[texas booster]

... a few years ago the European Union came up with a definition of somebody called a 'PEP' -a 'politically exposed person'.

So the value of changing a definition - by our overlords - is seen to be very valuable by them.

And the difference between the EU governance and the CCP is ... nothing?

[Wallace T.]

Red China does not keep up even a pretense of freedom. It is admittedly an authoritarian state. The EU and Britain publicly claim to be free democratic countries. But unspoken is the fact that anyone who strays outside the Overton Window of acceptable opinions is deemed an outlaw.

One advantage we have in America is that there are 4,000 banks and hundreds of credit unions. The national franchises may impose social credit scores but a customer can merely go down the street to a locally owned bank or credit union. That is much tougher in Canada, for example, because six national financial institutions control over 90% of deposits.

[L,TOWM]

Same here in the US too. Banking Secrecy Act, USAPATRIOT Act, all of the anti-money laundering stuff has essentially turned your bank teller into an agent of the US government.

Remember how we used to laugh at the number of East Germans working directly for or were networked with the STASI? About 30% of the population IIRC.

Any federally regulated institution that handles money or stuff close to money (like stocks) is spying on you. By law they are required to. The party of small government did that in 2002.

[DouglasKC]

The beast power is already in place.