American civilization has been turned upside down, and we have a rendezvous soon with the once unthinkable and unimaginable. – Victor Davis Hanson
Just Taking Orders
X Video: Toronto police are delivering coffee and food to protestors blocking the road for Palestine
The Part I Like Best
About drug decriminalization is how it helps addicts turn their lives around.
Bursting Bubbles
I remember being told back in the 80s that the West needed to emulate the Japanese model which had allegedly conquered the business cycle with by meshing private businesses with a careful dose of central planning. Fueled by easy credit, the marriage of private and public interests turned out to be a sham and to this day the only solution offered is even more easy credit.
“I was still a student in the 90s. Life was great. I went out drinking almost every day wasting money on women, gambling, and putting anything I had left into all kinds of investments. Everything was going up and it felt like every Yen I spent was going to double next year. Our brains had been so thoroughly poisoned by the bubble of the past few years that we were all insanely optimistic. Most of us didn’t even consider that the prosperity could ever come to an end.”
How the Woke Infiltrate
“Just say no”. An extremely good thread by James Lindsay;
Woke Marxists use a suite of techniques that are called “entryism” (the art of entering) to infiltrate institutions and take them over from within.
There are five basic stages in this model of infiltration:
1) Demand access.
2) Demand accommodation.
3) Demand a seat at the table (demand power).
4) Demand to run the table (demand controlling power).
5) Demand to run the room (demand total power).
It’s not just woke takeovers — the same dynamic is used to take over organizations by all kinds of actors.
The audio version is here.
“Charity”
Toronto Star- Heads of 17 Canadian environmental charities collecting major compensation packages
An analysis by The Canadian Press identified 17 charities whose top executive drew annual compensation that was in the $200,000 to $250,000 range or higher, according to filings with the federal government made in 2022 and 2023.
The review focused on organizations recognized by the Canada Revenue Agency as registered charities in the categories of “environment” and “animal protection,” which include several conservation organizations. The group of 17 with the highest salaries represents just over one per cent of all charities in those two categories.
But wait there’s more
The charity with the highest-paid executives was Ducks Unlimited Canada, based in Manitoba. Its 2023 declaration indicates that two people earned more than $350,000, three others received between $250,000 and $300,000, and four received compensation between $200,000 and $250,000. The organization has 565 full- and part-time employees. Governments contributed just over $27 million to Ducks Unlimited for its year ending March 31, 2023, and a quarter of its $140 million in revenue came from donations.
Y2Kyoto: Schadenfrozen
Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
From a thread by Bjorn Lomberg:Super-expensive but ineffective climate policies mean De-industrialization with small climate benefit […] On current trends, Germany will reach 0% fossil fuels in the year 2473, nearly half a millennium from now
In related No Business Case geopolitical developments: China regains title as world’s biggest LNG importer. And that demand growth isn’t expected to slowdown anytime soon
A Mystery For Our Times
Guardian columnist mystified by men not wearing skirts.
Ponzi Finance
It’s by no means unexpected, but 2024 is going to bring some tax hikes for Canadians when it comes to funding their retirement. Or, more accurately, funding the retirement of people a lot younger than you. But that’s what socialized pensions are all about. You pay more, and “others” get the proceeds.
Anyone who has paid into CPP since 2019 will receive higher benefits, but the full effects will take decades to materialize, so the youngest workers stand to gain the most. People retiring 40 years from now will see their income go up by more than 50 per cent compared to the current pension beneficiaries.
An America With No Borders
If the amorality of illegal immigration were not so deleterious to Americans, its absurdity would be laughable. – Victor Davis Hanson
And How Was Your Year?
Full report at Unusual Whales;
This year, Democrats absolutely dominated their Republican counterparts.
Dems were up 31%, and Republicans 18%.
Meanwhile, the S&P500 itself was up 24%.
