About Some of the Recent Bad News · 8:51am Nov 18th, 2015
Hey, all. How are you all doing? Very well, I should hope.
As I'm sure you're all aware, the past few days have seen a tidal wave of bad news. New attacks in Paris, Lebanon, Irak, not sure about the last one, since that's not covered by our media. The ones in Paris are dominating the news right now, but they were spread to other parts of the world, apparently. That's local news for ya.
I've been pondering what to write as a response to it all. But to be totally honest, there's nothing to say that I didn't already say when the Charlie Hebdo thing happened. And, as you know, I hate rehashing old material. I'd rather put a new spin on old ideas. Thunderfoot's covered all the bases of it already, anyway.
So I'd like to turn to some other bad news that got revealed recently: that of actor Charlie Sheen. He's announced he's HIV positive. Due to, he says, depression about the situation he was in, he made some bad decisions and he now has to pay the price. He says he'll turn his life around.
And you know what? I hope he manages it. I hope we don't get another preachy celebrity that tries to guilt-trip people into assuming their agenda at face value (you know who you are), I hope he finds something he can get behind and use his voice for good. And I hope he manages to make the difference he wants to make, if only as proof that people can change for the better. Proof, perhaps, to himself if not to others.
I realise it might seem odd to want to focus on something so small when such big things are going on, but that's the thing. With all the bad news coming the past few days, I think it's important not to look for a silver lining around the clouds, but to look for the sunshine in between them. Yes, bad things happened these past few days. Ill tidings were delivered. But maybe some forces for good have been set in motion, unrelated to the bad ones. Maybe there is good news to be had far away from all this gloom and doom, but we don't see it yet. Not big good news right now, but little things that can build up.
Take care, y'all. I'll save the more personal stuff for when the world isn't ending.
I wish I could remember where I posted it. But these attacks pretty much did what I said would happen. You can't start and justify a war unless you incite fear and hatred into the hearts of its people. This will allow the shadow groups to get away with literal murder in the name of 'progress'.
Now France is up in arms and as per usual the arms dealers who thrive on war and death and the one nation so eager to push it's agenda to force companies to eliminate encryption, outlaw it and give full unconditional power to spy on everyday citizens which have been illegally happening since 2001-2002 that I could dig up, not counting the phone taps of the 90's, is going to continue seeing tragedies as I've been predicting will come, until all agendas on the table have been met.
I'm not joking. We'll be going to war with Russia and China soon enough. Though China and Iran will play a big part in how that inevitable war will go. Shadow groups are running things pretty deep in our governments. Media and corporations help turn the eye away from those who knew of these attacks, had the intelligence to intervene. But they won't. They access risks and damages, potential benefits such as bringing some neutral force into the war who may become assets in the future, and weigh in the value of those human lives vs the interests and gains to those in power.
While some attacks are blind hate, I have a hard time not seeing this as a grab for resources at the cost of innocents. Despite the war crimes we've committed, not a single person has yet to face charges. There are lots of people afraid of losing their power of control through intimidation. The fear of not being able to get their way through sheer show of force. We just all but declared all out way against Russia with our renewing an arms race. It's been going on for awhile, but now Russia has gone from defensive tech, to focusing on full on offensive programs. They did not take America's challenge lightly.
The assassination program on how even normal citizens are placed into the list with baseball card stats is disgusting. Everything is a simple push of a button now. Call it a terrorist and it's okay. Our military caught and confirms in the past waves of destruction we've put out as labeling clearly normal civilians as enemies (there is a specific term they use but I can't recall) and things are just going to shits pretty fast here. Too many want to continue staying in perpetual war for all the money it brings in.
Imagine all you can get is some $22k a year. But due to rent and bills, you use up like $13k in that year in those two things. Now say you get taxed some $4100'ish in taxes due to the 18.12% taxation in some heavy taxing state that disallowed deductions based on state and federal to be put on your taxes. That's 17k. Which, if you assume normal insurance for a car plus gas is like 200 to 400 that's almost 4k of your hard earned income. Out of some 5k'ish, you've only $1k-$1.3k'ish to spend on yourself throughout the whole of a year for a single not married individual in a low income minimum wage job of which pays $13-$15 with lowest end being unlivable if you got anything less. Sure, you get like a refund on taxes, but that'd barely put you at $4k IF that to spend on YOURSELF in a single year.
HOW IS THIS FAIR?
Because it's designed to not be fair. We tax too high, rent too high, and charge too much in this country JUST for everyday basic human needs. Why do homeowners typically choose to sell or rent their homes out? Property tax. Not only are you still paying for a house you fully paid for, but it might even exceed the normal cost of just renting a home.
Where does all this tax go to? The federal bank. What do they do with your money? Invest in more efficient ways to assassinate people they don't like and freely slaughter and displace millions of lives across the globe.
Everyone just has blood on their hands. War never changes? Big laugh. It gets worst with time. I only wish the people in the world would collectively stop paying their taxes all at once. Every. Last. One of them. At once. Global strike. Whatcha gonna do? Jail everyone? Better start building new prisons_OH WAIT! You need TAXES that! Evict everyone? Good luck. Courts would be drowning in eviction trials. Kill them all and have the states raise the children in some military style upbringing and have military decide who breeds with who and when? Well, we're still a ways away from a "Gargantua" anime situation, so not quite yet I suppose. XD
Anyhow, just rambling. Wanted to toss out my usual cup of /tinfoil for the last time till who knows when. Have fun!
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You're not leaving, are ya?
On the rest of your post: I'm not familiar with how things are in America, so I can't really comment on it. All I know is that I'm lucky to live in a First-World country that has a history of the oppressed becoming oppressors in their own right, and as a result tries to keep tolerance in its culture. I can't speak for the financial stuff, since, you know, still unemployed and living with the folks, much to my shame.
Every nation has a shadow side, every system has its pros and cons. I guess the bigger nations just have a bigger shadow.
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Long story short: most of the negativity is just the sense that I ought to be further along by now, to have had at least one job or made money with something. It's not so much shame as it is aimlessness and uncertainty. It doesn't help that I finished most of October's projects, but am only doing NaNoWriMo this month. I did outline a little animation this week, but whether it'll actually get done is up in the air right now. Which is appropriate, given its content. I'll do a post once I can sketch my main characters. I need to see if I can even do it.
Edit: removed pointless ramble here.
Anyways, hope the house hunting goes well.
3550987 I love pointless ramblings. Feel free to pointlessly ramble anytime.
I get what you mean, it also gets harder to meet stupid requirements for tasks you do in other places that have less requirements. Best of luck with the job hunts and the writing month stuff as well.