Updating Your Device

By
eric
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Imagine waking up in the middle of the night to pee, stumbling half-asleep to the bathroom and catching yourself mid-stream when you realize you’re peeing in the clothes hamper –  because someone “updated” your bathroom in the middle of the night and now the hamper’s where the toilet used to be.

Such is the nature of “updates” when it comes to devices.

You used to know which inscrutable icon did what – and where it was located. Then your device gets “updated” – and now the icons have been moved around and they do different  things, too. You are obliged to forget how it all worked before and learn how it works now.

Until the next “update,” that is.

This is how it is with the devices that have replaced the phones we used to use to make calls. The latter had a physical keypad that could not be “updated.” The buttons were the buttons and they worked the same in 1970 as they did in 1990. If you learned how to make a call once, you never needed to learn how again. It meant one less serial aggravation to deal with. Granted, you could not send a picture over a hard-line phone. But the call almost always went through and rarely, if ever, “dropped.” Besides which, the phone on the wall cost maybe $25 and that was all it cost for the next 25-30 years. (There was of course the bill for service, but that hasn’t changed.)

The point being the phone was something under your control and so in a very meaningful way it was your phone. It did not “update” itself to a different color or location overnight; the keypad didn’t alter itself to some new format. It was just a phone and that was all there was to it.

Now it’s a device – and so is your vehicle, if it’s new. Even if it’s not an electric device. They are all electronically remote-controlled devices and you have the illusion of control and so the illusion of ownership, never mind that you get to pay for not owning these devices.

Who controls these devices? Why, their owners, of course.

I do not mean the legal-technicality owner; i.e., the person who writes the check each month to the finance company or even the person who holds “title”  – free and clear! – to the device. He is no more the true owner of the device than the person who thinks he owns the home he paid-off the mortgage on. The real owners are the ones who tell him what he is allowed to do with (and to) his home and require him to pay them rent money to avoid being evicted from the home he is allowed to use so long as he continues to pay (and obey).

And now homes are on the receiving end of “updates,” too. So-called “smart” meters and “smart” devices are the means by which homes are “updated.” Meaning, controlled by the true owners, who aren’t the ones living within. It is silly to imagine yourself the owner of a home in which the “smart” thermostat countermands the temperature you selected (and are paying for, to boot).

Tesla revealed how the same can (and will) be done to the device that they – the controllers – plan to replace your vehicle with. An “update” was sent by the true owner of these devices, allowing them to travel farther on a charge, in order to allow the users of these devices to get out of the range of hurricanes. This was received with thanks – by fools who do not understand that the power to give includes the power to take away.

When you are the owner of a vehicle that cannot be “updated” – unless you physically update it, as for example by modifying its engine or replacing the stereo it came with – then you have control over it and also knowable control. You know exactly how much fuel the tank holds and if it is full, you know it will not be empty (assuming there’s no leak) until you use the fuel. You know how far it will go. You have the peace of mind that comes with knowing how far it goes is not subject to “updating.”

And neither is anything else. What you bought is what you have and – short of physical confiscation – it cannot be taken away. On the other hand, if you own a device, you have the shaky illusion of control. The device can be disabled as easily as it is enabled, by the owner – who isn’t you. Down to the heated seats you thought you bought but which work only so long as you maintain your subscription – and an “update” doesn’t tell them to stop working.

And that’s the “update” for today.

. . .

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Related posts:
  1. Stalked by a Tesla
  2. “Unlocking” What You “Own”
  3. Don’t Buy a Used EV
  4. The Battery “Breakthrough”
  5. Updating an older car with an overdrive transmission…

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76 COMMENTS

  1. ‘Such is the nature of “updates” when it comes to devices.’ — eric

    Updates lead to debacles like this one:

    ‘This week GM said it was delaying the first sales of its 2024 GMC Canyon and Chevrolet Colorado midsize pickups to ensure that the software on the vehicles functions properly.

    ‘The decision affects about 15,000 pickups, a GMC spokesperson said. The move comes a few months after GM’s Chevy brand issued a software-related stop sale on the Blazer EV.’ — Automotive News

    https://archive.ph/hidcw#selection-7593.0-7603.17

    If software can shut down sales of 15,000 pickups, just imagine what it’s going to do to owners when buggy updates to buggy source code start coming in over the air.

    First you see the spinning wheel that means ‘downloading’ … followed by the BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death).

    Congratulations, my friend: you are now the owner of a three-ton brick. Got tow trucks?

