#how to become a millionaire in 2024

[mymoneyepisodes]

How to be a Millionaire on Low Salary

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[supernattyoblog]

How to Build Wealth in Your 20s

[turtletoria]

(PRE-ORDER) FUNDRAISER STICKERS FOR GAZA!!

Pre-order will end on December 11, 2024 so get them while they're hot!!

GET STICKERS HERE!!!

100% of funds will be donated to families in Gaza! Check out their fundraisers below, and please consider supporting them!!

Ameera's family: They currently live in North Gaza that has been experiencing dire Israeli-made starvation. Her young kids, youngest of which is 2 years old. She has spoken to me about how she hasn't been able to find anything for her kids to eat, like milk for her baby, and getting funds would really help her afford to feed her family.

Ahmed's and Dina's family: A family with 3 kids and one newborn. Urgently needs funds for medical treatment and essential goods. With winter approaching, these funds become crucial for affording winter clothes.

Rawan's family: $8k urgently needed to help take care of her mother, who needs treatment for a tumor. The funds will also be going to support her family as they await the crossing to open for evacuation.

Alaa's family: She is trying to care for her two very young kids, the younger of which has a skin infection that needs to be treated. She is facing constant bombardment and needs help.

Aya's family: She is helping to take care of 19 family members, including 9 children.

Walid's family: Walid is 3 and has two sisters, Layan (2) and Toleen (6). He is disabled and needs treatment.

Rawan and Yemna's family: two sisters and their father who need access to essential goods to live.

All of these campaigns are equally urgent and I can understand the difficulty in choosing one to donate to, especially if you don't have much to spare.

But it's better to choose one than to let indecision keep you from choosing any.

Also, your one donation won't solve everything (unless you're a millionaire and can spare tens of thousands at a time LOL) so, and I say this in the nicest and most gentle way possible, get over yourself! Pitch in whatever you can spare like the thousands and thousands of people donating to these fundraisers every day, and acknowledge that you can't save the world BY YOURSELF - but with many others acting with you, you can make a difference!

As always, free Palestine and all oppressed peoples of the world!

[elicathebunny]

FINALLY CLOSING THE GAP BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR HIGHEST SELF IN 2024.

You are going to STOP scrolling endlessly for self-help and advice content and you are going to STOP and apply the knowledge you have endlessly gained. Obtaining help and advice knowledge is useless if it goes through one ear and comes straight out the other. STOP becoming addicted to the idea of scrolling and scrolling for your problems yet you already have the resources to fix them. A fool is a person who cannot decide to take action despite having access to the information needed to do so.

BREAKING FREE FROM THE SCROLLING CYCLE

Learning and Applying is one thing, but Learning and Staying Stationary is literally brain rot. You're addicted to the idea of change and the end result, but you never take the steps towards discipline with a personal structure to get that result. You keep looking for quick fixes and easy hacks, but life is not a quick fix and no hack can elevate your life from 0% to 100% without visiting the rest of the numbers first.

TAKE A BREAK FROM SCROLLING

Take time away from your usual scrolling and learn to be on your own. Learn your own ways of self-care, learn what works for you and understand what you need, because nobody is the same. Following a millionaire's morning routine will not make you a millionaire. This routine has worked for someone to feel and be productive in the morning and was probably curated over the years to suit their current lifestyle. So, seeing other people's successes and comparing their working ways to your life is unrealistic if you are not in a position to implement them. Going straight from 0% (Being unproductive and procrastinating) to 100% (Being incredibly Productive and in tune with self) will not be sustainable for someone who has not built the discipline and the inner foundations required for it. STOP seeing information online and taking it without ALTERING anything to your personal situation.

STOP ASKING HOW TO AND JUST DO

"How to lose weight, How to become more social, How to do this and that"

Most of these things you ALREADY know the answer to. Everybody knows that to lose weight, you need to burn more than you consume. There is literally no other way, no magic and no secret hack, just that simple fact. I guarantee you know that to become more social you just have to be social. Learn to be comfortable in social situations which will require inner work, but it's not a difficult concept. Most of us know what we need to do, yet we still try to find quick fixes or another way that same message is presented to us differently. We act as if we are improving and developing on our "improvement" journey yet we are just finding coping ways to feel like we are moving, yet we are still in the exact same place as before. I know you know what to do, I know you have researched what you should do and ways you can do it. So why are you not doing it? Why are you still not where you want to be? If you are not where you want to be, then what you're currently doing needs to change. You cannot do the exact same thing you've been doing for years and expect a different outcome. You need to curate a routine suited to your needs that is realistic and achievable to adopt.

LEARNING TO MOVE ON YOUR OWN, STOP DEPENDING ON OTHERS TO FUEL YOUR SUCCESS JOURNEY LISTEN TO: NOBODY IS COMING TO SAVE YOU BY JULIENHIMSELF Make yourself your safe space, your foundation. When you see yourself in the mirror you should be able to tell yourself "I love you", you should be so sure in what you do that nobody else can contradict what you believe in yourself, this is the end goal of self-improvement. Many of us have put aside our goals because we "are not ready", "people may judge us" or "I need to be/achieve ___ to.." Now don't get me wrong, I'm on this journey with you. I write on this blog to teach my brain how to think in the higher mindset that I'm creating for myself. I too have thoughts like this which is why in 2024 we are going to break out of our old selves to make room for our new selves together. We have to lose ourselves to find ourselves. If you're mood and self-worth are controlled by other people's opinions, then you will never advance further with yourself and will remain stationary. You have to stop allowing other people to determine whether you are allowed to pursue your desires or if you shouldn't because of fear of rejection. Don't take life too seriously, we are only here for so much time. So what if people make fun of you? In a few years will you look back and be proud and fulfilled of your past or feel regret and disappointment? LISTEN TO: WHY YOU CARE SO MUCH BY JULIANHIMSELF + LISTEN TO: HOW TO DETACH BY VICKITA TRIVEDI

The only way to get to 0%-100% is by doing.

Embody your potential

[mv1simp]

I am in ur walls

I have come to raise the idea of, and hear me out, Max x PR officer reader. I’m just gonna yap now, hear me out

Like can you imagine Max going through his hoe phase and reader having to clean up his image, and she’s just fondly like UGH MAX. Part of her is like blehhhhh because more work, but the bigger part of her is like ✨jealous✨

And then at some point she makes an offhand comment like if you want to be a whore, can you at LEAST not make more work for me????

