Open Thread - Thurs 28 April 2022: One Rule for Them...

Another Rule for Us

There have always been different rules for our 'leaders' than for us normal people. I know that, you know that, that's the way life is. The USA was/is supposed to be different, but it's not. In some ways the discrepancies between rich and poor are even more obvious here than other other 'First World' nations. What follows are a very, very few examples; much more can be found in any examination of almost anything the government does right now.

Here's an example that was recently highlighted by Krystal and Saagar on Breaking Points: filing taxes in the USA. In this short video they talk about taxes, and how our tax system and the companies and government that run it screw over the little guys: [video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JktEjBCDwTE]
One thing that struck me about this, really strongly: I had no idea that in some other countries the government just works up your taxes and tells you what you owe, under supervision and regulation, of course. That makes sense, and, so, the USA isn't doing it. Another thing that struck me, the IRS audits a much higher percentage of people making low amounts of money, in the search for tax cheating that might earn the IRS a fine of a couple thousands dollars, than it does people making large amounts of money like multi-million and billionaires, who always cheat on their taxes and could be fined in the millions or hundreds of thousands. One rule for them, another for us. It's all to keep everyone under control. Here's another article on this highlighted here recently from David Sirota at the Lever: When You’re Mad About Tax Paperwork, Here’s Who To Blame.

Of course, we all know about the differences in the enforcement of laws as related to the rich and the middle/poor classes. If you are poor or middle class and are arrested for a low amount of drugs, you GO TO JAIL. Sometimes for huge amounts of time. If you are rich, well, you aren't arrested or if you are, you aren't given jail time at your trial. The same goes for corporate criminals, of course. None of them pay the price for breaking the law. This article recently highlighted by joeshikspack on the Evening Blues talks about that.

The government, both state and federal, goes after the people in other ways as well. As an example, earthling1 and eyo talked recently about water well fees in a comment thread. There was talk of doing this in my county a few years ago. It died down after much protest from the rural residents whose only source of water is wells, and who paid for both the water rights, and the wells and infrastructure, without any state or county financial help.

Snoopydawg posted a recent comment about doctors and medicare fraud and the fines/fees they might pay. Once again, no punishment for the big guy, but what happens to the little guys that get screwed? Why are 'we' paying for this medicare fraud? Why can't we use the money to pay for, say, health care, or food for the poor, or housing, or schools, or roads, or...? Ohh yea, the insurance companies rule everything, that's why. One rule for the biggies, another for the rest of us.

So, what's on your mind and in your line of sight today? Thanks for reading and here's the open thread - and remember, everything is interesting if you dive deep enough!

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Sima's picture

We had some sun yesterday! It was great. Dog went to the vet's and is officially 'all better'. Pics of baby goats are being processed to post on the pic thread tomorrow. Ohh, and the tomato plants are flowering, the pepper plants have buds, all the seedlings need transplanting, the lettuce and peas are growing well outside even in this very, very cold and wet April we have had.

I hope things are going great for everyone! I am going to try to get brave enough to update myself on the Ukraine war info. Wish me luck! Post as you want in this open thread (although covid stuff should probably remain for a dose post), I'll be back to read it some time in the afternoon.

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14 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Off to hike our bikes to Cape Cod for a birthday bike ride today.
Blowing like stink and quite cool ~ about 40 degrees, but mostly sunny.
Turned 67 today, feels a lot older than that, body but not mind.

Thanks for the OT Sima -- you are the best!

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@QMS

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mimi's picture

@JtC
wooden rescue plank to that wobbly thingy these guys want to get into to be 'safe':

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Lookout's picture

@QMS

Enjoy the bike ride and your day!
birthday.jpg
Monday was my Mom's 90th, 67 is a good age... hope it is a good year for you!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Sima's picture

@Lookout
Kudos to your Mom. My Dad'll be 87 in another month or so. It's so hard to believe... and yet, there it is.

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3 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

@QMS what no busman's holiday? Wink Have a good ride, hope you get to coast a lot today. And every day from here on out why not. Cheers

Darn I am less of a math surgeon then I ever was, did you get boomed in 1955? Twas an active year that one:
https://www.babyboomers.com/1955

1955 Events & Facts

MAJOR EVENTS:

  • Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. leads the first major event of the U.S. civil rights movement, a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama
  • President Eisenhower suffers heart attack, is hospitalized for three weeks
  • World War II Allies sign treaty restoring Austria’s independence
  • Interstate Commerce Commission orders all U.S. interstate trains and buses to end segregation practices

BUSINESS & ECONOMY:

  • The AFL and CIO labor unions merge
  • The minimum wage was raised to $1.00 per hour

skipping to last two at the end,

EVERYDAY LIFE:

  • Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California
  • Rudolph Flesch publishes Why Johnny Can’t Read, a stinging criticism of U.S. education
  • Cost of a gallon of gas is 23 cents

FUN FACTS:

  • Pink clothes for men become a fashion rage
  • Black and white TV costs $99.95

You can't go wrong with raging pink grandparents, that's what I always say. CODE PINK. Right on. Peace and Love.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@QMS

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

dystopian's picture

@QMS Happy Birthday Capt. QMS! Have a great one!

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

@QMS , Have a lovely day!

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Sima's picture

@QMS
I hope it warms up and is a great ride. 67? Heh, I'm gonna turn 60 this year. It doesn't feel old, but it feels so old! So I know what you mean. And... you are the best too! Thank you so much for that Smile

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4 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

We always pay. We pay because we have no loop holes. We pay for our leaders mistakes. We pay for their lifestyle. We pay for their arrogance. In money, in shortened lives, our kids lives, and in worry on how we will survive.

