Open Thread - 07-04-25 - Happy Independence Day
The American Revolutionary War began with the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. That was 250 years ago. The main point of contention was tyranny imposed upon the Colonies most exemplified by taxation without representation. Are things that much more different today?
I was going to expand on that theme today but since I was up half the night doing site stuff I think I'll just leave it at that.
Today is also a special holiday in our household, it's on the cusp's and my anniversary. Yes, we both lost our independence on Independence Day. We had a problem finding someone to marry us on the Fourth of July, but fortunately otc's good friend, the County Judge, took some time away from his festivities to do us the honor. We paid him with a case of Shiner Bock which he seemed quite happy with.
Anyway, enjoy your Fourth of July and don't do anything that I wouldn't do. LOL!
Comments
Good morning Free Rangers...
last night I got an email from the Social Security Administration stating that most seniors will no longer be taxed on their Social Security due to the passage of the Big Beautiful Bill. That's a good thing. Does it offset the increases on everything else and the security state that's being built around us? You tell me.
I'll just butt in here to point that the Social Security Admin
should not be giving tax advice, and, very likely, technically broke assorted regulations if not, in fact, several laws by so doing. They have no competency in the matter and don't even collect the taxes (F.I.C.A.) that fund Social Security. The general rule is that it is best to wait until Treasury, and, in particular, the I.R.S. speaks to the matter.
Ronald Reagan, with much fanfare once passed a tax bill that included provisions slightly lowring the marginal tax rates applicable to each tax bracket. Subsequently, vast numbers of people freaked out at their tax-preparers and the I.R.S. because, in fact, their taxes went up but everybody knew that Rancid Ronnie had Lowered taxes". The catch was that his bill also including provisions redefining "taxable income" upward for huge numbers of non-wealthy taxpayers.
Not sayin' that the SSA is wrong, in fact, concerning this matter, merely that they aren't really competent to speak to the matter.
It's been a chaotic morning here so far - thanks for the OT and for the improvement in site functioning. I'll be back.
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 --
Points well made...
Incompetency seems to be ubiquitous in government, no? It must be a prerequisite, much like self serving themselves rather than their constituency.
I hope the rest of the day is less chaotic for you, mi hermano.
Yeah, no
.
Ne bill kinda helps with taxation, but overall
still hurts to try and pay things down.
Went to Bristol, RI this AM to work on a boat
captivated there in some parking lot. Then my
genset died, but able to glue and nail some other damage.
Otherwise, the traffic was horrific going south. Cars lined-up
at least 150 deep. Supposed to be the original independence
day celebration in 'murica or some such. Bit of a tangle getting
out. Had to drive around to 195 to get over the bridge to get back
home rather than wait in line with the suckers.
Happy Anniversary!
Zionism is a social disease
They rob Peter to pay Paul...
Last 4th of July we took a trip to Gulf Shores, Alabama for a few days on the beach. It's normally a 8 hour or so trip depending on traffic. It took 11 hours to get there. The traffic was bumper to bumper on Interstate 10 almost the whole way. It was crazy, and dangerous. Everyone I spoke to there had the same reply, it took them forever to get there as well, no matter where they came from. I told otc never again on the 4th.
Good luck with the genset and thanks for the loss of independence well wishes!
Aww hell
.
independence (or the lack thereof)
is a bit over-rated IMO
like freedom and democracy
just labels to toss around with
very little meaning
Zionism is a social disease
The best part...
of getting married on the 4th of July is every year the whole country throws a big bash for us.
I watched Ed Weir the SSA expert on this
Yesterday, on his live broadcast. During the Q&A I believe it was he addressed the 6000 dollar deduction, and said it applied to less than 40 percent of SS recipients. Sixty percent don't make enough money to pay taxes on their SS income. The gross income threshold probably varies (I'm not giving advice) but he said that IRS turns the SS tax receipts over to the SSA where they are put in the trust fund. He says, that ultimately, this deduction will contribute to the erosion of the fund, and hasten the date for reduced benefits for all.
结婚周年快乐 Happy Anniversary! 결혼기념일 축하해요!
Happy Fourth everyone!
JtC Sent a snail mail too.
語必忠信 行必正直
Thanks...
for the added info, soryang.
Perhaps that's the goal:
That's been a Republican wet dream for a long time.
Thanks in advance for the snailmail, my friend.
Good morning...
