the thing is that i've never actually seen an actual human with one of these things on.

meh. probably not as hot of an idea.

this is coming up because i've been considering buying a bicycle and just leaving it in detroit. i'd have to find a safe space for it - and i know it's a matter of time before it gets stolen. i have no history on a skateboard, but i've bicycled very long distances very regularly and could easily handle 20-30 km. i could bicycle to ann arbor, even.

it would truly open up my options tremendously.

i'd just rather have an option i can take home with me...i really don't want to leave anything in detroit on a regular basis...

i've never been on a skateboard in my life.

but, seeming as i can't get across customs with a bicycle...

what i should do is try to find one in a pawn shop and just experiment with groceries. if i get used to it, and find it useful, i should at least be able to take it back and forth across customs.

of course, i could never get into the bar with one. what do you do with your board when you take it to a concert? you probably just don't take your board to the concert.

considering the number of punk shows i've been to, it's actually odd that i've never noticed what people do with their boards. and somebody or other must be transiting with these things...

given that i'm talking about moving upwards of twenty-thirty km on one of these things, an electric one seems like a smarter choice, but they're like $1000.

the thing about trying to block gorsuch is that there are three more open seats coming - probably all of them in the next four years. you can't block all of them. and, if you lose the court, it's gone.

this is a lost battle.

the democrats should focus on an outcome they can actually alter.

and, the country should brace itself for a hard right supermajority on the court. it's inevitable.

i think that if you look at the costing on these items, you can see where the government's head is really at, regarding emissions.

i will at least acknowledge that we need to spend lavishly on mitigation.

so, what i'm going to say about the infrastructure bank is that municipalities and provinces should avoid it.

i mean, it's there. whatever. don't use it. push for direct funding, instead.

ok. this is a little bit more of what i wanted to see: direct spending. just fucking doing it. not "creating incentives". not "providing conditions". just putting the money down and fucking do it.

grossly quantifying projects doesn't say a lot about them, but at least it demonstrates that there's money flowing.

here's a surreal thought to work through: most "entrepreneurs" have no idea how to run a business for the simple reason that they've never been in one.

but, i mean, again: what else would you expect from the dauphin? or his hand-picked advisers, which are either right out of school or maybe had a stint in a previous government, but were right out of school at the time?

when i use the term "bourgeois parliament", i'm not exaggerating. most of these people - including the prime minister - have never had a real job in their lives. so, why wouldn't you expect them to grasp on to these ideas, as absurd as they may actually be? it fits their own life experiences: you just walk out of school, and then you save the world. who needs experience?

if things aren't working out immediately, the workers must need to be retrained. after all, the idea was brilliant, right? you saw it: it was brilliant, right? right? yeah...

btw - fwiw - i actually don't know what the job market is like in windsor, because i haven't applied for one since i moved here.

if i were to apply for a job in windsor, i would be looking at a part-time job in the service sector. at minimum wage, i'd need to work about 28 hours a week to make up what my odsp is, but i could take a substantial pay cut and be comfortable. i'd be looking for around 20-25 hours.

maybe a grocery store, or something.

anything else would require a commitment i don't want to make.

oh, good.

maybe they can finally invent an electric car.

it might upset alberta, though. we can't do that. so, it's probably better just to pretend you're serious by assigning minimal funds to "research" in the budget.

maybe, they can put some research aside into developing a smart phone, too. and, wouldn't it be cool to fly across the world?

the research phase has been done for a decade. they should be funding deployment and transition. obviously, they don't actually want to. but, it's foolish to drag feet on something that the rest of the world is already using - you can't suppress progress, you can just fall behind.

it's funny.

i can't seem to find a number for 2015, let alone 2016.

surely, the data should be in. why isn't it being published?

this document is dated to mid 2016. why doesn't it have data for 2015?

https://www.ec.gc.ca/indicateurs-indicators/?lang=en&n=FBF8455E-1

from what i can see, you should not just expect the government to fail to meet the conservatives' emission goals, but you should expect emissions to actually increase under this government.

again: this is not what they campaigned on, and not what i voted for.

this is what the conservatives were pushing for their entire mandate.

this is what i voted against.

providing capital for private companies is not a climate change plan. i voted for direct government involvement. when will the government drop the market fundamentalism and take a direct, hands-on approach that will actually work, rather than continue this failed approach of trying to incentivize market capitalism?  

this is admitting that they're not doing anything. they're even trying to change the topic. what does gender equality have to do with climate change?

the budget is full of references to women, and the reason is that that is what the government wanted the news cycle to focus on. but, it's clear throughout the document that it is a persistent attempt to distract from things they don't want you to notice, or to try and get you to change the topic altogether.

the platform promised direct government spending to transition the economy. what we're getting instead is a collection of tax incentives, greenwashing and corporate welfare.

the reality is that this could have been, and perhaps actually was, lifted directly from the conservative party platform.

it's not a lot of money. and i don't believe in money, anyways. but they've got a lot of nerve.

hey asshole albertans: why don't you sell to your own fucking country? and, yes we deserve a discount, too.

or would you rather stay unemployed?

if you thought the days of some despotic oil dictators in alberta running the government were over...

so, it seems like the so-called democrats in the corporate news media got a look at the tax break trump is throwing at them.