Open Thread WE 16 AUG 23 ~ Bratwurst and rum day


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heads-3-960x1120.jpg
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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/

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Lookout's picture

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!

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

@Lookout

People are getting angry at the imperialists. Simplicius the Thinker has an article up on
Substack today sorting out the situation in Africa.

The events currently playing out in Africa and the ‘global south’ dare to eclipse the significance of the Ukrainian war, which acts merely as the frosting to the revolutionary layer cake of anti-imperialist sentiment bursting forth around the world.

https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/change-is-in-the-air-in-africa

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Pluto's Republic's picture

@humphrey

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.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
TheOtherMaven's picture

@Pluto's Republic

"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.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

best strategy for Supreme Court ethics reform.

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4154869-democrats-push-supr...

A terse rebuff from the Supreme Court and a series of new allegations of ethical lapses by Supreme Court justices are prompting renewed calls from Democratic lawmakers to establish an ethics council for the high court.

Rep. Daniel Goldman’s (D-N.Y.) prior call for an “independent investigative body and dedicated ethics counsel” for the court was ignored in a response he called “insufficient and unavailing.”

“The Chief Justice has asked me to acknowledge your letter dated June 27, 2023, and to thank you very much for bringing your concerns about these important matters to his attention,” Ethan Torrey, legal counsel for the court, wrote in Roberts’s stead in a July letter obtained by The Hill.

The sentence was the entirety of the reply from the court.

The body envisioned by Goldman would standardize the court’s ethics procedures and provide guidance on the disclosure of gifts and recusals in light of conflicts of interest.

This ethics crisis at the top of the judicial system undermines the legitimacy of the Supreme Court and reflects poorly on the entire judiciary,” he wrote in the Wednesday letter signed by 14 other lawmakers.

All are moves he contends are needed “in order to restore credibility to the Judiciary Branch.”

In addition to addressing Roberts, the letter was also sent to the Judicial Conference, the policymaking body for the federal courts that establishes guidelines for judges and rules for trial procedures.

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snoopydawg's picture

@humphrey

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?

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Pluto's Republic's picture

@snoopydawg

It's manifest.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
enhydra lutris's picture

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.

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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 --

@enhydra lutris

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!

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enhydra lutris's picture

@QMS

about 10 years ago. It was definitely a drag getting up and out in the morning.

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 --

mimi's picture

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usefewersyllables's picture

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...

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Pluto's Republic's picture

@usefewersyllables

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.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Cassiodorus's picture

@usefewersyllables @usefewersyllables Joe, you see, needs to overcome the big hit to his public image when they asked him about Maui and he said "no comment." "Course, Joe will screw it up.

Sure, the people of Maui don't want Joe there. And that's not surprising. From the linked article:

The president on Tuesday broke his silence about the staggering death toll at an economy-focused speech in Milwaukee, but at one point appeared to forget the name “Maui” and referred to it as “the one where you see on television all of the time.”

What the people of Maui need to understand is that it's important to get Joe Biden out of the White House.

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"the reason you need a new class to come into power in the United States is because this one is useless" -- Vijay Prashad

mimi's picture

@Cassiodorus
"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.

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Cassiodorus's picture

@usefewersyllables This is covered on Rising:

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"the reason you need a new class to come into power in the United States is because this one is useless" -- Vijay Prashad