Is it ‘drip’ or ‘screw’?

Not sure what my aging ear heard but it sounded like “drip, drip, drip” or the dreadful hallway sex-yell, you know, “Screw you”, quickly reciprocated by, “Screw you too!” Let’s figure out the beastly monster.

Is a deluge on the way? Shouldn’t someone be checking the lady’s coiffure (expansive and expensive hairstyles) and high heels in both the Inos and Torres camps? Are the boys’ boots still dry? Or has it been soaking and itching but no one wants to complaint for fear of tattle telling?

The implosion of real time disunity has finally gone off. It’s irreversible. The senior Inos team just got miffed, being run over by less experienced juniors from the Torres camp. No mas! Each team has decided to go it alone. What happens next is really up to the wedged solutions driven team.

If the governor decides on an early out, he then must declare a special election. The lieutenant governor isn’t going to have it easy under this scenario. A GOP insider related that about half of the GOP is ready for a “new” person as the likely standard bearer. Not ready as yet for a date with Mr. Ralph Torres at the helm. It’s a helluva rumble in GOP land. Brace for it!

They wanted to secure power as presumptive heir apparent! Fine. But in doing so it also burns bridges requiring more than sanctimonious diplomacy or double speak to mend differences. The Inos team is probably smiling contentedly saying, “Screw you!” Comes the “drip” as the Torres side wished it were still the good old days when Inos led the assault before hitting the campaign trail.

The implosion has quietly but intractably wedged the GOP since months ago. It’s been kept under the lid but the cat is finally out of the bag, so to speak. It’s a tough cookie to negotiate with calm and civility. It’s one nasty irreconcilable feud you can’t muffle with “biba.”

This division is itself the signal of the GOP’s final demise that parallels the Democrats’ disintegration over 40 years ago. It still is picking up the pieces today.

The metaphor turns colorful when things go haywire. Interestingly, people ask innocently, if not facetiously, “Where’s the water coming from?” Who turned on the “water of permanent hostility and disunity”?

What do I do? I think I’d better settle for courtroom rather than hallway sex. It comes a little softly with some pleasant surprises. It includes dividing pennies from the last social security check only to find out there isn’t enough for my medication and occasional hamburger! Suzzzz!

Taxes chase investors

In 2013, Texas gained the most taxpayers while New York lost the most. The state with the most growth in new taxpayers? Texas!

The state, governed by Republican Rick Perry during the 2012-2013 year, saw a positive net migration of 152,477 people. “Texas accounted for more than half of the net migration into the South,” the IRS reports.

While Texas may have gained the most people, Florida—also governed by a Republican (current Gov. Rick Scott)—showed the greatest amount of net wealth gain from any other state. New Floridians brought $8.34 billion in adjusted gross income to the state.

America’s “Biggest Loser,” in Americans for Tax Reform’s terms, is New York. It lost the most amount of taxpayers compared to any other state. Governed by Democrat Andrew Cuomo, New York saw a loss of almost 115,000 people.

Taxpayers leaving New York took with them $5.65 billion in adjusted gross income. Here at home I wonder if we even know what the arcane tax system has done against investment or anything up that alley. Do we sleepwalk it again? When do we clamp down to doing what’s right for the NMI resetting its goal on investments?

Do you see why we must have a set of plans? Or do we wink it once more sashaying into familiar sleepwalk land? Ever heard of the word “vision?” Dios mihu!

More than rules: I was really hoping the Tinian Gaming Commission would buckle down to the other side of the set of rules that must be followed. It’s called the human aspect of the gaming industry on such a small island community. The choice is hopelessly zero!

A provisional license would have sufficed initially. It would have sent the firm back to the drawing board to begin putting its act together to meeting the statutory requirements being sought by the commission. Employees continue working meeting familial obligations while no one is displaced. It would have been one happy medium where everybody’s a winner!

It’s bad enough the industry is hit by double whammy disasters that shut it off from the rest of the world, doubled down by another shutter after a superstorm left it in tatters. In fact, it would have been highly responsible of the commission to ensure the employment of over 140 employees so they could have something to use during the immediate recovery period.

Culture of privilege: The conviction and sentencing of a former governor sustained my trust and faith in the institution of justice here. I was happy until “commutation” kicked everybody on the face, making a mockery of our people’s aspirations for good democratic governance.

The sitting governor simply missed the opportunity to demonstrate “privilege and impunity” no longer have a place in our system of justice. What an immense failure! Political camaraderie isn’t leadership; it’s demagoguery in all its form and substance!

Historical lessons: The Spanish did away with indigenous land tenure system where the largest class of Chamorro—the Manachañg—was denied landownership. It made everyone a landowner and it was from this lesson in history that we started learning the essence of justice.

We kept this system intact, based on individual landownership, until 1978 when we decided it was fine to deny our fellow man his ownership to land and property.