Weekend ponderings

The L.A. Times is reporting that California state tax revenues may fall hundreds of millions of dollars short of projections for April, the largest month for tax collection.

That had me thinking about some letters from the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) to a number of state employees in the last few weeks.  They got letters accompanying their refund checks explaining why their refunds were smaller than what was indicated on their tax returns.  The letters claimed that the FTB was unable to verify the amount of withholding reported on their return with the records at the Employment Development Department (EDD).

Turns out that some of the state taxes withheld from these employee's checks had not yet been reported by the state to the EDD.  When some of these taxpayers called the FTB, they found out that the EDD records had been updated and the FTB promised to send the remaining refund amounts to them within two or three weeks.

What happens to the reduced refunds of those who don't take the time to call or write to the FTB?  Will their additional refund amounts be processed automatically?  People who got physical refund checks got letters accompanying the checks.  What about those taxpayers whose refunds were paid out through direct deposit?  Were they notified of the reduction in their refunds?  Are they aware of what's going on?

* * *

While the Republican-controlled Congress cannot gather the votes needed to repeal the Affordable Care Act, there is one provision they all seem to be in agreement with.  They appear to believe that almost all Americans do not need the ACA provision that prevents health insurers from limiting coverage due to pre-existing conditions.

Which Americans do they think should continue to have that protection for pre-existing conditions?  Themselves, their families and their staffs and families.  And they aren't even ashamed of themselves for doing it.

This would be a good moment to review other laws that Congress feels they should not have to follow while requiring others to comply with them.

Protection for Whistleblowers.  If someone turns in the member of the House or Senate they work for, for any reason, they have no protection from retaliation.

Keeping Records in the Workplace  Congress has exempted itself from all such provisions, including health and safety records.

The Freedom of Information Act.  While government agencies are required to comply with this law, Congress exempted itself along with the federal court system and some areas of the Presidency.

Seems to me the swamp isn't being drained.  It is actually being enhanced.

* * *

I wasn't going to get involved with the "Ten Bands and one lie" game but then I saw this from Dave Grohl and it was so awesome, I decided I would give it a try.

So I am going to attempt to list every musical act I've seen in concert.  It is a long list since I've been going to concerts since the early 1970s.

38 Special

Aerosmith
Air Supply
America
Art Garfunkel (but not Simon and Garfunkel
Bananarama
Barry Manilow
Berlin
Billy Idol
Billy Joel
Billy Ocean
Billy Vera and the Beaters
Blue Swede
Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods
Bob Seger
Boston
Bruce Hornsby and the Range
Carl Anderson
Cheap Trick
Chicago
Christopher Cross
Dan Fogelberg
Debbie Gibson
Donna Summer
ELO
Elton John
Exile
Expose
Foreigner
Frank Sinatra
Frankie Valli
Gladys Knight and the Pips
Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine
Hall and Oates
Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds
Harry Chapin
Heart
Huey Lewis and the News
James Taylor
John Cougar
John Denver
Journey
K. C. and the Sunshine Band
Leo Sayer
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Men at Work
Metallica
Paul McCartney and Wings
Paul Simon
Prince
Quarterflash
Queen
REO Speedwagon
Rod Stewart
Sammy Davis Jr. & Jerry Lewis
Seals and Crofts
Silver Connection
Starship
Steve Miller Band
Stevie Wonder
Styx
The Bangles
The Commodores
The Doobie Brothers
The Eagles
The Go-Gos
The Little River Band
The O’Jays
The Ohio Players
The Rolling Stones
The Runaways
The Spinners
Tiffany
Toto
Whitney Houston

I've probably missed some but I think this is a fairly complete list.  All except one.  Can you guess the one that is a lie?

* * *

The origin of the word fratricide comes from the killing of one's brother or sister. These days, when used in a military context, it refers to the death of military personnel by what is often referred to as "friendly-fire."  There is nothing friendly about it.

