this is the vice president of venezuela, who would be next in succession, should maduro resign.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delcy_Rodr%C3%ADguez

now, if maduro were to resign, then whomever is next in the line of succession would take over until the next scheduled election - it wouldn't trigger an election.

they just had one.

the opposition boycotted it...

socialist dictator.

it's a bizarre abuse of language - a contradiction in terms, in fact. for, if you are a socialist, you cannot be a dictator, and if you are a dictator you cannot be a socialist. so, which is it? is he a socialist or is he a dictator?

in fact, maduro is neither a socialist, nor is he a dictator. maduro is an elected representative of the people, in a system with a broken opposition that doesn't appear to be interested in democracy. and, venezuela is a capitalist economy - albeit with a few social programs.

there's more socialism in denmark or mexico, or even in quebec, than there is in venezuela.

but trump needs a straw man to tear down, and the corporatists in the democratic party seem keen to let him have it.

but, let us not forget the truth that, elected as he may be in the context of a system as broken as the venezuelan's is, maduro is also completely incompetent. the man is a high school drop out. socialism does not mean idiocracy; a re-evaluation of the division of labour doesn't imply the elevation of ignorance. chavez was stupid to elevate him to power, but perhaps the point was that he was seen as too impotent to threaten him.

and, i, for one, am not any more on side with any kind of fawning support of maduro than i am with an invasion to overthrow him. my position here is non-intervention out of principle, not out of solidarity. my solidarity is with the peasants, who will be fucked over by whatever happens.

and, i actually agree that he should probably step down - due to the clarity of his own incompetence. but, that's not my choice.

and, to be as clear as possible - venezuela is not currently and never was a socialist country. it was at most a mixed economy, with a state-run oil sector. but, you couldn't even really call it "state capitalism". it's just as capitalist as anywhere else.

if the country had actually embraced socialism, it wouldn't have destroyed it's own agriculture sector, or become reliant on imports of food by crowding out the rest of the economy.

socialism is a worker-run economy, and there is no sign of that in venezuela. at all.

so, it's an absurd red herring for ignorant buffoons to squabble over and not a serious debate to engage with. these right-wing idiots pushing this kind of stupidity should just be laughed out of the room.

in the trump era, it's easy to forget that bernie almost certainly doesn't post his own tweets. he has a staff to do that for him...

whether the problem is duss or not, i agree that there's an issue here that needs to be attended to.

that said, he just stated a few days ago that he doesn't think maduro is a dictator and is apprehensive about the motives in american involvement. so, i'm going to wait to let him clarify himself before i join the chorus: this may be more about a rogue staffer than a swing towards american imperialism.

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.

the worrying thing about the statement from sanders' account is in it's urging to accept a humanitarian convoy that is clearly a propaganda ploy. it is that specific point that he needs to clarify.

the position that harris is taking is contemptible. the right thing to do is get out of the way and let the venezuelan people govern themselves, not interfere in the borders of sovereign nations. kamala harris seems to have a very warped concept of morality.

but, i wouldn't expect sanders to take a pro-maduro position, either - nor has blumenthal. and, while i'm a fan of roger waters, he's been known to rely on questionable information in the way he forms his opinions. i think abby martin's primary concern is likely to be international law.

the reality is that there is no contradiction between rejecting american intervention in the region and criticizing maduro's handling of the economy in venezuela. you don't have to embrace maduro to criticize trump. bernie is good at this and knows how to navigate it. but, see, the fact that i know that indicates that he doesn't have a lot of space to start spouting bullshit, either.

i don't have a twitter account, fwiw. i've pointed that out here, repeatedly.

https://www.rt.com/usa/452276-bernie-sanders-venezuela-regime-change/

i actually think that democrats need to stop pretending that it's important to win primaries in deep red states like south carolina.

bernie shouldn't completely abandon the state - he should make a nominal effort to show up and compete. but, his strategy should be to get out of the way and let the other candidates split the vote.

the reality is that losing south carolina, as he no doubt will, will not matter a whole lot, in the end. what matters is making sure that no other candidate runs up the score, there.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/02/bernie-sanders-already-repeating-some-crucial-2016-mistakes

if there was an acceptable younger candidate available today, we would just support that younger candidate.

it's not clear to me why we should put faith in the universe to produce a better candidate in the next 6 years.

and, if we are in the same position four years from now, the same logic will hold: sanders will still remain the candidate, by default.

i lean in the opposite direction: i think they should abolish term limits.

https://theintercept.com/2019/02/22/bernie-sanders-2020-one-term-pledge/

what i actually called for, and it was years ago now, was a manhattan project for the environment - and if it is a successful transition, that is more what it will actually look like.

but, it's maybe not as effective marketing as a "green new deal".

even if the green new deal ends up written in manhattan....

well, bolton told you that the invasion route was via columbia, didn't he?

so, is assad a dictator or not?

i'm not running for office, so i don't have to pander. and, the fact is that it's a ridiculously ignorant way to frame the situation. i'm going to tell you the story the way i understand it, which may have more detail than any existing candidates are actually even aware of.

in terms of actual technical power, yes - assad is at the top of a hierarchy. but, so is the queen of england, and nobody actually cares what she says. assad is more like a constitutional monarch than an actual dictator - a powerless figurehead, thrust into power by accident. the real power is in the hands of the military, and currently even actually in the hands of the kremlin.

syria is under a military dictatorship, and has been for a long time. on the death of his father, who was an actual dictator (i think he even had a moustache), power was supposed to pass to assad's brother, who had been groomed for the position for many years. as the remaining assad was actually assumed to be out of the succession, he ended up in england, where he became an optometrist.

that's right: assad is actually an eye doctor. he didn't spend his youth studying machievelli, he spent it studying biology. he has a phd, and had a practice in london.

but, by circumstance, he found himself in power - sort of. he was a pawn of the generals from the start, making few decisions and projecting little influence. but, being back from england, with an english-born wife, he actually kind of had a thing for democracy. as a consequence, his focus on his return has not been to consolidate power, but to abolish it; assad's sole goal as the monarch of syria for years has been to prepare a path to step down. he actually put a constitution up to a referendum in 2012.

so, not only does he not actually have any real power as a head of state, but he's trying to get out of being the head of state altogether. i'm not sure if anybody's really explained it to him recently, but last i heard, he actually wanted to go back to his practice in london. some dictator, right?

the saudis of course have a hate-on for anything resembling democracy, and created havoc in the country in order to try to stop it from happening. had that not happened, he'd no doubt be back in london, tending to his practice. as it is, he's stuck in a complicated conflict that he has little influence over.

my guess is that putin thinks he's an imbecile that is incapable of governing.

see, this is the case i thought wilson-raybould was moved out over.

brison resigned over apparent favouritism regarding an old money ship-building contract. was there any pressure put on the former minister to drop charges in this investigation, as well? that's what i initially deduced was the case, anyways....

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mark-norman-trudeau-wernick-butts-1.5029737

there we go - that's what i want to see.

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/civilians-take-arms-chase-islamist-rebels-town-northern-hama-videos/

While Bayaral is a marginal figure in Turkey, Kirchner warned that his statement demonstrated that the government’s pious base exerted “bottom-up pressure against [a secular] way of life without having to impose legal constraints.”

yeah, he needs some bottom-up pressure, alright.

i think this guy needs to spend a few nights with a nice boy, myself.

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/beardless-men-look-like-girls-provoke-gay-thoughts-says-muslim-preacher/

remember: the s-300s are not the s-400s, which have been such an important (if unreported) factor in the iranian nuclear talks. and, the russians seem just as willing to sell them to the saudis, too.

we don't know how well the syrians are going to use them. we don't know how well the israelis will react to them. we just know that it's a substantive deterrent, once the syrians actually activate them.

they say they're close. we'll see what happens.

i think the russians are focusing more on the election, myself. the israeli military has been pushing back on netanyahu re:iran for years and may be getting fed up with him...

