Coping: With Electronic Dependents?

Our topic this morning is Income Taxes which come due in about two weeks. Gotcher Tums supplies laid in?

Before we start, a compliment to I.R.S.  The Ure family return was filed electronically early this month and already our 37-cent refund hit the bank account.  Nicely done!

People tend to hold I.R.S. to account for everything dumb that happens in Washington because they end up collecting the taxes to pay for whatever this week’s bad idea is.  Like Ryan not calling the healthcare vote…but don’t get me started on that

Sure, I.R.S. has had some players who’ve gotten “out of bounds.” Other than the politics, they have a thankless job.  Sort of like being a repo man – or a process server –  some one has to do it.

But now to the point:

This isn’t an issue for us this year (thanks to the little slip in the market Monday it may not be next year, either) but in future years, I’d like to know about writing off some of our “electronic dependents” as “business expenses” or “tax credits.”

My Amazon Alexa comes to mind. Let’s start there.

With Alexa I’m able to listen – at least a few times a week – to Herman Cain on WOKV in Jacksonville, Florida.  A one-time candidate for the White House, Cain is one of those common sense people who we just don’t hear enough from.  He’s good at critical thinking, does his homework (actually reads the bill summaries), unites a black and white audience,  and is downright a downright interesting man.

Hell, we’d drive to Jacksonville to have lunch with him, if I could make a side-trip to Pirates of the Caribbean in Orlando.

Other times, Alexa tunes us in to WOAI down in San Antonio – a city which seems to have made peace with the Latin/American melting pot concept.  Joe Pags and Charlie Parker are both great.  WOAI has CoastToCoast AM with George Noory on at night.  Zeus-the-Cat listens to El Rushbo mid-days on ‘OAI if the mousing is slow or he’s on a break from Mole Patrol and the grown ups aren’t around.

So far, Alexa streaming is not an add-on to the basic Amazon Prime membership.  But I worry as the economy tightens, I wouldn’t be surprised to see such a move.  You saw Twitter is looking at a subscription business model?

Imagine:  Paying for a service so you read what’s on the President’s mind at 3:45 AM.  Does America own the Business Model Concept, or what?

My son asked me the other day about his electronic dependent.  Siri’s her name and she’ll always in George’s pants.  Worse: she costs a bundle.  Such things do.

Every month G-II (not to be confused with Gaye of www.backdoorsurvival.com who is G-2,  know her longer) pays a hellacious phone bill not to mention the periodic upgrades. He’ll be the first in line when the next iPhone comes out so he can provide three-letter agencies even better coverage of what a 36-year old bachelor does in a big city.  (You’d think they’d have figured some of this out, by now…slow, huh?)

The real problem is this third electronic dependent named Cortana.  I’ve spent bundles on  her – mostly time, not directly.  Seems like isn’t a day goes by when I can’t get my work done without something she’s connected to blowing up. How do we put Cortana on the ‘watch list?’

Even with “Shut-Up 10” installed, I still worry that some of my plans to take over the world through my leadership positions in the cheesy Danish Liberation Movement, and the drunken Scottish Liver-Buster’s League might land me on a no fly list.

We may have other “electronic dependents” who we don’t know about.  We assume our phones have been monitored with infinity transmitters for decades.

[Wiki Note to the Not Paranoid Enough (NPE): An infinity transmitter (also known as a harmonica bug) is a surveillance device used to covertly monitor conversation in a room through a telephone line. Its name derives from the fact that, by using a telephone line as a transmitter, it can work at an infinite distance, unlike other bugging devices that have only a finite signal range. The alternative name ‘harmonica bug’ refers to the fact that such devices were originally activated using the tone produced by a harmonica.

Design of infinity transmitters has varied, according to developments in telephone systems. In some instances, the bug is activated after the target answers and hangs up their phone. In countries where there is a delay between connection and the first ring, the bug can be activated before the target phone rings, so that the infinity transmitter essentially ‘answers’ the call. In more advanced systems, the transmitter can be placed in a parallel telephone line to prevent the victim’s phone line remaining engaged. As modern telephone lines no longer establish a voice path until the call is answered a variant of this now exists that uses CND, or caller ID. Usually an unusual sequence of non printing characters is used and thus will not show up on a display device. Sometimes the caller ID device itself has the bug but it can be nearly anywhere. In much the same manner a cellphone can be configured for silence on ring and auto answer and hidden, frequently placed inside something that has power available to maintain the battery. This allows the infinity transmitter to be hidden inside an automobile or other location where a land line is not an option.”

Base units of cordless phones work great and tiny repeaters can be placed in USB chargers. Toss in some of those “fake cell sites” and… Please double up on your meds this morning if you didn’t know all this stuff before.]

Been reading through how some of the embedded devices revealed in Vault 7 over at Wikileaks could be spying on us from that Internet-enabled TV, too.

Honestly, we were thinking about installing a smart TV in the bedroom, until that was disclosed.  Then Elaine pointed out that a Federal contractor watching video of Mr. Ure in some other time zone could be grossed out, or worse, might need counseling, after watching an old geezer playing hide the…..electronics!

So let me see if I can form this into a coherent question:

Elaine and I pay for our electronic devices. Not ya’ll.

BUT seems to us YOU (the federal government) is getting as much (or more) use out of them than we are.

So since the electronics are running more and more for government convenience, not ours, could we write off the costs?

Or can we (as a condition of continued unauthorized use of our voice and likenesses, emails, images, etc.) charge-back or write off some of the ongoing costs of these “electronic dependents” of ours?

Thank you in advance and please use a little of our tax payment for Q1 (which should arrive at your place by late next week) to buy up some shares of this market. It’s been killing us.