The deaths of two of the Army's Rangers in Afghanistan are being investigated as having been caused by friendly-fire.  Sgt. Joshua P. Rodgers, 22, and Sgt. Cameron H. Thomas, 23, died during a nighttime raid in Nangarhar province, the Pentagon said Friday.

Let's hope the investigation finds this to be an unpreventable tragedy rather than an error by whatever "friend" fired on them.

* * *

There is a story in the Los Angeles Times regarding the latest lawsuit being filed against Uber.  This one seeks class action status for all drivers in California, claiming that the company is engaged in a scheme to defraud drivers by calculating two fares.  One fare that the passenger pays and another, lower fare on which the driver's compensation is based.

Does this lawsuit have merit?  Based on what we know about Uber's past behavior, it seems plausible.

Stay tuned to see what happens.

* * *

The benchmark of 100 days

As the arbitrary benchmark of the first 100 days in office approaches (Saturday, April 29th), 45 is doing his best to downplay the significance of this marker.

In an interview with the Associated Press, the Cheeto-in-Chief said, "The hundred days is just an artificial barrier. The press keeps talking about the hundred days. But we’ve done a lot. You have a list of things."

When he was running for election, he used the phrase "the first 100 days" a lot.  He himself established it as a benchmark, arbitrary or otherwise.  his own 100 day plan can still be found on his website, where he says the American people will vote on that plan last November 8th.

The Cheeto-in-Chief has been scrutinized by the mainstream media regarding this and other flip-flops and that is fair.  When you make promises regarding how you will govern and you fail to keep those promises, you should be held accountable. 

In the L.A. Times today (4/26/2017) there is an article about the promises made, kept and not kept by 45.  There is a graph at the top.

Promises kept - 4
Promises in progress - 9
Promises stalled - 9
Promises scaled back - 4
Promises abandoned - 5

Time magazine has a great article on their website with a video showing the Cheeto-in-Chief flip-flopping in his own words on the following issues:

NATO being obsolete
China being a currency manipulator
Janet Yellen
Steve Bannon and how well 45 knows him

Personally I think that the current occupant of the Oval Office is the most unqualified person in our nation's history to be elected to that office and based on what little he's done during these first months; will go down as our nation's worst president ever.

That being said, is the mainstream media being fair in covering him?  Highlighting his flip-flops is fair.  Pointing out his broken promises is fair. 

But is the L.A. Times article (and others from other media outlets with a liberal bias) fair, when compared to their coverage of the Cheeto-in-Chief's predecessor, President Obama?

The Times headline for their story on Trump's first 100 days - "Here's where Trump's campaign promises stand"

The Times headline for their story on Obama's first 100 days - "Obama begins leading America in a new direction"

Is that fair?  Depends on your perspective.  Take note that a study by the Pew Research Center showed that President Obama received much more favorable press coverage in the first months of his first term than President Bill Clinton or President George W. Bush received.

Is it possible that there is a correlation between a president's election result and approval rating in terms of the positive/negative coverage of that president?  There are two factors involved here where President Obama was ahead of Clinton, Bush Jr. and 45.

1.  Only Obama won the popular vote in winning the presidency among the four.
2.  Obama's approval rating early on was much higher than the other three.

The Cheeto-in-Chief is his own worst enemy in such things.  He refuses to consider ethics in how he conducts his administration in light of his business holdings.  The recent State Department blog post extolling the virtues of Trump's Mar-A-Lago resort was clearly improper.  No apology.  No admission of guilt.  Just a prompt deletion of the post as soon as it was pointed out just how wrong it was.

In the end, the reality is that 45 has done a dismal job at best thus far and there is little hope for improvement.

Sunday stuff

Finally got my lazy butt up and out to see a movie yesterday but there was a problem.  I went to see the new Katherine Heigl, Roasario Dawson and Geoff Stults movie, "Unforgettable."  The projector in that auditorium was broken and all of the other films playing around that time were ones I'd either seen or had no desire to see.  So I turned around and went home.

