#''and that wealth and poverty are mutually exclusive and no one could ever be both at different points in their lives!!!!''

[theorderofthetriad]

"We must assume [X] about character, it makes the most sense (to me) that that's canonical, if you assume anything otherwise you are wrong*!"

*morally!

can we PLEASE fucking stop this????

[ketsuekki]

*INOUE CLAN.

“The Inoue Clan (井上一族) were a family of shinobi native to Water, members of Kirigakure’s bottom caste, and the prior owners of the land on which it was built. The Blood Release is a kekkei genkai found exclusively in their lineage.

Historically known as the Daimyo’s dogs during the Warring States Era, they served as his personal protectors and soldiers out of mutual loyalty. Before their subjugation, the country’s western territories were in thrall to the Inoue. No foreign invader ever made it past their dark shores.

They were officially purged by Kirigakure following the end of the Third Mizukage’s reign. The last known Blood Rlease user died in the Fourth War, and the clan is currently listed as extinct.”

(Trivia: the Inoue’s symbol, which consists of a large, black square and three white triangles, represents their progenitors.)

CHARACTERISTICS.

Appearance.

Thanks to their own careful inbreeding, Inoue belonging to the ruling family are instantly recognisable from their dark green hair, while the majority of the clan possess light blonde colouring. However, those with stronger blood ties to the Hoshigaki are known to have blue hair of various shades. Blue/green eyes are the most common within the clan, usually being narrow and upturned.

They have sharp fangs, ranging from a single pair to two, as opposed to an entire mouth of shark-teeth like some of their countrymen.

Inoue members also tend to have pale skin with cool undertones. Freckles, moles, or other marks are uncommon. Tattooing, due to association with traffickers, is highly looked down upon with occasional punishment, depending on the outrageousness of the design. 

Scars in those who awakened the Blood Release are numerous, usually in the form of cuts on the arms/legs – prompting the derogatory nickname of ‘Water Tigers’. They are also very tall, in comparison to both local and international standards. The average height for men is roughly 210cm, while the average height for women is around 180cm.

Temperaments.

The Inoue are known for being short-tempered, dauntless, and difficult to control... But are also said to be awkwardly endearing. Their clan is not one that encourages open affection, so its members are left to display their more positive emotions in ways that are often misread by others due its vagueness, or in ways that are blatantly obvious.

They are most infamous, however, for their powerful and ultimately bloody grudges --- as well their extreme loyalty. There are countless stories of an Inoue’s voluntary sacrifice and suffering for the sake of those they love. Traitors are rarely found among their ranks, and those guilty are tortured and executed.

Shinobi.

One of the oldest shinobi clans in Water, the name “Inoue” has become near synonymous with violence. This is partly due to their inherited strength. Through incest, infanticide and careful outbreeding, the Inoue cultivated a bloodline that consistently produced monsters over their thousand-years existence. Notable figures hailing from the Inoue clan include: Inoue Maou (the “Red God”), Inoue Megumi (Water country’s first female serial killer), Inoue Kiseki (the Sandaime Mizukage, the “Blood Beast”), and Keumi Minami (the “Bloody Wraith”).

Shinobi born from this clan tend to have water affinities, innate talent in the ninja arts, outstanding pain tolerance – and very short lives.

Illness, Health & Age.

The Inoue are extremely prone to sickness of both mind and body. Even without the Blood Release’s consequent heart problems, they’re an overall sickly and frail clan.

Members are very vulnerable to disease, catching them more often and easily than most. The invention of vaccines aided their survival of such things, but weak immune systems coupled with Water’s poverty meant it remained a fatal problem well into their annexation by Kirigakure.

They are also more susceptible to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, depression and  schizophrenia than the average person, and are more vulnerable to substance abuse. The lack of information on mental illnesses led to the clan blaming any ‘deviant’ behaviour as the result of “Blood Rage”, a so-called madness caused by a person’s inherent weakness. Affliction could lead to an Inoue being executed depending on severity.

All of these factors, combined with their body’s degradation from the Blood Release, meant that an Inoue’s average life expectancy was twenty-eight during the village era (twenty-five during the Warring States Era).

HISTORY.

The first Inoue was born 150 years following the birth of Indra and Ashura. The ancestor to all Blood Release users, a man named Maou, had humble roots. He was the fifth son of a poor farmer. His mother’s identity is speculated to be the missing daughter of the Daimyo. She was famed throughout the five major lands for her green hair – which Maou and all his siblings possessed, despite it being a rare, rare trait at the time. Not only that, she had been ‘missing’ a year when the eldest son was born. 