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/syrian-military-nearly-ready-to-use-s-300-system-source/

i'm staunchly disappointed - if not particularly surprised - by trump's decision to keep troops in syria, and hope that it doesn't - but fully expect that it will - lead to rising tensions with regional powers in the region.

unlike russia and turkey and iran, the united states has no legitimate presence in the region and should leave the territory of the sovereign state of syria immediately.

well, if the judge sentenced him to 4.5 years and he's served it (including time awaiting trial) then you have to let him out. you can't just hold him indefinitely for no cause.

i mean, i'm not suggesting indefinite incarceration - i'm just insisting we actually enforce our laws.

if he was sentenced and did his time, that's an example of the system working, not an example of it failing.

that said, i would hope that this person is properly monitored for the foreseeable future, and that any further attempts to engage in terrorist activity are met with increasingly steep penalties.

https://globalnews.ca/news/4986036/canadian-tried-join-terror-group-syria-released-parole-despite-high-risk-public-safety/?utm_source=Other&utm_medium=MostPopular&utm_campaign=2014

this is horrifically undemocratic - the kind of thing you'd expect to see in a country like iran, not the united states of america.

https://globalnews.ca/news/4987115/donald-trump-new-jersey-ballot/?utm_source=Other&utm_medium=MostPopular&utm_campaign=2014

"but, i read about foucault in a course on marxism at university."

and, how much did you pay to join the book club at that bourgeois institution?

you didn't even get a membership card, did you?

universities are good places to learn about engineering; marxism, not so much.

identity politics as we understand them come from a french writer named foucault, who wrote widely about "hegemony" from this kind of depraved position. there's no deficit of criticism of foucault's writings from the left, most notably by habermas and chomsky, who both saw him as morally depraved. near the end of his life, he ended up supporting the iranian revolution, on the grounds that it would introduce a concept of moral purity in a collapse of capitalism; and, in this bizarre embrace of the most violent tendencies of fundamentalist islam, you can see his interest in what he called "hegemony" - the source of what we call "identity politics" was obsessed with the brutal application of hierarchy and power. one wonders if he might have tortured cats, as a child.

we don't have to wonder where this came from, though, as it's easy enough to trace.

the france of foucault's time was still a function of the revolution, so a substantial amount of his writing was created within it's context. any student of the french revolution is introduced to edmund burke, by necessity. speaking personally, i would have little interest in burke otherwise, but have read quite a bit of it due to his position in a lengthy series of arguments. you can't avoid him if you want to..

burke is otherwise known in england as the "father of modern conservatism" for creating a system where everybody knows his and her place, in an elaborate hierarchy with the church at the top and the peasants at the bottom. in burke's system, people are wholly defined by characteristics such as age, race, gender, place of birth and, of course, class. burke also wrote in favour of the american revolution (even while opposing the french one), but that is not important, right now.

what foucault actually did is take burke's system and flip it over on itself, before eventually subsuming his own politics within it. his entire concept of hegemony is fundamentally burkean in concept, to the point of being a logical conclusion.

now, people will argue that he was dismantling it, but that doesn't actually hold up - not any more than the arguments in favour of identity politics hold up today. he completely accepted burke's world view, then tried to find ways to subvert it - but always disingenuously, because he had that morbid attraction to authoritarianism, to hierarchy, to the enforcement of naked power with a blunt object.

the left has always seen through this, but liberalism picked it up at some point, and now we have this monster we have to slay before it gets out of hand. the iranian revolution may be an extreme analogy, but it is nonetheless where this goes if left completely unchecked.

i understand that he's trying to stir the pot, but this is a case of your enemy's enemy being your friend - because the people trying to make an issue out of this are also stirring the pot, in a way that is incredibly damaging to the left.

i should point out the obvious, if rarely stated, truth: identity politics is not in any way left-wing, and attaching it to the left is completely wrong, if done with so much glee by the right. identity politics is a subset of neo-liberalism, and for that reason you will see these arguments come from the centre, and not the left. i have argued repeatedly that foucault was actually a conservative, that his system was fundamentally burkean and that his followers belong on the right. it is only a function of the strange political spectrum in the united states that these ideas could be associated with the left, but, as mentioned, they are truly not - they are a part of the neo-liberal consensus, upheld by the trudeaus and clintons of the world and denounced by socialists and anarchists of all sorts.

this is actually an article by a liberal, who is criticizing a conservative ideology, which is in turn attacking sanders, who in this case is being a liberal. sanders' statements are pretty boilerplate, in the intersection of the left with liberalism, but inherently liberal in concept - we are all equal before the law, perhaps because we are equal before god and perhaps just because we like it better that way. as mentioned, you won't find many people on the left that will break with liberalism when it comes to ideas of race. the left mostly disagrees with liberalism on questions of economics.

i actually think that the democrats really need a moment of self-reflection around this, because the position they are adopting is not one of liberalism but one of hierarchy and racial privilege, merely flipped over and placed on it's head. is it the case that so many people in america think they're entitled to wealth or privileged due to their upbringing? the media would tell you it is; i don't think the data quite supports that. but, the party seems to want people to believe it, whether it currently is or isn't true.

the sanders campaign is probably going to want to retreat from these kinds of arguments. i actually think that this is not just wrong but dangerous - that liberals and leftists have to get together on this and win the debate.

sanders is completely right, and anybody suggesting otherwise should be roundly denounced and ripped apart over it.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/02/20/bernie-sanders-left-2020-225190

netanyahu is a horrifically corrupt war criminal that needed to go cycles ago.

there is no need to write another essay lamenting the death of the israeli left.

but, it is perhaps telling that he appears to be being pushed out by the military.

hrmmmn.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/israel-election-coalition-1.5028403

i guess this is what making america great again is really all about.

i'm going to flip this around. if bernie throws away the facts on this and embraces the twilight zone alter-reality being promoted by the state department, it's grounds to declare he's completely lost it and look at a third party.

people are arguing that he can't separate himself from the field, but he's still the only candidate that's come out in favour of most of his signature policies. and, despite the dropped jaws in the washington consensus, this is one of his signature policies.

again: this is a feature. it's not a bug. and, if the people of florida wants to vote for an illegal coup in a foreign country, and think that it's a ballot issue that overpowers more pressing concerns, then they should be roundly condemned for it. the democrats can't be bending over to right-wing reactionaries like this.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/21/bernie-sanders-venezuela-maduro-1179636

yeah, that's exactly what the planet needs - more money for obsolete technology.

that infrastructure money was supposed to go towards carbon transition not to "help families get to work".

