There are a lot of things I would miss about modern life.
Electricity. The sad thing is, when the power goes out, I would either get in my car and drive to where there is power, or I would watch movies in my car. These days I will listen to audiobooks on my laptop, and that will cover the time it takes for the power to be restored.
Downtime is a good thing, as when the power goes out, or we lose internet, then we get a "gut check" of where we are in terms of how well we could survive without a power grid or internet connection.
Onto education. One of the things I don't like about myself in all these debates I have on X, is my confident stance, and it is usually mirroring theirs. Concerning masks and vaccination, I am dug in. I think people should be free to wear a mask if they choose to and get vaccinated, and I, in turn, can choose not to. The problem I have is, what about the children? Children should not be forced to wear masks or get injections. So i am at a type of internal impasse as I also think that decisions concerning children should be left to the parents.
And the thing is, if their policy were to let people do what they want to do, there would be no debate. If you believe in vaccines and want to get multiple injections before you exit this mortal coil, go do it. But I, in my modest view and studies of the literature, show that not only do we not know how effective vaccines are, we also don't really even understand the complexities of infection and transmission.
I am sad to hear that you have been blocked on other Substacks. It does happen, and I think the only condition where it should happen is in cases of harassment, even as that can be subjective. For me, the test of harassment is proactive and continuous interaction using involving personal attacks and threats.
The real goal of education is to learn how to educate yourself. And things are getting really difficult in that manner as part of education is understanding which information is education vs. indoctrination. With the advent of AI, education is going to become more difficult as I can already see reliance on AI as the answer to any question, whether predicated on fact or opinion.
As one who has intense interest and put in the same degree of effort looking into FATCA, the only ways around it are either a full repeal of the law or 100% cash transactions. Cash is being phased out and once I learned what the FBAR fines have become, FATCA being the enforcement of FBAR, I realized that it is not going to be repealed. FBAR fines are the funding mechanism of either a jobs bill or a roads bill and FATCA funds the other and enforces both.
Nothing wrong with confidence. It is good to have but only once you have tested your beliefs and know them to be accurate. While I was certain of many things contrary to what we were being told about the panic, I checked various sources to verify my memory was correct. In general it was. Those we debate with knew nothing of any of this prior to being told to do this that and the other foolish thing. They are merely human audio recorders. They play back a message while not comprehending it.
As masks are not benign to either the wearer or others, I am against them except for the reasons they were designed for. Food preparers do not touch their faces all the time, but they do touch their masks frequently without washing their hands. That is like them licking their fingers as they make our food. Misuse of masks is a horrible breach of public hygiene.
The internal impasse you have is borne by myself as well. An argument I could make against parents masking their kids could and has been used against those of us against masking kids, successfully, sadly. It endangers not only their kids but mine. I believe it is up to the parents, however, there is are boundaries between parental belief and their rights to teach these to their kids and child abuse and risks to public safety. Who gets to decide? This exact dilemma is used to secretly "transition" kids' genders without their parents' knowledge by the schools. As unhygienic, as unhealthy as masking kids is, I am currently of the belief that it is best for parents to decide on masking for their own kids. Poor kids are those with mad masking parents. Another aspect is that I was unable to protect my own son from masking.
It seems that most people now, regardless of age, just use AI to provide answers to everything. The esteemed colleague who decried the that lack of smiles from our speech contestants, ignoring that fact that most, including herself were masked, fact checked my assertions on Obamacare. The answer received, in her mind, refuted my statement. It didn't, it explicitly referenced Medicare/medicaid, which are different programs. She being an Aussie, did not know this fact. Same with all answers from AI. However, our answers are immediately discarded if AI's differs. AI knows all.
No kidding!? Was he aboard her when she was sunk? If so, is he seen in the movie news reel that was released? IIRC, the only one who perished in the attack was an Italian newsman, so I am not fearful for the loss of your grandfather’s life in the attack.
My brother asserts that my grandfather was on board. I have searched archival records and those international photos but I cannot confirm his location.
I have studied this subject, and my grandmother and infant father were in the Bund with a few stranded British dependents. They boarded small private freighters to Manila. Fascinating history.
While I am not on FB, I am aware of support groups for US persons in Australia and other countries. I supported a group in Canada in their effort to force their government to follow Canadian law and not US law. They lost.
True. People only hear what they want to hear and often ignore uncomfortable truths. Most of the people that have done this to me were involved with the education department.
I also waisted my time looking out for the interests of others by telling them about masks, the hokey pokey, government overreach, the list goes on. I was greeted with silence, vulgarities, cries of "conspiracy theorist" and many others.
The propaganda and brainwashing have been strong. I can't compete so I avoid the people under the spell.
I have also considered going the Amish route... Tough lifestyle for mr to follow but perhaps I could incorporate some of it into my own.
This is a great posting.
Is there a way around FATCA?
There are a lot of things I would miss about modern life.
Electricity. The sad thing is, when the power goes out, I would either get in my car and drive to where there is power, or I would watch movies in my car. These days I will listen to audiobooks on my laptop, and that will cover the time it takes for the power to be restored.
Downtime is a good thing, as when the power goes out, or we lose internet, then we get a "gut check" of where we are in terms of how well we could survive without a power grid or internet connection.