Cue Max and her starting to be a thing, and him trying to rile her up enough to get her to be their own PR issue just for shits and giggles and he gets quite risque and horny and her resistance to it just turns him on even more until he’s saying and doing the filthiest shit in the middle of the paddock just to get her to crack——

Also can you imagine how hilarious it would be if they get caught and GP is like NOT YOU TOO READER LIKE DOES HE HAVE A MAGIC DICK OR SMTH——

WELCOME TO MY WALLS!!! This idea HAS ME ahahahah see I was always a crackfic writer at age 12 on wattpad, its time to remerge into the light with this prompt

Like you know how max is so millennial coded. And she’s actually the same age as him but he thinks she’s older cause she’s always looking so stressed. And she like um that’s cause you’re a fuckin manwhore max?!? Have you thought about celibacy for a hot second? And as they become better friends she demands he hand over his card so she can invest in some good skincare

(max also suggests maybe she needs to get dicked down good, he’s happy to provide that if she wants or? 🤭🤭)

But anyways she’s pumping out Gen z memes left right and centre to distract the masses from his slut era and he’s always like wdym “i have zero rizz and am a bitchless cat dad”?? I know memes?? Remember hawk thua-

ALSO WHENEVER HE REALLY TRIES TO RILE HER UP ON THE PADDOCK AND SHE CANT DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT SHE MAKES HIM DO THE MOST ANNOYING SOCIAL MEDIA CHALLENGES TO GET BACK AT HIM like imagine her making him do a kiss marry kill with the drivers and he’s like 😑😑 and everyone’s like babes come here we got max Verstappen saying he’d kiss Alonso, marry charles and kill George before GTA 2024

ALSO I’m jumping the gun but after he ✨seduces her ✨ there’s so much scope for the classic shenanigans. Accidentally wearing shirts inside out. Accidentally wearing each others Redbull shirt and she could get away with oversized style but everyone’s like “max why tf are u wearing a crop top”. (GP knows. He knows and he can’t look either of you in the eye. Everyone has started asking why he loudly announces himself and waits 10 seconds before walking around the corners of the Redbull garage and he’s like…no reason. But his face is one of a man who has seen many, many things)

Anyway you have ban any contact of sexual nature after that incident that you have dubbed CropTopGate. But obviosuly that just makes max even more feral cause we know how competitive he is 😼

ALSO he’s notorious for going through personal managers as well but once you two start getting tension but you’re still all like “nooo 6 foot driver millionaires aren’t my type okayyyy 🙅‍♀️🙅‍♀️”

So he demands that you be promoted to his personal events manager as well. To which you are adamantly like NO knowing what this means for your poor self control but Christian Horner is like yes maxie boo 🥰 so now you also accompany max to all his lil modelling gigs, looking anywhere but at him while he stands shirtless next to you with a cocky grin.

OR LIKE IMAGINE HE AND A MODEL ARE DOING AN ADVERTISEMENT TOGETHER LIKE ONE OF THOSE SEXY PERFUME ONES. AND DURING A BREAK THE PHOTOGRAPHER NOTICES YOU AND MAX TALKING TOGETHER

and he’s like i don’t care who you are get over here NOW this sexual chemistry is insane so you end up in a very compromising pose up against max verstappen, F1 driver, cat dad, and certified slut while he’s whispering dirty things in your ear

(He catches on quick that you really likes it when he speaks Dutch, good thing you can’t understand it cause he’s just reciting his grocery list and enjoying watching you blush and squeeze your legs together)

very cute idea hehe thank you for messaging!! I LIVE for some sexual tension, reader is a better woman than me for trying to resist the advances of max 😮‍💨😮‍💨

[tuesdaygray]

thinking about. the consistent thread in challengers (2024) of wanting your life to be about more than "hitting a ball with a racket."

how tashi is the first character to bring this up and whether or not she means it (she's really only planning to do a year of college) she knows inherently that being well rounded is practical. that she's not from the same place as the country club, tennis academy, daddy's money kids. this should be an unattainable dream for most, but it's hers and she has it and it's terribly ingrained into her life but "what if this doesn't work out?" and then it doesn't. she gets injured and she gets stuck in this loop of the past, in her own potential, in what could have been. when it feels like everyone is counting on you to do and succeed at one thing ("she's going to make her family millionaires"), the one thing that is the framework and catalyst for everything you know, how do you come back from that? her life could now, realistically, become about something else because she actually can't have her dream anymore, but she becomes obsessed, holding on with white knuckles and performing alterations because she can't let it go, until she admits sardonically in a mostly abandoned applebees that her life really has only been about one thing.

and patrick. who challenges tashi's original statement. who has no problem devoting his life to tennis because it's a "good way to avoid having a job." who never had any dreams beyond playing the sport he's always had a knack for, coasting by on natural talent, never having to try. realizing too late that what really made it worth it was tennis as a relationship, not the selfish ego stroke it had been when he was good enough to win tashi's number. and he's stuck in arrested development, just like her. he never grew up, he never let go of the past, of what it felt like to play doubles with his best friend, of what it felt like to watch tashi at the top of her game. but he's painfully aware. he's made his bed and he's tangled in the sheets and he loves it and he hates it and above all else, he misses the way it used to be.

then there's art. whose decision to go to stanford is never questioned because it's unspoken general knowledge that he couldn't have gone pro right away. he never expected to be this big time professional player, he was always just concerned with doing a "really good job." and because of this, art's life is the one that probably should have been about more, the foundation was laid for it. but he's stuck too, a passive actor in a life he chose and was probably never meant to have. the holder of and heir to tashi's and patrick's unrealized dreams. (was it ever his dream?) and after eight years, after attaining it and living it without a real passion for it, he's ready to give it up because, out of the three of them, he wants his life to be about more than "hitting a ball with a racket" because it's "embarrassing to be doing this shit when you're 40." but he's the one who bears the weight of success, alone at the top, where the people he loves can only dream of knocking him off. so shouldn't he be grateful for it?

[dk-thrive]

What’s the average college GPA of an American millionaire? 2.9 out of 4.0. The truth is, becoming wealthy isn’t about having a brain the size of a planet. It’s about doing the boring, sensible things, consistently, over time.

— Eric Barker, from "How To Get Wealthy – Slowly But Surely: 5 Secrets From Research" (Barking Up the Wrong Tree, April 2024) (via A Layman’s Blog)

[intoloopin-archive]

AN INTERLUDE: IN UNITY.

TWS: A rapist and drugs are very briefly mentioned. The boys are fighting. And I believe that's all. characters (starring): Na Seungsoo. Woo Gyujin. word count: 2,457 words. time stamp: January 21th, 2024 (the day Dylan released his mixtape). author's note: not exactly super beated because I am literally dying! But anyways! Transitionary piece to get this plot going! Productivety! Hell yeah! *passes out*

January 21th.

Seungsoo doesn’t miss LOOPiN’s old dorm because he can’t miss it.

So every time he gets close to airing a complain about their current house, he instead makes a point to remember that their former two story apartment came straight out of Jiahang’s pockets, rented with a fraction of one of his many, many trust funds set by his millionaire parents for when he grew up and decided to go to college to study rare plants, or be a nepotistic model, or move to Monaco and do nothing forever. It becomes very easy to cultivate a vendetta against it that way.

But right now what Seungsoo can’t help but miss is having a bigger balcony, one that won’t cramp him when he tries to have a peaceful and quiet meltdown in his own goddamn home. There's a breeze hitting him right on the face while he’s staring at the goddamn sunset but he still feels suffocated. And he’s only sharing space with Taesong’s outside plants, their leaves a depressing shade of sick green, and Haegon’s brand new bike, which he only bought because he wasn't allowed to get a haircut after leaving Sunyoung for the nth time. 

