In an almost forgotten slice of marbled real estate at the Capitol, the Kevin McCarthy era is taking shape in Congress. https://t.co/GSSR3kVyWz
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 28, 2023
… Away from the glare of the speaker’s official office, McCarthy is conducting some of the most exhilarating but also difficult business of leadership. Yet McCarthy is also confronting the limits of his slim hold on power as the promises of a new style of running the House run into the hard realities of governing.
This past week, an immigration bill that was supposed to be easy work for a Republican Party intent on sealing the U.S. border with Mexico was shelved for quick action, kicked back to committees for changes.
A Republican proposal for a 23% national sales tax that would take the place of income taxes rose and quickly fell from favor, turned into a punchline for President Joe Biden’s attacks on extreme elements in the GOP…
Three weeks into the new Republican majority, the risks of McCarthy’s leadership style are clearly taking hold: In the interest of opening up the legislative process, with more seats at the table for far-right lawmakers, the GOP agenda will be subjected to prolonged debates and delays — and the chance that nothing gets done at all.
McCarthy appeared upbeat as he exited the Trump podcast, brushing off the scrapes over the immigration bill and others as part of the process with his bottom-up way of governing.
“I don’t view that as at risk,” McCarthy said.
“Say you passed the bill early here, but it just it’s not perfect,” he said. “I want to get it right.”…
But several of the top proposals the Republicans lined up for quick passage as part of their rules package have stalled out amid differences between the hard-right Freedom Caucus and pragmatic conservatives. As McCarthy celebrated his birthday with a visit from Elon Musk at the Capitol, lawmakers were grinding through a two-day debate on a routine oil-and-gas leasing bill.
“At some point in time, they have to belly up to the bar, make a decision, and go,” said Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, the seasoned Democratic leader and former House whip…
He can’t even get his team in line to serve their true masters…
The latest chapter in the break up between the GOP and big business — https://t.co/EmDMMC1iTa via @nbcnews
— Shannon Pettypiece (@spettypi) January 24, 2023
Tragically timely:
This is a tribute to all the families I met when I was young litigator working cases in Bakersfield. I am honored to Executive Produce this with Colin Kaepernick and an incredible team at ABC and Hulu. This is Kevin McCarthy’s district. Killing County. pic.twitter.com/ENbrfidMp3
— Ben Meiselas (@meiselasb) January 25, 2023
Baud
I didn’t click, but that AP article sounds like a McCarthy tongue bath.
Baud
Ok then.
Benw
More like the Kevin McCarthy error
BRyan
Open thread? Looking for suggestions from San Francisco area jackals … I have a stoneware jar that features a drawing, done in the mid ‘70s, I believe, of a house on Turk Blvd. The artist – the drawing is signed T. George – labeled the house as being 1825 Turk. But both Google Instant Street View and Zillow show the address of the house in the drawing as 1860, and 1825 as the house next door downhill from it. I was thinking of sending the piece to the current owner as a memento (hoping that they would like to have it), but the house has been divided into multiple units and I don’t know its current ownership status. I assumed that I could get that ownership information from fiscal auditor or property tax records, but now I’m not sure that I’d be finding the correct property, given the conflict on addresses. Hard to imagine that the artist got it wrong — equally hard to imagine that Zillow and Google did. I’m not sure exactly what I’m asking here, but any suggestions on clarifying the address would be much appreciated.
Ken
They might have gotten more traction with this if they hadn’t spent so much effort making sure most people don’t earn enough to hit the 24% tax bracket.
Baud
I thought the sales tax would have been 30%.
geg6
Good to see Kaepernick doing the good work. We have our own issue with cop violence even here in suburban Western PA. An off-duty cop who assaulted a man who was administering CPR to a shooting victim and killed him was recently cleared of any charges and remains on the local municipal force in good standing. The guy went off for no reason. Surprisingly, the victim was a white man. It’s outrageous and infuriating. And the only way shit like this changes is for citizens to fight back. Not with violence but with political consequences for their enablers. Accountability, at all levels, is the only answer.
catclub
@Baud:
It might be that they get to 100% by 77% + 23%=100% and then 23% is actually 30% of the rest of the cost.
eclare
Looking forward to that documentary. Between that and 1619, Hulu is making some really eye-opening programming.
Baud
@catclub: I was told there would be no math.
eclare
@geg6: WTF? Words fail.
catclub
@BRyan:
I vote for artistic license changing the address.
Why are there odd and even numbered houses on the same side of the street?
You could break it into shards and give separate shards to the residents of the broken up units.
NotMax
In the mood for a tight little suspense flick? Noticed Play Misty for Me is currently on Netflix. Jessica Walter and Clint Eastwood. If you’ve never seen it before, check it out.
OzarkHillbilly
I have no problem believing it. People get addresses wrong all the time. Even google gets my address wrong. Punch my address into google maps and it shows a location a mile away down in the valley below.
Geminid
@BRyan: Maybe the last person to own the property before it was divided into apartments, would appreciate the jar. Or their family. It would not be hard to find out through city property records.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: I believe they figure it thusly:
Bill for $100
Add 30% sales tax = $130
Extra $30 = 23% of $130
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
If you care to, you can report the problem to the Google maps people. I’ve done that before.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: There is a logic behind that number, but I forget what it is. Fun with math showing the 23% ends up being 30% of the total cost. shrug
ETA: And catclub got there first with the logic… sigh…
Cacti
I saw that in the Czech Republic presidential election, the pro-western candidate crushed the Putinist 59-41.
Tough rocks for Vlad that 1968 is still within living memory for Czechs.
hueyplong
@Dorothy A. Winsor: My understanding as well. After all, what’s a GOP tax proposal without fraud? And let’s not forget that you’d add the already existing state/local sales tax on top of that.
Baud
@Cacti: The US would be a different place if we could get those sorts of numbers for the Dems here.
skerry
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Bad math is worse than no math
catclub
@hueyplong: I still want to ask them if that tax applies to stocks and houses. can you imagine its popularity then?
Heck, apply that to present giant pickup truck prices and ask folks how they like it.
Glory b
Has Kaepernick decided to start voting? Has he decided to stop telling young people not to vote? Has he changed his mind about Hillary Clinton belonging in prison?