I now plan to go and see a movie after I finish working on Monday.

* * *

During his joint press conference/statement with the Italian Prime Minister, the Cheeto-in-Chief called the great tenor Luciano Pavarotti "...a great friend of mine."

Luciano Pavarotti died in 2007.  His family told then candidate Trump to stop using the singer's aria Nessun Dorma during his campaign rallies because they felt that the late tenor's political views were incompatible with the views being expressed by candidate Trump.

Even more telling was when casino-owner Trump hired the tenor to perform at one of his Atlantic City hotel/casinos that would later go bankrupt.  Pavarotti gave what many have labeled a "lackluster" performance and Trump demanded a refund of Pavarotti's appearance fee. 

Most people don't demand refunds from their great friends, do they?

* * *

Erin Moran, best known for her role on Happy Days as "Joanie Cunningham" has died at the age of 56.

As an actress in film/television, her career stalled after the sitcom jumped the shark and was cancelled in 1984.  Six appearances on Love Boat, three small movie roles and three one-off guest appearances on episodic TV shows and that was that.

There are reports that she died of a heroin overdose but those are as yet unconfirmed.  She had received a settlement of $65,000 from a lawsuit against CBS regarding the use of the likenesses of herself and several of the other cast members of Happy Days. 

She had been living in the trailer of her mother-in-law in Indiana until a fight between the two of them caused her to be told to leave. 

While her death at such a young age troubles me, I am also bothered by the comments of people in the various internet articles about her passing that criticize her former cast mates and others for failing to help her out in her time of need.  They do not know that those people did or did not reach out to Erin Moran.  In fact, the leader of a group dedicated to helping former child stars said "Erin ran from the help" that had been offered.

* * *

There are a number of people who write for the L.A. Times who I enjoy reading.  Doyle McManus is one of them and in an op-ed today he really pounded the nail on the head when it comes to what Democrats must do in order to take back control of the House in next year's mid-term elections.

The performance of Democrats in the two recent special elections to replace Republican members of the House appointed to positions in the administration of the Cheeto-in-Chief are encouraging.  But as Mr. McManus notes, Jon Ossoff came very close to winning outright the seat in the House that was vacated by 45's Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price.  It has been nearly four decades since a Democrat represented that district

Our Revolution, the Bernie Sanders controlled PAC did not support Ossoff's bid because as the Vermont Senator said, "he's not a progressive."  After the election, Senator Sanders has had a change of heart but it might be too late.  The splintered Republicans will rally around his opponent in the run-off election, Karen Handel.  She hasn't disavowed 45 but she has moved from away from some of his positions.

As McManus writes, there is a Trump backlash.  Darrell Issa nearly lost what most considered a very safe Republican seat in the election last November.  As several media outlets report, he has also taken a "left turn" and distanced himself from Trump.

If the Democrats are to have any hope of winning control of the House in 2018, they must expose such shifts and point out that if these Republicans are returned to office, the moment they are reelected, they will again line up with the Cheeto-in-Chief.

* * *

Post-tax season fatigue beginning to lift

It is day three following the end of the busiest tax season I've had since 2006.  I'm just beginning to feel less than complete and utter fatigue.  Tomorrow I'm going to see at least one and possibly two movies.  I do have to work on Monday and Wednesday before my mandated two month break.  I am looking forward to having days on end with no responsibility to get up and go to work.

* * *

California Senate Bill 1 is a 12 cent increase in the gasoline tax and a 20 cent increase in the tax on diesel fuel with the stated objective of fixing our state's long-neglected highways.  You can read the text here. 

