Paul Brownjohn @Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org

@ZackPolanski

It's ironic - when I was in that age range, I was quite right wing. That was the result of going to a private (public) school where one is automatically inculcated with pretty extreme right wing views.

However, since then, I have lived in 5 other countries and been immersed in other cultures along with seeing some pretty extreme poverty (I spent some months wandering around India and lived in Thailand for 3 years). The effect of all that has been to swing my politics further and further to the left.

I'm now 75 years old and I would now describe myself as a radical socialist. I currently support the Green party as they seem to be the only party who propose the bulk of policies that I support.

There is much talk of the Epstein files of the extreme measures that the very rich and powerful take to 'entertain themselves; sex with under-aged girls and the murder and torture of them along with the unthinkable - cannibalism! Perhaps we are doing the rich and powerful a disservice by not taxing them enough - by letting them get so rich that they delude themselves into thinking that this sort of behaviour is in any way acceptable!

Against the advice of anyone with a single functioning brain cell, it looks like that complete künt trump intends to put boots on the ground in Iran. 5000 US marines have been put on imminent hostilities alert!

3000 body bags will not be a good look nor will 2000 US Marines taken prisoner! Someone tell the papaya paedophile moron that the Iranians have been preparing for this for decades - every possible objective will be booby trapped to death. There will be beautifully inviting, organized kill zones around every objective. There won't be much air support as the Iranians have destroyed all their refueling tankers and if the US brings in more they too will be obliterated! Modern attack aircraft have a very small fuel capacity and rely on refueling tankers to get them to and from the battlefield. Without refueling, the USAF will be like a gang of one-legged men at an ass kicking party!

I would wager that there will be a number of senior military commanders planning a little side-show. The assassination of trump, vance and of his cabinet by "the Iranians". It has to look good so it'll take some planning. But given their almost unlimited resources, it should be possible!

The whole world will cheer - there will be spontaneous street parties - shares in Champagne growers will double overnight and the world can try to regain some sort of sanity!

The USA has lost almost all its credibility as a military power and all of its friends, but something good might be squeezed out this debacle.

The really ironical thing is that trump's idiocy has benefited Russia, China and most of all North Korea who may very well have supplied Iran with one or more nuclear warheads! Think about that! As israel is a rather small country, 2 or 3 nukes would probably do for most of it.

Seeing everything that is supposed to have gone on in the Epstein files, the other day I was asking myself the question “So why do the rich and powerful like to behave in ways that horrify most normal people?”
Having thought about it for a day or two, I concluded that one reason could easily be boredom. No, I know that sounds odd, but think about it, if you are a multi-billionaire and you can have anything you want any car, any apartment, any house, any estate, any anything; your own aircraft your own whatever-turns-you-on. After a bit you just get bored with it because you can have anything and the moment you have it, the thrill is gone
People who are highly successful motivated and driven seem to need constant stimulation – each stimulus more powerful than the last, but what if when you get that sort of rich and powerful, there isn’t anything left that’s legal that you can get off on. So, what do you do, you start doing things that are really edgy, sex with underage kids, making snuff movies, making torture movies and finally I suppose killing and eating kids – the ultimate taboo!
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m neither excusing nor approving of this sort of behaviour, I’m just wondering how people go from being normal people, to being the kind of monsters who rape children or kill them and eat them or whatever other horror you can think of.
This makes me wonder if we wouldn’t be doing billionaires as a favour by preventing them from accumulating those vast sums of money which must I suspect, act as a disproportionate temptation to indulge in illegal and unspeakable activity.

@MyWildlifeAllotment

I'm in Luxembourg where, being so far inland, the climate, is not as temperate as in the UK; colder winters and warmer summers are our thing. Hence my surprise at seeing a butterfly so early.

No Peacocks here yet but quite a few Brimstones and lots of bumble bees exploiting the first of the dead nettles.

@MyWildlifeAllotment

To my very great surprise, I saw my first butterfly of the summer the other day! It was a Brimstone and March 10th is really early; too early by far, to be seeing butterflies here in Luxembourg!

I have a feeling that if a student was part of such a group in a British university and it was discovered that the they had been making posts about how to kill black people or even approved of such posts, they would immediately be sent down (expelled) - at least I sincerely hope they would!

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article314928484.html

@ReggieHere @ChrisMayLA6

The difference between tax in Luxembourg and in the UK is that the poor, over here, are not taxed very much, if at all, but the well-heeled get a bit caned. When I first started work in Luxembourg on a slightly above average salary, I did calculate what I would have been paying in total deductions in the UK on the same salary in £ sterling and I found that give or take a fiver, my net income after deductions would have been pretty much exactly the same in the UK as it was on my first pay slip here.

I should add that I am not a rich tax exile here, I'm a poverty stricken pensioner! I was working here when I retired and could not afford to move back to the UK!

However, on my combined pensions - a state pension here for 11 years work in Luxembourg and a state pittance in the UK for most of the rest of my career, I pay around £200pa in income tax here with no other deductions whereas in the UK on the same combined pensions, I have calculated that I would be paying just short of £3000pa in income tax! So no, I wouldn't be happy to pay UK tax as I'm already in a position that I don't have enough to live on!

In most people's minds Luxembourg = tax dodger, but the reality is not that at all! Most Brits over here, ended up here as I did, because the work dried up in the UK and they were offered a job over here!

Like every other country in the world, Luxembourg has its upsides and downsides. The other morning I needed to see a GP and was able to book an appt. on the internet for the same afternoon. The downside is that you do have to pay, although it's not very much: a few pence over £6.

@ChrisMayLA6

If they are like the odious Oakshott and many others who have fled to tax free countries like Dubai and Monaco to avoid paying UK tax then I totally agree that they should pay for their expensive rescue. However, I don't think the same should apply to UK citizens who moved abroad to work (like me) and who pay tax in whatever country they moved to. In my case that's Luxembourg.