i'm not coughing.

therefore strep, right?

i can fight this off, i don't need drugs.

the liberals are supposed to do better than this

didn't take long to get it back on.

*shrug*

the liberals are supposed to do better than this

yeah, it's starting to feel like a virus, or maybe strep throat.

that's actually the better option. the other option is that i burned my throat up, but i wouldn't get a delayed reaction on that, right?

i needed some more sleep....

my sinuses seem to be mostly clear, now, which is an improvement.

i keep turning the fan off, like a fool, but the fact is that i don't want it on. i'll turn it back on at the slightest hint of anything, though.

all i want is for him to take a walk, subject to the agreement that he signed, or admit he signed an agreement in bad faith or in poor judgement and pay to get out of it. i should have a right to smoke-free housing.

i got a response on the cops' response to the human rights order in. it's mostly a sneaky way to ensure they actually filed it. i need need need to actually get to the request for review, now...

the liberals are supposed to do better than this

this is why there's a vacuum in the region.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyrian_genocide

the liberals are supposed to do better than this

i ended up napping.

my sinuses are blocked up, so my sense of smell is poor, but it's coming back a little and i'm starting to realize that i'm going to need to do another major clean in here. again - it's when i leave and come back that this is necessary. so, what's going on in here when i'm not here?

the liberals are supposed to do better than this

listen, i've made this argument before.

the question at hand is hardly about whether this is a "blow to us imperialism", as though i'm invested in dismantling american power in the region, or aligned with isis or something. i supported the bombing of isis, and i would like to see the russians take the lead role in the long run. that's not what this is about.

in fact, syria is historically a russian client state that is outside the scope of american imperialism. that's part of the point here - syria's not ours.

the argument i've made is that if your anarcho-socialist experiment - and my understanding is that rojava is really just another authoritarian leftist cult, and hardly an endpoint for anybody to aspire to - requires the backing of the global hegemon's imperial military might to exist, it's not much of an anarcho-socialist experiment, is it? they'd have to be able to stand on their own two feet to really be an anarchist experiment. really, rojava is itself better described as an outpost of american imperialism!

the history in the article is not accurate. these areas were neither historically arab nor historically kurdish, but historically assyrian. this is, in fact, the heart of ancient assyria. the assyrians were relatively light-skinned and majority christian well into the modern era, when the kurds massacred them in a series of brutal genocidal attacks. since then, there's been a struggle between kurds and arabs for control of the vacant lands.

so, if you want to do this right, you drive the kurds out and bring the assyrians back in.

that's not really plausible for a number of reasons, but the one thing you can't do in the twenty-first century is let the kurds conquer the area and drive the arabs out. any reasonable alliance with the kurds needed to be rooted in the assumption that they would behave as a responsible western ally and withdraw when the operation was complete; nato allies don't occupy the areas they liberate, they help in restructuring them with the ultimate aim of giving them back their sovereignty.

i don't like what the turks are doing here. it's far from ideal, of course. but, when the europeans are refusing to carry through with their international obligations in funding a peacekeeping force, and the kurds simply won't leave the areas they've conquered and occupied, there's not a better option on the table.

the most important thing here is maintaining the territorial integrity of syria. so long as this is a step in that end goal, it should be supported. if the turks deviate from that goal, they've fucked up and will feel it. 

and, i would hope that the refugees in canada are given the opportunity to return home, as well, as that is what they actually want to do. i would call on the canadian government to offer to fly them back, if they make the request.

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/10/rojava-syria-erdogan-turkey-united-states-military

the liberals are supposed to do better than this

so, i actually haven't been on the computer much of the night.

the place was really filthy. i guess he must have been smoking on sunday when i was gone, because there's something lingering in here, and it's absolutely rank.

so, i did some laundry. three loads, i guess - including sheets. hopefully, it doesn't come back tonight, because everything is clean in here, now, and i don't want to have to deal with more uncleanliness. every time i think i've cleaned the place up, he just gets grosser. like, no wonder the guy's single at 55. yuck. he's gross.

so, i did laundry, i did dishes again, i got something to eat and then moved the dresser back. i'm hoping that's it for the year, regarding the gas. we'll see. i know what it is, now...and i think the dresser is mostly cleared out. another month, hopefully, and it's done.

i didn't get into the shower until this morning after 8:00.