This bill is an ideal example of what is wrong with this state's political process.  In an effort to seek transparency in that process, we passed Proposition 54.  It requires that all bills in the State Assembly and State Senate be posted publicly for at least 72 hours prior to passage.  As reported by the L.A. Times earlier this month,  Governor Moonbeam and the members of the Democratic supermajority in the Legislature made side deals with bills not due for a vote until later on, avoiding the transparency provisions of Prop 54. 

Worse yet, they have already started to divert these funds, which are supposed to be used solely for our state's roadways, for other purposes.  Multiple sources are reporting that the Democrats pulled a bill that would have diverted $15 million in SB 1 funds for:

Restroom repairs at state parks - $5 million
Improve access for communities without parks - $5 million
Acquire property for wildlife - $5 million

For decades our elected leadership in Sacramento has diverted gasoline tax funds for everything under the sun except repairing and maintaining the roads of our state.  During this past tax season I've had to maneuver around the myriad of potholes and other problems during my daily commute.  It's tiresome and unnecessary. 

14 months ago the L.A. Times reported that Caltrans had already deferred $59 billion in highway projects because the Legislature had diverted gas tax funds for other purposes.  Before Governor Moonbeam's signature adds that 12 cents to the state gas tax, bear in mind that we are already paying over 38 cents per gallon in state gas tax.  That is on top of the federal gas tax of 18.4 cents per gallon.  I don't mind paying gas tax when it is used as intended. to maintain the roads and highways I drive on.  I do mind when it's being diverted for other purposes.

BTW, that 12 cents per gallon increase will make California the state with the 2nd highest gas tax in the nation.

* * *

The battle between the hotel industry and AirBnB is heating up and may hit the boiling point soon.  During the election cycle last year the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) raised and spent record amounts to support candidates who do not want those engaged in renting out their properties on AirBnB to have an unfair competitive advantage.

AirBnb's Christopher Lehane, director of policy and communications responded with a letter to the president of the AHLA.  In it he wrote:

"We ought to be able to agree that the middle-class family that shares their home while traveling is not a commercial operator running a business."

The problem is that the reality is that much of the AirBnB business is not middle-class families sharing their home while traveling.  A report published in March of 2015 by the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE) claimed that much of the revenue earned by AirBnB hosts in L.A. was from "leasing companies" that had more than one listing on the AirBnB site.  Later that month AirBnB responded by dropping the company with the most such listings, Global Homes and Condos (they had 78 listings in the Santa Monica/Venice area at the time) and other large, obviously commercial ventures.

But that did not solve the problem.  I know of people who are operating AirBnB listings that are for rent year-round.  Apartments that have been rented out for the sole purpose of being re-rented as an AirBnB property.  That is not to say there are not people who are renting out their homes on an infrequent basis, when traveling.  There are.  The question is, which is the majority?

Shouldn't people who are listing their homes on a constant basis be subject to the same rules and better still, taxes as hotels are?  AirBnB listings in Las Vegas may not have casinos and restaurants within elevator distance of those properties but the savings on hotel taxes and resort fees would be significant.  They may not be harming the business of big hotels but they may well be cutting down the business of small motel operators. 

The point is more research and transparency is required.

* * *

First day post-tax season random ponderings

My sleep schedule is still off-cycle.  I've spent so many weeks going to bed right around 8 p.m. and waking up at 4 p.m. that it is going to take a day or two to adjust.  The level of fatigue I've been dealing with had me so tired that I just could not stay awake for more than one or two hours after arriving at home.

I still have a few days left to work next week before my mandated 8 week break but they don't present the challenge that seeing clients every hour on the hour for a full day does. 

Right now I'm going back and forth between making plans for today and realizing that I just don't have the energy to carry them out.

* * *

Apparently the Cheeto-in-Chief struggles with geography and the four points of the compass as well as the truth. 

There's just one problem with 45's claim that we are sending an armada to North Korea.  The aircraft carrier Carl Vinson and her battlegroup were going south at the time, not north toward North Korea. 

