It looks like the beneficiary was setup to the correct name. Not sure how accurate that is. Might need to find a news source confirming he is the beneficiary.

I really have to thank my wife as it’s been a recent change for me, I was pretty isolationist. She’s been a “townie” all her life and since moving in almost 8 years ago, I’ve started to really see the benefits of community, like farmers markets and such.

I think the best thing for people is to get active in their local community and politics. My brother was pretty conservative going back a long while; mainly about wanting lower or no taxes. He then ran for and won his HOA presidency and quickly realized how fucked they would be if they just got rid of their HoA fees. They needed to dredge their lake but the previous administration signed in a bilaw stating they couldn’t raise the fees. They didn’t have the money for it outright, nor could they pay back a loan. He didn’t run again, but I’d like to think he learn a valuable lesson about public service that day, and the effort it takes to run a community.

So I’ve been protesting any company that’s publicly traded. Had the same cell phone since 2019. Moving funds into a credit union. Cooking meals at home. On the rare occasion we eat out it’s at a locally owned restaurant. Buying our produce at the farmers market and growing some of our own. For the stuff we can’t avoid, getting bulk items from Costco until we can source better AND local. And then socials, getting rid of all the major ones and switching to the fediverse.

I see comments like that either calling for Trump to be deposed, or yeah, a full on civil war against Republicans at that point. The second is from people who can view chess only a few more moves in advance than those saying the first and know that we have a presidential line of succession and it’s just as bad all the way down. But both are extremely naive views because this is a cultural problem with Republicans as a whole. Even if somehow you were to Thanos snap every Republican in power, the next election cycle will be just as bad, if not worse.

To fix, you have to address the militant individualism thats been romanticized by billionaires; the only thing that seems to have tricked down from them, who’s only purpose is to get people to vote to lower taxes, but mainly benefit the rich. Democrats should start running on lowering or cutting taxes out right for anyone making less than 350k, and watch the cognitive dissonance happen with the hard core Rs who made their whole identity about not getting taxed.

Then we continue to build up our communities and homesteading hobbies and primary any Democrat who gives an inch to these fascists.

To be fair, the question asked was only, is there a benefit and i did answer that. So, don’t go moving the goal posts!

On a serious note, to answer your question briefly as one of those “American people”: i do sense a change in the air. I don’t think it’s a general strike or civil war, but there’s definitely people paying attention who hadn’t otherwise before. And that engagement? They are pissed.

The long answer is this: Everyone just watched a government agent kill a white mother and then lie about what happened. They see the news coverage spreading that lie. Everyone knows the poem, “First They Came” by Martin Niemöller and with this, they realized we are already 4 lines into it. Racist fucks can’t just hand wave this away as a statistic anymore.

And it’s not like shit is getting any better for us, it’s not like prices are going down! Between the Epstein list shit, Venezuela and Greenland, inflation, shrinkflation, and products being recalled for listeria or lead/metal/glass shavings, now we have masked fat asses terrorizing/killing us then opening lying about it?! And then calling US the terrorists? Nah. That’s not even mentioning the absolutely bat shit levels of corruption happening that’s practically being admitted to right in the open.

So some good news about us. Something i noticed start in 2020 with covid lock downs was that our culture started to shift towards “homesteading” or trying to make everything yourself, because you knew the quality is better than store bought, and in the majority of cases, cheaper. But recently, people have started to go full in, and i think this is the angle where a general strike can foment from!

People DO NOT want corporate slop anymore. There’s a growing want for local businesses, and they will start to come back offering better, locally made items. Sure it’ll be a bit more expensive, but the prices for those lower quality goods are going up too.

This is hopefully going to reduce corporate influence and bring communities closer together, since not every individual can make everything they’ll ever need. With stronger communities, this “fear of the other” dissipates. I’ve started to see it in my neighborhood. As word spreads, more people start to see what is happening. I’ve already been to city and town halls discussing AI data centers and the places are FUCKING PACKED, to the point they move it to larger areas and it’s still over flowing out into the halls and parking lots.

We were already banding together, but every one of their fuck ups, brings us even closer together. Just look at those bad asses in PA; the Black Panthers, resurfacing and showing up for their community. More will come.

I saw a reel today from what i consider a credible enough source, (still plan to look this up but i feel it’s credible enough to base this comment on).

There’s a major problem that needs to be dealt with when talking about any kind of enforcement.

Firstly, US citizens DO NOT require to have any form of ID or papers on them, at all, for any reason. Yet visa holders, immigrants, vacationers, etc, have to carry their papers AT ALL TIME or that’s a federal violation.

Secondly, ICE has no jurisdiction over US citizens. If they ask me anything, i don’t have to comply. As long at I’m not interfering with their job, as to be arrested for obstruction of justice. Their job is solely to enforce immigration laws.

