i mean, i suppose that handing everything over to moscow is technically a way to avoid being toppled by washington, it's just that then you end up as a hand puppet of putin, which one would think is not really what you wanted, either.

the iranians were able to walk a line on this that a smart venezuelan leadership could look to as a model. even the north koreans have figured out a way to play this.

but, maduro is actually in truth more likely to end up like assad if he plays this game - held as a figurehead until the kremlin doesn't find him useful any more, and then discarded like bad meat.

we may be witnessing the return of the useful idiot, here.

"shoore. bring your gold to rooossia. dmitri will take gooood care of it.

ah ha ha ha ha ha.

one eediot.

ah ha ha ha ha ha.

two eediots.

ah ha ha ha ha ha."

this is actually very stupid on venezuela's behalf. but, nobody ever accused the russians of failing to take advantage of a fool.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-russia-pdvsa/venezuela-to-move-state-oil-firm-pdvsa-office-from-lisbon-to-moscow-idUSKCN1QI4BM

yeah.

no response from the cops, who have now missed their legal deadline.

they could have just released a bullshit report. the fact that they didn't indicates there's something going on.

guess i'll need to get on the phone monday morning.

and, what is my final takeaway on the situation regarding marijuana policy?

you'll recall that i was what might be called a weak proponent of marijuana legalization, up until that point. i didn't really consider it a serious political issue, frankly - but i would have argued in favour of it, if pressed. i was and am still more interested in marijuana as an industrial material than i am as a drug. while i voted for the liberals in 2015, i was driven by climate change policy, rather than marijuana policy. in the more recent ontario election - where the conservatives ran on market liberalization and probably won a lot of votes for it - i voted for the green party, which is just demonstrating a level of consistency around the issue.

so, i voted for it, and i weakly supported it, but i never considered it a ballot issue.

you'll also recall that the woman that caused me so much misery, that forced me to live for months in abject discomfort, was actually a medicinal user, not a recreational user - and i actually think that this is at the crux of the problem. i don't think that marijuana is a medicine, and i don't think that it should be treated like one, and especially not for people suffering from depression, where studies have shown that marijuana addiction doesn't relieve depression, but actually causes it. if marijuana has a medicinal use, it is in physical pain relief, and should be taken in the form of pills, rather than smoked.

while i called the police on this woman not once but twice, it was done out of complete disinterest for her well-being, as she had demonstrated none for mine. i had at that point repeatedly asked her not to smoke in my air supply, and she completely ignored me. while i did not expect her to get arrested, i didn't really care if she did, either; my sole, singular concern was in generating documentation for a court process, and if she ended up in jail as a consequence, that wasn't my problem. she could choke on her own filth, for all i care. but, what i wanted was the report to take to court - and i had no interest in what happened to her, otherwise.

so, what the takeaway from that is is as follows:

1) the idea of "medicinal marijuana" should be completely abolished. marijuana, like alcohol, is a recreational drug that should be available, but heavily regulated.
2) there needs to be stronger restrictions on where marijuana can be used. most importantly, marijuana should be completed banned from any kind of apartment building, or shared living space. i would also support restrictions on outdoor marijuana use in residential areas. these restrictions should be enforced with heavy fines.
3) marijuana use should be permitted in smoking sections at bars, concerts, etc - and the social conditioning should be to try to direct it towards social use, rather than use in alienation.

i don't think the issue is whether you can smoke it or not; the issue is about where you can smoke it. as a non-smoker, my self-interest is in ensuring that my mental and physical health is not affected by the habits of other people; it is protecting the rights of non-smokers that needs to be the focus of the law, not the rights of smokers.

the way this process works in ontario is that the cops have 120 days to write a report, on a complaint about police misconduct.

i can then appeal the report to the office of the director, which is supposed to be an independent body but clearly isn't.

the next step is to launch an administrative review, which means going to an actual court, which i fully expect to be necessary. and, frankly, i'd have rather jumped directly to the court process - but i have to wait for them to finish fucking around, first.

