retirees don't get "benefits" from Social Security. They get the money that was stolen from them with the promise that it would be returned to them with interest should they live long enough to collect it. Other recipients of aid from SSA should be moved to HHS, where welfare benefits are managed.

Retirees aren't breaking SSA. Not only is far more money coming in than going out to retirees, but the resources needed to manage that program is meager by government standards. It's not difficult to determine whether someone has reached retirement age.

The dumb part is that so many other "disenfranchised" have been added to SS benefits. While these people may indeed need financial help, USG already has a welfare program, loaded with "professionals" whose job is to determine whether applicants qualify for benefits. Running two separate programs simply duplicates the work, the amount of workers, and the amount of inevitable waste. Let Musk work on that.

At $65/day, which is pretty accurate for me at least, it will take 17 years for me to collect the principal that was stolen from me. Then I start collecting the interest that was supposed to have been compounding for over 50 years. There's no way that I will live long enough to collect all of that money. I wish they would simply dump a lump sum, principal and interest earned, on each retiree, but that's not how the Ponzi scheme works.

I sincerely doubt that Musk or Trump or anyone will go after retiree returns of principal and interest. My guess is that they will cut benefits for non-retirees and maybe clean out those who, like my college roommate who collected a monthly check from SSA despite being the son of a Greek shipping magnate, shouldn't be collecting money at all.

"now do: how many people have died as a result of US foreign funding."

Flatland.

according to the internet, which is never wrong, the last production car in the US with solely mechanical operation was the 1975 Chevy Vega. I still see one for sale occasionally.

according to the internet, which is never wrong, the last production car in the US with solely mechanical operation was the 1975 Chevy Vega. I still see one for sale occasionally.

Time is gonna take so much away

But there's a way that time can offer you a trade

Time is gonna take so much away

But there's a way that time can offer you a trade

You gotta do something that you can get nicer at

You gotta do something that you can get wiser at

You better do something that you can get better at

Cause that's the only thing that time will leave you with

Cause time is gonna take so much away

But there's a way that time can offer you a trade

It might be cabaret

It could be poetry

It might be trying to make a new happy family

It could be violin repair or chemistry

But if it's something that takes lots of time that's good

Cause time is gonna take so much away

But there's a way that time can offer you a trade

Because your looks are gonna leave you

And your city's gonna change too

And your shoes are gonna wear through

Yeah, time is gonna take so much away

But there's a way that you can offer time a trade

You gotta do something that you can get smarter at

You gotta do something you might just be a starter at

You better do something that you can get better at

Cause that's the thing that time will leave you with

And maybe that's why they call a trade a trade

Like when they say that you should go and learn a trade

The thing you do don't have to be to learn a trade

Just get something back from time for all it takes away

It could be many things

It could be anything

It could be expertise in Middle-Eastern travelling

Something to slowly sew to balance life's unravelling

You have no choice you have to pay times price

But you can use the price to buy you something nice

Something you can only buy with lots of time

So when you're old you'll blow some whippersnappers mind

It might be researching a book that takes you seven years

A book that helps to make the path we take to freedom clear

And when you're done you see it started with a good idea

One good idea could cost you thousands of your days

But it's just time that you'd be spending anyway

You have no choice, you have to pay times price

But you can use the price to buy you something nice

So I've decided recently

To try to trade more decently

shhh! NO! The quarter (and Frenchmen Street) are where the real action is! Stay there, tourists! There's cheap booze and all the terrible pizza and chicken wings that you can eat!

PS Never mind the guys with the automatic rifles and camouflage uniforms (in the middle of a completely urban environment). They're there to make it even MORE fun! :)

New Orleans still has some vestiges left. But the yuppies, Katrina and lockdowns wiped out a lot of it. We used to be proudly free of Starbucks, now they are everywhere. Bike lanes. No McDonald's (nor any other franchise restaurant) in my two mile radius, but there are plenty outside of it.

They clamped down on the Sunday open barbecues under the overpass. The Indians are mostly commercialized now. Anyone with a couple of thousand USD can have "an authentic second line parade" to promote their convention.

But it's still there. There are some that still just don't give a fuck. Thy're hard to find, but that's for a reason.

Sometimes it's just someone's back yard on a random Wednesday night. But it's still there. Maybe not forever. But I'm not leaving yet.

"our democracy" indeed. That's like when you ask your dog "where is your leash?" before taking a walk.

ah..snatch the pebble from my hand young grasshopper 👍

eMule! I remember using that 20 years ago after Napster and Limewire got kiboshed.

I think that you're missing something in your analogy.

What if those politicians and states started using eMule, flooding it with genuine looking files that allowed the state to track every IP that shares files in order to prosecute those people?

I know that this is slightly different than the current btc argument regarding government reserves, but it gets closer to the core argument regarding government involvement in anything. Governments never improve a situation.

As far as government reserves go, they are theft. Not just bitcoin, but bitcoin is the worst case since gold.

The neighborhood bullies, usually older kids or young adults, used to say "lemme hold that for you" - meaning that they were going to take your funds or whatever object (a toy, maybe some electronics, sneakers or a nice sweater) from you. Reserves are like that. The government takes wealth from the system for its own use and the proles will never see it again.

So the problem isn't bitcoin per se, but the government. As Ronald Reagan said: the scariest words in the world are: "we're the government and we're here to help you".

LOL. "I don't know who you're looking for, but I'm the only one here. Do y'all need to use the bathroom before you leave?"

A while back, someone here on nostr pleaded with us to understand that the Iranian people are not in agreement with the governementtthat rules them at all.

I replied that, as an American, I understand completely and hope that the world's subjugated populations may all agree that the overwhelming majority of us have no malice toward anyone and that we all would rather live our lives, earn our meager wages and raise our children as we see fit, without the interference of the ruling class.

There truly is only one war. The rulers v the ruled. The rulers know that they are horribly outnumbered and perform whatever evil is necessary to keep themselves from losing power. That's called "continuity of government", which really means that "the rulers will rule forever". It was nice to see that even in Iran there are people that realise that this is the only binary that there is: rulers v ruled.

Crazy. That's like funding Hamas, Al Queda and ISIS and then going to war against them.

Hey...wait a second.. 💡

"Someone check his citizenship."

#seesomethingsaynothing #orelse #merica

"Get out of here, Gandhi! Take your dot-head nonsense back to Punjab!"

"Americuh, baby!"

The main premise - that he who prints the money owns the world - is something that I have believed for some time. When we see "the Forbes 500", they list a bunch of people that have accumulated "money". They can buy a private island, or a fleet of Bugattis or a box of Oreos.

The people in power don't think in terms of money at all. They don't need it, they don't use it. They simply issue orders and those orders are executed. Sure, they may need to furnish trinkets to the order takers occasionally, but those are worthless on their face and can be produced siimply by mandating under order.

"on honey, the paper boy is here!"

"toss him some of those trinkets that he likes so much and send him on his way, dear."

Those not among the powerful actually own nothing. Your house? Gone by eminent domain, civil asset forfeiture, arson, DEW - who knows? If someone more powerful than you wants it, it's gone. Your "money"? It may as well be monopoly money. You can use it in the little game that you play, but the powerful own the game, the game pieces, the table that the board sits on, et cetera.

The sun will cool and go supernova.

gewurtztraminer. i'm not a fan of white wines nor of german wines in particular, but it's fun to watch people try to pronounce it.

give me a full bodied amarone at room temperature (not from a refrigeratior) please. it's also fun to watch people sip amarone and being wheezing..:)

they are holding auditions right now. best penis piano player wins.