Sunday, April 29, 2018

Once again, hypocrisy from the right (maybe we should call them the wrong)

Thin-skinned Donald Trump, who personifies the "dish it out but can't take it" brand of bullying once again skipped the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner.  But he had something to say about it afterward.

There has been much criticism of the remarks from comedian Michelle Wolf, who hosted.  Mike Huckabee took offense to Ms Wolf's comments about White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

The WHCD was supposed to celebrate the 1st Amendment.  Instead they celebrated bullying, vulgarity, and hate. They got all dressed up so they would look nicer when they had a hired gun savagely attack their guests. Do they really wonder why America has no respect for them? Sad!
And

Those who think that the tasteless classless bullying at the WHCD was an example of the 1st Amendment should never condemn bullying,bigoted comments, racist bile or hate speech.  People should be free to speak but held accountable for it.

I'd like to ask Mr. Huckabee where his objections, i.e., consequence for Donald J. Trump for this comment, as reported by The Hill"

 "Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?" Trump reportedly bellowed while watching his Republican presidential rival on the news. "I mean, she's a woman, and I'm not s'posedta say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?”

 Or this nugget:


Or this:




Huckabee himself is no stranger to random, racist remarks:




Let's examine exactly what Ms Wolf said regarding Ms Sanders:

And, of course, we have Sarah Huckabee Sanders. We're graced with Sarah's presence tonight. I have to say I'm a little star-struck. I love you as Aunt Lydia in “The Handmaid's Tale.” 

Mike Pence, if you haven't seen it, you would love it. 

Every time Sarah steps up to the podium, I get excited because I'm not really sure what we're going to get: you know, a press briefing, a bunch of lies or divided into softball teams. “It's shirts and skins, and this time, don't be such a little b----, Jim Acosta.”

I actually really like Sarah. I think she's very resourceful. Like, she burns facts, and then she uses the ash to create a perfect smoky eye. Like, maybe she's born with it; maybe it's lies.

 It's probably lies.

 And I'm never really sure what to call Sarah Huckabee Sanders. You know, is it Sarah Sanders? Is Sarah Huckabee Sanders? Is it Cousin Huckabee? Is it Auntie Huckabee Sanders? Like, what's Uncle Tom but for white women who disappoint other white women? Oh, I know: Aunt Coulter.

She did not insult the appearance of Ms Sanders.  She did suggest that Sanders uses burnt lies to achieve her smoky eye appearance.  Not bullying.  An accusation that she regularly lies from the podium where she conducts press briefings.  

How regularly?  Well, @SethAbramson published more than 4 dozen lies told by Ms Sanders during one press briefing in October of 2017.



Trump bullies everyone he disagrees with.  The right has no business whining about snowflakes and bullying.

posted by me at 2:37 PM

Saturday night stuff

I'm watching the episode of Hill Street Blues that first aired on Thursday night, November 24, 1983.  It has the usual montage of scenes and then goes to a large graphic that read:

Michael Conrad
died November 22, 1983

Hill Street Blue is 
a living tribute 
to his memory

Rest in Peace
At the time I was stationed at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi.  While my primary assignment was running the unit administration function at one of the aircraft maintenance units on base, I spent countless hours working extra shifts as a Security Police officer...i.e., as a law enforcement specialist.  We were all major fans of Hill Street Blues and our pre-shift briefing (known as Guard Mount rather than roll call) would almost always end with the shift supervisor doing their best impression of Michael Conrad.




35 years later and I still watch these reruns whenever I can.  Why was this one show so much better than those that came before it, or followed in its wake?  I'm not saying other police procedural programs didn't break new ground or excel.  Many of them did.

I'll also note the prescience of this program as 35 years ago it featured Jeffrey Tambor as "Alan Wachtel" a corrupt attorney who began dressing as a woman.  In this episode, he's wearing a "wire" in his bra to try to catch some crooks.

* * *

The fact that the leaders of North Korea and South Korea met is historic.  But there is a long way to go before there will be "denuclearization" as the U.S. defines it on the Korean peninsula.  North Korea's definition of that term has always involved the complete removal of U.S. troops from the peninsula, and elimination of the protective "umbrella" of U.S. nuclear weapons in the region that "protect" South Korea, Japan and other U.S. interests.

So the Trump sycophants who were chanting "Nobel, Nobel" at his rally in Michigan need to be patient.  When and if there is actual peace in Korea, then their chants would be more than just wasted energy.

By the way, any social science, history, philosophy, law and theology professor, judge or legislator in any country can nominate ANYONE for a Nobel Peace Prize.  Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin were nominated for that award.

* * *

Is anyone surprised that there are now multiple Twitter accounts for Melania's hat?

