Open Thread WE 16 AUG 23 ~ Bratwurst and rum day
Submitted by QMS on Wed, 08/16/2023 - 5:00am
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Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.
-- Otto von Bismarck
Rum, n. Generically, fiery liquors that produce madness in total abstainers.
-- Ambrose Bierce
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Not sure how bratwurst and rum ended up being celebrated on the same day. Oh well.
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Trying to recover from a long road trip, so haven't much on offer today. Please fill in
the blanks. Any topics are welcome.
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Credits ~
sliced sculptural skull by Edwige Massart and Xavier Wynn
https://www.emnxw.com
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/08/emxw-heads-sculptures/
Comments
Good morning...
A pleasant 62F this AM. Off to do a bit of mowing, and take advantage of the coolness.
This song is making the rounds because it speaks to how many feel about the state of things.
[Verse 1]
I've been sellin' my soul, workin' all day
Overtime hours for bullshit pay
So I can sit out here and waste my life away
Drag back home and drown my troubles away
[Pre-Chorus]
It's a damn shame what the world's gotten to
For people like me and people like you
Wish I could just wake up and it not be true
But it is, oh, it is
[Chorus]
Livin' in the new world
With an old soul
These rich men north of Richmond
Lord knows they all just wanna have total control
Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do
And they don't think you know, but I know that you do
'Cause your dollar ain't shit and it's taxed to no end
'Cause of rich men north of Richmond
[Verse 2]
I wish politicians would look out for miners
And not just minors on an island somewhere
Lord, we got folks in the street, ain't got nothin' to eat
And the obese milkin' welfare
[Verse 3]
Well, God, if you're 5-foot-3 and you're 300 pounds
Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds
Young men are puttin' themselves six feet in the ground
'Cause all this damn country does is keep on kickin' them down
[Pre-Chorus]
Lord, it's a damn shame what the world's gotten to
For people like me and people like you
Wish I could just wake up and it not be true
But it is, oh, it is
[Chorus]
Livin' in the new world
With an old soul
These rich men north of Richmond
Lord knows they all just wanna have total control
Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do
And they don't think you know, but I know that you do
'Cause your dollar ain't shit and it's taxed to no end
'Cause of rich men north of Richmond
[Outro]
I've been sellin' my soul, workin' all day
Overtime hours for bullshit pay
Y'all have good day!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Hey, thanks for the song
People are getting angry at the imperialists. Simplicius the Thinker has an article up on
Substack today sorting out the situation in Africa.
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/change-is-in-the-air-in-africa
question everything
This will likely fall on deaf ears.
Who denounces their US citizenship?
That's seems like a pretty crazy thing to do. Why not just move to where you want to live, and hang on to your US citizenship as a back-up? It's perfectly legal to hold a second, or even a third citizenship, and it's also legal to switch passports while traveling internationally to avoid being identified as an American.
I decided to take a closer look and discovered that the United States Federal government keeps a quarterly log, going back to 'ancient times', of the names of persons who denounce their citizenship, which is a serious step that cannot be reversed. There are two conditions that must be met to permanently cut ties with the United States:
1. One must appear in person at a US Embassy or Consulate to denounce their US citizenship, and must surrender their passport (if they have one). If they are in the US, they will receive a temporary tourist visa with a short expiration date. Quite a few of them are already living outside the US.
2. They must pay an exit fee, which is based on their wealth and lifetime earnings, and includes any and all outstanding taxes they may owe the US. If they have a government pension or Social Security, they can take that with them and continue to collect those benefits.
Does that sound onerous? Well, thousands of Americans shed their citizenship each year. Interestingly, I noticed that over that past few years, their numbers have been rapidly expanding,
Can you guess the number one reason people give for divorcing the US? Tick tock.... If you guessed "paying US taxes" you're right. Although US citizens (and corporations) pay among the lowest effective tax rates in the developed world, US expats (US citizens who live, work, and pay taxes outside the US) are taxed punitively. They are forced to pay income tax on all money they may earn outside the US. Even if they have never lived in the US. Thus, the US already levies taxes the way an Empire would tax global citizens.
Boris Johnson, the recent Prime Minister of England, was born in the US. His English parents took him back to England when he was five years old. Just a few years ago he was in a US Embassy in the UK denouncing his US citizenship, in order to end the US income tax he was charged on his 'foreign' earnings.
Little known facts.
