Also, the ONLY means by which a person can amass such wealth are CRIMINAL. Which means unless you tax these fortunes out of existence? CRIMINALS WILL RULE YOU AND MAKE THEIR CRIMES LEGAL. That is ALSO absolutely crucial to internalize. All billionaires are criminals. All of them.
And again that's only AFTER we take into account the ridiculous amount of guns that's already out there, and that NEVER EVER FUCKING EVER will be controlled by any tech oligarch requiring these guns to be blockchained.
This just demonstrates that these people can't be taken seriously.
America is FUCKING RIDDLED with people who can just MAKE THEIR OWN GUNS. The blueprints are out there, and they FAR predate the internet. That was one of the reasons for things like the AK47 being so successful - it's a very easy (relatively) to build rifle.
OK, your oligarch goonsquad has guns that need blockchain activation. Meanwhile the peasant revolt has some guy with a lathe (doesn't even need to be a 3d printer) making non-blockchained AK 47 knockoffs or something. These people just don't live in the real world.
Someone else noted that he must've gotten that idea from Metal Gear Solid because holy fuck letting these dipshits engage with any literature at all was a mistake.
But also this proposition was already capital B Bullshit in the game. How does this solve the bajillion guns already in circulation?
LEGALLY IRRESISTIBLE power of force with zero accountability. Is the masked goon trying to kidnap you a federal agent? You can not know until you resist and get slammed with assault on an officer or not.
At this point I wonder if we will see them change the law where people without insurance just have to die because something something personal responsibility.
Also the state of the American healthcare system not frequently causing protests has been for years a thing that made me scratch my head.
In under-the-radar news: a GOP-aligned former election official just bought Dominion Voting. He wants to mirror trump’s election directives. His other company, KnowInk, has been tied to multiple voting failures. Now he controls the machinery & our votes. That should scare everyone.
"If Optimus pans out" my brother in Christ... Can I interest you in shares of this here bridge in New York City connecting Manhattan to Brooklyn? It is a DEAL of a lifetime you should act upon RIGHT THIS INSTANCE!
I keep saying this: the whole "We are a REPUBLIC, not a DEMOCRACY!" thing is fueled by people somehow thinking that "Democracy - Democratic Party - Libruls - Illegitimate => Democracy is bad! Republicans - Republican Party - Real Americans - Legitimate unlike the other guys => WE ARE A REPUBLIC!"
In German we have this term "realsatire" [ruh-ahl suh-tier-uh], which basically describes something real that is so absurd it might as well be a satire of the thing. And uh. Well...
Been off the beat for a hot minute, but the US has for decades housed training units for foreign Air Forces at US bases? Singapore has had a base in Arizona since 2001, and they train in Idaho sometimes.
So they'll build some garish new monstrosity (that will sink bc D.C. is a swamp...) where they'll move the Washington Monument ON TOP OF bc nothing in D.C. can be taller. Right? That WILL happen.
A billion dollars is the socio-political equivalent of a loose nuke, and we should work as ruthlessly and diligently to prevent the acquisition of the former as we do the latter.
“The problem with billionaires isn’t that they’re hoarding money that would otherwise pay for a Scandinavian social utopia. It’s that their money has become a source of wildly distorted political power that allows a few men with extremist views to wreak havoc on the rest of us.”
tThat’s the other part. There is a lot of stick (healthcare costs / insurance tied to work / state of labor rights) that is considerably worse than in peer nations. But there’s a good amount of carrot too. When the stick becomes (much!) worse yet while the carrot disappears? Gonna have a bad time.
I should clarify: By "Regime Change Levels Bad" I mean "so bad that it could induce people seeking regime change." Which is a level of bad that... I don't think anyone really WANTS to see, regardless of their attitudes towards this administration.
Ultimately this all again brings me back to the Bannon quote that keeps haunting me:
"I want to see babies starving in the streets of the United States, their bloated bellies there for everyone to see. If we get there, the American people will allow us to do ANYTHING."
As in there was a weird conspiracy theory that wasn't based in reality. And then people who bought into that became stupid rich and powerful. And then decided "hey the problem with that conspiracy theory was that *I* wasn't the one to decide who gets to live!"
And the big caveat here is that this is JUST an idle musing, I have no proof, I have no indications that this is a thing. It's just a thing I sometimes wonder. In the whole "every accusation is a confession" kinda vein.
Bear with me here. The UN Agenda 21/2030 conspiracy theory basically posited that. I sometimes wonder - again, bear with me! - if some of the right wingers and libertarians who bought into that conspiracy theory basically... Adopted something like that for themselves.
