you know, i have to wonder if the low vacancy rate here is a consequence of the high number of refugees that were settled here. it's less that prices have gone up and more that vacancy rates have gone down.

i was actually hoping that an influx of refugees would lead to an increase in public housing, but that hasn't happened; instead, vacancy rates have just decreased.

nor, did i expect windsor - which has the highest unemployment rate in the country - to be a prime destination for settlement. why would you put refugees in an area of high unemployment?

well, unless you want to increase rent. but, that's market theory. and, market theory is bullshit. again: the prices really aren't higher, there's just nowhere to move to.

but, these people don't want what i want. they want to generate income. they want fancy houses. they want to send their kids to school. so, they're apparently moving west in large numbers - where they're told there's more economic opportunity.

again: i don't really think that increasing immigration is going to solve the country's economic problems. but, at the least, let's bring in wealthy immigrants. bringing in refugees is just always going to be a net drain.

and, no, it's not their fault. they took an opportunity. blame the government, not the refugees. and, don't even blame the government for bringing them here - blame the government for not investing in them properly, once they did.

jagmeet singh must cut his beard.

you know, i might be able to win a case on reasonableness, anyways.

i would rather have the court consider correctness.

but, i guess the truth is that they're going to make that choice based on existing case law, and i don't even really get the benefit of a presentation. i'm going to throw all this shit down on the table, and they're the ones that are going to determine the correct standard of review.

reasonableness is supposed to provide for a lot of deference. but, it's not total. it needs to look at whether the ruling falls into a reasonable set of possible outcomes. the idea is that the court can set up a kind of multivalued function, but it's not supposed to pass judgement on the outcome, so long as it falls into the correct range it's defined in the mapping. but, it has to define the mapping, first. and, if i can convince the judge that the legislation is such that this outcome is outside of the proper mapping - because the adjudicator misinterpreted the evidence - then i could conceivably get the court to rule the outcome is unreasonable.

i should make both arguments.

1) the outcome is unreasonable, because the statue provides for minimal discretion.
2) the outcome is incorrect, because the statute provides for minimal discretion.

i guess the point is that the statute provides for minimal discretion, and she misinterpreted the evidence, producing a result that is both incorrect and unreasonable.

yeah.

ok.

i think i've got that clear in my head, now.

jagmeet singh must cut his beard.

this day was less productive than i wanted, but i feel like i'll be awake for a while still.

i did see one place. it was a basement, not an apartment. i need an apartment. i left some messages. i have some showings tomorrow.

i'm hoping to serve on thursday, if i can get the documents in line.

i have 30 business days to serve from the 27th, but i need to get it done with enough time to get the stay to the sheriff.

jagmeet singh must cut his beard.

"so, what work did you produce on your shift this afternoon?"

"seventeen hamburgers, thirteen fries and twelve milkshakes."

no. that's not work!

jagmeet singh must cut his beard.

i abuse the language like everybody else, but virtually every job in this economy is neither a job, nor is it work. it is a slave relation that prevents an individual from carrying out meaningful labour, or doing meaningful work. for, every moment that is spent doing forced labour is a moment that is lost in free labour.

and, what drives all of this slavery is the market, under the tyranny of the necessity of rent.

in a capitalist economy, nobody chooses to work to pay rent. rather, we are enslaved to produce a surplus value for the rentier class. we are all prostitutes, so why punish prostitutes? and, that endemic slavery - which most of us don't even acknowledge - prevents us from working on meaningful projects like science, literature and art.

the market allows the ownership class to discard labour it does not feel is valuable. this surplus labour is then left to starve. this is the category i exist within, largely by choice. because i want to spend my time on meaningful work, not on the forced labour that defines our economy.

but, in enlightened societies, the state steps in to stop nature from running it's course.

we need more subsidized housing. that's where i should be. that's what i need. that's what i want.

jagmeet singh must cut his beard.

it wouldn't make any sense for me to go out in a murder-suicide until i'm done my discography - and, even then, i've still got a lot of writing to do.

see, this is the point you're missing: my rejection of capitalism is not a reflection of my disinterest in meaningful work, but of the wasteful non-work that it forces almost everybody to engage in. capitalism is not work. capitalism is pointless labour, in the absence of meaningful work.

and, i have no interest in family or status; if i had a family (and i did...), i'd reject it (and i did...).

might i kill you all in the end? well, there's some logic in it. but, it's going to be a long time before this presents itself to me as a serious option.

right now, i need to find some place to exist to finish my discography in. i thought it was here. it should have been. but, i can't control who buys the building.

i'm not done here, yet, either. i'm making a good faith effort to find something. but, i'll probably be in this building for another five or six months, at least.

jagmeet singh must cut his beard.

see, i'm vocal about a hands-off non-issue type approach - but that means allowing volunteer sites like this to operate.

you can be certain that it was shut down by local property owners concerned about resale values. and, i might suggest that they try some place a little more secluded.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/overdose-prevention-ottawa-closes-1.4391753

fwiw, i acknowledge that there are some fraying edges around the park that could just as well be developed than not, but i actually rather like the lebreton flats the way they are.

it's a very nice place to ride a bicycle.

jagmeet singh must cut his beard.

look up some pictures of the pontiac silverdome..

this arena isn't likely to find an alternate use. it's too big. and, there isn't anything else in ottawa. unless they plan to get a basketball team. and, of course, they don't.

i saw a few concerts there in '96 and '97. i don't think i've been there since.

the stadium is very far out of town, and surrounded by wealthy suburbs. and i understand that it's privately owned. but you'd hope people would see the value of the space as emergency shelter before they allow it to fall apart altogether.

it could solve the homeless problem in ottawa overnight.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/senators-canadian-tire-centre-lebreton-1.4390956

jagmeet singh must cut his beard.

