It's bad here, but worse in China. I was there, years ago. The people are wonderful, but the government is incredibly totalitarian. Newspaper contain NO criticism of government. What we're saying on this page could get us in big trouble in China.
I remember our tour guide in China. We were on the bus, talking between stops. She loved America and Americans, and spoke excellent English. Somebody asked if she'd ever been there. She said, no. She would love to go, but since she was single and spoke excellent English, she said the government was afraid she wouldn't come back. So, they wouldn't let her leave. She was a prisoner in her own country. That didn't seem odd to her, but the entire bus fell silent, contemplating the repression.
Keeping our freedom is a lot of work, but getting it back after we've given it up is near impossible.
Thank you for sharing. Too many people are prisoners of their governments, including my relatives in China. We must subvert subversion so that it never happens here...
Voting for “It seems to be a law of nature, inflexible and inexorable, that those who will not risk cannot win.” -John Paul Jones
Sums up the founding spirit of the country perfectly. Jones also embodied that spirit by being awesome. For example, during the revolution he decided that killing redcoats at home wasn’t exciting enough, so he sailed to England and burned some of their towns to the ground.
“The federal government steals a third of our income, collects $5 trillion in taxes, and is $34 trillion in debt while employing 4 million people. Millions of illegal immigrants with no documentation are allowed to stroll across the border without ID, get free flights, buses, and hotels around the country, and receive free IDs in deep blue Karenland FUPAZ. 40% of Americans can't cover an unexpected $400 expense.”
And then if you don't pay taxes on YOUR property, a thing called "Civil Asset Forfeiture" happens and you LOOSE said property!!! Methinks that is the proper subversive definition of PIRACY!!! 😬
Exactly. How the "clever" scholars who devised this plan ever managed to convince themselves that their plan would ultimately benefit anyone is another ivory tower mystery.
Military-age illegal males are probably trained for private corporate armies, while the rest can be employed as agents, used in human trafficking, or exposed to some clandestine experiments.
LBJ and his Great Society. Things would likely be very different today had Americans elected Goldwater instead of choosing a second term for the father of the welfare state.
Well, I'm just gonna feed off you a little bit and post this whole paragraph that some may not know:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.--That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. -United States Declaration of Independence 1776
The same thing has happened to the Canadian passport this summer. It was re-imagined and all of the images of our history have been erased. The very first page is a picture of a snowflake. That tells you just about everything you need to know.
“Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America. -Dwight D. Eisenhower
It’s difficult to choose among the quotes, but just the other day I once again watched Eisenhower’s farewell address - a warning to the American people against the rise of the military-industrial complex that went largely unheeded. I followed that up with another viewing of former Democrat Ronald Reagan’s “A Time for Choosing” speech in support of Goldwater. For days, the prophetic words Eisenhower spoke concerning public policy becoming captive to “the scientific, technological elite” have been echoing in my mind. There are so many excellent things to quote from both speeches. They should be mandatory viewing for all Americans.
I did not renew my passport last year, because I, like so many others, am financially besieged despite having a good income. I spend most of my days feeling overwhelming anger as I see our nation torn down and destroyed before our very eyes. I try to channel that into action, with the hope that we can yet reclaim America. Not as she is now, or even has been in recent decades, but what she once was before major cultural shifts and corrupt policies began to slowly erode our liberty. Before the income tax, before the Ponzi scheme of Social Security (that came with numeric ID’s without which we can do nothing and that function as trackers), before the establishment of unelected bureaucracies, before Johnson’s “Great Society.”
All of those things and more happened in little more than a century. While I realize those things are not likely to be abolished as it would require a complete dismantling of our bloated, behemoth USG, I believe we can gradually move back toward smaller government. But, for that or any other real change to occur, it requires major effort from We the People. We need to revive and accept the responsibilities of self-governance that were surrendered for far too long. This is a truly pivotal moment in history. No matter what happens, I will fight to the bitter end.
I'm a U.S. citizen and expat, and have lived three decades outside of the country. I think that $130 is a reasonable compromise for the price of renewal. It is undoubtedly significantly under the cost of processing renewals, especially if an embassy visit is required or if there's anything time consuming for the post office person (is that how they still do it in the states?). The materials cost is increased by the security needs - I would guess there's armored cars involved in transporting the books and pages. And the applications are reviewed by humans who need some level of experience / competency to catch frauds and the like.
