I think the USA has some of the best founding documents, but they are far from perfect. It has become my observation over the years that the main flaw with most nations founding documents is that they ignore human nature. That giving people power makes them want more power. It only took 11 years for the US Constitution to shatter when George Washington violently suppressed free trade and stole from war veterans by using the army to collect taxes during the Whisky Rebellion.

Think about who the founding fathers contemporaries would be. George Washington was the richest person in the country: Bill Gates/Elon Musk. Benjamin Franklin owned lots of newspapers and was considered a media mogul: Rupert Murdoch/Michel Bloomberg. John Hancock leveraged his family’s trade business to supply his retail stores with low cost goods: Sam Walton. I could go on and on. They all wanted the revolution in order to increase their wealth.

Wether it’s an Article IV convention of states, a peaceful revolution or a hot rebellion the majority of the American population, which is supported by the working class and controlled by the elite will eventually get a rude awakening. The elite sociopaths that run this country will just be taken out back and dealt with. I just hope it happens in my lifetime.

Idk about you, but I moved to the woods with my wife and my dog to grow my own food. I know it’s not for everyone and it takes a few years to get to the point I’m at. But I could live on a few hundred dollars fiat a week if I had to and most weeks I do. I trade what I grow with community members for what they grow and we eat quite well. My days are filled with work that produces things instead of sitting in front of a computer. We mostly live outside “society and government” and we’re happy.

My advice, find something you love to do, someone you love doing it with, fuck the rules, stack sats and be happy.

I know several fellow veterans that are on 100% disability and could absolutely work. One of them actually competes in strong man competitions. One day at the gym he was telling me how happy he was that he got his disability increased from 85% to 100%. He hasn’t filed a tax return in several years either BTW.

When I asked why he was taking disability when he obviously wasn’t broken the response was “if they are going to give it I’m going to take it”

Another example and another gym buddy who was even a roommate for a while: a male to female transgender person that was receiving 100% SSI disability because of their mental illness. Although, in this case, the person attributed their transgenderism/mental illness to brain damage from receiving strong chemotherapy during childhood leukemia. But I think anyone that can shoulder press 100 pound dumbbells should be able to do some kind of work.

IDK what to think. Lots of people like to call it end stage capitalism. But to me, it appears more like end stage democracy. If one looks back over the historical record: Greece, Rome, etc. once people gain the right to vote themselves benefits, without contributing to society, the empire eventually collapses.

The United States was not founded as a democracy, but rather a representative republic. Wherein, senators were not elected by popular vote, but rather the state legislature. This was in order to balance the two houses, regardless of population. That all changed in 1913 when senators became elected by popular vote.

I believe that a return to a more original form of voting rights, minus the gender and racial inequalities, would fix a lot with what’s wrong with the government, society, economy today. What if we only allow people with a positive net worth, even if it’s only one dollar, the right to vote?

I worked at Sony for a couple years after I got out of the Navy, and I understand exactly what you just said :-) that’s why I’ve been self-employed for so long… Lol.

If it was me in your position, I would start telling people one at a time, please don’t send me an email with a problem unless you also present me with a possible solution AND share it with everyone that it effects. Even by replying to emails with statements like “that’s a great idea/I understand your problem, why don’t you share it with so-and-so and give us a couple possible solutions.” Eventually they’ll start skipping the step of emailing you. You’ve also CYA if they do go over your head to the director.

Stop answering emails. Seriously. I’ve owned my own business for almost 25 years. I do reasonably little professional reading as I find most books on the topic of management or small business usually just consist of bragging by the authors and I hate wading through 10 chapters to find one or two that contain valuable information which applies to me. The two chapters of the book “the four hour work week” are the ones on delegation and email.

The rest of the book is pretty much garbage to me, but those two chapters really helped my business. When I started telling employees that I don’t check email very often they started solving all of those little problems that don’t require my input on their own.

Learn how to grow, at least a small portion, of your own food.

Any old school rap fans out there? #tooshort #whitehouse #cocane

Californias plan to ban the sale of gasoline powered vehicles starting in 2030 will fail. This is not an opinion. Using: ohms law, the formula for power and Teslas own published charging rates for the model three. Their smallest most efficient car. I calculated the power consumption then multiplied by Californians own published statistics of 1.8M vehicles sold per year as the normal replacement rate. Then I googled California’s total power generation capacity. Then I factored in the average miles driven per year driven by the average American. California would need to DOUBLE their power output in the first year just to keep up with the charging necessary to keep up with the replacement rate.

I don’t sell anything we raise for money. When you sell something for money there’s regulations and taxes and all kinds of other bullshit. We do a lot of trade and barter within the local community. For example, we get a lot of damaged fruits and vegetables the local produce stand can’t sell during the summer. That turns into pig food, and I give them a ham in the spring. A different neighbor gave me a discount on some mechanical work in exchange for supplying him with eggs for the rest of the summer. The goal is to get as far from money as possible.