Ure’s truly, yada, yada, write when you get rich…

George@ure.net

(No one on the NOC List was injured in the monitoring of this morning’s report.)

11 thoughts on “Coping: With Electronic Dependents?”

  1. I mailed my income tax check in, and the money I owed them was transferred within a week or two. I assumed it was because they needed the money FAST- guess they and the post office are awesomely efficient. (the latter with third-world speed for international-bound mail).

  2. (actually reads the bill summaries)

    That is the whole problem with Congress.. they only read the bill summaries.. they need to read the Crap in them.. since they work so few days we know just because of that they are not writing them.. they refuse to read them and then tell us how good they are even though they don’t have a foggy clue what is in them buried.. most are written by firms outside the circles.. I use to read that stuff and would be surprised how they could vote something in that no rational sane human could vote on with a conscience…
    Now we have the laziest congress in history of the USA.. big question.. does anyone think that the dynasty of the USA will last as long as the Egyptian dynasty or the Roman Dynasty..
    Plato once wrote that the demise of a civilization was the result of greed and corruption of those leading.. and the ignorance of those they lead..
    we should expect more from those that are suppose to represent us.. unfortunately that would require voting out the dinosaurs in office that have historically proven that they have a poor work record and ethics.Instead we keep voting in the same old people election after election all running on dead dog issues that will never be changed but are popular to the people.. Now as I see it.. if we keep voting in the same old people we know deep down there won’t ever be any changes made.. so we have no right to complain when they keep giving us the same old dc two step dance..

  3. Re:IRS, “somebody has to do it”. Why? To fund the federal government? Bull! During Reagan’ term he commissioned a study of where tax dollars go. Result? “Not one nickel of income tax goes to fund the operation of the federal government.” Look up Grace Commission Report and flip to the end. It is about control, not operating capital.

    • Thank you Kirk.

      Having a government that simply prints all the money it wants, there is no financial reason for income tax.

      The real purpose is to emphasize every year that the government still owns you, and in acknowledgement of that in fear you dutifully file your taxes.

      I used to tell the story of going to my buddy’s house on April 15 and volunteering to mail his 1040 along with mine as I was heading for the post office. Two months later I told him I never mailed it, I tossed it in the trash. Tell anyone this story, and you will see real fear on their face. A free country, I don’t think so.

      As I often say, nothing is going to change until you stop paying those folks to do those bad things to you and others.

      This gap between belief and reality (yes, your government is actually involved in torture and genocide) is known as a psychosis in psychiatric terms. There are currently 38 million adult Americans on antipsychotic prescription drugs in an attempt to deal with this issues and others of American culture. Most of the rest of the country is on Antidepressants, painkillers, alcohol, street drugs, and I suspect even addiction to electronics in an attempt to deal with this psychotic gap. Denial and cognitive dissonance works pretty well to for those of you who pride yourself on being chemical free.

      Psychosis–a (severe) mental disorder in which thought and emotions are so impaired that contact is lost with external reality.

      I find very few Americans who can deal with their reality without showing psychotic symptoms. It seems normal until you come to some place like where I live in Ecuador where political correctness is irrelevant and found humorously pathetic.

      When I meet someone newly arrived from the USA I proceed cautiously until I understand where their psychosis is strong. Otherwise an offhand comment can send them bolting from my presence wide eyed with fear.

      • Right on …..if George’s blog here had a thing where we could put a hand up or down on something I’d put it up on this part that you wrote that is really fantastically true that most people do not realize what you just said

      • Imagine take a deep relaxing breath you’re on an island with 30 to 300 other people

        It’s hard work surviving on this island you have to go out once a week and fish for your community

        And while you’re out there fishing the ladies kids and grandparents they’re all doing something

        Between their laughter and jokes on each other they find time to gather wood for cooking

        Yes others are mending and others are watching over the ones who are dying

        And others are helping the soon-to-be mothers

        Their shelters only require once or twice a year repairs

        They haven’t had a death from a wild animal in decades

        Since they eradicated them from their local area

        There is a spring that runs through the middle of their community

        They have learned to live with Mother Nature between the storms and the summer heat they appreciate the cooling of their community by the trees

        Food grows naturally and they the people have learned how to make more of what they want most grow abundantly

        They worship each day the Sun and their elderly and the newborn that go and come

        That was until the wicked old queen from the West demanded they all pay and work 12 blankety blankety-blank hours a day

  4. George, or anyone else
    Off topic a bit
    Thinking about labels of convenience and the way the pollsters had Hillary as a shoe-in when all along the Trump voters were providing misdirection on purpose because they liked the man with no filter who said what most were thinking but too afraid to publicly admit….this PREZ. with the lowest approval rating ever? Drawing on my personal experience when out with sheeple in public I do my best bowed ‘SMH’ when the out cry of Trumpsters latest actions are lamented, but back on my home turf behind closed doors with the boys it’s all high fives. Does the jilted fake news lying media provide alternative facts?

  5. Question from a subscriber. I have college accounts (Iowa 529) for both my kids(14 & 16). Both are in “conservative growth.” Other stocks or “money market” are my only choices. Will “money market” increase the chances that there will be something left in two and four years from now?
    Thanks.
    “Pili”

    • Peoplenomic Charts with give you the answer. They show buy now. Put it all in stocks until they show a sell signal & then go to money markets. You will need to subscribe to Peoplenomic at $40. This is not investment advice, but only my opinion.

  6. “Climate change” is absolutely real, and absolutely essential. Without it, Earth would be a dead rock and we wouldn’t exist to debate the subject.

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