Why do the dems openly vow to work across the aisle to screw us, when the r's express nothing but hate for them? Maybe because in that economic stratosphere they have way more in common with each other than with us. The Bush tax cuts, that Obama continued are a prime example.

The argument was 'doesn't every American deserve a break?' But.....Each income bracket got their own tax cut. So the first bracket (us) got a break that applied to everyone who files taxes. Everyone at this point got a tax break. Then if you were richer, in the next bracket, you got a break that applied to you and the next 3 upper brackets. So next bracket gets 2 tax breaks. The third and fourth got their own breaks and the highest bracket had no upper income excluded from the tax break.

So in the name of tax fairness the wealthiest got 4 tax breaks, 1 for each bracket. What was that line from Dog Day Afternoon? "kiss me, kiss me, I love to be kissed while I'm being fucked"?

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Sima's picture

@Snode
Thing is, is doesn't have to be this way, with taxes. The upper echelon should pay like 85%, and the next one down, 75% and the next one down 50% and the next one down 25%. Like it was in the past, during the 'boomer' years and so on. The richie riches would still be super rich. But... ahh I'm preaching to the converted. You all understand Smile

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6 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Lookout's picture

and sadly so is inequality in a capitalist society like ours.
There's even a weekly newsletter on inequality...
https://inequality.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/inequality-newsletter-...

Happy gardening and thanks for the OT!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Sima's picture

@Lookout
I'm checking it out now. and I'll read it weekly on nights when I'm cold from working outside too long and need to get hot and angry :).

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2 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

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10 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

all the time where the rich get sweet plea bargains, the poor get prison. Cases in civil suits, filed by someone rich, seem to go well for them, and their suits always go to the top of the docket to be the first to get a trial.
Just for a giggle, I am watching the Master Gardeners spiffing up the community garden, which has both decorative flowers and bushes, and also a few vegetables. The President of the club swears by Round Up, and says it is perfectly safe. Their garden is right next to my office.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Sima's picture

@on the cusp
Round Up? My Dad uses it, or did when he was working outside, because 'It's so easy'. I can't even stand it, the smell alone... gads.

I've noticed that in courts as well, at least in the proceedings that are talked about in the media. Upper class, and cops, get all kinds of breaks it seems. I've no idea what to do about that, protest I guess and keep making people aware of it?

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4 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

mimi's picture

Wait til you get at my age, that would be fun, right? Wink

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Sima's picture

@mimi
as we can make it! I wish it were funner for you, dear Mimi. Life deals us some dirty hands sometimes :(.

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3 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

dystopian's picture

Hi all, Hi Sima, Hope all is well yer way! My wife and I got audited once, in the 90's. Had to take the bookkeeping to their office and meet with them. According to my SS my biggest number was 60K. Peanuts. How much could we have possibly hidden where? I wish I had worn my old hippie patched jeans but smarter wife nixed that. And the trash bags for the paperwork. So we had to waste half a day for nothing. Except for the visit to one of the most beautiful marble buildings I ever spent a few hours in (Long Bch., CA). So glad we taxpayers could provide minimal comfort for these rats that go after little people whilst carefully ignoring the 500 5000 lb. billionaires in the room. It could hardly be more corrupt, but I am sure they are working on it. Wink

Have a good one, and enjoy!

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8 users have voted.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

@dystopian , for the bird bath cleaning info. It's helpful advice and I will incorporate a more meticulous cleaning routine into the care-of-the-birds-project that we have undertaken. TY.
Hope all is well in your neck of the woods. We finally got some much needed rain earlier this week, 2.5 inches...Yay. The cactus are blooming.

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dystopian's picture

@randtntx Thanks rand... GREAT you got some of that precious holy wet stuff! That rain totally missed us here, we got a tenth of an inch! It is parched bone dry here, there was no spring wildflower show in the Lost Maples/Garner St. Pk. area this year, so far anyway. I am watering Pecan trees trying to help them leaf out as jakalbessie mentioned she was doing too.

The Painted and Indigo Buntings waves were big here though this spring, hope you get some more. White millet is the magic seed they love.

be well bro!

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1 user has voted.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

Sima's picture

@dystopian
That sucks. Years ago, in the 1980s, my parents got surveilled, watched, whatever by the FBI and CIA because they moved from Silicon Valley to northern WA. The feds seemed to be worried they'd join a cult up here, and maybe not pay taxes or something. I dunno, it was nuts. We found out because all their financial mail was being intercepted and read in San Fran. Someone at the post office 'accidentally' stamped on an envelope that it had been forwarded to the feds and opened by them. I dunno who that person was, but bless them. My parents noticed all their mail was 'slow' and rerouted. They consulted a lawyer.

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4 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

dystopian's picture

@Sima incredible Sima! your tax dollars at work. unbelievable. now they just do most of their tagging digitally... and they surely know just who to watch... LOL

Wink

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0 users have voted.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

and all.
Glad to hear positive news about garden, goats, and dog.
Taxes, well, that's another story.
Propublica has a piece up that suggest there might be an attempt via new legislation to make the system more fair. Hmm, we shall see. https://www.propublica.org/article/taking-aim-at-billionaire-tax-avoider...

Thanks for the OT and the recent gardening posts, much appreciated!

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Sima's picture

@randtntx
the attempt works. I'm worried it'll contain all kinds of givewaways and so on for the blessed uppers and something paltry for us.

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4 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so