* * *

This item was removed due to this blog's ban on things Kardashian (except in unusual circumstances).

* * *

It is Sunday morning now and I'm watching the Professional Bowler's Association tournament on ESPN and they just introduced Pete Weber.  He's been on the pro tour for 38 years.  I felt old because I kept score for him in one of his first tour events in Miami, FL.

Old, but still blogging. :)

* * *

The gun lovers attending the NRA Leadership Conference in Dallas on May 4th will have to leave the guns at home, due to the presence of Vice-President Mike Pence.

They want guns everywhere, including in the hands of teachers in schools, but no one gets a gun because Pence will be there.

Oh the hypocrisy!!

* * *

Am I the only one who is tired of hearing about whether or not the marriage of Donald and Melania Trump is "on the rocks?"


posted by me at 12:49 PM

Saturday, April 28, 2018

Trump Taunts Tester

The LiarInChief is calling on Montana Senator Jon Tester (D) to resign his U.S. Senate seat claiming that the allegations made by Senator Tester against Trump's nominee to lead the VA are "...proving false."

Given that the allegations stem from interviews with nearly two dozen people who were exposed to Dr. Jackson during his time in the White House Medical Unit, they cannot be easily dismissed.  While the White House claims documents they released exonerate Jackson, that's not entirely correct.  There was a Navy Inspector General report published in 2012 that declared the White House Medical Unit to be a "...toxic workplace..." and that suggested one or both of the two ranking physicians (one of whom was Dr. Jackson) should be reassigned.

Anyone who thinks that the Secret Service would make a record of their having stopped Dr. Jackson from creating a disturbance that might have awakened then-President Obama doesn't know how things work.  Such things are almost always kept on the QT and no records made, to avoid those records coming back later to haunt the principals.

But let's assume for a moment that the allegations are false, to deal with the Trump narrative that those who make false allegations should be forced to resign.  Consider the following:




Politifact rated this statement as false.  They said the same about this false allegation against John Podesta.




You can read their analysis of this falsehood here.

* * *

More than likely, a good portion of the allegations against Dr. Jackson are true, to some degree.  Was he a bit "loose" in writing prescriptions for White House staffers?  I can believe that.  The White House acknowledges that there were at least three incidents where a vehicle Dr. Jackson was driving was involved in a mishap.  How about releasing the unredacted Reports of Survey from those accidents?  Was a field sobriety test conducted?  Was a breathalyzer or blood test done?

The real problem here can be found in the utter lack of vetting of the nominee prior to Trump making the announcement.  He just doesn't get that his personal barometer about people is not sufficient to determine who is and isn't qualified to be a member of his Cabinet.  He doesn't understand that he needs to ensure a nominee will not have the nomination go badly in the process, as it looks bad for him.

As long as he acts first and thinks later (if ever), he's doomed to one big mistake after another.




posted by me at 7:09 PM

Thursday, April 26, 2018

Not sure who to blame...

The VA sends me prescription refills from a centralized pharmacy in the area and they use UPS for shipping.  I signed up for the UPS application that emails you when you're going to receive a package.  It lets you know that a package has been sent and is scheduled for delivery.

I got an email telling me that there was a package delivered to me on 4/25/2018 at 10:18 a.m.  Problem is, I was home at that hour and the doorbell did not ring.  There was no knock at the front door.  I did walk out through that front door where the package was allegedly left at about 10:45 a.m. that morning and there was no package there.

I woke up from a nap on 4/26/2018 at around 4:30 pm to find the package in my room.  Mom had come home earlier and when the electricians who were working in the home (yes, I can sleep through the sounds of working electricians when I'm tired enough) left, the package was on the porch.

The medication inside the box was perishable and required refrigeration.  The icepack had melted.  It is almost a certainty that the medication is no longer useful.

I submitted the refill request on 4/9/2018 and it was mailed out on 4/23/2018.  We'll get into the two week time period that took in a moment.  The point is, I've been without this medication for more than two weeks now.  And before you blame me for not submitting the refill sooner, bear in mind that this is an injection pen medication where they issue you a supply of three of the pens.  The last one in the box was taken out on 4/9 and didn't work.  So my being out of the medication is not my fault.

Why did it take two weeks to refill one medication when the Liar-In-Chief has made the VA and its systems so much better?  That's a really good question.

