"Make Canada the freest country on earth"

That was Pierre Poilievre's promise if he became Prime Minister. And then he lost. And, as a consequence, we all did. This past election was the only time in my entire life that I voted 'for' a candidate, as opposed to 'against' the other one. Would Poilievre have been the greatest liberator ever? No, Javier Milei has raised the bar way too high. But Poilievre would have made a big difference. Enough to make our lives substantially better. Of course, it wouldn't have been him the one to raise our standard of living, but each and every Canadian in their own way, small or big, freed from government impositions, restrictions and regulations driven by political machinations at which the Liberals are absolute masters. But it's ok. We'll just have more of the same for the next four years. Maybe slightly better because Carney, as opposed to Trudeau, seems to know what he's doing. The Trump effect is still going to make it worse for us, but that can't be blamed on our Prime Minister regardless of who that is.

Poilievre's mistake was that he thought Freedom actually meant something to the Canadian citizen. It doesn't. What Canadians want is a better leader. A benevolent leader who knows how to steer the various segments of society so that they interact harmoniously, in a fair way, so that we all gain. They want a wise central planner who knows what 'fair' is, what the correct prices should be, how much we should borrow at the expense of our future generations, whether we should build roads, or housing or pipelines. The same He, We, Our - the terms in which any collectivist thinks. The idea of there being no leader sounds bizarre to most Canadians. Freedom is indeed a relatively new idea, and is poorly defined. As Yaron Brook says, did Braveheart really want freedom? No, he wanted a Scottish King instead of the English one. He would have laughed at a peasant's timid suggestion of no King. "You want anarchy??" Braveheart would have lashed out with a sneer.

It is even more incomprehensible when it comes to immigrants. Some have come here to escape oppressive regimes, others simply for a better life. Most for both. But none seems to grasp the obvious fact that the first causes the second. They believe life here is better than there only because the leaders here are most just, more fair, smarter, less corrupt, while Freedom remains an abstraction, with no practical meaning. Choosing Carney over Poilievre is their desire to get away with the contradiction, and live better with less freedom.

The reality is that the standard of living is directly proportional with the degree of individual freedom. To see that we just have to look around the world and throughout history. The evidence is there, before our eyes. But to look requires effort. No time for that now. Now we have tariffs to worry about. And then inflation. And then recession. And then health care, and then student loans, and environment, and immigration. And so on. We'll look when all these issues are behind us. Until then, we just need to find the wise leaders who will solve them.

PS. Maybe the Liberals will oppress (younger) Canadians slightly more, just enough so that retired Canadians get government-provided dental care. If not Freedom, at least free fillings.

Trump will fail, like all socialist movements have.

All socialist^ attempts have failed*, or are in the process of failing, whether it's Soviet Russia, Maoist China or Maduro's Venezuela. Argentina was heading in the same direction, but Milei is saving it.

From that, it could be implied that the  policies of the Trump administration, being anything but socialist, will soon prove to be a total and complete success.

No, it won't. Quite the opposite. And that's not because the tariff retaliation of other nations, China's influence on third world markets, Jewish Cabal, out of control AI, or greedy corporate magnates. But for the same cause which inherently dooms socialism to failure: Lack of Individual Freedom. And Trump's policies are even farther from Liberty than they are from socialism. The tariffs are only an infringement of economic liberties, the tip of the iceberg, being easy to see, follow, analize and ultimately gaze and marvel at the devastation in their wake. The real destruction, however, comes from the political realm, the administration's disrespect, disregard and downright violation of individual rights. That's what will lead to political uncertainty, then economic uncertainty, then lack of investments, massive unemployment, distrust in the currency, the development of the black market, the unstoppable corruption in the Central government, and all the horrific effects seen in socialist countries. It doesn't matter whether the violation comes from a malevolent dictator, a sadistic King, a well-meaning authoritarian or from an anti-woke, not fully developed fetus. The consequences are the same.

^"Socialist" means a massive concentration of the society's means of production in the hands of the State.

*"Failure", from an economic standpoint, means a much lower standard of living for its citizens as compared to other societies around the world.

The Great Reset is finally here

Democrats, liberals, ecologists, socialists, communists, wokes, all the leftists embodied by the Davos elite, were working together on plans to achieve their Great Reset. It would have taken them decades, but with a lot of hard work, a few annoying acts from Green Peace and tomato soup museum vandals, they would have gotten it.

Hitler was slightly more efficient. He got his Great Reset in a few years, but he had to murder hundreds of his communist opponents.

Donald Trump is achieving his own Great Reset in just a few months, with virtually no violence. A record of efficiency, that should have been expected. Technology and the internet have made spreading stupidity a virtually effortless endeavor.

The lessons of "Adolescence"

I've just finished watching "Adolescence". An excellent mini-series, one of the best I've ever seen. Writing, directing and acting are all above Oscar grade. This is exactly the type of movies "they don't make as they used to". I'm grateful they still do.

Warning! Spoilers below!

