent on Big Government.

      They’re the Hillary Hellions, the Hillarians, who hate half of Americans, especially those hard working Americans in the private sector who have faith in a Higher Power who is not Big Government.

      It’s all encapsulated in the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center calling the traditionalist pro-family pro-religiious group Focus on the Family a “hate group” because Focus on the Family like most Christian groups and churches believes marriage is between a man and a women.

      If you disagree with Big Brother, Big Government, Abortion on Demand, Gay Marriage, Hillary’s Hillarious Hillarians Hellacious Incivilities, Her Dissing and Deliberately Dividing Americans into favored/unfavored identity groups, join the Revolution: Vote Conservative, Vote Traditionalist, Choose Life, Choose Love, Choose Freedom, Choose Women’s Reproductive Freedom without the killing, and while respecting all adults’ choices to live with whom they wish, respect my view and that of the billions of Christians, Muslims and Jews, that marriage is between a man and a woman and children should be raised whenever possible by a father and a mother. There are two sexes, male and female; Scripture and biology say so.

      There are two parties Democrat and Republican. Of two evils, choose the lesser; do not choose the Big Government, Tax & Spend, Plantation Mentality, pro-abortion party. Choose life. Choose love.

      The real haters are the identity-politics-addicted Dems, who call half their fellow Americans Deplorables falsely labelling them, dissing them, feeling morally superior to them.

      Stop stoning folks. Stop the character assassinations. Read my two books titled Character Assassination I and II. Reflect on the evil done to Justice Kavanagh.

      P.S. The allegations against Kavanaugh were patently false. Dr. Ford, a frequent flyer who lived for years in a 500 sq. ft. apt (and claimed under oath she was claustrophobic and feared flying) and who breezed through her last two years of high school, doing well enough to get into UNC (after the summer “trauma”), Dr. Ford is a liar . . .But even if her story were true, she describes a teenage boy trying to take her clothes off, not even getting to second base. What teenage boy hasn’t. As Alan Dershowitz said, what she describes does not even rise to the level of a crime . . . yet her imagined recollection, uncorroborated, the DEMS whip out to crucify a good man . . . .

      Yes, Folks, there is a more evil party: The DEMS are worse, far worse.

      Signed, under pains and penalties of perjury,
      Billy C., a conservative, traditionalist, Independent, un-affiliated all American, Irish-American, Irish-Catholic American, who follows his own informed conscience, as all men and women should do.

      Stop the character assassination . . . .call a spade a spade . . . Hillary’s a Hellion . . .the good will win out . .

  17. ‘Twas ever thus. Last time I looked (1990) there were 20,000 private tax amendments every year passed through Congress. A close look at some of the tax amendments of Tip O’Neil and John McCormack might be in order just for fun. Tip had Cambridge made a farming community so he and pals could enjoy 1% mortgages from the farmers bank in Springfield.

    Perhaps a national sales tax on spending would be appropriate.

    “The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.” Will Rogers

    • Henry:

      Will also noted: “We all joke about Congress but we can’t improve on them. Have you noticed that no matter who we elect, he is just as bad as the one he replaces?”