top of the heap to third world status in one generation

[Klompen]

Don't you think that eventually the wealth-gap will so decimate the poor that they will rise up - as we have seen in France in the last days, but even on a grander scale - and this will lead to another revolution of sorts?

Or do you feel that its not quite bad enough just yet - and even if it is the media will go all out to subjugate any organized response totally aligned with their 'elite' masters - stifling any so-called 'free-press' there might be - and using every propaganda method available to them - so as to engineer any popular disturbance in their favour?

To actually take down the walls of Babylon - in this day and age - would be a far greater task than just organizing some modern-day Trojan Horse - or would it?

The aristocracy of pre-revolutionary France was not able to surveill the commoners through their phones. They weren't able to hack their wagons and cause them to drive out of control. They weren't able to beam propaganda directly into the homes of the populace. They weren't able to monitor people from the sky and kill them the same way. They weren't able to use machine-learning to predict people's behaviors and manipulate them with that information. They weren't able to build up an entire fuel and supply infrastructure and use control over it to dominate a large portion of the world.

Rising up now is harder than its ever been, and when AI gets more advanced and coupled with robotics, it will become impossible. I don't think people sufficiently understand how doomed we are if we don't fix things soon. Its hard for the people to fix things when they are such a big part of the problem though. The government may have designed the mechanisms of Big Brother, but it was the public that installed it in the form of smart phones and operating systems like Windows 10(which by default LOGS EVERY KEYSTROKE whether you submit it or not). Soon we'll have smart cars driving around on their own, recording audio and video of everything around them, logging faces and compiling movement data for everyone it sees(and they see in 360 degrees). The dumbest part about how machine learning algorithms are being installed to manipulate us is that most of it is being done to obtain ad revenue.

 

[White Beard]

This is the zero sum game mind set. You are essentially saying that because some one got rich, someone else got poor. That's not how it works. Look at the tax scheme in the U.S. The wealthiest pay close to half their income in taxes. I get all of my federal withholding back in my tax return.The child tax credit and earned income credit, is 6-8 times what my withholding is. My tax return adds around 10k to my income yearly. That didn't come from a poor person.

Mitt Romney is on the record as having paid 15% in 2011, I think. Uncertain about the year, the other is solid.

You miss the fact that the wealthy do not earn “income” as you and I know and understand it. Their money comes from rents, dividends, investments, bonds, favorable deals available only to the few who swing that kind of money, like the Waltons) along with entitlements in the form of tax cuts and “rebates” and exemptions unavailable to the people doing the actual producing, brining the skill and putting in the long hours, which are woven into the fabric of the nation within the last half-century (longer, really, but what a side-track THAT is...).

I assume you are going to quote some billionaire who claims he pays less than his secretary. I doubt that is true.

You’re welcome.

Ultimately that money has to come from someone, and it surely is not coming from me or you.

You’re absolutely right, that money must come from somewhere, but you’re wrong about where it’s coming from. You and me. That big tax cut last year? Where do you think the money for THAT is going to come from? That huge boost to the defense budget? The 49 trillion dollars in increased healthcare costs over the next ten years (if nothing changes, ie, Medicare for All and the bargaining power of the Fed)? You BET we’re paying for it and whoever tells you different is a liar.

The wealthy aren’t paying for it, they’re EARNING FROM IT.

I am all for reforming the tax system, and shrinking the size of the government. You won't change anything as long as the federal government is so large.

That’s been an article of faith among the “forget, hell!” crowd, but that dog just won’t hunt. It’s been bullshit for so long I’m surprised you bring it out to show people.

If the economy was designed to keep you down, you would not have running water, food, sewer, a home. I don't get how people who live in the most prosperous time in the history of the world, can say the things I see here. I guess I am just of a mind set of gratitude.

Really, you don’t think constantly rising prices on everything keep people down? Of course we have those things, and we pay for them, frequently we pay far more than they’re worth or than we can afford. We have to, well be arrested if we don’t. You don’t see it as the private taxation that it is? That’s right, you were on the poor-people-with-smartphones rag recently. Klompen is right: there are whole levels to this you clearly know nothing about. Sorry to be blunt.