I'm a big fan of the doctors and nurses I deal with at the VA, but the system itself has done nothing but get more difficult to navigate since Trump took office.  The West LA VA Medical Center ER is underdoing renovation, but their temporary triage unit is less than ideal.  Two weeks from submitting a prescription refill online until it is mailed out is unacceptable.

posted by me at 7:10 PM

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

The real problems with the nomination of Ronny Jackson to be Secretary of Veterans Affairs

After the committee vote on Donald Trump's nomination of Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson to become the next Secretary of Veterans Affairs was postponed, the new allegations regarding Dr. Jackson continued to pour in.  He allegedly handed out opioid medications like candy.  He banged on a hotel room of a woman on a presidential trip so loudly that the Secret Service was worried he would awaken then-President Barrack Obama.

But those aren't the real problems with this nomination.  The truth is that this man is not qualified and does not have the experience to run a large government agency.  How big is the VA?  It employs over 375,000 people.  In FY 2016 it had a budget of more than $270 billion.  It is a gigantic bureaucracy.  Dr. Jackson oversees roughly two dozen other people in the White House Medical Unit.  He's never commanded a unit of more than 50 personnel.  Donald Trump may consider him a superior physician but that doesn't qualify him to run the VA.  

There have been nine previous men who've held the position of Secretary of Veterans Affairs since the cabinet level post was created in 1989.  The first person to hold the job was a veteran and a politician who served in Congress for more than two decades.  Edward Derwinski's tenure in the job was unremarkable.  

President Bill Clinton appointed his replacement, Jesse Brown.  Brown was also a veteran who had been active in the Disabled American Veterans, a Veteran Service Organization.  He expanded VA services offered to women, homeless veterans and victims of exposure to chemical agents (like Agent Orange).

It isn't required to be a veteran to be effective in running this agency.  The requirements to be effective are management skills, as running an organization this size cannot be done by a micromanager.  It requires the skill of advocating for the people who are charged with caring for our nation's veterans, as proven by one of the finest commanders I ever served under.  I thought I'd written about the big Sortie Goal sign in a previous blog, but I can't find that one.  I'll re-tell that tale another time.  Suffice it to say the lesson learned was that when you take care of the people, they take care of the mission.  So whoever winds up in this job needs to take care of the hundreds of thousands of folks who work for the agency.

A doctor who is charming and willing to tell the public that a president whose diet is limited to fast food and whose exercise regimen has left him unable to walk 700 yards without a golf cart might live to be 200 may be great at what Trump refers to as "truthful hyperbole" but is not a qualification to run the VA.

The worst part is that Trump and his minions are letting this man twist in the wind of speculation about the shortcomings that are not the real reason he is unqualified to serve in the post he's been nominated to fill.

posted by me at 9:09 PM

Saturday, April 21, 2018

The social media rantings of Randa Jarrar are rude but they are protected

What follows are screenshots of the tweets of Fresno State Professor Randa Jarrar.  I cannot embed them in this blog because she has made her account private in the wake of the tremendous backlash her comments generated.


A lot of people are calling for Fresno State to fire her over these tweets.  While rude and repugnant, they still seem to be to be protected free speech and the government cannot infringe upon her right to make such remarks.

But then there was this tweet.



That number she gave out in her tweet is the number for a 24-hour crisis line in Arizona.  Part of the Arizona State University system.  Freedom of speech doesn't allow you to cause a crisis hotline to be inundated with phone calls in this way.

* * *

The fact that government cannot infringe upon freedom of speech does not prevent private citizens from imposing consequences against those who say outrageous things.  

Big donors are saying that they may withhold financial support from the school.  If I were a donor to Fresno State that would be my position.  I respect this woman's right to free speech, but I also have the right to determine how I choose to donate my money.  I wouldn't donate money to a university that employs a professor who cannot refrain from speaking ill of the dead in the immediate aftermath of their passing.  












posted by me at 6:41 PM

Thursday, April 19, 2018

The Ranting Teacher/City Councilperson - Part II

When the news broke about how history teacher/Pico Rivera City Councilman Gregory Salcido had gone off on a rant about the military in his classroom, I wrote the original blog in the above title.  He was fired from his position as a teacher on March 31st and now the report of the investigation that led up to his firing has been released.  It was published in an article in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

According to the report, Salcido:
  • Had nude images of women on his work computer, which had been deleted;
  • Had an image of a young boy pulling on a sumo wrestler’s “thong like garment,” which had been deleted;
  • Told students it should not be illegal to download “kiddy porn”;
  • Told students they had the right to kill themselves;
  • Told students he would kill everyone in the classroom if it were required to protect his family;
  • Used racial slurs when talking to students;
  • Regularly insulted students, including cursing at them;
  • Used corporal punishment in the classroom by making students do push-ups or squats;
  • Refused to follow the district’s discipline policies;
  • Left campus during the school day, against his contractual requirements;
  • Completed City Council business on his school district computer;
  • Lied repeatedly during his interview with Hummel
That is a list of the allegations from the report that was published in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune article.

