I hitch-hiked thousands of kilometers in my younger years, Barrie was the only place the cops picked me up and drove me out of town limits. It was the only time I’ve ever been in the back of a police cruiser, too.

“Another futile attempt to breach the legal naval blockade and enter a combat zone ended in nothing,” the Foreign Ministry wrote on X.

That’s some Lex Luthor sounding shit right there.

…when you’re in an echo chamber all the weird misinformation and emotion-driven politics are coming from inside the house.

I love this and I’m stealing it.

I used to get a lot more freelance writing and design gigs before AI. It was great under the table money because, at times, I recieve partial support for my disability, and they deduct from my monthly funds if I make money. It’s not enough to live on to begin with, so I relied on side gigs for any savings at all.

Now? I get none. Former clients have outright told me it’s just cheaper to use AI or Canva or whatever. I have friends with similar stories, so I wonder just how much of the unseen labor market was affected by this.

I don’t blame AI. It’s a neat technology and there’s nothing inherently wrong with. I blame capitalism for stealing from artists, building unsustainably, and for creating a world where people have to worry about lost funds from designing bullshit web graphics and business cards instead of having the time, money and bandwidth to follow our passions.

The courts were understaffed at the beginning of covid. Not enough money and not enough people. On top of that, a stressed population at the start of a pandemic.

The prisons couldn’t properly space people out and the cops, eager to justify their budget, they just kept arresting and ticketing people for minor offenses. They were asked to slow down and focus on major and violent crimes because the crown’s office saw this coming since way before covid.

So, prosecutors had to go through thousands of charges in order to decide what to keep and what to drop. More tax money and labour and hours they didn’t have to spare. Of course they’d miss things.

And this article points to a staff shortage and a filing system. It was too many emotionally challenged cops, a lack of social supports, and people who feel safer with more police, but not more lawyers to actually lay charges and prosecute offenders.