I saw this on X today. It got me thinking.

Refuse MEME.Up until March or April of 2020 I was suspicious of our Government but still naively believed that they were mostly okay, and that corruption was not the norm.

We had a new President, a supposedly novel and little understood disease, (turns out it was neither since Covid-19 is apparently a chimera virus built in a lab,) and 14 days to stop the spread.

At the time I believed that President Trump had been falsely maligned for attempting to close the border and the Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats were out of their minds fighting him on the subject. Then, as now, I think their fighting him was about nothing more than abject, bitter, hatred.

Either they knew that COVID-19 wasn’t a real threat, or they were colluding with other world leaders to make sure the whole planet was exposed. I still find it hard to wrap my head around the possibility that these politicians hated Trump so much that they’d rather burn the world down, than admit he was right.

I say this because the logic of quarantining a region where an unknown disease has originated is irrefutable.

If a disease originates in a particular region, and is essentially confined to that region, you prevent travel from or to the region. That allows time for the medical folks to suit up in biohazard suits to minister to the afflicted without contaminating the rest of the world. In no scenario do you allow travel by air to destinations around the world. 

This is actually something we’ve known since the 1950s when nuclear and biological weapons were a real possibility and our military ran endless scenarios regarding the outcomes of either, based on prevailing wind patterns.

If things had ended there, I would have written it off as a series of poor decisions and chalked it up to morons being elected to Congress.

But then it went further. Suddenly we had a vaccine, but vaccines take decades of clinical trials or at least they’re supposed to.

We had doctors suggesting caution regarding the vaccine, who were then censored.

As the situation went on, it devolved. President Biden claimed it was a pandemic of the unvaccinated and painted all those folks as pariahs for choosing to exercise their right to bodily autonomy.

It was the first time in my life that I felt completely and utterly betrayed by my government.

Worse was the sense of betrayal I felt when most of the country turned off their brains and many would gladly have seen unvaccinated people thrown into camps.

People from all walks of life suddenly felt like potential enemies, and some places went so far as to go “fascist” demanding to see your covid shot record. The NAZIs did that regarding people’s IDs and travel permits. “Where are your papers?” Was used to terrorize citizens of occupied nations.

Hospitals refused to help cancer patients or perform some surgeries on people unless they were “Cleansed” by an experimental vaccine.

I spent these years feeling more alienated than at any point in my life. What was being forced on the American people and indeed the world was absolutely, undeniably wrong.

I still feel alienated. The schism created by politics, the BLM summer of “Love”, lockdowns, and all the rest has made me feel very disconnected. 

Add the revelations of widespread waste, and potential corruption, throughout the government and, well, as the late Jerry Doyle put it in the title of his 2010 book “Have You Seen My Country Lately?: America’s Wake-Up Call” 

Have you seen my country lately? I seem to have misplaced it. Whatever this is now, it’s not the country I thought I lived in. 

Granted, Trump, Musk, Bondi, Hegseth, Vance, Patel, and all the rest claim to be working to restore our nation. They may in fact be doing that in every way but one of the most critical.

The soul of our nation had been very wounded for a long time. Thus far I’ve not heard a plan to heal that wound.  I still feel very alienated and mistrusting of my fellow citizens and more so, our government.

I don’t think we should live in the past. But I do think we shouldn’t forget how wrong things went, or how quickly. There’s a cautionary tale here, and something important to be learned.

Whew! Democrats still big mad & I’m still working through tax stuff.

Since I’m still working through tax stuff I have very little pity for the pissed off Democrats.

Their little stunt Tuesday night may have backfired horribly.

Even CNN & NBC reporters weren’t particularly kind. But more interesting is some of the “Man on the Street” interviews have folks claiming they’re Democrats and vowing never to vote Democrat again.

I take that with a grain of salt because people on the street can claim to be anything they wish. Nonetheless it’s interesting to think about the ramifications.

Did the leadership of the Democratic Party just put a large, or perhaps, final nail in the party’s coffin? Time will tell.

They did a fine job of alienating a lot of folks with their refusal to acknowledge even good things that universally everyone should have been able to get behind.

President Trump said it flat out, when he pointed at them saying something like; There is nothing I could do or say that would make these people smile or be happy. That’s sad…

Indeed it is sad because these are the people who for the past four years were talking about unity, democracy, and truth.

What they meant of course was compliance and acceptance of their “Divine Rule”. Then they negated democracy by installing Kamala after the people had already chosen Biden for a second term, then we find out they lied for years about Biden’s decline.

I find myself asking, what did they expect when all those chickens came home to roost? Did they think the American people would simply ignore, or forget these issues? 