There was an incident in 2012 where he hit a student.

So why wasn't he fired then.  I know of two incidents where teachers were fired for one incident of smacking a student in very similar circumstances.  The L.A. Times article on Salcido's firing and the release of the report contains a statement from the school board president claiming the school has had three principals in the five years she has been on the board.

That is not an excuse.  A counselor at the school told the Times that she has had to move 25 students out of Salcido's classes in the last 11 years.  This was not a secret.  Salcido's behavior was not occurring in a vacuum.

He is appealing the termination.  Big surprise.

posted by me at 5:15 AM

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Answering a question

Tax season officially ends today when the clock runs out on the one-day extension granted by the federal government after the IRS computer systems crashed on April 17, 2018.  I chose not to work today weeks ago and my ER visit last night merely cemented my intention.  That being said, I will admit to having gone in this morning before the office opened in order to clear two "rejects" where the e-filing of returns I did for clients were not accepted by the IRS.  In both cases, the issue was a mismatch between the name on the return, the Social Security number and how those items are recorded in the Social Security Administration database.  Happily, both rejects were easily resolved.

A couple of weeks ago, a client I was helping mentioned that their friends had asked them why they come to me, when they could just use TurboTax or another of the numerous online tax products.  Their answer was an expression of their confidence in my work.  But I wanted to share a couple of anecdotes about things a highly trained tax-professional can do that an online or CD-ROM tax solution cannot do.

* * *

This client's issue was that when they applied for their 2017 healthcare coverage through California's exchange, Covered California, they underestimated their income for the year.  As a result, they had a balance owing on their federal tax return of over $900.  It could have been worse without the limits on advance premium tax credit repayment that are contained in this chart.


This particular client is single, but the hack I'm about to describe works for anyone.  On their Form 8962, the form on which the advance payment of the subsidy is reconciled with their actual income is a measure of where the taxpayer (family) falls on the Income as percentage of poverty line.  This client's result was 302%.

So I suggested that the client contribute $500 to a traditional IRA.  That lowered their income from 302% of the poverty line to only 299%.  As a result, their required repayment was reduced from $1,250 to $750.  Their balance owing to the IRS dropped from over $900 to just over $200.  So by contributing part of what they would have paid to the IRS toward their retirement savings, they are paying less in taxes.

An online or CD-ROM tax solution cannot come up with that kind of solution because it isn't programmed to look for things like that.

* * *

The next client has been using TurboTax for years, and it cost them a large amount of money as a result.  This is because there are two ways to calculate the deduction for having an office in your home.

The simplified method is the easier method of the two.  You take a deduction of $5 per square foot for an office of up to 300 square feet.  The maximum deduction under this "safe harbor" is $1,500.

The other method is the actual expense method.  You take the square footage of the office and the total square footage of the home and create a ratio.  A home of 800 square feet with a 100 square foot office results in a ratio of 12.5%.  Then you total the rent, utilities and other expenses that apply to the entire home, multiply it by that ratio and then add any expenses that are directly deductible because they are specific to the office.  Paint the whole home and 12.5% of the expense is deductible.  Paint just the office and the entire expense of painting is deductible.

In this case, I calculated what the actual expense method deduction would have been for the years 2014 and 2015 and it was over $11,000 for each year.  That means that this taxpayer paid a lot more in tax in each of those two years than they would have if they'd gone to a professional.  How much more?

The income tax rate was 25% federal and 6% for CA.  31% of $11,000 is $3,410 in income tax savings.  Then there's the savings of self employment tax, which adds $1,554 to the extra tax this person paid.  That's roughly an extra $5,000 in income tax paid per year over 2 years because they went with an online/CD-ROM solution.

The worst part of this is that when Congress implemented this simplified method, it was done in such a way that once you elect either method, you cannot go back and change your election.  So I couldn't amend this client's returns to recover the lost $10,000 in taxes they didn't really owe.

* * *

Fortunately, the final anecdote has a happier ending.  In this case the client decided to move out of their home at the beginning of 2016 and rent it out.  They did their taxes on TurboTax.

Now I don't know if during the preparation of that return, the application asked the client about the purchase price of the home and so on, but the one deduction that was missed was depreciation.  Depreciation is the recovery of the cost of business property over its "useful life" as defined by the Internal Revenue Code.  The code defines the useful life of residential rental property as a period of 27.5 years.

The "basis" of this home was roughly $600,000 which means that the missed depreciation deduction was over $21,800.  Now in this case, by amending the return and claiming the missed depreciation, the previously reported and taxed profit of roughly $7,000 became a loss of over $14,000.

