finalizing there is definitely something wrong with ironic hipster homophobia

ok.

so, i still don't know if the ultimate problem here is the short or the interference, but i've found a short on the left side of my phones. and, i'm not sure if it's in the cord or in the phones, either.

i know that an extra bit of foil around the connector between the cable and the phones seems to have me fully shielded.

i am finalizing track four, as of right now. it hasn't been altered since june.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/there-is-definitely-something-wrong-with-ironic-hipster-homophobia 

i'd rather see a monument to the victims of capitalism.

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/victims-of-communism-monument-next-steps-1.3369261

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Julius No, Ph.D.
Can we build a "Victims of Capitalism" memorial right next to it for balance?

sutherlj
who would pay for it?

jessica murray
it would be best if we just built it together using voluntary labour, and held it in common ownership.

BromleyBromley
Like all of the people it has elevated out of poverty? there arent any victims of capitalism. Only corporatism.

jessica murray
poverty is only possible under the enforcement of private property. capitalism can never lift anybody out of poverty - that's an absurd twisting of words - it can only mire people within it.

Corvus2
Although capitalism has a lot of bugs in it it is still preferable to hardcore communism.
North Korea is an example that is worth reviewing on this subject.

jessica murray
i agree that north korea is an example worth reviewing. how many autonomously owned worker co-ops exist in north korea?

the reality is that poverty has no meaning when divorced from the enforcement of property rights; you can only have poverty if you have property rights.

when you hear capitalists talk about "lifting people out of poverty", what they really mean is "erecting a hierarchy where one group exploits another."

MalContent Disabled
Victims of Crimelords. Victims of Monarchies. Victims of Bloodthirsty Nutjobs, Victims of Kleptocrats etc, etc.

jessica murray
i'd like a victims of trolling monument that rickrolls whenever you cross through a censor.

contributor7
You find it appropriate to joke while my relatives were starved to death by Stalin and executed following months of torture? How Canadian of you!

jessica murray
stalin was an extreme right-wing despot, though. i mean, you don't even need to read history. you just need to read animal farm.

this is the funnest stalin fact: the guy actually turned himself into a GOD in the russian empire. i kid you not. like, the kind of thing that ancient roman emperors used to do.

khruschev and his minions did the best they could in destroying all evidence of this. but, if you look hard enough you can find russian orthodox icons (you know, those pictures of jesus with the orbs around his head) with stalin in place of jesus.

they actually had people kneeling down and praying to images of stalin, as replacement for jesus.

that's not communism. that's as right-wing as the spectrum gets.

there's a shot of one:

https://02varvara.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/01-stalin-icon.jpg?w=600

if that was a picture of jesus, it would be relatively normal for a member of the orthodox church to say their prayers in front of it, maybe take a few beads off the rosary, etc.

what actually happened - and this is actually true - is that they replaced all the pictures of jesus with stalin, then left the people to carry on their rituals.

again: that's a roman emperor's tactic. that's caesar. that's augustus. and it ain't communism.

"It is impermissible and foreign to the spirit of Marxism-Leninism to elevate one person, to transform him into a superman possessing supernatural characteristics akin to those of a god." - khruschev, denouncing stalin

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more seriously, i would support a monument for the victims of the cold war, more broadly: korean war deaths, vietnamese villagers that got wiped out by agent orange, those purposefully starved in the holodomor genocide, cuban/angolan freedom fighters killed by the apartheid regime in south africa, those purposefully starved by mao as population control, palestinians who have become throw away in america's need for an ally in the middle east, etc.

there's no deficit of people killed in the cold war that deserve remembering. and, in fact many of these stories are not well known in the west.

the problem with this is that it takes a side.

our world war one monuments don't talk about how we beat the germans down, or about victims of the kaiser. they recognize that the conflict was senseless, and take responsibility for it. that's what this monument seemed to be missing.

the rich are sitting on far too much cash right now.

www.cbc.ca/news/politics/apec-unicef-trudeau-chair-1.3368564

after reading dozens of articles on the topic, i'm still not clear about what is unclear.

but, to answer a few questions posed in the article...

does committing to further bombing require purchasing new jets? how much will those jets cost? who will benefit from the defense contract? who might be pushing for that defense contract?

i think the liberals have been crystal clear - and that you should take them at face value. but, if you want to really delve into this, i think you need to be prepared to ask some questions, and receive some answers, that you're maybe not prepared for.

www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-isis-chris-hall-1.3368691

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eggshaped
So, does that mean he will withdraw the jets but put our military personnel in harm's way by putting boots on the ground, even if only in a "training" capacity? Or is he going to wait for other countries to subdue ISIS so we can then take in the remnants?

jessica murray
the idea is that the only way to build stability in the region is to enable local actors to do it. not western ground troops, but iraqi ground troops.

it's something any expert will tell you. nato can't win this war. there is no tactic that will be successful. only iraqis can win this war. and it requires convincing the civilian population to work with the state. nothing else will ever work - and carpet bombing will just make it worse.

