fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2688 ]

[ SECRET POST #2688 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2688 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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02.

[Frozen]

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03.

[Criminal Minds, Elle Greenaway]

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04.

[Utopia]

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[Prison Architect]

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[One Piece]

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[Orphan Black]

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08.

[Craig Ferguson]

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[Sarah Rees Brennan]

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[Knights of Sidonia]

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11.

[Star Trek: The Next Generation]

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 037 secrets from Secret Submission Post #384.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
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Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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In honour of Australia's latest Budget not only breaking most of the Liberal parties election promises but also adding on fun bonuses like the deregulation of university fees, please feel free to rant about any recent political happenings here.

And/or talk about how great Last Week Tonight is.

*party's

ugh my bad

Ughhh, fuck the US's two party system.

Seriously.

Pretty much.

Ehhhhh.

It's not a good system. But something like it is probably kind of inevitable given the US' political system. More to the point, whatever your beef is, it probably has less to do with the 2-party system and more to do with not enough voters agreeing with you on the issues. Moving to a 3-party system wouldn't fundamentally change the stuff that American voters think.

Fuck our voting system that forces a two-party system.

I really want to know what US politics would look like with instant runoff, "vote them off the island" style voting, or whatever it's called when people rank all the candidates from 1 to however many candidates there are and throw out the people at the bottom.

It would be much less predictable and more varied, certainly more entertaining, probably a little more pushed towards the extremes. But it wouldn't change presidential politics at all, and of course there's still the fundamental political landscape of the country to contend with - no systemic change is going to affect that a certain number of people think thus and a certain number of people think not thus.

If you want to change presidential politics, you'd want to change to a parliamentary system, probably. If you want to change the fundamental outlook of the country you'd want... I don't know, magic?

Re: Political rants here!

forgottenjester - 2014-05-14 04:36 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Political rants here!

(Anonymous) - 2014-05-14 13:04 (UTC) - Expand

If you look at ranked choice voting, you'll get something of an idea of what that would look like. The logistics of having that nationally would be a pain, though. It's done locally in Minneapolis, but even with a relatively smooth operation in the elections department it can take a while to tie up all the loose ends.

Do I get to vote politicians out of the country? (You know, instead of off the island.)

Edited 2014-05-14 04:34 (UTC)

UGHHH THANK YOU FOR ALLOWING ME TO VENT, FELLOW AUSTRALIAN. LET US COMMISERATE.

I was watching Tony "I Am A Giant Asshole" Abbott talking about how young people need to be "earning or learning"
and the interviewer asked him: "well what if that person doesn't have a job and they can't find employment for 6 months?"
and his response was: "well, if they have a work history, it should be easy to find a job"
YOU FUCKING DUMBASS WHAT IF THEY DON'T HAVE A WORK HISTORY.
what about young people who are homeless, who have no one to rely on?

oh but it gets better. then he goes: "Well, everyone's affected, even the polticians, because we don't get gold cards any more or $6000 flights"
BOO FUCKING HOO CRY MORE, WHAT ABOUT PENSIONERS WHO HAVE TO DECIDE BETWEEN HEATING THEIR HOMES OR EATING BREAKFAST, BUT OH NO, YOU DON'T GET YOUR GOLD CARDS.

and the thing that pisses me off most of all is how he frames it all as being "for the future of our children" - no, shut the fuck up, you don't give a flying fuck about the children, the only thing you care about is sucking Rupert Murdoch's dick

Anytime you hear someone talking about selling off state assets to pay down debts, you run screaming in the other direction IMO. It's a terrible short-sighted move that only really benefits the ultrawealthy who are able to buy the assets.

it's really hilarious because they're all "It's for the children!" and "it's for the future!" but let's be real the only people it's for are their rich mates who paid their way into office

the only people they give a shit about are people like Gina Rinehart who have cash coming out of their asses

it's just such OBVIOUS bullshit, i wish they'd just be honest for once and go: "actually yes we don't care about any of you we just like rolling around in giant piles of money"

I'm not from Australia and know very little of what's going on but this was beautiful to read. Thanks, anon.