I would guess the actual cost to the government for a passport renewal is a grand or more. For me and my family, the $130 adds up at renewal time. On the other hand, why should average taxpayers who don't travel internationally and don't need passports (probably the vast majority of the country) subsidize my passport book completely, more than they already are?
Every country I've lived in issues passport books to citizens as a matter of course, and they serve as primary identification documents. It's weird to me that America doesn't do that. In that case, I could see the argument that it should be a "freebie" from the government, paid for out of the general tax pool (as otherwise it serves as a very regressive tax).
My issue with U.S. passports is that the government considers them legally to be a "privilege", and can deny you one. At least the U.S. follows the British model of exit control - you do not have to show a passport to leave the country at U.S. border control (some exit points check them, like airports, but it's merely a convenience to make sure you'll be admitted on the other side by whatever country you're traveling to). You can demand to be let through without showing it (but airports won't allow it because then they have a responsibility of supporting you in "no man's land" between two country's border control).
Except for native Hungarians from neighboring countries and from elsewhere - I am not sure if you know, but after WWI, 2/3 of Hungary was taken away, therefore many of our nation came from Romania, Slovakia or Ukraine to live here.
Also, there is a trend of people from the liberal Western Europe or the US to come and live here, because they find Hungary much safer and livable...
However, despite of our PM Orbán's and the government's tough anti-migration stance in the past almost ten years, for which they have been heavily criticized and Hungary's been called "racist", "Nazi", "xenophobe" and all that - recently the Govt has started to invite guest workers en masse, mainly from Asia, the Far-East. They will for sure intend to stay here for much longer than the initial 2-3 years, while companies already lay off Hungarian workers, because of the Indians or Philippinos are cheaper.
This is how the population exchange has begun in Scandinavia for example, decades ago...
The accusation of racism is one that has become increasingly popular among activists of all stripes to get things done. There’s a trend towards feeling sorry for those people from war torn countries that ends there- just as a “feeling”. No questions are asked about anyone’s entanglements in the said war, we just let ‘em in and then bend over backwards to appease them. We never ask that they should learn about how to live in a peaceful democracy that is a cultural melting pot which often requires tolerance for others.
The migrants that Australia gets are from either the cheaper countries like the Philippines or India, and more so now from the Middle East.
The latter group is from a monoculture that has a religion that tells them that they are superordinate to everyone else and they tend not to assimilate into their new culture.
Still, our country tries to make proper background checks on the immigrants and this might be the reason that our passport agency is now so slow and expensive.
Nearly 100 % of Australians have a passport as we’ve always travelled a lot- we have to, we’re so far away and we often find that our culture is lacking in any sophistication.
Enjoy your country’s current atmosphere. The rest of us probably envy you!
If that is what my renewed passport would look like, then I will hang on to my expired passport until this country finds itself again. I’m not going anywhere anyway.
I voted for Biden in 2020. In 2024, I will not vote. Biden has spent billions helping Israel and Ukraine defend their borders, but he steadfastly refuses to defend the one he swore an oath to protect. His own.
I wish we could get Schoolhouse Rock widely broadcast again. Part of the problem in this nation is the generations of citizens raised on revisionist history, if any history at all. I saw Schoolhouse Rock multiple times a day as a child and learned more from those shorts about American history (as well as science, math, and grammar) than today’s kids get in what passes for K-12 education.
Schoolhouse Rock wouldn’t solve our problems, of course, with the capture of education and the many other ills plaguing us. It’s more representative of “how things used to be.” I freely admit that watching the history shorts now as an adult actually brings tears to my eyes, because it highlights for me just how far we have fallen from those founding ideals and principles.
It's bad here, but worse in China. I was there, years ago. The people are wonderful, but the government is incredibly totalitarian. Newspaper contain NO criticism of government. What we're saying on this page could get us in big trouble in China.
I remember our tour guide in China. We were on the bus, talking between stops. She loved America and Americans, and spoke excellent English. Somebody asked if she'd ever been there. She said, no. She would love to go, but since she was single and spoke excellent English, she said the government was afraid she wouldn't come back. So, they wouldn't let her leave. She was a prisoner in her own country. That didn't seem odd to her, but the entire bus fell silent, contemplating the repression.
Keeping our freedom is a lot of work, but getting it back after we've given it up is near impossible.
Thank you for sharing. Too many people are prisoners of their governments, including my relatives in China. We must subvert subversion so that it never happens here...
