Mistaken Identity

 

A year or so ago, I got a toll-violation notice from SunPass, the Florida Toll Road folks.  They sent me a series of bills for the plate that's attached to my 49cc scooter.  Now, for anyone who doesn't know this, scooters in the 'under 50cc' class don't require a motorcycle endorsement on your license because they're barely more than mo-peds.  Under ideal conditions — downhill with a tailwind — that scooter will do 42mph.  I've seen that happen once.

But these toll notices were from the Central Florida Expressway in Polk County, 80 miles away, a road where the minimum speed is 40mph.  It's not even legal for me to drive that scooter there.  I called SunPass to complain.  The nice lady reviewed the photo that was used to generate the notice.  It was for a Hyundai sedan whose license plate was one character off: 'Q' vs. '0' (zero).  She apologized and re-routed the toll notice to the proper person.  Case closed.

A few months back, I got another toll notice, this time for a license plate that clearly wasn't mine.  I protested again.  And again.  And again.  SunPass finally got around to digging deep into the case and they report:

...the temporary plate number CIU-7849-FL was associated with a Toll-By-Plate account in your name. The information was provided by the Department of Motor Vehicles.

I don't care what DMV says; that's not my plate.  I called DMV to verify the information.  "All our operators are busy with other callers.  Please call back another time.(click)"  I called the Pinellas County Tax Collector to see if they could verify the data, and here's where it gets uncomfortable.  PCTC says "Yessir, Mr. Clarke, that's your plate!"  The helpful operator, after checking with a supervisor, suggested that the dealer, Parks Ford, might have accidentally put my information on the paperwork for that 2010 Cadillac when they sold it in January.  That's plausible.  That's where we got our 2018 Ford last June.

Turns out, when they were hustling through the paperwork for Francis Leroy Clark, they used the information associated with Francis Xavier Clarke by mistake.  Uh-oh...

They swear by all that's holy that they will correct everything that needs correcting and confirm back to me that all is well.  It may take a few months, though...

 

Repairing Notre-Dame de Paris

 

There is considerable sentiment that Notre-Dame de Paris, which suffered a serious fire on 15 April 2019, should be rebuilt.  French President Emmanuel Macron has already pledged that it will be rebuilt, and several deep-pocketed French captains of industry have pledged over €600 million for that purpose.

There are two questions still unanswered: "Who will be in charge of the rebuilding?" and "In what form shall it be rebuilt?"  I have an answer for both.

The cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris once belonged to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paris, but in 1789, the revolutionary government of France seized it along with several hundred other churches.  One of them is still to this day the Musée des arts et métiers.  Many of the churches are leased back to the Diocese of Paris for a fee.  That is: France took that property from its putative owner and now rents it back to them.  France owns Notre-Dame and is responsible for its maintenance.

It is a matter of settled law that good title can never vest in stolen property.

Taking it was a political crime.  Allowing it to burn as it did demonstrates that the French government is incapable of caring for such a valuable asset.  It is time to correct the criminal act of the revolutionary government of France in 1789.  Give Notre-Dame de Paris back to the Diocese of Paris to be rebuilt as its real owners wish.

 

April 19th, 1775

 

In the late evening of April 18th, 1775, two co-conspirators, William Dawes and Paul Revere, were on high alert in Boston.  A contact within the walls of General Sir Thomas Gage's compound had warned them of a probable troop movement overnight toward Lexington and Concord to the west with the goal of raiding and confiscating militia stores: gunpowder, shot, and flints.

Revere rowed across the harbor to Cambridge where he waited for a signal from Dawes who was to hang a lantern in the belfry of the (now 'Old') North Church: one if the troops were marching overland, two if they were to cross the harbor behind Revere.  As Revere watched, two lights shone out from across the water.  He mounted his horse and began to ride toward Lexington.  "The regulars are coming!"  Dawes took the overland route himself to alert militia units not on the direct path of His Majesty's Marines who were tasked with the operation.

At about 5am the Marines arrived in Lexington and were met by 77 militia and 100 spectators who had gathered to watch the action.  A British officer rode forward and ordered the militia to disperse and many of them decided to go home at that point.  Just then, a shot was fired; no one knows to this day who fired the shot, but it was enough to get the battle started.  Following a bayonet charge, the battle of Lexington was over with 8 militia and one British regular dead.

At Concord later that day, perhaps 8am, the British forces clearly did fire the first shot and this was met by effective return fire from the militiamen assembled.  The British managed to do some searching for weapons, but found little or nothing to compensate them for their time.  By mid-morning, other militia companies, perhaps alerted by Dawes, began arriving and jumping into the fray.  By mid-afternoon, it is estimated there were between 2,000 and 4,000 colonial militia engaging the British troops, albeit half-heartedly.  Many clearly thought this was a minor incident and would operate to chasten the regulars and make them leave the colonials alone.  There were enough hardened militia, however, to chase the British troops back to Boston, inflicting 287 casualties along the way.

