Carrying Stones – moving a mountain one stone at a time

Hidden poverty taxes

Author’s caveat: This article is not about the poor versus the rich. This is about the poor versus the people doing just OK. The author also reserves the right to expound at length on this topic at a later date.

Taxpayers who may even be considered middle class can find themselves subjected to what this author will collectively call “poverty taxes” the comfortable will never see. These come in several forms.

  • Bank Overdraft fees occur when customers accidentally spend more than they have in their bank account.
  • Late fees occur when borrowers cannot pay their bills on time.
  • Credit card over-the-limit fees occur when borrowers accidentally spend more than their credit limit. This can happen when interest is calculated at the end of a billing period.
  • Rent v Mortgage. Renters sometimes pay more than the mortgage they cannot qualify for.
  • These constitute low-hanging fruit. There are others.

The federal government defines a single person in poverty as earning less than $15,960 in 2026[1]. A household of a couple with three children is poor if they collectively earn less than $38,680. Weigh that against the lowest possible monthly expenses (which differs from one place to another and is grossly underestimated in this author’s opinion).

Basic NeedsAnnual Cost
Housing$7,200
Food$2,400
Transportation$1,200
Healthcare$0
Total$10,800

Stacked Complications

If a customer’s mobile phone is disconnected for non-payment while experiencing funding issues at the bank. They attempt to log into the bank’s site to fix those issues only to be met with a requirement to enter a security code sent to their (recently disconnected) mobile phone.

Now the customer cannot manage the bank issue from home, instead having to visit a branch office (which may cause it’s own transportation or time management issues for those without a car or fuel and are not served by public transportation).

Health insurance

This topic deserves it’s own article, but deserves a mention here because healthcare costs also have a greater impact on the poor.

Oh yeah — real taxes

So far this article has covered so-called hidden taxes, never mind the actual federal income tax rates declaring those who earn $1 per annum owe Uncle Sam a dime (as of 2025). That 10 percent tax bracket increases after the earner crosses the meager threshold of $11,925, at which point they are greeted with 12 percent on revenue up to $48,475, then up from there.

Even that doesn’t touch on the additional income tax due for most of 50 states and territories.

  1. Poverty Level Tables/Charts  ↩

Andor creator says Yes, it’s about Fascim

Star Wars: Andor’s Tony Gilroy Gives Interview He Couldn’t Before:

“You get out your Fascism for Dummies book for the 15 things you do, and we tried to include as many of them as we could in the most artful way possible,” GIlroy tells The Hollywood Reporter. “How were we supposed to know that this clown car in Washington was going to basically use the same book that we used? So I don’t think it’s prescience so much as the sad familiarity of fascism.”

Bad Site Design

Our water is provided but a county utility provider with a website I've been using for nearly 20 years. Because I'm a web-first kind of guy, I throw the bills in the trash because I go to the site periodically to pay what I owe. When I get there, if it says $0 due, I move on without really thinking about it because it should tell me when I owe.

At some point, the utility changed pay portals. Mind you, the former apparently-defunct portal opened without a hitch and told me I owed nothing. This time around, I remembered throwing a bill in the bin a couple of days ago. I looked at the site a bit closer and noticed it hadn't been updated since November 2025.

Uh oh.

I pulled the bill out of the trash and found I was going to be disconnected in three days. The utility changed its billing portal without disabling the former portal or including anything there about the change.

Just give us a link people!

COVIDv4.0 and Fearing Death

On New Year's Day, I tested positive for COVID for the fourth time since the pandemic reared its foul head in 2020 and I hope it's the last.

When I was young—being foolish and fearless—there were occasions where I probably could have died, but I never feared death. My sickness got so bad this time, my voice gone with all communication squeaking out in a raspy whisper, I ended up in the emergency room twice within 10 hours. The first visit was typical. It was about 10 p.m. and I felt real bad. They took vitals, chest x-ray, found some fluid in my left lung that could lead to pneumonia. I got a prescription for antibiotics and cough pills and they sent me on my way a little after midnight.

One sleepless night later around 8 a.m. I felt like my windpipe was closing off. The wheezing was terrible and I couldn't quite catch my breath. A coughing fit would set in, paroxysms the doctors sometimes call them, and my air supply was briefly gone before finally calming and gasping in some precious oxygen.

I went to my wife and weakly told her I didn't know what to do. She asked if I needed to go back to the ER. It felt foolish, but I didn't wait long before nodding.

"I'm scared."