    • Hi Yuri!

      Yup. What a gorgeous car. That Jag is what a luxury car used to be. Look how far we’ve fallen in just 20 years’ time. From a V8 supercharged magnificent thing like that to something with a 2.0 liter turbo four – or just a battery. It makes me very, very sad.

      And, mad.

      • I lusted after their XJ-L models. I just looked and they have been discontinued. sad, was a beauty to me. And had powerful engines.
        I looked on their website and they don’t even mention engine size and/or cylinders, etc… anymore. They are embarrassed too.

      • When Jaguar slotted its 5.3-litre V12 engine under the bonnet of the S1 XJ in 1972, it was the only company in the world selling a V12 saloon.

        It was voted by an automotive magazine as the best car in the world….

  5. You buy a house for x dollars, you pay taxes, y dollars, you pay insurance, z dollars, you pay municipal services, s dollars. You end up paying through the nose, n dollars.

    X + Y + Z + S + N = more than you want to know and more than you’ll ever recover.

    Have to update the value of your home to include taxes, insurance and services paid over 35 years that leaves you holding the bag, every time. Plus the purchase price, makes you cry. All totaled, the nose factor.

    Not only do you pay through the nose, it all costs an arm and a leg to boot.’

    Just. To. Live.

    Makes no sense.

    But they came here by boat and they came here by plane
    They blistered their hands and they burned out their brain
    All dreaming a dream, that’ll never come true…
    It don’t make much sense that common sense
    Don’t make much sense no more     – John Prine, Common Sense

    • Thats the final plan. Machine learning is used to analyze huge sets of data. Currently its hard to make use of most of the data gathered. With phones spying everything and ai using that it can build patterns and locate all possible dissidents. There is no worse technology than AI. AI enables dystopia unseen in human history.

    • Seems kind of pointless, as on most sites there seems to be no lack of humans who will gladly censor “wrong thought” for free on their own time and without compulsion.

      • Sadly true Arthur,
        Never understood why so many people are willing to rat out their fellow citizens; the East German Stazi on steroids.

  7. For a while the FDA even reported to using this “Up to date” terminology with regard to the COVID “vaccines”. They ran PSAs imploring people to do things like “Supercharge your immune system” and “Keep it up to date” by getting the latest COVID booster jab.

    • I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if there were some sort of “connectivity” built in to the new mRNA jabs, complete with the ability for them to “upgrade” you automatically. If it’s not in there, it’s in the works. Bank on it.

    • The latest PSA last week on the radio implored getting a “booster “ if it had been TWO MONTHS since the last one. And don’t forget that flu shot, you can get both at the same visit! Unreal.

  9. There are alternatives. Unfortunately they are projects run by techies for techies. So be ready to be your own tech support team.

    Pine 64. This is an open source phone OS running on RISC-V (open source ARM) hardware. It can run most Linux variants, including plain-vanilla Android OS. Support is sketchy and company/project could go t**s up anytime.

    Sailfish OS (by Jolla(dot)com). Started out at Nokia as the N700/N8x0 Internet tablets (a huge for the time pocket computer about the size of an iPhone 15 Max). Development team left Nokia after Microsoft acquisition killed the project. Linux with custom skin. Back in ’19 or so added support for Android apps. Rumor has it that this is the only OS the Russian government will allow on their handsets. Hardware is hard to find in the States because of copyright and patent issues. Several Sony/Ericsson phones can be flashed with the OS

    GraphineOS. A security focused fork of the Android Open Source Project, it offers a fairly polished U/I and supports a variety of handsets. A few independent shops have showed up to do the hard part for you.

    As I said, none of these solutions are as simple as walking into an Apple Store. But then again, is setting the jets on your carburetor easier than dumping some injector cleaner down your fuel tank once in a while? There’s still no real assurance that some developers won’t get a wild hair and redesign the UI overnight, but my experience with OSS is that the community really hates any change, so whomever makes the decision better have a really good justification. And when that new design shows up, guaranteed someone will fork the OS to keep the old one.

    This is by no means a comprehensive list. There are lots of de-googled Android variants, and I’m certain more choices on the international market. Some of them might have Chinese spyware. Many will have US spyware, but we already have that at the network level anyway. For sure having a good tech background will be crucial for the near term.

    • Ironically, the overengineered TV remote control device pictured, the Harmony universal remote, is no longer supported with updates by its manufacturer, Logitech.