By the following morning, 20 April 1775, more than 15,000 militia ringed Boston, besieging it.  The War for Independence had begun.

The longest-running mystery in this tale was the identity of the mole within Gage's inner circle, the one who tipped off Dr. Joseph Warren who passed the word to Dawes and Revere.  Historians now believe it was Lady Margaret Kemble Gage, the Governor's New Jersey-born wife.  Gage said he had only told two people of the planned raid: his 2nd-in-command and an unspecified other; Warren was killed at Bunker Hill and never revealed his source.  After the rout at Concord, Gage shipped Lady Margaret off to England — to keep her safe or because he thought she was a spy? — and joined her there after the war ended.  She never saw North America again.

 

A Scar On The Face Of Paris

 

Notre Dame de Paris is burning as I write this.  The roof has fallen in and the flèche (the arrow), the central spire, has fallen with it.  The bell towers are involved.  The stained glass windows including the famous Rose Window are probably now lying in shards on the floor.  Drone footage shows the interior, mostly 800-year-old wood, is an inferno.  Without its roof, the flying buttresses that supported the enormous weight of the roof will likely push the walls inward.  The structure is probably a total loss.

I don't know which is worse: that we have lost NDdP to negligence or to arson.  In some ways, 'arson' might be preferable.  It would allow us to be angry at something or someone, but to lose 800 years of beauty and elegance and tradition to 'oops!' would be just too hard to bear.

How was this allowed to happen?

My heart is broken.  What is left will surely be 'a scar on the face of Paris'.

—==+++==—

UPDATE (16Apr): Authorities now say the fire was accidental.  I don't know that I entirely believe that, given that a dozen smaller French churches have gone up in flames over the past several months.  The stonework appears to have survived, and many artworks and relics have been saved.  Importantly, the crypt that houses priceless documents such as the original plans for the cathedral, appears to have survived as well.  The bell towers are intact.  Had the bells (which are supported on wooden carriages) crashed to the parvis, they could easily have taken the towers with them.  The Rose Window is said to be damaged but salvageable.

Many prominent French industrialists have pledged (so far) over €600 million for its restoration.

It will likely take decades before NDdP regains its former beauty if, in fact, it ever does.  Just as those who first began its construction in 1153, I will not live to see it complete.

 

Assange and Manning

 

If what follows offends you, I am definitely not sorry.

Julian Assange has been arrested in London and will be extradited to the United States to stand trial for... well, I'm not actually sure, to tell the truth.  Assange, an Australian, published via Wikileaks material he got (allegedly) from Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning.  Mull that for a moment.  Our 'intelligence services' are so incompetent at keeping secrets that secret stuff got out, and Assange is going to be punished for... somebody else's incompetence.

Assange, as an Australian, had no obligation of loyalty or citizenship to keep what he learned secret.  No obligation, period.

Further, the stuff that got leaked was not 'national security' stuff, it was evidence of war crimes, crimes perpetrated by U.S. military personnel and contractors.  Mull that for a moment.  You can choose either to defend Assange for making evidence of a crime public, or you can defend the criminals.  There aren't any other choices; pick one.  Warning: picking the wrong one makes you an accessory after the fact.

What he publicized is almost exactly the kind of stuff that got Woodward and Bernstein (and the Washington Post) their Pulitzer prizes.  How very odd that the Post is campaigning to put Assange in the federal pokey.  I guess they only stand up for their own employees.  Too bad he was a free-lancer.

Oh, yes, he also publicized the fact that the Democratic Party rigged their own party primaries in 2016 to ensure Hillary Clinton would beat Bernie Sanders.  He's the reason Debbie Wasserman Schultz had to step down — in disgrace — as party chairwoman.  If you're a Democrat, you should be mad at your own party leaders, not Julian Assange.  If you're a Republican, you should be happy Assange blew the whistle on what, more and more each and every day, looks like a criminal enterprise.  If, like me, you shun both major parties, you should be grateful to Assange for his entertainment value.

By no means should Assange be considered a criminal himself.  He is, in fact, a hero.  He should get the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  He won't, because that would require we first admit that all of our military adventures in third-world hell-holes are crimes.

His trial, if he gets one, is going to be very educational.  Let's hope he doesn't commit suicide by two shots to the back of his head while in custody.

 

File your taxes FREE! (but not for long...)

 

Norene and I just recently e-filed our tax return for 2018 and we did it with the free tax preparation software available at IRS.gov.  It was... not too bad, all things considered and it cost us nothing to fill-in and file, a far cry from many of the other 'free' tax-prep offers you see on the web and in your inbox.

