You know you've got problems

[Gob]

When even Ozzy thinks your country is fucked...

When I ask why they’re coming home after so long in California, Sharon insists it’s nothing to do with Ozzy’s health. “I knew people would think that. It’s not. It’s just time. America has changed so drastically. It isn’t the United States of America at all. Nothing’s united about it. It’s a very weird place to live right now.”

The Ozzy version: “Everything’s fucking ridiculous there. I’m fed up with people getting killed every day. God knows how many people have been shot in school shootings. And there was that mass shooting in Vegas at that concert… It’s fucking crazy.

“And I don’t want to die in America. I don’t want to be buried in fucking Forest Lawn,” he says of the LA cemetery favoured by expired celebrities. “I’m English. I want to be back. But saying that, if my wife said we’ve got to go and live in Timbuktu, I’ll go.” Ozzy inhales deeply, gathers his vocal capabilities and concludes quietly. “But, no, it’s just time for me to come home.”


https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/ ... dApp_Other

[BoSoxGal]

Interesting spin in that article, there are a dozen from late winter in which they announce their departure from the USA due to the high taxes.

https://amp.tmz.com/2022/03/05/ozzy-sha ... igh-taxes/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/a ... -much.html

According to the Mirror, Ozzy said: 'We are leaving LA. We are a bit sad. But the tax is getting too much. I am sad because I really really like staying and living there.

On the move: Ozzy Osbourne, 73, says he is quitting Los Angeles and moving back to the UK because he pays too much tax in California (pictured with wife Sharon in 2020)
'If they do the taxes better then I may come back. I do not know.'

[MajGenl.Meade]

Well Gob, he's improved it by leaving.

[Gob]

Following your example?

[MajGenl.Meade]

Following your example?

Which one? England, USA or South Africa? Mum?

Could be three, at least

[Big RR]

Using Ozzy and his family as an example, as I recall, the maximum income tax rate is 47%; the maximum US federal and California income tax total 48%, which is pretty much a wash. In the US, we would add to tax social security (6.2/12.4% but capped at 137,000 income (a minuscule amount compared to what I think a wealthy person who might consider relocating makes) and an uncapped 1.5-3% medicare). For the very wealthy, pretty close to a 50% tax, higher than the UK, but not so much so. There are local taxes, but California's welcome stranger tax caps them and I'd bet they are not very high--pretty much a was, I'd bet. Sales taxes are pretty high, but then the UK has a VAT (20%) I believe (and don't even get me started on fuel taxes and fees for thing free in the US, like buying a TV), so UK and US taxation for a wealthy person bracket are roughly similar (and if any wanted to, they could move to a sales tax/no income tax state and save even more). I seriously doubt the tax differential is prompting this change.

Don't get me wrong, the UK gives citizens a lot more for their tax dollar (in healthcare, education, transportation...), but for wealhy people the tax rates are pretty similar. Maybe those moving can get some breaks rates for relocating?

concern for personal safety is quite a different thing, but how often do you hear of the wealth man being killed, vs people, even kids?

[BoSoxGal]

All I know is that there are dozens of articles online from March with the Osbournes decrying the taxes in the USA and citing that as their reason for decamping to their big mansion in the UK. At that time there had already been tons of high profile horrific mass shootings and they didn’t mention those in their many interviews. But Ozzy has Parkinson’s which includes dementia as a characteristic symptom so maybe he just forgot to mention it.

They are sickeningly wealthy, live in huge mansions and don’t shop for their own groceries nor any of the other day to day tasks that bring Americans into public spaces where they might encounter a mass shooting event. I hardly think they are living in fear of all the mass shootings and crime in Beverly Hills. Probably just saying whatever will make them hit above the fold of the Daily Mail this week, maybe Sharon was feeling irrelevant and needed a little ego feeding.

[Big RR]

maybe Sharon was feeling irrelevant and needed a little ego feeding.