He can get back to me when that happens. Not saying it didn’t, but I’ve never heard him say he was wrong.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Well, when your address is “The holler near that crick” — or is it perhaps “2437 Blech Lane”? — I can understand how Google might get it wrong.
NotMax
Does not compute. Norman, coordinate.
lowtechcyclist
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Yeah, it’s that old math/stat question, “what’s the denominator?”
Pretty much everyone, including the governments of the states that have a sales tax, figures
tax rate = tax/(pre-tax cost of stuff you buy)
turned into a percentage. They’re doing
tax rate = tax/(tax + pre-tax cost of stuff you buy)
to make the rate look smaller. But even hiding the fact that it’s really a 30% sales tax doesn’t help much when the idea of a 23% sales tax suffices to make most people’s heads explode.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor: So if they had a 100% sales tax, it would look like a 50% sales tax.
oatler
@NotMax:
“Cry Bastion”
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: Don’t give them any ideas
OzarkHillbilly
The post office has rules about this: Even numbers are always on the east and south sides of streets, odds on the west and north sides. Not sure what they do on streets that take a 90 degree turn, such as an eastbound street turning south (where the south side becomes the west side). Now that I’ve thought about it I think I’ll go find one and see.
eta: and with that I have to leave for my DIL’s 9K run. good day all.
eclare
@OzarkHillbilly: I never knew that! Thanks. My neighborhood and close environs are on a grid, so that works. Must be hell in ATL where street placement was determined by Native American paths.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
It was originally a 10K, but the woke libs something something.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Not sure that even/odd “rule” is universal. For example, my home is on the south side of the street, and is odd-numbered. My brother’s home is on the east side, and is odd-numbered.
NotMax
@catclub
Isn’t their gospel that lowering taxes increases revenue?
So a national tax of minus 30% would usher in fiscal utopia, yes?
//
WereBear
@OzarkHillbilly: Until we got 911, not that long ago :) the slope we live on had that kind of jumbled numbering, as it was based on the age of the house and who sold a parcel in the middle and such.
It was an uproar, we had dozens of North Country themed roads and streets. Adjectives were suddenly everywhere. Because only locals knew one Spruce Road from another.
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
Odd numbered address on the southern side of the street here.
eclare
@NotMax: I’m on the east and my number is even.
lowtechcyclist
@catclub:
Me too! According to this World Bank table, the total value of all the stocks traded in the U.S. in 2019 (the most recent year they had stats for) was over $23 trillion.
Even a 1% tax on each trade would be a thing of beauty, doing two things, both worthwhile: (1) killing a shitload of jobs with trading firms that are all about making money off much smaller changes than 1% in stocks’ valuation, and (2) probably still putting over $100B in free money into the U.S. treasury each year.
(Not $230B = 1% of $23T, because those trades in (1) no longer being profitable would considerably reduce trading volume.)
A 30% tax would all but shut down the stock market. But given how hard a 30% national sales tax would hit Joe and Jane Sixpack, it damn well should.
Starfish
@BRyan: The numbering going on, on that street in Google Street View is super questionable. The numbers are all out of order.
Amir Khalid
Does this CNN story worry you? It certainly worries me.
Barbara
@lowtechcyclist: And I can imagine poor cashiers everywhere having to explain to irate customers why the bill was $130 not $123, because, duh, no one refers to the rate of sales tax based on the tax divided by the sum of the tax + store price.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
Ain’t nuthin’ to carp about when things are going swimmingly.
Barbara
@Amir Khalid: Umm, I’m guessing the fish owner is trying to get out of paying charges for something, or maybe just make up an excuse to placate his spouse. I’ve had pet fish. Hard to see how water would be compatible with digital devices.
SFAW
@Amir Khalid: Sounds like something from The Onion
Josie
Every bit of this nonsense in the House is performative. If they have a brain cell working, they know that nothing they produce is going anywhere due to a Democratic Senate and President. It’s all just noise. I would be embarrassed if I were them. I would think they would be looking for ways to work with the Democrats to find legislative solutions that both sides could agree on. Oh, but that would take some actual thought…….
lowtechcyclist
@OzarkHillbilly:
The main road of my subdivision, as you drive away from the highway it’s off of, starts off heading WNW, then goes N for a good stretch, then curves to the right and heads E, then curves again and heads S, then finishes off with a SE stretch.
Both the even and odd house numbers hit almost all the compass points. Even numbers are on the left going in, and odds are on the right.
Gvg
@SFAW: it is not universal nor set by the post office. The rules are set (if there are any rules) by whatever government started giving out land deeds in that area . The post office just takes what is there. They give out the zip codes only.
Starfish
@catclub: Google Street View seems so broken here. The place it has labeled as 1860 is the gray house at 1855. You can tell it is 1855 because you can zoom in on the photo and see it is labeled 1855 in the window above the door. The blue house next to it is 1825. You can see it is labeled that way near the parking garage, below the light.
Gvg
@Amir Khalid: that is too many coincidences. It is a crook trying to pretend to be a random fish. Not believable.
hueyplong
Odd how the GOPers don’t apply this “method” of calculating sales tax rates to income tax rates.
A proper Democratic political ad might lay that out in a way that the voting public understands, i.e., with Sesame Street-like animation and set to music.
Princess
@Geminid: They’re probably the ones who got rid of it. I can just imagine how I’d feel, having finally persuaded my husband to get rid of some tshochka, having it turn up in the mail some day..
Anyway, I’d bet Google got it wrong and Zillow is using Google photos, and that the artist got it right. I’d mail it to the address it says, and let them sort it out.
Starfish
@Starfish: I reported the error in Google Street View. Hopefully, they will fix it.
eclare
@Princess: Good point. I get mail meant for neighbors fairly regularly, and I just walk it over there.
bk
@OzarkHillbilly: Our house is on the south side of the street and has an odd number.
NotMax
@,a href=”https://balloon-juice.com/2023/01/29/sunday-morning-open-thread-kevin-mccarthy-out-of-his-depth-in-the-congressional-wading-pool/#comment-8748231″>Gvg
Not only give out. Post Office took back our ZIP code . We now share one with the next town over. Old one still exists but became assigned only to P.O. boxes, no longer to street addresses. Bulk of what shows up in my mailbox since is addressed to the correct name, correct street but to the name of that next town rather than the one I actually live in.