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/trudeau-announces-up-to-86-5-million-for-halifax-expressway-1.4306314

the data on this is actually pretty startling - many american baby boomers will outlive their children, partly because they're able to afford better health care. the united states is not just heading into a gerontocracy, but one where a generation, maybe two, is going to end up lost to irrelevancy.

just a reality check on this. these are some of the most powerful people running the country, not just now but for the next 4-8 years.

nancy pelosi - 78
donald trump - 72
joe biden - 76
chuck schumer - 68
bernie sanders - 77
elizabeth warren - 69
hillary clinton - 71
mitch mcconnell - 77
chuck grassley - 85
wilbur ross - 81
william barr - 68
sonny perdue - 72
rick perry - 68
john kerry - 75
dianne feinstein - 85
mitt romney - 71

there's then a bunch of people in their 50s - pence, mnuchin, etc. these are the last boomers, but they're still boomers.

if we accept that the baby boom was from 1945-1965, and we give the last boomers until their 80s before they step down or die in office, that means we're not looking at a shift in power until 2045-2050 - when the oldest millennials start to retire.

it's not that the power to turf these people isn't there, but there doesn't seem to be much of a will to do it. and, both parties want to reward seniority. so long as these people want these jobs, they're going to be hard to get rid of.

everybody knew gen x was going to get skipped and squeezed. but, i'm not sure anybody saw this coming.

we can always hope they die before they get old, right?

there are lots of concrete ways that this manifests itself. one example is drug prices.

it is apparently now common practice to import generics from canada, which is actually completely insane if you understand how the system works. drug prices in the united states are ridiculous, granted. but, canada is actually the second most expensive oecd country, and it is largely the consequence of the american market.

the united states has essentially no meaningful regulation on drug prices, which is completely absurd.

in canada, what we do is take the oecd average. so, if you want to buy a drug in canada, the price is calculated by adding up the prices in all of the other oecd countries and then dividing it by the number of countries. if you have a situation where the drug is 100x more expensive in the united states - a random if round number, but hardly an absurd exaggeration - then this dramatically skews the average, which actually inflates the price.

for america to try and fix this by importing canadian drugs is to provide a very minor discount on a problem of their own making. if they would simply regulate their industry, prices would come down on both sides of the border.

so, if sanders wins and brings in pharmacare, canadian drug prices will come down dramatically. who can say we don't have an interest in this?

i'm going to repeat something i've said several times over the last three years.

i think that most americans are, in fact, aware that canada has a single-payer healthcare system, and that canadians are deeply protective of it. what americans may be less of aware of is the fact that it is constantly under threat by corporate interests that want to open up a market. the people of ontario are currently in particularly grave danger of losing our health care, despite whatever kind of riots may erupt as a result of it.

and, the biggest threat to our healthcare system is the fact that it exists in such close proximity to such a massive, open market. as there are americans that look north for inspiration about coverage, there are predatory capitalists in canada that look south for a more exploitative model - as well as corporate interests to the south that would like to open up the market.

don't misunderstand me; i'm an altruist. i want to see my american cousins get better results for their dollar - sure. but, my dominant interest is that i am keenly aware that the best way to protect the system in my country is to help abolish the market that exists over the border, and that the system in canada will never be safe until the system in america evolves. this is an example of how altruism is reciprocal, of how the best way to help yourself is sometimes actually to help others.

it is for that reason that sanders is likely to be the only acceptable candidate in the field, and that i have a direct interest in helping him win.

and, what if your handpicked, black, progressive female candidate eclipses you?

that's fine.

i pointed out previously that in order for the left to win the primary in the states, they have to sweep the midwest and find a way to split the south. if bernie is the guy, so be it.

that said, bernie may want to be seriously considering the idea of a black running mate as a compromise/consolation - and don't look too badly into that. i'm just inherently cynical. so, frame it as a way to reach out, then. if this is a serious tactic, you should get the candidate running early.

so, let's say that bernie talks nina turner into running, for example. the way this would work is that she'd run strong in the south, with the intent of taking votes away from kamala harris particularly - and even a 5% swing could be decisive. then, when he wins by sweeping the midwest and splitting the south, he offers her a spot on the ticket, which is a concession because she got x% of the vote.

it doesn't have to be nina turner, of course, although she's kind of ideal for the task.

i'm just trying to throw some tactical ideas out there that are dialectical in nature. bernie wants to run as a uniter, and that's fine, in fact it's great, but it means finding smart ways to split the field and unite it at the same time.

so, if you know you have to split the south to win, and you realize that the way you fix that in the end is to offer a space on the ticket, then you get your candidate out there early. that way, you can accomplish your task, while getting the candidate you want, in the end.

are they the same character?

i don't know.

the first iteration - this one - is clearly a gay man breaking it to an obsessed female. he's sorry, and probably honestly so.

the second is about an evil bastard that apologizes disingenuously in order to get what he wants.

it would be a good story, in some sense, to explore the life of a character over the course of a fifteen year time span, caught apologizing in these very different contexts.

they should hook the leak up to brian pallister's kitchen sink.

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/news/article/nearly-40-train-crude-oil-cars-carrying-crude-oil-derail-in-manitoba-st-lazare

“We have got to look at candidates, you know, not by the color of their skin, not by their sexual orientation or their gender and not by their age,” Mr. Sanders said. “I think we have got to try to move us toward a nondiscriminatory society which looks at people based on their abilities, based on what they stand for.”

this is a feature, not a bug.

my initial reaction to claims of a placental mammal going extinct in australia due to climate change was that australia doesn't have indigenous placental mammals, and humans must have introduced them.

frankly, i don't want to shed too many tears for dead rats.

but, it turns out that there are two kinds of placental mammals that were introduced to australia before humans, namely bats and a few species of rodents. or, that is the thinking, anyways.

i wonder, though, how a rat would have found it's way from new guinea to australia, short of a land bridge - which, while not entirely outlandish (water levels would have been lower in glacial periods), belies the fact that the continent does not have any other placental species. we have learned the hard way that placentals tend to outcompete marsupials for spaces in the same niches.

so, how did these placentals get there, exactly?

a bat could have flown. granted.

but, maybe we ought to spin this around: is the introduction of placental rodents to australia in the last five million years actually evidence that ergaster made it that far south?

i don't like rats; i mentioned that. but, justice, to me, means keeping australia as a safe homeland for marsupials and monotremes.

placentals out of australia! placentals go home.....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rodents_of_Australia#Old_%22Endemics%22_*

age is an issue because it implies an increasing likelihood towards senility. for that reason alone, you can't brush off "ageism" the way you'd brush off racism or sexism - age does matter, if only on the extremes.

i'm less concerned about dole or mccain as precedent and more concerned about reagan, who it is well understood began to lose it near the end of his term - and was eventually officially diagnosed with alzheimers.

we're talking about an extremely important job, here, that can't tolerate any kind of mental slowness. i would consequently actually support a constitutional amendment to put an age limit somewhere around 75 - which is where mandatory retirement kicks in on the canadian supreme court.

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/02/will-age-be-an-issue-in-the-2020-presidential-race.html

i just want to add an after thought to this bernie sanders running again thing.

i pointed out that the left may be looking forward to 2024, and that if an acceptable candidate doesn't present itself then bernie becomes the option by default - as a protest against the democratic party. that said, the best tactic may be helping bernie build a movement, anyways.

you also have to keep in mind that trump is, himself, also an old man. if the argument is that it's irresponsible to support a candidate at such an advanced age, that may be blunted by the reality that there isn't another choice.

so, if there is no viable candidate anyways, there is no harm in focusing solely on the future; while bernie himself may never enter the promised land, he might help lead us there.

trudeau actually took a walk in the snow just a few hours ago.

that's why there's snow angels in the yard.

what i'm going to say is this.

i want a younger candidate, and will jump on one if i can find one. but, if i can't, i'm going to end up supporting him, by default. and, i've always supported fringe candidates like kucinich or nader, so don't be surprised if i can't find anybody i'm willing to support in the democratic field, either.

but, frankly? it's starting to look like the left needs to plan for 2024. i may stick with sanders in the end, but if i do it will likely be as a protest vote.

if a younger candidate does appear, i'm going to expect bernie to step back, too.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/bernie-sanders-2020-bid-1.5024206

so, this is comical.

but, keeping in mind that the toronto star is considered to be the closest thing that we have to english-language, liberal-leaning msm in this country, it demonstrates the power that this company has, here - and the factors underlying the situation.