From behind him, Seungsoo hears the sound of the balcony’s door being quietly pushed open, and of a series of steps growing closer. The living room’s light has been turned on and it’s painting his body in yellow light.

“Haruki, look–” Seungsoo breathes, turning on his heels quickly, ready to raise his arms high in rendition.

Who he finds behind him is someone else, tough, someone worse – or maybe not. Haruki hates him now, romanticizes the living Hell out of Dylan now, so he would have certainly been way worse to look in the eyes now than Gyujin.

Gyujin who, with his brand new eyebrow piercing and wet hair from his one hour long shower, greets him with a smile then says, as if he’s queued to deliver a joke, “You wish.”

“Great,” Seungsoo mutters to himself, turning his back to him, getting back at supporting his elbows on the wall. For a second, he marvels at how nasty the fall would be if he jumped to the backyard. “Get out, Gyujin, seriously. I’m not in the mood.”

“Boo-hoo. I didn’t ask.”

With that, he comes close. He sits on the thick wall in the little space the plants give him, both hands holding on the concrete while he bends dangerously backwards, dangling his feet. 

And Gyujin just stays there, barely moving and not talking, only whistling like a goddamn cartoon. In retaliation, Seungsoo frowns harder at the horizon and begins to fidget on his sleeping clothes, fingers anxious to hold onto something.

He never picked up on smoking and he kind of regrets it now, can’t remember the reason why. Maybe because he likes to smell like cologne too much, or because he hates the thought of being unable to kiss someone without it tasting bitter.

It takes a mere minute or so for him to break, because that’s what Seungsoo does best: he can’t hold back an impulse, can’t swallow a single word down. He needs a collar, he’s realized recently, a muzzle, and no one ever gets him one – no one ever gets him.

“That was just so damn childish,” He mutters through his teeth. “Releasing all the songs like that.”

“Oh?” Gyujin tilts his squared chin down. He’s almost looming over Seungsoo, with the way he’s set – taking him from up above, an angle Seungoo’s had a problem being perceived from ever since he was the youngest of his mother’s kids. “And unfollowing Chihoon on Instagram wasn't childish?”

“I don’t like when any of our private business gets exposed, no matter how vague. He knows that.”

“Didn’t you just make it more public now with your little show? Or do you really think no one will connect the two, that the timing isn’t obvious, that you aren’t raising tension?”

Seungsoo suppresses a little scream by pressing his knuckles hard against his lips.

“You didn’t think that far, did you? Tsk, you just never do,” Gyujin lets out a laugh. “So what is it, Seungsoo, really? Why did you do that? What’s wrong with you?”

“What’s wrong with me?!” Seungsoo breathes, straightening up quickly, viciously – he almost hits Gyujin on the forehead with his head by doing so. “What is wrong with you?! Do you really think it’s okay for him to make something like that and release it without checking with us first?! When it’s mostly about the team?! We’re not illiterate! We can understand all his goddamn English!”

“Hm. Little League’s mean, I never said it wasn’t,” Gyujin agrees, but his relaxed posture lets it clear to Seungsoo that he does so only partially, half heartedly, even – always so comfortable with the possibility of a fall, he thinks, eyeing his horrible posture. “It’s a mock song made to piss Haegon off, and it got the job done. He’s justified in everything he chose to do about it. I just don’t get why you’re so offended. Is it because Chihoon didn’t write about you?”

“Are you insane? It’s not about getting a song or not, or Dylan doing things on his own or not, I just don’t–” Seungsoo shakes his head, searching for the right words, any other words but–

“You don’t like remembering we’re not friends,” Gyujin completes – spot on like fucking always. “That he doesn’t feel like he owes us secrecy anymore.”

And to think there would be a time, not even so long ago, where Seungsoo would immediately jump to refute him, banging on his chest and saying with real pride, “We’re all friends! We’re all close!”

But saying it now would just make it sound like a blatant lie; a joke with an awful punchline. So he bites his tongue and goes back to being quiet.

“Na Seungsoo, I need you to listen to what I’ll say to you,” Gyujin tells him, his voice set on a tone deeper than his usual, making the full name ring off his mouth like an intimation. Ungrundly, Seungsoo listens. “You need to start processing the things you do before you do them.”

Seungsoo scoffs, forced and loud, and looks away from his face quickly – runs from the ice underneath his setting jaw.

“We have problems, alright? All great groups do,” Gyujin keeps up, bumping their shoulders together once, then not again; Seungsoo recoils more against the wall and lightly grates his arm all to escape his follow up attempt by a matter of millimeters. “Sometimes things get sour and they spill over, and that’s just how it is. You get around, you know I’m right. No one has it easy. Idolmaker is in the middle of a PR nightmare with all the Hosung freakout, we’ve been seeing it first hand, and you won’t find Gayoung or Jeonghun getting petty in public because it isn’t smart.”

“So what can I actually do, Gyujin, about our situation?” Seungsoo asks him. A spot on his jaw is hurting from how hard he’s clenching it.

Gyujin gives him that awful, awful look of his that always tells him ‘You’re an idiot’. “Seungsoo, please. Dylan’s vent album is not a situation–”

“C’mon, Gyujin, I know it’s not!” Seungsoo says, too close to yelling. “And I know your little speech isn’t really about the goddamn unfollow! It’s you trying to get inside my head and control how I’ll act now that I know the group’s ending!”

The words make Gyujin pause. He almost fully freezes. It’s all the confirmation Seungsoo needs, the mute answer to the question that’s been eating him alive since Christmas.

“You’ve heard the fucking rumors, you– Gyujin, you know! I know you know! The March shareholder’s meeting has been canceled, Minwoo hasn’t sat down to write a real song since October, and Jiahang’s fucking dad called him back to China last month. For what?! He’s backing out, isn’t he?! He’s selling his shares because New Wave is dying. They’re going to debut the girls and just– fate out with us in it!”

Gyujin takes a defeated breath. Finally, he makes his way down the wall. “Sony hyung–”

“Don’t you Sony hyung me, man!” Seungsoo exclaims, angling his head up to fully face Gyujin, round eyes on round eyes. “Look, I know I talk even when I shouldn’t, I know my brain is goddamn slow, that it makes me do stupid shit, but why is everyone keeping things from me now?! I’m a producer too, aren’t I?! I’m a part of LOOPiN just as much as everyone, maybe even more than some people we got! Isolating me is fucked!”

“No one is isolating you, Seungsoo. Things are just complicated when it comes to giving you confidential information,” Gyujin counters, crossing his arms in front of his chest. His voice is again different, hitting at him cutting and terminal. It infuriates Seungsoo more. “And you know why that is. You put yourself in a hard position. Face it: you broke the trust. This is your own doing.”

Seungsoo’s mouth hangs open, stays open. “I broke the– what?! Why?! Because I pushed Jiahang once when he was about to do cocaine off an Inkigayo sink?! Because I took Dylan with me to haunt down a serial rapist?! I don’t regret any of those things, and I never will!”