This was the first time I was actually scared of dying. The short drive back to the emergency room seemed an eternity as I white-knuckle clutched the seat belt, anxiously twisting it in my hands. I recalled a thousand medical shows where doctors scream, "We need to intubate. Stat!" and how painful it looked.

My wife dropped me off at the entrance and went to park while I crept back inside. There was one person ahead of me, some redneck I think was complaining about something that bit him hurting real bad now. I sat in the seat at the adjacent (empty) window and stared straight ahead concentrating on my breath while he made small talk with the admitting clerk. Shut up! I think I'm dying!

After an agonizing three to 10 minutes (it felt much longer) I finally got my turn. The first thing I croaked out was that I was there a few hours ago and I thought my throat was closing up. Admitting was quicker the second time.

Doctors took this second visit to the ER seriously. I was immediately swarmed by nurses slapping on leads for an EKG and poking me for blood. Another chest x-ray. A CT scan. An IV drip with the strongest antibiotics I've ever had. Then, nine long hours on a gurney with a series of breathing treatments that seemed divine relief in those moments.

ER time seems eternal.

They decided it necessary to properly admit me into the hospital. I wasn't sure how to feel. Was it confirmation that my thoughts of dying were apropos or merely a precaution? An anxious mind like mine chews hard on the that kind of gristle even when it's sick.

The ER doc actually asked me if I wanted to be admitted; that it was kind of up to me, "sort of." I would rather be told than asked, but once he mentioned admitting, there was a lull in information. Nobody fully explained why I should be admitted for about four hours when the hospitalist came to discuss my admission.

We were irritated by the long wait and lack of details until she concisely summarized my diagnoses. In addition to COVID recovery, I had parasinusitis and the lung that was partially filled with fluid had now partially collapsed. That was enough for us. Admit me!

Once I got to the room, the fear of death finally began to wane. I was breathing a bit easier and was able to note the analog clock staring at me from the wall alongside the television I kept turned off was stopped at 10:12 and 17 seconds in that room.

I guess hospital time really is eternal.

Postscript

Remarkably to me, it's been 10 days since that first ER visit. During that time I've had more antibiotics, steroids, cough pills (teflon pearls they call them), and an inhaler every four hours as needed. I'm still coughing, but the paroxysms are few and far between and I’m breathing easier. I still get lightheaded when I stand up, but I'm getting stronger every day. My voice is returning, but still not 100 percent.

All thanks to my beloved wife and our symbiotic relationship. In my mind, she saved my life (again).

No Surprises

Radiohead’s “No Surprises” is a great song with a music video that almost hurts to watch. No special effects here. Just a man singing a song in a reverse diving helmet of sorts. A drowning helmet maybe?

Did Thom Yorke do that in one take? No way. It was many takes and drove him to tears at one point. Here is a video that shows part of the process.

Election Tabulation and Percolation

I've been sitting on this post since November. It's old, but I want to put it out there.

The election results announced early on Wednesday, Nov. 6, left me with several losses: a loss of words, a loss of momentum, and the loss of a woman who could have been a truly great president.

Words escaped me after learning who was to become our next president. Now, a week later, they are still running away from me. I believe memories of his tragic first term are chasing them away.

I'm trying not to think about it, but hey, ADHD/OCD neurodivergent here. This is not a fully scientific study, but I got the population data from U.S. Census Data.

You can add the electoral votes of California (Blue) and Nebraska (Red) to get 59 Electoral Votes. Divided by their combined populations, that means each Electoral vote represents 702,822 people (not voters, but total population).

You can sum the electoral votes of Red States Idaho (4), Montana (4), North Dakota (3), South Dakota (3), Nebraska (5), Utah (6), Kansas (6), Missouri (10), Oklahoma (7), Arkansas (5), and Nevada (6) and find 59 Electoral Votes. Divided by their combined populations, that means each Electoral vote represents 477,006 people (not voters, but total population).

Representation numbers may true up if the populations are limited to active voters, but my findings indicate to me that red states are over-represented in presidential elections by nearly 1.5X.

Final thought, the electoral college is bunkum and it doesn't matter any way because Donald J. Trump, better known as Inmate , appears to have won the popular vote as well.

Result? I'll just be cautious and angry for at least the next five years.

If you opted not to vote because of Gaza, it's only going to be worse now.

If you chose not to vote because there was no primary, it's only going to be worse now.

If you chose not to vote because the Democrat candidate was a woman, it's only going to get worse now.

If you chose not to vote because the Democrat candidate was Black-Indian, it's only going to get worse now.

The same applies if you voted for Inmate for any of these reasons.

It's only going to get worse now.