Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Books are my comfort food!

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

We still have time to mess this up!

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Found liable for massive fraud, is required to post a massive bond, gets a break, then files a *fraudulent* bond!

It’s easier to kill a dangerous animal than a man who just happens to have different thoughts/values than one’s own.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

We won’t go back.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

The words do not have to be perfect.

There is one struggling party in US right now, and it’s not the Democrats.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

I really should read my own blog.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

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Reader Interactions

103Comments

  1. 1.

    JPL

    There will be a moment of silence at 2:49 for the victims of the Boston Marathon. Fox News will probably be to busy honoring the true patriot, Bundy for his refusal to pay the Government money due them.

  5. 5.

    c u n d gulag

    Ed Kilgore, at WaMo, had a post up earlier, about the anti-tax and Bureau of Land Management fees loon in Nevada, and how “patriotic” that loon and his followers think they are – when in fact, they’re the OPPOSITE of being patriotic.

    I have what may be a very, very crazy idea:
    Why don’t the Democrats suggest that we make every April 15th a National Holiday?

    Call it “Patriot’s Day,” to emphasize that paying your taxes is not just a patriotic duty, but and also a way to honor the patriots who helped build and defend this great patriotic nation, over he last 200+ years.

    And give everyone the day off, for “Patriot’s Day!”

    Crazy, huh?

  6. 6.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Well, for the antitax crowd, I suggest we start sending invoices for their share of the cost of civilization, and when they don’t pay up, send mooks armed with rebar to collect the debt owed.

  9. 9.

    Patrick

    @JPL:

    Fox News will probably be to busy honoring the true patriot, Bundy for his refusal to pay the Government money due them.

    First FoxNews, Romnney and the far right hated the free-loading 47% that don’t pay taxes. Now all of a sudden FoxNews and the far right seem to just adore the free-loaders.

  10. 10.

    Brad

    I’ve been trying to file my MA state taxes since yesterday but their POS efile system is working about as well as their ACA website and their unemployment computer system. I wonder how much they paid some company to deliver a product that doesn’t work.

  11. 11.

    Iowa Old Lady

    Had an interesting conversation at the Y yesterday. I’d been at a store on Saturday that had declared bankruptcy on Friday. The workers had been notified at the same time the public was. When I said that, an older white woman said “All these places treat their workers badly” and everyone agreed.

    I think the whole narrative of people with money as abusive is taking a wide hold in public consciousness and even in TV shows and movies.

  12. 12.

    Violet

    @c u n d gulag: Would love to see this happen. Even if Democrats just put up a bill to establish “Patriot’s Day” and it goes nowhere, we’d get the fun of watching the Republicans vote it down.

  14. 14.

    Face

    @JPL: And if I hear “Boston Strong(TM)” one more time, I’m going to punch my TV. Nothing like Bostonians to take a tragedy and turn into a trademark and marketing tool. Redonkulous.

    Last time I checked, Fukushima isn’t selling “Fuku, Gamma Particles” t-shirts and bumper stickers.

  15. 15.

    Villago Delenda Est

    OT from Media Matters (via Powder Blue Satan);

    Media Matters staff: Fox’s Bernie Goldberg Accuses Obama Of Intentionally Stoking Racial Resentment

    All projection, all the time, with Faux Noise.

  17. 17.

    catclub

    @Face: This. I suspect that Oklahoma City, which lost an order
    of magnitude more people ( and infants) got a whole lot less coverage than Boston.

  18. 18.

    PaulW

    Here at the library we’re almost out of 1040A instructions. Forms we get a lot of.

    One of my co-workers noted on the drive to work this morning one of the radio shows was getting callers who hadn’t filed yet. They had twenty people call in over a half-hour period. I guarantee you at least one news channel in each media market is gonna have LIVE cameras at the post offices where people are dropping off last-minute filings.

    The 4868 form. Know it. USE IT.