Gratitude? Mitch McConnell came from Asshole, KY with nothing. He’s been in government literally his entire adult life. He’s a multimillionaire now, and he’s trying to overthrow the USA as we’ve always known it. GRATITUDE???

I guess maybe it's a generational issue.

Could be: sounds like I’m a generation ahead of you, it was my dad who came home from WW2.

I am sorry you are not as successful as you should be, Klompen. I am not saying you are ungrateful. I know struggle to brother.

I daresay none of us are as successful as we should be in light of our talents and interests and temperaments, but this *is* the capitalist ideal, to get rich at the expense of others, we are the others in this scheme of things, so our “share” of the expense as well as the labor is maximized, while the profits go to them ones who sit at the top.

 

[Gry]

Mitt Romney is on the record as having paid 15% in 2011, I think. Uncertain about the year, the other is solid.

You miss the fact that the wealthy do not earn “income” as you and I know and understand it. Their money comes from rents, dividends, investments, bonds, favorable deals available only to the few who swing that kind of money, like the Waltons) along with entitlements in the form of tax cuts and “rebates” and exemptions unavailable to the people doing the actual producing, brining the skill and putting in the long hours, which are woven into the fabric of the nation within the last half-century (longer, really, but what a side-track THAT is...).


You’re welcome.


You’re absolutely right, that money must come from somewhere, but you’re wrong about where it’s coming from. You and me. That big tax cut last year? Where do you think the money for THAT is going to come from? That huge boost to the defense budget? The 49 trillion dollars in increased healthcare costs over the next ten years (if nothing changes, ie, Medicare for All and the bargaining power of the Fed)? You BET we’re paying for it and whoever tells you different is a liar.

The wealthy aren’t paying for it, they’re EARNING FROM IT.


That’s been an article of faith among the “forget, hell!” crowd, but that dog just won’t hunt. It’s been bullshit for so long I’m surprised you bring it out to show people.


Really, you don’t think constantly rising prices on everything keep people down? Of course we have those things, and we pay for them, frequently we pay far more than they’re worth or than we can afford. We have to, well be arrested if we don’t. You don’t see it as the private taxation that it is? That’s right, you were on the poor-people-with-smartphones rag recently. Klompen is right: there are whole levels to this you clearly know nothing about. Sorry to be blunt.

Gratitude? Mitch McConnell came from Asshole, KY with nothing. He’s been in government literally his entire adult life. He’s a multimillionaire now, and he’s trying to overthrow the USA as we’ve always known it. GRATITUDE???


Could be: sounds like I’m a generation ahead of you, it was my dad who came home from WW2.


I daresay none of us are as successful as we should be in light of our talents and interests and temperaments, but this *is* the capitalist ideal, to get rich at the expense of others, we are the others in this scheme of things, so our “share” of the expense as well as the labor is maximized, while the profits go to them ones who sit at the top.

Mavis Staples " Will the Circle Be Unbroken

[youtubeif]BHVBH_e7kmM[/youtubeif]

 

[Gry]

After Smedley said no.

After Smedley said no.

Men who make such offers do not like, nor accept the concept of being told no.

Alternate arrangements would have been made from the inception.

 

[White Beard]

Their game plan, so far, seems pretty sound: gin up opposition by the citizenry against the IDEA of voters using their elected officials to ensure access to constitutional guarantees, and using that opposition to erode those guarantees, restricting them to the white wealthy class...all the while going on about “personal liberty” and “government overreach” and “personal responsibility”, and interfering with every effort to prevent the government - and business - from acting like it’s 1900 again.

The key is to increase the sense of butthurt and unfairness on the part of pale voters toward less-pale voters and not toward the accountability of the “opinion-makers, the movers and shakers” for their efforts to keep the worker-bees working and the disposable people disposable.