so, what's going on with me, personally?

i'm now at nine months completely straight-edge (in the sense of choosing abstinence) and have been out of the pot lounge apartment for five months. i think i'm reaching a turning point in terms of regaining my cognitive abilities, and undoing the damage caused by the marijuana - i'm having longer days, certainly. it seems to be a process that operates in a progressive manner, meaning i think i should hope the effects continue to decrease week over week. at the least, i think it's clear enough that if i had concerns about permanent damage then they weren't grounded - even if it takes months and months to completely recover. it's taking a long time, but i am getting better. slowly.

at this point, i can't imagine ever smoking another cigarette again, ever.

the second-hand (tobacco) smoke came back in yesterday, though, and left me unproductive for a good while, just waiting for it to lift; there's not a lot i can do besides hide under the blankets when it does come in, because i just end up hacking and wheezing for hours, otherwise. it seems to have mostly lifted again, now. i dunno. really - i don't know. there is an older woman's voice upstairs, from time-to-time, often at odd hours, and it might be the source of the filth. what i know is that the weather is finally set to break in a few days, and i should be able to start to get to the bottom of what's actually happening when it does.

there's three possibilities that i think are likely:

1) it could be the heating system. i don't think it is, but i can't rule it out, yet.
2) somebody upstairs is smoking, periodically. the thing is that i don't know how it's getting in here, as there's no clear source. that said, i think this is somehow the right answer.
3) it's just the neighbourhood. but, again - i don't think it's getting in through the windows. i don't think this is actually true.

the source actually seems to be below me, somehow. but, i'm in a basement with tiled floors. if there's anything below me at all, it's just the water table - and this isn't something abstract, it's second-hand tobacco smoke, clear as day.

so, the fact is that i don't understand what's happening.

if i can prove somehow that somebody upstairs is smoking, i'm going to have to sue to get out of the lease. the process i went through last time where i gave the owners a set of options to choose from isn't relevant in this scenario - it's his house, and i can't tell him what the rules are, but i can sue him for damages relating to a breach in the contract and demand release from the lease as i do. if i decide it's the neighbourhood, and i can't fix it, i'm going to have to move away somewhere else, which will be a more typical give-notice-kind-of-thing. and, if it's the heaters, i'll have to figure out if there's a way to clean them. the key thing is needing this awful winter to end so i can try and figure it out...right now, i'm just locked inside by the snow and ice.

the long term says we should be past the worst of it next week. let's hope that's correct...

and, how about the court situation?

the cops are required by statute to get me my report by the end of the day. it's technically saturday that is day 120, but they have no reason to ask for an extension to monday, and i fully expect the report by the end of day 119. that said, i don't actually expect anything at all, except the need to call the opird on monday. as mentioned, i'm not deciding on a next step until i read the report...

and, what have i been actually doing?

i don't think i mentioned it here, but i picked up a third external drive on sunday morning. you can get a 2 tb external drive for $100 nowadays. i picked this up for the purposes of housing data for the alter-reality, and have actually nearly filled it up over the week - although that will no doubt cut nearly in half once i've sorted it. it's almost done, anyways. that's been the week - not all that productive, really a lot of waiting, but i'm in a bit of a bottleneck on it that i'm almost through...

the last remaining issue with this is how to find that email, if it exists, and it's becoming increasingly clear that it doesn't. the fact is that it's going to be years before i really need to worry about this too much, but i nonetheless need to have some process to sort through what physical media i have in a systemic manner. at this point, i haven't been able to open the email i found in that virtual machine, but i haven't exhausted my options, i don't think. rather than sit down and go through each thing one by one, i should try everything i can with that one virtual machine and then approach each physical disc using everything i've already tried. am i going to find anything, in the end? well, i won't know until i've tried everything, and i won't know i've tried everything until i've given up on the vm.

so, that's the substantive progress report - i'm copying over a large amount of data right now, and on the brink of getting back to the rebuild.