Heroes, Villains, Propaganda, Lies, WAR and wasted lives - Peace begins in your own backyard.

When one watches the circus that has emerged out of Zelensky’s visit to the White House, it evokes absolute dismay. The fact that the vitriolic reality of US politics can grab hold of the narrative, exalting some and demonising others, leaves one wishing the facts could find their way to the table. Somebody once said that the first casualty of war is the truth, and this war is no exception. Perhaps the most disturbing fact is that for a small piece of real estate to access a submarine base, 1,000,000 young people could still be alive. But for the needless expansion of Western hegemony, those 1,000,000 young people would still be with us. The propensity to demonize Vladimir Putin or Donald Trump or to exalt Zelinsky is a complete distraction from understanding the issue and from what is a total waste of human life.

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What we've witnessed in the Ukraine is an extension of Western foreign policy after the fall of the wall. We had every opportunity to forge a meaningful relationship with Russia and to aggressively share our way of life, and instead, we met the challenge not with indifference but with tactics that have undermined Russia and pushed it away. Many academics are of the view that Vladimir Putin had a valid case, if ever there can be a valid case for war. The tactics in the years following the fall of the wall and the willingness to deploy nuclear weapons in Eastern Europe gave rise to Russia fearing for herself. The West’s desire and policy direction was one of dominance rather than one of building a peaceful world order. This attempt at dominance has now resulted in an unstable multi-polar reality and has put the world in a most precarious situation.

It is never wise to choose to abandon relations with a country or a human being. The choice by Western leadership to abandon relations with Vladimir Putin was unwise. The willingness to demonize him is also unwise. The West’s underestimation of his resolve is unwise. All these acts of alienation, rather than the pursuit of friendship, have pushed Russia precariously close to China. This in of itself is a disquieting reality.

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Given all the bloodshed, one wonders where the solution lies. It is certain, however, that the solution will never be found in screaming masses choosing to make a hero of one person and to demonize another absent a fair review of the facts. It does an extreme disservice to the young people lost and the young people now at risk to become the subject of or to be inspired by propaganda. It does the same disservice to fail to recognize the valid claims of both sides.

When one examines this issue, with 1,000,000 lost young lives as a backdrop, one realizes the folly in seeking dominance rather than developing a world order founded on the rule of law. With Russia, we moved from overt containment to tacit containment to overt containment. There are very few who will take being dominated absent resentment. In time, that resentment manifests itself in the form of violent rebuke. This is an age-old cycle.

In reviewing President Reagan's Address at Pointe du Hoc, Normandy, France, June 6, 1984, he addressed the issue of the day: peace with Russia. His outstretched hand was taken by Mikhail Gorbachev, and a peace was negotiated. The world was a hopeful place. If anyone in the government, particularly the US government, has a few minutes, they should watch his address at Point du Hoc and take inspiration from it. 

Tariffs Tariffs Tariffs - What to do now.

 

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For as long as I can remember Canada has lived under the wing of the US. We’ve lived under the wing of their military and failed to develop our own. We’ve lived under the wing of their economy rather than diversify our own. To further exacerbate our present circumstance, we’ve permitted anti-"Americanism” to be a large part of our cultural mosaic. Then again, we have people who can do nothing more than denigrate Donald Trump. Our apathy and lack of preparedness, our smug righteousness with respect to our “progressiveness” have merged with our contempt to create the capacity for the US to bring us to heal and the willingness by many of our neighbours to the south to bring us to heal. Nobody wants to hear we’ve permitted this to happen, but we have.

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Where is the Energy East Pipeline, the Prince Rubert LNG facility and the respective infrastructure, where’s the Churchill Pipeline. The fact they fail to exist brings into sharp resolution the folly that has been carbon policy. While we've let inter-provincial squabbles and hyper-obstructive environmental regulation rob us of the opportunity to access the greatest energy market opportunity in history, our neighbours to the South have built the pipelines, have built the LNG plants and are now the largest exporter to Europe.  This folly has been offered up under the premise that if we set a good example the world will follow. A ridiculous notion that has been demonstrated errant by history itself.