i was not feeling well when i got back from detroit on sunday night, and thought it might have been the beer on tap at new dodge. there was something floating in it, at some point - i don't know what. since last night, my throat has become the main problem, but it seems to be tied to my sinuses; i think it's allergies, and is also giving me a brutal headache, but i'm hoping i didn't screw up my throat too badly smoking all those filters on saturday. like, i remember the smell through the blackout, and i remember stopping and realizing what i was doing. i remember flipping the smokes around. this is in the dark space, 4:00-6:00. so, i think i inhaled a substantive amount of bad shit. i can't do much but hope it clears up.

i want to do more cleaning in here, but i'm both not sure there's a point (is he going to keep being gross?) and i want to actually do some work.

so, i was hoping i'd be halfway through this by now, at least. instead, i'm just getting started. if i can stay awake through all of the environmental havoc,  i can maybe get a draft done by the morning. if not, i guess i lost the day....

right now, it would appear unlikely that i'd be going out this weekend. it's looking like chelsea wolfe on the 25th is the next show.

no reviews while i'm nursing a headache...that'll have to wait....

...but i've got aspirin. i've got coffee. let's get started.

the liberals are supposed to do better than this

stop supporting the oppressors, bernie.

start standing with the oppressed.

...or drop the bullshit and hand in your socialist card.

you're just a damned religious conservative.

the liberals are supposed to do better than this

if you're going to call yourself a leftist, you should be placing your solidarity with the apostates, which means with the queers being attacked by muslim families, which means with the women being expelled from their communities, which means with the atheists and secularists and general non-believers being othered by the people that are supposed to care about them.

if you're going to stand with bigots and conservatives and religionists and misogynists, you should be identifying yourself as such.

he sold out.

stop supporting him.

the liberals are supposed to do better than this

islam is really just organized bigotry.

there's nothing else to it - it's nothing more or less than exactly, precisely that.

...as are the other abrahamic religions, as well.

the liberals are supposed to do better than this

when you embrace bigotry, as sanders has, you deserve to lose.

the liberals are supposed to do better than this

the democrats did not lose the midwest because of the gays.

that's a conspiracy theory peddled by bigots, the kind sanders has been paling around with, lately.

the democrats lost the midwest because the clintons embraced free trade.

he had it right the first time - before he sold out.

the liberals are supposed to do better than this

if these fake leftist politicians like bernie sanders want to sell out their principles in order to stand in solidarity with these hate-filled, bigoted muslim and christian groups, they can do that - but...

...the guy's dying. what's the point?

the proper analysis is that the guy sold out to a bunch of anti-queer bigots and it rightfully killed him politically, but it's going to be obscured by the fact that he might never get out of bed.

the lesson for the left is not to make the same mistake he did. the future is secular and egalitarian; don't give into the kind of hate being peddled at your local mosque or church, like that idiot bernie sanders did.

the liberals are supposed to do better than this

atheists and secularists have no obligation to tolerate religionists' hate.

the liberals are supposed to do better than this

people who fight against religion are not bigots, because religion is the cause of almost all bigotry in the world; the most effective way to fight against bigotry is to join the fight to abolish religion.

you're just redefining the terms in an upside down way.

it's orwellian.

the liberals are supposed to do better than this

just the facts, ma'am - numbers are coming up a little, but he doesn't look like he's going to get close, in total deportations.

like, obama could beat him 2:1 on this, even if he gets a second term.

https://www.axios.com/immigration-ice-deportation-trump-obama-a72a0a44-540d-46bc-a671-cd65cf72f4b1.html

the liberals are supposed to do better than this

i know it's hard to find a voice in this hyper-polarized political climate that is kind of meh on trump, but that's actually where i am; i'm agnostic on trump.

there's lots of things about trump i don't like; he's awful on the climate, to begin with.

there's lots of things, like his immigration enforcement policy, where he's mostly just carried forward with the status quo, regardless of what he's actually said. we'll see, in the end, whether he gets the title of deporter-in-chief or if we'll have to wait for the next democratic administration to surpass obama on mass deportations. the last i checked, deportations had decreased...

and there's less, but a few, things that i'm actually largely in agreement with him on. the nafta thing looks like a wash, but i would easily pick trump over clinton on foreign policy any day, and think it's a welcome change, actually, after so many years of these hawkish neo-cons in power. i've spent most of my life arguing against the hawks; i'm not going to retreat now that we're seeing some progress away from them.

