Ennio Morricone - Once Upon A TIme In The West

Here

Sometimes I get the feeling that I'm not supposed to be here and I don't mean like in a particular room or something. I don't feel like I should be "here"; in time and place.

Everything is an accident.

Necropolitik

I can't believe it's October already. As we near the days of remembrance, it is good to pause and remember those who have passed on and reflect on the transience of life. There's no time for somber rumination in the Philippines though but there's always time for petty politics.

You know, I'm not ignorant of the fact that majority of my recent posts were about Philippine politics. It's a tedious subject, I know. To the cynical, Philippine politics holds few surprises. It's become banal as it is corrupt and degrading. Still, like one would do to a mental patient, we must examine the goings-on of this Republic to try to analyze and (hopefully) find a cure for the people's many psychoses. On that note, it appears we have a problem... 

Mar Roxas recently chose Leni Robredo as his running mate which saddened me. He should have chosen Vice Ganda in my opinion. Those two clowns would go well together in pandering to the masses. Who is Leni Robredo? Who she actually is is irrelevant. What matters is that she's the widow of the late Jesse Robredo, the former Secretary of the DILG who died in a plane crash.

"Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio." lamented Hamlet. Hamlet indeed knew him well as he painfully recalled happier times with the fool. Alas, poor Jesse! I knew him... not so well, reader. Do you? If Mar hadn't chosen Leni, we wouldn't have remembered that Jesse even existed along with the Chinese tourists, "Mamasapano 44" and the other dead people this government would rather have you forget.

Who Jesse was as a person is irrelevant. You can argue about his accomplishments all you like but it won't matter for two reasons: Firstly, Jesse is fucking dead. Secondly, the idea of who Jesse was is infinitely more important to the media and this administration rather than anything factual. Truth is irrelevant but perception is everything. The powers that be would have you believe that Jesse was the model public servant. He was so good and pure and brave and humble and honest etc. ad infinitum. They would canonize him a saint if they could. The man doesn't matter but a corpse has its uses.

Let me commit some copyright infringement and paint to you the picture the media and yellow acolytes are preparing: Jesse Robredo was a saint and perfect human being. Thank God for people like Jesse and thank God he belonged to our party so we can milk his legacy for what its worth. He's in heaven now, bowling with Jesus Christ himself. It was his time to go but don't be sad! His widow (feel sorry for her now) is here to continue the struggle. Like her husband, she is also good and pure and honest. Don't ask about the logic, or lack thereof, of ascribing one person's traits to another without basis. Just know that a vote for Mar is a vote for Leni and a vote for Jesse and Jesse was so great and wonderful. Have a heart for the widow. Vote Mar!

If all this sounds familiar, it is. If the noontime shows haven't rotted your brain completely yet, you may recall that El Presidente himself got elected for office on a wave of sympathy from his dead mom. The corpse was hardly even cold before they began using it for their ambitions. Again, who Cory was is irrelevant. We are never allowed to question who Jesse, Cory and Ninoy were. All we need to know is that they were completely flawless and good (unlike Marcos who was completely evil am I right?). Their deaths are more important than their lives. The benefit of dead heroes is that they never lived long enough to become the villain. Plus, we can't criticize them since they're fucking dead! Philippine politics is more about storytelling than anything. The power of sympathy is not to be underestimated. Filipinos are a very touchy-feely and overemotional bunch of nutcases. They eat this crap up with smiles on their faces.

Speaking of exploiting the dead, Grace Poe is doing it too! She remarked that she must "finish what her father started", her father being the late action movie star, Fernando Poe Jr. I'm confused. Fernando was never elected to office and died shortly after his loss so what exactly are we going to "finish" here? Maybe she wants to continue his work of making bad movies? Hey, knock yourself out Grace.

Hmm, let's see here.... Morbid fascination with the dead? Check. Using the dead for your own selfish purposes? Check. Idolizing the dead to the point of fetishization? Check. Having your way with the dead? Oh, dear. This is not good, you may want to sit down. It appears that Filipinos have a terrible mental illness, a terrible one indeed. Ladies and gentlemen, I have made my diagnosis: we are suffering from... (drum roll) necrophilia! This is a serious and dreadfully unsanitary mental condition. It's time to get locked up in a padded cell and we'll need a hell of a lot of pills to get better.

It's clear from the patient's history. People power was a flower that rose from a corpse after all. Even our religion makes a big deal about a guy dying on a cross. I worry about Binay. If he wants to win this election cycle, he has to pray that someone he loves dies. That way, he can ride a wave of tears to victory.

The worst thing about having your way with a corpse is the awkward silence.

