SecondJon @SecondJon@qoto.org

"During the civil war, the Union counterfeited Confederate currency and deliberately gave it away in the South to cause massive inflation. "

https://www.kickassfacts.com/fact-of-the-day/2/

Huh. Glad the government doesn't just give money away anymore.

Wondering if the primary goal of taxes is to get the government as much money as possible OR to reward and punish targets with tax benefits and penalties.

It certainly doesn't seem to provide the government with the amount of money to cover the necessary and only the necessary expenses of government with clear limits.

Headed with the kids to the art museum. The list of supplies is longer than it used to be. We now have to take canned soup and super glue, right? Is it one can and one give per kid, or per family?

For the record, I too have not accepted a $50 million 4 year contract to do a podcast.

Tonight's reading from Jeremiah 19 seems like it should be shocking. Even elders among the priests were called out because "the people have forsaken me....they have filled this place with the blood of innocents... to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings...which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind"

Even the religious leaders seem complicit in the death of the youngest children as sacrifice in exchange for... What? The hope of a better life for the adults?

It's framed here as totally foreign and opposite of the ideas of the God of Israel they claimed to represent.

Despite being called out on this by Jeremiah, they don't change and subsequently face divine punishment they evidently thought would never come.

Thinking about how this might apply today...

I don't disown ten percent of our family when times get tough. I don't banish our children when they don't perform.

I grow concerned when a corporate culture is built on telling employees that their work is now their family. Even the healthiest corporation isn't a family...and presenting it as if it is seems unhealthy to me.

With Salesforce leting go 10% of its Ohana (Hawaiian for "family") employees, I find it helpful to remember the importance of family and other support systems in addition to the workplace.

Colorado law in 2023 welcomes late term abortion and requires increasingly humane treatment of chickens.

I hear the Right saying that congress shouldn't have publicized Trump tax returns. I hear the Left saying How Dare He have years of hardly paying any taxes.

Haven't heard anyone yet say what anyone did that's illegal.

Is the issue that the congress who released the returns is responsible for a tax system that creates the very situation I'm supposed to be outraged about?