    • LineageOS is an open source port of Android which supports several current Google Pixel devices, but I run the system on a Moto G4 Play as a “corporate free” phone experience and backup map device.

      “Corporate free” living on a smart phone is possible, but it leaves a lot to be desired.

      • Unfortunately the open source “community” leans communist, especially with the adoption of GPL 3.0. Most decent OSS uses the more profit-friendly MIT license, but if there’s any GNU/Linux code in your build it is going to fall under GPL.

        • Being a Linux user myself and quite interested in all things Linux/GNU, I was watching a Richard Stallman speech a while back (The founder of GNU and log-time resident of MIT) in which he proclaimed his love of Bernie Sanders (All while speaking of “freedom” and proclaiming his love for privacy!).

          Stinking commies, everywhere!

    • Hey ReadyK,

      I have a PinePhone Pro, but after crashing the the OS it came with (Manjaro), I haven’t gotten around to the experimentation necessary to bring it back to life and usefulness.

      The phone itself is decent, and you have to love the physical switches and removable battery if you like your security. The battery life is pretty weak, however. Luckily, you can just carry extra batteries, and they’re very inexpensive (~$7).

      • That’s been my experience too. I have a drone ground station/transmitter that runs on a variant of Pine hardware and open source Android. It had several sketchy updates that took me a lot of time to get fixed, so now I’m very hesitant to do anything to it. The big saving grace is that it has become the choice hardware for custom drone builders now that DJI is persona non grata in US government circles, so the company making it has become more careful in issuing updates.

        • Custom drone work sounds like a lot of fun. Hopefully one of these days…
          I agree that open source software updates can be risky, and knowing how to reverse these is a rewarding skill. At least there is much more user control with such software, and updates can simply be ignored, especially for offline devices.

    • I think pine phone Is better idea. Android despite being open source is so badly made and uselessly complex it makes no sense going with that route . Its 10x easier to make any program on Windows or Linux than on android. Android makes android developers hate their life. Making a simple GUI with few buttons is difficult.
      Linux has some sloppiness in it but once you learn it it becomes completely superior to anything else.

  10. ‘You used to know which inscrutable icon did what – and where it was located.’ — eric

    ‘Shigetaka Kurita is often credited with inventing emoji in 1999. Kurita’s emoji, intended for a Japanese user base, were very simple—only 12 pixels by 12 pixels—and were inspired by manga art and kanji characters.’ — Britannica

    All well and good. But for most of the hundreds of emoji, I have to hover the cursor over it to see what emotion it’s supposed to convey. No, I’m not autistic — I can read human faces. But those little cartoons don’t have much meaning for me unless they are very basic — such the pile of poop one, which I understand to mean ‘Microsoft.’

    A far worse offense is pointless changes in layout. Notoriously, Windows 8 hid the Start button. Dozens of third-party shells, such as Open-Shell, were developed to put the controls back where users wanted them — as opposed to where square-headed, grey-skinned, off-planet coders in Redmond dictated they should.

    It’s all about CONTROL. Nobody controls my internet-connection-free vehicles but me. I don’t want software in my freaking car. Don’t want no giant Clownscreen, like some ghetto-ass living room. Because sooner or later, I’d end up smashing it with a 3-pound hammer.

    Mister Musk … take this device and shove it.

    • > I don’t want software in my freaking car.
      Or my cat, either. 🙂
      “It’s just this little chromium switch, here. I don’t know *why* you people think this is magic. You’re *so* superstitious.”

    • Hi Jim,

      In re: “I don’t want software in my freaking car. Don’t want no giant Clownscreen, like some ghetto-ass living room.”

      Amen! I have had this same thought for years – but you articulated it precisely!

    • > A far worse offense is pointless changes in layout. Notoriously, Windows 8 hid the Start button.

      More recently, Windows 11 moved it (and the pinned apps next to it) from the left edge of the taskbar to the middle. One of the first things I do on bringing it up on a new box is move that stuff back to the left, where it belongs. Fortunately, there’s a taskbar setting that controls it…but who, exactly, asked for this change in behavior that’s been around for the better part of 30 years?

  11. in days of (extremely) yore, you did not own your telephone. Telephone Company did, and these analog devices were mostly manufactured by Western Electric, a Bell Telephone subsidiary. You, the subscriber, paid a monthly rental fee for the telephone, as well as the privilege of attaching the phone to the copper telephone wiring in your own domicile.