Assassin's Creed OST - Venice Rooftops

Death and Taxes

There was a move recently to reduce the income tax rate here in the Philippines. In a stunning display of congressmen actually doing their jobs, they determined that the income tax rate was just too high, the highest in the region in fact, and have not been adjusted for the rates of inflation up to today.

Then, showing to everyone yet again what a useless institution it is, congress backed off. El Presidente was not keen on the idea you see. He invited the proponents of the bill to Malacanang, a tasteless display of executive meddling if there ever was one, and wouldn't you know it, now they say that there simply "isn't enough time" for the measure. Not enough time? This is laughable coming from a government that insisted on passing the abomination that was the Bangsamoro Basic Law as fast as possible. This coming from a government that greased the tracks with pork barrel money to railroad an impeachment against the Chief Justice in less than a year. But no, there just isn't enough time. Give me a break.

If I may digress, just how inept and inutile is congress anyway? The power of the purse? It gave that up a long time ago with the pork barrel scandal. It abused its power of impeachment to please the idiot-in-chief and now it can't even muster up the will to pass tax measures; a basic legislative function. What's next? Should it just turn over its lawmaking power to El Presidente? It's clear they're not using it anyway with all the absentees and empty chairs. How low can they go? How much more can they sell out to this administration? They should all just bend over and be done with it, that's all they're good at. It's not the "august body" in the days of yore. It's a filthy brothel and as it turns out, congress seems to attract a lot of would-be pimps and prostitutes. Just ask the MMDA Chairman and his playgirls. No honor. No honor among thieves in the first place. If they're not busy kowtowing to El Presidente, they're busy jumping ships, changing parties and re-positioning themselves for political gain. No integrity. They're all tools and puppets on strings.

Anyway, this was supposed to be about taxes.

Taxation Law was my least favorite subject. It's a jumbled mess of laws and internal regulations, rates, rules, exceptions and exceptions to exceptions. One thing though will always stick and that's because it's a concept and concepts are easier to understand. The "lifeblood doctrine" posits that the collection of taxes is of the utmost importance to the government as it needs taxes to survive, which is why collection of taxes is usually favored and cannot be enjoined at all. But something about this view always rubbed me wrong. Oftentimes, the government's actions go beyond treating taxes as a necessity but rather as something it's entitled to, like a tribute from the lowly peasants.

Let's get something straight. Government does not produce any wealth. It doesn't. Everything that comes out of government is supposed to be for a public purpose. There's no profit motive and it's not their money. People tend to be reckless with money that's not theirs and the government is no exception. The Philippines has the highest income tax rate among its neighbors. It has the highest corporate income tax rate. It also has the highest power costs too boot. Given how much the citizen pays, what have we got to show for it? Ask yourself. What goddamned thing do we have to show for it? It rains a little and our capital city becomes a Kevin Costner movie.  If the Philippine government were a private company, all its customers would have left a long time ago.

Don't think of taxes as the lifeblood of the government but rather, the lifeblood of its people. The state is a vampire and its always hungry.

Why does government insist on taxing its people so much? The answer is obvious. When you look at this government, you'll see a large collection of career politicians. For them, government is the center of everything. It is the end all, be all. To them, only the government is capable of improving the lives of people. Just look at the self-righteous and imperious attitude of this particular administration. It doesn't care about anything outside of itself and its own interests. All it cares about is the revenues. Oh, the revenues! Revenues! We gotta keep up the revenues! Revenues! What about our revenues!? As if wealth exists only to end up in government coffers.

Less taxes mean the people get to keep more of their money. That means a little more food on the table. That means meeting the rent payments. That means getting the medicines for little Juanito. That means more goods and services on demand. If anything, it can still be taxed with the VAT. But no, all the government cares about is its revenues. It can't even comprehend the idea of giving Filipinos a bit more power with their own money. We all know how competent the government is at spending tax money, right? Our government has become too self-centered, using itself as its own measure of success as if to say that if the government has money, that means the Filipinos themselves are wealthy. To the powers that be, only they can help the Filipinos, not the Filipinos themselves. But such is the nature of power to desire more of itself.

In a sane society, this would be a hot button issue but as I said before, there only seems to be resignation now with a little hint of despair. There is a malaise, I sense it. The government doesn't care. The people don't care. Nobody cares. People would rather watch Aldub or whatever nonsense fad is polluting the airwaves at noontime.

Can an earthquake just kill us all already?

NWO

Something is in the air and it ain't love.

The changing of Europe's demographics are accelerating. China builds islands in the middle of the sea. Russia is now bombing targets in the Middle East. What's next?

Where will we be in twenty years?