But this is not about the movie. It's about the British Prime Minister's decision to back an initiative by Netflix "to stream the drama series for free to secondary schools across the country, so that as many teens as possible can watch it." Why? Because this will “help students better understand the impact of misogyny, dangers of online radicalization and the importance of healthy relationships."

I couldn't help noticing that the movie itself criticizes the fact that schools show movies in class as means of teaching. Showing this movie in schools will have exactly the same impact: None! It will only make students more anxious and scared, and leave them even more confused. What today's adolescents need is guidance. And "Adolescence" does not provide it. Adolescents will not "understand" the impact of misogyny, they will only see it and feel it at a very basic emotional level. Many will probably refrain from practicing it, but only because of the perceived impact, not because they understand it's wrong. For that, they need to be provided with a proper, life affirming moral standard of good and bad, which only a proper, life affirming morality can do. Absent that, adolescents are left with a dogmatic "Thou shalt not misogynize", but clueless about "burglarize", "racisize" or "nationalize". Adolescents need to be taught a clear moral standard based on which to choose their values and then evaluate their own actions on their way towards achieving them. A long list of DON'T-s provides no guidance whatever. They need to be guided on what to DO.

The producers of the movie made it "to provoke a conversation." God, please no! Millions of more conversations are just going to add to the noise of the trillions of conversations currently taking place. In today's moral vacuum, conversations lead nowhere. "We hope it’ll lead to teachers talking to the students, but what we really hope is it’ll lead to students talking amongst themselves" Brrrr!!! Noo! We need teachers to first learn the objective moral standard. And then teach it, not discuss it.

Deportation and philosophy

"... the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose" and "demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile."

Robert Cerna, ICE Acting Field Office Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations

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In short, according to Cerna, the lack of information highlights and demonstrates.

Fundamentally false! The lack of something never does anything, let alone to demonstrate. A lack denotes inexistence. A non existent causes nothing. These are basic metaphysical facts, which should be evident to all. The American legal system recognizes this when it says that every individual is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. A "proof" is an existent required to be presented for a guilty verdict. This is why an objective philosophy is needed in all realms. It is the only obstacle against politicians' ability to get away with this kind of nonsense.

As nonsense as this is, it is not just meaningless words. It is the basis on which people are being arrested, deported and incarcerated with no due process. 

Any American citizen who rationalizes this as stuff that only happens to those illegals is a fool. These words easily can, and eventually wiill, be uttered in any context if it just so happens that the Trump administration doesn't like it. Everyone's implicit strategy, then, to avoid being randomly imprisoned without legal judgment is to not do what Trump dislikes. And this is the very definition of a totalitarian dictatorship. The rule of law has all but disintegrated.

We have arrived ☺️ 

Is Bitcoin money?

Short answer: No. But the long answer is really what matters.

What is money? According to Gemini AI, money is anything that functions in all of these four ways:

- Medium of exchange. Money is used to buy and sell goods and services. It's a portable intermediary that avoids the limitations of barter.

- Store of value. Money can be saved and used in the future to purchase something. It retains its purchasing powerful over time

- Unit of account. Money is a standard unit of measurement for the value of goods, services, and transactions. It's also a basis for quoting and bargaining prices.

- Standard of deferred payment. Money is used to set debts and defer payments.

Bitcoin is definitely not a store of value, since it is extremely volatile. It does perform the other three functions, but only in limited cases, and only on the false assumption that it actually IS a store of value. So, no, Bitcoin is not money.

So, then, why do people buy it? Because those people believe that it eventually will become money. And when it does, it will be the ultimate, universal, objective standard against which all other currencies will be evaluated. Therefore, Bitcoin is currently an investment in a product that has the potential to, and eventually would, become money. And not just money, but THE money, a synonym of it.

Is that belief justified? That's the wrong question to ask. Here is why. Compare it with the USD. Why is USD money? Just like Bitcoin, it has no intrinsic value, like gold has. Just like Bitcoin, it is liquid, you can exchange it for other currencies. And yet the USD does function as a store of value. That's why it makes sense to deposit it and keep it over a longer period of time for later use. You have to account for inflation, but you have a pretty good idea of how many USDs you would have to exchange for a loaf of bread in ten years. But why? What is the foundation for this "pretty good idea"? Well, there isn't. People believe the USD stores value simply because the Federal Government promises it. Nothing else. The USD is just another government scheme, a tool of control. Initially, USD had the same credibility as the bank-notes issued by private banks, since they were all backed by physical gold stored in their vaults. Then it was imposed by the US Government as the only legal tender. Then they set a fixed, artificial, value for it in terms of gold. Then they confiscated gold. And then they discarded the gold standard altogether. Now, the Federal Reserve can manipulate it in any way they want. It's not even subject to Congress approval. The USD is a store of value ONLY because people believe in it. This is why the question to ask is not "Is it justified to believe in Bitcoin?" but "Should we believe in Bitcoin more than in the USD?". And the answer to that is an emphatic YES!