    I suppose everybody runs from the tax-man – Fourth Doctor, The Sun Makers

  20. 20.

    catclub

    @c u n d gulag: @Violet:

    I assume you have just heard on the radio that the Boston Marathon is held on a particular monday
    in April – the Patriot’s Day (state) holiday. I just did.

  21. 21.

    Villago Delenda Est

    OK, and Noisemax stakes its claim on the outright lie of a headline of the day:

    EPA Rules Force Closure of Last Ammo Maker

    The lead paragraph of the linked story:

    The closure of the last lead smelter plant in America due to tightened Environmental Protection Agency rules will have an impact on ammunition supplies and costs, according to Gun Owners of America.

    Then the third and fourth paragraphs:

    In an interview with Newsmax, GOA legislative counsel Mike Hammond said the shuttering of Doe Run Company’s Herculaneum lead smelter plant “won’t shut off the production of bullets in America because [manufacturers] can get recycled lead from a lot of other plants.

    “But combined with the government’s large purchases of ammunition, it will make it harder and more expensive to purchase ammunition,” Hammond said.

    So, I guess the EPA’s rules are NOT causing the shut down of the last ammunition plant in the country. They’re forcing the shut down of a lead smelter, which of course is the exact same thing. Somehow. Not even the spokeslobbyist of Gun Onanists of America says it’s the exact same thing.

  25. 25.

    Violet

    @Jamey: Yep. I was going to say, if a similar thing had happened in a non-northeast corridor city there’d be nowhere near this kind of attention. Even if more people had died.

  26. 26.

    shortstop

    I was pretty cheerful writing out our check to the feds. Except while I was doing it, I was loudly bitching about there being a snowstorm on April 14. I know what’s important in this world.

  27. 27.

    JPL

    @Face: They should use the quote of Big Papi instead. After reading what a prosthesis cost and how many you need over a life time, I don’t mind the Boston one fund.

  28. 28.

    catclub

    @Villago Delenda Est: “The closure of the last lead smelter plant in America due to tightened Environmental Protection Agency”

    I wonder what the crime and mental disability map around that plant looks like. Calling Kevin Drum.

  30. 30.

    peach flavored shampoo

    I guarantee you at least one news channel in each media market is gonna have LIVE cameras at the post offices

    Also just as predictable and never-changing — sun rising in the East, nuclear decay, and the ball rolling to black when I bet red. Really, they need a camera to film people buying stamps and married men grabbing their Penthouses from their PO box?

    I wonder if they rho-shambo to see who has to cover this joke of a “story” every.single.year.without.fail.

  32. 32.

    Seanly

    I proudly pay my taxes. However, I was very happy that I got a huge tax refund. Very good this year what with hitting the max payout for my wife’s cancer treatment.

    Speaking of which, I was unaware that the Social Security Administration now has Compassionate Allowances to expedite the disability approval process. Since my wife has Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, she should be able to get disability (fingers crossed). So just trying to spread the word to other Juicers who might be in a similar situation.

  33. 33.

    burnspbesq

    @PaulW:

    The 4868 form. Know it. USE IT.

    Amen. But don’t forget to include a check if you think you’re going to owe something.

    I think the last time I filed in April was 1996.

  34. 34.

    catclub

    @burnspbesq: Of course, this part seems just as screwed up:
    “The role of Defense Security Officers in the 9/11 case, one assigned to each of the five legal teams, is designed in part to guide team members, both lawyers and analysts, on what information should be blacked out in court filings — and what information can be released as unclassified. They have Top Secret security clearances and are privy to internal defense discussions and strategy.”

    I assume that defendants telling about how they were tortured is classified information that cannot be released.

  35. 35.

    shortstop

    @Roger Moore: We should TP his comments. Maybe help ourselves to his better adjectives and finer punctuation while he’s not around to guard them.

  36. 36.

    The Dangerman

    @JPL:

    …Fox News will probably be to busy honoring the true patriot, Bundy…

    I saw that photo of the RWNJ aiming his gun at the Feds; isn’t that illegal? If I point a gun a someone walking down the street, the cops come and arrest me.