Canada has a veritable treasure trove of human capital and massive inventories of raw resources. The challenge is our smart young people and capital are kept from merging to close the applied science gap. Further, we have allowed massive stagnation in our economy, that is to say, institutional inertia in government, and the lack of dynamism in our private economy, have resulted in low productivity.  These two challenges have been crystal clear for 50 years in varying degrees and several successive governments,  provincial and federal, have failed to tackle the issue. This is yet another aggravating factor in our present circumstances.

Whereas the growing demand for fossil fuels in the world will be met by Canada or someone else, Canada should ensure it is every bit as much a beneficiary as the USA or Russia or any of the other top energy producers in the world. Further and perhaps more importantly, if Canada fails to meet this demand producers of ill repute will meet the demand and they do so with no consideration for human rights nor environmental concerns. On this basis, I would suggest that under the banner of a national emergency, the two LNG plants are built on each coast and that the requisite infrastructure to support those plants is put into place. This should be a major initiative in the order of magnitude of our magnificent contribution to both world wars. The only way through this is to be bold decisive and forceful. We simply have to resist the temptation to succumb to the obstructionist elements in our country whose actions have clearly resulted in the loss of literally trillions of dollars of opportunities with no resulting benefit to the environment or any other social concern. This initiative is what will pay for all the other things we need to do to make our economy and country dynamic and independent.

While, our legacy industries, car manufacturing, energy, and the right resource sector, will always be critical elements of our economy, effectively our bread and butter. The dynamism that we need we need to flow from the grassroots of our economy. We need to get capital in the hands of our smart young people so they can innovate. We need to affect the circumstance where creative destruction is embraced rather than thwarted by captured regulatory realities. We need to streamline the flow of capital and due to the stagnation in the capitalization of entrepreneurship, there's a role for government to facilitate the capitalization of enterprise. There are a number of policy solutions Like the creative use of government deployment and augmentation of debentures and bonds. Large established industries can take care of themselves, our solution to the applied science gap and the productivity gap is a concerted effort in the distribution of capital to entrepreneurs.

Whereas every effort must be made to effect our independence and resiliency as a nation the United States has been our main source of prosperity effectively since our inception and whereas the present tariff circumstance is anomalous, and is the product of several domestic concerns on the part of the Trump administration we should seek to be as agreeable partners as we can and to limit negative dialogue. One recognizes that these ploys seem in such stark contrast to years passed that it would be easy to fall into a destructive bent. In light of this reality, we should immediately increase military spending to 5% or as much as necessary and focus our efforts on a domestic Defence Force with the goal of reaching a million-person military as quickly as possible. This would demonstrate our commitment to continental security, an issue mentioned repeatedly by President Trump.  

For too long now we have meandered along, we have failed to be prepared, we've allowed a deplorable degree of waste in governance, we've permitted a circumstance where government is effectively absent of any accountability. Our present circumstance, where by the US is effectively challenging our sovereignty, these realities have put us in a precarious position - so we have to stop doing it. Whether a bargaining position or a real play for our sovereignty, what this circumstance shows us is a vulnerability. What we have to do is to show a clear direction and not waver from that direction. I offer this with the following startling backdrop, that backdrop is, that 40% of our young people would vote to join the US if a few minor conditions were met. Perhaps the 1st order of business is to show these young people how lucky they have it. Perhaps all politicians have to stand in front the parliament building and read our Charter of Rights and Freedoms out loud, so the young people hear it rather than hearing a constant flow of scathing personal attacks.

Internet Safety and Accountability - We need to stop the carnage of lies and adulterated children.

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The goal of internet safety should be to, firstly, protect people from harm, and secondly, and as importantly, avoid encroachment on free speech. Any adjudication in this regard must occur under the auspices of fundamental law and should never fall out of the full transparency of an open court.

What is happening now is a frustrating calamity of futile attempts by large actors in the business to offer protection. It is clearly failing on all fronts. The censorship I’ve encountered on various platforms has been arbitrary, often executed anonymously or ambiguously and in error or in a manner that prevents the free flow of ideas. Most disturbing, a picture of Micky Mouse when clicked upon can lead a child to grotesquely violent and graphic sexual material – an event that once it occurs, adulterates that child for life. While adults have the right to view adult material, there is a clear imperative to protect the innocence of children.

