Cool and clear. Temps around 70F. Blue skies. That was yesterday and I’m hoping for the same today. It’s been a really nice couple of days after the wet gloominess.
Yesterday was mostly spent at the doctor’s in the morning. I fell asleep for a couple hours in the afternoon when I got home and ate. Then it was kid stuff and family stuff for the rest of the day. A normal day for most people, but kind of abnormal for me.
Today I’ve got another visit in the morning, echo cardiogram, all just routine at this point and mainly driven by age and family history. Nice to have access to this sort of thing. I’ll miss civilization when it crumbles completely but maybe something better will come after. That’s the usual pattern.
There are still Romans living in Rome. And maybe it won’t be that dire. We might be able to pull back from the brink. Wouldn’t take much to pitch us over though. A single bullet might be enough. Everything I see is still telling me we’re living in one of those times when everything changes…
So I’ll be stacking, and working. It’s all little ol’ me can do.
nick
Best wishes, again, for the medical visit, Nick!
It is grey, cold, and pouring rain here. As if November had returned. Meh. I hope it stops soon. I have friends coming tomorrow to help me fell a tree that has been threatening to topple and is upsetting the neighbours. Don’t want slippery, wet conditions for that job…
Pronoun issues?
The scandal at the NSA keeps getting deeper.
Pronoun issues?
– nope. Remember when I announced I’d stop using genders with my family, other than immediate? It’s just a defensive measure. It sure is awkward though. I tried alternating with every other sentence for a while (which sounds silly, but is absurd enough that it should remind readers), tried avoiding it altogether, tried the Hugo award winning author technique of always using female…
No need to dox them or drag them into my online life… so I’m trying to be more circumspect. “Sibling’s spouse” is so much more stilted than “sister in law” that I hate writing it but people suck and so do some aspects of the modern world.
n
What the heII?
Oscar-Winning Actor Gene Hackman, Wife, and Dog Found Dead in Their Home in New Mexico — Authorities Investigating
n
Some real, and quite bad, numbers in this article, both for Stellantis (jeep, dodge, Chrysler, others) and for other automakers.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/article-14439223/third-biggest-car-brand-profit-drop-chrysler-dodge-jeep-ram.html
TL:DR
Poor quality, expensive models and (according to the article) lack of EV versions.
61F and light overcast with a hint of fog. Pretty much like the last few days started off.
D2 is “volunteering” today, which means someone has to get her to the food bank on the other side of town. Fortunately, she’s carpooling with another kid, who coerced their mom into driving. Still, it disrupts the morning routine, because W drives her to the kid’s house, so I have to drive D1 to school. Petty minor issues, but they still do affect me.
Bacon is cooking, coffee is in the cup.
I’ve got about an hour before my appointment, and no one gave me any specific prep rules for the test today.
So I’m treating it as a normal day.
Yum. Bacon.
n
The new Charger is EV only. Dodge is rushing a V6 through the pipeline.
What people want is the Hemi V8 to return.
The Hornet is, to use the term coined by the legendary Brock Yates, a sh*tbox.
I was helping our longtime friend whose husband, my best friend who died several years ago, do her taxes. She asked me to do the taxes. I am using TurboTax. I entered all her information, deductions, SS info, 1099s from her two banks, and imported into TurboTax her information from Ameriprise. That makes the numbers fairly accurate and I have high confidence. I was doing all this because her longtime accountant retired last year.
It turns out she owes the IRS 5 figures, plus a penalty. She contacted her portfolio manager at Ameriprise and he stated she should only owe less than $1K. She had withdrawn $76K from an IRA and only 13% was withheld. Not nearly enough. The Ameriprise advisor said there were some transactions that were not downloadable and would significantly reduce the tax amount. Why weren’t these documents available on the Ameriprise download? Where are the documents?
The advisor said these were direct transfers to a charity and thus were not taxable. Yes, that is true. But the IRS goes by the 1099R and those types of transfers are not reported on a 1099R as the money never passes through the client’s hands. Those types of transfers are usually done when dealing with the RMD and by transferring the required RMD directly to a charity the money is never taxed. This avoids the person getting the income and having to declare the deduction on schedule A.
My friend then contacted the retired accountant. He stated that TurboTax does not handle those situations. And, in his words, “if not done correctly will cause the IRS to come after her and me”. A thinly veiled threat in my opinion. Overpaying as in this case will not cause the IRS to come after anyone. Also, why are these additional payments not being reported to the account holder on a statement that can be used for taxes?
Something funny is going on with her accounts and taxes and I don’t think they are being done in her best interests. She likes the advisor and the accountant. I also think the accounts statement is a rebellion against tax preparation software that is taking away business from the accountants.
It also goes back to the IRS, congress and taxes being so convoluted and complicated that without software or professional help people with more than simple returns have an almost impossible task doing taxes. That needs to change.
The retired accountant will be doing the taxes, and charging a lot of money. Making the taxes complicated provides more income for him as more billable hours. I am backing out and will just stay out of the entire process.