Edited 2014-05-14 02:06 (UTC)

no problem

i definitely needed to vent even if nobody reads it

been holding that in since the election!

THANK YOU FOR RANTING!!!!! Uggghhhhhh it all makes me so angry that I can hardly articulate what I'm angriest about most. Pensioners? Families? People on the disability pension? Rich people being hardly affected at all? The fact that sick, poor people are probably going to die because of the medicare 'co-payment' (but it's all okay because we might cure cancer in 10 years maybe)? Cutting 16,000+ jobs and trying to still trying to argue that their cuts are 'creating jobs'? The fact that as a young person I WILL BE UNEMPLOYED FOREVER and soon won't even be able to afford to go to a good university???? ARRRGH. ANGER, I FEEL IT.

i know, right? pretty much everyone is going to be fucking screwed.

Got a family? FUCK YOU.
Poor? FUCK YOU.
Disabled? FUCK YOU.
Chronically ill? FUCK YOU.
Mentally ill? FUCK YOU.
Elderly? FUCK YOU.
Young? FUCK YOU.
Black, Indigenous, or vaguely ethnic looking? FUCK YOU, GO TO INDONESIA.

Rich, white business owner (who's willing to fund the Liberal party)? HERE, HAVE THIS LARGE CHEQUE FOR A MILLION DOLLARS AND ALSO A BLOWJOB.

i seriously want to move to New Zealand. at least their landscape is pretty and it's not as hot.

Abbott (and Hockey) are entitled fuckwits who got FREE GODDAMN UNIVERSITY and will be getting publically-paid benefits for the rest of their lives. And they call US entitled.

Like, what the fuck. I have a Bachelor degree AND a Graduate Diploma. I can't fucking find a job (and still live at home - at the moment, I'm doing a diploma course to add new skills, then will probably end up self-employed because NO ONE IS HIRING). I DO have a work history - but only because my aunt hired me at her shop for a little while. My brother got FIRST CLASS HONOURS and is still working as a casual because there aren't enough jobs for him to get a permanent position. His girlfriend, who also has a degree she did well in, also only has a part-time, casual job. The two of them are struggling and so Mum has been supplementing their rent until they can get better positions.

It is not goddamn easy to get a job.

Like, holy fuck. There's going to be a new underclass of unemployed under-30s who are HOMELESS because they're not getting a single cent until they've been somehow magically able to survive for half a year with absolutely NOTHING - and they're still going to have to pay money they don't have if they get sick!

Someone needs to fire Abbott, kick him out of his home, give him the typical resume of a school-leaver, and see how long he's able to survive without getting unemployment.

(Which they're freezing, anyway. It's not like Newstart wasn't already fucking unlivable on, try surviving somewhere like Sydney on $250 a week... Thanks heaps, you utter fuckwit!)

Abbott (and Hockey) are entitled fuckwits who got FREE GODDAMN UNIVERSITY and will be getting publically-paid benefits for the rest of their lives. And they call US entitled.

OH MY GOD SO MUCH THIS.

They have no fucking concept of how fucking hard the job market is right now.
A year ago, I went for an interview for a goddamn PART-TIME JOB at a clothes store in a shopping mall, which pretty much involves folding clothes and smiling a lot. They had THREE LEVELS of interview stages, a group interview, and a PHONE INTERVIEW for a fucking retail job for teenagers.

god, and the fact that none of those lazy, entitled parasites running the country have ever gone through what our youth are going through. my parents went to university FOR FREE. they mortgaged a house at 2-3x the average wage

now? university is going to be debt-laden, no guarantees of finding a job straight away, and a mortgage is 8-10x the average wage

OH YES LET'S HAVE A US-STYLE EDUCATION AND HEALTHCARE SYSTEM, BECAUSE THAT'S WORKING SO WELL FOR THEM OVER THERE, AMIRITE?

i can't wait for all these baby boomers to die off already. if anyone's a parasite leaching off taxpayer money, it's them.

and they have the goddamn nerve to call US selfish, narcissistic and lazy. i'd like to see some of them try to live on Newstart, or work a poorly paid hospitality or retail job on their feet from 9-5 with no breaks.

hahaha not to mention, they're cutting all these social services (why else do we pay the government, if not to provide basic fucking services like medical care jesus christ) - do you know what the social impact will be? from cutting really important shit like that?

increased poverty, homelessness, crime, social dysfunction, family breakdown, unemployment cycle, i could go on. and guess what? all these things cost money! so in the long run, they're creating massive social problems that will be EXPENSIVE to fix.

fucking fuck fuck fuck.