That's the major driving force for any action of publicity whores like the Osbournes; anything to get them a mention in the press (how do you think they get "celebrities" (very small c) go into garbage shows like televised interventions). They have to remain relevant. I used to like hi with Black Sabbath; still have his albums.

[Gob]

I hardly think they are living in fear of all the mass shootings and crime in Beverly Hills. Probably just saying whatever will make them hit above the fold of the Daily Mail this week, maybe Sharon was feeling irrelevant and needed a little ego feeding.

Guardian.

[liberty]

This is a note to all who fear being shot in the United States. If you stay out of the wrong cities and neighborhoods in this country, your chances of being shot significantly decrease. As a military retiree in Louisiana, I have the right to carry a concealed firearm with nothing more than my ID card as proof of my right. But I don't care to; I don't feel the need. If I felt a need, I would bring my gun. But if I lived in Baton Rouge, New Orleans, or Shreveport, that would be a different story; those places are not part of Louisiana; they are third-world states.

[Big RR]

I've never been to Shreveport or Baton Rouge (OK, one time I drove through Baton Rouge, I think), but I have been to New Orleans many times--usually getting back to my room after 3:00 AM (more likely 4:00) and I never felt in danger or threatened or heard a gun fired (or even saw a gun drawn). And, FWIW, you'd never get food that good in "third world states". The same is true for many cities I have visited. However, I have felt very uncomfortable in areas where people openly carry guns, fearing that a simple thing like me getting a parking space ahead of them or lightly bumping them with my shopping cart could result in me being shot. Seeing how some people overreact at the least provocation, I don't think that fear is irrational.

[liberty]

I've never been to Shreveport or Baton Rouge (OK, one time I drove through Baton Rouge, I think), but I have been to New Orleans many times--usually getting back to my room after 3:00 AM (more likely 4:00) and I never felt in danger or threatened or heard a gun fired (or even saw a gun drawn). And, FWIW, you'd never get food that good in "third world states". The same is true for many cities I have visited. However, I have felt very uncomfortable in areas where people openly carry guns, fearing that a simple thing like me getting a parking space ahead of them or lightly bumping them with my shopping cart could result in me being shot. Seeing how some people overreact at the least provocation, I don't think that fear is irrational.

It appears people in New Orleans that disagree with you.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/new.

New Orleans mayor faces recall election petition
By
Juliegrace Brufke, Congressional Reporter

August 29, 2022 04:08 PM
A petition was filed calling for a recall election for New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell in the wake of a series of controversies.
The Friday petition, led by former city employee and ex-mayoral candidate Belden Batiste and Eileen Carter, cited a “failure to put New Orleans first and execute the responsibilities of the position.” Critics argued she has failed on matters of police staffing, tax collection, and French Quarter security, in addition to her rhetoric in support of a teenage boy who was convicted of carjacking five people .
Criticisms of the mayor have heightened due to a sharp uptick in violent crime in the city.

“The mayor, she should put the city of New Orleans first,” Batiste said at a press conference on Friday. “She has neglected her duties, and there’s a number of issues going on. For instance, look at crime, look at infrastructure. I don’t hate the mayor, but at the end, do your job.”
Cantrell has also come under fire for taking a $47,000 trip to the French Riviera, which the mayor argued allowed her to market the city abroad. Some raised concerns the travel was a misuse of official funds.

“When I go, I'm reinvesting in the people who get marketed, and no apologies surrounding that at all,” Cantrell said at a town hall on Tuesday, NOLA.com reported .

Fifty-three thousand signatures are required in the next 170-some days for the petition to be successful.
Cantrell won her last election with 65% of the vote.

[Big RR]

I don't follow the local politics, bu a mayoral recall petition hardly makes a city a "third world estate". As for the uptick in violent crime, without knowing the magnitude it is hard to comment, but crimes usually ebbs and flows in most areas. I'll admit my last trip there was in 2019 (before the covid pandemic) but a high crime rate has always been a charge levied at New Orleans, and I can only comment on my experience. Personaly, I have felt safer in New Orleans than in most similar size and larger cities.