Both Maou’s parents died when he was eleven during his village’s slaughter, in which he awakened the Blood Release for the first time in history.

He made use of his powers and began his own crusade for power and wealth. Now a mercenary, one favoured by the new Daimyo (who was possibly his uncle), Maou soon found himself rich, feared and close to the royal family. He was gifted land by the Daimyo himself – a misty coast estate next to the mountains. It was hard to find, hard to attack and easy to defend; Maou was grateful, settling quickly.

He married three women. The only one of his wives whose name is known is Inoue Kayo, his last remaining sibling and younger sister. She became his first wife, and bore him three sons and a daughter.  The second wife gave Maou three daughters. The third wife gave him three sons and two daughters. After the birth of his youngest child, Maou died.

His twelve children continued his conquest, maintaining a close bond with the imperial clan while waging war against the west. Their descendants became primarily available for them, thus creating a relationship that benefitted both families. An Inoue was always present at court, be it as a guard, concubine or shadow and the Daimyo reliably filled their pocket in return. Those with divine blood trusted only the Inoue to protect their lives wholeheartedly.

They were loyal to the royal family above all others,  but they were still a mercenary clan that could be bought by coin – although they never accepted missions that conflicted with the Daimyo.

Their ‘Golden Age’ ended at the First Mizukage’s hands. 

He wanted their land – resource-rich, well-defended, strategically perfect – and he would have it, even if a thousand people had to die as payment. The Inoue fought well, but not even Blood Release users stood a chance against a clan coalition. They lost, shoved into Kirigakure’s bottom caste following the defeat.

Their lives in the village was less than pleasant. Inoue were treated with suspicion from the moment they were born to the moment they died, receiving nothing but the worst of everything. When Inoue Kiseki’s, the Third Mizukage, civil war rolled around, most understandably turned against their peers. This generation of Inoue were monstrous, fueled by rage and resentment for their stolen inheritance that could be hidden no longer. Their very presence on the battlefield was a promise for carnage. Both sides of the conflict were left traumatized.

Following the Mizukage’s death, his clan were deemed too dangerous to let exist. 

Unlike the other blood purges, which were mostly carried out by unsanctioned civilian mobs, the Inoue’s genocide was both decided and carried out by Kirigakure’s government. The ruling family were publicly executed for unexplained crimes of treason. The rest of the Inoue were killed individually by hunters, most mist-nin being kept in the dark to prevent another conflict.

A few dozen Inoue managed to survive, the majority fleeing their homeland for asylum only to be killed during the journey. Only seven remained in Water. By the time Uzumaki Naruto graduated, that number was reduced to zero.

Six people became all that was left of the Inoue after the Fourth war, only half being full-blooded. They chose to let their clan die, living the rest of their lives using aliases and obscurity to hide their existence. Despite Terumi Mei officially putting an end to the Inoue’s eradication, promising safety for any survivors, they were too frightened to return.

During Kirigakure’s modernisation, a statue depicting the Inoue was placed near the memorial park. It is an apology for their tragedy, as well as a ‘thank you’ for their service to both the country and village.

It is all that is left.

[battlebucket]

A Circle Has No Beginning

What if someone said that culture, racism, and diversity cannot exist without the conceptual presence of the other two? Although this notion may seem farfetched, it may as well be supported by the idiosyncrasies of legislation. With the current presidential administration, these ideas have lined up perfectly and have shown that diversity is accompanied by culture and racism. But if racism is constituently present, how is it pushed back? Community Cultural Wealth is the key of this problem. Without CCW, eradication of culture would be easier than accommodating culture. In the United States, CCW is a big push back, and a threat, to neoliberalist policies that oppress undocumented persons and people who are poor.

