[FRIAM] Back at the ranch, I'm enjoying the popcorn.

[steve smith]

I do suppose they serve popcorn at cage-fights.

Dog and Cock fighting has been banned in most of the US for many 
decades, but I think NM turned a blind eye until the 90s?

If popcorn had been discovered/invented by the time of the Roman 
Coliseum Gladitorial spectacles, it was only available in Mesoamerica, 
best enjoyed during open-heart sacrifices?

Thanks to EricS for introducing the term "performative cruelty" to this 
list a few years ago... it resonates more and more with our unfolding 
fascism in the US and perhaps much of the formerly liberal(ish) West?

> Thanks for the reminder to send some money to u24.gov.ua.
>
tx,

It's an easy diversion of my AMZN Prime Membership, my APPL and MSFT 
cloud, META (oculus), GOOG, OpenAI expenditures to U24.gov.ua.     By 
easy I don't mean trivial, just an easy decision.  The billionaires and 
the fascists they support *do* require our participation in their games, 
as rigged as they are.

Tax Freedom Day <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Freedom_Day>is 
estimated quite widely but the latest concensus number i've heard is 
April 12.   megaBillionaires (such as those lined up behind Trump at his 
inauguration) are hard to pin down (primarily using fully secured 
low-interest loans to pay expenses while deferring "income" into "asset 
growth".   Most measures have their "tax freedom day" estimated 
somewhere in the first week (or even first hours) of the year, 
especially if there are offshore and crypto hiding schemes involved.   
Somehow this doesn't seem to motivate the "small government" or 
"anti-elite" MAGA types?

War Tax Protests <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_resistance> seem 
like a good template for a #defundBillionaires protest?   The penalties 
for failing to pay taxes (witholding) in advance and even for paying 
levied taxes on time have been fairly anemic (though not vacant).   Is 
it gutsier to risk being levied interest and fines on un(der)paid taxes, 
or standing up to a jacked and militarized law enforcement action in the 
street? Which maybe makes the biggest difference?   Maybe both.

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

    https://nwtrcc.org/2025/02/25/upcoming-war-tax-resistance-events/

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

"shaking his tiny fist in all directions at once"

  - Steve






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