And The Budget Will Balance Itself
Welcome to January 2nd, 2024, folks. As you shake off the festive spirit and step into the new year, brace yourselves. We’re dissecting the 2024 New Year’s Tax Changes report by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, and it’s a doozy. The federal government, in its relentless quest for revenue, has already set the stage to make you a little poorer this year. As the New Year’s confetti is swept away and resolutions begin to take shape, Canadians are facing a stark, harsh reality. Your hard-earned dollars are about to be stretched even thinner, victim to a barrage of tax increases that are as inevitable as they are infuriating. […]
The table is set, and the numbers are stark. Whether you’re earning $30,000 or $200,000, the increases are universal, relentless, and indifferent to your personal economic circumstances. The Canada Pension Plan and Employment Insurance taxes alone are set to take a bigger bite out of your paycheck. The touted second CPP tax, or “CPP2,” isn’t just an additional burden; it’s an emblem of a government that sees no problem in reaching deeper into the pockets of its citizens.
And let’s talk about that carbon tax. It’s not just rising; it’s skyrocketing from $65 per tonne to $80 per tonne. This isn’t just an abstract figure. It translates to more than 17 cents per litre of gas, a direct hit to anyone who drives a car, heats their home, or, frankly, buys anything transported by truck, train, or plane. Trudeau’s government has the audacity to claim that families will somehow be “better off” with this carbon tax and its so-called rebate scheme. But let’s call it what it is: a blatant falsehood.
Update: Cabinet’s billion-dollar carbon tax cut on home heating oil followed months of warnings from in-house pollsters, records show. Homeowners opposed the tax as costly and divisive in Atlantic Canada where 24 Liberal MPs are up for re-election: “Almost all believed the carbon pricing system was too complicated and did not expect this initiative would be effective in reducing emissions.”
Ban All The Things!
Biden Admin Targets Fridges, Freezers In Latest Slew of Appliance Crackdown
Monetary Bonfire
Ever since interest rates spiked up over the last year, every central bank is now paying out more in interest to depositors than it earns on its bond portfolio. For the U.S. Federal Reserve, those losses are now over $130 billion. In an attempt to get around the elephant in the room, the Fed has created a “deferred asset” which is a promise to pay back all those losses once interest rates fall and they can once again earn more that they pay out. Accounting gimmicks are such a sweet deal when you hold all the cards. Here’s a link to the chart at the St. Louis Fed.
This isn't a meme stock, some third world country's currency, or the balance sheet of a failed regional bank – it's the losses at the Fed, and it just exceeded $130 billion: pic.twitter.com/X2BIeJOUyH
— E.J. Antoni, Ph.D. (@RealEJAntoni) December 28, 2023
Where’s Canada?
O, Sweet Saint Of San Andreas
A hostile crowd formed around officers who chased down an armed robbery suspect on the edge of the Union Square neighborhood, San Francisco police said Friday.
The confrontation occurred about 11 p.m. Dec. 21 in the 200 block of Ellis Street at Mason Street.
Police said a man wearing a balaclava jumped over a counter, brandished a firearm and ran off with cash.
Officers saw a person who matched the suspect’s description running from the scene and arrested a man with a loaded firearm after a brief struggle.
During the arrest, an antagonistic crowd formed around the officers and suspect, police said. Officers were able to transport the man to a secure location for their own safety and the safety of the suspect.
More Of The Same
Meet the new central planner, same as the old central planner. If even Danielle Smith cannot challenge the ludicrous premise behind single payer health care, then “reform” just means shuffling the waiting lists around.
Smith’s United Conservative Party government is expected in the spring sitting to begin passing laws to make good on her plan to dismantle Alberta Health Services, the centralized body that oversees health delivery on everything from acute care to community care.
AHS is to be replaced by four agencies, while being reduced to the role of service provider in acute care.
Send Us Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses
Yearning to breathe their last.
The Decline And Fall Of The American Empire
No Jobs For You!
Defenders of minimum wage hikes usually claim that businesses will either effortlessly pass on the increased costs or accept a lower profit margin. There’s another way to get around such mandates, however: eliminate positions entirely.
Pizza Hut is laying off more than 1,200 delivery drivers in California.
The layoffs, which will take place through the end of February, come as California’s minimum wage is about to go up by $4. Fast-food workers in the state are set to get a pay bump of close to 30% in April as the minimum wages rises from $16 to $20 an hour.