February 16, 2015

The distilled essence of New England this winter

My road:

February 14, 2015

Lola of the tundra

February 13, 2015

Angry White American Man

A song in memory of Deah Barakat, 23, Yusor Abu-Salha, 21, and Razan Abu-Salha, 19, killed on Tuesday, February 10th, 2015 by a deranged man. The particular form of derangement suffered by the killer, Craig Stephen Hicks, is a sort of anti-theist variation of the "disenfranchised white American male with illusions of grandeur" syndrome, and this is what I'm attempting to explore in this composition.

Lyrics:

He was 46 years old, he had 2 parking places
He got angry if one of the residents took one of the visitor spaces
In the apartment complex that might provide one little clue
That this middle-aged man had accomplished little that he set out to do

He spewed anger at all of his neighbors and he hated religion so much
Maybe that's why he moved to the Bible Belt, because hatred is such a good crutch
He spewed anger about all religions with his back against the wall
Why stop at just hating one of them when you can just hate them all
Another angry white American man with a gun
Another angry white American man

He was 46 years old, he didn't live among his peers
Neighbors mostly younger by about 24 years
Neighbors from all over, some in religious dress
But what in hell the man was thinking, we can only try to guess

He was 46 years old, his neighbors had a meeting last year
To talk over what they might do about this man they feared
He carried a loaded pistol, no telling what might inspire
Him to pull it out one day and fire, fire, fire

-- David Rovics

February 12, 2015

FBI Probes Rash of Fraudulent State Tax Returns Filed Through TurboTax

FBI Probes Rash of Fraudulent State Tax Returns Filed Through TurboTax
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-turbotax-fbi-20150212-story.html

Hm.

February 6, 2015

"Kentucky puts temporary hold on all e-tax returns"

Kentucky is putting a temporary hold on processing all electronic tax returns because of fraudulently filed tax returns through TurboTax, The Kentucky Department of Revenue announced.

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2015/02/06/kentucky-puts-temporary-hold-tax-returns/23000471/

The party's just getting started, methinks.

February 6, 2015

...and boom goes the dynamite. (TurboTax)

TurboTax Temporarily Halts E-Filing In All States Amid Fraud Concerns
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2015/02/06/turbotax-temporarily-halts-e-filing-in-all-states-amid-fraud-concerns/

February 6, 2015

...and on the subject of turnabout being fair play:

A tweet from Elnathan John.

@elnathan: "Our thoughts are also with the measles-ravaged country America. I hope we are screening them before they come to Africa."

...for the Win.

February 5, 2015

"Scary stuff" UPDATE: the hack was TurboTax (NEWER UPDATE)

First dribble of info is coming from Utah:

Utah Tax Commission flags thousands of potential fake returns
http://www.sltrib.com/home/2145693-155/utah-tax-comission-flags-thousands-of

Snip: Commission spokesman Charlie Roberts said it found that personal information has been stolen from previous returns filed through TurboTax. He said the commission is not yet sure if other programs and companies were affected, nor if the data was stolen from the cloud or some other means.

...but my source tells me as many as 15 other states could have been affected, and that whoever pulled this hack likely got the run of all of TurboTax's information. That might even mean Quickbooks, but I don't know.

Millions of people have been using TurboTax for years. I used it for years. It's a treasure trove of incredibly detailed tax and financial information...now in the wind.

It's a bad one, in my opinion.

Update: All the hackers have done so far is use 2013 return information to file bogus 2014 returns, and direct the money to prepaid debit cards. It seems as though they are targeting taxpayers who are getting big refunds, and ignoring the smaller returns. They do, theoretically, have access to a vast pile of identity information, but whether or not they will do anything with that remains to be seen.

NEW Update: The Salt Lake Tribune re-re-edited their article to extract the name "TurboTax" from the "TurboTax was hacked" article. Given the fact that little ol' me got love from an Intuit PR flack, I think some muscles are being flexed.

For the record, the paragraph in the Trib read: "Commission spokesman Charlie Roberts said it found that personal information has been stolen from previous returns filed through TurboTax. He said the commission is not yet sure if other programs and companies were affected, nor if the data was stolen from the cloud or some other means."

...and there's this:

Minnesota Stops Accepting TurboTax Filings Due to Possible Fraud
Updated: 02/05/2015 8:15 PM

http://kstp.com/article/stories/s3699235.shtml

Stay tuned.

February 5, 2015

Scary stuff, please read. (EDITED AGAIN)

Target's customer info was hacked. Home Depot's customer information was hacked. Michael's (the arts/crafts store) customer information was hacked. Ditto Walmart and Macy's. The huge Anthem insurance company's customer information database was hacked today...and I was informed today of two other massively intrusive hacks that affect millions of people. They haven't been made public yet. I am precluded from disclosing them right now (source anonymity and protection), but at some point they will be made public, and when they are, your face will leap off your skull and fly around the room like a startled bat. You literally won't believe it.

Someone is assembling an absolutely monstrous, deeply detailed treasure trove of vital information on tens and tens and tens of millions of Americans. Names, addresses, Social Security numbers, financial information, as well as the information from the hacks I can't yet disclose. If it's a bunch of disparate groups working separately, that's one thing...but if it is one group stealing all this data, they have basically gathered unto themselves the ability to defenestrate the US economy with - quite literally - the push of a button.

When I can, I'll let you know about the face-bat-making hack. Stay tuned.

Edit: Update at 4pm EST with the name.

New Edit: The hack was TurboTax: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026185351

February 3, 2015

Let's cut to the chase. Raise your hand if you have, or would, or will, vaccinate your kids.

*hand raised*

She hated it, for about two minutes after the needle left her arm...but she's not going to get the measles, or rubella, or any of the other diseases that the long, hard, deliberative work of science has successfully chased into the night.

Oh...and she's not going to get autism either. Because duh.

So knuckle up and raise 'em if you can. I'd like to know who I'm dealing with here.

Thanks.