I think all this is going well, this Work and Fun business. After knocking out last night's News, I wound up writing one of my assigned pieces of Work in the wee hours and laid down the other one this morning. I'm still getting the flow of things but I do think they came out well. It is pretty dry stuff, but one of them at least let me have a little fun.
Anyhow, the world moves along at the dumbass pace this reality finds itself in. Rolling off the president's incompetence, mendacity and constant flip-flopping, another group of states have gotten together to work out their "reopening" amongst themselves. The governors of Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, and Kentucky have signed a multi-state agreement to coordinate strategies for reopening their economies, and why not. The president proves on a daily basis that he is indeed playing favorites, his favorites still manage to suck at their job, and his goons actively organize AstroTurf organizations to make things harder for "disloyal" governors for some damn reason, probably because they're bastards.
Apparently he's still pushing for May 1st as the day the country is supposed to "reopen," whatever the hell that means. I don't see why it's such a hanging manner. Apparently thanks to the recovery of the stock market, the 10 most billionaire billionaires made an additional $51 billion by doing what appears to be absolutely nothing. As I've said, I don't really grok the stock market or why it's necessary for mankind's continued survival, but that's nice work if you can get it. Why we can't tax a modicum of that extra $51 billion they weren't hurting for so other 327,999,990 million of us can eat is beyond me.
Speaking of rich rat bastards, Georgia's nepotism Sen. Kelly Loeffler - best known for being given her seat and making a shit-ton of more money thanks to insider trading at the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic - has been assigned to the "task force to reopen America" because why the hell not. I refuse to believe Trump has that much wit to do something like this as a cruel twist. He's just a dumbass who doesn't give a shit.
Let's see, what else... well, Elizabeth Warren finally came out and endorsed Joe Biden, which for some reason set the rabid ding dongs who can't accept Bernie Sanders wasn't just given the nomination by the party leadership he's been flipping off for the past five years. He, of course, readily endorsed Biden just a few days after he dropped out of the race, but Warren's endorsement opened those days-old wounds.
So they've spent the day howling about "scorched earths" and Warren's obvious treachery against Saint Bernie. Where all this comes from, I don't know and really don't understand. Maybe it's just how my brain works, but this "Great Man Who Will Save Us All" is quite possibly the most dangerous and distracting aspect of American politics.
For one, it's too much to lay on one person's shoulders. The ding dongs would have lost their minds if Sanders had actually won the nomination and found himself in the position of making the sausage of politics. That would have happened. And had he actually become president? Hoo buddy, to get anything done he would have had to do some serious shucking and jiving to get Medicare For All passed. Their heads would've exploded like popped zits if Warren gets them this het up.
Look, y'all. There are no Saviors. There are no Great Men. Trump's loony followers think he's the Great Man, their Savior. If you think that's the way things should work, how society should run, then neighbor, you have been drinking some bad buttermilk.
We see this so much lately, and not just from conservatives who you kind of understand they act that way. Liberals, leftists, socialists, communists, hell, even some anarchists for some goddamn reason. I really don't get it. I thought we'd left all this sort of thing behind when we collectively decided "divine right" was a bullshit stroke. Ah, well.
I believe that'll do. I've written a good bit in the past 24 hours and I think that is plenty. Still looking forward to XCOM: Chimera Squad and will probably plop down the bread for it when it's released. Maybe give it a day to see what the "critics" say about it. I've already broken my rule with Rebel Galaxy Outlaw and that worked out well. Besides, between my birthday the other day and recent Work joys, I'm due a reward. And hey, if the Work blows up in my face, I'd need a treat to sooth the burn. Winner all the way around.
Showing posts with label eat the rich. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eat the rich. Show all posts
Thursday, April 16, 2020
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
Well, good evening. Don't that sun look good going down?
I really don't understand why Sunday's Gibberish got more hits than Monday's News. I thought the News piece was good and the Gibberish was just okay. Granted, no one's telling me that either are good or bad and I'm just going off clicks, but still. I wonder what it is that's pulling in the eyes. At least with the WordPress site, it tells me where some come from and that's always interesting.
Ah well. Today's the second day of the Project and, if nothing else, I appreciate not having to scour the news websites looking for something to spark my imagination. I can just ramble on and talk about video games, which is what I'm going to do. I think the practice of sticking mostly to News benefited the piece, but we'll see how it all works out when I do tomorrow's News.
I guess before I get too deep into things, I should link up yesterday's gobbledygook. This was the latest update on COVID-19, since that's dominating the news and public's attention. Beyond everything else, we've moved into the "we must be willing to sacrifice for capitalism" stage of things, as a swath of talking heads, bloggers and people with podcasts said, hypothetically, it was okay if people got unnecessarily sick, perhaps even died because they went to work. The "strongest economy in history" is apparently so fragile that it can't just chill for a couple weeks until we figure out what's going on and what to do about it.
Skeptical then about the urgency of this claim, I did a little Googling and found out some interesting things concerning just how much wealth the very wealthy have. I know it won't matter to the Renfields of the world, but I truly do not really begrudge someone with millions or billions of dollars they'll never, ever spend. I don't have anything but contempt for them, but hey, don't hate the player, they say. It is what it is.