Most of those other 'free' offers have a hidden list of qualifications: your total income must be less than x; you may not itemize deductions; schedule A and several other forms are not 'free'; and the list goes on and on.  You spend several hours doing data-entry before the software tells you that you don't qualify for the free e-file option and it will cost $39.95 or $69.95 or $89.95 if, having done all that work, you still wish to e-file and, in many cases, even print your return.

The free tax-prep software at IRS.gov was actually free, but it may not be that way for very long.  The House Ways and Means committee has just sent the "Taxpayers First Act" to the full House for action.  The name, as you might suspect, is another of Congress' bald-faced lies.  It really ought to have been named the "Screw The Taxpayers First Act".  If it passes the House and the Senate, expect Trump to sign it into law.  It will then become illegal for the IRS to provide free tax-filing software.

Illegal.  H&R Block, TurboTax, and several other similar companies like this bill, because after it passes (and it will), you will have little choice but to fork over $39.95 or $69.95 or $89.95 if you want to e-file.

Of course, you could just 'go through the motions', then hand-copy the numbers onto paper forms, carefully, carefully, not making any mistakes, slip the forms into an envelope, and mail them.  You'll have your refund in three weeks or five weeks or eight weeks instead of five days — until TaxAct and TurboTax and H&R Block fix their software to only show you how much you owe or how much you're getting back, and you'll only see the real 1040 after you fork over $39.95 or $69.95 or $89.95.  I predict that will happen immediately upon passage of the "Screw The Taxpayers First Act".

...as if the income tax itself wasn't outrage enough.

To read a more nuanced take on this, go here.

 

Tariffs Are Taxes

 

The headline (on CNN) reads "US threatens tariffs on $11 billion of European goods over Airbus subsidies".  You can almost hear poorly-educated American viewers cheering and imagine them fist-bumping each other.  Yeah, man, we'll make those Europeans sorry for unfairly competing!

It pains me — almost pains me — to have to tell these good people that the only ones 'paying' will be Americans.

Did I just see your eyebrow lift?  Are you skeptical that Americans will pay for this?  Perhaps you don't understand how tariffs work.  Lemme 'splain dis to dju, Lucy.

In the first place, European governments subsidize Airbus so that Airbus can sell its product at a slightly reduced price — below the price their cost structure would normally dictate — and not just to us...  to everyone.  The money for that subsidy came from European taxpayers.  The EU is taxing their own people so that Airbus can sell us (and everyone else) cut-rate aircraft.

The effect of that is that Airbus planes become slightly more attractive because of their lower price tag, and Boeing aircraft consequently become slightly less attractive.  Those beasts!

To equalize this situation (heh heh heh) the U.S. government levies a tariff on Airbus aircraft.  The tariff jacks the price of Airbus product back to where it would normally be (or perhaps a little higher) for potential buyers, thereby removing the price advantage and making Boeing more financially attractive again.  Understand, that tariff is paid by whoever buys an Airbus aircraft: United, Delta, Continental — domestic airlines — and the tariff gets passed along in the ticket price to... why, to you!  It's almost like the U.S. government taxed you for flying on an Airbus plane!

So, now everyone who had bookkeeping in high school is whipping out paper and pencil and drawing T-accounts to make sense of all this.

• France taxes French taxpayers and gives the money to Airbus
• Airbus offers low-price airplanes to U.S. airline operators
• any airline operator who buy a low-price Airbus also pays a penalty — to the U.S. government
• the American consumer pays the penalty via ticket prices artificially boosted by the tariff
• any airline operator who buys a Boeing product instead also has to boost ticket prices because of Boeing's higher price

Who wins in this little game of three-card monte?  Airbus and Boeing and the U.S. government, of course.  You didn't actually think it was going to be you, did you?

You can thank CNN later for not bursting your bubble.  I'll take the blame for that.

 

Rhapsody in Blue — Remembering Audrey

 

I first heard Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue' at Lewisohn Stadium in the Bronx.  I was an early-teen or possibly a pre-teen.  My sister, Audrey, was, I think, at the time a student at Hunter College.  She had scored a pair of tickets — student discount, no doubt — to a concert featuring 'Rhapsody in Blue' and 'An American in Paris', to this day my favorites of Gershwin's work.

Why she asked me to come along remains a mystery.  It never occurred to me until just recently that I was an unusual choice for a date, and Audrey can no longer explain her motives.  Perhaps Carmine Rispoli was otherwise occupied.

Lewisohn Stadium no longer exists.  It occupied the space (according to Wikipedia) from 136th street to 138th street between Amsterdam and Convent avenues.  We likely took the subway to the 137th street (City College) station and walked the few blocks to the stadium from there.  At a distance of 60+ years I can no longer recall the fine details.

What I can recall is being enthralled by music more beautiful and moving than anything in the classical repertoire.  'An American In Paris', in particular, perfectly described that beautiful city that I wouldn't see with my own eyes for another forty years.  To this day I can never envision Paris without Gershwin.

How odd that it's only now that I realize how much I miss my sister.