Kind people often ask me what I think of what’s going on out there in the big wide world. Some ask what my father — Herbert Stein, certified genius — would think about it all.
I really don’t know what to think about the political parts. I don’t like Mr. Trump’s tax plan. Why would we even think of cutting taxes on the rich when we have an immense deficit and so much catchup spending on defense to do? Why would we even think of ending free trade, one of the best ideas in history for spreading well-being?
Why, on the other hand, do we have a mass media so overflowing with hatred towards Donald Trump? Where does this level of rage come from? And where is the Trump/Russia collusion the media endlessly talks about? I haven’t seen anything real. Anyway, Trump is President. Isn’t he supposed to set foreign and defense policy? Where is the crime in trying to have communications with Russia? I should think we would want more than anything else to avoid war over there unless NATO is threatened.
I can even see where Putin would try to jam our government and media gears rather than see anything remotely like a threat to Russia. The Russians have been through hell in war — and peace — beyond what we can imagine. Yes, Putin is shifty and paranoid but he has good reason to be.
So, I’m not worried about Russia. They are a poor country half our size. Trump isn’t doing anything wrong with them that I can see… yet.
North Korea is another matter. There is no excuse at all for not building and deploying an ABM system. It’s job one.
And I’m not sure about immigration. This just is too complex for me. I don’t want America to change who we are. I love who we are.
I don’t want us to be El Salvador or Guatemala. Tighter border security makes life or death sense.
But I don’t want kids dying of thirst on our ranches. Someone smarter than I am will need to figure that one out.
So… there’s a lot I don’t know.
But I do know this… I have the most wonderful wife on the planet. She is kind and forgiving beyond what I could have even imagined before I met her. If the whole meaning of God is to forgive, she is god to me. She forgives me over and over. She forgives terrible rudeness. She forgives my weakness for my dogs. She forgives my obsession with my dog, Julie. She has no malice in her. She’s brilliant. She’s beautiful. She turns 70 this June 22. She looks more lovely than when I met her fifty-one years ago.
I do know this. I live in the best country in the world. Free speech is rapidly disappearing, buried by The New Totalitarianism known as political correctness. But we still have a good chunk of it left and I am grabbing onto it with both hands. I can believe in God… so far.
We have prosperity. I can eat anything I want. I have air conditioning, greatest invention of all time.
My house has my wife and two great dogs in it.
I have 1.3 million men and women in uniform protecting me with their lives. I have 2 million police and firefighters protecting me. I have teachers teaching my granddaughter Coco. I have my ultra-handsome son and gorgeous daughter in law. I have my brilliant, funny sister. I have super friends… Phil and Judah and Claude and Nolan and Chinch…Aram and John… Wlady, Bob, Barron, and Steve… and the greatest of geniuses, Warren Buffett.
Best of all, I have gratitude. Thank you dear God, above all for my wife and for America… the defining miracles of my life. Happy Birthday, Big Wifey, and God bless for all eternity those who fought, suffered unimaginably, died, and their families who are pained forever to keep us free and alive. On Memorial Day we offer the most humble possible gratitude to you whose horror makes our joy possible.