Whereas the present regulation and operation of the internet is permitting the transmission of information that harms the nation's narrative, exposes children to damaging materials, facilitates the anonymous abuse of people, allows foreign actors to effect discord and whereas anonymity is the facilitating factor in isolating perpetrators of harm from coming under the weight of the law, measures must be taken to have people’s actions tied to their identity. To this end, the government should enact legislation that makes it a statutory requirement that every person using social media in Canada be provisioned with an Internet Identity Number and that every platform operating in Canada is required to provide for the use of an Internet Identity Number for an account to function.

In the way that effectively every Canadian has a Social Insurance Number, every Canadian should have an Internet Identity Number. This proposition would also have as a requirement that anyone using any platform in Canada on the internet would require a number as well – so this would include foreign actors. The process would be to apply via the Internet and provide proof of identity and how a given actor could be located with contact information. This would be achieved in the same way one proves their identity through services like Stripe and other online payment and collection systems. The number and the identity data would be held in a Government of Canada database.

The only requirement of the service providers would be one more mandatory field on the account creation form. If a person has multiple Facebook accounts, for example, they would simply put that number on each account. This offers no operational impediment relative to what happens now. Further, and perhaps most importantly, there would be a date of birth attached to the number, so if Porn Hub allows a minor to access their materials, there is a readily clear means to prove wrongdoing.

If an account operator engages in slanderous behaviour or is peddling profane materials, for example, and a complaint or action is required, there is a trail to the culprit. To garner access to the identity of the account holder, one would make an application for an access order via a lower-level court and on the strength of that court order, the government would release the contact information so action can be taken.

It may be the case that as Canada’s database grows to include a large swath of the world’s population, and then other countries would join the effort. It may evolve in much the same way registering an internet site has. We can demand appropriate regulation in Canada - we may end up effecting appropriate regulation the world over. 

Why are so many bent on a reformation of Western society? Nihilism and apathy are the enemy.

 

We are often counselled to “be positive”, I try, BUT, when one sees stupid it is incumbent upon one to speak up. I quake while observing the anti-west nihilistic, presentism, cancel culture folks tearing down the very society that has provided them with the best standard of living in human history. The past 75 years have seen the largest increase in human living standards in history, in the West and the entire globe. It reminds me of a limerick imparted to me by a mentor when I was about 8 years old – Jean Jean built a machine, Joe Joe made it go, Art Art blew a fart and the whole damn thing came apart. It seems there has been a willingness to apathetically let Art flatulate while Western civilization burns – an epic blue bomb, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, a foul mushroom is forming over Mother Earth. The reformation that is being imposed on Western civilization is taking us away from prosperity and freedom, to, potentially at least, reduced living standards and tyranny.

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This is in no way to say the 75 years have been perfect. This is no way to say that we are absent from environmental challenges. This is in no way to say that all people have benefited proportionately. This is in no way to say we’ve gotten closer to world peace. This is to say that the combination of a free market, democracy and a vibrant civil society has created the best society overall. All the challenges we are facing, in the main, stem from government capture -  corporatism and special interests on steroids have moved governance away from the greater good. It would be a disaster to allow the Western economic model to disintegrate only to be replaced with authoritarianism and centralized government – something we’ve seen too much of late. What is required is tweaking rather than total reformation of the system.

Ranger tells me he’s about five years out on the world peace thing, so I’m turning my attention to showing people the magic of the market when left unfettered by regulations unrelated to human health, regulations that posit societal well-being ostensibly while having as their motivation supply management.  The unfettered pursuit by the individual, while exercising themself as an autonomous agent, in pursuit of their best life, is the dream of a true liberal – hard to find a true liberal anymore.

Controllers, those who want to centralize power, degrade societal functioning to generate a state of dependence among the citizens. Emancipators support people to a place of self-reliance.  The Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the Bill of Rights are the foundational documents that should be serving the model of the emancipators. Sadly, these documents are being ignored in many instances or undermined in other ways. There are many ways we can effect transcendence through economic policy and ways to support people to self-reliance. The challenge is that the people who need to be supported to independence have no effective lobby, save the one that seeks to give them subsistence at the expense of the opportunity to be a viable actor in society.