    Telephone company had the capability to detect how many telephones were attached to the wiring (more on that below), so they could charge subscribers per telephone (these were called “extension” phones). Knowledgeable subscribers could thwart Telco’s dastardly scheme, and get free “extensions,” which violated terms of service.

    So, how could Telco tell how many phones were attached to a line? By measuring capacitance on the bell circuit, which they did remotely, from a test board* at the local telephone exchange. One of the test board operator’s duties was to to snoop subscriber lines for “unauthorized extensions,” which was done on a regular basis. To “get away with” having an “unauthorized extension,” it was only necessary to not attach the bell circuit on all but one telephone.

    And that, boys and girls, is how it was done in the old days. 🙂

    * The test boards, which were quite old and made of wood, were located in the area of the local telephone exchange known as “repair service.” By extension (pun intended), Telco evidently viewed “unauthorized (i.e. unpaid) extensions” as damage to the system, which needed to be repaired.

        • I was only a lurker, Adi. But I heard cool stories. Like a phone phreak who made those electromagnetic relays cascade seven times round the world, producing a full second of delay from end to end.

          186,000 miles per second, yo. Speed of light ‘n shit.

    • And more importantly, when the network operator owned the handsets, the primary goal of innovation was to reduce cost. So that corded phone didn’t do anything until the CO was configured to handle it. And add-ons like Touch Tone™ dials cost an extra buck a month at a time when that would buy 2 gallons of fuel or 4 packs of cigarettes.

      That reliability was a lie too. 99.999% uptime, AKA “The Five Nines” was only a goal for SONET circuits. The network to your home wasn’t subject to much in the way of reliable service outside of PUC requirements which were so diluted it was almost impossible for Ma Bell to be in violation. The saving grace of the network was the costly per-minute charge, which insured brevity and limited use. Sure you had dial tone, but could you complete a call?

      That said, I remember the odd looking “cordless phone” props from ’70s film and television, where the (usually evil) rich character would be lounging by the pool and some minion would bring over a desk phone with an antenna attached to the back. “How cool was that?” we thought. Heck the thing probably ran on a nuclear battery too! Real cordless phones would have to wait for the Carterphone decision.

      I remember going to a gathering at a neighbor of my grandparents in Florida. This was probably around 1974. They had a white Touch Tone phone that had a lit keypad and a cord long enough to reach out to the pool/patio. THAT was state of the art back then.

        • Nope. I was about 8 years old at the time. From the northeast, where if there was a pool in the backyard it was a rusted out above ground hulk of a thing that basically collected leaves and bread insects. Going to Florida to visit the grandparents was like taking a trip to the future… boats, swimming pools, beaches, arrow-straight roads and big shopping centers. Modern glass buildings, lots of palm trees and grass. And grandad’s Pontiacs… Massive land yachts with air conditioning always on full-blast and a chrome plated CB mounted under the dash. And those old metal GM seatbelt buckles (strange the things you remember and don’t) that would get hot as Hades in the parking lot.

          Usually on the way home we’d stop in Orlando and spend a day at Disney World, then head back to the real world of Pennsylvania. Never stopping at South Of The Border or the other tourist traps, because we had to make good time!

          • Ah, South of the Border. I remember the first time I ever drove from Massachusetts to Florida, after seeing those billboards for 200 miles, just had to stop and see what it was about. Rather disappointing, I must say. It’s still there, although I can’t imagine how. I drive by it 6 or 8 times a year now, there’s usually not even a single car in that whole giant place.

            • I remember the mechanical billboards! More interesting than the actual tourist trap. Also really expensive to maintain, so they had to go sometime in the 1980s.

              Probably a good thing, there’s no way they’d survive the “urban artists” of today. Some troll would draw penises on all the arms and such. I wonder if the Mexican-American community tried to cancel ol’ Pedro?

              Of course it’s been around long enough they could apply for national landmark status, and make the billboards an historic site.

    • …..You, the subscriber, paid a monthly rental fee for the telephone……

      Some people paid rent on the same crappy phone for 30 years…..that is a huge amount of money….the phone company probably bought it for $5.00….lol

  12. I am in my early 20s, never was taught anything useful about home loans. What do you mean you do not own your home after paying off the Mortgage? Just curious, as since I have found your website I respect your opinion. As far I as can gather from research, you get the deed once you pay off your loan, Is there something hidden they leave out? If so, what is the advice for someone who wants to buy a home and OWN it?

