Into the minds of the Russian soldiers right now

 

I find it difficult to comprehend that there are thousands of young Russian men right now that are stationed on the Ukraine border who are waiting for the order to risk their lives, their limbs, their health, their futures solely for the ambitions of some psychotic dictator. And not only that, but to go out with the desire to kill other humans, who they have no qualms against and would probably share a beer with if they met them at a pub.

What drives these young men to give the control of their lives to some megalomaniac who suffers from short-man syndrome who has $50 Billion stashed offshore yet wants more? Do these men feel they are worthless and deserving of such horrible fates? That they are only pawns to be used?

But to go out with the express intent to kill others is what really confuses me. Do they (or we all) have this inner self that is capable of such action, or are they groomed to accept the fate of sticking a bayonet into the guts of another person who they do not know and whose only 'crime' is an allegiance to some other piece of land on the planet. And 99.9999% of these thousands of men have never killed before. What allegiance to a leader is worth the nightmarish psychological leap of actually killing another person?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/20/russia-invasion-ukraine-biden-blinken-us-national-security-council

Tax cuts. Tax cuts.

 

Tax cuts. Tax cuts. Tax cuts. The goto strategy for a government that can't govern. The quick fix which fixes nothing, in fact makes everything worse.

Tax cuts are always regressive and favour the rich. For this tax cut, the bottom 40% of wage earners get just 2% of the benefits.

Tax cuts is like getting a pay-raise at work. For the 1st month after a raise, you think the company is the greatest thing on the planet, and you come in early/leave late, then the raise becomes normal and life becomes exactly the same as it was and your hatred of the company and your job returns.

Tax cuts are done so you can consume more. Simple as that. You might upgrade your phone, or replace that 10yo microwave but life becomes the same. What isn't the same is that $184 Billion is removed from the government's coffers, and this is where life becomes worse for all of us other than the rich. You need new medical facilities in your area? Sorry, it's not in the budget. Your kid needs additional NDIS funding for further treatments. Sorry, we can't afford it. Your school teacher/student ratio has increased to 30-to-1 and needs new computers. Sorry, no new funds for education.

What we all want, and what we need in society to increase our overall well-being is a government that has the resources to supply the aggregate services that we need. And the rich, who will get the bulk of these tax-cuts, don't really care about aggregation because they can afford private schools, and pay for any required services they need anyway. So the person who gets a whopping $15 per week tax-cut suffers, and since this is the bulk of the people in society we all suffer.

The government, and any government that cuts taxes, have it all ass-backwards. Society prospers when the tax-rates for profitable companies and rich people is high. Then the divide between the rich and the poor is lower, the middle class has access to the necessary government services, and resources such as medical care, education, disability services can be fully funded.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/feb/17/men-on-high-incomes-to-take-lions-share-of-coalitions-184bn-tax-cuts-analyses-find

Those pesky little religious people are at it again. Those wily rascals.

 

It's beyond me how a modern society can still condone and participate in the medieval practices of a group which has had a privilege for so long that equality now seems like oppression. To petition the government to give them the ability to discriminate against 5% of the people solely based on thoughts in their heads and the excuse of "Well, we've always discriminated against them so we want to continue" is laughable if it wasn't so evil.

So they are in an uproar because they can't expel kids based on sexuality. They want to damage kids as collateral damage to protect the very institutions that promote this discrimination. It is to protect an ethos formed from a single sentence in a 3,000yo book, and if they damage these kids or people lose their jobs, well, so be it.

And the reasoning is childish. “simply wanting to uphold scientific truth and the Christian worldview of human sexuality”. I assume when they talk of 'truth', they are talking about our physical bits which is a red herring. Who cares about the physical bits. People have the right to be who they are. But they mention 'truth' yet still feel that being gay is a choice or lifestyle. Where's the truth there? And this talk of their worldview makes me want to puke. Who cares about your worldview when you want to force your dogma onto society adversely affecting people who just want to live their lives in peace.

And... “This is a sad day for all Australians and particularly faith schools as it has put religious freedom and free speech at risk”. As I said, they believe equality is oppression. And people don't understand this concept of free speech. Free speech allows you to publicly voice your opinion on anything, but it does not mean that there are no consequences that others may levy on you for that opinion. These people feel that free speech is some get-out-of-jail card which has never been the case.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/03/christian-lobby-groups-attack-morrison-for-vowing-students-wont-be-expelled-due-to-their-sexuality-or-gender