In the current Trump administration, the idiosyncrasies coalesce into the current xenophobic, dehumanizing rendition of what was believed to be all but extinct. The racism that stems from xenophobia is important for the integration of individuals into a society where they are not typically wanted. The resentment stemmed from this accumulation of racist notions and the attempt to accommodate such persons allows for legislation that would disempower people who contribute just as equally to this country, for example the 13th amendment, more of a law than just a policy, “protects” the rights of citizens while still allowing for the dehumanization and criminalization of persons that break the law. The people “protected” do not include “illegal aliens,” as the public has been so keen to label, and people who are at the poverty level and forever labeling both undocumented persons and citizens who break the law, which are typically poor people, as “second-class” citizens. (13th 2016)

There is one important aspect of this legislation, and that is the large loophole that this amendment to the constitution places on the citizens, not just undocumented immigrants., and that is the “enslavement” or people who have defied the law and are sentenced to prison for a felony offense. The loophole then allows for legislation that enables the criminalization of certain customs or practices are tied to a specific group of people. However, these policy enforcements do not stop at the federal level; the sentiment of approving such legislation can pass down to the community level. An example of such policy that dehumanizes, and thus allows for the “criminalization” of immigrant persons is illustrated in Natalia Deeb-Sossa’s book Doing Good. For example, Natalia observes the attempt to denounce immigrant Latinos in the health clinic by implementing policies that would make it an offense to speak a language other than English (Deeb-Sossa pg. 50-60). This example illustrates a neoliberalist practice at the community level, and does so on the basis that speaking Spanish offended other employees, and patients. Speaking just English would then facilitate the exclusion of persons who do not know English, as seen with the triad nurse, and people who lack the skills to communicate would then be denied medical attention (Deeb-Sossa 2013).

Furthermore, the exclusion of Spanish from a workplace is a micro-aggression, and thus is treated as such; but what happens when the racism is at the global level. We have seen such things occur not only concurrently, but also in the past. A fine example of neoliberal policies that criminalize people is patent of Pfizer in antiretroviral drugs (ARVs). This is an example of a global neoliberalist policy that subjugates people (those who cannot afford ARVs) to pay ridiculously high prices for HIV medication that may as well be available to everyone. Patents have allowed for the monopolization of certain products, and thus has made it impossible for persons who are either poor (the majority) or undocumented (in the case of the united states) from receiving supplemental medication that would prolong the life of patients who have HIV. The reasoning behind this monopolization was the notion that people who are poor will not take the drugs accordingly and the efficacy (the effectiveness) of the ARVs would slowly decline. The monopolization allowed for the dehumanization of South Africans (and Africans in general), who needed the ARVs the most, thus ensuring that poor people should not receive ARVs due to the lack of “education” that the patients have. (Fire in the Blood 2013) The patent disallowed for the use of generic drugs and criminalized anyone that would smuggle such drugs into South Africa.

So then, how does ARV policy affect people in the United States? An answer to this question is that the primary basis of this policy is the removal of rights from people who are “supposed to be equal.” But equality is not the same as equity. People who are poor are generally seen as persons who have low equitable value, and thus makes the basis for policies that subjugate them to unreasonable conditions effortless. People in the US who cannot afford healthcare or do not have any type of insurance are then forced to live with diseases that can be controlled and contained. Smuggling, selling, or even giving prescription drugs to another person who appears to need such medication is then a violable offense in the United States, and entails the imprisonment of such persons. The parallel of the poor in the United States is the link between the people of South Africa, and Africa in general.

What does neoliberalist policy have to do with culture, racism and diversity? A perfectly valid question, this is how they are interconnected: let us start with the riddle, “what came first the chicken or the egg?” This riddle can then can be modified to be stated as such: “what came first culture or racism?” The example shows that either culture or racism came first, but not both. These concepts are tied directly to one another, and one cannot exist without the other, making “diversity” a possibility. The removal of one of these, and the other cannot exist in a “diverse” setting. Diversity then is an accumulation of distinct cultures that cluster together in an area, and based on the previous, diversity also encompasses different ideologies, therefore both racism and culture must exist in the same setting, since they both influence each other directly and they are both ideological concepts. What is meant by the statement is that racism defines cultures in setting distinctions between two different customs and practices on negative terms for the “safety” of the people that feel threatened. Although one could argue that culture and diversity can exist without racism, it is difficult to argue which idea came first, racism or culture. Culture also reinforces this idea of racism and segregation, as some cultural communities want to be defined as distinct. The ideas of stereotypes and labels are produced because of the racial distinction that is wanted by movements like Black Lives Matter. Although the stereotypes are produced from racist notions like motion pictures, such as Birth of a Nation, the labels of black persons were brought back to combat the movement. (Ramirez CHI 112: Week 9 summary 2017)