To be fair, 45 did make mention of submarines and their movements are almost never disclosed.  But subs are not an armada on their own and isn't disclosing the movement of submarines a contradiction in regard to 45's earlier statement that he doesn't tell our nation's enemies what he is doing?

* * *

This just in...Fox News and Bill O'Reilly have parted company.  The so-called "vacation" he went on recently, slated to end on 4/24/2017 will be a permanent one; at least from Fox News.

Undoubtedly he will get enough money to set him for life, if he wasn't already wealthy enough to never work again.  The question in my mind is what will he do next?  If there were a Trump News Network then he'd have a job in an instant. 

Since there is no such network, yet, what will the conservative commentator do next?  A lot depends on how he and Fox News resolve his current contract.  Earlier this month the Wall Street Journal reported that network had renewed O'Reilly's contract although the terms of the contract were not disclosed.  Will Fox pay O'Reilly through the full length of the contract which would prevent him from appearing on any other television show?

Stay tuned.

* * *

The Super Bowl champion New England Patriots visited the Cheeto-in-Chief at the White House today.  Tom Brady was not there, citing personal family reasons.  As a result, 45 did not mention his name when giving shout-outs to other players.

Trump called the name of Danny Amendola, wide receiver for the Pats to step forward but he wasn't there.  However Amendola tweeted out a thank you message to 45.  Then he deleted it after a fierce backlash resulted from his tweet.

Some think the visit should have been postponed since former Patriots star and convicted murderer Aaron Hernandez hanged himself in his prison cell early this morning.  As he hasn't been with the team since they released him nearly four years ago, I can't agree with that sentiment. 

* * *

Speaking of the Cheeto-in-Chief, someone also needs to make him understand that just because the election is over, the need to release his tax returns did not disappear.  Every president for quite some time now has annually released their most current return, with their prior returns already a matter of record.

If you visit the Tax History Project's archive, you'll see that every president since Carter released their tax returns during their term in office, with the exception of the year they left office.

* * *

Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah has announced he will not seek reelection to Congress in 2018.  He is the Chair of the House Oversight Committee and was the man behind all of the investigations into Hillary Clinton.

One of the reasons he is citing is that he's tired of sleeping on a cot in his Washington, D.C. office.  According to TMZ.com he is not alone in this regard.  Sleeping in his office, showering in the House gym and eating in one of the many food choices in the House doesn't sound all that bad when earning $174,000 plus per year.

Go home, Congressman.  You can continue your pursuit of pillorying Secretary Clinton as a private citizen.

* * *

According to an article that was linked to by Fox News, a retired Air Force captain is blaming the Obama Administration's Rules of Engagement (ROE) for the deaths of 36 U.S. military personnel, one Afghan interpreter and one U.S. military working dog.

Her claims appear to corroborate a claim by a former Navy JAG officer who was also an assistant U.S. attorney, who published a book about the incident in 2015.

This isn't the first time and won't be the last that the ROE in a combat situation have resulted in tragedy. 

The Hypocrite in Chief

Back on October 13, 2014, Donald Trump tweeted the following: 

"Can you believe that,with all of the problems and difficulties facing the U.S., President Obama spent the day playing golf.Worse than Carter" (link to tweet)

Now the New York Times is reporting the following:

After years of criticizing former President Barack Obama for playing golf and going on private getaways, President Trump has already done more of both in his first 87 days than Mr. Obama, as well as former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Their scorecard shows the four aforementioned presidents spent the following number of days at golf courses during their first 87 days in office:

Bill Clinton - 3

George W. Bush - 0

Barrack Obama - 0

Donald Trump - 19

That is 21.8% of those 87 days.  He bitched and bitched about Barrack Obama playing golf and he's spending 1/5th of his time at the links. 

At the same time his administration continues to do everything it can to avoid being transparent in its decisions and actions.  The White House visitor logs will no longer be made public.  The waivers of his ethics policies in allowing people who have been lobbyists in the past are not being disclosed.

