QuoteThe whole idea that a country can claim dominion over you and force you to pay them money to reject that ownership is disgusting.

Things have been worse.  Moses Grandy, born enslaved in North Carolina, purchased his freedom, only for his enslaver to take the money and sell him anyway. He was forced to purchase his own freedom a second time.

A person should be able to leave for free, but someone like Elon should not get to take all the money he earned here with him.  But my thoughts about this do not matter.

I was unaware of this change in the law.  Back when my dad was an expat, he did not have to pay FSoA taxes.  I was also unaware of the requirement that before renouncing, you have to prove you are a citizen of some other country.  Plus, to renounce cost MONEY.  This makes it effectively impossible for poor people to renounce their citizenship.  Thus, if the FSoA goes to war and you are drafted, you are FORCED to participate, unless you are "granted" Conscientious Objector status.

The whole idea that a country can claim dominion over you and force you to pay them money to reject that ownership is disgusting.  You think Slavery & Serfdom ended, this is a "Free" country?  Think again.  You are a slave of the folks who control the FSoA goobermint, the Billionaires.  You don't even have to be living here, just accidentally born here or have an Amerikan parent who before you were born left the country.

Unfuckingbeleivable.

RE

Quote from: RE on Jun 10, 2026, 08:59 PMBut the ceasefire is still holding! 🙄

RE

Your contention that we do not have dumb people here may be correct, because what Trump is doing is so transparent that only a fool could not see it.  From which I conclude we have no shortage of fools.  The bar is low.

By all accounts Trump should be political toast by now.  But by making war Trump buys time against accountability.  The last thing Trump wants now is peace.  Trump wants lots of death.  War gives Trump the power he needs to enthrone himself.  It keeps his haters at bay.

Trump's strategy functions by treating geopolitical conflict as a theater of perception rather than a negotiation of interests. By initiating provocations to induce ceasefire violations, Trump then immediately frames the inevitable response as "aggression." Forcing a binary choice onto a public with a limited attention span.

The media cycle, in thrall with the Trump reality, hides the "who started this" reality, allowing Trumps loyal base of cretins to claim moral high ground.  Fear and profit working together makes established media compliant.  They kiss Trump ass.

The Trump art of the deal is nothing more than "gaslighting" refined to an art form. Shifting between being combatant and peacemaker, Trump creates a disorienting environment where the truth is obscured by the sheer rapidity of events Trump now forces on us.


Trump nods out, but he still keeps his crazy horses running.  Trump can't let them stop or his haters catch up.  There is no rest for the wicked.

But the ceasefire is still holding! 🙄

RE

Arab sources have reported that several heavy explosions were heard in Bahrain following the Iranian missile attack.

So far, local sources have reported that 16 explosions were heard in the Persian Gulf Arab country.

US bases in Kuwait have also been targeted and warning sirens have sounded. Unofficial sources say that the base of the American terrorist forces in the Al-Jahra region in Kuwait has been targeted. The country's army general staff has also reported that defense systems were trying to counter Iranian missiles and drones.

In Jordan, the American base Al-Azraq in the east of the country was also targeted by Iranian attacks, and warning sirens sounded and defense systems deployed at the base were fired to counter Iranian missiles.



"This is the response to the Americans' boldness in the region, God willing."

The warning came after the US terrorist military carried out a fresh act of aggression against Iran, targeting multiple cities in southern Iran.

In response, Iran's top military command announced the complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital chokepoint through which roughly one-fifth of global petroleum passes.

In a separate statement, the IRGC Navy warned that any vessel approaching the strategic waterway would face decisive action.

It further warned all oil tankers and commercial vessels currently operating in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman not to leave their anchorages.

Meanwhile, in response to the latest aggression, IRGC aerospace and naval divisions carried out coordinated attacks on 18 American military targets across the region.

Quote from: TDoS on Jun 10, 2026, 06:08 PMNonsense. That is just your ego speaking. You are on the high side of average, but you aren't the only one with functioning neurons at a level beyond that of Joe Average. And then some. I'll include even K-Dog in here on general principles based on nothing more than my personal experience dealing with EE's.

I never claimed to be the only one with functional synapses.  Nor is the precise percentage of stupid  people important.  Relative to me, it's a lot higher than 90%.😁  Relative to you, it might be 70%. lol. The salient point is my experience has been that stupid people are randomly distributed between drug users and non-users.  I encounter them in equal frequency regardless of their choice.  Here, we are all smart, most of us are drug users of one sort or another.  AFAIK, you are the only one who abstains from both drugs and alcohol.  This tells us nothing about stupid people, since none are represented here.

RE

QuoteI'll include even K-Dog in here on general principles.

That's big of you, would you like thanks?  If you want thanks keep trying.

Smart people will experiment with mind altering substances.  Smart people however will not continue to do so after the novelty fades.  Smart people know there is no 'there' there after initially experiencing the altered mind perspective.  It becomes an intense nothingburger in a way.

There are lessons to be learned by the mind altering experience, but the truth is there is really not much there to learn after you break on through to the other side.  A novice learns that perceptions can't be counted on.  Perhaps you learn to beware of absolute truth, truth is indeed out there, but that does not mean you have the ability to know it.  It may induce humility in the right person.  Not to be confused with the person who needs it. 

That is a valuable lesson which substances can indeed induce.  You learn that you are not the center of the universe.  That is a good thing.  There are a handful of very profound insights which may be revealed to an altered mind.  But seeds do not grow on barren ground, and the lessons depend on the novelty, which is soon gone. 

Continued drug use embraces narcissism.  It is high on the self-indulgence list.  It is as 'high' on it as you can get.  Pun intended.  Some lessons once learned should not need repetition.

An altered mind can be a useful pit stop, but it is not a vocation.

People without ambition will not agree.

Quote from: RE on Jun 09, 2026, 07:11 PM

Quote from: TDoS on Jun 09, 2026, 03:28 PMYou know what a Venn diagram is....want to bet an overlap of 70% between stupid and drug users wouldn't be a surprise?

It's probably higher than that.  Probably 90% of people who take drugs are stupid.

Well hot damn. We actually can agree on something. I say we start a clock, using a calendar most likely, and see what the frequency of it happening might be. A year? A decade? Who knows!

Quote from: RESo are 90% of the people who don't take drugs.

Nonsense. That is just your ego speaking. You are on the high side of average, but you aren't the only one with functioning neurons at a level beyond that of Joe Average. And then some. I'll include even K-Dog in here on general principles based on nothing more than my personal experience dealing with EE's.

Quote from: REBeing of average intelligence is still pretty fucking stupid. 

To folks on the high side of the distribution, sure it looks that way. And those of us on that high side find other ways to differentiate ourselves from even that herd. I am quite familiar with how that works, if only because I can name the folks, and their qualifications, of those who can do it to me.

Quote from: REAs criteria for identifying stupid people, drug use fails because the vast majority of Homo Saps are stupid.  So making such a bet would itself be stupid, it's not a good discriminator.
RE

Again, a personal perspective based on relative differences. My preference runs towards demonstrable critical thinking in real time, internal consistency in thought processes, the usual stuff. My preferences for sorting the herd, might not do yours.

However, as I said before (on behalf of those of us on the high side of the herd) it turns out that destroying multiple decades of accepted research on some topic can sure accelerate others noticing. Don't even give a crap what your education is at that point. But, amusingly, they tag you with the Piled Higher and Deeper moniker in front of your name anyway. 

To each their own.