Even though the previous was one such example of this idea, there are countless more that could be identified through narratives and through empirical evidence in history, it reinforces the idea that culture and racism is one in the same; where they are a part of each other and where one cannot exist without the other. Racism then comes to existence when there is an identification of one culture by another, and the “cultures” themselves would not have existed if it had not been for the identification of one cluster of peoples with customs by another cluster of people of distinct customs. The cultures themselves produce the racism by stereotyping certain customs to each culture. Although the stereotyping is benevolent at first, people who are unwilling, or incapable, of understanding the customs then take these stereotypes and labels and translate them into malevolent racism as seen with slavery pre-civil war era, the mass deportations during “operation wetback” in the year 1954, and during the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. Eventually the attempt of the extinction of one culture occurs in the most extreme cases, as seen with Nazi Germany; however, this does not always happen, and some cultures can adopt mutualistic tendencies and accommodate each other. Essentially over time, the mutualism disintegrates as the malevolent racism overtakes the resentment that is felt between the two distinct groups of people, as it has been seen during the Trump Administration in the United States; furthermore, it is pivotal point for cultures to change. Unfortunately, this includes the inventions of new stereotypes and labels and the exploitation of them through malevolency. The pivotal points of change are usually reoccurring to be “diverse,” with the eventual adoption of legislation like the 13th amendment of The Constitution of The United States of America.

Legislation like the 13th amendment then subjugates the public to the facilitation of benevolent racism as seen in the previous examples with the exclusion of Spanish at the community level and the exclusion of medication for the poor at the global level. Thus, allowing for the oppression of minorities through legislation that would criminalize certain activities that were stereotyped to culturally different people. This policy for the subjugation of minority groups then labels them as “second-class” citizens and is presented as “helping the public” when the policy would do more harm than good, as we have seen in the Criminal Reform acts passed while under the George H.W. Bush Administration and the Bill Clinton Administration (13th 2017). These neoliberal policies target poverty level people, which is mostly composed of minorities and “second-class” citizens. Then what can be done to combat the ever-expansive benevolent racism?

The idea of Cultural Community Wealth (CCW), as presented by Rosa Manzo (Manzo pg 56-57), is what combats racism in general. As individual’s knowledge of the environment, involvement with the community, social networks, etc., increases then the resistance to racism by having a better understanding of the environment and the neoliberal practices that are exercised on “second-class” citizens, as they have been labeled, also increases. Using social, navigational, and resistant capital, the people of South Africa would receive generic drugs only from people who were “educated” enough to understand that policies like patents, were wrong and risked imprisonment for the smuggling of illegal generic drugs into the country of South Africa. Furthermore, in the case of Deeb-Sossa, the people involved at Care, Inc. used the same capital to maneuver through a high hostility environment where the employees risked being fired at the expense of refusing to give up their native language. Both examples show that neoliberal practices in the form of “racism,” benevolent or otherwise can be combatted using CCW as a platform to fight against such practices.

In conclusion, CCW acts as a tool to fight racism, which then brings us full circle to the influences that racism and culture exert on each other. Although an obvious notion may have been stated analyzing the previous examples, it still does not disregard the fact that we become more aware of the racism that is imposed on “second-class” citizens and undocumented peoples using neoliberal practices to further subjugate people via oppression without question. The subjugation fuels resentment and forms movements, like Marches of Los Angeles in 2006 and Black Lives Matter currently, due to the dehumanizing effects of neoliberal oppression. As we enter a new presidential age, we also entering a pivotal point for the stratification of the meaning of culture and racism. This historical moment then poses the question, will the cycle begin anew?

Bibliography

1. Averick, Spencere, and Ava DuVernay. 13TH. Netflix.com/13th, Netflix, 7 Oct. 2016, www.netflix.com/title/80091741.

2. Deeb-Sossa, Natalia. Doing good: racial tensions and workplace inequalities at a community clinic in El Nuevo South. The University of Arizona Press, 2013.

3. Gray, Dylan M. Fire in the Blood . Netflix.com/Fire in the Blood, Netflix, 20 Jan. 2013, www.netflix.com/title/70268209.

4. Manzo, Rosa. “Parent Involvement Practices of Farmworking Immigrant Mothers in a Rural Community.” Association of Mexican American Educators Journal, vol. 10, no. 1, 2016, pp. 53–79.

