nobody in canada cares about defending riga or talinn from red birds coming in from the east.

we took this position to make obama happy. but, obama is gone, and trump does not care. so, we should abandon them - and would if we had an indigenous voice.

the thing about the germans (and also the italians) is that you're kind of stuck with them if you want a serious defense pact with france. that region was in a perpetual civil war from the death of charlemagne until the death of hitler. if you want peace there, you need a reich.

but, this country has no historical attachment to either germany or italy, and so the defense pact is pragmatic rather than ideological - it's not because i care about germany or italy, but because i care about france.

then, you get a country like austria, which shouldn't really exist; it's literally the eastern march, the boundary. if it weren't for feudalism, it would have been in germany the whole time.

but, there's this gigantic cultural line that opens up through europe at this point, that really does open up into a historical east. there is absolutely no way that a western empire will hold countries like poland and slovakia, let alone latvia and lithuania, in the long run (although the balts are not the slavs).

we basically have the choice between losing a war, or withdrawing before we lose a war. and, we can overthrow the government in russia first, if we want - but we're still going to eventually lose a war, or withdraw before we do.

well, there's a third option, of course - ethnic cleansing.

but, we fought a world war to stop that.

i'm not interpreting trudeau's insistence on playing army in this way at all. i understand that this is more about chrystia freeland essentially being corrupted by her ukrainian nationalism - that our foreign policy has been taken over by a foreign agent, and trudeau is basically too ignorant to stop it.

so, this is really just base stupidity. again.

it's going to cost him a lot of votes, though.

i can support a mutual defense pact with the historical colonizers of north america, and am even interested in expanding it into south america.

so, that would be a pact that includes the us & canada, as well as france & britain, and potentially spain & most of latin america. you could throw in the dutch & the belgians.

but, i don't have any interest in fighting an imperialist war against the russians in eastern europe.

...or even in defending berlin.

sorry.

canada is ripe for a serious protest movement, that articulates the following political positions:

- skepticism towards nafta
- minimal involvement in nato (and other imperialist adventures)
- state secularism
- a rapid transition away from carbon
- public ownership of natural resources
- state subsidies for economic diversification
- a serious poverty reduction strategy
- a shift away from providing a safe haven for refugees and towards immigration as a way to fill labour shortages.

it's not going to come from the ndp.

they should ban high cbd strains, and only allow high thc varieties.

thc is fun. but, these cbd strains are going to create problems with laziness and lead to poor general productivity...

there's a lull right now, i won't pretend otherwise.

but i've learned that this is how this works: nothing comes up until the end of the month, then it either goes immediately, or it bleeds into the next month.

so, i won't see serious listings for august 1st until after july 16th.

for right now, it's been a struggle to stay awake all day because she is, once again, smoking directly under my bed. i'd move my bed, but she'll follow, so why bother?

i'll write your report for you. again.

i'm tired. sluggish. unproductive. broadly miserable. frustrated that the coffee isn't working. coughing. having difficulty focusing.

it's pretty much my worst nightmare.

who exactly is justin trudeau attempting to appeal to in extending a canadian mission to latvia?

canadians won't approve of such blatant militarism. the american administration isn't keen on it.

you would normally explain this kind of thing as unfortunate, but necessary. but, strangely, the dauphin seems to have a napoleonic streak, or something.

nobody voted for this.

it's starting to look like a bloodbath in 2019....

these people that rent rooms in their house, it's just...

how do you work through the contradiction of paying rent to be a part of the family?

maybe i'm overthinking this, but it's likely to get me a little loopy - even ignoring all the other factors that make it impossible.

is the property owner going to yell at you to make your bed and clean your room? do you share meals?

fucking weird.

if i get a very big settlement, i can start thinking about it.

the only thing i've ever been able to handle is sporadic entry-level call centre work because there's really very minimal face-to-face interaction. but, they'll take half of everything over $200. and, i simply don't think i'm getting anywhere by working a shift or two a week to hand it to a landlord.

i think i can find something if i keep looking.

that said...

what's out there for $900-1000 instead of $700-800? i dunno. really. but, i doubt it's that substantive.

the last time i had a job was the spring and summer of 2008.

i was working in a call centre doing surveys around the corner from my house. i actually kind of liked this, because it had very low travel time: i could leave five minutes before my shift started. the hours were also fairly relaxed. i really only needed 20-25 hours to pay rent, so i only had to work 2 or 3 days a week. this was a huge increase in freedom for me, after spending months trying to get to kanata to work 50 hour weeks in call centres (which i hated.).

i told them not to schedule me on july 1st, because i wouldn't show up. they scheduled me on july 1st. i did not show up. i got fired.

then, i went back to school in september.

i went to carleton for thirteen years and made exactly zero friends there.

think about that - and, tell me i can exist in the workforce.

i obviously can't...

even when i was in school, i ignored the other students like they had communicable diseases, and got into fights with the profs.

i just don't want to be around other people.

ever.

i'm a really, really, really bad worker.

deal with it.

i admit i haven't applied for a job since i moved here, but what's the point? i don't want one.

i'd be taking hours away from somebody else that needs them.

i'd show up angry, wishing i was somewhere else. i'd yell at the staff, get into arguments with management, and ultimately get fired.

i know this because it's what has happened over and over again.

and, if i can somehow force myself to behave, i'll do a shitty job.

forcing people to do things they don't want to doesn't benefit anybody.