President Trump could have pounded them a lot harder than he did. I laughed at some of the swipes he took because they were funny. I think his approach of stating the simple truth was far more effective.

My favorite was his comment about the border. “Biden said we needed new laws to address the border, turns out all we needed was a new President.” That one cracked me up!

My personal takeaway of the subtext President Trump delivered was, “I can’t please you no matter what, so I’m not even going to try.”

Which means he’s going to move on without bothering to consult the Democrats. They’ve become irrelevant and are nothing more than a nuisance when it comes to confirmation hearings or passing bills into law.

Honestly, that worries me. There should be a healthy balance between the two parties and they should be able to discuss subjects from two different perspectives. 

That the Democrats have beclowned themselves as they have, may not be a good thing in the long run. In the short term some good might come of it.

Good, as in term limits for Congress, laws against congressional stock trading, and much closer oversight into campaign financing.

I’d like to see some oversight into just how it’s possible so many congressmen get into congress with net worths of a few hundred thousand dollars and come out of congress with millions in 2 or 6 years. Congressional salaries are high but not that high.

I’m not saying there is any wrongdoing, but you have to admit, it looks odd.

Maxine Waters was on X claiming that Donald Trump and Elon Musk stole the election by manipulating the voting count. She claims that somehow Musk and his “Hackers” put Trump in office. That really cracked me up because when Biden was elected she was all in stating anyone who disputed the election results was deluded and a conspiracy nut. 

Ilhan Omar and the rest of “The Squad” may have screwed the pooch too, with what I and many Americans perceive as, at best divided loyalties, and at worst loyalties to other countries.

A bill has been introduced to impose similar birthplace requirements the President must meet, on Congress.

This is something I’m sure that a lot of Americans will see as a good thing. I’m not so sure. While I hate that Omar is always badmouthing America, and may have cheated the immigration system. I’m not sure that excluding naturalized citizens from congress is a good thing. I don’t think it’s fair to punish everyone over someone like Omar.

On the plus side, doing so now may stave off what we’ve seen happening in Europe where large numbers of people of specific religious or national origins are welcomed, then move into politics enshrining their customs or beliefs into law and punishing those who disagree, or even ask questions. 

See England for examples.

The down side is that welcomed, legal, immigrant groups may end up waiting a generation before they’re fully represented in Congress. At this point, that may be a non-issue, I’m not sure.

I saw one talking head suggesting this is xenophobic. I think that’s a bullshit argument. It’s not xenophobia, I think it’s more a kind of protectionism.

As an aside, If you want to talk about xenophobia let’s look at the members of Congress saying that Elon Musk should go back to South Africa even though he’s been a naturalized citizen for over 20 years.

Ideally, I think you want people in Congress to have deep ties to the country and their constituents. I’m not sure how to best meet these needs and exclude people like Omar, Talib, & AOC, who clearly seem to hate our nation, our people, and our history.

There’s another idea I’ve seen floated on social media suggesting that Congressional candidates should have to take, and pass, the same exam regarding The Constitution and rights that naturalized citizens take as part of their citizenship application, before their candidacy is valid.

That might be a good idea. Maybe adding cognitive testing should be part of the candidacy process for Congress and the Presidency as well.

It’s really interesting to note that 29 Congresspersons were born outside the United States. Of those, 25 are Democrats. That seems to be a rather skewed percentage.

There is a part of me that thinks Voter ID and paper ballots might change the balance. Incidentally, I believe that a national law requiring ID and paper ballots should be a top priority of the Trump administration and Congress.

That would go a long way toward putting an end to allegations of voter fraud. It would probably limit any voter fraud to an acceptable percentage of .001 percent. It would sure make me more willing to accept election results.

I’d like to see us go back to voting on one day. It might be a good thing to make Election Day a national holiday as some have suggested.

I’d even like to see mail-in ballots limited, and certainly not automatically sent as they are in California and some other states.

I think we should have to request a mail in ballot prior to each election. In other words, the citizens would have to be responsible enough to plan ahead.

Really, don’t we want engaged voters? You know, voters who actually pay attention and exercise their right to vote with purpose, instead of getting the mail and guessing about candidates in the voting booth?

The primary opposition to these sorts of things are always Democrats. They make excuses like not everyone has ID, or poor folks can’t afford ID, or deployed military folks would be excluded from voting. 

All of which could be easily addressed. Give everyone free basic state ID that has citizenship clearly marked, as the Real-ID act calls for. Make exceptions for deployed military members, although I’d bet you could have voting in person and tabulation at every single military base. I’d go so far as to believe the military results could be certified and reported by midnight.