*breathes heavily*

The thing that really steams me (fellow Australian here hello) is that only people who are already struggling to make ends meet are being really affected by this shit.

Because why tax the mining industry when you can cut health, education, disability and pensions, right? And god forbid a politician actually suffers for this 'tough financial time'.

Abbot is a slimy bigot and all around asshole. Nobody really voted him in last term - Labour was just voted out.

my dad votes Liberal, and he has some really socially conservative views.

I mean, I do love him, but he is racist, sexist, and incredibly homophobic (which sucks when you're still in the closet, but hey!)

and every time we go to vote, he just loves it, like he goes on and on and on about Tony Abbott and boat people. and he'd take me out for coffee, and talk at me the entire time about foreigners and "the gays".

right now i'm just really disappointed in him and angry that he voted such a shithead into power. it's MY FUTURE these idiots are playing with.

in fact, it should be EVERYONE'S future, not just a future for whoever can afford it. the thing that gets me about Australian culture is we go on about "mateship" and "a fair go" and act like class isn't a thing here.

what a load of bullshit.

They want to take everything away from pensioners and make us pay for everything. Tony Abbot sucks.

Uuuugh. I'm in Hockey's electorate, I'm seriously considering the merits of going to his office (it's a few suburbs away) and sticking giant posters with the word 'LIAR' written on them all over it.

The entire thing is just... fucking awful, and horrible, and sadistic, and cruel. Literally everyone who isn't mega-rich is going to be negatively affected, and the WORST-affected will be the most vulnerable people! How the fuck does that make sense?

The worst part, for me, is that it's so goddamn unnecessary. Our economy is - well, was - in really good shape. Australia was one of only ELEVEN countries in the world with a triple-A rating from all three ratings agencies. We were one of the few countries that weathered the GFC really well. But see, the problem from the Coalition's perspective is that... that was the ALP's doing. It was because of the ALP that we were in good shape. And the Coalition's entire schtick is that they're the ones who are financially responsible, and that the ALP are irresponsible spend-demons who send us towards spiralling debt or something.

So they have to manufacture this fucking 'debt crisis' fraud in order to make them look like the heroes of the economy and demonise the ALP.

It's just... fucking wrong.

DISCLAIMER: I am an American and do not know Australian politics. I apologize in advance for any

That said. Going by the American example, and assuming that the Australian right wing party is similarly guided by the interests of the ultra-wealthy, it might not just be about trying to demonise the ALP.

What I think we have seen, however, is that the ultra-wealthy do not care if the economy is good in broad terms. What they are oriented around is the return on the market and opportunities for capital investment, and that is a very different thing compared to the economy as a whole. So they have no interest as such in having a broad-based economy with decent wages, pensions, protection for workers, etc. They would rather make sure that they have a sizable population of people who are willing to take shitty wages and work long hours so they can cut business costs. They would rather governments cut taxes rather than fund social services. They would rather governments sell assets to them and privatize things at cut-rate prices so that they can move their capital there and make good rates of return. And so the economic policy is an opportunity to achieve those ends.

That might come off as sounding like some sort of conspiratorial thing, and I don't think it is. There are ideological justifications attached to all these positions and there are all kinds of ways in which position and interest shape political views. Where the way you see the workforce is shaped by seeing them as lazy while at the same time you're consciously trying to cut down on wages to them. Where the primacy of the private sector means that the best model for government is low-tax, low-expenditure, and a budget deficit is a major concern. But I do think the fundamental ideological drivers, in the American case and perhaps in the Australian case, on the economy is probably the economic interests, and not a desire to compete with the ALP.

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[ SECRET POST #2688 ]

Political rants here!

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