the rest of the media is right-leaning and all over this. the toronto star is supposed to come to the pmo's aide; instead, it's throwing them under the bus to save the impugned reputation of the corporation in question.

as mentioned: they need to create a major distraction. firing gerald butts wasn't it.

https://www.thestar.com/business/opinion/2019/02/19/david-olive-the-snc-lavalin-scandal-lies-entirely-with-the-trudeau-government.html

what.

the.

fuck.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/report-trump-rushing-sell-saudi-arabia-nuclear-technology-190219181918317.html

do you have to go to jewish media to get some sanity on the topic?

fuck.

https://www.jpost.com/International/Outrage-in-Syria-Iraq-as-ISIS-members-treated-as-celebrities-in-west-581103

"material support to a terrorist group" is not a new concept under british common law, either - it comes directly from the idea of "aiding and abetting" a criminal, which is well established and not very controversial.

i mean, this is ridiculous.

we are governed by complete idiots.

i don't agree.

there is a law against providing material support to a terrorist group, and these women should be prosecuted under it.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/02/19/isil-brides-cannot-prosecuted-simply-going-syria-met-chief-admits/

the stock market is just another casino - it's not a reflection of the economy, it's just a venue for people to gamble their savings. it goes up and down based on random trivialities that have little - and usually nothing - to do with the performance of the actual companies.

if investors want the market to go up, it goes up. nothing else really matters. it's just supply and demand, really.

nothing except one thing, that is. the one law it has to obey, whether it likes it or not, is that money has to exist before it can be traded. so, when you suck money out of the economy - which is what the feds are doing - then you necessarily suck money out of the markets at the same time. if a lag exists between a contraction in the market and an application of this policy, a bubble is created.

now, there's no rule that says this bubble has to burst, other than that people have to move their money around at some point. what ends up happening is that people have to sell their investments to pay for other things. this drives the price down. but, so long as people don't sell, so long as they find some other way to make up for the shortfall of the monetary contraction, the bubble floats off into space...

why did we see a crash around christmas, then? because people were reassessing their finances at the end of the year. they may have been selling stocks to raise money for christmas presents, vacations, etc. now, they're sitting at home, leaving their investments alone like they've been told to.

but, all the feds have been doing for years now is sucking money out of the economy, so the underlying cause of the last correction is just building up on itself.

i don't know when it starts to crash again. people don't seem to want to sell...they seem to have a lot of faith in this system, and that's hard to shake.

but, the monetary contraction is a vicious force, and it can't be undone by positive thinking.

it's a matter of time before it happens - and expect carnage when it clicks in.

what the market is demonstrating is that it doesn't exist in any sort of connection to any kind of economic reality. that's not news to anybody, despite the extended length of this continuing period of absolute delusion.

i am not changing my analysis of the situation: the bubble is simply getting more exaggerated, and it is still due to crash by over 10,000 points at any moment.

the cause of this imminent crash will be the monetary policies put in place by the republicans, specifically a contraction of the balance sheet. and, the only way to reverse it will be to print more money.

you simply can't destroy money and expand the economy at the same time. the longer that investors delude themselves to this fact by playing with these make believe numbers, the harder the crash ends up in the end.

see, it's not just the snc-lavalin thing that just happened.

the party also just fired john mccallum, and broke with a historical foreign policy in venezuela. the cabinet shift was caused by the resignation of scott brison. these are big, paradigmatic changes in the liberal party.

to have gerald butts - a richelieu type character - walk out like this is either a forceful reversal, or the next step in a process.

i've been calling for the former and will be ecstatic if i was heeded, through whatever ether or zeitgeist i'm communicating through. but, i actually suspect it's the latter - that this is a palace coup spearheaded by the party's right, which wants to put chrystia freeland in power.

we'll find out soon.

the resignation of gerald butts is a major change in the canadian political landscape, heading into the 2019 election. while he appears to be taking the fall for the snc-lavelin scandal, i suspect that this is actually somewhat of a smokescreen for a shift in policy direction.

i've been stating for months - years - that the party needs to flex it's muscles, and change it's policy direction, before trudeau leads them so far to the right that they end up politically irrelevant. i don't think that anybody actually voted for justin trudeau. when you strip away the layers of nostalgia for his father, of partisan liberal support, of stolen ndp positions (all of which have been abandoned) and of anti-harperism, the only thing that trudeau was actually running on as an individual was marijuana, relegating his political base to fickle first-time voters. and, now we're making major shifts in foreign policy that are undoing the party's legacy, and really flipping their branding over.

recent polling suggests the liberals are in fact in trouble. and, why wouldn't they be? we voted harper out with disdain, only for him to reappear in a prom dress.

but, it's not entirely clear yet which side of the argument won this debate. and, that is what we're going to figure out in the upcoming days and weeks: was butts pushed out by the party's old guard, which is trying to take control of a sinking ship, or was he a victim of his own success - purged by a party that wants to realign itself on the right.

so, i've now got all of those boxes properly organized and put away. there's one stack of cds and one box of books left out for easy access, which is very specifically books and cds from the period up to mid-1997, which is the next period i'll be working on in the alter-reality.

the last run through the main pc (i keep calling it that, but it is now merely the 32-bit box) is now done, as well. this included a final browse through the directory structure for loose files, as well as an attempt to undelete any files sitting on the drive.

and, in the process, i found something i thought i had lost - a file called archive.pst, dated to late 2011. it was hiding in the virtual machine, and had to be brought back using a file recovery utility. this might be my missing email. or, it might be corrupted beyond readability. i'll find out over the next few days.

i found a few other large psts as well, with dcxx file names, indicating they're likely unreadable. we'll find out...

that means i'm back to the email process this week.

there's two things left to do before i can get back to sitting on the laptop and organizing files for the rebuild. i want to run the same file recovery process on my old quantum fireball, in the hopes that i can find some old thunderbird boxes. i suspect they're there; the question is if they're readable. i'm also still running an undelete process on two relatively old hard drives that don't have vista/7 drivers and can only be read from inside xp, but that i can't get my 32-bit box to read, either (because i broke the plug and play on purpose). so, this is running on the 90s laptop - and is slow. it's getting there.

a day or two, tops. i think.

i also took the opportunity to do some organizing and general cleaning. i can't remember how i described this basement apartment; i know there are neither pictures nor video up yet, which is quite conscious. but, it's organized in such a way that there are two bedroom-like enclaves (with sliding doors that are kept always open), but no dining room or eat-in kitchen (there is of course a kitchen, with the luxury of laundry in it, and a bathroom). the way i have it set up is that i'm using one of these enclaves as a bedroom and the other as a dining/living room, then using the main area as a studio. something you'll note is that the only thing i actually do in the "living" room is eat - i spend almost all of my time in my bedroom or in the studio. i guess this is a function of the fact that i neither watch tv nor have any friends. my "living room" is really the studio. i think i was over this a few times last year - the actual functions of the spaces i need are to sleep/type/read, to record and to eat. so, i need three rooms, organized in some capacity. the last basement had four rooms, with the fourth being a big eat-in kitchen, but i didn't actually use it for anything other than to store garbage; i ate in the living room. the smoky apartment had two rooms, and i consequently found it a little cramped, as i had to force everything into one space. three is a better number, here - even if the total floor space is technically somewhat smaller (it's a negligible difference).

