Category: Government

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There’s an old saying, “If you find yourself in a hole,”

STOP DIGGING!

Newsom 1536x864.Apparently Governor Newsom hasn’t heard that one. In truth a lot of politicians have never heard that one, or met any expensive project they didn’t want to pull out Our wallets to fund.

After asking for 3.44 billion last week to provide state services for illegal aliens, he’s asking for 2.8 billion this week to fund Medi-Cal so that the state can provide medical coverage for illegal aliens.

This is classic Sacramento, and really stupid!

The simplest solution is the obvious one. Send the illegal aliens packing. Get on the horn to President Trump and request Tom Homan clear California ASAP.

That would mean admitting that sanctuary policies are wrong-headed even if they’re based in charity and kindness. In truth, I don’t believe there’s anything charitable or kind about California’s sanctuary policies. 

I believe it’s about something else, probably to do with money, graft, and corruption. I’d love to see a DOGE like agency rip through the California government.

Newsom will never admit the policies are wrong, or that they’re driving the state further into debt. Or that the quality of life is degrading in California. Or that none of these expenditures are helping the homeless California American Citizens. 

Most of all, Newsom will never admit that perhaps Trump was right in that allowing unlimited illegal aliens is unsustainable.

Nope, he’ll just keep asking for money. The California legislature will keep adding taxes, then they’ll add hidden taxes (they call fees). Then local taxes with their attendant fees go up, and all the while, a segment of the population gets handouts that citizens don’t get, and aren’t qualified to get no matter their need.

I recently noticed that my auto registration is over 1/2 fees. The registration part of the bill, (you know, the actual sticker) is $150. The remainder of the almost $400 bill is a bunch of stuff that goes directly to Sacramento waste and has nothing to do with the registration. Oh, and just for reference none of those fees are tax deductible. The registration portion of the bill ($150) is deductible, but nothing else is.

I probably wouldn’t be so annoyed except that there are roads here so rough and debris covered that you need a kidney belt and the evasive driving skills of a professional race car driver to navigate.

Honestly. I understand people wanting to come to America for better lives. I applaud and welcome those folks that come here and work so hard to become citizens.

But Newsom asking for over 6 billion dollars to support people whose arrival started with a crime. Then continue to require ever increasing funding, while degrading the quality of life for people who are actual citizens, is a hole that can never be filled, and one which we should stop digging deeper.

Newsom needs to put the damn shovel down.

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As Anticipated, Making Apple’s ADP Unavilable to UK citizens wasn’t enough.

HD wallpaper london doomsday big ben clock dark doom england lightning uk united kingdom.Big Surprise!

NOT!

Here’s a link to another article about the UK hearings

The UK simply cannot be trusted with a back door decryption key. No government entity could be.

I don’t care who. We certainly can’t trust the United States Government based on what we’re learning about the corruption there. 

We have no reason to believe any other government would be trustworthy.

According to Apple, even they don’t have the keys once the ADP system is turned on. The upside is Apple cannot be compelled to disclose something they don’t have. The downside is if you lose your recovery key, or your devices you’ll not be able to recover your data either.

Everything has a risk. The question to answer would be, “Is this an acceptable risk?”

I’ve been considering the Pros & Cons for my personal situation. There are some documents that I’d like to store in iCloud but haven’t, because I was concerned about security. Enabling ADP would make me feel a lot more comfortable about sensitive documents being in iCloud.

The trouble with that is, in the event of some catastrophe, such as the house burning down and losing all of my devices where would I store the recovery key?

The reason I consider the iCloud solution is because I’ve had a house burn down and did lose all my devices. After the fire it was very difficult to recover a lot of critical items/paperwork and some, I was never able to recover.

Scanning and storing those kinds of documents in cloud based storage makes sense until you consider the possibility of hackers gaining access to what would be a gold mine of information.

Consider for example, having your home, papers, and all your data storage destroyed but having that data in the cloud. With ADP enabled, hackers couldn’t further compromise you. But without ADP, hackers, who are soulless animals, could be able to utterly destroy your life while you were trying to recover.