The loss isn't deductible this year because the client's income is above a certain level, but the loss is carried forward into future years until it can be used.  Meanwhile, they got a refund of 36% of $7,000 or $2,520.

* * *

I'm not saying TurboTax sucks.  Nor am I saying that about any other online solution, although having tested most of them, I will say that my personal opinion is that the H&R Block online solution is better than the rest.  Not because I'm an employee.  Because of two reasons.  One is that in my opinion, it is more intuitive in probing for things other applications miss.  The other is that the user can quickly and easily opt, for a reasonable fee, to have a trained tax professional review and verify their return is accurate.



posted by me at 4:29 PM

Friday, April 06, 2018

This land is your land revised

Woody Guthrie wrote:

"This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York Island..."

It is a nice sentiment but the truth is that what we would like to think of as "our" land isn't.  Not when someone else has been able to purchase it.

There is an article in today's Los Angeles Times titled "A wealthy developer owns a rare plot of green in a very crowded part of L.A. What does he owe his neighbors?"

The article is about Liberty Park, a very rare swath of green in the densely developed Koreatown area.


The owner of the land wants to build a 36 story residential and commercial tower.  In a city where housing is desperately needed, is that a bad thing?  The people who live in the area think so, because the area is "park- poor" as described in the article.  The City of Los Angeles designated the park as a historical-cultural monument, preventing developing the property.  

If the city wants a park, it needs to buy up the land to create one.  Considering that a fair valuation of the land might be between $75 million and $100 million, they don't have the money.  So everyone wants to punish the owner of the land and force him to keep his private property as a park because there are no public parks in the area.  Is this fair?

This isn't the same situation as that involving Vinod Khosla, the billionaire owner of Martins Beach in San Mateo County.  There is a state law guaranteeing access to the coastline to all.  That's not the same as taking one person's private property without due process.  If the city feels the need to provide a park, the Takings Clause of the Constitution calls for "just compensation" if private property is taken for public use.

I'm in favor of parks and providing them for the populace.  But not in this way.


posted by me at 10:48 AM

Sunday, April 01, 2018

Price Quotes Over the Phone

Apparently the person who posted this review of my office on Yelp had a bad experience when calling in for a price quote:

"Beware of hidden fees. A representative from this branch would not specify the base pay for tax preparation, but did say it will go up, because of the different variables they consider. When asked what variables, she would not answer."

The fallacy here is the notion that we can tell a person over the phone what the price will be for preparing their tax return before we know what is involved in that return.  Can an auto mechanic offer an accurate price quote over the phone without first reviewing the car to diagnose the problem?  Like it or not, the same holds true of a tax return.

"I have only one W-2 and nothing else."

I've heard that before.  Let's begin here.  There are actually four "base" tax returns.

Form 1040
Form 1040NR (filed by those who are non-resident aliens, unable to elect to file as a resident alien)
Form 1040A 
Form 1040EZ

Now let's consider that this person claiming to have only the one Form W-2 is in fact eligible to file the 1040EZ.  That tax return fee is $60 and another $57 for the state return if required.  But if they qualify to claim the Earned Income Tax Credit, there's an additional charge of $50 for the calculations and Due Diligence work involved in ensuring the taxpayer is eligible for that credit.  If the taxpayer is subject to the penalty for not having health insurance all year, there is an additional charge for the calculation of that penalty.

But if there is an entry in Box 12 of that W-2 for the taxpayer having contributed pre-tax dollars to the employer's retirement plan, and if that taxpayer qualifies for the Saver's Credit, then the Form 1040A must be used.  More expensive, and still just the one W-2 form.

And if there is an entry in Box 12 of that W-2 for the taxpayer putting money into a Health Savings Account, now we're talking the long form 1040, plus Form 8889 and a fee that is nearer to $300 than to the $117 for the simple 1040EZ/state return.

One W-2 and depending on what entries are on it, they may pay as little as $117 or more than $300, for just having one Form W-2.  Those are the variables referenced in that phone conversation this potential client was so frustrated by.

* * *

This is why we don't do price quotes over the phone.  Let's suppose I was talking to that potential client and I mentioned prices in a range from $60 to over $300.  That potential client would hear only the bottom of the range.  They would focus on that $60 amount and when any potential variable came into play that increased the price above that level, they would be upset and frustrated.

We are happy to do price quotes.  In person, when we can see what's involved with the specifics of the return and can give a solid, accurate estimate.

I wonder if the poster of this negative review demands a price quote from the mechanic before that mechanic has had a chance to hook their car up to the diagnostic equipment.

posted by me at 6:29 AM