For who tuned in late, see my blogposts “18F? WTF,” 7/9/21, and “The Response,” 8/4/21.

First, what I will not now comment upon. I will not discuss to what extent the response is non-responsive. The letter and the response speak for themselves. As for the substance of the response, I will observe only that the references to “public postings” and “its public website” speak of dates prior to the launch of DAWSON and the concurrent obliteration of the former “public website.” As that “public website” is no longer accessible, I cannot verify these statements, so I will assume, without necessarily agreeing, that they are all correct.

Now for my comments. The response does not dispute that no “beta” version was made publicly available; I therefore deem it admitted. For two million dollars, one might expect more than a show-and-tell at a meeting of the august and exalted Tax Section of the American Bar Association (of which I am not a member), and a now-extinct video. Those of us whose shoes do not attain to the Mark 9:3 standard are apparently of no account. Remote access to the proceedings of the “small court” is not for “little people”; you know, the ones who pay taxes.

The response wastes a good deal of paper and toner, not to mention “somber reasoning and copious citation of precedent”, in a gratuitous attempt to lecture me on the Freedom of Information Act. The letter never mentioned that Act, for the simple fact that I am well aware that the Act does not apply and is therefore irrelevant. A brief perusal of Tax Court Rule 71(a) would reveal the template I used for the letter.

Finally, further to the last-stated, I note that, while I signed the letter in blue ink, the response I received is unsigned. I therefore cannot be certain that the purported author of the response prepared it or read it. Of course, the author may be precluded from signing manually for physical reasons. However, it has been my experience in such cases that correspondents avail themselves of an assistant or colleague to draft, review with them, and sign the document, on their behalf. I trust that Ch J Maurice B (“Mighty Mo”) Foley received the courtesy copy of the response therein referenced, and has required it to be manually signed (either by the author or agent), preferably in blue ink.

I shall not weary my readers with more at this time. Quarrels are tiresome to all but the participants, and lawyers’ quarrels are even worse, except for emotional litigants, who enjoy them but refuse to pay for them.