The way to do that has obviously been to establish a propaganda channel to combat the *actual* media, and it is the disgrace that launched a thousand gripes: “news” (opinion) that grinds the axe on-camera and playing directly to everyone who feels out of touch, everyone who misses shows like Bonanza, everyone who falls for the notion that no one appreciates patriots and patriotism anymore, everyone who was raised believing that things would be better if they were like they once were, “back then”, everyone who feels weird about their time in combat: make ‘em feel brave, make ‘em feel smart, make ‘em feel done wrong by, make ‘em know who to blame, and who to vote for.

Eventually, make’em believe their fellow-citizens are the enemy, and the struggle is life or death.

The 2018 election result were a huge set back to the plan: not only did they lose the House, they lost governorships and state legislatures. They need those state-level resources in order to ratify *and sign* their new constitution, and they could have won enough state houses to call a constitutional convention in’18. They didn’t, so we’ve dodged that bullet for the next two national campaigns at least.

Making things worse for them is that they’ve stumbled badly by showing their hand pretty flagrantly, in Kansas, the Carolinas, Michigan, Wisconsin.... The administration is in deep doo-doo, which threatens the whole administration, not just the game plan - a RICO takedown of the “Republican Party” and its donor networks is not at all impossible.

After the GOP is run out of DC (assuming that 2020 is the paddling they deserve), there will likely be broad support to make sure no party can pull shit like this again, so who knows, something might happen.

If not, that’s pretty much it for the USA, although they might keep the branding in place, they’re also just as likely to make themselves royalty and therefore free to farm the rest of us.

HRC, sit ‘20 out. You’re done.

 

[St. Phatty]

- The US has the highest prevalence of obesity in the developed world.

Which state has the most heavy-set people ?

My older brother told me he thought, Kansas City.

 

[armedoldhippy]

Which state has the most heavy-set people ?

My older brother told me he thought, Kansas City.

Kansas City is a state now? lol, just kidding. i think Tennessee has to be a candidate, you ought to see the walruses floundering around here...

 

[Elmer Bud]

The aristocracy of pre-revolutionary France was not able to surveill the commoners through their phones. They weren't able to hack their wagons and cause them to drive out of control. They weren't able to beam propaganda directly into the homes of the populace. They weren't able to monitor people from the sky and kill them the same way. They weren't able to use machine-learning to predict people's behaviors and manipulate them with that information. They weren't able to build up an entire fuel and supply infrastructure and use control over it to dominate a large portion of the world.

Rising up now is harder than its ever been, and when AI gets more advanced and coupled with robotics, it will become impossible. I don't think people sufficiently understand how doomed we are if we don't fix things soon. Its hard for the people to fix things when they are such a big part of the problem though. The government may have designed the mechanisms of Big Brother, but it was the public that installed it in the form of smart phones and operating systems like Windows 10(which by default LOGS EVERY KEYSTROKE whether you submit it or not). Soon we'll have smart cars driving around on their own, recording audio and video of everything around them, logging faces and compiling movement data for everyone it sees(and they see in 360 degrees). The dumbest part about how machine learning algorithms are being installed to manipulate us is that most of it is being done to obtain ad revenue.

G `day K

Whenever I hear about mass surveillance I shrug my shoulders .
More humans involved in analyzing it .

=

More errors and opportunities for corruption .

Just look at US military fails in the 20th century ...

Thanks for sharin

EB .

 

[Sertaiz]

which will further the push for 1wg, and full AI

 

[Lost in a SOG]

Ill add a bullet:

• "In October 2013, the incarceration rate of the United States of America was the highest in the world, at*716*per*100,000*of the national population." Wikipedia (2018)

Even North Korea doesnt lock as many people up as "the land of the free" lol

I still cant believe 1/2 your GDP goes to the army when it was basically imperialism and fascism that chased so many of your antecedents from europe in the first place. Isnt that a fairly sick irony.. That as a barely 200 year old country you have your shit together enough to stumble round the planet waging perpetual war and misery, blindly and effectively just a proxy securing other peoples countries resources for the 1%, and yet cant have a discussion about the blatent appartite/rascist nature that sees such a disproportionate amount of young black men in jails. I suppose its the army or jail for a lot of people growing up in places with no opportunity.

