Tom Wolfe said that if a person goes from middle class to homeless in a shelter their life changes 50%. They still have the same clothes, watch the same TV shows, eat the same kind of food.

If someone goes from being a billionaire to middle class their life has changed 100%.

imho, it was Nixon who started America on this course. Nixon knew that the Vietnam War was unwinnable; he even ran in 1968 as a ‘peace candidate.’ He also knew that massive bombing would mean that the US steel mills would be working 24/7 and that would be great for the Unions and owners. All he had to do was pay for it with paper money, because he didn’t want to raise taxes.

When I was a kid, the worst playground insult was calling someone a ‘J@p,’ because only a yellow bastard would pull a sneak attack like Pearl Harbor.

Tojo must be smiling in Hell.

Filthy children!

Learn your history!!

https://youtu.be/JN_xXTI5Txo

In a neighborhood, everyone knows your name. If Joe the Plumber and Fred the Butcher make a bet, everyone has heard it, and the loser has to pay up, or be scorned.

In a bar, the bartender or server holds the bets and pays off the winner, and expects a cut of the pie as a sevice fee/tip.

90 year old woman goes to the local brothel. She tells the madam that she wants to try something new, so she wants to try being a hooker for a night. Madam makes some phone calls, finds some customers who 'd be into it, and tells the woman to come back the next night.

The next day the lady arrives, and soon the first john shows up. They walk upstairs, spend an hour, and come back. The second customer is waiting, and so he and she go upstairs. After she comes back down, the third guy arrives, so it’s back upstairs.

At the end of the night the madam asks if she wants to come back?

“Oh, no dear. the sex was fine but those damn stairs will kill me.”

https://tnmuseum.org/junior-curators/posts/underwater-ghost-towns-of-tennessee

Apparently, back in the day the government decided that some places weren’t worth saving, and the benefits of building dams and flooding the towns outweighed other considerations.

The movie ‘Deliverance’ has a plot about something like this happening.

https://bookshop.org/beta-search?keywords=asteroid+mining

Here’s a link to some books on the subject. You’re right, most people figure it would be putting our heavy industries in space and bring down what ever products are needed.

With climate change and coastal flooding, it’s coming, just not in the form you’re thinking of.

Asteroid mining. We’ve had the tech to get people to the asterodi for decades, just lack the will to do it.

Or he could smile and wave and then shoot him in the back…

Brief moment in history…

I remember reading this tip in a magazine. Instead of having a professional photographer at a wedding, put a disposable camera at every table.

A lot of difference between shooting protestors and a nuclear war.

Look at Trump’s big military parade. The Army has crack drill teams, expert parachute units, ace helicopter pilots, and dozens of other impressive troops to put on display. No way is the military going to go to war because Donnie is having a tantrum.

Almost as if the other guy didn’t have access to many, many more weapons and the legal right to shoot you.

The only reason the Americans won is that they had the French Navy on their side.

The French went broke supporting the Americans.

Also, the Brits were willing to cede to the Americans. The Brits kept getting US cotton and they were going to get it cheaper because once the British empire withdrew the Americans could expand into the Native nations the British had treaties with.

It’s not comparable in any way.

What part of ‘armored vehicle’ confused you?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenco_BearCat

If you think your AR-15 is a match for a full on SWAT team, or an armored vehicle, think again.

This isn’t a video game, and there aren’t any respawns in real life.

Ask the folks at MOVE how well fighting back worked for them.

Along the lines of the original post.

Compare Angelina Jolie and Elizabeth Taylor, for example. On paper, Angelina is far wealthier, but in terms of day-to-day lifestyles, they are pretty comparable. Only the 0.01% of multi-billionaires have reaped any rewards.

The inflation in luxury goods is staggering. High school kids used to be able to afford concert tickets, football games, and Broadway plays. That Phantom was a year’s salary for a school teacher; now the most expensive cars are twenty year’s salary. It’s not that the products are so much better; there’s a larger pool of very wealthy people. In 1960, if a man’s wife had a job they were considered ‘poor.’ Today, even professionals need two salaries to keep up with the Joneses