it's going to be a very sad turn of events if the next democrat, whoever it is, just brings the fucking neo-cons back in. and, now that it looks like they're mostly gone, i'd suspect this is a wedge issue that isn't going away.

again: this was a ballot issue. there were many, many people that voted for trump because they didn't like clinton's hyper-aggressive foreign policy. he has a mandate to get out of syria.

i applaud him for doing it.

the liberals are supposed to do better than this

and, if the democrats insist on running on a pro-war platform, i assure you that they're going to lose.

the liberals are supposed to do better than this

and, no, i don't want to fight a war against russia.

my enemy is not russia, it's political islam, and i'm more often than not on the russians' side with this.

i'm old compared to these kids. and, i barely remember the berlin wall falling. the cold war is a relic of the past - as meaningful to me as wwI.

the russians i've met are good people, and they don't tend to want to enforce their values on others. there's a more meaningful ally there to me than an evangelical religion that wants to take over the world.

russia has it's own problems with the rise of the orthodox church, and the kremlin has tried to accommodate this in ways i don't agree with. but, i'm not afraid of the russians erecting religious laws in canada. they're a stable global power with defined interests and a separate sphere of influence that should ultimately be respected and backed off from. i don't really have anything to fear from them.

the liberals are supposed to do better than this

it stinks in here.

i'm not going to smell like disgusting, dirty marijuana all night.

i'll take a shower - a few if i have to - to wash it off.

that's legitimate use.

expensive for him, though.

hope my check covers it...

the liberals are supposed to do better than this

again, tonight - smoking pot directly on top of me.

complete.

childish.

asshole.

hey, kids. how many of you want to grow up to be an unemployed, 55 year-old pothead that survives on their tenant's disability check, and lies about and hides it instead of being honest about it?

the guy is a complete loser. 

i'm taking notes. s'all i can do, for now. well, and i can take another shower; i guess i have to

the liberals are supposed to do better than this

the western media tends to portray the kurds as this oppressed minority that needs our help.

why?

because they're mostly white. you can try and break this down a million other ways, but the fact is that western support for an independent kurdistan is basically a white supremacist policy.

if you let the media define this narrative, you'd be easily misled into thinking that the history of the kurds in the region is of this pristine, helpless minority in the face of this onslaught of assimilation; the reality is that the kurds have been participants in some of the worst genocides of the modern era, and should not be receiving unconditional support from anybody. they're not better. they shouldn't be separated out as special.

the fact is that these areas don't belong to them, and yet they won't leave. they are illegally occupying the region. you can't turn a blind eye to that; something needs to be done about it.

i guess some people just don't care much for what the rule of law says in the matter.

the liberals are supposed to do better than this

trump has made the right decision to pull out of syria. this was a ballot question in 2016; he has a mandate for this, and is carrying out the will of the american people in removing itself from a conflict they don't want to be involved in. the pentagon, with it's mouthpieces at cnn and msnbc, will disagree with this. but, if there was a reason that trump was elected, it is this, and i am overjoyed to see him follow through with it.

the kurds need to leave this region, which is not theirs, and go home. we cannot have tribalist ethnic conquests happening in the 21st century; the syrian state must be reconstituted, and it's territorial sovereignty must be respected. the kurds cannot be allowed to conquer northern syria. that would be an anachronism, a reversion to backwardsness. it's bad enough as it is...

the turks should not be in syria, either, but if the kurds will not leave on their own then somebody needs to drive them out. i would call on the turks to respect the territorial sovereignty of the syrian state once they have completed their operation, and hand the territory back to the rightful sovereign power, which is in damascus.

the ideal here would be for an international peacekeeping force to be deployed to oversee the kurdish withdrawal, but the power politics in the region will not allow for this. this is a deficit in the united nations, and we need to reform the body so that it is able to function effectively again in the future.

for now, the turks need to occupy the role of the international peacekeeping force, and the kurds need to go home.

and, i hope that the turks will allow for co-operation with the russians as they remove the invading kurds from the region, as it is the russians (by invitation of the legitimate sovereign in syria) that will take over this space, in the long run.

this is just international law - and what anybody that pretends to pay lip service to it should be articulating.

the liberals are supposed to do better than this