Congress001_original 1.I’m very in favor of simple common sense changes being made that should make things better for everyone.

This is all stuff that’s been running through my mind while I’ve been searching for various documents with numbers on them to plug into various tax forms.

I’d probably be a lot less pissed off filing my taxes, if I had faith that our government wasn’t a hot mess of compromised officials.

Oh well, back to the document search.

Have a good day.

They almost won…

Trump address Congress.width-1024.I set time aside to listen to President Trump’s speech.

The man had no sooner taken the podium than the Democrats began showing their asses.

I understand that the Democrats are angry and upset. 

However, I am an American citizen. Donald Trump is the sitting President. I would very much like to hear what he has to say.

Congressional Democrats attempted to do ME Personally a disservice by not allowing me to hear The President. They should be ashamed!

This is unacceptable behavior for anyone in Congress. Including Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. I want the Congress People to sit down and shut the hell up when the Commander in Chief speaks.

L intro 1741145029.It’s one thing when a comedian turned President acts up in The Oval Office.

It’s quite another thing for politicians representing American people to be disrespectful, to both the President and the American People in the House Chamber.

I turned the damn television off because I was so offended.

I’m willing to say I will never vote for another Democrat. I’ve always been willing to listen to what Democrats said. I’ve voted for them if they made sense and I believed they could do a good job.

Effective tonight, I don’t think that I could in good conscience vote for any Democrat.

They have repeatedly disrespected Me.

I am angry about that. 

The Sargent at Arms removing Al Green was not enough. 

I want to see investigations, not the Congressional talk, talk, talk. The kind that end with Uniformed Officers sweeping in making arrests.

You see, I’ve had enough of our Government running amok.

I’m glad that I tuned back in after the Democrat shenanigan’s were put down.

I liked hearing the rest of the speech and noted that the Democrats eventually read the room and just sat glowering. 

I have to say that Senator Elissa Slotkin made good points. Generally I disagree with her. But I’m not sure if that is because I was so offended by her colleagues or if I have valid reasons form my disagreement.

I know I just wrote I wouldn’t vote for another Democrat. However, I must as a part of my duty listen to the opposing side.

I know it’s tax season but dang!!!!

IRS Thieves.So it’s tax season.

Everyone is “thrilled”. Especially now that we know that 100 billion of our taxes went “Missing” miraculously in transit to Ukraine. Then we’ve seen how more of money has been wasted by USAID and God only knows what other B.S. departments within our government.

What I’m saying is everyone is cranky. Myself included.

This has bearing on me, because I’m trying to locate either an application that I can use to plug in the finite numbers of my income, interest paid, medical expenses, etc. have this super powerful computer in my lap, do the freaking math, then print out the results on a form to mail to the freaking Tax collectors Federal & State.

Or someone to do my taxes that doesn’t add $300 to $1000 to my already overly expensive taxes, which feel like forced donation to a bunch of clowns with zero respect for the American People.

You’d think this would be simple. You’d be wrong!

I read reviews. I’ve been reading reviews about TurboTax (who by the way annoy me because their website tells me to login to a nonexistent account when I try to purchase their software and doesn’t have a provision to create the account. So if they can’t get a website software right, do I have faith in their ability to actually do my tax math right? Perhaps Not!)

It seems that I’m not alone in questioning TurboTax, but others are flat out livid that the applications both desktop and mobile don’t work as advertised and that they nickel & dime you to death to boot.

Then there’s H&R Block. I used them many years ago and was okay with them. Keyword, many years ago… Their reviews are also not particularly favorable. For the same reasons as TurboTax. Unexpected add on fees. Malfunctions in the applications. One review said that the IRS was rejecting the H&R Block filing because the SS and DOB didn’t match IRS records. H&R Block was not only unhelpful, but downright dismissive and apparently didn’t refund the e-filing fee either.

TaySlayer? They too have strings of nasty reviews. Agin citing unexpected fees, application / web site problems and unresponsive customer support. 

To be fair, when I’m looking at reviews I sort them by “most recent”. Given the general crankiness of the American people at Tax time, coupled with what appears to be stratospheric corruption in the government. Perhaps the reviews are more negative because the folks reviewing these applications or agencies are just really pissed off.

Nonetheless, for someone like me that has used an accountant to do my taxes for the past 30+ years…

It makes things more difficult.


Update: Less than an hour after posting this. Costco sent me an email that said I could get TurboTax through them for ~ $60.

That was by far the best price I’d seen and since all the tax programs were about the same price, $80 – $90 I jumped on the discount from Costco.

My taxes are done. I haven’t sent anything yet. 