“Was that all you did, really? Because the way I see it, the way it came across for everyone, was you going all vigilante over the members' private business,” Gyujin stresses. “And what good did any of these things do for anyone? You almost costed Jiahang his eye, Seungsoo. You almost got Chihoon arrested–”

“So now it’s all my fault?! We’re sinking, we’re doomed, and it’s all my fault?! Fuck you! You have no idea how or why– what do you even know about anything, really?!” Seungsoo spits at him, infuriated. “You just fucking got here, and– and you’ve been with us for a year and some fucking weeks, max! And it seems like everyone forgot that, that they all forgot that there was a time without you, but I didn’t! Do you even know what Haegon said, when he came with the idea of unfollowing Dylan?! ‘No matter what we do now Gyujin’s gonna fix it in the morning, so let’s do something dumb and tiny, so he won’t kill us!’ Like you’re in control or something! But news flash, this is New Wave Music, and you’re not in control, no one is! And if someone was, that someone would be me! Minwoo, Jimin, and me!”

“Or maybe not, now!” Seungsoo’s mouth keeps on going. He’s griping at the concrete of the balcony with one hand, pointing one straight at the center of Gyujin’s chest, and just letting a whole torrent out. “Maybe you do deserve trust more than I do! You– You know everything because everyone tells you everything, and you songwrite too, you can still play the tuba, why don’t you just take my fucking place, uh? If I get it all wrong and you do it all right?! Go be an executive producer, go on! Fuck writing all over just Beomseok, end me too! Minwoo likes you better anyway, maybe you can make his slump go away! Jimin fucking likes you better too, he won’t even mind me being gone, you might even get him to stop hiding Nicola from everyone, who knows!”

Seungsoo takes a shaky pause to breathe, his chest rising. He’s sure his face is red, that there’s a line of sweat on his forehead.

Gyujin remains too close and unmoving, his eyes semi close, analyzing.

“And what else?” He asks. He’s still grinning like he knows something Seungsoo doesn’t. “C’mon, go on. Spill it all out. I wanna hear it.”

“You sick–!” Seungsoo grunts, then takes another deep inhale, ends up almost choking on his own spit.

Coughing, he dismangles his grip off Gyujin’s shirt and forces himself to fall silent – they both do. Somewhere down in the street, a million cars honk and make out a disastrous symphony, and it pierces through Seungsoo’s ears like he’s in the middle of traffic. He’s minutes away from developing a killer migraine.

“So this is what comes out of you when you’re scared, yeah?” Gyujin eventually notes, quiet. Seungsoo can almost hear the tiny smile on his face stretching and growing warmer, showing just a flash of front teeth, white like a goddamn grain of salt. “Pretty animalistic reaction, although highly entertaining–”

“I’m not scared,” Sengsoo fires back, even though he is. He knows it deep in his bones, by the lack of good sleep: he’s terrified of blinking too slowly and missing any more warning signs, more sunny days; fearing they’re already all long behind him. He turns his head down. “Just, just– Tired of feeling– Tired.”

And feeling like I don’t belong, is what he thinks but doesn’t say: Like I’m not good at my job. Like no one will ever forgive me. 

He feels one of Gyujin’s warm hands setting over his shoulder, offering it a squeeze. This time Seungsoo leaves it there, allowing it to linger. “Hyung, I can see that. We all can. You’ve been putting on some crazy hours in the studio lately. We appreciate how hard you’re covering for Minwoo hyung. I might not have thanked you for that yet, so–”

“Spare me the prase shower, Woo Gyujin,” Seungsoo grunts, running a hand over his face, onto his hair. “Just tell me to fuck off now so I can go to sleep with at least one argument settled.”

“And make it that much easier for you? Ha, of course not,” Gyujin laughs, amused. “Besides, we’re not fighting, have never fought, and never will. You have nothing to settle with me. But I’ll give you space to gather your courage to face who you really should.”

“Fuck you,” Seungsoo says, just to be the one to get the last words as Gyujin’s walking back and away. It comes off sounding tiny and defeated, a little ashamed.

He doesn’t get that: as soon as Gyujin gets a hand on the door, he calls back, “And in the meantime…”

Seungsoo takes an annoyed peek over his shoulder to glare at him. “What?”

“Follow Dylan back, you fucking drama queen,” Gyujin says, rolling his eyes, grinning like the Devil he pretends he isn't. “And relax, okay? We’ll be fine. We always are.”

And he disappears behind the glass, pulling the curtains inside and turning off the light.

On the tiny balcony only Seungsoo and the never quiet city remain, looking as the sun goes down and down.

[misfitwashere]

Oligarchs' Island

A Sitcom Pitch in a Tragic Moment

Timothy Snyder

Nov 12, 2024

Oligarchy is an island.  Aristotle knew that oligarchs from various countries will have more in common with one another than they will with their own people.  This is all too true of Trump and the oligarchs he brings to power in America. 

The White House will become an island of international oligarchs.  It will be an island in the sense of distance and obscurity: we will have a hard time seeing what the billionaires are doing there.  But it is also an island in the sense of isolation: the oligarchs will be stuck there with one another.

So how to think about the island?  Well, these are serious matters, and the ancient Greeks have had their say.  So let us add some contours to the island from a gentler source, American pop culture.  Let us consider Oligarchs' Island on the basis of Gilligan's Island. 

A proviso first.  What is about to happen in our world is horrible.  It is no exaggeration to say that the plans of oligarchs put millions of lives at risk right away.  Yet no matter how dark the evil, there is always a corner for ridicule's little lantern.  

It is evil that Putin believes that he should destroy Ukraine because it never existed, but it is also idiotic.  It is evil that Musk wants to escape Earth and leave the rest of us behind, but it is also silly.  It is evil that Trump and Musk repeat genocidal Russian propaganda, but it also humiliating. 

The premise of Gilligan's Island, an American sitcom of the 1960s, was that seven people, out on a pleasure cruise, were shipwrecked and stranded by a storm on an unknown island.  Although they had different backgrounds and personalities, they had to cooperate to survive.  Their dream was to return home. 

Naturally, on Oligarchs' Island the premise of Gilligan's Island would have to be adjusted.  The castaways on Gilligan's Island were all American, whereas the powerful oligarchs are South African or Russian.  Rather than try to find ways to return home, the oligarchs seek a Muscovian promised land of endless wealth, impunity, and immortality.  Our oligarchs are stuck with one another, as were the good people of Gilligan's Island, but they cannot be expected to cooperate.  Oligarchies are unstable; members disappear.

Seven people were stranded on Gilligan's Island: to cite the lyrics of the theme song, these were "Gilligan, the Skipper too, the millionaire, and his wife, the movie star, the professor and Mary Ann." 

It is not hard to find their Doppelgänger on Oligarchs' Island.

Gilligan is obviously Elon Musk, the South African Putinist oligarch.  On one episode of Gilligan's Island, Russians encounter Gilligan.  Their reaction: "he acts too stupid to be stupid" fits Musk perfectly.  Gilligan is the central protagonist, the one who did the most to get the others to the Island, and the one with the most frantic dreams about the future.  Like Gilligan, Musk bumbles with language and relationships and everything else, but has an undeniable centrality to the plot and to life on the island.  He will antagonize everyone, but the cannot go on without him.  Gilligan, of course, was a sympathetic figure; allowances must be made in Oligarch's Island for the fact that Musk is the single person doing the most to bring our species to extinction.

