They all have it, even if the power hungry deny it. It is simply a violation of their rights.

As with others above, you confuse thugs with guns oppressing you and your rights with having them in the first place.

They are not a gift from anyone. Since some above got confused with the poetic use of "endowed by their creator", I will flat out state they are not a gift from any god, existing or otherwise. You have them even if some god exists and states otherwise.

Clear enough?

No, it is not. It it based on the observation rights are not granted to you. Not by the rich. Not by the powerful. Not by democracy.

All those start with the assumption others have the philosophical right to go around granting rights. Why in holy hell would you ever concede that before anything else?

Enjoy your bended knee. Please, sir. May I have the right to free speech?

No. You start from everyone having rights, and then form a government to secure them, giving it powers as necessary to do this.

By right of your beating heart.

A UBI is not meant to function as a retirement account, but rather as successor to the Social Security Retirement account. As well as succeeding Social Security Welfare and Disability. It would be in effect merging all of the Social Security programs, and eliminating negative/downward adjustments based on income.

Ok...am I going to get the same monthly UBI as I am scheduled for my SS that is calculated for my retirement years?

I paid into a system...I better get the same or better, less is NOT acceptable.

The 14th Amendment makes it pretty clear that rights, how they're recognized and enforced under the law, are from beginning to end based on status of citizenship:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

It then goes on to clearly state that citizenship is the hinge upon which legal protection and enforcement hangs:

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States

You're quite right in one regard: the philosophy of the Founding Fathers was that our rights did not come from government but from God. But the Constitution makes citizenship the basis of legal enforcement of those rights. Citizenship is everything in the Constitution, especially in regards to rights, which is why we have such bitter conflicts over the status of citizenship.

In what part of the Constitution does it specify that it applies to non-citizens? The very preamble lays out that the whole purpose is for the benefit of American citizens:

secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity

Nothing in that implies that Constitutional protections are for outsiders. Further, numerous sections of the Constitution make it clear that rights are citizenship based, especially in Article IV ("The Citizens of each state shall...")

USian cars in particular also suffer from unnecessary weight from oversized engines, and weighty safety features of dubious value, and these things snowball a bit. For instance, because of all the extra weight, the car needs powerful power steering, which adds even more weight. In the US, a 2 liter engine is regarded as kinda shrimpy. In South America, 2L is a big engine,

It's ok, you can call us by our preferred and time honored name..."Americans".

and in some South American country, I'm guessing they don't need 0-60mph times up there to get on the highways, nor do they tend to haul boats on trailers and drop then in the lake on weekends...etc.

No...2L engines aren't gonna cut it in the US.

This statement makes no sense. People who "can't even get a parking spot" don't own cars.

For those that don't have off street parking...they park on the street....and whatever space you get often is a bit random as that it's first come first serve.

Example, in New Orleans, old city...most homes here do not have off street parking, no driveways....so, you park where you can on the street you live on.

People that live in large apartment complexes...very common....have vast paved areas for parking, but there's no such things as individual chargers at each spot to "fill up" your EV overnight...just doesn't exist and I don't know of any apt complex owners running out to spend a lot of $$, and tear up these parking lots to redo them....especially since hardly anyone here has an EV to need one....

Chicken and egg thing.

Problem is, it's been working for them thus far, having a new version of COD every year and mircotransactions a-plenty. The dudebros have been lapping it up.

I suspect the new system is still going to have an initial purchase and microtransactions but also now a monthly rental fee, given it's mainly a multiplayer game they'll have to suck that fee up as well. There is only so much they can nickel and dime people, even the hard of thinking that still play COD but there has to be a tipping point somewhere. I suspect it'll start with the pre-teens that have to beg parent's for money.

I don't think Americans can talk when you can use the name "Randy Bottom" entirely without irony.

However the Renault have form with oddly named cars, the predecessor to the Twingo was called the Twizzy.

The Japanese take the cake though, Pajero (a Nissan 4x4) means "wanker" in Spanish though it was called the Montaro in Europe and the Americas and MR2 (Toyota Roadster) comes out as "shit 2" in French (merde duex).

So several houses can use one charger. Yes, this can lead to some disputes and issues from time to time when people behave badly, but so what? It's still way better than having to go to a gas station.

Surely you didn't just post that and still be able to keep a straight face, right?

Fights between neighbors...not uncommon and not something I'd want to have to deal with to ensure I could DRIVE my car....

I don't think anyone in the last 100 years or so has thought going to the gas station was that much of a PITA....and in your scenario, I'd definitely prefer it to having to deal with neighbors on who plugs in what on a nightly basis....

You're not going to push EVs to the majority of people unless you can make it as convenient and painless as it is now or better.

And with at least 1 in 3 households in the US not able to charge at home...that's going to be a hard sell to a significant number of people in the US.

This isn't rocket surgery. How about someone invents a device whereby they can put a car charging port into the lamp posts so that people can charge. They could use names like "ubitricity" for "ubiquitous electricity" or "chargy" which is cute and lets you use a domain like char.gy. To make life easier registered the domains for you:

How many lamps do you have on your street exactly?!?!

Here I see 1 maybe 2 on each block.

How is that going to service all the cars parked nose to tail the whole block (in some areas)? Are you going to have power cords running all over the sidewalks (places that have side walks) where people can trip over them, etc?

The reality is infrastructure is growing very rapidly, and every day I see more and more places where I can charge my EV that is not my house / not a supercharger, but ultimately don't have to simply because my employer signed a deal with a company to have a bunch of charging points installed in our parking lot.

If I recall...you do not live in the US.

What you describe is simply not the case here at all by a long shot over this vast country.

And with all the WFH going on....who's in the office to hit that charger?

I jest a bit at that last one, but I guess it actually may be a concern....but in that case, it cuts your driving down so....tradeoff.

But last figures I got this weekend showed that about 1 in 3 households in the US, have no access for "charging at home".

That's not an. insignificant number.

And where I life..there are precious few public chargers anywhere around here.

But if they made one that wasn't fragile, had sufficient memory (or even worse, expandable memory like say an SD card or USB storage) and had sufficient battery capacity how could they convince you to buy a new £1000 phone next year?

My Nokia X30 doesn't go in a case because it's not stupidly fragile.