Which to this day causes no end of confoozlement at the other end of the transaction when I have to give out my address and ZIP code if ordering anything or dealing with customer service. Had quite a few magazine subscriptions when the switch was made and every one of them balked at changing only the ZIP code of the address when I contacted them then.
RandomMonster
@NotMax: I love Play Misty For Me, just for the view of a bygone Carmel…
NotMax
Republicans:
Universal tax rate? Super!
Universal health care? That’s crazy talk.
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
We need to close the hacker fish gap.
NorthLeft
@Baud: Yes, I even read sarcastic comments about the 30% proposal on a Detroit Lions fan site. This fan base is notoriously conservative and the site shuts down any political talk ASAP. You will get called out and loudly criticized.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: I don’t have pet fish, so I am unconcerned.
RandomMonster
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I read that, too, and I still don’t get it.
Baud
@NorthLeft:
As long as they’re evenhanded about the political talk, I have no problem with that.
NotMax
@RandomMonster
The days of “I’d walk a mile for a Carmel.”
:)
The Moar You Know
30% sales tax? Please proceed, Republicans. It would be the literal end of the American economy.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
HinTN
@BRyan: I recommend a trip to San Francisco. It’s a lovely city and you’d get lots closer to a decision in person.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Tony G
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Thanks. That math makes sense, but that is not how most people would think of the sales tax. If an item that would have cost $100 before the tax now costs $130, I would call it a 30% cost increase. Maybe the news story was deliberately downplaying the effects of this idiotic Republican tax proposal.
JMG
There are two streets with the same name (one spelled as one word, one as two) in my Cape Cod town and I live in one. Not only that, but due to a peculiarity in road design of many years ago, our mailbox (even number) is in front of our neighbor (odd number) across the road’s front yard (His is on his porch). We exchange mail regularly. And the number of distressed calls we’ve had with package delivery services is off the charts.
Baud
Are they proposing to raise the sales tax without raising the import tax?
If so, talk about a free gift to China.
BellyCat
In case the Jackaltariat did not see this end-of-thread post by Low Key Swagger on last night’s thread considering the current state of policing, it’s worth a look. Reposting in entirety.
NotMax
Grumble grumble. Posted in the wrong thread. Repeating.
Coming up on 4:30 in the a.m. Can says without fear of contradiction day 4 of chill and rain is well and truly underway. Now with more wind!
Starfish
@Tony G: A lot of rural areas have some of the highest sales taxes because they can’t make up the difference with property taxes. (The properties are low value.)
Turning things into sales tax is often a giant handout to the investor class, depending on how they are treating sales of stocks. Are short term and long term capital gains going to be taxed or not?
A Man for All Seaonings (formerly Geeno)
@SFAW: A lot of postal regs like that apply to new development and construction. Any buildings, streets, etc that pre-date the rule are generally left alone. They won’t change the address on a building while someone is living there.
NotMax
@JMG
Street the family lived on when yours truly was in high school ran for one long uninterrupted block. Street name on the sign at one end was spelled differently than it appeared on the other.
eclare
@NotMax: Hope your power holds out to run that space heater!
JPL
@eclare: When we moved to the Atlanta area decades ago, i got lost. I pulled into a gas station simply to ask where I was. They have a habit of reusing the same street name which causes more confusion.
NotMax
@Baud
Grrr. Editorial hackles raised.
Like writing “round circle” or “new innovation.”
/pedant
Baud
@NotMax:
Hmm. Not sure. Humans have exchanged gifts since ancient times. Those wouldn’t be a “free gift” situation.
Chief Oshkosh
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yep. It’s a ridiculous lie, which means that at least 27% of the population will swallow it hook, line, and sinker, and howl for more!
prostratedragon
Streaming this evening at WFMT.org, 8C/9E, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Beethoven Symphony No. 9, from February of last year. Not sure which night was chosen for the recording, but I attended on Feb. 24, a day when it was sorely needed. And if you ever have the chance to see and hear your local band do this work live, Go!!
eclare
@JPL: I lived in the North Druid Hills area for years, and I could still easily get lost there. After all, IIRC the street names, LaVista and Briarcliff intersect at two separate locations miles apart! And I don’t know what Clairmont does, other than have a Waffle House on each side of I-85. Or it did when I left.
JPL
@Baud: No so! If you add a thirty percent tax on every dollar, the majority of citizens wouldn’t be able to afford even chinese goods.
RandomMonster
Speaking of address fun: RandomMrs was expecting a UPS delivery the other day containing some very pricey medication that also needs to be refrigerated. UPS claimed it was left on our doorstep. It was not. So after panicking a bit, I thought if I were a delivery guy misreading our address on the label, 4307, maybe I would see it as 4301 or 4807 based on similarly shaped numbers. So I walked down the street and there it was at 4301.
Chief Oshkosh
@OzarkHillbilly:
Not in my neighborhood, at least, for the north vs south (not sure about east vs west).
ETA: As to Atlanta and surrounds – yep, it’s almost like they designed the streets to confuse anyone not born there. Except there is no design and natives also get lost.
JPL
@BellyCat: Thank you for reposting that.
Baud
@JPL:
I’m pretty sure the GOP doesn’t care about the majority of citizens.
eclare
@RandomMonster: Good sleuthing!
dww44
@Ken: Consumption taxes allow wealthy investors to skate and hold on to all that wealth. There should never be any doubt about who really controls the GOP.
Honus
@RandomMonster: pretty simple. 23% sounds better than 30%, so they a math trick to change it to the lower number, and call it that.
Baud
@Honus:
I go back to Comment #1. I’m starting to think that AP journalist is a GOP hack.
NotMax
@Baud
It may be a reward, an inducement, or other things, but not a gift.
bjacques
Rolling out the GOP House legislative agenda is like trying to belch while having the hiccups.
Low Key Swagger
@BellyCat: Thank you. My problem is that I am unable to write well anymore. My delete button gets a lot of work. I was trying to make certain points when I wrote that, but all too often I get ahead of myself and lose the ability to tie it all together.
Glad you found it insightful. Worth the effort then.