What does have an effective lobby are the various industrial complexes, military, medical, educational, media, technology etc.., their capacity to effectively control government is stifling the rise of the economically challenged and the middle class, it is in fact, degrading living standards. It is also stifling creative destruction, disruption and other elements that give vitality to the economy. Worse perhaps is the damage to the environment – think planned obsolescence, that has a refrigerator last five years instead of 30 like they used to - in the main a product of collusion between manufacturing groups. The market is the solution to the distribution of goods and services, the solution to preserving the market and its democratizing effect is smart regulation rather than regulation that is effectively supply management. We want vitality in the economy, to achieve it, we need easy entry to the market, broader access to capital, the reduction of barriers to entry, a cultural shift starting with the education system to elevate the entrepreneurial spirit and a rebirth of the can-do spirit.

Technology – Promise and Peril

There are other challenges facing us in the future, the biggest I think is the new technologies. The new technologies are having the effect of highly concentrating participation in the market and the workplace generally. By way of example, Elon Musk, predicts that in the next 25 years, the majority of the menial tasks in society and many of the more sophisticated will be performed by robots leaving a girth of human capital with very little to do. This, in combination with other technologies like AI, is requiring us, perhaps, to somehow change the paradigm of society and the paradigm of our existence. It may be the case that we reconceive how we receive income. Elon Musk posits that technology will provide goods so effectively that more than a mere minimum income people will simply ask for what they want. If this transpires, it leaves humanity purely in the intellectual space and their physicality being directed toward recreation.

The side effect of these technological eventualities is the concentration of power and influence. Further, there is a large movement in the technological space to get out of the grips of government to in fact become governments themselves in some cases. As these various technological streams converge the power of very few concentrates and the power of the citizen diminishes. There can be benevolence in those with concentrated power and concentrated power can be nimble and very effective. Unfortunately, benevolence is never guaranteed and at times the benevolent descend into malevolence.

Technology has been transformative in my life, I'm writing this letter by talking into a microphone on my computer rather than typing, I have the entire world's knowledge at my fingertips through AI, I can know anything anytime anywhere. So, I'm optimistic that technology has the capacity to better our lives but that is strongly tempered by the dark that lives in the hearts of some people. The Enlightenment was a movement of freedom and emancipation, it spawned The United States and the unprecedented growth in democracy lifting the yoke of tyranny off of millions of people. The spirit of emancipation that was exhibited by Abraham Lincoln is hardly being paid attention to, in some quarters it's mocked. A disrespect for the tenants of emancipation and freedom, in tandem with the confluence of these very powerful technologies has embedded in it the potential for the kind of tyranny never witnessed in human history.

This type of tyranny has already begun to rise its ugly head, there are countries, and they are numerous, who aspired to control every element of every citizen's life. They do this now in some countries with AI-driven surveillance and complete control of the citizenry's use of money through the mandatory use of electronic funds. When you do something, the state doesn't like, they shut off your money it's that simple that's tyranny of a kind we've never seen before. When you combine this absolute control of the citizenry, with a utilitarian non spiritually grounded governance, where the sanctity of life is diminished or perhaps forgotten altogether a rather terrifying prospect looms on the horizon.

I want my grandchildren to enjoy what my father and his contemporaries fought so long and hard for and gave so much for, and resulting in the post-war period being the most prosperous and free in human history. Thomas Jefferson and John Philpot Curran, both believed that "The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance, which condition if he breaks, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt." I share their view, so I spend many sleepless nights working on the problem of these powerful technologies being turned into the tools of tyranny.

There are few things that I'm sure of, but one thing I am sure of is, if you disempower individuals and you consolidate power, tyranny is always around the corner. So, job one to protect ourselves against the eventuality of tyranny is to work in every way possible to maintain and enhance the power of the individual and to retard the merger of the state and industrial complexes. The merger of state and industrial complexes in combination with the consolidation of power inherent in these modern technologies is a threat to us all and it must be challenged. It serves to remember that the collapse of a governance system is a series of cascading failures, and it happens quickly, you go to bed, you drift off to sleep, and the rattle of hobnail boots wakes you, that's how fast it can happen. So look lively.