Onto education. One of the things I don't like about myself in all these debates I have on X, is my confident stance, and it is usually mirroring theirs. Concerning masks and vaccination, I am dug in. I think people should be free to wear a mask if they choose to and get vaccinated, and I, in turn, can choose not to. The problem I have is, what about the children? Children should not be forced to wear masks or get injections. So i am at a type of internal impasse as I also think that decisions concerning children should be left to the parents.
And the thing is, if their policy were to let people do what they want to do, there would be no debate. If you believe in vaccines and want to get multiple injections before you exit this mortal coil, go do it. But I, in my modest view and studies of the literature, show that not only do we not know how effective vaccines are, we also don't really even understand the complexities of infection and transmission.
I am sad to hear that you have been blocked on other Substacks. It does happen, and I think the only condition where it should happen is in cases of harassment, even as that can be subjective. For me, the test of harassment is proactive and continuous interaction using involving personal attacks and threats.
The real goal of education is to learn how to educate yourself. And things are getting really difficult in that manner as part of education is understanding which information is education vs. indoctrination. With the advent of AI, education is going to become more difficult as I can already see reliance on AI as the answer to any question, whether predicated on fact or opinion.
Thought I posted this a while ago.
Thanks for the comments.
As one who has intense interest and put in the same degree of effort looking into FATCA, the only ways around it are either a full repeal of the law or 100% cash transactions. Cash is being phased out and once I learned what the FBAR fines have become, FATCA being the enforcement of FBAR, I realized that it is not going to be repealed. FBAR fines are the funding mechanism of either a jobs bill or a roads bill and FATCA funds the other and enforces both.
Nothing wrong with confidence. It is good to have but only once you have tested your beliefs and know them to be accurate. While I was certain of many things contrary to what we were being told about the panic, I checked various sources to verify my memory was correct. In general it was. Those we debate with knew nothing of any of this prior to being told to do this that and the other foolish thing. They are merely human audio recorders. They play back a message while not comprehending it.
As masks are not benign to either the wearer or others, I am against them except for the reasons they were designed for. Food preparers do not touch their faces all the time, but they do touch their masks frequently without washing their hands. That is like them licking their fingers as they make our food. Misuse of masks is a horrible breach of public hygiene.
The internal impasse you have is borne by myself as well. An argument I could make against parents masking their kids could and has been used against those of us against masking kids, successfully, sadly. It endangers not only their kids but mine. I believe it is up to the parents, however, there is are boundaries between parental belief and their rights to teach these to their kids and child abuse and risks to public safety. Who gets to decide? This exact dilemma is used to secretly "transition" kids' genders without their parents' knowledge by the schools. As unhygienic, as unhealthy as masking kids is, I am currently of the belief that it is best for parents to decide on masking for their own kids. Poor kids are those with mad masking parents. Another aspect is that I was unable to protect my own son from masking.
It seems that most people now, regardless of age, just use AI to provide answers to everything. The esteemed colleague who decried the that lack of smiles from our speech contestants, ignoring that fact that most, including herself were masked, fact checked my assertions on Obamacare. The answer received, in her mind, refuted my statement. It didn't, it explicitly referenced Medicare/medicaid, which are different programs. She being an Aussie, did not know this fact. Same with all answers from AI. However, our answers are immediately discarded if AI's differs. AI knows all.
Again, Kitsune, your experiences reflect the acute loss I too have had when now former friends dismissed my learned knowledge.
Subject matter experts, Ted Talks and TikTok have replaced personal study.
Thank you for sharing.
And we have another weird connection:
My grandfather was a Lt Com in the US Navy, who served on the Panay.
So yes, US, Chinese and Japanese history are fascinating sources of human nature revealed.
Wishing you continued healing, will raise a glass to 'cheers' your perseverance!
No kidding!? Was he aboard her when she was sunk? If so, is he seen in the movie news reel that was released? IIRC, the only one who perished in the attack was an Italian newsman, so I am not fearful for the loss of your grandfather’s life in the attack.
My brother asserts that my grandfather was on board. I have searched archival records and those international photos but I cannot confirm his location.
I have studied this subject, and my grandmother and infant father were in the Bund with a few stranded British dependents. They boarded small private freighters to Manila. Fascinating history.
There is an Aussie FB group for US Expats who struggle with this issue.
Re Education: I'm encouraging kids to become tradies. Tradies are Kings in Australia.
While I am not on FB, I am aware of support groups for US persons in Australia and other countries. I supported a group in Canada in their effort to force their government to follow Canadian law and not US law. They lost.
I wish I went the tradesman route.
Another barnraiser you wrote here!
True. People only hear what they want to hear and often ignore uncomfortable truths. Most of the people that have done this to me were involved with the education department.
I also waisted my time looking out for the interests of others by telling them about masks, the hokey pokey, government overreach, the list goes on. I was greeted with silence, vulgarities, cries of "conspiracy theorist" and many others.
The propaganda and brainwashing have been strong. I can't compete so I avoid the people under the spell.
I have also considered going the Amish route... Tough lifestyle for mr to follow but perhaps I could incorporate some of it into my own.