Cheryl from Maryland
@BRyan: Professional art historian here. I’d look up the records for both. Street numbers can change. Property records may record the change if there was one — they also include the plat, number of bedrooms, dates of remodeling permits (change from a single-family home to multi-unit), etc. With the latter information, you’ll have more evidence to confirm is Google Street is correct and which house is which. I’d also try Zillow and Redfin and Apartments.com — even if the property isn’t being actively advertised for rent or sale, there is usually info.at those sites.
eclare
@Low Key Swagger: I found it useful too. Thank you.
geg6
@SFAW:
We are on the west side and have an uneven number. I don’t understand the logic of house numbering at all.
Wag
@prostratedragon: Agreed. Last summer I saw the Dallas Symphony perform the 9th at an outdoor amphitheater in Vail. Spectacular piece of music.
BRyan
@Starfish: Excellent! Thanks for noticing address signs on the two structures. The house depicted on this piece is the one with the 1855 address above the door; no idea why the artist designated it as 1825, but assuming the owners know/knew their own address when the address was painted there, I believe I can use that address for finding ownership info. Thank you!
JPL
@Low Key Swagger: Thank you for posting it.
geg6
@geg6:
The house I grew up in was on the east side and was uneven. It’s all willy nilly as far as I can tell.
Geminid
@Josie: There was a comment to this point by Rep.Vicki Sparks (R-IN), in a WaPo article about McCarthy’s effots to keep Rep. Omar off of the Foreign Relations Committee:
BRyan
@HinTN: and save on postage!
prostratedragon
@Wag: What a stunning setting. Would be nice to hear the Pastoral in such a place.
BRyan
@Cheryl from Maryland: Thank you!
NotMax
@geg6
There’s a large municipal building in Nassau County, NY numbered 300.
Not only is it 2 blocks east of all the other 300-numbered addresses, set down amongst the 500s, it’s on the opposite side of the street from all the other even numbers. Best I can surmise is that when the new structure went up they elected to keep the same street address for all the offices within.
Layer8Problem
From the Pettypiece NBC News tweet:
I don’t think big business types are going to stop with hand wringing and strongly worded letters. I’d expect obscurely-named foundations running commercials in red districts pointing out Representative Nick or Nora Nutjob is working to destroy their jobs/paychecks/well-deserved government assistance with loony economics, or maybe just that they’re in fact well-known woke cryptolibs or became godless Washington cosmopolitans corrupted by the swamp.
Geminid
@The Moar You Know: I do not think Kevin McCarthy has the votes to pass this sales tax. He’s moving it forward because that’s one of the promises he made in order to placate the 20 holdouts and win election as Speaker.
I expect there will be more than 20 holdouts if this proposal is voted on by the House. Purple district Republicans aren’t going to join the political suicide pact their red district colleagues are so eager to implement. Especially when the Senate will kill it anyway.
NotMax
@Layer8Problem
Softsoaping “has decisively stated” much?
Sheesh.
Elizabelle
Do check out today’s Google doodle. Pure charm.
Good morning, jackals.
JPL
@NotMax: They should be concerned when the House leader takes his order from MTG and the orange goon.
Geminid
@Layer8Problem: Also, Republican Representatives are going to get an earful about a default when they go back home and talk to the business owners and professionals in their districts. These people are the mainstays of local Republican parties, and they are also the Reps’ social peers.
NotMax
@JPL
When do the hearings ripping the lid off of the covert Jewish space lasers start?
//
Barry
@Starfish: “Turning things into sales tax is often a giant handout to the investor class, depending on how they are treating sales of stocks. Are short term and long term capital gains going to be taxed or not?”
Those would not be subject to that tax, is my guess.
eclare
@Elizabelle: So adorable. How do they come up with it.
Ramalama
@JMG:
Did that happen because the builder was joking and the joke stuck (“what if I named them both the same but slightly different so I can fool that durn Ezekiel from showing up at my doorstep to woo my daughter Edwina”)? Or maybe there was a fight in the family? Two sons battling the estate the father left and one son says, “I can too have that address?”
Clearly I have nothing going on in my life to want to stop and think about your Cape capers.
JPL
@NotMax: Doonesbury
eclare
@JPL: So true!
Layer8Problem
@Geminid:
Local Business Professional: This thing you want to do? Don’t do it. It’s bad.
Representative: But government has to balance its budget like responsible lower-middle-class husbands and wives do at the kitchen table after their hard day’s work!
Local Business Professional: You mean by not paying their bills and telling their creditors to screw off? Because that’s what you want to do.
Representative: . . . ??? . . .
Local Business Professional: (why the hell did I donate to this putz again?)
Torrey
From the American Planning Association:
Based on the comments here, the first sentence is aspirational at best.
Omnes Omnibus
@OzarkHillbilly: You may have that reversed based on all the places I have lived in the US.
RepubAnon
To expand on CatClub’s math:
@Ken: Ah, the classic trick of confusing people with fractions. The sales tax was really a 30% tax on the pre-tax sale price. They’re trying to confuse people by noting that if you add 30% to the pre-tax sale price, 23% of the post-tax out of pocket price will be tax.
@Baud: Yes, it’s really a 30% sales tax – the 23% is achieved by using the after tax total out of pocket cost as the base number, rather than the per-tax sale price:
sale price + 30 % of sale price = after tax out of pocket.
Use $10 as the sale price, the total after tax price is $10 + $3 = $13
However, if you use the $13 after-tax price as the base price, $3/$13 = 23%
It’s another case of figures don’t lie, but liars figure.
Omnes Omnibus
@JPL: Peachtree?
Layer8Problem
Campos at LGM is having a sad because he doesn’t really know Television (’cause Tom Verlaine died) and has a friend respond “I got one for you: zero of my one hundred students had heard of Depeche Mode today. Zero.”
He should wait a few years. I know one bartender in her thirties who has seen The Prisoner and The Avengers (Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg, thankyewverymuch), and another also in his thirties who knows the work of Hasil Adkins, that Michael Schenker was in UFO, and Television. Education’s a lifelong thing.
Torrey
@BellyCat:
I’m glad you reposted that. I didn’t get to the previous thread, and I think this is an important take.
The problem is that, while “speaking loudly and authoritatively works well most of the time” in taking control of (many) situations, there’s a big difference between speaking loudly and the screeching yell, which is what you too often hear cops doing in citizen-sourced videos. Yelling is by its nature hard to understand. And when a person starts speaking under normal circumstances, it takes a syllable or two for the hearer to calibrate to the speaker’s patterns–where the vowels are, in particular. This is why experienced public speakers always start with a throw-away phrase (“Good morning!”) and experienced comedians open their acts with a few words, sometimes the first couple words of the first joke, and then pause and start again, repeating those opening words. Loud and authoritative works well in crowd-control situations or in cases where you have to direct people’s attention. But in many situations, especially one-on-one, the quiet voice is the most authoritative (think “mommy voice” as some teachers call it). And in a traffic stop, you’ve already got their attention.