Is that "denounce" or "renounce"?
"Renounce" is a lot less derogatory-sounding - it just means "I don't want it any more".
"Denounce" includes expressions of contempt, rejection, and even hatred.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
It appears as if "pretty please with a sugar on top" isn't the
best strategy for Supreme Court ethics reform.
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4154869-democrats-push-supr...
Yeah that should happen
right after there is an investigation into Pelosi’s stocks as well as every other member of Congress. Pelosi’s husband has made a lot of ethical challenging trades just before the company whose stock he bought got a new contract that was approved by Congress.
Hey democrats do you really think that your poo doesn’t stink too?
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
People who are entitled know who they are.
It's manifest.
Good morning QMS, good to see you back. Hope you had a great
time. I just can't see rum and brats, it's brats and beer, and polkas and potato salad.
Rum = British Navy Tot (with hard tack), Pirates (with hard tack), parrotheads and Jimmy Buffet Boat Drinks or Trader Vic, mai tais and polynesian tunes.
Speaking of music, it is Ernie Freeman's birthday.
Gotta finish a few garden tasks before it gets uo to 90, so --
be well and have a good one.
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 --
Yeah, I can picture brats and brewskis
rums are a different kettle of fish, oh well
the 2K mile round trip was worth it to catch up
with the old group. Took a while to figure out who
was who way back when. Name tags helped.
If I never see another 18 wheeler, it will be too soon.
The roadside 'resorts' at truck stops saved some
bucks, but crawling out of the back of the little
pick-em up in the AM was a challenge.
cheers!
question everything
Last time I slept in the back of the PU was probably
about 10 years ago. It was definitely a drag getting up and out in the morning.
be well and have a good one
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 --
Bratwurst and Rum ? Igittigit- nah, something got mixed up /nt
https://www.euronews.com/live
Maui death toll is now at 106, and now there's a new problem.
The new problem is that the Bidens (and their absurdly massive entourage) are going to visit Lahaina on Monday. So all recovery/relief efforts, especially airborne, will have to come to an absolute screeching halt while he does his damned photo op.
Hey, Joe? Perhaps you could stop sending money to the Ukraine, and send it to Maui instead. You know, as a leader who gave a shit about his people might do. That's right; send money.
Instead, you'll fly Air Force One (and the spare VC-25), two or three C17s full of armored vehicles, helicopters, and something like 300 SS agents, plug up the airport and surrounding airspace for at least two days, tie up road traffic (and every LEO on the island) for a day with your damned motorcade both coming and going, and bring all actual relief efforts to a stop.
For a photo op. The cost of the fuel alone would purchase enough safe drinking water to last the displaced residents a few days, would it not?
Stay in Washington, Joe. There are no ice cream shops left standing, or little girls for you to smell (unless, perhaps, your people have them bussed in). And your soon-to-be-posed photos illustrating a lame attempt to convey concern will convince exactly nobody. Stay home.
Meanwhile, for the rest of us, another new locally-based resource for extending help (financial or otherwise) has now been started up at https://www.mauinuistrong.info/
Please consider giving, if you can and are so inclined. Da Kine, mo bettah...
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Good grief
Can they even land that shitshow at Maui's petite airport That entourage will give Maui's displaced population and the rescue teams some real competition on available hotel rooms.
Not since George Bush's flyover visit to Katrina's devastation of New Orleans has a President been so out-of-touch and out-to-lunch. But then, I feel bad pointing a finger at Joe Biden, who has to contend with his own scrambled neural network. This is what you get when your President's expression of empathy is stage managed by psychopaths. Not a flicker of humanity. Dropping FEMA flyers on Maui from an AirForce One flyover is more their style.
Well,
no comment." "Course, Joe will screw it up.
Joe, you see, needs to overcome the big hit to his public image when they asked him about Maui and he said "Sure, the people of Maui don't want Joe there. And that's not surprising. From the linked article:
What the people of Maui need to understand is that it's important to get Joe Biden out of the White House.
“The loyal Left cannot act decisively. Their devotion to the system is a built-in kill switch limiting dissent.” - Richard Moser
more like ...
"What the people of Maui need to understand is that it's important to get Joe Biden out of the White House."
I would say the people of the United States need to understand this.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Also --
“The loyal Left cannot act decisively. Their devotion to the system is a built-in kill switch limiting dissent.” - Richard Moser