Gilligan

The Skipper is David Sachs, the South African Putinist venture capitalist.  On Gilligan's Island, the Skipper stands for order.  If anything gets out of line, the Skipper is there to help.  Sachs is, of all of our characters the most devoted proponent of the Russian dream.  He repeats Russian propaganda with a relentless exactitude.  Indeed, he seems to take great care never to communicate any view about Russia or Ukraine which has not previously been published by Russian state media.  If anyone on Oligarchs’ Island diverges from the Putinist line, they can expect humorless discipline from Sachs. 

The millionaire, Thurston Howell, is Peter Thiel, the American investor with New Zealand citizenship, born in Germany and raised in South Africa.  On the show, Howell has taken millions of dollars in cash with him on what was supposed to be an afternoon cruise.  Thiel has a similar notion of 'taking it with him' -- he will be wealthy forever because he will be immortal.  Just as Thurston Howell was disturbed by Gilligan's frantic activity, Thiel can be displeased with Musk.  Whereas Howell was at worst selfish, Thiel has philosophical ideas about the necessity of conflict.  Howell refuses to work; Thiel activates others to do destructive one another. 

The millionaire's wife, Lovey Howell, is JD Vance.  Lovey is a subordinate character to Thurston on Gilligan's Island, just as Vance is Thiel's client.  Thiel brought Vance to capitalist wealth and financed his run for the Senate.  Both Lovey and JD had fancy east-coast educations, and both dissimulate about their pasts.  Although both are wealthy and powerful, each sees prospects for becoming more so.  Both Lovey and JD are vain about appearance and correspondingly bold in their cosmetic choices.

The redheaded movie star, Ginger Grant, is Donald Trump.  Aside from the similarity in hue, these two characters share character and career.  Both are vain entertainers.  And to keep the shows going, both have to be trotted up in front of the camera.  Both are sensitive to the appearance that they might not matter that much to the overall plot.  Like Ginger, Trump knows some rich people, and name drops, but is not rich himself. On Oligarchs’ Island, this is a major vulnerability.

Ginger

The Professor is Vladimir Putin, Russian dictator and in all likelihood the world's wealthiest man.  Whenever the people stranded on Gilligan's Island have a problem, they turn to the Professor for some invention that will rescue them.  Ginger in particular seeks his guidance.  The Professor has a dark secret: he is not as competent as the others think.  Were he so, he would have repaired the boat that brought the castaways to the island.  Putin also has secrets.  He knows that, even as he imposes his will on the others, he is subordinate to China.  He knows that the war he started in Ukraine is not only an atrocity but a disaster.  He knows that the Russia of its own propaganda does not exist, that the oligarchs' dream is a nightmare.  He also knows that today's oligarchs are tomorrow's victims.

Mary Ann, the humble farm girl from Kansas, is Usha Vance.  Mary Ann is the forgotten character on Gilligan's Island, the one who is perhaps more than she seems.  She knows how to remain in the background, but in fact has skills that the men around her lack.  While maintaining an unassuming and unthreatening appearance, she develops plans and cultivates allies. 

This genre, the 1960s sitcom plot modified to fit a 2020s war-criminal-billionaire-fascist oligarchy might just have some analytical and predictive value.  Consider for example what happened last week as the pilot episode of Oligarch's Island.  If you were thinking about the war in Ukraine in terms of US interests or any other rational consideration, you would have a hard time processing Trump's farcical engagement.  But if you imagine it as the pilot episode of Oligarchs' Island, everything makes sense:

Ginger (Trump) has just won an election, thanks to her own charisma and the efforts of Gilligan (Musk) and the Professor (Putin).  Ginger had promised to profile herself by making peace between Russia and Ukraine right after the election, "within twenty-four hours."  Behind her back, the oligarchs laugh at this.  They allow her to push forward as the nominal heroine the story.  Ginger (Trump) wants to talk to the Professor (Putin) to get instructions personally, but he ignores her.  Instead, his state television back in Russia airs a series of naked photographs of Ginger.  While Ginger (Trump) makes a phone call to the Ukrainian president, zany Gilligan (Musk) grabs the phone and steals the show.  Looking on, the Skipper (Sachs) writes stern tweets about staying on Russian message.

All of that just happened, just about.  I only had to alter one detail.  Since in the Oligarchs' Island story Trump/Ginger is female, I had to conflate him with his real-world wife Melania, nude pictures of whom were in fact aired prominently on Russian state television in an obvious bid to humiliate Trump. 

I suspect that in the weeks, months, and years to come, thinking of an Oligarchs' Island sitcom episode will accurately predict what these people will do.  Consider what is happening right now as episode 1 of season 1:

Ginger (Trump) has the idea that she should make her own decisions about the members of her cabinet (cue recorded laughter).  Some Americans not involved in Russian networks such as Mike Pompeo and Nikki Haley share the belief (cue recorded laughter) that they might join Ginger's cabinet (more cued laughter here, obvious misunderstanding of the Putinist logic of Oligarchs' Island).  Those two Americans maintain that Russia was wrong to invade Ukraine, and so are predictably rejected by the Russian-South African oligarchy.  The Skipper (Sachs) is on the case with a stern tweet: Ginger's appointments must be pro-Russian.  Ginger follows with her own submissive tweet, discarding Pompeo and Haley.  Ginger hopes to at least get her instructions directly from the Professor (Putin).  Ginger claims that she was able to call the Professor (cue laughter).  The Professor denies the call took place (cue more laughter).  Ginger says she asked the Professor not to escalate in Ukraine.  The next day Ukraine suffered one of the biggest drone attacks of the war.  Then the Russians blew up another dam in Ukraine.

Those things happened.  The ridiculous and the criminal.

And events will will continue to develop along these lines.  Here are some suggested plot lines for seasons 1-3 (that's as long as Gilligan's Island lasted, and this group is unlikely to last longer).  These are not things that have not happened yet, but things that are likely to happen, within the plot logic of Oligarchs' Island.

The oligarchs conspire to get Ginger behind a "peace deal" for Ukraine that the Professor immediately breaks, to Ginger's humiliation.  Ginger wants the Professor's approval, the more so as the humiliations accumulate.  Ginger needs money, which everyone but her has, and has to perform for others to get it.  Ginger is jealous that Gilligan is at the center of attention.  The interests of Ginger and the billionaires diverge: she wants to be in the forefront forever, whereas they think that Lovey is a more durable client.  Ginger, in her vanity, does not fully understand the threat.  The mechanics of the coup are however too complicated for the oligarchs.  A rivalry emerges among the Millionaire, Gilligan and the Skipper as to who actually owns Lovey.  Mary Ann saves the day by coming through with an elegant plan for elevating Lovey, thus closing season three as a central figure.  Ginger vanishes.  Ironic closure, in possible spinoff episode: Ginger is actually sent to Rostov in the actual Russia.  Though miserable, Ginger does get her own show.