“Property of Alberto Ramirez-Rosales”

[omcik-blog]

New Post has been published on OmCik

New Post has been published on http://omcik.com/what-economic-policies-do-americans-need-ask-them/

What Economic Policies Do Americans Need? Ask Them

(Photo: Allison Bell/TA)

(Bloomberg View) — Usually, when economists think about how to improve the lives of people, they rely on introspection and theoretical assumptions. Many an econ paper buries itself in abstract calculations of utility and welfare, deploying pages of equations to derive optimal rules of policy. But there’s a simpler, alternate approach to figuring out what kind of policies people want and need: Just ask them.

(Related: How Middle-Class America Got Fleeced of Its Wealth)

 The Federal Reserve Board does this every year, in its Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households. Last year’s report just came out, and it has a lot to tell us about what kind of things the U.S. government could do to improve people’s lives.

Many of the findings won’t be a surprise. College graduates are doing better than those with just a high-school degree. Many Americans have little savings, live on the knife edge of insolvency, fear a sudden large medical bill, and struggle with student-loan debt. Black and Hispanic Americans report slightly more economic worries than whites do. But overall, most Americans say that they’re doing well economically. Even among those without college degrees, 60% say that they’re either doing well or living comfortably, and this number has crept up several percentage points in the past four years. Improvements have come across every age, race and education level. The recovery from the Great Recession hasn’t gone unnoticed, it seems.

But many problems persist. The report analyzes the results of open-ended surveys, in which Americans discussed their economic worries in their own terms. The responses were categorized and broken down by income group:

For lower-income Americans, holding down a job and being able to pay this month’s bills loomed as the largest concerns. For those in the upper income ranks, retirement security mattered the most. And for middle-income families, health care was cited as the biggest problem.

These findings should give policy makers a road map for how to improve Americans’ lives at every income class. They should also guide economists’ research efforts. Each level of American society has its own needs, and the government should be thinking about how to help everyone at once.

Poor and working-class people have the simplest needs — basically, they need more money. Fortunately, economists have spent a lot of time thinking about how to get poor people more money, and there are at least four approaches worthy of attention.

The first of these is the earned income tax credit, which pays poor people to work. Despite worries that it would end up as a subsidy to employers, the EITC is a proven poverty-fighter. Some leaders are already suggesting it be expanded substantially.

The second program is a federal job guarantee or work provision program. A version of this was tried successfully during the Great Depression, and Kevin Hassett, who has been nominated to head the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, has advocated trying it again. It could have the added effect of giving poor people a greater sense of dignity.

The third approach is a higher minimum wage, currently the focus of a national campaign. Many economists worry that rising minimum wages hurt employment of poor people, but so far the bulk of the evidence hasn’t borne this out.

The fourth idea for giving Americans more money is the simplest — a universal basic income. This is an unproven program, but many experiments are underway, and enthusiasm among its promoters is running high.

It’s crucial to realize that these programs aren’t mutually exclusive. There’s no reason a higher EITC can’t exist alongside a jobs program, a higher minimum wage and even a basic income. Those who want to put money in the pockets of America’s poor and working class shouldn’t waste too much time fighting over which approach is the best.

For middle-income Americans, the Fed’s report shows that health is the biggest worry. Unexpected medical expenses are an ever-present threat, and staggeringly high U.S. health care prices mean that medical bills take a much bigger bite out of the middle class than in other countries. The Affordable Care Act helped, but in the end, the best approach is probably a single-payer health system or public option. Extending Medicare or Medicaid to cover all Americans is the simplest and most proven solution to both the excess cost problem and the insecurity problem.

Finally, higher-earning Americans shouldn’t be neglected. Retirement is their main worry. Government can’t do much in the long run to prop up stock and housing prices, but there’s one big way that retirement security could be improved — lower fees on retirement accounts. Even fees that seem small can drain huge percentages of one’s life savings. Mandatory annual dollar invoicing would be a great step toward showing savers exactly how much they’re forking over every year, and thus pushing the industry to charge less for all sorts of money-management services.

So there are policies available to help every group of Americans with their main worries. Some of these solutions, particularly basic income or a job guarantee, would be expensive, and would require higher taxes on the wealthy — others, like a single-payer health system, EITC, and lower money-management fees, will probably ending up saving the country money. But overall, the U.S. has a large arsenal of policy tools available to tackle its citizens’ most pressing economic problems.

— Read How the American Public Feels About Financial Regulation on ThinkAdvisor.