    No one wants another Waco or Ruby Ridge, but lawbreakers that get to break the law at the point of a gun isn’t even endorsed by the NRA (or so I would hope).

  37. 37.

    burnspbesq

    @Roger Moore:

    I’m guessing we won’t be hearing a lot from Yatsuno today.

    Today is just another day for most IRS functions, including Collection. Thursday and Friday will be the crazy days in Submission Processing, when all the returns and remittances that get mailed today get delivered.

    Those are truly shit jobs. The IRS “campus” in Fresno has amazing turnover. It’s essentially an assembly line. The document storage area has been closed by the health department twice that I know of for rat infestations.

  38. 38.

    Patrick

    No one wants another Waco or Ruby Ridge, but lawbreakers that get to break the law at the point of a gun isn’t even endorsed by the NRA (or so I would hope).

    Not only, think about the scary precedent this has set. The law no longer matters. All you have to do is break the law, then get a group together with a bunch of scary guns and apparently you will get your way. So, what’s the point of our laws going forward?

  39. 39.

    shortstop

    @PaulW: We just spent the last 10 days packing and moving my folks into independent senior living. Sorting through their stuff was a nightmarish experience I’m determined to spare family members who may end up helping us down the road. Part of the problem is that my mom has trouble delegating and recognizing that she’s not as fast as she used to be — 48 hours before the move, with complete chaos around her, she was still determined to do her taxes. The third baseman and I physically took over and forced her to file a 4868. “Sign here, Mom, and on this check here. DO IT!”

  40. 40.

    catclub

    Wow, Good News in bureaucracy run amuck front.

    Some Sanity Returns
    This whole thing was just nuts.

    The Social Security Administration announced Monday that it will immediately cease efforts to collect on taxpayers’ debts to the government that are more than 10 years old.

    The action comes after The Washington Post reported that the government was seizing state and federal tax refunds that were on their way to about 400,000 Americans who had relatives who owed money to the Social Security agency. In many cases, the people whose refunds were intercepted had never heard of any debt, and the debts dated as far back as the middle of the past century.

    by Atrios

  41. 41.

    JPL

    @The Dangerman: That’s what I think and I think they will be arrested. Origuy and Elizabelle think the pull back by the BLM has do with the anniversary of Waco and Oklahoma.

  42. 42.

    burnspbesq

    @catclub:

    I assume that defendants telling about how they were tortured is classified information that cannot be released.

    The prosecution has argued that it’s both classified and irrelevant. Which is arguably correct if the case is built entirely on evidence that is neither obtained through torture or fruit of the poisonous tree.

    I fucking hate the whole military commission system. It is to justice as the Houston Astros are to baseball, I.e., a cruel joke.

  45. 45.

    shortstop

    @catclub: That is good news. I was stunned when I read the stories about eldest siblings being dunned for overpayments their long-dead parents had received decades earlier.

  48. 48.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @The Dangerman:

    I saw that photo of the RWNJ aiming his gun at the Feds; isn’t that illegal?

    But it’s a white guy pointing the gun. I no longer understand my own country.

  49. 49.

    Suffern ACE

    @Patrick: Again, the BLM was in no position to start an armed skirmish this weekend. The government is not stupid. Next time it will show up prepared for a skirmish. Of course, if the militia aren’t there, then the howls will go up about government’s heavy handed overkill techniques.

    It would have been much worse if the government had shown up heavily armed and had been defeated. Next time, people will be killed.

  50. 50.

    shortstop

    @catclub: There were moments when we considered it. There were moments.

    If it weren’t for Red Bull, I’d be writing y’all from a hospital bed.

  52. 52.