Matters can be absurd and terrifying at the same time. It is very possible that imagining Trump as Ginger among other Oligarchs' Island characters will have more predictive value than the familiar vocabulary.  We will be tempted to write about a Trump "administration" and will tend to normalize what is happening by treating it within familiar categories of elections and law and public opinion and so forth.  That can be helpful in thinking of the kind of system we want, but not so much in understanding the clique we have brought on ourselves and that will now try to rule, to both comic and tragic effect.  The familiar concepts cannot accommodate the central realities of where we are: of Musk talking to Trump about appointments on the patio, or Putin showing Trump's wife naked on tv.  On Oligarch's Island, this is just everyday life.

On Oligarchs' Island much of politics will be factional, like in the old Soviet politburo, with momentary alliances forming and breaking, and individuals purged.  If US foreign policy is to be anything other than a result of oligarchical preferences, this will have to be a result of the emergence of an "American faction" on Oligarchs' Island (not visible yet: one can imagine, hopefully, that Marco Rubio and Michael Waltz would represent American interests on Oligarchs’ Island, should they be allowed to visit). Trump would have to realize and want to change his current subordinate position, and bring someone else along with him.  Trump could easily overpower Putin on Ukraine, but to do so he would have to break the current logic and pecking order of the oligarchy, and think for himself rather than repeating the Russian-South African line. 

In other words, Ginger would have to break the spell of the Professor and assert herself against Gilligan and the Skipper.  Too much of a stretch for Ginger's character?  Quite likely.

Oligarchies are unstable.  They have flaws and weaknesses and can crumble quickly.  They have given way to democracies.  But we have to see them for what they are.  We need to see the oligarchs not only as selfish and unpatriotic but as ridiculous.  But the same things that make them ridiculous -- the utter self-absorption, the nattering cliques, the pointless struggle for unreal things -- make them lethal to the rest of us.  They have entertained their way to power, and it is a new kind of power: an international oligarchy inside the American capital.  If they can entertain their way to power, perhaps we can at least entertain ourselves toward clarity.  Comedy might help us to see the tragedy.  And we should think in other genres, too -- next time I will try a little mathematics.

if we want to anticipate what will happen in 2025, if will be more useful to think of oligarchs on an island, starting in apparent unity, dreaming an impossible Russian dream, wreaking bloody havoc, and then coming apart.

[maximumwobblerbanditdonut]

RICH FLU 2024 is a Spanish film. currently in post-production. They have been filming 🎥 in Spain - Barcelona, Fuerteventura 🇪🇸 and Senegal 🇸🇳 Director: Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, Screenplay: Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, Pedro Rivero. This fantasy thriller has a very interesting premise and has Timothy and Rafe Spall, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Cesar Domboy, Lorraine Bracco, and Jonah Hauer King in the cast.

“Rich Flu “ sees a strange disease kill off some of the richest people on the planet. First, it was the billionaires, then the multi-millionaires and so on and explores how far people would go to save themselves when the wealth that made the world go round then becomes its most dangerous commodity after a strange disease threatens to kill anyone with any sort of fortune.

Then it threatens to strike anyone with any sort of fortune. With the whole world panicking, people try to flood the market with assets the world no longer wants. How far would people go to save their skin when the wealth that made the world go round suddenly becomes its most dangerous commodity?

Rosamund Pike, Daniel Brühl and Macaulay Culkin were originally cast but all three dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. Rosamund Pike was replaced by Mary Elizabeth Winstead while Daniel Brühl was replaced by Rafe Spall.

The cast of Rich Flu has been set with Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Star Wars: Ahsoka), Rafe Spall (The Big Short), Lorraine Bracco (The Sopranos), Dixie Egerickx (The Secret Garden), Timothy Spall (Mr. Turner), Jonah Hauer-King (The Little Mermaid), Cesar Domboy (Outlander), Dayana Esebe (LA Star), and Richard Sammel (3 Days To Kill).

Posted 3rd May 2024

Good for Cesar! taking his opportunity as an actor. 🤩

[eaglesnick]

“The True measure of our wealth is how much we’d be worth if we lost all our money.” – J.H.Jowett

The Byline Times carried this headline on 18th January 2024

“Reform UK Limited: The Political Business Brought to You by Billionaires.”

I have always been somewhat surprised why so many of the British electorate vote for Nigel Farage. He is not a “man of the people”, he rarely speaks “common sense" and he breaks his political promises as often as Sir Keir Starmer. (We all remember the slogan, “We send the EU £350 million a week. Lets fund our NHS” that turned out to be either a "mistake" as Farage later described it, or a deliberate lie, depending on your point of view.)

There are two themes that run throughout Forages political career – accusations of racism and his love of money.

Lets take racism:

Farage’s infamous anti-immigration poster of 2016 was described by George Osbourne as both “vile" and reminiscent of “nazi propaganda”. Farage is a master at promoting feelings of “us” and “them”, the polarizing political rhetoric that pits one group of people against another.

Despite claiming to “hate” the EU, its institutions, its personnel and its policies, Nigel Farage was a member of the European Parliament for 21 years, raking in a small fortune while doing so. (More of this later) He very successfully used the language  of  “hatred” to persuade the British people to leave the EU but at the same time created a problem for himself as he also scuppered his earning potential. Having defeated the bullying EU he needed to create a new enemy to rail against – Muslims.

Sky News (27/05/24:

“Nigel Farage called out for 'blanket accusation' as he says 'growing number' of Muslims 'loathe' British values.

And LBC said:

“Farage defends Reform UK candidates after anti-Islam and far-right comments exposed." (13/06/24)

Farage’s anti-Muslim position had been known for many years. In 2013 Farage claimed Muslim migrants were  “coming here to take us over". But since leaving the EU it has taken on new significance, Muslims being  an easily identifiable group for the particular brand of "hatred" politics that Farage peddles in order to make money.

Let us suppose for arguments sake Farage actually believes what he says about Muslims trying to “take over Britain” and “loathing British values”. The question then arises as to why he has handed the Chairmanship of the Reform UK party to a Muslim millionaire.

Before the last election Reform UK accepted hundreds of thousands of pounds from very wealthy individuals, the largest donor being Muslim.

“The precise amount Zia Yusuf has given to the party has not been disclosed but Reform UK claims it is the biggest donation of their general election campaign so far." (BBC News: 19/06/24)

Two months later and Zia Yusaf has been made chairman of Reform UK. If Muslims are intent on “taking over" Britain what better way than becoming Chairman of Britons fastest growing political party? But why would Farage open the door to a “takeover” by the very people he claims loath British values?

The answer is of course money. When you “donate” millions to a political party you expect something in return. And for Farage money has always been of primary concern regardless of ethics.

Reform UK is backed by billionaires and millionaires because they feel it will protect their interests. Nigel Farage does not really care about the so-called “Muslim threat” anymore than he hated the EU.  Farage’s primary concern is funding his ever-growing bank account that being a controversial figure in the political limelight allows him to do.