Friday is the day when I have hired help, so I don't often make it by to say hello. We took the day off, and I'm able to spend a little time online.
Thanks for all the work on the site plus posting the OT. I've got a small amount of appreciation headed your way next week.
I think it speaks volume that in our 250 year story there have only been 6 years without war. In fact I've begun to think of us as a warfare state. Looks like the big beautiful boondoggle transfers welfare funds to the warfare account, plus add lots more to the deficit. Nice to hear of no SS tax...that will help me personally.
I've got the smoker cleaned up and ready to fire up. Smoked chicken thighs are on the menu today for our potluck contribution. There's a party up on the brow this evening. May be able to see some fireworks from up there. Usually we are so dry this time of year it makes me nervous, but the summer has brought adequate rain for a change (at least so far). We've had 38.3" so far this calendar year...last year we were at 37.1", so looking similar. Hope y'all have dried out and able to finish your construction projects.
Thanks again my friend. Hope you have a great anniversary and holiday! Take care and don't work too hard.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Glad you could make it by, old friend...
you're welcome about the site work and thanks for the appreciation.
Warfare state is right. We exported most of our industry except for the death and destruction production. They should remove the Capital from the 50 dollar bill and replace it with the Pentagon.
Smoked chicken sounds great! I don't blame you for be concerned about fireworks, being tucked away in the woods there in the holler, it's quite beautiful as I remember it. Glad you've gotten adequate rain, we've had plenty this year and more on the way today. The saving grace is we've had a relative mild year so far temperature wise, I hope I didn't just jinx us!
Thanks for the well wishes. I don't think we'll be going to the fireworks this year but I will imbibe in a few libations this evening to celebrate our anniversary.
Have a great time up on the brow this evening!
Good morning JtC, et. al. Happy fourth, or fifth, if that's
what you're doing.
Yesterday as I returned from my infusion I topped a small ridge and saw a grass fire on a hill at Lake Chabot Regional Park. This was at 2:56pm which turns out to be when it was officially logged as being reported. By the time I got down the hill, the local fd, assisted by cal fire was in action. They contained it fairly fast, in past with choppers dumping bucketfulls of lake water on it. Good location from that POV. No cause announced yet but personally 90% sure that it was FWF (fools with firecrackers) given the date.
Temp down to 69 (probably really 75 or so here) today and 11 to 15 mph winds. We're having a micro-neighborhood picnic in our court today so we're kicking in a salad or ramaine mixed with farfalle and dressed with a mayo+cumin+curry-powder dressing, and in honor of the event were making ourselves a pitcher of Spanish style sangria (OJ from our tree, triple sec and merlot, which really should be rioja, but we like our rioja straight up and merlot much less so).
I have a couple of hanging planters in which I experimentally planted some spruted peas, and they're already produced some peas, so I may plant a bunch in the garlic bed as soon as I harvest the garlic. Nothing like an edible cover crop that adds nitrogen to the soil.
Temps are going back up after tomorrow which makes tomorrow the last good day to bake bread for a while, so I have to put together the dough to rise overnight after the picnick which means a final refresh of the starter about now.
Everybody have a great holiday, a great weekend, and ponder whether we really are independent, and of what?
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 --
Glad they put the fire out...
Cali has this history of...well, you know.
It's a good thing your picnic is near home in case you get a case of the sangria shuffle, if you catch my drift.
I was originally going to title this open thread as Happy
InDependence Day, but HTML doesn't work in the title field, so I nixed that idea.You have a great weekend and holiday yourself, old buddy.
Wow JtC thanks for all the hard work on the site.
I wish that you could have technical help for the hard parts. Would more hands make lighter work? Or is it one of those 'it's better if I do it myself' things?
We are all under a very intense high heat period, but finding ways to stay somewhat comfortable and safe. We park ourselves under the trees on the banks of our petite riviere. There is usually a bit of a breeze. We've missed some live music we intended to go listen to while ducking the heat. But we managed to listen to a group of Hunting Horn players serenade us for a local Fête de Village. These small fêtes are everywhere this time of year.
(oh dear I've forgotten how to load a link with multiple videos and a photo. It's from SmugMug.
https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-HmH8Rx
I'll post it then see if I can see it.
I wonder if anyone still plays the overture written by a Russian, you know. I heard it years ago played on the 4th by the Oregon Symphony on the Willamette River bank with artillery and fireworks.