    Mnemosyne

    I got a call from my late father’s accountant on, like, April 2nd, telling me that there was going to be income from the dissolved trust that I was going to have to pay. And, of course, we already filed our taxes. Argh. Now I have to call our accountant and let him know he’s going to need to help us file a 1040X — plus, of course, we’re going to have a pretty big tax bill we didn’t expect. And I probably won’t have the K-1 until May or June.

    Don’t leave money when you die. It’s too much goddamned trouble for everyone else.

  53. 53.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @burnspbesq:

    I fucking hate the whole military commission system. It is to justice as the Houston Astros are to baseball, I.e., a cruel joke.

    The Dark Lord, who masterminded the whole thing, is not amused.

  54. 54.

    The Dangerman

    @Suffern ACE:

    …then the howls will go up about government’s heavy handed overkill techniques.

    So, this means we can’t follow my idea of not only shooting the cattle but using a stick of dynamite on each one to prevent the rancher from profiting from his illegal activities?

  55. 55.

    peach flavored shampoo

    It is to justice as the Houston Astros my Chicago Cubs are to baseball, I.e., a cruel joke

    /shakes fist in direction of Wrigley
    //checks current ticket prices despite wholesale team suckatude…faints

  56. 56.

    Violet

    @shortstop:

    We just spent the last 10 days packing and moving my folks into independent senior living. Sorting through their stuff was a nightmarish experience I’m determined to spare family members who may end up helping us down the road.

    I know how tough that is. Once you’ve been through it on the “helping” side, you learn just how much you don’t want to do it to others. The key is to move while you’re still young enough. Don’t wait until some health crisis forces you to move and you can’t do any of the work or even decide where you want to live.

    Family friends are doing this to their kids now. The mom’s got Alzheimer’s and the dad refuses to leave the house. The kids live two hours away so coming in to help is a big commitment. They can’t make their dad move and they’re just kind of stuck. It’s awful. Public Service Announcement: Don’t do this to your family!

  57. 57.

    Cassidy

    @Patrick: They’re going back. Not starting a gunfight with their human shields Children present is a good thing. Once these yayhoos disperse to their next shiny fauxtrage, Mr. Moocher will be getting a visit from men and women dressed in body armor.

  59. 59.

    Patrick

    @Suffern ACE:

    The government is not stupid. Next time it will show up prepared for a skirmish.

    Time will tell. I don’t have my hopes up.

    I heard on TV last night that about 85% of people in NV pay their grazing fees to the government. This guy hasn’t paid them since 1993. Why didn’t the government enforce the law years ago? How is that fair to 85%

  60. 60.

    Matt McIrvin

    @catclub: That’s why Bush’s somewhat obscure designation of September 11th as “Patriot Day” sounded so strange to me. We already have a Patriot’s Day!

    Designating it nationally, though, would probably be a bad idea, because the violent right would probably co-opt it given their peculiar notion of patriotism; they’ve already antsy around this time of year because of the near-coincidence of the tax-filing deadline, the Waco anniversary, and, for the more extreme sorts, Hitler’s birthday.

  61. 61.

    wolfskin

    @Mike in NC:

    Ah yes, Leona Helmsley, just before she was carted off to jail. I have half a dozen of her self promoting New Yorker hotel ads adorning my bathroom, tastefully mounted with superglue in WalMart frames.

  62. 62.

    shortstop

    @Violet: Absolutely right. My dad’s not very ambulatory. My mom’s pretty spry for her age, but her age is a large number. My sister and I and our husbands have been urging this move for years, but my mom and dad just weren’t ready.

    So, a second public service announcement: If you really, really can’t move when you’re young enough, at least keep up with your files, closets, cabinets and drawers! Set a couple of days a year aside to purge, purge, purge! Your children and other loved ones will bless you.

    Anyway, it’s over now and it wasn’t as bad as the basement cleanout we did for the third baseman’s grandparents a few years back. 100+ Mrs. Butterworth bottles (why? WHY?), 30 years of canceled checks to shred…and, in one corner, a thick coating of canary guano from the birds he raised for years. We considered calling the health department to get a condemnation.

