Well, they could still have ineffective racial covenants recorded - most places do. But that paragraph is more likely referring to the enduring legacy of covenants.
WAIT. There are still racial covenants?!? This century
Unenforceable, surely. At least until the next SCOTUS decision.
Happy birthday reprobates! You're doing so well!
The growing dominance of the US within the Atlantic alliance is evident in virtually every area of national strength. On the crudest GDP measure, the US has dramatically outgrown the EU and the United Kingdom combined over the last 15 years. In 2008 the EU's economy was somewhat larger than America's: $16.2 trillion versus $14.7 trillion. By 2022, the US economy had grown to $25 trillion, whereas the EU and the UK together had only reached $19.8 trillion. America's economy is now nearly one-third bigger. It is more than 50 per cent larger than the EU without the UK.
I guess we get another American century. Too bad China, sucks to be you (it's all Xi's fault).
The worst century in the world except for all the other centuries.
On the crudest GDP measure, the US has dramatically outgrown the EU and the United Kingdom combined over the last 15 years.
That's probably me. I've been working really hard.
A 1955 attempt at a covenant not explicitly mentioning race:
...to restrict the use and occupancy of said property to persons of a cultural status conducive to the creation and stimulation of congenial friendship and fraternization between and among the occupants of said property...
A California law was passed in 2021 requiring county recorders to find and eliminate the illegal covenants, but apparently those like this may not be covered by the law.
7: could you use that to prevent a Trumper from moving in next door?
It's not every day that a representative of the US government questions my citizenship or my relationship with the mother of my children. Particularly when she and one of the children are standing right there.
Oh, I'm so terribly sorry. It's not questioning, it's requiring more documents to "prove" those two things.
Very, very special feeling. Happy day after the fourth of July.
Doug! How's the new -old debt-brake-budget looking to you? I thought the pandemic was supposed to have shown the state was all hollowed out and decrepit and stuff? So now they're cutting health spending by a third?
mc!
Berlin city budget, you mean? The new -- and to me not very legitimate -- mayor is getting pretty heavy pushback having come out with his first priorities as stopping any new bike lanes and deep cuts in one of the neediest districts in the city. With the first, he's offended bourgie but not wealthy voters (it's me, hi, I'm the demographic, it's me), and with the second, he's offended the in-town parts of the district that vote green-red-red at a 3-1 margin over rightish to rightist parties. So we'll see where that goes.
The green core shown on this map really is very striking:
https://interaktiv.morgenpost.de/berlin-wahl-2023-umfragen-ergebnisse-wahlkarte/
But I'm a little out of touch for all sorts of mundane reasons -- where is health spending getting cut by a third?
In general, though, the pandemic was the rainy day for which had been saved. I think Germany's response overall was quite good, and would be even better if there hadn't been a nearby war tossed into the mix on top of it.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/german-cabinet-approves-first-draft-2024-budget-2023-07-05/
https://on.ft.com/3ri9VaJ
I got a message on Tuesday from an American friend (not someone here) wishing me a Happy Fourth of July. Not a group text - to me specifically. I politely replied that we celebrated it on a different day over here and she said ah yes, she'd forgotten, it had been a while since she'd lived here.
Two degrees and a TS/SCI clearance, she's got.
"Lindner said the budget showed Germany wanted to "remain the gold standard of public finance". It was also a "signal to our partners and friends in Europe" that Germany would continue to be an "anchor of stability in the EU".
The budget comes with the clouds darkening over the German economy. The country is in recession, inflation remains high, business sentiment is souring and unemployment is on the rise. Some economists are describing Germany as the sick man of Europe -- a sobriquet last applied to it in the early 2000s."
Two more lost decades!
The Denver Airport has the most airy bathrooms with the best view, robots that charge $4.50 for a cup of coffee, and still no weed for sale.
I thought the breakfast was expensive, but then I learned it came with tatertots. So I'm happy about that.
The girl on heelies has the airport thing nailed.
I'm reading The Black Sea again. I'm on the part about Cossacks. Which seems to have more current relevance than I would have figured even a few years ago.
Any airport in the mountain west feels like it could be the Senator Wide Stance one, but googling says that was at Minneapolis St. Paul (Only had to type "Senator Wi" to get it to pop up, all these years later).
21: Yes, because of how much coffee costs.
22: If you aren't interested in sex, those restrooms aren't remarkable in any way.
23.2: They're only interesting from the outside: https://www.denverpost.com/2022/06/30/denver-airport-restroom-windows/
In the men's room, there's no windows anywhere you should have your penis out. Just the sinks.
How rude is it to yell, "Stop the fucking upsell, other people are waiting" at the Avis counter.
Anyway, that's not the satanic part. https://gizmodo.com/proof-that-denver-airport-is-one-of-the-most-evil-place-5807582
15 You should have just thanked her: "Independence days are one of our greatest exports."
27 to 26.
20: Circassian flags are apparently showing up now and again, all sorts of things from Russia's imperial past are more relevant than they had been in a long time.
16: We know Germans are Central Europeans because of the general lack of optimism. On the one hand, previous tightfistedness allowed for generous funding during the pandemic; the truly shocking levels of layoffs and unemployment that the States had were unknown here. That has sharply rebounded, but at the time that was not guaranteed, and I don't recall many (any?) US people saying, Sure, unemployment is starting to look like 1932 but it'll all bounce back in a little more than a year.
The fiscal floodgates that Germany opened were always going to close again sooner or later. Germany (and Europe more generally) has also weaned itself from Russian gas imports astonishingly fast, and at lower cost that expected. I'm not 100% sure I've understood the correspondence correctly, but back in '22 the rental company warned me that utilities my exceed the previous year's costs by as much as €1100 and now it seems the bill is just over €200.
On the other hand, inflation has surely bitten, and the rate on small things has been shocking. Package of crackers is up 50%. Corn chips that I sometimes bought from the store brand of the grocery I don't usually go to were a great deal at €0.99; yesterday the same package was €1.49, and definitely less great a deal. Jumps of 20% to 50% on items like that add up across a family's weekly grocery budget. And none of the wage settlements (or indeed my own situation) are gaining 20% or more for working people.
Apparently, there's a titular see for the diocese of Kearney, Nebraska. Which I was not expecting to learn today.
15: my kid's canadian residence visa was approved on july 4, i hope whoever signed off on it in the canadian bureaucracy enjoyed that!
Did he decide on Toronto for grad school then?
Apparently, someone built a museum for the westward trails on a bridge over I-80.
I still can't believe that when I went to grad school in Canada they told me if I entered through a major land border station they would process my student visa on the spot, no appointment necessary, and then it turned out to be true and very easy when I drove there. This was back in 2009.
I had tried to schedule something at the consulate in LA and their voicemail message consisted of someone saying that you should use the website, followed by a very slow reading of each character in the URL.
34: yes! & as of this morning he has a promising lead on housing ...
I am, for the first time, looking at my beans.
It's looking like a good year for beans. They are soy.
37: I'd give you sage advice from Newt's Toronto housing experience, but it's all been miserable -- he spent the last year living in a windowless basement with a ceiling too low for him to stand up in.