if the military was capable and intelligent, it would have interpreted the situation swiftly and acted quickly to rectify the problem.

but, the military is neither capable nor intelligent - it is corrupt and incompetent.

wait.

listen.

while the venezuelan military should have removed maduro by now, and only hasn't due to it's own stupidity and consequent inability to understand what is happening around it, there remains no other possible outcome.

when you're dealing with an irrational opponent, you sometimes have to give them extra time to figure it out. but, the stupidity of the actor doesn't alter the logic of the game, itself.

and, if the military does refuse to accept the evidence in front of it, cutting off oil sales will eventually lead to the uprising that the west is pretending is happening.

they could, in theory, launch a project to increase the agricultural base, and eliminate their reliance on imports, which is not necessary - the country has ample resources to feed itself. there is no evidence that this is going to happen. rather, accounts are going to dry up and knives are going to sharpen.

it would be another thing if venezuela was an actual socialist state, standing up against the empire, and willing to die for it's convictions. you could see that happen in cuba. but, in venezuela, that's just a lot of bullshit, and it's just a matter of time.

so, be patient. you're not a squirrel; stop acting like one.

just to be clear.

the carbon tax credit is $150 for the whole year. that is less than the cost of one month's worth of interest on the loan.

so, holding the credit will have absolutely no worthwhile effect on the outstanding debt.

but, could i use the $150? well, i'm pretty poor, so i certainly wouldn't turn it down.

it's perhaps reflective of the sitting government, though, to make an error like that.

you actually wouldn't expect the liberal bean counters to expose a disabled person to a collection agency like that - you would expect them to think that through and design it in such a way that they can't get at it. i have access to several credits for the precise reason that past liberal governments have legislated them this way, quite consciously.

but, this government is really very bourgeois in that sense. something that would have been thought through at the basic planning stage by any other liberal government probably never even crossed the mind of this one, which is really very narrowly focused on the upper middle class, without that historical reflex on the poor.

i was probably legitimately overlooked for the simple fact that i'm clearly of minimal concern. and, that's actually a policy shift.

and, no i don't expect the minister to tell me it's my own fault for being in debt, either. i'm disabled. it's crazy that i can't default - and i've tried. i expect it just never came up.

in theory, that means i'm being exposed to a carbon tax while more wealthy people are not. in practice, that probably isn't true, because so much of the food we buy here is imported. so, i'm not getting the transfer, but i'm not really paying the tax, either.

but, it's bad optics - and they should probably fix it.

i'm not wasting my time with it, though.

and, i don't know - i could get it, still.

so, i did my taxes and there was indeed a $154 tax credit worked into it. it's calculated at the very end of the process, so that essentially everybody gets a tax cut. if you have kids or dependents you can claim more, and if you live in a rural area you get an extra 10%. you then just subtract that from whatever you're owing.

my taxes are zero. so, instead of sending in a zero return, i get a $154.00 tax refund. i presume that will come in a lump sum.

...except that it might not, because i have a $70,000 student loan that i haven't made a payment on in ten years. they can't take rebates or sales tax credits, but because this comes up as a refund, they'll probably be able to take it. i was expecting it to come up as a rebate, like the gst does.

i've already explained to them that i'm disabled, but they didn't seem to understand.

i'm not going to protest the point, i'll let them look at the data and come to the conclusion on they're own. maybe seizing my $150 credit for a few years and realizing that's all i've got or ever will have will get the point across that they're wasting their time.

i just can't even imagine the premise of willingly forfeiting my time in such a foolish manner, at this point.

i haven't seen a commercial, hollywood style film in well over 15 years, but i highly doubt much has changed, except for the worse.

 that club in miami that is serving alcohol to minors like malia obama should obviously lose it's license.