Le Tour de France begins tomorrow: one of the first French starts in awhile.
Happy 4th.
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.
I wish we could...
outsource some of the backend work on the site, but we are not a large site and we have no revenue other than donations, so, it's a one man show.
Your respite along the "petite riviere" sound enchanting! Thanks for the image and videos, it adds flavor to your memories.
I think the overture is still a thing, it lends itself well to the synchronization of music and fireworks, in spite of it being Russian and 1812.
Happy 4th to you as well, my friend.
Good morning, all!
Are you all remembering to fly an Israel flag today?
Iirc, when my friend, the judge, came to the court house to the gazebo to perform the wedding ceremony, he was on his way to a pool side party. He wore his beach shirt, his American flag crocs, but out of respect for he occasion, he put on a pair of jeans over his swim trunks. The problem was the trunks made his jeans too tight to button up. Good times!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Yep...
the judge was sight to behold!
The thing is, I don't remember the 40 pages of wedding vows that you swore were in the ceremony. I'm starting to think you made all of that up!
We must agree
my memory is sharper than yours. Page 32 in the vows, dear.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
our vows were much simpler
(because I wrote them)
Accept this ring as a token
of my love for you ..
a symbol with no beginning or end.
She couldn't remember her lines.
Zionism is a social disease
There you go again...
I'm going to call the judge and ask him for a copy of the vows.
Sometimes I feel like I'm caught in a lawfare matrix.
W00t! It's Alice In Wonderland Day, how effing appropriate!
On this day in 1862, the man we know as Lewis Carroll first told the story of Alice In Wonderland to Alice Liddell, hence it is Alice in Wonderland Day, rabbit holes, universal madness and all.
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 --
Heh...
Go ask Alice,
when she's ten feet tall.
Russian music! Perfect!
Thank you, JtC, for all that you do, and for the cannons., which only the Russian people would include in an orchestra.
Here is the most meaningful part of the Declaration of Independence for me at this time because it defends the right of the people of the Donbass and Crimea to declare their independence from Ukraine and because it nails our deep state actors for launching private armies against those people. Jefferson declared of the king:
On my tour of Russia,
we walked by a two-story apartment building. The guide said Tchaikovsky's sister lived in one, which she pointed out. She said Stalin had her brother's piano thrown into the street and smashed.
While we were in Moscow, Stalin's remains entombed in Red Square were being taken elsewhere to be buried in some rather obscure cemetery. AI says no on the piano story. AI or a Russian guide with a degree in history?
You decide.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
You're welcome, Linda...
and thank you for your contributions to c99 as well.
Astute that you use Jefferson's words to highlight the deep state actors' hypocrisy. There's nothing new under the sun.
UFC on White House lawn?
Politics Trump wants to celebrate 250 years of
What an alpha-hotel
語必忠信 行必正直
Bread...
and circuses. Bring on the gladiators.
For the main event
Alligators and pythons will be stocked in the Washington Mall pool to eat detainees.
語必忠信 行必正直
gotta feed those swamp critters
somehow, what with the
budget cuts and all
even skinny refugees look good
Zionism is a social disease
I am noticing
a similarity in Bibi celebrating death to those others and Trump hoping to do the same celebration dance when detainees are killed.
Those two! Two peas in a pod!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
And...
Thomas Massie:
A meme:
1776
The Original Brexit
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
you can check-out anytime you like
.
but you can never leave
Zionism is a social disease
We re-modeled
their Empire to form ours.
Same old bs, just different colored flags.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
One must wonder
.
so many years after the fact
is this really independence?
Zionism is a social disease
Good song, Cap'n
The lyrics sure ring true.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
For our enjoyment
for whatever reason.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Happy Anniversary, and many more
And thank you for keeping this independent site going.
Cheers all
Thank you...
and you're welcome!
Site is running smooth as silk, JtC.
As to yesterday...meh. I stopped feeling patriotic decades ago. However, Congratulations to you and your Better Half (LOL) on your Anniversary.
Hubster and I did the legal hookup on Halloween. We couldn't resist the black humor. Already been living together for several years then and still together now. It's been a soggy one here, but I'll take it. Anywho, Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
Think we had a formal ceremony
.
on Columbus Day, a lesser recognized red letter date.
Seems somewhat appropriate for this odd explorer.
Zionism is a social disease
Thanks obf...
we picked the 4th because it's easy to remember, which means I have no excuse for forgetting.