so, i just wanted to do a quick update on the show listings.

i'm ready to go, now. let's try to get most of inri015 done before the sun comes up.

see, this is why buttigieg hasn't won yet, and why biden isn't screwed, when he should be - forget about whether the results are representative of the country, are they even representative of iowa? and, i don't think that anybody really thinks that they are.

the candidate that really got nailed was warren, because she lost across the board. you really have to give her consolation delegates. she lost. everywhere. convincingly. even klobuchar won a handful of counties.

if the disconnect between the polling and the outcome is as wide for biden in new hampshire as it was in iowa, there will need to be an understanding that his numbers aren't real. i keep arguing that there's no evidence he's faltering, but that relies on the assumption that the data isn't bullshit. but, if the numbers in the primary align with the polling predictions halfways decently, it's hard to argue that iowa really matters much - not due to the demographics, but due to the process.

would biden have done better in a primary?

well, i don't want to frame the question around biden's performance, as though that's the primary concern. but, there appears to have been a disconnect between the polling and the outcome.

the question i want to ask, and that is important, is if the outcome of the caucus was really reflective of the democratic will of iowans or not, and the fact that there were no polls that had buttigieg at 27% suggests that it perhaps wasn't.

you could maybe erect a reverse-bradley effect around buttigieg's sexuality to explain the polling discrepancy, but that could only really get you half the answer. at some point, you have to acknowledge that the difficulties associated with caucusing would have disproportionately affected older voters, and voters that worked in the evening, which would have been biden's core demographics..

the caucus is supposed to be transparent and aid the democratic process. you could probably increase turnout that much more by scheduling it on a weekend, right? but, when you look at how low turnout was, it really does open up a lot of questions.

as mentioned, the primary question should be whether the views of iowans were accurately recorded in the results or not. were they? 

what did i do today?

i napped until around 13:00, got up, ate some fruit, did dishes, took a shower, read the news.

i believe my case is scheduled for june 23rd. i'm waiting on a letter. the coordinator has gotten exceedingly bitchy with me as a consequence of proving her wrong repeatedly, which isn't even my fault - i'm just trying to get the fucking case scheduled, and she keeps being wrong, and i keep having to correct her in order to get the case scheduled, which is enraging her. like, this is supposed to be a customer service job. if i was her boss, i'd probably fire her for the way she's been talking to me, and i can only imagine she's just as bad with everybody else. it's not worth it to me, but she's really awful, really. i'm at least pretty sure that i succeeded in the task at hand, despite her best efforts.

i left a message with the motion coordinator, which is somebody else, and will follow up tomorrow.

so, today was really largely wasted on purpose.

but, now i want to get some work done.

alright.

let's get some coffee brewing, and let's get the pc up, and let's get to work on inri015.

i'm going to do a quick february lookahead first, as i promised i would.

see, these are valid points and everything, but i still think the constitution puts too much power into the congress, here, and even this is overstepping the congressional bounds, if the end goal is actual removal. and, to me, that's the more fundamental question.

the congress should be investigating this kind of thing, of course. but, the maximum extent of it's actual power should be to trigger an election...

https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/a-tragedy-noam-chomsky-slams-democrats-for-narrow-focus-of-trumps-impeachment-trial/

removing the democratically elected president through a bureaucratic process is kind of authoritarian, don't you think?

wouldn't you expect an anarchist to bristle against that, even as she's not the biggest fan of the presidential system in the first place?

...if she takes her politics seriously, that is - if she's not just looking to pragmatically align with a partisan outcome.

like, you don't have to tell me i'm not in the progressives club.

i will volunteer that i'm not, and state clearly that i don't want to be. i'm extremely critical of progressives; i tend to consider them to be interchangeable with conservatives. rather, i'm a couple of rungs over to the left, in the anarcho-communist club.

i volunteer this. every other day, in fact.

you don't have to tell me, i'll tell you.

i'm not going to fault anybody for voting for removal.

but, i don't think it was their place to do so; i think they overstepped their bounds.

and, i would not have voted on the measure, myself.

remember: i'm not a democrat. i'm not a "progressive". i'm a left-anarchist.