  63. 63.

    JPL

    @Patrick: I know that there have been a few court cases trying to get Bundy to pay his due but I’m not sure when those occurred. I doubt that it was under Bush jr. cuz he had a habit of only auditing the poor.

  64. 64.

    Hungry Joe

    Dive — and disappear — into David Foster Wallace’s novel “The Pale King” to get an idea of what a soul-numbing experience working for the IRS might be … “might,” because the book is pretty much a Wallace fever-dream. It’s kind of a mess (it was assembled by Wallace’s editor and published posthumously) and more than kind of amazing.

  65. 65.

    Poopyman

    @Violet: Also, stop driving when your kids tell you it’s time. They can’t make you, but you can get somebody hurt if you keep it up.

  66. 66.

    fidelio

    @catclub: There’s a point of diminishing returns in the collection process, and it’s not just in terms of Cost to Collect versus Amount of Debt. It’s horrible publicity, and the two combined add up to Game Not Worth Candle.

    I’m glad they finally decided to drop that and go on to something else.

  67. 67.

    Violet

    @Poopyman: I can’t wait for self-driving cars. I hope they’re here when I’ve old enough to need them. A lot of seniors could still manage to live independently if they could get from place to place.

  68. 68.

    SatanicPanic

    @Violet: THIS. I have had 2 experiences of this in the last two years and boy is it a bummer. The only good thing to come out of it was that both sets of my parents were there to witness and say “there’s no way I’m doing this to my kids”. And they seem to be on a path of not keeping stuff so that’s a huge relief.

    I have a big family though, so at least in the last case it was kind of fun going through old pictures, finding grandpa’s pr0n, etc. hard, dirty work, but fun. I heard though that the day after I left someone found a sack of gold coins in a back shed and my uncles almost got in a fist fight over them, so it wasn’t all fun and games.

  69. 69.

    Hungry Joe

    Our mom was 90 and still driving — “Just to the grocery store!” — and we couldn’t get her to stop. We were hoping she’d cause a minor accident, with no one hurt, and that she’d then see the light. So last year she caused a minor accident, with no one hurt, and she saw the light. Like, whew! Lucky.

  70. 70.

    Another Holocene Human

    I just laugh at these people. People so stupid they can’t see past their nose. I laugh at them as they’re stuck in traffic and bitching about their bills in their suburban paradise that was everything they ever wanted except it wasn’t because they didn’t realize that to pursue A to extremes they would be giving up B.

    Be careful what you wish for. Sometimes you get it.

  71. 71.

    Violet

    @SatanicPanic: Going through parents’ stuff can be challenging even for siblings who get along really well. It brings up all sorts of old family issues. If there are already problems with the siblings getting along then look out. In that case, just hope that mom and/or dad have made it really clear who get the antique clock and who gets the silver.

    But it’s the crazy stuff that catches people out–the chipped gravy boat that probably wouldn’t even sell at a garage sale can get the kids tearing out each others’ throats because to them it means holidays and mom and home and they all want that connection. The mom in question probably didn’t think anyone would have wanted it so it’s not like she labeled it as someone’s inheritance.

  72. 72.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Violet:
    @Hungry Joe:
    Rich old seniors will probably be the first market for self-driving cars. Probably save a lot of lives and pave the way to remove licenses from old people for physical incompetence, finally.

    We have to do better, though. Many old people are housebound in the US, even if they have access to paratransit. Making the built environment navigable safely to pedestrians would be a start.

  73. 73.

    Violet

    @Another Holocene Human: I’m for anything that can bring on the self-driving car. I don’t mind driving and sometimes even enjoy it but most of the time it’s a chore. I’m in traffic, I’m just going from here to there and it’s a pain in the ass. I’d be much happier to sit back and relax.

    As for improving infrastructure, good luck with that. That’ll mostly be local money and from what I can tell, local government budgets are being cut all over the place.

