Our income tax penalties

We’ve been filing a joint income tax return since 1973, the year we got married.  Every year.  I fill out the return.  I don’t know much about tax policies, so we usually end up paying.  One year in the Seventies we had to sell our car to pay the tax.  We also don’t file quarterly.  Sometimes we get a penalty, but the paying the penalty is worth more than going through the rigamarole of filing four times a year.

A week ago I got a penalty of $160.05.  Not too bad.  The letter was addressed just to me.  Linda also received the exact same letter with a penalty of $160.05.  Since we filed a joint return that doesn’t seem right.  And since we don’t have a tax consultant, I must now attempt to call the I.R.S. to find out if a mistake was made.  

A few days after these letters arrived, I read this headline in the New York Times:  “Republicans Let Trump Keep an Unparalleled Benefit: I.R.S. Immunity.”  The article was by Andrew Duehren in the Aug. 6 issue on page A15.  And I find it very irritating.  I’m thinking of simply photocopying it and sending it along with a note that says, “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander” and see what happens.

Congressman Rob Bresnahan donates his salary back

I heard that on a political ad this evening.  And I thought, Wow!  I am very impressed.  He bought himself a congressional seat, and that must have set him back.  His net worth is only a little over #40 million. 

What a sacrifice he is making in donating back his Congressional salary.  His family is probably forced to go to food banks.  I’ll bet he’s wearing clothes he buys at Goodwill.  What a guy.  The main is practically a saint.

Agents Provocateurs and Congressman Ryan Mackenzie

A number of thugs follow 7th PA Congressional District Democratic candidate Bob Brooks to his various campaign events, including his appearance at the Carbon County fair.  They were also at the Democratic candidate debate in Carbon County.  They are “agents provocateurs.”  That is French for “inciting agent.”  Those tactics have an old history, often used in the past by extremist parties like the German Nazi party.  The idea is to stir up trouble and then use the trouble to discredit your opponents.

It is too bad that Republican candidates have resorted to this kind of authoritarian behavior, but it isn’t surprising.  The racial gerrymandering, the dark money, the attempts to subvert mail-in ballots, the constant whining about stolen elections only when they lose, false claims about illegal voting–what has happened to free and fair elections?

Could Ryan Mackenzie, Brooks’s opponent, call off these thugs?  No doubt, but I don’t think he will.

When I searched for “Agent Provocateur” to make sure I spelled it right, I learned it is also a brand of women’s lingerie.  It’s an expression of “confidence, sensuality, and style.”  Could the thugs be wearing it under their clothes?  Something to consider.

Chat GPT Uploads "The Terminator," Begins Hunt for Sarah Connor

This can not be good. 

Jeanine Pirro gives me Schadenfreude

Trump used Fox as a recruiting pool, and now one of his picks has had a problem with a different kind of pool and Trump is angry.  Trump appointed  former Fox “News” legal analyst Jeanine Pirro as federal prosecutor for D.C.  Yesterday she dropped the case against the man accused of vandalizing the reflecting pool.  The evidence was non-existent and the charge was ridiculous.  Pirro really had no choice.

Except that Trump hates–hates–to be contradicted.  Pirro might just be fired.  I hope so.  I love internal squabbles in the Administration.  

Hey, whatever happened to Kristi Noem? 

Blissfully ignorant

The owner of the Four Winds Craft Guild, an upscale artisan craft and antique shop on Nantucket, put up a sign that said “No Influencers,” and his friend posted it on Instagram.  An “influencer” named Paige Paul, who has over a million followers, said the sign was the same as a sign barring women.

When I read this, I realized I have never seen an “influencer.”  They don’t pop up on my emails, and you can’t get them on a landline, which is the only phone I own.  This is one of the reasons when Charlie Kirk was shot, my reaction was “Who?”

My second takeaway was: A MILLION FOLLOWERS!  Wow.  I usually get between 15 and 20 people reading these posts.  I once got a hundred.

My third takeaway was:  Why would anyone take the time to read people like Joseph Rogan or that asswipe who runs the Proud Boys?  Really?  Don’t people have anything better to do?  Get a library card.

Lastly, I thought:  I’ve got to figure out how to become an “influencer.”  This could be a whole new career.

Some info for this post is from an article by Madison Malone Kircher entitled “Two Words Cause Many on Nantucket to Weigh In” in today’s N.Y.T., p. 3st.

Presidential primaries in 2028

In many past elections the presidential nomination process began with caucuses in Iowa followed by a primary in New Hampshire.  Candidates with good organizations could win in both those states.  Both states had relatively small populations which lent themselves to personalized campaigning.

Unfortunately, neither Iowa nor New Hampshire are particularly representative of members of the Democratic Party in 2028.  Both states have mostly white voters, and neither state is a Democratic stronghold.  Since political parties can determine their own nominating process, the national Democratic organization decided the first six states will vote in this order:  South Carolina (in January) followed by Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Michigan, and Virginia.  

That’s a nice cross-county mixture of urban and rural.  Black voters, Latino voters, union members, and big city residents are all represented.  It should be an interesting contest.