That all being said, their wealth - a little over 160 trillion dollars all told, and this is actual on-hand wealth - comes from other people doing most of the work. "But they take the risks," I hear you bleat. Yeah, and every time someone drives to work, they take the risk of being t-boned by a drunk driver where the very rich have bailouts and bankruptcy protections. Furthermore, most of these uber-wealthy make more in a day than most of the rest of us see in a lifetime. Some do it in an hour. Kylie Jenner makes the American median salary in two-and-a-half hours. That's a staggering stroke to wrap one's head around.
Anyway, read the Tumblr post and decide for yourself. I don't know if they get a blast fax or subliminal messages from Fox News, but the wingnut Twitter population is down to the ground with the idea of restaurant workers, retail workers and others they feel don't deserve a living wage for a 40-hour work week need to get back to it before some hedge fund loses less than 2% of its worth. I, for one, am not surprised and neither should anyone else. Americans - this may be worldwide, but us especially - have a certain reverence for the wealthy. We like the idea that just because a guy's got a shit-ton of money it not only makes him a super-genius in every other field beyond what he made bank in, but also makes him just a more worthy person. Some even think it means they deserve to be president when the only thing that really made them rich was being born to the right parents.
But I digress. I also got a wild hair and wrote a bit about the excellent and much under-appreciated '80s rock & roll group The Bus Boys. Inspired by the deep delve into the baffling wealth gap in our society, I was inspired to post some music that celebrated the working man. Mainly the Bus Boys and Merle Haggard, but I think that's good enough for anybody.
Okay, video games. I played more of Dungeon Siege as well as its two sequels. Honestly, I may like the second game better than the first. This story's a bit more interesting and there's a graphical upgrade. However it's apparently tougher, as I keep getting wiped out every time the challenge steps up and I have to keep throwing my party at the challenge like battering my head against a wall until it breaks. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, I don't know.
The third game, however, left me sort of cold. It looks nice and there seems to be a story worth telling, but I just didn't care. I usually get a taste of a game by either playing through the tutorial or getting past the game's first little bit, like after the Grey Wardens initially get wiped out in Dragon Age: Origins because that obviously evil looking guy did 'em dirty. If it gets me, I come back. This one, however, I was considering just dropping it before I got to that stopping place and deleted it off my hard drive once I did.
Another issue I had with it is a player is given four pre-made characters to go through the story. They all have their own backgrounds and there's no customization or even ambivalence to what they're trying to accomplish. I like a little grey area. In the first game, you're a farmer. In the second, you're a possible repentant mercenary. However, both are open ended enough that a player can add a little nuance to the character. The one in Two Worlds II is defined by his search for his sister and the guy in Divinity II is a raw recruit dealing with everything going to shit even before he's fully inducted.
I need to get back to Two Worlds II to finish it off, just like I need to do with Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Pillars of Eternity 2. However, I'll probably put a little more work into Divinity II or maybe give the first games of the Risen and Gothic series another shot. I still have a passel of XCOM-influenced turn-based strategy games to mess around with, too. I don't know how in the hell people with actual lives find the time to play as much as they seem to do.
What else is there. Snopes posted some job openings this morning. I applied to a couple but I doubt anything will come of it. I spent too much time out of the game and haven't done enough work since getting back into it for anyone seriously looking for labor to give a look. Or so in my mind, anyway, but I'm known for having laughably low self-esteem. I posted links to this and The News, since that's all I've got that's less than 15 years old. I think there are plenty of gems among the dross, but I do worry my flippant tone and potty mouth might turn some off. I can behave if I'm getting paid, is all I'm going to say about it.
Otherwise, I'm listening to Waylon Jennings' 1974 album The Ramblin' Man. I've got two tracks to go and once they're done, I'm done. For what it's worth, I don't think we've seen anything close to the end of the whole COVID-19 business and, what's more, it's going to develop into a much bigger hassle whether we "go back to work" or not. Doesn't really affect me either way, but it's interesting to watch how all this plays out from an outsider's perspective. Like I said above, it sort of stuns me that we are that beholden to the idea that unless we work ourselves to death for someone else's benefit and not enough to live on, the entire superstructure will eat itself within a week. If that's the case, maybe we should let it. Maybe make something new and better from the ashes.
Of course, that's an unhelpful thought, mainly because so many people whose backs are already against the wall would suffer the most for it while the very rich might have to give up one of their yachts. So, I don't have any answers or any good suggestions, even. Just questions, that's what I'm here for.
Ah well. Today's the second day of the Project and, if nothing else, I appreciate not having to scour the news websites looking for something to spark my imagination. I can just ramble on and talk about video games, which is what I'm going to do. I think the practice of sticking mostly to News benefited the piece, but we'll see how it all works out when I do tomorrow's News.
I guess before I get too deep into things, I should link up yesterday's gobbledygook. This was the latest update on COVID-19, since that's dominating the news and public's attention. Beyond everything else, we've moved into the "we must be willing to sacrifice for capitalism" stage of things, as a swath of talking heads, bloggers and people with podcasts said, hypothetically, it was okay if people got unnecessarily sick, perhaps even died because they went to work. The "strongest economy in history" is apparently so fragile that it can't just chill for a couple weeks until we figure out what's going on and what to do about it.