i think there's a bit of a caveat to that. if civilians begin aligning with isis, then they become isis and must be targeted. maybe we screwed something up to get there (or many things up...), but the end result remains. see, but then we're bombing villages - and canadians cannot stomach that the way americans can.

where it gets even more complicated is that the same logic suggests that only assad can win this war. worse, iraq seems to be increasingly aligning with assad. you put two and two together, and there's no way out besides pulling out altogether, or escalating dramatically. the inevitable outcome right now seems to be a russian-backed syrian/iraqi alliance to reconstruct both states. and, while that is probably the fastest way to end the war, supporting this would put as at odds with the americans.

the only specifics i've heard relate to supporting kurdish troops, which really sidesteps the issue.

the americans had no right to demand that assad step down in the first place.

the propaganda has been very thick, and this will likely produce much convulsion. but, the americans are making the right choice in backing off from this demand. they can't pull this off. they need to back off, get rid of the crazies, re-establish the syrian and iraqi states and then talk about letting assad - who wants to step down anyways - work his way out in an orderly transition.

they should have done this years ago.

also realize this: they may be trying to get out to destroy a paper trail linking them to isis before the next election.

http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/kelly-mcparland-assad-can-stay-once-again-u-s-capitulates-to-russian-demands-on-syria

the reason gangs don't push pot is that it's not addictive.

if you want to go down this route, it would probably be more useful to spend the funds on treatment for alcohol addiction.

i've had these conversations with street dealers. they push speed, mostly. and meth. it's cheap enough to sell to poor people, and it gets them hooked so they can generate revenue streams. the street dealers are throwaway fronts for serious business people. it's big money. and, pot is basically useless if you're trying to ensure a steady revenue stream because people smoke it sporadically & socially.

when was the last time you saw somebody on the street begging for change for pot?

it doesn't happen.

the marijuana distribution network looks more along the lines of a collection of pacifist hippies that don't want to get a job. the ponytails. the beards. that's your average pot grower/dealer. there's also plenty of people that do it as a second job. and, they clearly don't understand economics well, because there's been no discernible inflation on pot in decades.

i'm not saying gangs don't sell pot at all. but, it's not the real core of how it gets distributed. again: in 20 years, i've never seen a thug or a gun or anything remotely shady. it's just hippies with beards and ponytails - or pizza delivery guys, or managers at mcdonalds.

the reality is that, compared to speed or meth, it's a poor business model. you just don't create slaves out of marijuana addiction. and there's so many people selling from so many sources, that you can't build budgets around it or anything. not to mention the fact that most pot users don't want to deal with criminals. it's too unstable. and it's just not where the big money is...

so, it's like...let's do this to eliminate a problem that doesn't exist, to fund a problem that doesn't exist. ??. i know this is politics to ease centrists, but it simply doesn't exist in reality. i'd rather see an education program targeted at these centrists!

just sell it at the corner store, already. and, i'm not saying that funding addiction treatment is a bad idea, but it would help if it went towards something that's actually addictive.

i mean, it's going to be hilarious if we see marijuana addiction centers open up.

in today's society, the reality is that marijuana use is broadly passed down across generations, much as alcohol use is. it's cultural. if you look this up, you'll find that in a majority of cases of young marijuana use, there was a parent at home that was using it at some point. my dad quit when i was young, but he didn't have a problem with it and i was raised to see it differently than other drugs. i wouldn't even class it with alcohol. i'd class it with caffeine and aspirin. and, while not everybody can ask dad for a hookup, the reality is that that hookup that is found at some point along the chain is almost certainly coming from somebody's dad - and no doubt to a local grower without any connections to organized crime.

the reality is not like it is in the movies, built on reagan-era drug war propaganda.

globalnews.ca/news/2407903/trudeau-says-tax-on-legalized-pot-wont-be-a-government-cash-cow/

so, what’s the deal with those baltic states, anyways? are they really fascist, or is it just some kind of hipster irony?

“i can’t take it, jerry. i hear ‘lit your anus up’. every time. i can’t avoid it. it’s driving me nuts!”

well, perhaps you should take her up on her offer.

george’s eyebrow raises. the scene changes to one listening in from a distance.

“my god, what are you doing?”
“LIGHTING YOUR ANUS ON FIRE”
“what…no….HELP….”

www.macleans.ca/news/canada/the-baltics-to-trudeau-yes-were-a-thing/

people have been saying for years that the conservatives think voters are stupid. confirmation of this point is about the only thing i'm getting out of this.

of course he meant what he said he meant. that is blatantly obvious, and the only people that look stupid are the people jumping on him over it.

i don't like coming off as a liberal lackey. i'm not one. but, this is just an epic string of nonsense coming from the conservatives.

www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/12/17/trudeau-baltic-nations-macleans-video_n_8828124.html

mike,

you think those assault weapons are going to help you out against the swat team? or just give you a longer prison sentence?

bernie needed this. hope it helps.