The nation has had its dark times. The Civil War scarred the South where I live (but not enough). We are again living through dark times today with authoritarianism swinging its bludgeon, but I know we will persevere.

It’s what we do. We have to.

npm i -D daisyui@latest

No more errors. Easy peasy!

Update July 27, 2026

After about a week on the public beta of macOS 27 Golden Gate, I only have a few notes. Minor, but irritating so far and likely to be fixed before the public release.

• Intel apps no longer work (as advertised), so no more PowerMate (for the moment). Update: Someone made a modern replacement available on GitHub.
• Bartender Pro doesn’t work because I can’t enable screen sharing for it.
• Cmd-Tab focuses an app, but doesn’t bring the app to the front on the first try. Only works on the second successive try.
• Sound issues when switching outputs (bluetooth headphones to external headphones (line out)).

That’s why I periodically watch the most user-friendly vim tutorial I’ve found presented by Chris Toomey. You should watch it on YouTube.

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).

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.

“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.”

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!