    • Taxes you continue to pay to the government. The real owner. The government also controls what you can and can not doe with “your” property.

    • Welcome, Chris. Anything that is called a “Property Tax” is more accurately called “Rent”. All property in the U.S. is taxed (rented) on an annual basis. It’s not called rent because people would then realize what the government [GovCo] game is all about. GovCo also tells you what your house is “worth” and what you will pay. There is no viable recourse. If you don’t pay they will send people with guns to run you off and transfer the property to someone who will pay what they demand. GovCo can also take your property and transfer it to someone they think will pay higher taxes than you can. This was decided in the Kelo v. City of New London CT.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelo_v._City_of_New_London

      Depending on the state you live in you may also have to pay “Personal Property Tax” which means you pay an annual tax, beyond the license plate fee, to keep your car, boat, etc. Or, it too will be seized and auctioned off.

      Bottom line, GovCo is a rapacious entity that has an insatiable desire to control and rule the lives of others. Sorry to give you such lovely news on a Monday morning but, GovCo is taking the day off today. They should stay home the next 365 days as well. Maybe we could get our Freedom back.

    • Hi Chris,

      Good to have you with us! Now, as regards your question: If you are obliged to pay rent to not be evicted, then you are a renter. Not an owner. If you have paid off the loan you took out to buy the home, you have paid off the mortgage. But you still pay rent – to the government. It is styled “property tax” but it works just the same in that if you do not pay the rent, you will be evicted from what you thought was your home – and it will be sold off to someone else, to pay what the landlord/government says you “owe.”

      I paid off my mortgage 20 years ago. Yet I am just about to send a big payment in to the government so as to be allowed to occupy the home I thought I paid off 20 years ago. Since the time I paid off my mortgage, I have been made to pay around $50k to the government in “property taxes.” It is less than I would have to pay to formally rent a house for the past 20 years. But it is rent, nonetheless. And it never ends. A defining characteristic of renting.

      I will never truly own my home – and neither will you or anyone else – so long as we are forced to pay what amounts to rent to be allowed to continue living in it.

      • I think “rent” is to kind of a word for this racket.

        If you do not pay your “fair share” in rent, eventually someone will come to your door with a gun to enforce the payment.

        If you resist, they will kill both you and your dog “in the line of duty”, be celebrated as heroes, have a paid for vacation and get a free drink or two.

        That is what happens if you disagree with the regime.

        Anon

      • Another thing to note, your “rent” to The State is not negotiable. You may, rarely, win a valuation challenge that’s it. Like noted in other comments don’t pay the “rent” property tax and see what happens.

        The “rent” increases via forces outside your control, again rarely, these increases are throttled by citizen initiatives. What is more common are drastic increases by special levies voted into approval by your brain dead neighbors. Usually schools, I’m paying about $750 a year extra so the kiddies have a hobby farm at the two building school district I’m in, hobby farm voted into existence by fools. Also this two building four school bus district is managed by my neighbor 3 houses away who now has a base yearly salary of $186,400 in a county with an average wage of about $42k a year.

        My “rent” was $2900 in 2019 it’s about $4700 this year, first half due end of April. My paid off home legal paperwork sits in the safe deposit box, that’s all I really own.

        • Same here, Sparkey –

          Inevitably, the property taxes force the “owner” to sell as most “owners” eventually can’t keep up with the increases in rent, especially if they’re retired. The only way out I see is to live like a pauper. Which, of course, is just exactly what they want.

          • This is like breaking your legs and handing you a band-aid but… in NC, after 65 age and subject to certain (very low) income limits and other conditions, you can either:
            1. defer paying some or all of your gov’t rent depending on your circumstances and they just tack it on year after year as a lien and collect it when you die and the property is sold or…
            2. claim an “exclusion” from paying property taxes.

            Note that these programs apply to the permanently disabled and certain veterans of any age as well.

            The optics of the sheriff selling homes out from under people who ostensibly can’t work anymore just aren’t that great, ya see.

              • Just so you know, property taxes in NC are low compared to a lot of places, including NJ, where I spent the first 35 years of my life. I left there in ‘09 paying $12k a year. I pay about $1350 a year here in coastal NC.

              • Hey Chris!

                You can just identify as old enough to collect SS. I have been thinking of actually trying this. Just for the sick fun of it. Why not, after all? If we must “accept” that a he is a “she” because he so identifies, then why can’t I identify as old enough to collect my check?