for the last several months, i've just had everything piled into the other room, waiting for it to be cleaned - loose plastic recyclables, receipts, user manuals, books, cds, bills, documents, old school work, etc. i've finally got all of this cleaned up and organized, which has converted the area into an actual liveable space. the studio is still messy, but it is at least in order - although i need to caution that it could be a while before i get back into there. even keeping in mind that i will need to catch up in the alter-reality before i get back to working on the discography, the material from 2003-2004 is actually entirely completed (a rarity in my discography), meaning the next projects to reconstruct actually date to late 2004 and early 2005. the next major project i'm going to be actually working on is a matlab project, and is going to be about programming, rather than recording - i'm going to be writing an entire record using mathematics and physical modelling. i've got about 15 minutes to start with and a handful of loose ideas to base sounds around. expect this to be exceedingly abstract. i may even use it as an excuse to finally get into reaktor or whatever passes for it nowadays; the point is that i'm not going to be getting back to actual note-based music composition until i delve well more than a year back into the discography.

i'm still hesitant about planning around this basement, but my best option may be to wait for a spot in a subsidized building. the air quality comes up and down, but seems to be workable so long as the fan is on. i've done a few extra caulking layers and think i've reached the endpoint of what i can do with that. i still just can't figure out if there's a teenager upstairs smoking, or the air in the neighbourhood is just bad, all around...and, if i can figure out the answer to this, i'll be able to plan the future a little better.

i think i can get a few shelves, regardless - one for cds and one for books. the plan will be to fill these shelves as i work through the alter-reality. i don't need to commit to this basement long-term to spend $40-50 on some relevant general utility shelving. but, i'll need to wait until the spring before i start thinking about hauling shelves around; that's fine, it'll be a few weeks, at least, before i get there. i'm not building custom shelves like i wanted to in the other space, and am glad i didn't.

i think the primary concern once i get these files aligned is actually going to be fixing the broken laptop, one way or the other. i bought parts for it, only to have the processor finally fry. if i can't find a way to bring it back, i'm hoping i can find a cheap replacement and swap out the parts. this is an hp pavillion that was manufactured in the 2010-2012 period. you'd think i could find a replacement that can take similar parts for less than $200, and that's fine - i still have cash my grandmother gave me for that explicit purpose. the price has just come down since then. i'll be using such a laptop - with 8 gb of ram - as a video editing machine, kept offline, and connected to one of  the other machines via a local network. i'll have to transfer the files to the internet gateway via some kind of flash device.

so, that's my update for the last few days - i'm kind of turning a corner on some things, and getting closer to getting back to the rebuild. so long as things unfold as planned, this will be worth it in the long run.

now, regarding these court cases...

still no response from the cops. this was day 108 of the 120-day statutory period. they're running out of time. so, i sent them a note.

i'm still waiting for the privacy commissioner, but will give them until the end of the month.

the file destruction request, on the other hand, is something i'm getting impatient about - i should have heard a response by now and will need to get on the phone shortly.

i'm waiting for the report from the cops before i decide on what to do regarding the court audio. you have to understand that i could sue this woman and win, then never see the cash, so i'm better off suing the cops under a charter breach. but, the thing is that there's no time frame on a charter case, and about a year-long time frame regarding a human rights case. so, i can wait for the cops to drag the charter case out, but i can't wait for them to drag the human rights case out.

if it starts to look like the cops are just stalling - and it's getting close to that point - then i'm going to have to move forward on the human rights case. but, if i get a good report, i might skip it.

the point is that i'm waiting for the report before i make my next move, whatever it is.

and, in fact, the lawsuit is even more frivolous than i thought, because the president isn't even authorizing new funds, but redirecting them.

what trump is actually doing in his executive order is redirecting funds from the drug war to the border wall. the lawsuit is claiming that this is a presidential usurpation of the public purse; but, these funds are already allocated. so, their argument is actually even technically wrong.

i don't actually think that the courts would have had the jurisdiction if what they were saying was even true. but, as it is, what they're saying isn't even true in the first place...

the congress should be able to block this without the use of the courts, and it clearly has the numbers to do it, based on the bill that necessitated it. if they're serious, they'll invoke their own authority, which is a proper constitutional use of power.

the only constitutional crisis here is the potential use of judicial overreach to overturn executive power. but, the judiciary will excuse itself; if it does not, that is where the problem lays.

yeah. this is a political stunt, not a serious legal argument.

as mentioned, they didn't file it in san francisco by accident. the rubber-stamp kangaroo court there will follow party dictates and send it up to the next level. the democrats can always rely on an easy injunction using this method, as they control this particular court.

but, this argument stands exactly zero chance of working in the long run.

the real question is as follows: why aren't the democrats launching a judicial review? was a deal made around politicizing the issue in a hopeless court battle as a face-saving mechanism?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/18/us/politics/national-emergency-lawsuits-trump.html

have these professors been living on a different planet, or what?

the opposition has been boycotting elections in the country for years, creating a facade of illegitimacy that all evidence suggests is unwarranted. their tactic is as follows:

1. boycott the election
2. after the opposition refuses to participate, and the results are skewed, claim the election is rigged.
3. ????????????
4. profit.

i guess the academy is filling in the third step, here. but, it is entirely unclear why the opposition would observe this election, when it has refused to observe the last batch of them.

the solution to this problem is not in calling any kind of election. i've stated this point more than once: the message the world should be sending to the opposition is that if you don't want to take part in the election then you don't get a say in governing.

and, the solution can be nothing more or less than forcing everybody to wait until the next scheduled election.

there is a difference between ochlocracy and democracy. look it up.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/17/proposal-to-end-the-crisis-in-venezuela

yeah.

that's the idea.

https://www.burnabynow.com/conservative-leader-says-trudeau-will-hike-carbon-tax-if-he-wins-vote-in-2019-1.23570227

you want democracy in syria?

great.

then your single biggest advocate inside the country is bashar al-assad, who may in the end end up dying for it.

those of us with memories better than those of your average gerbil will recall that the reason we're in this mess in the first place is that the saudis were trying to stop the syrians from moving to a constitutional republic.

what the media refers to as a "civil war" in syria has always been a foreign backed invasion to stop the country from moving towards democracy. i have to repeat this point when i make it: what the americans have been doing in syria is not spreading democracy, but rather helping the saudis to stamp it out before it spreads.

i don't know how the americans walk this back, in the end. they're still talking about assad as a dictator, even while he's openly planning a democratic transition. i suppose they'll probably claim the elections are rigged.

so, when you hear talk of these opposition groups demanding that the constitution be altered as a pre-condition, you have to put it in context. syria just fought a brutal war to save a constitution that was passed less than ten years ago.

all of these people can't have died for nothing.

https://en.unesco.org/creativity/policy-monitoring-platform/syrias-new-constitution

i don't actually know what i want to be when i grow up, yet.

i would not be particularly upset if the kurds just killed them on the spot.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/17/islamic-state-isis-baghuz-trump-calls-on-european-allies-to-take-800-fighters-captured-in-syria

almost done with this, i just have to separate the initial list up to 2003 into periods one and period two.

i'll be writing reviews for new releases from 1997-1999 over the upcoming months, then putting those releases on the shelves. and, i'm actually thinking that the down period over 1997 may give me an excuse to do some writing on some older media i have, just to be comprehensive.

slowly...

and, something happened when i went back to school in '08 - i stopped spending money on cds, and started downloading music. so, i've got a terrabyte of mp3s since then, and very few physical discs. there's a few left, not many....

at some point, i'll want to rectify that. there's certain things - la dispute, 65daysofstatic, son lux, screaming females - that belong on the shelf. but, it could be a while longer, still.

i decided i wouldn't review anything without buying it, so that's the limitation i'm getting around.

but, that gets me in order, anyways. and, i'm about to pass out.

so, here's the list from late 2006 to mid 2008, which, with the last list, corresponds to the time i was out of school.

i didn't have a clean compare algorithm, here, i had to sort through, and i no doubt missed a few. i don't have snapshots after 2007. but, i'll catch them in the end - they're there.

