I'm really enjoying watching all these #Japanese #leather #wallet videos YouTube is showing me lately, because Japan is a bit of an outlier among the advanced nations, in that the use of physical #currency is still very common in #Japan, whereas most other advanced nations are much more #cash-free.

So, in the 2020s, Japanese wallet makers more often still incorporate features to accommodate paper #money and metal #coinage that makers in other countries are already forgoing.

' Those who shout loudest against #Green policies and visions for a #sustainable egalitarian future are those few with the most to lose.'
https://substack.com/@fatboyfriend/note/c-287269216

https://substack.com/home/post/p-203688103

'Hopetown by Simon Wilson
'The case for #voting Green
'I’m not a member of the Green #Party, but they're getting my #vote. Here’s why. ...

'THE GREENS HAVE two core messages. They’re both simple enough to express, but they can be difficult to explain.

'The first is that we have to change. We’re living beyond what’s called “#planetary boundaries”, which is a way of saying we are using up #Earth’s finite #resources, destroying #biodiversity and making the #planet inhospitable to life.

'There’s no “fix the economy and then we’ll sort out the planet”. The way we’re “fixing the economy” is the problem...

'The second message is that the problems we face have a common cause. It’s the super-rich. Not “people who are well off”, but a tiny #elite: #Elon #Musk and all who travel with him, the #tycoons of the #fossil-fuel #industry, the #financiers who enable them. They have created the #climate crisis, the menaces of social #media, the funnel that sucks #wealth upwards even while they pretend it trickles down.

'The #oligarchs and #techbros are not trying to solve the #world’s problems, although they have the resources to do so. They’re causing them so they can make #money from them.'

'Green policies turn those core messages into action plans. #Energy reform, to leave fossil fuels in the ground and introduce rooftop #solar with #batteries at massive scale. Urban networks of #electrified public #transport, #cycling and walking that are so frequent, reliable, safe and cheap they offer genuinely better #travel options for many people much of the time. #Conservation strategies to clean up our #waterways. A proper commitment to social #housing.

'And tax #reform, targeting the super-rich and offering a #tax cut to 96% of us...'

#PartyVoteGreen

A quotation from Molly Ivins

   As a now-forgotten Sunday-morning chatter announced in horror: “This could cause people to think that the rich can buy their way out of the justice system.”
   No shit.
   Been going to Texas prisons for a long time. Seen nobody rich on Death Row yet. You mean MONEY has something to do with justice in this country?

Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Essay (2001-04), “Wake Me When We’re Equal,” The Progressive, Vol. 65, No. 4

More about this quote: wist.info/ivins-molly/16299/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #mollyivins #capitalpunishment #classwarfare #injustice #judicialsystem #justice #justicesystem #legalsystem #money #wealth

@elsua54
2- Truth is... (for me + similar people)
By #TimBray

https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/Truth

2- Doing #Money Differently:

https://hughbarnard.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/doing-money-differently.pdf

By Hugh Barnard #Degrowth etc

3- Humour - old ways of insulting people:

- #Shakespearean #Insulter
http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/index.html?

- #Lutheran #Insulter
https://ergofabulous.org/luther/

@elsua54 Agree. If people are not in towards freedom then we have different objectives, yes.

If the abuse and #wars are to your liking and you (reader) don't see the chain and who is funding it (your #bank and your #money) then that's fine - go back to pretending / ignoring.

This is real life,, the fixing of the subtle brutal establishment raping our energy (pretending to provide / serve us but really not). No perfection from here.

I agree most people won't even dare try - that's OK / clear.

@elsua54 Work or #Bullshit jobs as you say [#DavidGraeber] is mostly survival by further extraction... but still not right or workable long-term for us individuals to work with them / state / banks as it evidently only gets worse & more abused.

The lack of empathy spreads (systematically also) as we are exhausted and those without get left for #dead / #debt. It's negative overall.

We see that #money for those in power and position is 1st (and maybe 2nd, 3rd, 4th , 5th...100th) priority.

A quotation from Jean Kerr

SYDNEY: You don’t seem to realize that a poor person who is unhappy is in a better position than a rich person who is unhappy. Because the poor person has hope. He thinks money would help. I tell you there is no despair like the despair of the man who has everything.

Jean Kerr (1922-2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins]
Poor Richard, Act 1 (1965)

More about this quote: wist.info/kerr-jean/30990/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #jeankerr #despair #everything #happiness #hope #misery #money #poor #possessions #poverty #rich #unhappiness #wealth #pursuitofhappiness

A quotation from Thomas More

But what puzzles and disgusts the Utopians even more is the idiotic way some people have of practically worshipping a rich man, not because they owe him money or are otherwise in his power, but simply because he’s rich — although they know perfectly well that he’s far too mean to let a single penny come their way, so long as he’s alive to stop it.
 
