not even a little confusing and for once the explanation makes sense

Couldn’t agree more. None of that is surprising to me; depressing, yes—but surprising, absolutely not. Mass likes to masquerade itself as some “liberal paradise” but the systems here can be so entirely fucked for so many people. It’s the smugness of some people here who act so haughty when speaking of other, more traditionally red states. People often bring up stats around the superiority of the Massachusetts public school system in relation to other places, for example. But if you peel back a few layers, you see how drastically different (read: worse) that public education can be based on what city/town you’re in or your zip code. It’s honestly exhausting trying to have these conversations with people who wear the rose-colored glasses and believe that this state is so superior.

We have FAR worse rates re: foster care placements and DCF interventions than many red states. Our state is renowned for having an abysmal child welfare system.

We do great on children’s welfare in general, but horribly on metrics involving children in poverty and children in foster care and family reunification.

https://friendsofchildreninc.org/failing-our-kids/

Edit: if you don’t want to click the link the basic message is that children in foster care would be better off in ANY other state than in MA.

That is some excellent handwriting.

Cash register go brrrrrr and very few politicians are actually interested in stopping that.

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Yea, what’s so complicated about this?

No. But one time I bought a house and it was not disclosed to me that there was a termite infestation in the walls and in the moldings so I had to take it upon myself to call my own termite extermination company and when the guys showed up they immediately asked me if they could use my bathroom and then for the next two hours they take turns going in and out of there taking huge mud pies and over flushing. And then they go in there together and hear a bunch of scrounging around and then you hear a bunch of yelling and one of them is standing in the bathroom doorway shouting at you that his friends foot is stuck in the toilet and he says “Help him you gotta help him” and when you go in there to help him he just pulls it out easily and laughs because his foot wasn’t stuck. It wasn’t stuck at all he was just faking it. And then they get really serious and they say “It’s turbo time!”. And they start running around the house as fast as they can and start jumping over the couches. But when you try and jump in they yell at you and say “you’re not part of the turbo team! Don’t run! You don’t run with us. We’re the ones that run! Until you’re part of this turbo team, you don’t run. Walk! Slowly!”

So you go lie down to be by yourself and read your art books. But then on accident you went into your bathroom and it looked like the hole in your toilet head shrunk. And you said “How could that be? There’s no way they could have shrunk the toilet”. And then you saw in the trash the receipt from Home Depot for a toilet the exact same size as yours but with a choke hole that’s just for farts. They replaced your toilet with a fart toilet. And now you can’t take a dump in your house cause your toilet can’t suck them down and now you feel sick to your stomach.

Has that ever happened to you?

Suggest asking your local fire chief to be certain.

In my central mass rural town, a permit is needed for the Jan-May burning of yard waste.

It’s permissible to use an outdoor firepit provided it is certain distance from structures and weather permits.

Certain commercially available enclosed firepits are allowed to be used closer to the house (even on a deck)

I once asked chief if it’s permissible to have a small bonfire without a permit. He reluctantly said “yes, but best to tell us since we’ll then know to ignore the 1/2 dozen calls we’re going to get from your annoyed neighbors”

But even with all proper permits, if you’re careless (or even if careful and nature intervenes) and cause any destruction with your fire you’ll be held responsible and have to pay the damages as well as cost of the fire dept services.

Your homeowners insurance won’t help you out if your non-permitted bonfire destroys your home.

Yes. I agree with the analysis.

According to the state, taxable on the federal level if you itemized deductions and included the tax you paid to the state as an itemized deduction, not if you took the standard deduction.

"The refunds are not taxable as income at the state level.

All tax refunds, including the 62F refunds, are taxable by the federal government to the extent that the recipient claimed itemized deductions on his or her federal return for Tax Year 2021, including his or her state income tax. Refund recipients who itemized on their federal returns for Tax Year 2021 will receive a Form 1099-G from the Department of Revenue by January 31 of the year following the year in which the refund was received."

https://www.mass.gov/info-details/chapter-62f-taxpayer-refunds

If only they had had more time to communicate to the federal government about tax liabilities BEFORE rolling out the refunds, maybe this could’ve been avoided. Oh well. Such is Beacon Hill

The lawyers I've known have no concept of justice at all, none. They have no conscience; they only have law. If it's legal, it's moral. It's all about beating the other guy for their client's and their own wallet and dick size (although the mindset is by no means limited to persons with dicks.)

One of these guys used the law to turn an old man out of his home so his client could grab the land, and he could not for his life understand why I had a problem with that. It was legal, so ...?

I’m aware of the Goldberg Rule and in this case choose to ignore it.

I believe they are MA only. Your best bet is to contact the state bar association of whatever state and ask them about pro bono civil legal aid for low income individuals.

Agreed, but one point of clarification. He does not have a half-million dollar income. He has had a yearly income, not exceeding $200k per year. The $531k amount, mentioned in the article, was over a three-year period.

Again, this doesn’t change how much of a deadbeat he appears to be, but it’s important to have the facts straight, when making these judgements.

Actually you're de facto innocent, and must be proven guilty. Which is something that seems to be lost on a lot of people defending civil forfeiture.

The phrase "not guilty" is a technical one because it's only referring to guilt of what you've being accused of, not in a general sense.

"virtual verifies" means "virtual verification", meaning they take pictures of the filled Rx and a pharmacist verifies based on that, likely working at a computer terminal far away in an office or at home.

CT has a $100 scratch off.

As are the clowns defending it.

You buy a nice car with cash you were saving up.

Someone questions whether you could afford it.

The police accuse you of a crime.

They take your car away claiming it was bought with proceeds from the crime.

They fail to prove you committed the crime. You are found not guilty.

You do not get your car back.

In what universe is this fair?

It shouldn't be up to you to prove you saved the cash lawfully. It's up to the state to prove you didn't.

When I was a kid my father was a very troubled alcoholic. I was visiting him one day and we happened to go to a liquor store, he may have been buying something to drink I can't remember specifically. But we're waiting in line, and all these people are in front of us buying lotto.

He says "Son you know what you call that?", pointing to the scratch off tickets. "That's an idiot tax." I took it to heart being an impressionable kid wanting to make him happy. I've never bought a scratch ticket to this day.

Drink like a fish though.

Is that just for MA residents or other New England states?

That was an attempt federally, which failed.

It’s like OJ Simpson: acquitted of murder but guilty of wrongful death because criminal and civil standards are different. Just ignore the part about how he had juries for each trial.

s/