i actually haven't left the house since feb 24th and don't plan on going anywhere this week, either.

i kind of suspect that what they're actually doing is spying on me, with the expectation that i'm a drug addict or a sex offender or a russian spy or something. it's maybe a little ironic - i'm asking for an investigation into a cop with a clear anti-queer bias, and the department is just carrying through with it.

whatever absurdity they're insisting on will come out in the wash and just help me in the long run; the fact is that i have nothing to hide.

but, i have to wait for them to finish wasting their time first...

ok, so i got something from the cops extending the investigation until the 18th.

it's clear enough that they're stalling; the evidence of misconduct is about as obvious as could be. but, i have little recourse but to wait them out.

however, i'm going to have to make calls about the prints and the access to information act in the morning.

what have i been doing? i've been sleepy, again. i dunno; i know the weather is finally set to turn within a few days, even if it's lacklustre.

the immediate task in front of me is to finish filing, to make sure everything is organized properly.

disappointing, if not unexpected.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/03/trump-once-again-requests-deep-cuts-us-science-spending

i actually agree with her.

if time was infinite, sure. but, i'd guess that pelosi is more aware than most that it is in fact not.

they're better off writing legislation, and trying to avoid the perception of being a do-nothing congress, which is what took them out the last time.

it's less that he's not worth it, and more that there's more pressing concerns to deal with.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/nancy-pelosi-impeaching-trump-he-s-just-not-worth-it-n981941

if that's as good as a physical blockade, and that's not clear, then the end is near.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-oil-exports/venezuela-blackout-halts-most-oil-exports-hits-crude-upgrading-sources-idUSKBN1QS1WW

it's not even that they're liars, it's that they're such poor liars.

if they were good liars, you wouldn't even know. the russians are a good contrast, as they are excellent liars - you never know if what they're saying is true or not. flip a coin. who knows.

with the americans, it's just a steady stream of constant untruths, so you can get a decent approximation of reality by just negating everything.

the russians keep you guessing; you know the americans are constantly completely full of shit.

but, i mean, i was making that argument ten years ago...

we're at the surreal point, now, where nobody ever believes anything the american government ever says, ever.

the sad truth is that the revelation around the aid convoys in venezuela (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/10/world/americas/venezuela-aid-fire-video.html) was beyond predictable but entirely obvious. it's to the point where you instantly assume that the americans must have bombed their own aid as occam 's razor.

if you dissect the statement, there are some truths and half-truths to it. it is true that there is a humanitarian crisis in venezuela, and that the government has mismanaged the situation. it is also true that the sanctions have exacerbated a situation of poor management. and, while i haven't looked into it very deeply, i've seen this situation before: the security forces are probably reacting to provocateurs, who are inciting them into violence to generate headlines. then, cnn will run a story about some protestors being shot, but will forget to mention that they were lighting cop cars on fire.

https://dsdfghghfsdflgkfgkja.blogspot.com/2019/02/in-trump-era-its-easy-to-forget-that.html

yeah, it's maybe a reminder of how lucky we are to live in a country where politely asking the attorney-general to be reasonable more than twice is about as bad as it gets.


https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2019/03/11/snc-lavalin-matters-a-lot-but-lets-look-at-some-other-news.html

stephen harper sold our wheat board to the saudis.

yeah.

some separation from government is a good idea.

there is a romanticization of the independent farmer in the united states, no doubt brought about by a variety of factors. i don't want to write this history.

further, resisting the dominating influence of agribusiness has some value, although we need to be a little bit careful about how we talk about this. this is not the 1930s, and these people are not like the characters in the grapes of wrath. what we call "independent farms" nowadays are mostly large scale operations that rely on exploiting underpaid workers, many of them undocumented. the functional difference between the independent farm and the agribusiness is far less than many would imagine. really, i would probably argue that the most pressing difference at this point is in regulating carbon emissions.

but, the reason that agribusinesses do well is through economies of scale, which are more efficient, and the most effective way to counter the financialization of the agriculture business is not going to be through antitrust legislation, which is just going to make the process less efficient.

if the farmers are going to be successful in the long run, they are going to need to organize. what that means is forming boards and unions to determine supply management and set prices. if successful, this is actually going to create larger organizations with more integrated workforces. and, where my heart is in this is really in finding ways to better compensate agricultural workers, who are by far the most exploited workers out there - which is a legacy of slavery.

people might like the idea of the family farm, but it is not a coherent economic proposal in the 21st century. the choice is between financialization and collectivization, and that choice ought to be up to the farmers to make themselves.

a politician of the left should be about organizing and empowering the farmers to make their own choices, rather than having them pushed down to them from large banks on the coasts.