There are people who are experts on communication, and police departments could use some training from them on the way communication actually works, especially in high-stress situations.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@SFAW: Anything measured in km is woke. Furlongs were good enough for George Washington and probably Jesus, darnit!
Omnes Omnibus
@Layer8Problem: I mentioned Verlaine’s passing in a thread last night and it didn’t get a lot of traction here.
Spanky
@Omnes Omnibus:
All of them, Ommie.
Geminid
@JPL: Atlanta’s surface streets are confusing, and the Interstates are terrifying. When I visit I hardly ever drive more than the mile to the Publix near my friend’s house just off Howell Mill Road. If I am feeling adventurous, I’ll go another another half mile to the Krogers.
My friend loves to zip around in his little Nissan, and after 30 years knows most of the roads well. He still can get lost temporarily just three miles from his house.
Back when they were a one car family, Warren got all over Atlanta on MARTA buses and trains, would even take his bike along. It’s a really good system, but I’ve hardly ever used it.
patrick II
@Baud:
It was supposed to be, but cooler heads prevailed and 23% makes so much more sense.
Layer8Problem
@Omnes Omnibus: I blame woke liberal culture and litter boxes in classrooms.
“It’s a fair cop but society’s to blame.”
“Right, we’ll arrest them too.”
Omnes Omnibus
@Torrey: From my time in the army, there is a thing called “command voice.” It is not yelling. It may be louder than an conversational tone, but it is more akin to a stage actor pitch their voiced so it can be heard throughout a theater.
Baud
@patrick II:
They should really make it 27% in honor of their base.
Omnes Omnibus
@Layer8Problem: Nah, it’s women who don’t know their damned place anymore.
Tony G
@The Moar You Know: If the Repubs ever manage to implement a 30% national sales tax, Fox News would find a way to blame it on Black people and Libruls, and 40% of the electorate would believe it.
evodevo
@BRyan: If Frisco’s PVA office subscribes to the QPublicNet site, you may be able to access an aerial view of the street and the properties. Our site in KY also links to public records of the last few deed transactions, where you can access the name of the owners…not all counties make this available to the public, but if so, it makes it easier to trace ownership.
A Streeter
Dead thread probably, but wanted to get this in:
@OzarkHillbilly:
Maybe the post office suggests this, but it’s determined by the municipality (or equivalent). In Chicago, evens are on west and north, odds on south and east. In Washington, DC odds are to right, evens left as you walk in the direction of increasing numbers (generally, away from the Capitol).
But neither place mixes odds and evens on the same side of the same block, and I’m curious about how this happened in San Francisco.
evodevo
@eclare: I don’t know about your community, but here in KY the local planning commission assigns new addresses, NOT the PO. Our original rural system was Box ##, Hwy ###, which was changed in 1986 or so to a house number and road. Our local postmaster used a huge series of ag dept aerial photo maps to assign the numbers (she got a few wrong, which are still wrong lol), and the county commission approved it. Anything new is under the aegis of the county planning commission.
gwangung
@Torrey: Yeah. Theatre folks know that adrenaline often makes your words run together and you have to work to make your words understandable.
And this is with words in a situation they’ve REHEARSED, over and over again!
citizen dave
@Geminid: Oh my gosh, that’s my Representative from Indiana’s Fightin’ Fifth! I’ve never seen her called “Vicki” though, and don’t think she uses that. But who knows, she’s been a fairly quiet Rep and MAGA supporter. Difficult to know what she’s about at all, but my guess is that mostly she wants to raise her profile. However, despite living here, raising a family for 20 years, she still has quite the Borat accent–I can’t help but hear that on par with her content, which quotes “A Republic, if you can keep it”. https://twitter.com/RepSpartz/status/1618300165265231873
In her first campaign her major commercial was about how she grew up in a socialist country (USSR/Ukraine), and so knew how bad that is; also, Democrats are socialists.
patrick II
Every time I see a picture of McCarthy since the 15th vote he’*S got a grin on his face. I wonder how long that is going to last.
evodevo
@RandomMonster: Yep…as a former mail carrier, I can state that yours is a good strategy lol
Geminid
@citizen dave: Yeah, I’m the one calling her Vicki.
Spartz’s position on Omar is interesting because she’ll hardly suffer if she votes to keep Ihlan Omar off of the Committee. Not like she will if she votes for that cockamamie sales tax.
I think Spartz is on Foreign Relations, so maybe she respects Representative Omar from working with her on the Committee. Ms. Omar got off to a rocky start in 2019, but she seems to have shown herself to be a serious and hard working legislator since then.
Mike in NC
Why do I picture
CharlieKevin McCarthy sitting on Musk’s lap with Elon’s hand up his ass?mrmoshpotato
Fuck yeah! Exhilarating business meetings! Who’s with me?!
citizen dave
@prostratedragon: Thanks for the heads up on Beethoven’s 9th! Sometime around 2019 I put seeing it performed on my mental list of things to do, and I think the CSO had it on the calendar for May 2020. Anyway, wish I could have made this last year. I get emails from CSO from having attended the Bill Murray thing up there a few years ago now.
It looks like one can listen to this on demand on the radio station’ website, for two weeks–music is in 5 hour blocks though.
mrmoshpotato
@Mike in NC:
Because we had 4 years of an orange shitstain in the People’s House with Putin’s hand up his fat orange ass.
Geminid
@Geminid:
@citizen dave: Another theory: Kevin McCarthy is targeting Omar as a favor to Marjory Greene, who was kicked off her commitees last year; Spartz knows this and is fed up with that horrible hoyden, wants to thumb her in the eye.
cain
@eclare: I found 3 pine replacement in “The Sinner” – I haven’t watched season 1, but season 2 is pretty good in terms of acting – Jessical Biel was excellent! It was still kind of predictable but how they brought it all together was fun at the end.
ETA – this weekend! Yesterday #99 and todays #150! WOW!!