[Caeterum multo magis eorum mirantur, ac detestantur insaniam qui diuitibus illis, quibus neque debent quicquam, neque sunt obnoxij, nullo alio respectu, quam quod diuites sunt, honores tantum non diuinos impendunt, idque cum eos tam sordidos atque auaros cognoscunt, ut habeant certo certius ex tanto nummorum cumulo, uiuentibus illis ne unum quidem nummulum unquam ad se uenturum.]

Thomas More (1478-1535) English lawyer, social philosopher, statesman, humanist, Christian martyr
Utopia, Book 2, ch. 6 “Of the Travelling of the Utopians” (1518 ed.) [tr. Turner (1965)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/more-thomas/84877/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #thomasmore #utopia #avarice #celebrity #greed #kowtowing #money #possessiveness #truckling #upperclass #wealth #wealthy #worship #rich #onepercent

@Christo_459 @aral Want Less Fascism? Use Less Finance...

Easy to let #Fascism in - just use #money and #banks often !

Fascism & Financial-Fascism are together. (same thing now as idea / platform).

Finance is what keeps Fascism going (material & mentality).

Less finance & less banks = all that mentality to be harder to exist / not funded / less influence / less #investment.

Less #Finance = Less #Fascism

#Banks spend for #war / #loan to wrong ppl etc

#Bank is growing / invests in the #bad

A quotation from Jean Kerr

I have two trifling ambitions in the theater: to make a lot of people laugh and to make a lot of money.

Jean Kerr (1922-2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins]
Interview (1955-07), Theatre Arts magazine

More about this quote: wist.info/kerr-jean/84710/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #jeankerr #ambition #amusement #dramatist #entertainment #humor #laughter #makingmoney #money #profit #stage #theater #writing #playwright

The Circle: The Scariest Part Isn't Big Tech. It's Us.

When The Circle hit theaters in 2017, many people saw it as another tech thriller. Today, it feels less like science fiction and more like tomorrow's news feed.

The movie is based on Dave Eggers' bestselling novel, often called the 1984 of the digital age. Ironically, the film improves on the book in one important way. Instead of explaining every idea through endless dialogue, it lets us see them. The result is faster, smoother and much easier to watch. But it still feels more like an essay than a real story.

Mae Holland lands her dream job at The Circle, a giant tech company that looks like a mix of Google, Apple, Meta and TikTok. The campus is bright, colorful and full of smiling people. Everyone talks about changing the world. That is the first warning sign.

Modern tech companies rarely say they just want to build products or make money. They promise to make humanity better. The Circle sells exactly that dream. Soon Mae believes privacy is outdated. If you have nothing to hide, why keep secrets? She starts wearing a tiny camera that livestreams her entire life. Every second. Every conversation. Every emotion. Imagine if your entire life became one endless Twitch stream.

This world feels like a strange combination of George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Control no longer comes through fear alone. It comes through convenience, entertainment and the promise of a better future. Looking at today's AI boom, smart homes and endless social media feeds, the movie suddenly feels much less fictional than it did a few years ago.

One scene stands out. The Circle suggests that voting should happen through its own platform. If everyone already has an account, why not connect democracy directly to the app? It sounds efficient. Maybe even practical. The movie briefly asks whether democracy itself could become a product owned by a private company. That is one of its most interesting ideas.

Sadly, it never explores that question.

Instead, the ending takes the easy Hollywood route. Rather than challenging the system, it blames a few powerful executives. Once their private emails are exposed, the audience is expected to believe justice has been served. As if replacing a CEO could solve everything.

But that misses the real problem.

Systems survive because people are replaceable. Remove one tech billionaire and another one will take the job. The real issue is a business model built on collecting more data, measuring human behavior and turning attention into profit. It doesn't matter whether the CEO is friendly or arrogant. If the machine stays the same, the result stays the same.

That idea feels even more relevant today. We often argue about individual tech leaders. But should we? The real question is why any company should have that much power in the first place. Whether it is Meta, Google, Apple or the next AI giant, the structure remains the same.

The movie also lets us off the hook too easily. It is comforting to blame powerful corporations. Harder to admit that we help build this world ourselves. We accept the cookies. We install the apps. We trade privacy for convenience. We buy smart speakers, connect everything to the cloud and tell ourselves it is worth it because life becomes easier.

That may be The Circle's biggest weakness. It criticizes Silicon Valley's worldview but forgets to criticize ours. Most people are not driven by ideology. They simply choose what is new, useful and comfortable. That is how surveillance becomes normal—not because anyone forces us, but because we quietly invite it into our homes.

The movie offers only one alternative: rejecting technology completely and escaping into nature. But that feels just as unrealistic as total digital transparency. It presents two extremes while ignoring everything in between.

Despite its flaws, The Circle remains a fascinating warning. Not because it predicts the future perfectly, but because so much of its future has already become our present.