    Maybe as the Baby Boomers begin to hit that demographic–which is beginning to happen now–there will be a push for change. I’m not holding my breath though.

  74. 74.

    shortstop

    @SatanicPanic:

    The only good thing to come out of it was that both sets of my parents were there to witness and say “there’s no way I’m doing this to my kids”.

    I don’t mean to be negative, but my parents said the same thing…see above for how that turned out. If you can, issue gentle reminders from time to time to keep them on the road to weeding out. I wish to dog I had.

  75. 75.

    shortstop

    @Violet: This is one of those things on which urban life scores higher. Lots more alternate transportation options for seniors (and everyone else) here. Suburban, exurban, rural life is definitely not set up for the non-independent. I hope aging boomers will help change that, but the infrastructure itself presents a huge challenge.

  76. 76.

    Hungry Joe

    @Another Holocene Human: A few months ago the New Yorker had a long piece on the self-driving car. Sounds not that far away, and sounds like a quantum leap in safety. Cars will be feeding each other info every microsecond, so when a car six cars ahead of you has to brake for some reason, your car knows it instantly and reacts instantly — in concert with all the cars around you that have just received the same info and, together, worked out all the safest moves.

  79. 79.

    catclub

    @Mnemosyne: “I got a call from my late father’s accountant on, like, April 2nd, telling me that there was going to be income from the dissolved trust that I was going to have to pay.”

    It is always shock for an accountant when they learn that taxes might be due on an inheritance, a first time for everything, so you cannot expect them to make an estimated tax payment first. That would be too sensible.

  80. 80.

    SatanicPanic

    @Violet: My dad, who is hopefully not going away anytime soon, has already asked me and my brother what, if anything, we want from him, so hopefully we can get those fights over with before the time comes. We’re both pretty averse to holding on to things in general. I know I am after seeing what hoarding looks like in real life.

  81. 81.

    catclub

    @Hungry Joe: And extra fun for those who break the security to send fake information! What is the name of that guy on the NY/NJ Port Authority? No need for barricades, just send messages that there are barricades.

  82. 82.

    Cacti

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    So, I guess the EPA’s rules are NOT causing the shut down of the last ammunition plant in the country. They’re forcing the shut down of a lead smelter, which of course is the exact same thing. Somehow. Not even the spokeslobbyist of Gun Onanists of America says it’s the exact same thing.

    I have personal connections with Herculaneum, Missouri where the smelter is located. My great grandfather was the assistant superintendent of the facility in the early 1900s. The Doe Run smelter has been out of compliance with EPA standards for lead emissions since the late 1980s. Within about a 3-mile radius of the smelter, children were found with elevated lead levels in their blood, and private residences had elevated lead levels in the soil. The former heart of the town is virtually uninhabitable now. As part of a class action settlement, Doe Run had to buy up all of the private properties within about 1-mile of the smelter, due to toxic lead levels found in soil testing.

    Doe Run is getting shut down because they’ve been poisoning a small town in central eastern Missouri for the better part of 30 years (and probably longer). Their problems with the EPA started during the Reagan administration.

  83. 83.

    Violet

    @Hungry Joe: Yeah, I heard a radio program about it a few months ago. It was a local program and I’d never have guessed that the guests would say it was feasible, but they seemed to make it sound like it wouldn’t be that far off. Like they expected it in the next decade or so.

    I can’t wait! I’m all for anything that would make driving safer and less of a hassle. Those car ads where you’re driving your car on the lovely deserted twisty mountain road or the beach highway, or putting bales of hay in your truck–seriously, how many people end up driving like that? I know some do, but most people commute or go to the store or whatever. It’s not glamorous. It’s transportation.

  86. 86.

    Violet

    @SatanicPanic: A really good thing to do is to sit down and talk to them about their plans now while they’re still young enough and able to communicate effectively. Make sure you know where their wills are, who the lawyer is, do they have a DNR, a living will, etc. Ask them how long they plan to live where they’re living, if they’ve made any plans to move to senior living or downsize or whatever. Just conversationally but hit the key points. If nothing else it shows you’re interested and involved, which would probably be a comfort to them.