The 21 years that Farage was a member of the despicable European Parliament he was paid approximately £2.2 million before tax (£1.7 million after tax). In 2018, Esquire magazine (21/08/18) revealed that Farage was living in a £4 million Chelsea town house, and was paid nearly £1million pounds for his broadcasting contracts on top of his job as an MEP. That isn’t all. As a retiring MEP Mr Farage was entitled to an extra payment of £152,000 before tax, and a massive pension of £73,000 per year. Strange that Mr  Farage had told the Daily Mail only months earlier that he was “skint” and that there was “no money in politics”.

It is money that drives Farage not political conviction. It is no wonder that the Financial Times (17/08/24) reported that:

“Nigel Farage is Britain’s highest earning MP, Common records reveal."

Farage has been absent from his Clacton constituency and not holding constituency surgeries on the pretext "the public will flow through the doors with knives in their pockets”. A more plausible explanation might be he has been too busy in America supporting Donald Trump and raking in huge sums of money for his speaking events.

The Independent (17/08/24) revealed Farage is pocketing £98,000 a month from his various political activities this year. Stoking political and social division pays very nicely it seems. His anti-EU, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, credentials have kept him firmly in the media spotlight, and this has provided him the opportunity to feather his own nest regardless of the economic cost to the nation regards Brexit, or the social cost regards his anti-immigration, anti-Muslim stance.  Where making money takes precedence over all things is it any wonder that Reform UK is the party of billionaires.

[cosmichighpriestess]

Congratulations on making it through the chaotic year of 2023, please give yourself so many thanks, a big hug and give yourself so much love for surviving through it. Well done.

In the year 2024 you will experience many more higher insights, you will experience many more moments of euphoria, pleasure and ecstasy. You will remember who you are in 2024. You will remember who you are is pure, innocent, loved unconditionally and you are unconditional love because you are Source and Source is pure unconditional love.

Your heart will be more open to receiving and relaxing into your own energy. Everything not aligned with you will naturally fall away on its own. 2024 will be a year of blessings and a year of reaping what you have sown in the previous chaotic years. You will be living in a much more dream-like state where it will feel as though you are in a movie.

There will still be challenges you have to overcome, but the challenges will seem much more aligned with your passions and manifestations that you have created. For example, if you know that you are a millionaire in 2024, (because you have to know it's a done deal to manifest your reality) then you will start to have "good problems" such as learning how to manage your money, learning how to spend it and create more of it into your physical reality.

In 2024, many of you will become aligned with your higher self and you will let your higher self take the wheel in a sense. Your higher self knows the best route to go and you will be in a more relaxed state because you have trusted your heart's desires, dropped your ego's need to know & control everything and you have let go of the need to control circumstances to the point where you are completely trusting of Source/ The Universe/God/Higher Source Intelligence and trusting the path that you are on even if you can't see what happens next.

In 2024 you will learn how to relax more because you will intellectually and spiritually know that relaxing more will give you more from the Universe that is always ready to help you receive the higher frequency energies that are being sent your way. In 2024, you have found your relationship with yourself, and what that means to you, and you're letting the higher forces guide you and take care of you in the new age of Aquarius.

You are accessing more parts of yourself in 2024 and shocking yourself and others by your own abilities, therefore, in the process also awakening everyone you come into contact with. You are no longer in survival mode in 2024, you are in creation mode, in the vortex, because it is much easier to hold a higher frequency and keep it there.

Inauthentic people will be having many more ego deaths and awakenings and it will be much easier to shine your light and be your authentic self because the majority will be demanding more authenticity from you. People aligned to you will be speaking directly to your higher self, the God or Goddess in you, whereas before people were speaking to a lower version of you they thought they needed out of you to protect themselves. All illusions and not the truth of who you are.

You will be showing the way for many of your past friends, family, and past karmic lovers on how you did it, how you came into your higher self, and how you brought down Heaven on Earth. In 2024 you will remember you are the Entire Universe and at times you will use your free will to express your duality, your darkness--which is really you pretending to be something you are not temporarily, to experience separation from who you really are which is always love.

In 2024 you will more consciously remember that everyone and everything is a reflection of you and what you see outside of you is also within you, so you will choose to be more of who you really are, love, and you will see more reflections of the activated humans you activated by being love for them, to help them remember they have that choice to be love too.

They don't have to play the game of the third and fourth dimension if they don't want to anymore. In the year 2024, you will never feel alone ever again. Because you will know that there are several beings, higher dimensional and humans who will be willing to help you, love you, see you for who you really are and you will not only know you are loved but you will feel it. May 2024 be full of blessings and dreams coming true for you. I love you. 💕

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Khadijah La Musa

Published: Feb 13, 2024

Is anybody else perplexed that in 2024, we can't choose our race? Is race not also a social construct? Why is gender the only identity that is allowed to be fluid? 

Why can’t we be trans-millionaires and demand that our bank accounts reflect the way we feel on the inside? Why do we still make multiracial people choose a box? Why do we assume people’s race and thereby make assumptions about how they think, how they vote, and how they see the world?

I’m tired of it. I’m tired of being judged by the color of my skin and not by the content of my character.  

Sometimes, I don't want to be racialized. Some days I wake up and I'd rather not be “black”, or a “BIPOC”, or a “person of color.” Sometimes, I just want to be… me. So, I've decided to release myself from the shackles of race. I no longer consent to being tied to the social constraints of the arbitrary notion of race. I'm tossing my black card for good. 

I was assigned “Black” at birth. All babies are pretty much the same shade of pink at birth, so there’s no way my race was even observable at the time. I had no choice in the matter. I’m not sure if my parents did either. 

Back in my days as an undergraduate at a super liberal university, when I identified as a black feminist, people would ask me, “are you black first, or a woman first?” Ten years ago, I would have replied, “I’m black first.” I was so loyal to my race. Black. Blackity black. Being black gave me a great deal of pride and a whole lot of other things I carried unconsciously. Being black made me angry at the world – made me feel obligated to hold certain political views – and made me feel like a victim. Being black made me feel paranoid – like someone or something was always out to make my life more difficult.  

Today, if this same question was asked, I would reply, “I’m a woman, first and foremost.” Even though we in the West have regressed so far from nature, and allowed males to penetrate the female sex class, and colonize womanhood to fulfill their desires; I know that in reality, I am a woman. I can go anywhere in the world and be seen as a woman. I can connect with other women as a woman from any race, class, or nationality and they would understand me, and I, them. 

If I traveled back 2000 years in time,  I would be a woman.

Today, If I woke up and declared that I am now a man, I could go to the doctor and get my breasts removed under the guise of gender-affirming care faster than I could go and get a breast reduction due to debilitating back pain. I could get my ovaries removed to affirm my manhood faster than I could get my tubes tied for not wanting to become a mother. 

Today, If I woke up and declared that I no longer identify as black, I would be shamed and ridiculed. I would be called “crazy” – accused of self-hatred. A race traitor. A coon. A bedwench. A Pecola Breedlove. 

It makes me wonder why we, as a society, are so adamant about removing gender from its biological roots but hold on to racial stratification for dear life. Haven’t we spent years trying to undo the social ramifications of racism, but now, we’d rather attempt to divorce gender from reality. It makes me wonder if something more nefarious and deeply sinister is at play.