i'm all over the place, here.

up to june, 2008

a silver mt. zion	pretty little lightning paw	2004	cst	030	30:16	9
	13 blues for thirteen moons	2008	cst	051	59:04	0
acid mothers temple & the melting paraiso ufo	nam myo ho ren ge kyo	2007	ace fu	047	65:16	5
adrian belew	side two	2005	sanctuary	755	33:13	2
	side three	2006	sanctuary	777	38:45	9
allan holdsworth	atavachron	1986	2064	36:44	3
animal collective	hollinndagain	2002	paw tracks	12	41:33	5
	feels	2005	splinter	11	51:48	0
aphex twin	girl/boy	1996	warp	wap-78	15:25	5
	richard d. james album	1996		warp-43	32:43	0
autechre	incunabula	1993	warp	0017	78:03	3
	amber	1994		0025	74:25	2
	chiastic slide	1997		0049	69:51	0
	lp5	1998		0066	73:16	1
	ep 7.1	1999		ep7	29:32	3
	ep 7.2	1999		ep7	30:45	0
	peel session 2	2000		9150	29:30	3
	confield	2001			74:00	4
	gantz graf	2002		9256	19:17	1
	draft 7.30	2003		0111	62:47	3
	untilted	2005		0180	69:49	2
between the buried and me	alaska	2005	victory	262	53:54	10
	colors	2007		351	64:12	7
bjork	medulla	2004	62 984	45:46	2
black sabbath	paranoid	1970	warner brothers	27 327	42:11	8
brian eno	(no pussyfooting)	1973	eg	1-02	39:44	0
	evening star	1975		1-03	47:34	1
	music for films	1978		1-05	41:04	1
can	tago mago	1971	mute	9273	73:30	0
	ege bamyasi	1972		9274	40:11	1
carlos santana	blues for salvador	1987	columbia	40875	45:09	3
claude debussy	nocturnes	1899	phillips	11 433	26:57	0
	la mer	1905		11 433	24:09	1
cocteau twins	blue bell knoll	1988	4ad/vertigo	36 484	35:16	3
cop shoot cop	release	1994	interscope	92 424	50:30	3
cornershop	when i was born for the 7th time	1997	warner bros	46 576	54:18	3
david bowie	tin machine	1989	91 990	56:49	9
django reinhardt	jazz in paris vol. 13	1939	emarcy	59 854	51:02	3
do make say think	you, you're a history in rust	2007	045	48:29	3
einstuerzende neubauten	perpetuum mobile	2004	mute (time-warner)	9-237		2
fennesz	venice	2004	touch	53		3
fuck buttons	street horrrsing	2008	atpr	028		0
genesis	genesis	1983				7
henryk gorecki	string quartets 1 and 2	1988 / 1991	nonesuch	79319		3
hindu love gods	s/t	1990	giant	24406		5
hrsta	ghosts will come ahd kiss our eyes	2007	cst	48		3
iron butterfly	in-a-gadda-da-vida	1968	atco	20217	90 392	8
john bayless	bach meets the beatles	1984	pro-arte	211		8
jello biafra & the melvins	sieg howdy!	2005	alternative tentacles	350		2
john zorn	duras:duchamp	1997				3
	xu feng	2000				0
	naninani II	2004	tzadik	250		2
john mclaughlin	molom	1995				3
john tavener	the protecting veil	1996				3
jonny greenwood	bodysongs	2002	emi	95147		2
king crimson	beat	1981				2
	three of a perfect pair	1984				1
kingdom shore	...and all the dogs to shark					3
kronos quartet	black angels	1990	nonesuch/elektra	79242		4
	howl, usa	1997	elektra/nonesuch	79372		4
lamb	fear of fours	1999	mercury	58 821		3
led zeppelin	led zeppelin	1969	atlantic	82632		4
ludwig van beethoven	symphony no. 5 (opus #67)	1808	sb2k	63266		0
	symphony no. 6 (opus #68)	1808	sb2k	63266		1
	symphony no. 7 (opus #92)	1813	pilz	067		1
	symphony no. 8 (opus #93)	1814	sb2k	63266		2
mammatus	mammatus	2006	holy mountain	17974		1
	the coast explodes	2007	holy mountain	8516		1
meat beat manifesto	subliminal sandwich	1996	nothing (universal)	90 069		2
	hello friends	2001	shadow	097		4
	at the center	2005	thirsty ear	57 159		2
meg lee chin	junkies and snakes	2000	invisible	176		5
mike keneally	hat.	1992	exowax	promo		1
	boil that dist speck	1994	exowax	promo		1
	sluggo	1997	immune	018		1
miles davis	'round about midnight	1957	columbia			2
moebius & plank	rastakraut pasta	1980				3
	material	1981				3
mr. bungle	mr. bungle	1990				3
my bloody valentine	isn't anything	1988				1
	loveless	1991				0
nine inch nails	year zero	2007				2
	ghosts	2008				2
pelican	city of echoes	2005	hydra head	124		3
philip glass	passages	1990				0
	kundun	1997	nonesuch	79460		2
pink floyd	the division bell	1994				2
plaid	double figure	2001	warp	084		2
red hot chili peppers	mother's milk	1989	columbial	13 892		2
	bloodsugarsexmagik	1991	warner brothers	45 448		0
robert fripp	(no pussyfooting)	1973	eg	1-02	39:44	0
	evening star	1975		1-03	47:34	1
set fire to flames	sings reign rebuilder	2002	alien8	130701		6
skerik	syncopated taint septet	2003	ryko	16 039		1
sonic youth	the whitey album	1988				3
steve reich	electric counterpoint	1987	nonesuch (time-warner)	79 176		1
	different trains	1988	nonesuch (time-warner)	79 176		3
the chicago underground trio	flamethrower	2000	delmark	521		2
the fall	cheetham hill	1997	receiver	247		3
the grassy knoll	III	1998	nettwerk	30127		2
the jimi hendrix experience	axis: bold as love	1967	track			0
the white stripes	get behind me satan	2005	v2 (bmg)	27 256		2
trans am	red line	2000	thrill jockey	087		2
turing machine	a new machine for living	2000	jade tree	92258		2
various artists	dgc rarities vol 1	1994	dgc	24704		5
	natural born killers	1994	nothing/interscope	92460		2
	song of the silent land	2004	constellation	cstcomp2		4
wendy carlos	clockwork orange original score	1972	east side	81362		3
xiu xiu	women as lovers	2008	kill rock stars	484		3
xtc	homespun	1999	tvt	3320		3
yellowjackets	priceless jazz collection	1998	grbd	9893		3

the next file is just a few months later, at the end of 2006. i got a package from subconscious, a few new releases, discs at two shows for the first time in a while (karcius, pelican) and some deals in the cheap bins.

