Politics that didn't Happen

In 2016, the UK realized they were loosing the war on terror as they found that kids as young as 4 where helping the extremists, inventing new forms of concealed explosives, known as "cucumber bombs", and designing plans for a "terrorist house".
Not afraid to taking action, the UK home secretary decided to reinforce extremism detection in schools, especially with younger children. The "No line left behind" act was passed, which put a heavy emphasis on the surveillance of pupils. Suspicious activities included misspelling words, drawing unrecognizable shapes that could be interpreted as some form or another of IED, or coloring outside the lines. But the results of the program shocked even those that put it in place.
It soon became clear that, having indulged in the above named suspicious behavior, a vast majority of britains youth was clearly on their way to blow up an airport, or other public and populated place of their choosing. Indeed, it seemed as if the whole populace of the country still in compulsory education was waiting for the chance to plunge the world into chaos. In response, the british government decided to change their school system.
Instead of compulsory education, british children are now subject to compulsory incarceration. The whole population aged 4 to 18 are put into prisons, where they are taught not to blow shit up, and trained educators try to get them to repent for their "original sin". The ministry of public education has recently anounced that the program was a huge success, with only a handful of potential criminals acutally managing to kill people once they got out, and the USA as well as Japan have announced that, following said success, they will implement similar policies.
A group of hardcore hippies keeps maintaining that putting kids in prison is not the right solution, but like every time before now, nobody gives a shit about those pot-smoking wackos.

Citation's that weren't Made

"The bad thing about going to sleep, is that sooner or later, you'll have to wake up."

    - Dalai-Lama

Summer Snow

Johnny boy was walking down the street, snot dropping off his nose. Spring was in the air, but so was winter, lingering around with nothing better to do. The mixture of pollen and cold had prevented Johnny from taking a breath through his nose for the last week, and he was getting sick of it. While everybody else lazed around in the warm sunshine, admiring the bright colors, he spent most of his time inside, trying to find the right combination of air-purifiers and indoor scents to get his truffle working properly again. He went about it as meticoulously as any scientist, but even after all these years, he hadn't found anything that worked. He had started to seriously consider the possibility that he was being sabotaged by the tissue industry. Right now, though, he had set out to resupply on said paper-squares, his mistrust of their creators forgotten for the moment.

He was making his way back a short while later, arms laden with kleenex, when it came to him. Like all brilliant insights, it started with a simple question mark. He looked at it hanging there, and wondered to what question it might belong. And when he found out, his lips split into a big smile. Of course, the answer was there all along. It might not be the most ethical solution, and it certainly wasn't legal. Then again, if you had to go up against saboteurs and industrial spies, no point insisting on the high road. And besides, it had a nice ring to it. Snow in summer.

Politics that didn't Happen

Much like the political processes of most countries, I'm sick, so no update today.
Unlike most countries' political processes, I should be back on track by friday.

Citations that weren't Made

"I'd rather be dead and buried than sick and alive."

Over&Out

John was sitting in front of the screen, his eyes two blurry red dots. His fingers moved sluggishly over the keyboard in search of the right sequence to type in. His eyelids flickered slightly as he read line after line of code, trying to spot his mistakes. A half-empty bottle of beer was losing the last of its bubbles next to his computer.

It had taken him a long time to get where he was. But he had started to think it might just be worth it. Sure, there were still a couple of points that needed fine-tuning. Constants to be adjusted, formulas to be overhauled, segfaults to be avoided. But on the whole, it seemed to work. He almost couldn't believe it. Conceptually sound. Never had two words sounded so beautiful. John smiled to himself. Soon, he thought, soon, he would let the world know about what he could do. Then it hit him. What about sleep?

Politics that didn't Happen

In 2016, the FBI was on a roll. Not content to take Apple and WhatsApp to court over encryption, although most tech experts agreed that it was a rather stupid idea, they also felt that school were, most definitely, a dangerous place for "freedom" (how exactly they define that word is unknown as of yet, seemingly varying from PR-release to PR-release). Indeed, the bureau feared that schools might become hotbeds of "terrorism" (same as "freedom"). Luckily for the american people, they came up with a solution.
Students (and teachers) expressing strong political opinions, criticising western governments or values, doubting capitalism, or defying current social norms, were "at risk", and should be reported to the relevant authorities.
Wether it was because of the flashy presidential campaign, or because after 9/11, americans had gained the reflex of nodding their head as soon as somebody used the word "terrorism" as a reason to do something, the FBI's new plan was put into place without much opposition. However, things did not turn out quite as expected.
Teenagers who were growing tired of swatting welcomed the new challenge, and, in the first school year after the implementation of their plan, the FBI received over a hundred thousand reports of abnormal behavior by students. As it turned out, most of those were false-flag operations by students against students, and such a strain on ressources that it seemd the FBI would be paralyzed if it did not suspend the program.
The bureau, however, did not back down, and decided that, instead of time-consuming investigations into the validity of accusations, it would simply consider that people who were reported to them had to have done something, and gave everybody a preventive jail sentence of at least six months.
Ten years later, the population of the U.S.A. shrunk from 300 to 100 million, mainly due to mass emigration. Of the remaining people, 10% are in the FBI, and 30% are in jail. But hey, no major terrorist attacks! (probably...)