Agree. Many of the so called "Founding fathers" in the USA said that the government should be afraid of the people, not the other way around. Those who serve a term should return to normal life, without any privileges that exceed those of any other human, once the term ends. If they knew that as soon as they retrun home, they would have to face those whom they ruled as equals, most would absoultely fear the people when they served.

yes.

Indeed. By Beto's logic: Why should YOU (the government) be allowed to have a bazooka or a tank?

LOL I guess that government is so addicted to "information gathering" that now, like an addict, mainlining is the only option left.

What's the slogan? "Google VPN: Just give up."?

Exactly. The vision of "social media" should be a giant (searchable, filterable) blank wall to tag, with all of the users being the graffiti artists. No handles, no sign-ins, no guarantee of truth, but those willing to explore and verify will be provided with "the entire library of the world" at their disposal. Post whatever you want. Upload everything that you can find. It's not about clout, it's about inforomation sharing.

Sometimes I wonder if the creator looks at us like a disappointed parent, having given the child some fantastic gift, and then watching the child be fascinated with box rather than the contents. :)

I'm going to be a wet blanket here. I love music. I spent my tesn and college years spending so much money on vinyl that the used record guy used to give me his roll of cash to tend to the store while he took a leak.

I have almost a full year's worth of listening on my drives at home. But, entertainment is a want, not a need. I hardly listen to my music anymore, much less the pablum that passes for popular music now. My entertainment budget, as paltry as it is, is spent on travel or meals and drinks with friends.

I love music, but I don't value it as much as I do travel or being with friends. I'm not willing to shell out even one dollar for a concert ticket or even an mp3 stream. I still toss money into the musician's jar if I'm at a venue where music is being played live or even on the street if the busker seems authentic to me.

But, like teachers, the reason that it's difficult to get paid for certain forms of work is simply that society doesn't value that form of work. Athletes get paid because people love beer and expensive new cars. Some entertainers also get paid, but usually the ones spending the money are either those who didn't have tto work for it (kids) or people who haven't discovered other ways to spend their money.

I'm not saying that it's fair or just or whatever, but that's the way it is.

Go a little further back. Creation of the USA Federal Reserve Bank in 1913, also first USA income tax. Many powerful opponents of creating the Federal Reserve bank died on the Titanic. Coincidence, I guess?

and corporations.

"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"

Greg Lewis - "Time Trades"

Your journey is similar to my own. Raised Catholic, disillusioned with the hierarchy and idol worship and greed of the church, leading me to falsely conclude that God does not exist.

I sought out to re-read the Bible, but was gratefully advised to read the Gospels first rather than start with Genesis. The words of Jesus are the absolute good. Our existence here isn't so complicated as we make it. Jesus gives us the advice we need to avoid strife, and gave us the only prayer that we need - to be thankful for the bountiful resources that we have in this plane of existence, to be forgiven for our imperfections while not judging one another for theirs, and most importantly, to be delivered from, yet notably not to eliminate, evil.

I'm not sure that Jesus would concern Himself with the coin of this plane of existence, but He would certainly continue to remind us that nothing physical in this plane is greater than what has been provided to us, especially the gift of free will.

The work of the politicians and civil servants is to keep the proles, of which they are a part, from threatening those in power. They are unwitting (?) traitors to their own selves.

literally lol

The revelation that government is simply a tool of those who wish to remain in power forever shouldn't be surprising, although clearly attempts to pretend otherwise are being abandoned. Israel genociding an entire nation, UK is imprisoning tweeters, US is extraditing people without anything resembling due process to foreign prisons, populist candidates for leadership are being imprisoned or nullified in France, Romania and all across Africa, elections being suspended in Ukraine - the mask and gloves are off. Clearly those in power are confident enough now to openly ignore any "rule of law" - not that there was ever any such rule, but now they don't even pretend - including even demonstrating openly that the government itself is simply a charade.

The clampdown is here and the proles are both the victims and the willing servitors of same. A small group of those who would remain in power forever could not possibly do so against 7 billion or more proles without the consent and support of a great many of them. Getting the proles to raise arms against one another, imprison one another for crimes against those would would remain in power forever, collect and extort taxes from same (not that those in power need money, but government uses poverty to keep the proles under its control) et cetera, is how a tenuously small group (say under a million or so, with an inner circle of less than a few thousand) reigns over billions of proles. Like Trump said, "we're gonna build a wall and make them pay for it". The proles are both building and paying for their own forced servitude and eventual demise. The only way to end the nightmare is to wake up.

um. oops.

The USA had its chance. Twice. And before that, Perot, which is as close as the country got to breaking free of the reins of those in power. Each time, the proletariat failed. Now that avenue has been removed. Anyone outside of the "establishment" will never even reach the ballot, much less take leadership, ever again.

There is a reason why the second amendment is among the shortest in terms of number of words. No fucking around.

um...don't the voters already have a way to remove pols that have been in office too long? why would they need to vote for something that they already have?

Maybe the voters need a term limit. :)

Google "gold standard". For bonus points, google "Bretton Woods", which led to the break from the gold standard.

Google "gold standard". For bonus points, google "Bretton Woods", which led to the break from the gold standard.

Thing is, they don't even plan to use REAL ID for very long. See article below. Biometric scans will replace all IDs quite soon. The whole REAL ID thing is just to inconvenience us in the meantime.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2023/01/31/clear-customs-fast-airports/