while i'm usually ok with governments interfering in markets (because i don't believe in markets anyways), i'm usually very much not ok with heavy-handed governance of much of any sort.

so, i don't want to say i'm in line with small government, because i'm not - i'm in favour of very large government, larger than just about anybody that you'll meet.

but, i am in favour of government that has a hands-off approach towards the actual process of governing.

and, i think this whole fiasco is as much of an abuse of power as the thing that set it off was.

my basic position is not about whether what he did was bad enough to warrant removal from office. i actually think that's a secondary question.

rather, my basic position is that the decision should be up to voters, and not up to congress; congress' power should be restricted to the ability to trigger an early election, only.

and, that is the status quo position in the canadian system.

so, is what he did bad enough to warrant removal? i would argue that that is a decision that voters should make. 

now, as a voter, i would actually vote for removal. but, as a member of congress, i would abstain.

i hope that that's clear.

and, it won't broadcast the wiki link, so here's the post:

http://dsdfghghfsdflgkfgkja.blogspot.com/2020/02/if-there-any-confusion-about-where-i.html

if there's any confusion about where i stand on the impeachment trial, i can clarify the point: i would have abstained from voting, under the argument that the congress ought not have the legal authority to remove the executive power without an intervening electoral process.

i would then immediately attempt to introduce recall legislation into the body i sat within.

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

but, i'm from a different country, with a different set of governing traditions.

i just simply don't think it's democratic for the parliament to remove the executive like this, and that would be the status quo position in the british-canadian parliamentary tradition - i'm simply reflecting the viewpoints of my own country's legal tradition.

i'm sorry if you find that upsetting, but i don't really give a fuck.

i'm awake, but i'm floating and planning to waste the day. i could nap a little more.

i've decided that i want to finish what i was doing before i try to fix that laptop, so i'm going to boot back into the pc after 19:00 and work it out from there. but, i'm going to want to be saving electricity during the day, so i'm also going to be shutting down between 7:00-19:00, starting tomorrow. let's hope i get a productive weekend in.

i don't see any reason why i'd leave the house again until next weekend at the earliest.

i just want to get these projects done without having to worry about doing troubleshooting. it shouldn't be too much longer once i sit down to do it.

that means i'll be running through inri015, inri021, inri022 & inri023 first and then building seeds from december, 2013 and then finishing up january, 2014 and running through the releases from that month. it will only be after i'm done all of that that i will boot back into the laptop and try and figure out what i'm doing with it. i guess i'll leave the chromebook on for streaming.

i think i have everything worked out with the court stuff, and that the last thing to do is check up on the motions. but, i'll be making some calls throughout the day to check up on that.

and, that means we're over the hump and back to work soon, hopefully.

i would like to call on parliamentarians of all genders the world over today to bare a shoulder in solidarity.

this seems silly, but these attitudes need to be attacked head-on so they don't fester or spiral out of control.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/04/i-am-not-a-slapper-labour-mp-tracy-brabin-defends-her-commons-attire

i guess you shouldn't expect too much in terms of discourse from a collection of geriatrics that should be living in homes and eating gerber's out of flying spoons.

i don't know which one is worse. really. trump. pelosi. mcconnell. sanders. bloomberg. biden. they sound like a bunch of little kids bickering with each other.

reminds me of this old floyd tune:

google owns these servers. i understand that. i can find somewhere else to host a blog if they don't want me here. and, they have to obey the relevant laws, too, whether they agree with them or not.

but, i am within the bounds of adult discourse to expect transparency and honesty in communication regarding any concerns about the content of my posts.

if you don't like my posts, tell me. i don't really care what you think. but, i can close down and set up elsewhere.

i'm obviously not interested in being censored or moderated or screened in any way. i want anything of the sort that exists to be turned off. i want full control over this space.

however.

at the very least, i would expect that google put forward a transparent process rather than merely delete or withhold posts. it could be as simple as an email stating "your post was rejected". that would allow me to understand what's happening and make an informed, adult choice about where to move my platform to.

doing this via stealth is childish and beneath the dignity of whomever is doing it.

ok.

no.

i'm going to spend today catching up on sleep.

i'll be back at this tonight after 19:00.