iowagneiss

Gun bans next?

I think it's a reasonable assessment of the current situation. He wants/they want to put us in a situation where our military must or can be used to restore order. They want to normalize military use against US citizens.

Or use it as a product search engine, then go to the supplier or an alternate online store to buy the one you want. I don't have it on my phone but do go to it in browser occasionally for that.

That's my thought as well. A one day boycott like the "no shopping day" does literally nothing, but 40 days can reform habits. To the extent practicable, I'm doing all my shopping at Costco now. I generally eat a lot of the same things, so bulk quantities aren't that big of a deal to manage.

Sure was. After Pell Grant and whatnot, I only needed most of my subsidized loan to live on campus at a private four year college.

It feels weird to be old enough to watch us repeat that cycle but with more fascism this time. At least I learned to always live in fear and anxiety that everything could be lost in a moment, so now my emergency fund is decent.

I'm not an economist, but is this where we

1. Lower interest rates to "help the economy"

2. Normal people still can't afford things because we're in a recession

3. Normal people start losing their homes

4. Rich people have cheap loans to buy said homes due to interest rate drops

5. Rich people rent out new homes to normal people for more than they were paying in mortgage, after normal people rebound or figure out how to make it work with two families in the home

6. America is...great?

Oh we are. Can't really call ourselves "Iowa Nice" at this point. No one is trying harder to get 45's attention than Governor Reynolds, aka The Kim Reaper. We've got private school vouchers, we nuked our progressive tax brackets in favor of a flat tax, and we even started our own DOGE.

I'm a 40+ year old white guy who goes to events. I've never been singled out. And for what it's worth, when I got pulled over twice when I was in my early 20s (79 in a 50 (country road) and 52 in a 35 (speeding in a 45 and didn't make much effort to slow down as I entered the 35)), I only received written warnings. Never had to set foot out of the car.

I also went the wrong way on a one way at Indiana University at 3am leaving my girlfriend's. Didn't know my way around. I was pulled over. I hadn't been drinking but they also just believed me and didn't ask me to take any tests. They escorted me to the road I needed to be on to hit the interstate.

We're absolutely treated differently and it's bs.

The UK vs EU and the states vs the USA is not apples to apples. As I understand it though, we're actually approaching 20 US states requiring such verification. Iowa is trying to pass something similar. This is a trend across the country, which is why I generalized the USA.

https://www.ipvanish.com/blog/us-age-verification-laws/

I'm just spitballing here, but Medicare and Social Security are funded by their own tax. Military is therefore the largest expense funded by our regular federal income taxes, which is where Congress operates with discretion and chooses to prioritize that over things that help people.

I moved a couple states away from my family to minimize any interaction. It's not just politics. Their politics are, however, and indicator that they're not the type of people I want to associate with, so the extra distance facilitates less contact.

Of course, I moved to Iowa, which has since shifted from purplish to red. At least I'm on a blue city.

They'll ultimately just have to cut off the US Internet from the rest of the world, right? As long as we can access other countries with more freedom, we can enjoy that level of freedom on the Internet. Or am I not understanding how the Internet works (entirely possible)?