So the problem this creates is that they can just claim I’m not a citizen and arrest me for not having proper documentation. Best case scenario, they look me up in the system, see I’m a citizen, and let me go. Worst case? Well, yeah, we are seeing that unfold every day in the news.

Boot lickers will say, well just carry your ID, and comply! And miss the entire point. There’s due process violations happening all across the country, people being arrested just because, to intimidate us into cowering in a corner while they kidnap and torture folks. So either we cave and start to carry our IDs, which won’t help when they claim it’s a fake ID, and allow them to ratchet up again to only allowing certain people to have IDs, or whatever fascist BS they have planned next for their white, christian ethnostate.

Or no one needs to carry around an ID and just abolish ICE all together because we don’t need to enforce immigration laws, just make it easier. Think of the extra tax dollars that could be had if non citizens could spend their money without worrying about being deported! Plus the extra money for not paying another useless enforcement agency. For those one off cases, i would rather a percentage go to the FBI for a division that investigates non citizen crime, and let the courts handle deportations.

A lot of people are forgetting how a minority whip works in Congress. The term “whip” comes from a fox-hunting expression—“whipper-in”—referring to the member of the hunting team responsible for keeping the dogs from straying from the team during a chase.

That vote went down in one of two ways, either of which is the leader and the whip’s direct responsibility.

1: those Democrats voted on their own, in the exact number needed to pass. In which the whip is responsible for whipping up their votes to No and failed here, and Democrats need to promote a new person and primary the congressperson responsible, along with the ones who voted in favor.

2: that Whip caved under pressure and grabbed the exact number of votes needed to pass, from Congresspersons in “safe” districts or who were already planning on retiring. In which case, Democrats need to promote a new person and primary the congressperson responsible as well as primary the ones who voted in favor.

The Senate Democratic leader is Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) The Senate Democratic Whip is Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL)

The Eight Senate Democrats/Independents who voted in favor were: Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) Sen. Angus King (I-ME) Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA)

The House did not have enough votes to defeat it, and all voted against but here are those leaders too. The House Democratic leader is Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) The House Democratic Minority Whip is Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA)

It’s this same kind of romanticized attitude on the right honestly. “Just violence yourself into the right type of government!”

The French are successful because they seem to have a governance style built around the overthrowing of an elected fascist every decade or so, since the late-1700s. Like a magna carte blanche.

It’s not that we haven’t come to terms with it, it’s just that any resistance will need to be legitimized by outside forces to be recognized. If you look at the long history of tyrannical governments being overthrown, American and European figureheads always talk about whether or not the local resistance groups are legitimate in their concerns or not, which ultimately determines how much outside help is given.

Look at Gaza, there’s a resistance force over there that has been branded as a terrorist organization (in certain cases, deservingly) which they now also have to fight a PR campaign online.

Going full blown delegitimizes any movement, and can justify further fascist ratcheting vs them just “claiming” violence happened against them, which EVERYONE can fully see is not happening. Sure they will claim it regardless but that loses them potential allies and any high ground.

We still have a court system. We still have elections. And both of those take time.

For anyone talking about where the lines are, that’s them. Functioning legitimate courts, and functioning legitimate elections.

Until then, we are out there demonstrating peacefully, building up our communities, and giving them the rope to Nuremberg themselves with.

Can’t be held liable during the next set of Nuremberg trials?

An article i read states that with China and India fully investing into EV technologies, we could see oil demand peak in 2030 and:

“The tragedy is that we’re fighting over barrels that look huge on spreadsheets but shrink rapidly when confronted with physics, economics and time,” said Guy Prince, the head of energy supply research at the thinktank.

I’ve always said, “you can’t logic someone out of a position they didn’t logic themselves into”.

I agree on just about everything, except:

At this moment, Europe’s the only real democracy left on the planet that can’t be taken over through social media targeted ad brain washing like the US.

I wouldn’t be so sure:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/dec/29/number-people-britons-must-be-born-in-uk-rising-study

I can grant that the UK isn’t “Europe”, but this kind of mentality is rising all over.

I’d also say that it’s really about billionaires subjecting the working class to their will. I think they salivate at the idea of Chinese or Russian type government, implemented everywhere. Unruly or undesirable populace? Round the whole lot of them up and send them to a work camp! Hell, they are already doing that in the US with amendment 13. Not too big of a leap if they are already rounding people up and deporting them to random ass countries they had no affiliation with.

And if they get their data centers built, they’ll be able to “parse” through all this data they’ve been collecting and storing on us for over a decade now. That parsing will be AI based but will it really matter if it gets it wrong and the wrong person gets caught up in it?