A story about REAL IDs, cryptocurrency and the Constitution
As you might recall, after 9/11 the American people were suffering a psychological condition referred to by mental health experts as: “Freaked the Fuck Out.”
That being the case, we were OK with pretty much anything we thought would keep us safe, like the “Patriot Act” which allows the CIA to conduct weekly prostrate exams on American citizens whether or not they have a prostate and I just made that up, so yes I’m exaggerating, but not by much.
After 9/11 a panicked Congress also approved requiring REAL IDs because they believed state-issued driver’s licenses were too easy to get, a belief which indicates our elected representatives need to visit the Department of Motor Vehicles more often, because I’m pretty sure I’d rather do that prostate exam thing than visit the DMV which reminds me that when my doctor does my annual prostate exam, he always apologizes for what he’s about to do and I always say:
“It’s gotta be worse for you than me because I only do this once a year.”
Anyway…
The people in charge decided we needed a national identification system, but it turned out some of the states weren’t so hot on the idea and the ACLU also got involved because they believed it violated our privacy and 14 years after REAL IDs were originally supposed to be required, the Department of Homeland Security just decided to extend the deadline by another two years.
So if things go as planned – and so far they haven’t – 24 years after 9/11 we’ll be carrying REAL IDs which will be required to get on an airplane or visit a nuclear power plant or fly in a nuclear-powered airplane which as far as I know don’t actually exist yet, but might by the time this program gets it shit together.
But isn’t making us all safer a worthwhile goal?
Maybe…but it’s probably not the only reason the people who run things want us to get REAL IDs.
Although it sounds like the final backstage instruction before a U2 concert, “Cui bono” is Latin for “who benefits?” which is a good question to ask any time someone suggests a huge project like REAL IDs or building a brand new airport which we’re doing right here in Kansas City even though we already have what may be the most convenient airport in America, but unfortunately does not contain a shopping mall which as we all know is absolutely necessary because when we fly somewhere we definitely want to shop for men’s clothing right before we get on the airplane and making you kill time in a shopping mall might help explain why they want you to show up at the airport about four days before your flight takes off.
The following article is now 15 years old, but provided an answer to the question of who benefits from REAL IDs and as usual the answer is Corporate America; the companies that make high-tech ID cards, as well as the companies that make money selling information about you to people who want to sell you stuff.
https://www.aclunc.org/blog/who-loves-real-id-companies-do
If you think about it (and if you haven’t, now might be a good time to start) every country on Earth has people with mental health issues, but every country on Earth does not have mass shootings like we do and according to this NPR article which was updated on November 20th, we had 601 mass shootings in 324 days which if you do the math, averages out to way too many mass shootings.
https://www.npr.org/2022/05/15/1099008586/mass-shootings-us-2022-tally-number
When a mass shooting occurs the people who don’t want to change our gun laws like to say it’s a mental health issue – which it is – but the part they don’t like to talk about is what happens when you give people with mental health issues access to guns.
Go to Google and in the search bar type “is cryptocurrency” and before you can finish typing the rest of your question you’ll be offered articles like “is cryptocurrency a Ponzi scheme” and “is cryptocurrency a pyramid scheme” which means a lot of other people have been asking the same questions, which – if you have a shitload of money invested in cryptocurrency – is probably not a good sign.
Right about here I should confess that like 97.8 percent of humanity, I don’t completely understand cryptocurrency, but according to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial, neither did Sam Bankman-Fried which is a bit more troublesome because he was the CEO of a cryptocurrency exchange called FTX.
And now a word about understanding why you might not understand things:
According to people who investigate financial fraud, unnecessary complication is a sign that maybe somebody is hiding something and they don’t really want you to understand what’s going on and certain professions tend to invent inside language and terms that keep what they’re up to extremely vague.
Try to educate yourself about investing and you’ll run into words like “backwardation” and “tranches” and “arbitrage” and maybe even “Wins Above Replacement” which is an inside joke that if you knew enough about baseball would make you laugh your ass off, but if you don’t know enough baseball, you’ll just have to trust me that it’s funny.
Which is the point of obscure, insider language: if you don’t understand what I’m saying or doing, you have trust me.
In fact, FTX (which filed for bankruptcy) made an ad starring NBA basketball player Steph Curry which promoted the idea that you really didn’t need to be an expert to invest in cryptocurrency because you could trust FTX (have I mentioned they filed for bankruptcy?) and here’s an article about Matt Damon’s ad for Crypto.com that promoted the idea that “Fortune favors the brave!” which would seem to suggest you’re a stinking coward if you don’t give them your money.
https://theintercept.com/2022/10/26/matt-damon-crypto-commercial/
The article also points out that if you had invested $1,000 when the Damon commercial first came out, a year later that $1,000 investment would be worth a whopping $342 so it seems like Fortune actually favors the people who sell stuff to the Brave, so here’s another piece of advice you might want to keep in mind:
“During a gold rush, sell shovels.”
Google also offered the answer to “Can I trust FTX?” and here’s an article that assured readers FTX was incredibly safe, which had to be updated on November 15th because FTX filed for bankruptcy on November 11th:
https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/cryptocurrency/ftx-review/
BTW: Click on some of those “is cryptocurrency a Ponzi and/or pyramid scheme” articles and you’ll read that it’s 100 percent, definitely not either one, but at first glance the articles seem to be written by a bunch of people doing their best to reassure themselves that they did not get scammed.
They just exchanged a bunch of real, tangible money that you could hold in your hand for digital money that only exists on the internet, which if you think about it, is pretty much the way Jack and the Beanstalk started out, so as long as there’s a giant with a goose that lays golden eggs somewhere in their future, this story could still have a happy ending.
According to yet another NPR article, over the weekend Donald Trump used his Truth Social media platform to post yet another lie about the election he lost and said “massive fraud of this type and magnitude” should allow “termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1141096473/mcconnell-trump-terminate-constitution
So the guy who loves America so much he felt compelled to dry hump the Stars and Stripes on stage, doesn’t love America or its Constitution when things don’t go his way.
As Mitch McConnell pointed out:
"Anyone seeking the presidency who thinks that the Constitution could somehow be suspended or not followed, it seems to me would have a very hard time being sworn in as president of the United States.”
And anytime Mitch McConnell is the voice or reason, we may have a problem.
After his comments about terminating the Constitution went over like a White Power Rally held at the Apollo Theater, Trump denied he wanted to terminate the Constitution with this post:
“The Fake News is actually trying to convince the American People that I said I wanted to ‘terminate’ the Constitution. This is simply more DISINFORMATION & LIES.”
But Trump didn’t go to the trouble to take down his original post so you could see him calling for termination of the Constitution and then denying he called for the termination of the Constitution, which reminds me of this line from a Marx Brothers movie:
“Well, who you gonna believe me or your own eyes?”
OK, that’s it for today and I have to get going because I need a new pair of hiking boots for this winter so I’m going to the most logical place to find some…
The airport.