Try looking at reviews of travel trailers, they make the worst cars look like they were hand made by the dwarves from the Iron Mountain.
More baby duck reporting.
on the other hand, you wouldn’t have seen this reporting at all a year ago.
n
The plan for the new Charger was EV first and then an Inline 6 version later. They are now pushing up the I6 timeline. Rumors are getting heavy that a Hemi will make a comeback at some point – too early to tell on that.
I sat in one of the EV Chargers at the LA auto show. It was nice. I don’t think it’s 80k nice though, which is the problem with most EV’s.
An EV Charger is pointless except to Show Ya types.
The old Charger sold well to police departments not looking to give the heroes codpieces. Maintenance was more complicated than Panther, but the vehicles were decent for about 100k miles before anything major had to be done.
The auto industry isn’t going to change current trajectory until they see a clear indication that the midterms won’t result in a rerun of 2019-2023.
Given the drop of in EV sales, I’m surprised no one at Stellantis is willing to shelve the EVs. I guess they don’t have anything else new.
n
As the NSA debacle get worse, you have to wonder how tranny Rainbow Alphabet people “infiltrated” the agency. Oh, no you don’t. plugsy McSpongeBrain doosh-nozzle encouraged them and let them in. Obola, too. Totally, 100%, their fault.
Speaking of the NSA:
I’m watching “Prime Target” on Apple TV. It is about a goobermint agency ( and a yet unknown evil corporation) that has been spying on mathematicians around the World for decades, working on an algorithm to predict prime numbers. The agency subverts efforts, destroys work, and even kills anybody close to a solution. Primes are, of course, crucial to current encryption technologies. Not a bad series. It is worth checking out.
The agency is the NSA. Who knew they killed people around the World. The show was created during plugs’ dementia riddled term.
Shelving the EVs would leave Dodge with just the Hornet, a rebadged Alfa Romeo.
Chrysler is dead brand walking now that the 300 is history.
But…but…i downloaded the code from GitHub!?
https://futurism.com/the-byte/life-destroyed-ai
Plus he probably didn’t feed the monkeys.
Oh, gee, shocking … NOT …
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14443051/jeffrey-epstein-files-release-fbi-trump-live-updates.html
https://hotair.com/headlines/2025/02/27/trump-ending-benefits-to-illegals-is-a-game-changer-n3800234
Who thinks that $277 billion is all of it?
(see next post)
Who thinks that $277 billion is the tip of the iceberg–as in, only represents about 10%?
Vote your choice.
I was trying to remember a book a couple weeks ago. It finally popped out:
The Amateur by Robert Littell (1981)
https://www.amazon.com/Amateur-Robert-Littell/dp/1641296887?tag=ttgnet-20
SHOCKED NOT SHOCKED: Former USAID Officials Testify That Biden Admin Had Policy to Fund Terrorists
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2025/02/27/shocked-not-shocked-former-usaid-officials-testify-that-biden-admin-had-policy-to-fund-terrorists-n3800250
the first comment:
Prison awaiting execution after 30-days of expedited appeals.
Judge: “No, Miss Powers. You can explain why you funded terrorists right now. Just tell us why you made the decision when you made it, the court can determine if there is some extenuating circumstance after a brief recess, and we can be done with this part of the appeal by 4PM.
“And yes, I understand that your roommate, “Betty”, was Bruce last week and makes Jack Reacher look small and reasonable, but reportedly he identifies as Betty this week and for four years that was good enough for you and all the Biden administration, so we’re just going to set that complaint aside until we’ve dealt with the more important stuff.”
Moment USAID workers WEEP as they’re turfed out of departments within 15 minutes
\
weep. FFS.
When was the last time anyone here wept over a job?
n
Most of them were beards.
The first time I was fired, it happened at the worst possible time.
I was in the middle of my divorce, on antidepressants and antianxiety meds and sleep aids. I hated my job and the hypocrite Jesuits that ran the place, and knew I needed to find another job but was staying to support my coworkers, who were suffering as much as I was. I felt protective of them.
At 2:00 in the afternoon, I was fired. At 3:00, ,I was driving home in my pickup truck, stunned. Then I realized I would never have to go back to that h*llhole again. By the time I got home, I was smiling.
I wept during that time in my life, but not about my job.
preview:
”We’ve noticed that you haven’t opened our emails…”
spam(>immediate)(>neverbuylist)
send 50,000 volts to programmer and black hole earwig to email provider
hope you both emulate John D.’s bull, who broke his d*ck and went to slaughter
Funding terrorists? That’s nothing new: the US basically built ISIS, and has funded all sorts of other unsavory groups throughout the Middle East and Africa.
Maybe the outrage at USAID doing this will put a stop to the practice? The world would definitely be a better place…
Wag the Dog.
They all need an enemy to fight. Started with USSR, continues to this day.
n
And I need to sleep.
n