I’ve got a multiyear tax mess that I’m fixing and I need to get previous years editions. I want to make sure that the previous stuff doesn’t affect the current data. I don’t think it will but I’m mistrustful of anything associated with the IRS.

Honestly, I’ve been terrified of the IRS and taxes for my entire adult life. Part of that is the way the IRS dealt with my father and stepfather when they’d made mistakes. In the case of my stepfather the mistake wasn’t his.

It was a company he worked for who was purchased. Both companies sent W-2s the purchasing company neglected to check the amended box on the 2nd W2 stating that the 2nd simply changed the name of the company to the IRS which doubled his income. It took 6 months for him to get the IRS to understand what happened. It took corporate attorneys, and all manner of accountants, plus time off from work.

Those memories made unwilling to attempt to do my own taxes when it was just paper, and a calculator. Over the years, it became habit and I thought nothing of it until last year when my accountant really dropped the ball.

This by the way was the second time he’d screwed up in 20 years and both times cost me a shit ton of money. He of course danced away without even a “Sorry about that.” Last year he screwed up the calculation on my state return as well.

So this baggage was on my mind as I fired up my brand new Turbotax. Interesting thing is that the program asked me to create an account, unlike their screwy website that wouldn’t allow a purchase without an account and wouldn’t let me create one.

I sat here for about 2 hours maybe a little longer because I had to dig up some bits of information. In the end, after I’d put all the data in, and answered the questions the program asked, Turbotax put my super powerful computer to the math tasks for about 5 – 10 seconds.

The CPU didn’t even breathe hard. It looked like the program reached out to verify some rules or something because there was a data burst on the router.

Then bingo. 

Everything was finished. The program ran a probability of audit based on the data provided and gave me a near zero possibility. 

The requisite information was transferred to the state tax subroutines. There were a few more questions then another 5 -10 seconds and bingo the state was done too.

I smiled. This is what a super powerful computer is supposed to do!

Something else changed too.

I can do this crap! My computer and I can handle it. 

1/4 of the load was taken off my mind. The remaining 3/4 I can do. Although, the last 1/4 might be a bit of a challenge. I’m confident.

And because I hate the IRS and state taxation… I’m mailing in hardcopies. Maybe next year, I’ll e-file. But why should I make it easy for them?

I’m paying for the software, I paid for the computer, I’d have to pay a nominal fee to e-file. Seems to me the IRS and State should take $100 off our taxes for making their job easy by transferring the preprocessed data directly to their computers.

Maybe I’m being petty.

That was easier than I thought it would be…

Apple account migration.jpg.First, some background.

There once was a time when every time I walked into an Apple Store they asked me for an email address. At the time I was trying every free email provider on the planet, so I’d give the Apple folks whichever email address I was using at that particular moment.

What I didn’t know is that Apple was creating Apple IDs with all these weird email addresses. I didn’t find this out until years later when I was talking with Apple Tech support about some purchased music that I couldn’t locate in my iTunes library.

When the representative asked me which Apple ID I’d purchased the music under, I was taken aback. To my knowledge I had a primary Apple ID and a secondary Apple ID that was used exclusively for purchases.

The Representative told me I had 15 Apple IDs that had become associated with my name over the years. How he knew this, had something to do with them all being associated with my phone number or other identifying stuff.

Needless to say, I asked that he delete all but the primary and move my purchases to the primary account. I was trying to implement Highlander rules and make it so “there can be only one!”

Alas, that wasn’t possible. So I stuck with the two Apple IDs and in fact it was a security feature because if someone got my primary Apple ID, they wouldn’t have access to my credit card information stored with the secondary ID. A pitiful security feature but that was the best I could do at the time.

Apple has since strengthened their security and I began to wish that I only had one Apple ID. 

Within the past month or so, Apple rolled out the ability to merge IDs.

I gave it a shot yesterday. I’d seen that other people were having problems with the process and since I had a large library of music and video I called Apple Support.

I wanted them to be there watching on their end in case everything blew up. At least they’d leave fingerprints on the process.

The Representative was very helpful and we walked through the process together. Much to my surprise, (because when it comes to software, if it’s gonna break, it’s gonna break on me,) the process worked like a champ. Everything from the secondary and primary accounts moved/merged within just a few minutes. Apple warns that it could take hours. 

The Apple Representative waited patiently as I made appropriate changes to My computer, iPad, Watch, Apple TVs, HomePods, and HomePod Minis.

Everything worked as advertised and now

There is Only One!

It’s a simple thing, but it will make maintenance and replacing devices in the future much simpler.

So good job Apple!

And thank you.