First, the qualities of Bitcoin: It is de-centralized and not-inflatable. It cannot be manipulated. You would know with certainty that 1BTC saved (and invested) today is going to get you more loafs of bread in ten years than what you're getting now, since it costs much less to produce value than to produce BTC. Therefore BTC will be more than just a store of value, it would virtually be a maker of value. And second, the bleak future of the USD (and of all classic currencies everywhere). Wars are looming around the world. Ukraine and the Middle-East are only the ones currently occuring, but they are providing perfect distractions for China to invade Taiwan. Even North America is not safe, since Congress has recently deemed necessary to introduce the No Invading Allies Act bill to prevent Trump from actually invading Canada. All these wars, as well as the preparations for defense, will need to be funded. The EU has just decided to issue bonds worth almost $1T to increase their military spending. "The EU needs to regain competitiveness and economic growth" to pay for all this, they say. Yeah! Good luck! They'll be left with the only solution - to inflate. Good luck inflating Bitcoin!

If I were the PM of Canada

If we're to believe Donald Trump, (I don't know why we would...) the US will impose 25% tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum sometime at the beginning of March. Canadians, lead by politicians of all colors, are in full panic mode. Everybody seems to agree that something must be done and that the proper answer to these tariffs is to get back at the Americans by imposing on them tariffs of our own. Trudeau and Poilievre are in a race to show who's got the toughest stand and the biggest balls. Both of them, and virtually everyone else, are wrong. If I were the PM of Canada, I'd say this:

First, let's get one thing straight. "Trade war", "Economic domination", "Tarrif threat", "Retaliatory measures", etc. are misnomers. "Threat", "Domination", "Retaliation" and "War" do not apply to the field of economics. These are military terms employed by the media to get the public's attention. Tariffs are simply an economic policy. The Government of Canada will treat them as such.

To the American people I say this: Tariffs are bad. The tariffs planned by your President are very bad for your trading partners, whether it's Canada, China, Mexico or any other nation. No question about that. But they are also bad for you, for the American people. No question about that either. This is a fact acknowledged by virtually all economists, regardless of their political inclination. The presumed benefits of tariffs are limited in scale, ephemeral and insignificant when compared to the damage they inflict on your economy, and ultimately on each and every single one of you. Your President would like you to believe that they are a good thing, a giant leap towards making America great again. Not true. Let's take steel, for example. As soon as the steel tariff takes effect, the first thing American steel producers will do is to increase the price of their products. Since the products of their competitors have become overnight 25% more expensive, increasing their price by only 20% is the smart thing to do for the American producer. Nothing stops them from doing it. It is actually part of their fiduciary duty. This will temporarily benefit the American steel producer, its employees and its shareholders. But it will negatively impact its customers, those in constructions, car manufacturers, ship builders who will have to pay a higher price for the steel products. The extra cost will have to be paid with money that would otherwise go into new investments, new projects, new employees. Layoffs will likely become a daily occurence. If their economic sector allows, they could also raise the price of their own products - buildings, cars, ships. That is, YOUR apartment, car and boat. Including the apartments, cars and boats of steel workers. That will maybe make great again the America in your President's imagination, but not the real America in which you live. President Trump either truly believes tariffs are good, which proves his utter ignorance in economics, or he's lying to you. Not sure which one is worse.

To the American Congress and the American Courts of Law I say this: Please, I beg of you, make sure your President does not acquire enough power to single-handedly take military action, of any kind. No one takes seriously his ridiculous suggestion that Canada might become the 51st State. He's not, yet, likely to send Special Forces to stealthily take Ottawa. But it's not ridiculous to imagine him ordering the Coast Guard to delay Canadian ships on their way to Mexico. Or ordering armed ICE officers to more thoroughly investigate Canadian truck drivers. Again, I beg of you, do everything in your power to avoid this. Despite your President's sustained efforts to filter out rational individuals from all branches of your Government, I am sure there are still enough of you left to take significant, apropriate action. Please, I beg you, do so. 

To the American companies I say this: Your President's tariffs will be imposed on the grounds of an Economic Emergency that he, himself, has imagined and declared, followed by annulling, overnight, the Free Trade Agreement that he, himself, has signed, during his first mandate, with Canada and Mexico. Regardless of how irreproachable your reputation might be, the risk of doing business with you is now unmitigatable. I can only imagine how much more difficult your endeavours have become. If I were you, I'd start looking for a better place to conduct business.

And finally, to the Canadian people I say this: Tariffs are bad. Bad for all, including Canadians. The Canadian Government does not have the mandate to hurt the Canadian economy, regardless how good it might feel to stick it to them in return. Therefore it will not impose ANY tariffs on the United States. On the contrary, it will unilateraly remove all tariffs with all trading partners. Canada will, overnight, become a Free Trade Zone with the entire world. This action might seem to hurt some sectors of the Canadian economy. But the presumed damage will be limited in scale, ephemeral and insignificant when compared to the enormous beneficial effects it will have on the overall economy. Just take the steel example above and apply it in reverse.