dec, 2006

artist	country	title	year	format	label	#	opinion
download	canada	III steps forward	2003	cd	subconscious	15	2
		inception	2003	cd	subconscious	14	2
hilt	canada	the worst of the flu (1985-1996)	2003	cd	subconscious	27	4
karcius	canada	sphere	2003	cd	n/a	n/a	2
		kaleidoscope	2006	cd	unicorn	50	2
mike oldfield	u.k.	elements	2004	dvd	virgin/emi	5 99990 9	4
pelican	u.s.a.	australasia	2003	cd	hydra head	75	2
		the fire in our throats will beckon the thaw	2005	cd	hydra head	91	2
plateau	canada	iceolator	2003	cd	subconscious	24	2
psychic TV	u.k.	at stockholm	1990	cd	psychick release	001	1
scorn	u.s.a.	ellipsis	1995	cd	scorn	001	4
skinny puppy	canada	puppy gristle	2003	cd	subconscious	23	2
		back and forth 6	2003	cd	subconscious	25	2
sonic youth	u.s.a.	sonic youth (2006 rerelease)	1982	cd	universal	87979	1
steve hackett	u.k.	voyage of the acolyte	1975	cd	charisma / emi	37242	4
strange cargo	u.s.a.	hinterland	1995	cd	warner	99295	3
swans	u.s.a.	the burning world	1989	cd	UNI	256438-2	4
the mars volta	u.s.a.	amputechtre	2006	cd	universal	70 280	7
the tear garden	netherlands	eye spy with my little eye	2003	cd	subconscious	26	2
various artists	n/a	no alternative	1993	cd	arista	8737	4
		encore	2003	cd	subconscious	666	9
weezer	u.s.a.	pinkerton	1996	cd	geffen/universal	25007	2

i don't have a document dated to mid-2005. but, these are the records added to the document from june 2004 to sept 19, 2006.

sept 19, 2006

a silver mt. zion	canada	horses in the sky	2005	cd	constellation	33	1
adrian belew	u.s.a.	here	1993	cd	caroline/virgin/emi	61748	3
		side one	2004	cd	sanctuary (emi)	84 738	1
afro-celt sound system	u.k.	sound magic	1996	cd-r	n/a	n/a	1
al dimeola / jan hammer	u.s.a.	scenario	1983	cd	columbia	38944	2
(the) angels of light	u.s.a.	sing other people	2005	cd	young god	027	4
antonio carlos jobim	brazil	stone flower	1970	cd	epic (sony)	45480	1
autechre	u.k.	tri repetae++	1995	cd	warp / wax trax! / tvt	7239	1
		anvil vapre	1995	cd	warp / wax trax! / tvt	7239	1
		garbage	1995	cd	warp / wax trax! / tvt	7239	1
billy corgan	u.s.a.	the future embrace	2005	cd	reprise	48712	4
bjork	iceland	post	1995	cd-r	n/a	n/a	1
blind melon	u.s.a.	blind melon	1992	cs	capitol	596585	4
bowery electric	u.s.a	beat (u.k.)	1997	cd	beggar's banquet	188	3
bozio-levin-stevens	u.s.a.	blacklight syndrome	1997	cd-r	n/a	n/a	1
brian eno	u.k.	before and after science	1977	cd	eg (virgin)	032	1
brian eno and david byrne	u.k.	my life in the bush of ghosts	1981	cd	sire	27432	1
brian eno and jah wobble	u.k.	spinner	1995	cd	caroline-virgin	66614	2
cabaret voltaire	u.k.	red mecca	1981	cd	mute / rough trade	69174	1
cocteau twins	scotland	tiny dynamine / echoes in a shallow bay	1985	cd	4AD	510/511	3
david bowie	u.k.	reality	2003	cd	columbia (sony)	90576	2
david gilmour	u.k.	on an island	2006	cd	columbia (sony)	80280	1
delerium	canada	chimera	2003	2-cd-r	nettwerk	30317	6
faust	germany	IV	1973	cd	caroline (emi)	86510	1
frank zappa	u.s.a.	hot rats	1969	cd	rykodisc	508	1
		shut up 'n' play yer guitar	1981	3-cd-r	n/a	n/a	1
		does humour belong in music?	1984	dvd-r	n/a	n/a	4
		son of cheap thrills	1999	cd-r	n/a	n/a	6
genesis	u.k.	from genesis to revelation	1969	cd-r	n/a	n/a	4
glen branca	u.s.a.	lesson no. 1	1980	cd	acute/carpark/mordam	005	2
		dissonance	1980	cd	acute/carpark/mordam	005	2
		bad smells	1982	cd	acute/carpark/mordam	005	5
hater	u.s.a.	II	2005	cd	burn burn burn	010	2
hooverphonic	netherlands	a new stereophonic sound spectacular	1996	cd	sony	68010	5
		blue wonder powder milk	1998	cd	sony	69363	5
iannis xenakis	greece	kraanerg	1969	cd	col legno	20217	7
john mclaughlin, al di meola, paco de lucia	n/a	passion, grace and fire	1983	cd	columbia	6121338645	1
king crimson	u.k.	in the wake of poseidon	1970	cd-r	n/a	n/a	1
		lizard	1970	cd-r	n/a	n/a	1
		islands	1971	cd-r	n/a	n/a	4
		starless and bible black	1974	cd-r	n/a	n/a	4
		red	1974	cd-r	n/a	n/a	1
		discipline	1981	cd-r	n/a	n/a	1
mahavishnu orchestra	u.k.	the inner mounting flame	1971	cd	columbia	65 523	0
		visions of the emerald beyond	1975	cd	columbia	46 867	1
manorexia	australia	the radiolarian ooze	2002	cd	ectopic ants	24	1
melvins + lustmord	u.s.a.	pigs of the roman empire	2004	cd	ipecac	54	2
mike keneally	u.s.a.	the universe will provide	2004	cd	favoured nations	72400	0
		guitar therapy (live)	2006	cd	exowax	2408	2
mike oldfield	uk	incantations	1978	cd-r	n/a	n/a	0
		amarok	1990	cd-r	n/a	n/a	8
mr. bungle	u.s.a.	disco volante	1995	cd	warner brothers	9362-45963	1
nick drake	u.k.	pink moon	1972	cd	island (vivendi)	42 923	1
pearl jam	u.s.a.	eight	2006	cd	j (sony)	71467	1
philip glass	u.s.a.	symphony no. 2	1994	cd	naxos	39202	1
		symphony no. 3	1995	cd	naxos	39202	1
pink floyd	u.k.	pipers at the gates of dawn	1967	cd	capitol	46384	0
		a saucerful of secrets	1968	cd	emi	29751	1
		more	1969	cd-r	n/a	n/a	2
		ummagumma	1969	2-cd	capitol / virgin	46404	1
		atom heart mother	1970	cd	emi	31246	0
		live at pompeii	1971	dvd-r	n/a	n/a	1
		pulse	1995	2-cd	columbia	67065	9
portishead	u.k.	pnyc	1998	cd-r	n/a	n/a	2
radiohead	u.k.	airbag / how am i driving?	1998	cd	capitol / emi	587801	2
		com lag	2004	cd-r	n/a	n/a	3
rob mazurek	u.s.a.	silver spines	2002	cd	delmark	30 540	1
scorn	u.s.a.	ellipsis	1995	cd	scorn	001	4
sergei rachmaninov	russia	opus 33	1911	cd	naxos	95447	3
		opus 39	1917	cd	naxos	95447	3
skinny puppy	canada	the greater wrong of the right	2004	cd	hell-o deathday records/synthetic symphony	36 372	3
sonic youth	u.s.a.	screaming fields of sonic love	1995	cd	geffen	4-809	2
		rather ripped	2006	cd	geffen (universal)	856373	4
steroid maximus	australia	ectopia	2002	cd	ipecac	28	1
syd barett	u.k.	barett	1970	cd	emi	46 606	1
talking heads	u.s.a	remain in light	1980	cd	sire	6095	1
the cure	u.k.	disintegration	1989	cd	elektra	60 855	1
the dillinger escape plan	u.s.a.	miss machine	2004	cd	relapse	816765872	2
the dresden dolls	u.s.a.	the dresden dolls	2004	cd	universal/8 ft.	1686182832	1
the electric light orchestra	u.k.	the electric light orchestra	1971	cd	epic	35524	1
the jimi hendrix experience	u.s.a.	live at winterland	1968	cd-r	n/a	n/a	2
the mars volta	u.s.a.	tremulant	2002	cd	gold standard labs	54	1
		de-loused in the comatorium	2003	cd	universal	86 029	3
		frances the mute	2005	cd	universal	10 397	0
the sea and cake	u.s.a	two gentleman	1997	cd	thrill jockey	048	3
(the) smashing pumpkins	u.s.a	rotten apples / judas empty set	2001	2-cd	virgin (emi)	11557	4
the trivial group	canada	interplanetary isomorphism	2004	cd	csis	008	2
the velvet underground	u.s.a.	andy warhol	1967	cd	verve (polygram)	23 290	1
the white stripes	u.s.a	de stijl	2002	cd	v2 (bmg)	27 132	4
throatmotor	canada	cryhole	2004	cd	n/a	n/a	5
thurston moore	u.s.a	psychic hearts	1995	cd	geffen-universal	24810	2
tool	u.s.a	10, 000 days	2006	cd	volcano (bmg)	81991	3
wellwater conspiracy	u.s.a	the scroll and it's combinations	2001	cd	tvt	13 370	1
yo la tengo	u.s.a	i can hear the heart beating as one	1997	cd	matador	222	2