Why am I writing about such an old movie? Shouldn't we have much smarter, deeper movies about AI, surveillance and Big Tech by now? Or have we simply become so used to these technologies that we no longer notice what is happening? Has Silicon Valley slowly won us over with its own propaganda? If you know any newer movies or series that tackle these questions in a more thoughtful way, let me know in the comments. I'm always looking for the next great warning before it becomes reality.

#TheCircle #movie #film #entertainment #cinema #Hollywood #criticism #filmcritic #siliconvalley #bigtech #bigdata #bigbrother #orwell #surveillance #privacy #warning #danger #today #future #ai #technology #software #algorithm #freedom #democracy #economy #power #billionaires #finance #money #company #humanity #ethics #world #life #control

Alt...

movie poster from the circle with the face of Emma Watson

Don't stop asking good questions ... 🤔

#Amazon #Bezos #Alexa #question #tax #company #globalization #world #worldorder #politics #power #capitalism #society #people #wealth #money #finance #system #matrix #humanity #ethics #democracy #equality #chances #billionaires #advertisement #protest #resistance #meme #memes #wisdom #knowledge #fairness #work #job #labor #staff

Alt...

Tell me why?

@ascentale @bobjonkman
@bikenite
A very late response to Q1: ... emergency #money ... on your bike rides?

I have a different wallet* for #bike rides. Plastic. With enough #cash equivalent to USD 25. Plus small bills to pay/tip service staff in minor bike emergencies. On long planned rides I bring a credit card.

I hardly use the cash. 💵 Whenever I can I do digital payments 📱 to save my cash for where vendors only take cash or in case of #TechFail.

#jouRapNal #book19 day 66

20260620Sat

#3goodThings #foss #ubi #woman #threeGoodThings

#car #money #plan

Alt...

(juneteenth starburst) freemancipation womancipation efosscipation emanscarpation hemancipation emamcubication (what a day: )

Stop using banks so much...

because...

#Banks lend both sides of #war

#Tanks #Missiles #Arms etc

All 'good' #profit using the 'easy to use' medium developed specifically for war contribution (#money / #tax).

Both money & tax allow the controlling people to misspend our money/energy.

#Banks / war are a #waste of #money / #energy - toxic to all life #pollute #humans

Money needs an #alternative

We need to #counter Banks...

"The Plutocrat" – Khalil Gibran ("The Forerunner", 1920) #books #money

Alt...

The Plutocrat In my wan­der­ings I once saw upon an is­land a man-headed, iron-hoofed mon­ster who ate of the earth and drank of the sea in­ces­santly. And for a long while I watched him. Then I ap­proached him and said, “Have you never enough; is your hunger never sat­is­fied and your thirst never quenched?” And he an­swered say­ing, “Yes, I am sat­is­fied, nay, I am weary of eat­ing and drink­ing; but I am afraid that to­mor­row there will be no more earth to eat and no more sea to drink.”

A quotation from Samuel Johnson

   One cause which is not always observed of the insufficiency of riches is, that they very seldom make their owner rich. To be rich is to have more than is desired, and more than is wanted; to have something which may be spent without reluctance, and scattered without care, with which the sudden demands of desire may be gratified, the casual freaks of fancy indulged, the unexpected opportunities of benevolence improved.
   Avarice is always poor, but poor by her own fault.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1759-09-08), The Idler, No. 73

More about this quote: wist.info/johnson-samuel/84440…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #samueljohnson #avarice #desire #excess #greed #money #riches #satisfaction #sufficiency #value #wealth #wealthy

World leaders and corporate bosses are slowly cobbling together a digital 'singularity' system to monitor and control all human activity via AI-controlled systems. The plan is to extend the reach of this AI into every app, operating system, and device of every citizen, maintaining 24/7/365 real time monitoring of everything you do.

Different facets of the planned system are being individually implemented across an array of countries. The speech control system is implemented in Britain and being tested there. The social credit system is implemented in China and being tested there. The fake news and propaganda system is heavily implemented in the United States.

#AgeVerification in your operating system is a building block of the #SingularitySurveillanceSystem (#SSS). This system has been long in the planning and now the hidden hand is acting through its corporate and government storefronts to begin #Panopticon construction one building block at a time.

#GameOfDrones #Singularity #CBDC #Currency #Money #SocialCredit #Government #Economy #Enslavement #CreepingControl #ControlGrid

#GameOfDrones #Singularity #CBDC #Currency #Money #SocialCredit #Government #Economy #Enslavement #CreepingControl #ControlGrid

Different facets of the planned system are being individually implemented across an array of countries. The speech control system is implemented in Britain and being tested there. The social credit system is implemented in China and being tested there. The fake news and propaganda system is heavily implemented in the United States.

#GameOfDrones #Singularity #CBDC #Currency #Money #SocialCredit #Government #Economy #Enslavement #CreepingControl #ControlGrid

The world rulers are playing a game of drones. Either you will serve the masters of the hive or you will be fed to their digital dragons.

#GameOfDrones #Singularity #Money #Cash #Currency #Penny #SocialCredit #Tyranny