What is he hiding, in his taxes and everything else?

* * *

It is Monday, April 17th as I write this.  Today is the 121st running of this storied race.  The word is it will be the last time that the famed Meb Keflezighi will run the race.  I wonder if he might change his mind at some point in the future.  He might if we are to learn anything from the example of Kathrine Switzer.

In 1967 she entered the race as "K. V. Switzer" and became the first woman to enter and run the race with an official bib number. 

That is a photo of Ms Switzer, wearing bib number 261 as race official Jock Semple attempted to force her off of the course and confiscate that bib.

She is 70 years old and will run the race today after acting as the honorary starter of the elite women's field.  Five decades after running it for the first time, she's doing it again.  Awesome!

What is not awesome is that among the 30,000 or so who will run the race as official entrants will be some who do not deserve to be at the start line.  They are cheaters.  That is because the Boston Marathon is a race where you must run a qualifying time in order to officially enter the race.  Without a qualifying time you must get a spot in the field through those given out to charities and race sponsors.

The qualifying times are daunting for some.  Back in the mid 1990s when I toyed with the idea of running a marathon, I dreamt of running a Boston qualifying time.  That meant running another marathon maintaining a pace of under 8 minutes per mile.  Considering that I couldn't maintain that pace for a 10 kilometer (6.2 mile) race, I'd have had to make a major commitment of time I didn't have to speed training. 

So when I read a story from Runner's World yesterday about people being banned from this year's race for falsifying their qualifying times, I was disgusted.  Seven of the 15 people banned from this year's race had faster runners wear their bib numbers to obtain those qualifying times. 

The late Eddie Guerrero, WWE superstar once said "if you're not cheating, you're not trying."  It is a common sentiment among professional sports athletes and their fans.  What do you think of that sentiment?

Once, twice, three times a failure?

In its infinite lack of wisdom, Congress is going to try once again to have private debt collection agencies collect debts owed to the IRS.  In the myriad of news articles about this change in policy, it is often pointed out that this has been tried twice before in the history of the IRS.  The first time was back in 1996 and that lasted about a year before the program was canceled.  Members of Congress and senior Clinton Administration officials were behind the cancelation as the program.  There were numerous complaints of harassment and violations of the rights of the debtors by the collection agencies.  It is also worth mention that the program actually lost money.  The National Taxpayer Advocate, Nina Olson pointed this out to Congress in 2014 when evaluating the two prior attempts to use outside agencies to collect debts owed to the IRS.  In spite of this, in 2015 Congress passed a law once again authorizing the IRS to use outside collection agencies.

This idea actually goes back much further into our nation's history.  The Bureau of Internal Revenue was created by the Revenue Act of 1862 and a decade later Congress gave that agency the authority to contract with three individuals to collect monies owed to the U.S. government.  Two years later, the House Ways and Means Committee issued a report that the contracts "served no useful purpose."  More than likely this latest attempt at privatizing collection of tax debt will receive the same evaluation in a year or two.  Maybe less.  

What makes this idea even worse than it was the last two times is the current problem of scammers pretending to be IRS employees trying to fleece people under the guise of this type of collection.  The primary defense against such scams has been the established notion that the IRS does not call people to collect taxes.  Now people acting on behalf of the IRS will be doing just that.

There are provisions in the program that are intended to make sure that the people who are the targets of this new initiative will know in advance to expect these phone calls.  The IRS will send a letter to these taxpayers informing them that their account has been assigned to one of four authorized collection agencies.  The letter will include a copy of IRS Pamphlet 4518 which discusses the program.  After this, before a phone call comes, the collection agency will also send a letter to the taxpayer.  So the call will not come without warning.

But does that really matter?  Last October a three year investigation culminated in an indictment involving 56 accused scammers in the U.S. who were allegedly working with five call centers in India that involved over $300 million that had been swindled from U.S. taxpayers.

This is a bad idea.