      • Thank You eric, now I know that you were referring to property tax that makes sense. I have rented my whole life, so I had no idea that property tax was that. high.

        • You bet, Chris!

          It really blows dead toads (as we used to say) that even when you’ve finally paid off your house, you’re still effectively a renter. The upside is, the rent’s less – and while the landlord does tell you what you’re allowed to do with “your” place, you do have more freedom of action that you would if you were a formal renter.

      • Yes sir. I am 23yr old Diesel mechanic. I own and daily drive a 1977 Dodge d100 truck and have a ’68 Dodge dart project. I thank my dad getting me into the good Ol’ stuff. My first car was a ’81 ram charger I wrenched on thru high school.

        • Cool, is the Dart a big block? Those Darts were made to be street legal race cars. Basically a chassis and a drivetrain, not much more.

            • That’s ok. I have a 71 Charger with a 440, and a 79 Firebird with a 350, and the 350 is much more enjoyable to drive! If I want to cruise around town, the Charger is good, but if I want to bang gears in the twisties, the little Firebird is the way to go, as it handles like a porch… uh I mean Porshe.

    • Hi Chris, learn about what I call the ‘mortgage scam’ too. Standard 30yr mortgages are the worst. All you have to do is do an amortization schedule to see that you will be paying mostly interest for a long time. So 10yrs in, paying $2-3K thinking your getting somewhere, nope…. not even close. Same with car loans, etc…. I think it’s the biggest scam on middle class folks in history.
      My kids are your age, are renting currently, but they know about these ‘loan’ scams. Luckily I made one kid buy his first new dirtbike himself at 16. I told him about the loan thing and he didn’t care, wanted the bike. 2 yrs later he wanted a newer one, and learned the truth, “wholly crap, I still owe a significant amount of what I bought it for……..!!!!!” Yup, told ya. They are saving up heavy now, and likely my wife and I will ‘loan’ them a significant piece of their first house purchase without ‘all upfront’ interest. Big deal. I believe it is part of becoming more free.
      Best of luck.

    • allodial title

      If you do not have alloidial title do you really “own” that house or property

      What we have is Fee Simple title.

      The “Fee” refers to ‘fief’. We’re Serfs.

      Property taxes exist for the same reason zoning laws exist…because no matter what you ‘thought’ you owned, you don’t actually own anything!

      The term is “Alloidal Title”. It means that the owner of such title has first claim on ownership of that land preceding all other claimants.

      In the United States Alloidal Title is retained by the Government….

      in canada the crown…king charles the 3rd owns all the land, has allodial title.

      So you can forget all that “Here, Sir, the people rule” stuff. Furthermore of note, you might understand that this indicates the government is sovereign …and not the people, as widely proclaimed.

      So, what kind of title do you have in the United States or canada?

      With a few exceptions you have what is called “Fee Simple Title”.

      It means that the orignal owner, the sovereign, NOT YOU, may encumber your temporary possession of the land with any number of demands.

      The Sovereign may demand rent. The Sovereign may demand taxes. The Sovereign may restrict the use of the land to only a few (or a single) use. Or the Sovereign may demand military or domestic service such as a draft…or registration thereto…in return for tenancy.

      And the Sovereign may take back the land at any time (see Emminent Domain). In historical contexts Sovereigns have even demanded sexual services for themselves…and for their supporters, officers, and bureaucrats (see Prima Noctus).

      But what does the term “Fee Simple” mean?

      Well…and you probably won’t like this… the “Fee” part refers to the nature of the estate which holds the title. Fee refers to a feudal fief.

      The second part “Simple” refers to the type of ownership interest the estate holds: Simple or Simple Conditional.

      So, if this clashes with what you learned in school about the American Revolution, “Of, For, and By the People”, immigration for “Free Land”, “Popular Sovereignty” and all that… Perhaps you should challenge those beliefs. Alternatively…the government has some explaining to do.

      Regardless, in the Colonial period and until the 1840’s real property was held much as other property – and could easily be traded in its entirety free of traditional encumbrances. Since then? Yes…but, as noted, with encumbrances by the property’s “Ultimate” owner…which is not the person who purchased it.

      • In historical contexts Sovereigns have even demanded sexual services for themselves…and for their supporters, officers, and bureaucrats (see Prima Noctus).

        Prima Noctus…..means the king got to sleep 1st with your bride on your wedding night…..the sniffer would like to bring this back?….lol….

        The brides that would not co operate were labeled witches and burnt to the stake…..

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