the stories surrounding the equipment that i use

14-12-2015: the interference is present all across the neighbourhood!

tracks worked on in this vlog:
1) https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inriclaimed

did she just compare trump to lincoln?

i don't think this is possible, to begin with. but she's making a different argument than trump is. her argument doesn't apply specifically to any single group, and it really doesn't help her own cause for her to be implying that it does. it's both disingenuous and opportunistic for her to suggest that what she's said about immigration has anything to do with what trump has.

canada used to actually have one of the most racist immigration systems in the world. back in the 60s, we adopted a system that was meant to address that by neutrally assigning a system of points based on criteria such as education. it was explicitly designed to ensure that immigrants are "economically viable", while ignoring their ethnicity. this was a liberal government. on top of that, we tend to be generous regarding making spaces for refugees - even if they end up on welfare. the population tends to conflate immigrants & refugees, both on the right and on the left, but the government is careful to maintain the distinction.

american policy makers should take the time to look into this system.

you might guess correctly that i've never listened to a miley cyrus record all the way through, and probably never will. you might not guess that i'd argue that the flaming lips have a very low signal-to-noise ratio. 5% of it is brilliant, 45% of it is lacklustre - and 50% of it is flat out awful.

the cover, here, is an obvious embryonic reference, which makes it clear where miley's references are. and, that's their best record, actually.

you can tell that she's out of her element. a lot of it sounds less like a collaboration and more like a mash-up. you might expect that. it doesn't necessarily imply a poor result, though; splicing distant ideas together is often a surefire way to stumble upon something transcendental. but, to get to that point you have to listen to each other.

listening to each other is an n-person game - and a zero sum one. you can't blame the lack of chemistry entirely on miley and her ego. coyne sounds like he's invested on a financial level rather than an artistic one; it's hard to blame him for being disinterested, he's literally twice her age, but the proper choice is to avoid the situation altogether, rather than drop her with some b-sides and hit the bong while she struggles with them.

...so i'm a little disappointed by the musical aspect. not surprised, but disappointed. coyne has released a dozen records like this that don't really go anywhere. it's actually really a rare occurrence when he can transcend that. when he does, it's brilliant. but these moments have always been fleeting, and there's none of them here.

i can abstractly understand how and why miley wants out of the world she grew up in. but, maybe the single biggest disconnect of growing up the way she has is the way it's (seemingly) prevented her from understanding the concept of musical chemistry. i would encourage her to branch out the way she'd want to, but it has to be with the understanding that writing a truly memorable record - rather than merely a financially successful one - is something that cannot be delegated out, or purchased from a top notch producer. it's something that has to either arise from years of building relationships with the musicians around you, or, more frequently nowadays, by doing everything yourself.

a good start would be finding some people her own age to jam with.

i'll grant that it's a creatively cheeky extrapolation on a theme.

but, that theme is completely irrelevant and the result is that this is boring.

it's at least a nice change to see wasted talent as opposed to an absolute deficit of it.

this argument about not bombing the oil wells...

i don't think it's a genuine argument. i think it's a cover to explain why they're not obliterating their own investments. but, let's work this through, anyways.

so, the claim is that bombing the oil will turn the villagers against the anti-isis coalition and, therefore, we should not bomb the oil. the ramifications of this are quite profound. do the villagers feel aligned with the ideology of isis? is it some kind of stockholm syndrome?

it goes beyond pragmatism. pragmatism would suggest that you co-operate with whomever has the ability to get you the oil, and switch sides as soon as possible. the concern that it would radicalize is a pretty devastating attack on the mindsets of the locals.

i would like to hope that bombing the oil would help the locals revolt against isis. and, if it will not, then i'm sorry: these civilian populations are valid targets.

as mentioned, i think it's propaganda. but, insofar as there is some truth to it, it is an argument in favour of civilian bombing - and not an argument against bombing the oil wells.

logic can be harsh sometimes. it doesn't always respect civil rights.

see, this demonstrates that "socialist" voters can be relied on to vote for the center-right in sufficient numbers, as expected - although one should also point out that plenty of them seemed to prefer the national front to the republicans. fascism doesn't fit well in our traditional spectrum; it leans left on a fair number of economic issues. that's where they're getting a lot of the increased support from in the first place. it's not beyond the pale to suggest that the national front is threatening to displace the socialists on the LEFT of the french spectrum.

what remains untested is whether or not republicans will vote for socialists to defeat the national front. this strikes me as a more difficult proposition.

i think we can safely conclude that the republicans can defeat the national front in a run-off. but, if the run-off is between the socialists and the national front? i'm not sure that ends well.

we've seen the collapse of the soft left all over the world in the last couple of years. the socialists are really in an existential crisis, here. by meandering in the center, they've allowed the far right to take over key leftist constituencies.

i think that to fix this is more than cosmetic. it may take more than a generation. it may require dissolving the party. and, frankly, hollande may want to think about stepping down asap, and even about the party not running in the upcoming election at all.

here's the reality: there's a lot of useful idiots running off their mouths about this or that.

but, the fn is very closely aligned with the kremlin. that's the actual truth. that's the actual political reality.

whatever happens with anything else, having france pull out of nato (and that is the one promise you can expect them to keep) would break the global order into pieces.

it would be the biggest russian victory since stalingrad, and the most profound political event since the fall of the berlin wall.

www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/13/front-national-held-back-in-france-but-its-trajectory-is-on-the-up#comments