"but the saudis tried to take the syrians out via isis and failed."

yeah.

that's why they just spent trillions of dollars on arms purchases: covert action was a disaster.

jagmeet singh must cut his beard

this century's sickman of europe is russia.

obama made some major tactical errors, right when putin was about to be check mated. but it just let him play the game out.

the chinese are still ultimately a terrible ally, and still ultimately keen on taking control of the eastern part of asia for themselves.

expect an eventual russian dismemberment. the western preoccupation in doing so may, in the end, be the factor that allows the chinese to win, outright.

in the long run, a united asia under state socialism will be good for prosperity and peace. but, it will require a struggle for civil rights.

jagmeet singh must cut his beard.

trump's reaction that bin salman is just draining the swamp is so outrageous that it can't be ignorance: this is calculated.

the arguments that bin salman are using are the same arguments that every dictator uses to purge power. they're the arguments that mussolini used, that stalin used, that hitler used - and that countless strong men before them used. and, there's a reason that they all used the same arguments: because they all took them out of the same books, from the renaissance, and largely italian.

listen: this isn't some kind of surprise. why do you think that people have been freaking out over saudi arms sales for so long? because it's been obvious for years that saudi arabia is on the brink of collapse into fascism.

so, it finally happened. and, the media, so much of it bought, will feign denials, and ignorance, and surprise.

the serious analysis is that you should have seen this coming from the 90s.

and, now we're going to have to sleep in this bed.

world war three, here we come: and history will record it as a struggle to stop the saudis, with the victors being on the side that succeeds.

america may very well be on the side that loses.

jagmeet singh must cut his beard.

like, maybe you're unclear on the point, but i don't have the experience to apply to any job besides a fast food restaurant.

and, even if i were to get that job, and work overtime, and somehow avoid burning the place down in the first week, or at least pissing in the food supply, i still wouldn't be able to make a monthly payment.

the only way out is for me to somehow become something that i've never imagined myself as and don't even really understand the existence of.

excluding my father & step-mother, i've never even known anybody with an actual job. everybody i've ever known has either worked minimum wage, or not worked at all. it's a culture that i have no understanding of, and that i don't have the slightest concept of how to get into.

my bargain with capitalism was always this: i'll promise not to procreate, if you let me just exist. i mean, i didn't choose any of this. and, i don't want anything to do with it. my offering to you is that i won't create more mouths to feed. that's both the most and the least that i'm capable of doing. maybe my mother should have done that, herself, but she didn't, and here i am, and i can't turn back time.

i'm supposed to be writing this stupid fucking goddamned piece of shit appeal, but i'm just too fucking angry and depressed to even focus.

jagmeet singh must cut his beard.

it's a non-issue, because i can't work, and i'll never work again.

but, i'm sorry: i don't have the slightest idea how to generate $40,000 a year. i can't think of anything at all that would be likely to get me anywhere close to that. it's not even in the realm of something i could imagine being able to accomplish.

it's a complete impossibility.

jagmeet singh must cut his beard.

the last job i had was in 2008.

jagmeet singh must cut his beard.

i just want you to understand how ridiculous my student loan is.

this is my income on odsp: $1151 + tax credits. it's about $1200. it could be higher if i end up paying hydro - $1250 or so.

my minimum payment is $1372.

and, what kind of money would i need to be making to pay down $1372/month?

well, my expenses are currently $1000/month. if i had a job, i'd have to get a phone, so that's an extra $100. i'd need to spend at least $100 on transportation. and, i'd need spending money for coffee and food while i'm out. i'd also need a clothes budget, which i currently don't have. i think an extra $500/month in expenses is reasonable. so, my expenses would then be $1500/month instead of $1000/month.

that would mean i'd need to be making $2872/month, after taxes. those numbers are beyond anything i've ever contemplated - i've never even applied for a job with that kind of salary. that's, $34464 after taxes. so, i guess i'm looking at higher than $40,000/yr.

i don't even know what kind of job offers that kind of money. the only jobs i've ever worked are in fast food and call centres, and nobody at these places makes that kind of money. i applied for some government jobs a few years ago, and i couldn't pass the behavioural exam. what else is there, even? i don't even know.

these are just numbers that are daunting to me. i can't even comprehend them, really.

the idea that i'd ever be making as much as $40,000/yr never even crossed my mind. i've planned my whole life around making minimum wage or lower....

so, this is crazy to me. the reality is that i'm never going to make anything close to that, and that it's never going to get paid down.

jagmeet singh must cut his beard.