there's not a lot of movement in this set of adds, really. the greater volume is due to the fact that things went roughly back to normal after early 2005, but i'm still not very interested in searching for new music - i'm picking up new-ish cds by bands i already like, and going over known discographies of older acts. the actual adds are more to do with older acts, and mostly guitar-centered music, so what i'm spending my time doing in this period is mostly exploring guitar music from the 70s-90s.

two counter-examples to take note of are mike keneally and the mars volta.

this is my change log for june 12, 2004, meaning this is what i picked up over the 2003-2004 year.

artist	title	year	format	label	#	opinion
a silver mt. zion	thee rusted satellites gather + sing	2003	cd	constellation	27	2
(the) angels of light	everything is good here / please come home	2003	cd	young god	022	2
(the) art of noise	who's afraid of the art of noise?	1984	cd	ztt (universal)	53194	2
	the ambient collection	1990	cd	china/polygram	43-403	2
bjork	vespertine	2001	cd	elektra (time-warner)	2653	2
brian eno	taking tiger mountain (by strategy)	1974	cd	eg (virgin)	017	1
coil	winter solstice: north	1998	lp	eskaton	016?	9
do make say think	winter hymn country hymn secret hymn	2003	cd	constellation	025	1
enya	s/t	1986	cs	atlantic (aol)	81 842	3
godspeed you(!) black emperor(!)	yanqui u.x.o.	2002	cd	constellation	024	2
i mother earth	earth, sky & everything in between	2001	cd	emi	5 32 326	2
inri	inricycled	2004	cd	csis	007	3
ludwig van beethoven	piano sonata no. 8: the pathetique (opus #13)	1799	cd	decca (universal)	43 155	1
	piano sonata no. 14: the moonlight sonata (opus #27)	1801	cd	decca (universal)	43 155	1
	piano sonata no. 21: waldstein (opus #53)	1804	cd	decca (universal)	43 155	1
rabit is wolf	rabit is wolf	2002	cd	csis	4	2
radiohead	hail to the thief	2003	cd	parlophone (emi)	5 84 544	2
shalabi effect	the trial of st. orange	2002	cd	alien8	32	2
sonic youth	sonic nurse	2004	cd	geffen (universal)	86 236	2
sublime	the best of (20th century masters)	2002	cd	mca (universal)	2-921	2
the trivial group	reflections	2003	cd	csis	005	2
the white stripes	elephant	2003	cd	v2 (bmg)	27 148	2
tortoise	it's all around you	2004	cd	thrill jockey	115	2
weezer	the blue album	1994	cd	geffen	4-629	1
wellwater conspiracy	tidepool telegraph	2000	cd	third gear	29	2

i think the adds are a little more contemporary, with a little bit of catch-up added in. it's pretty clear that my primary interest at the time was in post-rock, with everything else mostly being bleeding from the 90s. the coil ep was a present. the girl i lived with at the time was a big bjork fan.

that said, i didn't retreat from rock music on purpose. i just got bored with it, largely because there wasn't much interesting really happening. i've always had wide tastes; an interest in other forms would have never meant i couldn't also listen to some rock bands, if they were interesting. but, there weren't any around that were interesting. the one that kind of broke through it for me was the white stripes...

i was not very interested in the garage rock revival of the time; it struck me as a reduction of rock music to a novelty genre, void of anything remotely original or artistically driven. broadly speaking, rock music (per se) has been boring since the strokes - that is the moment the genre became a parody of itself, driven solely by fashion and greed and not interested in itself, any longer. when commercially viable rock music has been interesting since, it's been almost by accident.

jack white was different due to the simple fact that he was talented, unlike virtually every rock star around him, and virtually every rock star since then. i know there are broader ethnic and cultural issues at play, but what killed rock for me was that it just got boring. he's maybe the last legitimate rock star, in that respect.

here is my change log for may 13, 2003, meaning these are the records i picked up over the 2002-2003 school year.

Artist	Release	Year	Type	Label	Catalog #
aix em klemm	aix em klemm	2001	LP	kranky	44
Aphex Twin	...i care because you do	1995	LP	Sire/warp	61790
Belle and sebastien	dog on wheels	1997	EP	jeepster	1
David Bowie	heathen	2002	LP	columbia	86630
kronos quartet	pieces of africa	1991	EP	warner/nonesuch	79275
meat beat manifesto	actual sounds & voices	1998	LP	nothing/interscope	90279
pearl jam	riot act	2002	LP	Epic/Sony	86825
Peter Gabriel	birdy	1985	LP	geffen	24070
	up	2002	LP	real world	??
	rabbit proof fence	2002	LP	real world	??
Pink Floyd	obscured by clouds	1972	LP	EMI	35609
portishead	dummy	1994	LP	go!	28553
REM	document	1987	LP	IRs	22059
	reveal	2001	LP	IRs	47946
sarah brightman	eden	1998	LP	angel/emi	56769
system of a down	system of a down	1998	LP	american/sony	68924
the cure	the head on the door	1985	LP	elektra	60435
	wish	1992	LP	elektra	61309
	wild mood swings	1996	LP	elektra	61744
	bloodflowers	2000	LP	elektra	62236

as you can see, i wasn't very interested in the contemporary music of the time. i only picked up new records by bowie, gabriel, pearl jam & rem - all older acts. i was afraid of that rem disc; i actually liked up a lot, it's as good as the band's best, but reveal went in a sappy direction. i suspect wayne coyne loved it; it kind of mapped out the flaming lips' direction in the 00s. but, rem doesn't make sense to me without the tension. i no doubt picked up document when i realized i only had it on an ancient, dubbed cassette.

that was somewhat of an uncharacteristic period for me, though, in that i wasn't getting very much alone time, and i was spending lots of money on things i don't normally spend money on.

i was disappointed by the pearl jam disc, but definitely enjoyed the gabriel discs - especially long walk home. i must have picked up birdy at the same time. in addition to having grown up with both gabriel and gabriel-period genesis, i was a big fan of the passion soundtrack at the time.

that wasn't my first try at the cure, but it was the try that finally stuck. my dad actually had a copy of wish that his brother gave him; dad thought the cure were too weird for him, and i found them a tad bit opaque at that age. i remember listening to the tapes and and not being able to pull any shape out of them. my tastes had definitely built up in that direction by late 2002, so it made sense to try and again, and i was able to make sense of it then in ways i wasn't when i was younger. it was the '85 release i liked the best.

i believe that the floyd cd was a christmas present.

some of them were things i had picked up at friends' houses, notably the portishead and system of a down. the balance would have been random pawn shop pick ups...some lasted longer than others...