This is a taxing season!

One week from today, March 1, is the start of meteorological Spring. Astronomical Spring follows about three weeks later. Then, here in the North Country, we enjoy several months of false spring with intermittent periods of snow and melting. Then, usually in late May or early June, the temperature jumps from the 60's to the upper 80's within a week, and it's Summer. I find it distressingly rare for Minnesota to produce a gradual, progressive, temperature increase between winter and summer. The clothes hooks in the front hall are crowded with three seasons of coats and hats, but it's an improvement over single digit temperatures and freezing rain. Thanks for letting me me get that off my chest!

Spring will slog her way to Summer

Photo by J. Harrington

This past week SCOTUS announced a decision that partially clips FOTUS' wings on tariffs. A recent study indicates that almost all of the cost of tariffs is paid by American households and businesses. Other analyses indicate that tariffs cost the average household $1,000 or more last year. In skimming through the reports, I could find no indication of a compounding effect on household budgets caused by local and state sales taxes. In a nearby city where we do much of our shopping, the sales taxes we pay are listed as follows:

State    6.875%
Special 0.75%
Special 0.25%
Special 0.50%

The cumulative 8.375% state and local sales taxes would add $83.75 (approaching 10%) to the household cost if the goods on which tariffs were imposed are also subject to local taxes. Something to think about between now and midterm elections.

I don't know about you but I haven't seen any indication of receiving any kind of actual offset to the increases imposed by the current regime, have you? It sure llooks to me as though only billionaires and large corporations benefit from getting US to vote Republican.

The Tax Poem by Author Unknown

Tax his land, tax his wage, Tax his bed in which he lays. Tax his tractor, tax his mule, Teach him taxes is the rule. Tax his cow, tax his goat, Tax his pants, tax his coat. Tax his ties, tax his shirts, Tax his work, tax his dirt. Tax his chew, tax his smoke, Teach him taxes are no joke. Tax his car, tax his grass, Tax the roads he must pass. Tax his food, tax his drink, Tax him if he tries to think. Tax his sodas, tax his beers, If he cries, tax his tears. Tax his bills, tax his gas, Tax his notes, tax his cash. Tax him good and let him know That after taxes, he has no dough. If he hollers, tax him more, Tax him until he’s good and sore. Tax his coffin, tax his grave, Tax the sod in which he lays. Put these words upon his tomb, "Taxes drove me to my doom!" And when he’s gone, we won’t relax, We’ll still be after the inheritance tax.

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Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.

Read any good books lately?

Last week we saw a very rare occurrence for Minnesota in mid-February: not one but two separate and distinct motorcycles were on the road last Saturday! We've be experiencing an extended, unseasonably warm spell for about a week now, with several daytime high temperatures approaching or exceeding 50℉. Much of the snow on the driveway has melted down to the ice layer that was laid down last month with freezing rain. It will be interesting to see if most of the ice melts before it rains and snows later this week. This is not your grandpa's average North Country winter. However, the weather this past week does have me believing that spring iis not just a hypothetical possibility.

our driveway six years ago this month

Photo by J. Harrington

I'm getting close to finishing reading All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis. Over the weekend I read Judith D. Schwartz' essay "Water Is a Verb." In part it restated a theme from Hydrate the Earth as a significant solution to our emergent climate crisis. Agriculture and land management are affected by climate change, but the hydrologic cycle and the ability of plants and healthy soil to function as carbon sinks has not been given enough attention of an appropriate type.

Similar perspective adjusting themes are found in Paul Hawken's Carbon and Erica Gies' Water Always Wins. Each of the preceding sources helps us look through the correct end of the telescope to see that much of the solution to our problems involves better, more integrated management of what we do, rather than making a mess and cleaning it up afterward. Think more systems management rather than pollution control. 

As I thought about some of these themes and approaches, I found myself reverting to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, a book I read more than 50 years ago. She was much more successful at limiting the excessive reliance on the pesticides of her day than we have been at mitigating and adapting to our addiction to fossil fuel production and consumption. Improving our soil health and water health and therefore public health may turn out to be a healthier solution for our planet and its inhabitants. Check out one or more of the books and authors mentioned and see what you think.

Poem 051: A Little Girl Tugs at the Tablecloth

She’s been in this world for over a year,
and in this world not everything’s been examined
and taken in hand.

The subject of today’s investigation
is things that don’t move by themselves.

They need to be helped along,
shoved, shifted,
taken from their place and relocated.

They don’t all want to go, e.g., the bookshelf,
the cupboard, the unyielding walls, the table.

But the tablecloth on the stubborn table
—when well-seized by its hems—
manifests a willingness to travel.

And the glasses, plates,
creamer, spoons, bowl,
are fairly shaking with desire.

It’s fascinating,
what form of motion will they take,
once they’re trembling on the brink:
will they roam across the ceiling?
fly around the lamp?
hop onto the windowsill and from there to a tree?

Mr. Newton still has no say in this.
Let him look down from the heavens and wave his hands.

This experiment must be completed.
And it will.

—Wisława Szymborska

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Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.