Regardless, I don’t want blackness anymore. I gave up my blackness when I decided to not vote for Biden in 2020. I don’t think I’ll ever vote for a Democrat again. I don’t know how to play spades anyway. I have no rhythm. I prefer to eat with chopsticks. I married the father of my child. I wear Blundstone boots in the winter. I feel so pretty when wrapped in a Sari. My daughter has a Japanese name. Once, I even shared an ice cream cone with my dog. 

I think my ancestors were just regular people. Not slaves, kings, or queens. 

I don’t listen to degenerate hip-hop music. I won’t be first in line to fight against the oppression of others. I don’t hate capitalism. I don’t care about what black celebrities are doing. 

I’m giving up my blackness. Nobody gets to tell me who I should hate. Nobody gets to tell me who I should love. Nobody gets to tell me what I should be mad about. Nobody gets to tell me what I should be interested in. 

I’m tired of being emotionally manipulated by the media. I’m exhausted from my energy being siphoned to fuel popular culture. 

Just let me be myself. 

Despite my beautiful, flawless, melanin rich, collagen fortified skin – I’m not black. I’m not indigenous. I’m not a person of color. I’m non-racial. Just like all those people who are non-binary – the people who aren’t men or women, male or female. I’m non-racial. 

Non-racial. It rolls off the tongue even better than “non-binary”. 

I don’t subscribe to any race. I’m just a human (of the female variety, because that matters a great deal in the whole human thing). I’m an adult human female. Formerly known as a woman. But now women can mean anything. A woman is anybody who identifies as a woman. Huh?

I’m not magical. I’m not better at sports. I’m not strong and independent. I need my man, and I need him to be male. 

I identify as a non-racial, joyful, clinically sane, adult human female. 

If all identities had the special privilege of fluidity, I’d totally be a trans-millionaire. 

It’s not fair that gender is the only identity that has the privilege to be fluid, changeable, and discardable. But race, the ultimate social construct, is expected to be unchangeable, and rigid.

[mrsq8geek]

Ramadan Challenge 2024, Day 3

Day 3: What is your favorite act of worship? Has it always been your favorite?

Fasting tatawu' and sadaqa, hands down.

I love the personal quality of volunteering to fast extra days.  Fasting Ramadan is already plenty blessed, but from a young age I especially liked the various hadiths about fasting additional days, be it Mondays & Thursdays or the three white days.  Fast three days a month and you've fasted the whole year?  Yes please!?

A lot of worship is symbolic and not really about what you're doing, but about everything else around it, and to me, volunteering to fast is like that.  It's not going through the motions, it's the intention, which is really what counts anyway.  Alhamdulillah I'm grateful I got to fast a lot when I was younger, because things have gotten a lot harder post-covid.  I'm hopeful we'll swing back around and I'll get to do it again.

As for sadaqa… again this is personal to me, I grew up very aware that people are in different socioeconomic classes.  Some of my cousins were kids of actual millionaires, with diamond-encrusted watches as teenagers, while others were living six people in a backyard trailer, and everything in between.  I grew up as something I came to call "fake poor"-- we weren't really poor, but my foundational years were during a rough few years, for a bunch of legitimate reasons, so I lived "poor" for the main part of my childhood.  Our situation got better when I was in high school, but when you grow up poor (or thinking you're poor because you don’t know any better), that gets ingrained in you.

These two ayas are the reason I started giving sadaqa as soon as I had my own salary.  Because I was very aware of what it was like to have or not have the money you need to do things for yourself, and I'd seen a range of examples in my family.  Whatever I saved was precious to me, which is exactly why it's meaningful for me to give from that.

We have a local saying that goes "money is the filth of dunya" and that's even more reason to take out that trash!

Similarly since covid, things have become quite tight financially, so now that's how we've been living.  I'm used to tightening the belt, but the difference between now and my childhood is now I'm the one making the financial decisions.  And when things are this hard, you find out who you can really trust.  People who I thought I could rely on turned out to be, well, allahuma inni saima.  Others surprised me with their kindness and generosity.

When I was giving sadaqa when I was younger, I didn't have in mind some kind of karmic quid pro quo.  But being on the receiving end now, I believe even more that the system works.  Every little bit really does help.

Even clicks.

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 4

[my-evil-brain]

Or, as the assholes say today, "It's called depression. Get over it and yourself and be a more productive member of society against your will." You ever think, maybe society is what depresses so many to a paralyzing fear inducing depression beyond meds and / or in spite of the meds?

It ain't just have a job n fam n time to raise that family to a degree and take time off n not work as much to begin with with enough money for 2 cars a house and leasure. Yeah, 50s is over.... It's 2024.... 1 job, NOT ENOUGH. Decent job? Well, corporate is cheap with pay. Good job? Still need MORE to survive and, at best, enjoy life. You work till you die in regret n debt. Otherwise, you have time to reflect and get ideas about how the system is lopsided. As some politicians have said, why retire? Just work be productive. Don't become a social welfare case sucking off the government* (*social security checks, which we ALL pay into with our earned time n body's). Because retirement in their eyes (the gen z/y/and asshole X) means you, their voters who worked hard, are worthless if they've earned a rest. Just look to our 80-90 yr old billionaire/ millionaire ceos and politicians. Still living in the pre cold war days, but thinking their ideals matter to their grand n great grand children today. It affects our lives in the real world today. And has nothing to actually do with our lives other than make them less safe.

[beardedmrbean]

1. How much do you earn? EU Member States must have pay transparency by 2026

By 2026, all European Member States must ensure that their wage policies have been reformed to ensure pay transparency, obliging companies across the EU to communicate more openly about their wage policies. Read more.

2. Balancing the budget and a millionaire's tax: What Belgian parties' election proposals cost

With elections in just over a month, Belgium's political parties have been launching proposals left, right and centre. But are they fully costed or costly promises? And which might actually yield results? Read more.

3. Crown Princess Elisabeth will go to the US to study at Harvard University

Belgian Crown Princess Elisabeth will start studies at Harvard University (Boston, United States) this summer having recently passed the entrance tests for a two-year master's degree in Public Policy. Read more.

4. HBO Max to launch in Belgium on 1 July

Streaming platform HBO Max is set to launch in Belgium from 1 July, US media conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery has confirmed. Read more.

5. European tourism expected to hit record numbers this year

In the first months of 2024, Europe's tourism industry experienced a strong recovery as the number of international arrivals (+7.2%) and overnight stays (+6.5%) surpassed 2019's pre-pandemic figures, according to data from reporting destinations. Read more.

6. 'Institutional lasagna': Brussels event gives voice to young voters

Many young people feel politically misunderstood and unrepresented by the various governments. One month before they head to the polls, young people will have a chance to voice their political views and hopes at an event in Brussels. Read more.

7. Hidden Belgium: La Roche hiking trails

The small town of La-Roche-en-Ardenne is one of the best places in Belgium for a weekend hike. The fortress town on a bend in the river deep in the Ardennes offers a fantastic range of 10 clearly-marked hiking trails ranging from a 3km family stroll to a 13km forest ramble. Read more.