"you can vote your way into socialism, but you might have to shoot your way out"
pay some now or pay a whole lot more latter.
Voting for “It seems to be a law of nature, inflexible and inexorable, that those who will not risk cannot win.” -John Paul Jones
Sums up the founding spirit of the country perfectly. Jones also embodied that spirit by being awesome. For example, during the revolution he decided that killing redcoats at home wasn’t exciting enough, so he sailed to England and burned some of their towns to the ground.
Based AF.
I will add my vote to yours sir.
I live not far from one of the towns burnt to ground.
Whitehaven in Cumbria or Cumberland as it was known then.
The passport was one of the first steps in compliance-training:
https://rayhorvaththesource.substack.com/p/a-brief-history-of-compliance-training
Americans have been conditioned to accept that they are mere assets for the Federal Government:
https://rayhorvaththesource.substack.com/p/government-property-in-action
“The federal government steals a third of our income, collects $5 trillion in taxes, and is $34 trillion in debt while employing 4 million people. Millions of illegal immigrants with no documentation are allowed to stroll across the border without ID, get free flights, buses, and hotels around the country, and receive free IDs in deep blue Karenland FUPAZ. 40% of Americans can't cover an unexpected $400 expense.”
🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯
And then if you don't pay taxes on YOUR property, a thing called "Civil Asset Forfeiture" happens and you LOOSE said property!!! Methinks that is the proper subversive definition of PIRACY!!! 😬
"Open the flooodgates!"
- NY Senator Jacob Javits, upon the signing of the 1965 immigration reform law.
Cui bono? Put on your thinkings caps.
Cloward-Piven in plain sight.
Exactly. How the "clever" scholars who devised this plan ever managed to convince themselves that their plan would ultimately benefit anyone is another ivory tower mystery.
Military-age illegal males are probably trained for private corporate armies, while the rest can be employed as agents, used in human trafficking, or exposed to some clandestine experiments.
LBJ is still a creep. “Bend” my @ss.
LBJ and his Great Society. Things would likely be very different today had Americans elected Goldwater instead of choosing a second term for the father of the welfare state.
Well, I'm just gonna feed off you a little bit and post this whole paragraph that some may not know:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.--That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. -United States Declaration of Independence 1776
The same thing has happened to the Canadian passport this summer. It was re-imagined and all of the images of our history have been erased. The very first page is a picture of a snowflake. That tells you just about everything you need to know.
Is there a place where I can see pictures?
This article shows you the old and new versions together:
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/canada-passport-new-design
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadian-passports/new-passport-features.html
“Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America. -Dwight D. Eisenhower
It’s difficult to choose among the quotes, but just the other day I once again watched Eisenhower’s farewell address - a warning to the American people against the rise of the military-industrial complex that went largely unheeded. I followed that up with another viewing of former Democrat Ronald Reagan’s “A Time for Choosing” speech in support of Goldwater. For days, the prophetic words Eisenhower spoke concerning public policy becoming captive to “the scientific, technological elite” have been echoing in my mind. There are so many excellent things to quote from both speeches. They should be mandatory viewing for all Americans.
I did not renew my passport last year, because I, like so many others, am financially besieged despite having a good income. I spend most of my days feeling overwhelming anger as I see our nation torn down and destroyed before our very eyes. I try to channel that into action, with the hope that we can yet reclaim America. Not as she is now, or even has been in recent decades, but what she once was before major cultural shifts and corrupt policies began to slowly erode our liberty. Before the income tax, before the Ponzi scheme of Social Security (that came with numeric ID’s without which we can do nothing and that function as trackers), before the establishment of unelected bureaucracies, before Johnson’s “Great Society.”
All of those things and more happened in little more than a century. While I realize those things are not likely to be abolished as it would require a complete dismantling of our bloated, behemoth USG, I believe we can gradually move back toward smaller government. But, for that or any other real change to occur, it requires major effort from We the People. We need to revive and accept the responsibilities of self-governance that were surrendered for far too long. This is a truly pivotal moment in history. No matter what happens, I will fight to the bitter end.
I'm a U.S. citizen and expat, and have lived three decades outside of the country. I think that $130 is a reasonable compromise for the price of renewal. It is undoubtedly significantly under the cost of processing renewals, especially if an embassy visit is required or if there's anything time consuming for the post office person (is that how they still do it in the states?). The materials cost is increased by the security needs - I would guess there's armored cars involved in transporting the books and pages. And the applications are reviewed by humans who need some level of experience / competency to catch frauds and the like.