Skeptical then about the urgency of this claim, I did a little Googling and found out some interesting things concerning just how much wealth the very wealthy have. I know it won't matter to the Renfields of the world, but I truly do not really begrudge someone with millions or billions of dollars they'll never, ever spend. I don't have anything but contempt for them, but hey, don't hate the player, they say. It is what it is.
That all being said, their wealth - a little over 160 trillion dollars all told, and this is actual on-hand wealth - comes from other people doing most of the work. "But they take the risks," I hear you bleat. Yeah, and every time someone drives to work, they take the risk of being t-boned by a drunk driver where the very rich have bailouts and bankruptcy protections. Furthermore, most of these uber-wealthy make more in a day than most of the rest of us see in a lifetime. Some do it in an hour. Kylie Jenner makes the American median salary in two-and-a-half hours. That's a staggering stroke to wrap one's head around.
Anyway, read the Tumblr post and decide for yourself. I don't know if they get a blast fax or subliminal messages from Fox News, but the wingnut Twitter population is down to the ground with the idea of restaurant workers, retail workers and others they feel don't deserve a living wage for a 40-hour work week need to get back to it before some hedge fund loses less than 2% of its worth. I, for one, am not surprised and neither should anyone else. Americans - this may be worldwide, but us especially - have a certain reverence for the wealthy. We like the idea that just because a guy's got a shit-ton of money it not only makes him a super-genius in every other field beyond what he made bank in, but also makes him just a more worthy person. Some even think it means they deserve to be president when the only thing that really made them rich was being born to the right parents.
But I digress. I also got a wild hair and wrote a bit about the excellent and much under-appreciated '80s rock & roll group The Bus Boys. Inspired by the deep delve into the baffling wealth gap in our society, I was inspired to post some music that celebrated the working man. Mainly the Bus Boys and Merle Haggard, but I think that's good enough for anybody.
Okay, video games. I played more of Dungeon Siege as well as its two sequels. Honestly, I may like the second game better than the first. This story's a bit more interesting and there's a graphical upgrade. However it's apparently tougher, as I keep getting wiped out every time the challenge steps up and I have to keep throwing my party at the challenge like battering my head against a wall until it breaks. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, I don't know.
The third game, however, left me sort of cold. It looks nice and there seems to be a story worth telling, but I just didn't care. I usually get a taste of a game by either playing through the tutorial or getting past the game's first little bit, like after the Grey Wardens initially get wiped out in Dragon Age: Origins because that obviously evil looking guy did 'em dirty. If it gets me, I come back. This one, however, I was considering just dropping it before I got to that stopping place and deleted it off my hard drive once I did.
Another issue I had with it is a player is given four pre-made characters to go through the story. They all have their own backgrounds and there's no customization or even ambivalence to what they're trying to accomplish. I like a little grey area. In the first game, you're a farmer. In the second, you're a possible repentant mercenary. However, both are open ended enough that a player can add a little nuance to the character. The one in Two Worlds II is defined by his search for his sister and the guy in Divinity II is a raw recruit dealing with everything going to shit even before he's fully inducted.
I need to get back to Two Worlds II to finish it off, just like I need to do with Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Pillars of Eternity 2. However, I'll probably put a little more work into Divinity II or maybe give the first games of the Risen and Gothic series another shot. I still have a passel of XCOM-influenced turn-based strategy games to mess around with, too. I don't know how in the hell people with actual lives find the time to play as much as they seem to do.
What else is there. Snopes posted some job openings this morning. I applied to a couple but I doubt anything will come of it. I spent too much time out of the game and haven't done enough work since getting back into it for anyone seriously looking for labor to give a look. Or so in my mind, anyway, but I'm known for having laughably low self-esteem. I posted links to this and The News, since that's all I've got that's less than 15 years old. I think there are plenty of gems among the dross, but I do worry my flippant tone and potty mouth might turn some off. I can behave if I'm getting paid, is all I'm going to say about it.
Otherwise, I'm listening to Waylon Jennings' 1974 album The Ramblin' Man. I've got two tracks to go and once they're done, I'm done. For what it's worth, I don't think we've seen anything close to the end of the whole COVID-19 business and, what's more, it's going to develop into a much bigger hassle whether we "go back to work" or not. Doesn't really affect me either way, but it's interesting to watch how all this plays out from an outsider's perspective. Like I said above, it sort of stuns me that we are that beholden to the idea that unless we work ourselves to death for someone else's benefit and not enough to live on, the entire superstructure will eat itself within a week. If that's the case, maybe we should let it. Maybe make something new and better from the ashes.
Of course, that's an unhelpful thought, mainly because so many people whose backs are already against the wall would suffer the most for it while the very rich might have to give up one of their yachts. So, I don't have any answers or any good suggestions, even. Just questions, that's what I'm here for.
Thursday, October 3, 2019
Thursday, October 3, 2019
I'm wired & inspired, so let's get this down quick. I need to lay it down before it gets away from.
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