Suzanne
@OzarkHillbilly:
I think this is regional, because every address I lived at in Arizona was exactly the opposite. This matches the pattern in PA, tho.
patrick II
@citizen dave:
So, Indiana’s version of Ayn Rand.
cain
@catclub: I think for those voters it’s a simple as:
Does it own the libs?!
Yes?! 👍👍
They always think there is some kind of exception built in. lol.
patrick II
@RandomMonster:
In Japan’s older neighborhoods house numbers were assigned in the order the houses were built. The easiest way to find the house you were looking for was to try to find the only person who would know all of the houses — the local postman. It helped to learn Japanese first.
postedit. I suppose Google maps has helped many people since my days there.
cain
@NotMax: They should make us pay corporations directly. We after all exist for their servitude and pleasure.
Ken B
@patrick II: My guess is as long as he’s Speaker McCarthy.
He seems to have wanted the job for the sake of the title, and doesn’t seem to have anything he really believes in or wants to do with the office, other than be in it. I think he’s too stupid and too much of a narcissist to care about his reputation or the fate of the country, so long as people call him ‘Speaker.’
One reason he was willing to castrate the powers of his office, he didn’t care about any of them.
Wouldn’t be surprised if he legally changed his first name from ‘Kevin’ to ‘Speaker.’
citizen dave
@patrick II: I don’t know much about Ayn Rand, but probably yes. It would be irresponsible of me to speculate. The story is a local Hoosier farmer was on a train in Ukraine, and met Victoria Kulheyko ( born in Nosivka, Ukraine, which at the time was part of the USSR)
Somewhere around my computer files I have a kind of oppo research document on her that I found on the internet. There were some issues with her accounting work, but by that time she had made it to the Indiana legislature…
cain
Depends… the trumpers in all those districts will be up in arms. In purple district they still have to keep the trumpers happy. If these hard righters have their hearts – nothing will stop them from calling them up and yelling at them to vote for the 30% sales tax.
That said, that would be some straight up stupid shit in calling your rep and ASKING for higher taxes – but hey, that’s where we are as a country. :D These people are dumb enough to think that having just a flat tax is going to work out for them.
cain
@Barry: Investments is still based on consumption. A 30% sales tax will mean that sales will be down for every corporation and small business as consumer behavior will change and change quite rapidly.
It will also wake up the country politically – a consumption tax is going to hit all those people too busy to look at politics to suddenly going to be paying very close attention.
James E Powell
@Layer8Problem:
I hope we’re not waiting for the “tax cuts uber alles” business community to run those ads.
cain
@Tony G: The press will blame Democrats for not stopping it. There will be stories of sad democrats who wished they had stopped it somehow.
NYT will have diner stories – oh wait, nobody can afford to go to a diner. So I guess they’ll have to go door to door. :D
cain
@Ken B: He probably has a dopamine rush reading the paper and online news article – seeing his name with speaker next to him – even if the article is tearing him a new asshole.
He probably has the best sex – with himself now that he’s speaker.
Geminid
@cain: I’m not sure a vote against this sales tax will be a salient issue among Trumpers 20 months from now. It’s never been more than a fringe issue even on the Right.
Trump tried to make a big deal about the twenty some Republicans who voted against the Infrastucture bill in November, 2021, but that did not seem to hurt them in their primaries just 5-8 months after the vote.
On the other hand, Democrats will just kill them on a sales tax vote in November 2024. Even the Republicans who voted against could get dragged down by this issue. I think it’s electoral poison.
Ken B
@cain: Yep.
The giveaway to me was his moving his stuff into the Speaker’s office before he started losing votes, and that the first thing he did after fondling the gavel was to get his new nameplate installed.
frosty
@Low Key Swagger: Thank you for that. My older son is a cop and I worry about how the work will affect him. Hearing your son’s reaction is helpful.
artem1s
I think there is a pretty good chance these assholes don’t know the difference between a usage tax and a sales tax. Gas and cigarettes have usage taxes that the customer doesn’t see on the receipt. They are determined by the state and/or county where you are buying the gas. Revenue from OH state fuel taxes are designated for building and repairing roads. ODOT is actively involved in suppressing alternate fuels in OH because when fuel consumption goes down, so does their budget. Cuyahoga county had a 5 cent/gallon tax for 5 years when they crumbled to the NFL and built them a new stadium to bring the Browns back to town. So gas was 5 cents higher than surrounding counties that only had the state tax added.
Sales tax is added on top of the price of the item. In Ohio some counties have higher taxes than others depending. One thing Ohio doesn’t apply sales tax too is food if it’s bought in a store or drive thru. Ohio and other states has from time to time tried to get soda drinks redefined as ‘not food’ so they can start applying the state sales tax as a kind of luxury tax the way they do cigarettes. You can imagine how many legislators Coke and Pepsi has bought off over the decades to keep that from happening.
This 23% math only makes sense if they were talking about a usage tax on a $1 total sale. The customer pays $1 but the company has to turn over 23% to the feds. Doesn’t matter to the GOP that the price of everything will go up 23% or more. (Yea we can totally trust companies to not price gouge and not blame ‘Congress’ for the 30%+ inflation their customers will now experience. Let alone lobby the GOP to exclude their products from the usage tax).
Usage added taxes will also create the need for reporting and monitoring the collection of the revenue from the vendors – think ATF and ABC agents. Talk about bloated government and a nightmare of bureaucratic oversight! Hey, here’s an idea, let Homeland take over revenue collecting of the federal tax from companies. Or maybe the GQP think local sheriffs should do that? That should be fun. That’s the real reason Gohmert hates the idea.
Layer8Problem
@James E Powell: No, not them. The commercials would be from the “I don’t want you to ‘Destroy the Economy’, I just want tax cuts” crowd. Subtle difference.
topclimber
@Geminid: Isn’t Trump on record against it?
Citizen Alan
@Amir Khalid: The initial description worried me until I read the article. Then I learned that it happened to a Youtuber who intentionally set up motion sensors on a fish tank so that his pet fish could “play” games on Nintendo Switch. And then, he left them unattended. Fucking morons gotta fucking moron, I guess.
Tony G
@cain: Actually, that high of a sales tax on diner food will probably lead to a proliferation of speakeasy diners. If you show up with the secret code word you can buy tax-free bacon, eggs and coffee.