I would guess the actual cost to the government for a passport renewal is a grand or more. For me and my family, the $130 adds up at renewal time. On the other hand, why should average taxpayers who don't travel internationally and don't need passports (probably the vast majority of the country) subsidize my passport book completely, more than they already are?
Every country I've lived in issues passport books to citizens as a matter of course, and they serve as primary identification documents. It's weird to me that America doesn't do that. In that case, I could see the argument that it should be a "freebie" from the government, paid for out of the general tax pool (as otherwise it serves as a very regressive tax).
My issue with U.S. passports is that the government considers them legally to be a "privilege", and can deny you one. At least the U.S. follows the British model of exit control - you do not have to show a passport to leave the country at U.S. border control (some exit points check them, like airports, but it's merely a convenience to make sure you'll be admitted on the other side by whatever country you're traveling to). You can demand to be let through without showing it (but airports won't allow it because then they have a responsibility of supporting you in "no man's land" between two country's border control).
Astonishing! I got my new passport within a week and it cost $20 or so...
Hungary
Have you had a big influx of err migrants?, in Hungary in the past 20 years ish?
Thanks God, no!
Except for native Hungarians from neighboring countries and from elsewhere - I am not sure if you know, but after WWI, 2/3 of Hungary was taken away, therefore many of our nation came from Romania, Slovakia or Ukraine to live here.
Also, there is a trend of people from the liberal Western Europe or the US to come and live here, because they find Hungary much safer and livable...
However, despite of our PM Orbán's and the government's tough anti-migration stance in the past almost ten years, for which they have been heavily criticized and Hungary's been called "racist", "Nazi", "xenophobe" and all that - recently the Govt has started to invite guest workers en masse, mainly from Asia, the Far-East. They will for sure intend to stay here for much longer than the initial 2-3 years, while companies already lay off Hungarian workers, because of the Indians or Philippinos are cheaper.
This is how the population exchange has begun in Scandinavia for example, decades ago...
So, I am puzzled and a bit worried.
The accusation of racism is one that has become increasingly popular among activists of all stripes to get things done. There’s a trend towards feeling sorry for those people from war torn countries that ends there- just as a “feeling”. No questions are asked about anyone’s entanglements in the said war, we just let ‘em in and then bend over backwards to appease them. We never ask that they should learn about how to live in a peaceful democracy that is a cultural melting pot which often requires tolerance for others.
The migrants that Australia gets are from either the cheaper countries like the Philippines or India, and more so now from the Middle East.
The latter group is from a monoculture that has a religion that tells them that they are superordinate to everyone else and they tend not to assimilate into their new culture.
Still, our country tries to make proper background checks on the immigrants and this might be the reason that our passport agency is now so slow and expensive.
Nearly 100 % of Australians have a passport as we’ve always travelled a lot- we have to, we’re so far away and we often find that our culture is lacking in any sophistication.
Enjoy your country’s current atmosphere. The rest of us probably envy you!
If that is what my renewed passport would look like, then I will hang on to my expired passport until this country finds itself again. I’m not going anywhere anyway.
Anyone else enraged?
Yuri, you missed a quote: “Now is a time for being. For being here, now. It is being in time that are we here for, to be.” Kamala Harris
History rolls her eyes.
I voted for Biden in 2020. In 2024, I will not vote. Biden has spent billions helping Israel and Ukraine defend their borders, but he steadfastly refuses to defend the one he swore an oath to protect. His own.
Freedom over liberty!!! Liberty is a short term leave that sailors get before they have to return to the ship as galley slaves! 😬
I wish we could get Schoolhouse Rock widely broadcast again. Part of the problem in this nation is the generations of citizens raised on revisionist history, if any history at all. I saw Schoolhouse Rock multiple times a day as a child and learned more from those shorts about American history (as well as science, math, and grammar) than today’s kids get in what passes for K-12 education.
Schoolhouse Rock wouldn’t solve our problems, of course, with the capture of education and the many other ills plaguing us. It’s more representative of “how things used to be.” I freely admit that watching the history shorts now as an adult actually brings tears to my eyes, because it highlights for me just how far we have fallen from those founding ideals and principles.
Who else can still sing The Preamble?
https://youtu.be/8_NzZvdsbWI?si=7RVGTgEsW8JV_HkN