Divido et vincere

Divide and conquer … divido et vincere … had in my mind that was something Caesar had said, or other ancient Roman origin. Something left over from high school, Miss Hallum’s Latin class, I guess. But no, its earliest use is from the 1600s.  Francis Bacon used “separa et impera” in 1787. About 1862 Lincoln had used “… a house divided against itself cannot stand …” which was in reference to the slave and non-slave states. We know how that played out.

Anyway, seems like that has been in the works in the States for a long time … divide the people against each other and take over the nation. From the beginnings it was the Europeans who made the Native Americans a common foe and took over their lands. During the early 1800s each wave of immigrants were a source for division. The Italians resented the Irish coming in. Then the Irish resented whoever came after them. That Civil War thing happened because of a division among the citizens and went on into the 1900s as white versus black.  Later it was Europeans fleeing Nazism in Germany, who were using Jews as a reason to divide the people.

I suppose even back in long ago history it has always been one group of people make another group the common enemy. Most likely using that as reason to increase someone’s power and influence, becoming an Emperor, King, Monarch.

But currently in the States it has been politics, dividing the people into republicans and democrats. That is more so now than it had been in the past. Seems like liberals and liberalism have been made something to despise, to hate, an evil thing. Doesn’t matter that about half the population believes otherwise. But then another group, or someone, comes along and uses the division to cease power and influence for themselves. Much like the Hitlers, Napoleons, Czars, Khans, Ceasars, Kings throughout history.

So that’s where we are in the States now. Use some political reason, some class of people, some ideological principle to make the people argue, fuss, fight among themselves so that a manipulating group can take over the nation for their own goals and objectives.

Jerry Hughes

Pickens

Overtime pay

Dear Editor,
In June, when I updated you on the EMS expansion and improvements, I wrote: “If the federal government eliminates income taxes on overtime, that will further boost the take home pay of EMS and other workers who have built in overtime in their pay structure.”
The “Big Beautiful Bill” has passed and has been signed by the president. The new law reduces federal taxes on overtime pay, however, there are two points to keep in mind.
One, the overtime tax rate is not falling to 0 percent. Instead, they are giving overtime workers an income tax deduction of $12,500 for single filers and $25,000 for married couples. By the way, no tax on tips is similar, except the limit of $25,000 is for married and single filers.
Second, the tax deduction for overtime is only on the “half” portion of the overtime hours. I’ll explain that aspect below in our examples.
Let’s say a person works 780 hours a year in overtime, and their hourly rate is $20. Some workers (mainly those who work 24-hour shifts and to a lesser extent those who

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