Geminid
@topclimber: I hadn’t heard that. But even a dolt like Trump can see it’s a loser.
I think there’s a good chance McCarthy will find a way to punt on the tax. Maybe he’ll invoke the “Hastert Rule” and let the caucus vote it down.
WhatsMyName
@BRyan: You can look up it on the SF county Assessor’s website, it’s there. Just click on the Access Tool
ETA: “There are 6 parcels at this location.”
Mai Naem mobile
@cain: except that they’ll probably blame Biden because he’s the president….dontcha know Biden is responsible for everything because he’s president. Neve underestimate how much the average American understands about government and governing.
Citizen Alan
@Layer8Problem: People underestimate the role that the proliferation of cable and later streaming had on the cultural literacy (in terms of television) of younger people. I started to ask sarcastically “Why would anyone expect most 30yos to know anything about tv shows that stopped producing new episodes 20 years before they were born? It’s like asking a 53yo like me if I was familiar with …”
And then I googled “top tv shows of the 1950s” to list what I assumed would be obscure examples and realized that I grew up watching all of them because when I was a kid, we only had 3 channels and they all filled up the afternoon hours between the soaps and the nightly news with popular syndicated shows from the 50s and 60s. But once we had dedicated “kids channels,” those afternoon hours mostly stopped being for syndicated shows to entertain the kids home from school and ended up being a wasteland of cheap reality tv (People’s Court, Springer, TMZ, etc.)
SteveinPHX
@Suzanne:
Nobody in this thread has “addressed” street numbers in cul-de-sacs!
I’m on the north side of a cul-de-sac with an even house number. No wonder I get lost.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Nobody fucked with Marshall Dillon on Gunsmoke, and he sure wasn’t commanding the situation because he was yelling.
Mai Naem mobile
I want the GOP to go ahead and push this sales tax. I also want it on stock purchases and real estate purchases. Maybe not rent and labor but all other ‘products.’ I want the Waltons, the Hobby Lobby family, the Uhleins, Ken Langone, the hedge fund guys, the oil guys, Miriam Adelson and the Kochs pooping in their pants when they figure out their MAGAt customers don’t want to pay 23% more for products, forget 30% more.
mrmoshpotato
@Tony G: New England clam chowder
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mai Naem mobile: “average American” hell. there are obsessive political junkies in these threads who can’t let go of the idea of Benign Dictator model of the presidency
Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog
@WaterGirl: “Marshal Drill’em,” as the writer of the first-ever (radio) episode used to call him.
Layer8Problem
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: “‘Seize him!’ would solve so many problems, but it has to be the right person doing it y’see.”
Sister Golden Bear
@BRyan: While it’s outside the part of SF that burned during the 1906 quake, it’s possible it was renumbered if nearby buildings were destroyed by the quake itself and properties were split/combined when they were rebuilt.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Layer8Problem: I was thinking the other day that Garland acts as sort of Green Lantern Lightning Rod for Biden. You rarely saw (see) Eric Holder mentioned by the “OBAMA DIDN’T EVEN PUT ANY BANKSTERS IN JAIL!” crowd. Sometimes, but not often.
When Congress held the ’09 Stimulus to $800B [ETA: cut down to 770 in the end, now that I think back?], it was (and remains) a failure of will by Obama. When Joe Manchin cuts BBB in half and renames it the IRA, it’s hailed as a triumph by the Hill-savvy Biden.
Tony G
@mrmoshpotato: Now that’s a tasty soup!
Layer8Problem
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Agreed.
Chris T.
@SteveinPHX:
That’s because they’re “culs de sac”.
/pedant
Tony G
@Geminid: I hope that this asinine National Sales Tax will hurt the Republicans on Election Day, but I’m not sure. A significant percentage (about 35% to 40%) of Americans have demonstrated that they’re as dumb as dirt, and that they’re authoritarians who are very willing to suffer as long as whoever has been deemed to be the current Dear Leader is causing the people that they hate suffer more. We are very stupid species.
Mai Naem mobile
The farmworker guy killer in Half Moon Bay told the cops that he was mad that his supervisor told him to pay $100 to fix a forklift – obviously we are assuming he damaged the forklift. Its not excusing the killer but wtf? Since when do you expect an employee to pay for damage to industrial equipment. It reminds me of the Popeyes manager, several years ago, somewhere in the South who was expected to pay back money that was taken during a robbery. Its like these ‘job creators’ don’t want to take part in the ‘risk’ part of the business.
Origuy
@BRyan: I found 1825 Turk Boulevard in Google maps by zooming in from here to see the number on the building:
https://www.google.com/maps/@37.7795636,-122.4395479,3a,45.2y,168.23h,93.5t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1se5z0Qa-XgtppgGDZtH4FcA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
San Francisco streets are numbered differently from most cities. Each street has a beginning and an end which can be different from the street one block over. The houses are numbered from the beginning. You can see this most clearly with the streets such as Turk, which begins at Market Street. Market runs diagonally through downtown SF. By the way, Turk is a Street until it crosses Divisadero Street, where it becomes a Boulevard. San Francisco streets are weird.
Honus
@Baud: exactly what I was thinking. I especially like the line about McCarthy “conducting some of the most exhilarating but also difficult business of leadership” and “his leadership style are clearly taking hold: In the interest of opening up the legislative process”
Mai Naem mobile
@Origuy: the SF county recorder has the building being built in 1988 with a bunch of sales round 1994 so maybe they turned them into condos 1988 and the construction and sales took till 1994. The Bush 1 recession probably slowed the sales process even in SF.
JPL
uh no Where did Tamara’s post go?
Scout211
@JPL: First Betty Cracker’s thread disappeared as I was composing a comment and now TaMara’s is gone? Crazy Sunday morning at Balloon-juice.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Scout211: well there was this snarling mass of vitriolic… oh, never mind.
gene108
@JPL:
A few comments got a bit hostile.
Apparently ladies figure skating has abusive training methods, which leaves the skaters broken and unable to perform after they turn 18, and we are all bad people for being impressed with 15 year olds skating a winning program we find impressive.
Scout211
@Mr. Bemused Senior: @gene108:
Thanks. I’m not sorry I missed it.
BRyan
@evodevo: thanks, I’ll check into it!