[BoSoxGal]

I remember when I moved to DC for law school 25 years ago last week. The Friday night that ended orientation week I took the metro to silver spring for a dinner party with new friends - the partner of the hosting friend was a baker and served us homemade soup in bread bowls - very exotic for a rural Maine hick like me!

On the way to dinner, wine bottle in hand, I witnessed a fatal domestic violence shooting murder in front of Union Station - obviously a little bit traumatizing. Even before that though, I had been on high alert since I arrived - after dark I would run from where I’d parked my car to my row house apartment on Capitol Hill. Visiting a friend in Alexandria at an apartment complex I also ran from her door to my car in a state of heightened anxiety. It was a few weeks before I grasped that all the stories I’d heard over the years about crime in DC had failed to reveal the truth behind that crime - that if I was white and living on Cap Hill the most I was likely to experience in terms of crime was a break in of my car or apartment but even then odds were low. Most of the violent crime in DC was black on black in Anacostia and the working class fringes of the four quadrants, which were all well into gentrification by that time and much more so now.

I was beyond feeling nervous in DC by the time Halloween rolled around, and felt safe any and everywhere I went in that city the whole time I lived there. Ironically years later when I visited friends on my way to Arizona from Maine, my mountain bike was stolen off my vehicle - not in Anacostia where I spent the night with legal aid friends, but in tony NW DC where I parked for a few hours while visiting a BigLaw firm friend at her million dollar condo. My Anacostia friend told me, poor don’t steal from other poor - they steal from those they perceive to be wealthy. Just so happened I was legal aid but it served me right hanging out with BigLaw lol.

Random violent crime is still relatively rare, which is why it’s so shocking and disturbing. For a white woman in the USA, the odds are much greater that if she is ever assaulted or killed it will be by some man who once swore to love and cherish her forever.

[Burning Petard]

The Washington Examiner is not a particularly good source for news about Baton Rouge or New Orleans. I would give much more credence to their coverage of Poland

snailgate

[Econoline]

The Washington Examiner is not a particularly good source for news about Baton Rouge or New Orleans.

FTFY

[Big RR]

I grew up in Brooklyn and we had problems, especially gang problems. And once, when I was very young, I recall sitting on the front steps and watching bank robbers from down the street fighting with the pursuing cops--guns drawn and shots fired (I recall thinking it was like watching Superman on TV). But I can also recall some horrendous bar fights I witnessed in primarily rural areas, and a kid being beaten by a father/uncle (I don't recall which) in the suburbs. Violence is all around us and, as BSG says, random violent crimes are rare. I still recall taking the subway to the eye doctor (in Manhattan) by myself when I was 8 (about a 45 minute journey each way with a couple of switches of lines)--you learn how to avoid situations when you have them near you.

And, FWIW, I felt a lot safer in New Orleans than in many other cities I have been in; I recall walking to a hole in the wall restaurant in anot so nice area of town without any trouble or concerns.

[BoSoxGal]

The Washington Examiner is not a particularly good source for news about Baton Rouge or New Orleans.

FTFY

Where have you been? You need to cast your pearls more often, please!

[Sue U]

I agree with everything Big RR said about New Orleans. Last time I was there was right before Mardi Gras in 2020 -- just before the pandemic stopped the world. Got to see some early parades. It's a great town with great people and great nightlife, and I never had a problem there, even being out til the wee hours of the morning. Now, I did not roam the entire city, but I have walked all the neighborhoods along the river from the Garden District through the CBD and the Quarter up to Marigny, and a good bit of Mid-City as well, and never felt unsafe anywhere; in fact, I met some of the warmest, friendliest folks ever, in any city I've been to. (They're a chatty bunch in NOLA, and love to show off their town.) I would love to retire there, but climate change has pretty much taken it off my list. I'll just have to remain a visitor.

[Big RR]

I would love to retire there, but climate change has pretty much taken it off my list. I'll just have to remain a visitor.

I think my liver would also vote no.