From humble beginnings just trying to keep the murderous crown corporation out of your biz, what a cruel, cold and over taxed, Imperialist country you have become there. Lol no wonder the UK and US feel more similar everyday. You would hardly think there ever was a war of Independance with our "special relationshit" today where we cross infect each other with bad ideas.. like philosophical STDs..

Seems pretty obvious America is subsidised into existance because the bankers are using y'all and Israel, the UK/france/germany and saudi arabia plus many other crown proxys around the world to resculpt the planet how they want.

Once the Doller is no longer the global reserve currency and it goes back to gold or Google tokens or whatever that's it for the paper boat that is the US economy as it appears on the books currently.

Most of the rest of the world see Americans as loud, disney/hollywood/Military industrial complex programmed sociopaths.

 

[Sertaiz]

I think a lot of the civilized world is pretty messed up, as well al the us of a. it just has prominent part to play in this play, being the dragons head. but i agree with you on a whole lot, power relationships, etc. i just believe that there is a truth more basic, more painful and scary than that its just bankers. because bankers are just people and should only want human things and bankers already have enough money.....so it doesnt add up. they are there but something else is there too.

 

[xavier7995]

Which state has the most heavy-set people ?

My older brother told me he thought, Kansas City.

As a former resident....yeah thats accurate. I did see the inlaws butter their bacon in ohio once though so things are tough all over. Nobody walks anywhere in the midwest so its a tossup. ***angrily waves around an empty mountain dew bottle full of oxy like its a maraca*** #merica

Edit: hey white beard....i heard like 90% of the poor have refrigerators....https://www.mediamatters.org/resear...-ownership-of-appliances-to-downplay-h/148574

 

[St. Phatty]

As a former resident....yeah thats accurate. I did see the inlaws butter their bacon in ohio once though so things are tough all over.

Walking uphill is so good for a person !

If I was governor of some state, I'd make people walk 3 miles uphill every day, to collect some of the state welfare benefits.

 

[Gry]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]***angrily waves around an empty mountain dew bottle full of oxy like its a maraca*** #merica[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]An amazing of feat[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]of vocabulary ![/FONT]

 

[Ignignokt]

As a former resident....yeah thats accurate. I did see the inlaws butter their bacon in ohio once though so things are tough all over. Nobody walks anywhere in the midwest so its a tossup. ***angrily waves around an empty mountain dew bottle full of oxy like its a maraca*** #merica

Edit: hey white beard....i heard like 90% of the poor have refrigerators....https://www.mediamatters.org/resear...-ownership-of-appliances-to-downplay-h/148574

Buttering their bacon

 

[White Beard]

Edit: hey white beard....i heard like 90% of the poor have refrigerators....https://www.mediamatters.org/resear...-ownership-of-appliances-to-downplay-h/148574

Refrigerators are pretty easy to get second-hand, and cheap, too. Plus, working appliances are in almost all rentals, so....
Poor people have SHOES, too...mostly...and electric bills, need bus fare, need to walk a mile to the bus in the rain, but, we aren’t talking about the poor, really, are we?

 

[Sertaiz]

third world status refers to poor people, i figure

 

[Gry]

Refrigerators, tvs, computers available free as homeless numbers increase.

 

[TychoMonolyth]

These are all 1st world problems.

How many of you come home with groceries and say "My fridge is full, where am I going to put all this food." Then you proceed to throw old stuff out.

 

[Gypsy Nirvana]

Yes - I have seen and known such wasteful people - and I tell them - that what they are throwing away could feed a family who really need it for a week or more - so they say 'OK - here it is, you take it to them!'


There is word that ONE THIRD yes that's 33% of all food in the western world is wasted - thrown away - this is a major crime.

These are all 1st world problems.

How many of you come home with groceries and say "My fridge is full, where am I going to put all this food." Then you proceed to throw old stuff out.