After the fire, there were all kinds of strangers showing up “Offering to help” but they weren’t neighbors nor did they know me. These were people who, for a percentage would have been happy to “help” me, A.K.A. to rip me off. Due to record keeping, police & fire reports, my name, address, and personal information was widely available to anybody.

It felt like I was waving a torch at a bunch of jackals closing in for the kill.

It’s because of this experience and the other half having their identity stolen several times that I have been adamantly opposed to storing anything of importance in the cloud.

However, I’ve been reconsidering that stance due to the advances in security Apple has made both on their devices, and in their cloud storage.

Now, with the UK’s demands I feel that Apple is being pushed up against the wall.

The UK is also just fucking sneaky about how they do this stuff. Apple can’t mention it, Apple can’t have open public hearings on the matter, the UK wants to do all of this in back rooms, in the dark.

United kingdom dark flag texture_204197 4943.That, in my opinion, is never a good look for any government.

If the UK persists in their unreasonable demand, I could see Apple making a tough decision like closing all their stores in the UK.

Imagine that! Apple fires all their UK employees, closes their stores and refuses to sell their products or services in the UK.

That would be one hell of a statement on Apple’s commitment to privacy.

I doubt that would happen, but my goodness what a message to totalitarian elements within the UK government.

The other part of this is why is the UK so determined to compromise their people? If the issue is to put an end to crime, then what kind of crime do they seek to end? Are they fighting terrorist elements they’ve allowed into their country? 

Or are they trying to make sure that UK citizens who have reached their limit with unending migrants and cultural accommodation resulting in child rapes, don’t have the ability to become nationalists rising up in defense of the UK?

Honestly, the latter wouldn’t surprise me since in the UK you can be arrested and harassed simply for saying you don’t like the muslim invasion on social media.

This line of thinking leads to another question. 

“Who is pulling the UK government’s strings?”

Is it the EU? I thought the UK had pulled out of that globalist crap.

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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.

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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.

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Hmm. Talk about misreading a room!

I’m honestly not sure what to think about this whole Zelensky affair.

Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.Seeing the Ukrainian Ambassador essentially face palm it was pretty darn funny. Her expression was one of “Oh Shit! This isn’t going well at all.”

We’ll never know if she told Zelensky to just make nice in front of the cameras, sign the mineral deal, and we’ll negotiate these other issues on the backend. 

That probably would have worked very well. “Give a little, get a little”.

Trump and his people are no doubt very aware that the American People have had quite enough lighting our tax dollars on fire. Therefore a public showing of American getting something in return for their support of Ukraine, and a more private deal in a conference room who’ll have been much more likely to have been agreed to.

There’ve been reports that part of the deal Trump was suggesting was to negotiate more European involvement in securing Ukraine in addition to America naturally protecting businesses and citizens who would be working on the minerals side of things.

I believe and always have believed that Putin’s biggest reason for invading Ukraine, (Aside from Biden being very poor in international policy), was the NATO connection. NATO membership for Ukraine brings with it, all kinds of unacceptable issues including weapons systems and potentially nukes of various types right to the border of Russia.

Biden’s posturing about Ukraine being given NATO membership, might not have been the only reason Putin Invaded, but it damn sure had to have been a factor.

Zelensky getting mouthy with The President, The Vice President, The Secretary of State and others, in front of The American People, in The White House was a super bad move.

For many of the American people tired of financing the Ukraine, Zelensky looked like one of those homeless people who demand money from you as you walk past then get belligerent when you say you haven’t got anything to give them.

Indeed lots of Americans have suffered with taxes, inflation, and all the other issues the past 5 years brought them. And yet Billions kept flowing to Ukraine while our own people suffered. 

I think Zelensky will not be seeing any more American money, weapons, or resources. Even if he apologizes it might not matter. Americans are souring on propping up everybody else’s countries or governments. Especially when doing so leaves our people wanting.

I’m leaning toward Zelensky missing some social queues. Perhaps he thought he’d plead his case in front of the American People, hoping that they would intercede with the mean new administration. If that was his plan, he grossly misread America.

Zelensky was being criticized by medrmebers of his own government Friday evening. Who knows? Zelensky might be on his way out as the President of Ukraine too.