    Those conversations are difficult for everyone, but they’re really important and if you need to know, you’ll be glad you took the time.

  87. 87.

    D58826

    @c u n d gulag: According to the loon Bundy –

    They’re not part of this sovereign state – they’re a foreign government

    . He also wants the nations sheriff’s to disarm all federal officials. Totally delusional but as we saw again on Sunday the equation delusion + gun = dead people.

  88. 88.

    justawriter

    @Violet:

    Those car ads where you’re driving your car on the lovely deserted twisty mountain road or the beach highway, or putting bales of hay in your truck–seriously, how many people end up driving like that?

    It’s because the ad people know they have to sell the fantasy of what you could do with your vehicle. As with most products, you have to sell the fantasy because by and large, reality sucks.

  89. 89.

    Mnemosyne

    @shortstop:

    One of the few arguments I won with my late father was when I pointed out that his elderly friends didn’t have tons of services like public transportation and paratransit because they chose to live in a low-tax state, whereas I had all of that stuff in my high-tax state. He grumbled a little but had to agree I had a point.

    @catclub:

    It is always shock for an accountant when they learn that taxes might be due on an inheritance, a first time for everything, so you cannot expect them to make an estimated tax payment first. That would be too sensible.

    This guy is someone the whole family has been using for years and apparently he’s notorious for never getting the K-1s to anyone on time. Everyone automatically files for an extension every year because they know he’ll be late.

    It’s probably better that we already filed, because now we’ll know how much to pre-pay for next year’s extension once the K-1 finally arrives. I vaguely knew that there would be a K-1, but I had no idea how much it was going to be (and did he tell me? Of course not!) so I wouldn’t have known how much to pre-pay.

  90. 90.

    catclub

    @Mnemosyne: “(and did he tell me? Of course not!) so I wouldn’t have known how much to pre-pay”

    It sounds like you wish you had a competent accountant. But if you’re happy, not my business.

  92. 92.

    Violet

    @Jamey: No. You northeasterners are closer to New York City, which to all the media people is The Center of The World. It’s about proximity.

  93. 93.

    Mnemosyne

    @catclub:

    He’s the accountant for the family business, of which I inherited a 1/12th share. So I’m stuck with him for these K-1s, unfortunately. My accountant here in California has been great so far.

  94. 94.

    Jamey

    @shortstop: THIS. Am still sorting through the detritus of my late ma’s life, nearly five years after she died. I dread every Tax Day, out of fear that she neglected to pay state or federal taxes while she was still in charge of her own affairs…

  96. 96.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @D58826:
    This is Sovereign Citizen stuff. They believe that the wording of the constitution proves that after a certain point (1830, I think?) the US government was taken over from within. All laws and amendments after that point are not legal and do not count. ‘Sovereign Citizen’ comes from arguments about where in the Constitution ‘citizen’ is capitalized, used with other words like ‘sovereign’ and ‘natural born’, stuff like that. By declaring that they are a Sovereign Citizen, not like us foolish regular citizens, they get the right to operate by the original constitution and not the corrupted version. Usually this means not paying taxes, but not having to obey courts with the wrong flag hanging in them is a big one. The details get seriously weird, but none of it’s as weird as their belief that the government will roll over and say ‘You figured it out, and we have no power over you anymore!’

  98. 98.

    MomSense

    Live Free and Die!

    -Scott Brown

    Said the centerfold turned Senator turned carpetbagger at a NH fundraiser.

  99. 99.

    Patrick

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    This is Sovereign Citizen stuff. They believe that the wording of the constitution proves that after a certain point (1830, I think?) the US government was taken over from within. All laws and amendments after that point are not legal and do not count.

    Couldn’t Native Americans make a similar argument saying that after a certain poin their land was taken and that “All laws and amendments after that point are not legal and do not count.”

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