Jesse
@JPL: the huge sales taxes in Europe come to mind. Even the middle class wouldn’t be able to afford actually good things, so the average stuff is surprisingly low quality, just to make it affordable. Some places have huge sales tax even on staples (rather than, say, reduced tax or no tax for such things).
ETA by staples I mean things like fruit, vegetables, bread.
ETA2: in Germany there is some effort to reduce sales tax on staples, to encourage healthier eating. We’ll see where it goes. The state doesn’t want to give up their 20 cents on the dollar for, say, ground beef.
TaMara
@gene108: That was the most succinct wrap-up ever.
BRyan
@WhatsMyName: I haven’t figured out what I’m doing wrong at that website, but I entered the three different addresses I have and each of them says there are no parcels at that location. But I shall keep experimenting; thank you.
J R in WV
@A Man for All Seaonings (formerly Geeno):
This is not correct. Some years ago our county expanded the 911 call center,, and part of that project was reissuing every address in the county, so that when a 911 caller calls in an emergency, the geo-location of the caller’s address is known and emergency responders can go there based upon the gps data from the 911 center.
Our new address sucked, so we spent an afternoon at the 911 center with the guy in charge of new addresses. We got our farm road named (for the elderly bachelor brothers who once lived on the next farm up our hollow, like Smith Way), and the house got its own 4 digit number, which now is available to delivery services using any map system in their truck.
This didn’t keep a contractor from using google maps to go up a dead end hollow and into wooded swamp because google thought the road went thru, when it didn’t. He was 2 hours late for his appointment, and the truck covered with mud! Amazing he got out of the swamp… rural life can be pretty funny.
Omnes Omnibus
@gene108: Let’s not have any comments about CTE or gladiators destroying their bodies for our entertainment when the NFL comes up in conversation then.
JPL
@gene108: omg Thank
Let’s hope they are not watching the Philly game.
Geminid
@Tony G: This will be an interestng political science project, won’t it? I would observe the Republican House members and see how they respond to this legislation. Some of them may give more credit to voters than you do, and run like hell away from this scheme. We will get to see.
As far as I know, no one ran on this proposal, although maybe a few people in deep red districts did. McCarthy promised the radicals a vote on it, but all they might get is a losing committee vote.
Ruckus
@Josie:
Oh, but that would take some actual thought…….
Also the suspension of logic, possibly the entire concept of mathematics, but then they really aren’t too smart so actual logical thought is not one of their strengths. Come to think about it what are their strengths, other than being idiots with paymasters?
Dan B
@eclare: It’s the same in Cincinnati. It was the third biggest city in America in 1850. Streets radiated from the center and each new residence was numbered sequentially. My brother drove cad there and was regularly finding that the numbers on the main streets were off from the smaller streets by many blocks.
Ruckus
@Mai Naem mobile:
No one in business WANTS to take on the risk of doing business. Take it from a former owner of 2 completely different businesses. But those who have even a modicum of understanding of, well anything, do understand that life is never ever without risk. We live with risk every day. Is our neighbor a serial killer? (someone is or they wouldn’t exist) Did the bank put my deposit in my account, because I have to pay the rent? Does the doctor taking the piece of car door out of my stomach have a clue, I mean the accident was bad enough but to be walking down the street and have a piece of car door imbedded in me is a bit much. There is risk in getting up in the morning. there is risk in running a business and it isn’t always about making money, there is risk in living, that someday we won’t, be it young or old or in between.
Captain C
@cain: “We tried to go to this Ohio diner to see what the locals thought of the new national 30% sales tax. Unfortunately, it had gone out of business.”
LiminalOwl
@Origuy: When I lived in the East Bay, I developed three rules for navigating San Francisco:
1. Every street is parallel to every other street at some point
2. Every street is perpendicular to every other street at some point
3. Especially if walking, your destination will always be uphill from your starting point.
(I didn’t learn to drive until almost 11 years after I moved to the Bay Area. And I was over 18 when I moved there.)
Matt McIrvin
@Captain C: “We tried to go back to Ohio, but our city was gone.” [bass]
Craig
@Gvg: In wacky little Carmel By The Sea in California they don’t have street addresses. It gets a bit funny, people name their houses, or get stuff sent to 3rd house from the corner on the west side. The mail carriers are pretty cool.
Soprano2
@prostratedragon: I performed this work 3 times before I ever heard it done live by our symphony. I didn’t even realize I was holding my breath at the end until it was over and I let out a big huff. Then I started to cry. It was more emotional than I expected.
I have a recording of the 9th that was done in Germany at the end of 1989 after the Wall fell; it was conducted by Bernstein. You can hear the emotion in their voices, it’s quite the recording.
Tony G
@Geminid: Yes, this would be an interesting project. In a logical world with a logical electorate, every Republican representative would run away from this insane proposal immediately. It all depends on exactly how stupid the voters are, though. An awful lot of (white) voters seem to be primarily motivated by Owning The Libs even if it hurts them personally. What I can foresee happening if this stupid proposal ever becomes law is massive tax evasion, especially (but not exclusively) by small businesses. “Just pay cash and you can get a tax-free cheeseburger, pair of shoes, whatever.” That could be prevented only by a massive enforcement bureaucracy, which ain’t gonna happen. This would lead to massive revenue shortfalls and massive budget deficits — and, rhetoric aside, as the GOP has demonstrated repeatedly since the days of Saint Regain, they really don’t care at all about deficits or government debt.
Tony G
@Tony G: An advantage (to the right-wing mind) of that inevitable widespread tax-evasion is that it can (and will) be very selectively prosecuted. A business owned by someone with the wrong skin color or wrong political views will be very stringently monitored, and arrests will be made if there are minor infractions. On the other hand, a business owned by the right type of person who proceeds with the right type of kickbacks will be able to evade sales taxes all day long every day.
Timill
@Soprano2: Freiheit rather than Freude?
https://www.udiscovermusic.com/classical-news/bernstein-beethoven-ode-to-freedom/
Tony G
@Craig: My wife is from Japan and apparently, somehow, a very populous, complex society is organized without street addresses. Somehow mail gets delivered and people find out how to get places. It’s baffling to me. There seems to be an aspect of Japanese culture in which people take pride in doing things that are difficult. The writing system, for example, consists of a large subset of the Chinese characters, mixed in with two different phonetic alphabets plus frequent use of the Roman alphabet. It’s wild.