IDK what it is about homesteading, I think I just enjoy manual labor and the outcomes. My wife gave me a Fitbit earlier this year so we could track my steps. She wanted to know how I don’t get fat because of how much I eat. An average day for me is about 15000 steps or seven miles which ends up burning almost 4000 calories and I love it.

“Holler Roast” It’s a well run micro-roaster here in Tennessee. #Hollerroast is owned by #NicoleSauce I’m a fan of her podcast #livingfreeintenneasee I support her podcast by buying her coffee. But I really like her coffee. I didn’t think roasting made much difference, but she’s a roasting artist! My favorite roast is called “Jack’s Blend” it’s a dark roasted Sumatra cooled with bourbon at the end of the roast. Here’s a link https://hollerroast.com

Good morning Nostr, I love #coffeechain so I thought I would share with y’all how I make my coffee.

Step 1: Grind my beans and start the coffee maker.

Step 2: Go feed the chickens, feed the pigs, then I move the rabbit tractors and make sure the bunnies have water. Next the dogs get their daily rations and clean water. Don’t forget to feed the fish in the aquaponics tank.

Step 3: Enjoy coffee while surveying the #homestead and scrolling Nostr.

#grownostr #selfreliance #permies #hollerroast

They will literally eat anything. I’ve been going down to the local pond, catching bluegills and feeding them whole to my pigs. It fills their belly for free and I “have to” go fishing 😀

I feel like my government can’t do anything right. They should be stacking those sats. At least wait for ETF approval or the having and a giant green candle.

Heck yeah, #beefinitiative Do you know if #texasslim has a Nostr pubkey I can follow?

Zapped from iPhone with auto update turned off. Thanks to your advice.

Never forget

I took a look at your profile and I think you are from Nigeria? Your English was so good in your original post I assumed you were a native speaker and from the U.S. I have some dear friends/neighbors that are Nigerian immigrants to the U.S. The corruption you speak of in your country has been explained to me in detail with various examples.

Creating equity for the people in your life is an example of well developed personal ethics. However, when it is mandated by a bloated bureaucracy of a government like we have here it’s just a way for government officials and civil servants to grift the taxpayers by laundering money to political donors. We have the same, if not worse corruption in our government. However, here laws have been passed to give the appearance of legality.

Believe me when I tell you that the answer is not more laws or bigger government, but rather an adoption of the Non-aggression principle, passing along good values to our children and being a strong member of your community.

A story I enjoy telling is how I became friends with the neighbors mentioned above. The wife was living on her own while her husband was in Nigeria. We live in dense, urban condominiums and we had seen each other several times, said good morning to each other as we passed on the sidewalk, but no meaningful conversations. One day, she knocked at my door with her new baby in one arm, and a bag of groceries in the other. She said. “ Can you please watch my baby for 10 minutes. I just need to bring groceries in and put them away. I’ve seen you with your kids and I think you might be a good person.” I was happy to oblige. I’m a white man in the United States, and I helped a black immigrant. But that’s not why I helped. The color of her skin, or her immigration status didn’t matter. I helped because a member of my community needed assistance. Also, I love babies. As a father of four I miss having babies around. I recommend reading Adam Smith’s “the wealth of nations. “ Which postulates that most human actions are derived from self interest. In this example, I had the opportunity to strengthen my community and spend time doing something I enjoy. Actions taken purely out of self interest, but with the side effect of equity and equality.

I think my point is, don’t depend on government to enforce rules that mandate equity. That only results in legalized corruption. But, rather live your life, with your own self interest in mind, in being a good moral person, equity and equality will naturally happen.

Don’t get me wrong. It a beautiful idea. However, in the real world application all that ends up happening is violent theft from the achievers and amplification of the worst traits of the underachievers. I consider myself a refugee from an equity system. I escaped California because I was tired of paying 30% to the state. 30% of a substantial income I worked my fingers to the bone for 25 years to develop and I couldn’t go the the beach because it was packed with aggressive panhandlers.

A statistic that quickly got buried was a study done a couple years ago which discovered 80% of the homeless in Southern California were intentionally homeless! The attitude was “The government takes care of my basic needs. Food stamps, medical, etc. Why would I go to work when I can sit on the beach and be high all day.”

IDK, maybe someday humanity will evolve to a point where the practical application of an equity system will work. But human nature can not be legislated. It’s kind of like communism. Communism is a beautiful idea. Communism works well in small applications such as a kibbutz or an intentional community. I know because I lived in an intentional community and remember it fondly. But when communism is applied to a nation state the greedy and power hungry rise to the top and the lazy leach off the working class.

I used to think like you. I donated my time working with homeless veterans. I voted to raise my own taxes so the homeless could be housed and the poor could have medical care. It’s partially my fault California is in its sad condition. When I admitted my mistakes on this matter I was shouted down and called the most vile names.

At the end of the day, after all of my experiences I have come to the conclusion that freedom is the only way. Freedom in the form of the smallest possible government and lowest possible taxes. There are many ways one can support a community without being directed to by government. After all, isn’t the desire to control others actions unethical?

BTW, thank you for the intelligent debate. Its refreshing to disagree with someone and not have it devolve into an argument or name calling.