A BRIC Wall

So it appears that not every country is siding with Ukraine in its ongoing conflict with Russia. China and India abstained from voting on sanctions in the UN security council, and Brazil has just announced neutrality.

The informal alliance of Brazil, Russia, India and China, or BRIC for short, has stood its first major test. These regional powers are seeking to upstage the US unipolar world order, and much rides on how things pan out for Russia. If the West ends up folding in Ukraine, we may soon see a very different world order than what we've had since the fall of the Soviet Union.

The idea is not to have a single dominant power, but to have several powers, dominating their respective regions of influence. Brazil will dominate South America, Russia will dominate Central Asia, India will dominate South Asia, and China will dominate East Asia. Europe will revert to its multipolar past, and the US will be confined to North America.

Africa will be dominated by Egypt in the north and South Africa to the south, and many nations will fall into old constellations from colonial times. Australia and New Zealand will continue their alignments with Europe and the US.

None of this is hammered out in details. The point hasn't been to produce a comprehensive solution but to divide the world broadly between different powers, and not allow the US to dictate things beyond what can be considered its legitimate sphere of influence.

A probable consequence of such a new world order is a reemergence of old colonial ties, as well as old historic alliances. In the case of Portugal, it seems likely that it will develop closer ties with its old colonies, but this time as a nation among equals. Brazil will not only dominate South America, it will have ties to Angola, Mozambique and Portugal.

Portugal may become less focused on Europe, and more focused towards its southern brothers. It may also find it useful to firm up its 700 year old alliance with England, as a counterweight to Spain. There's also a 500 year old connection between Japan and Portugal that may re-emerge due to Japan's uneasy relationship with China. Japan may well want to be firm up its trading relations with the US and Europe as a counterweight to China's regional dominance.

The new multipolar world will not be free of conflicts, but it will be a more dynamic place than what we have today. There won't be a single power dominating the world, and there won't be a single currency dominating it either. The situation will be fluid. Currencies will come and go, and everyone will once again realize that the only reliable measure of wealth will be gold. There will be an informal gold standard among nations. When trust in a currency is lost, it will be dumped, and gold will be demanded in return.

The first example of this may already be unfolding. Gold is becoming increasingly hard to find. My local vendor is not as well stocked as it used to be. There appears to be a drain on the supply due to more than just a few gold bugs. If entire nations are scavenging for gold, it goes without saying that supply will be stretched, not only in the big exchanges in London and New York, but also for regional banks and other retailer sellers.

Volcanic explosion

Going to War Against Russia

There's a few things people need to keep in mind when considering whether or not to enlist for a war, and now is probably a good time to think about this, before everybody gets so caught up in irrational thinking that they can no longer think straight.

First thing to remember is that wars are fought between states. The default position for anarchists should therefore be to avoid it as much as possible. We're at perpetual war with the state anyway, and it doesn't make much difference to us who's in charge of the local state apparatus unless the enemy is vastly more oppressive than what we already have. In fact, a foreign power may make things easier for us due to the inefficiencies that emerge from its efforts to manage things remotely.

Things to consider in this respect, include taxation rates, cultural differences and history. Russia has a flat income tax at 13%, its an orthodox Christian nation, and it has shown itself to be benign when in contact with the West.

Finland was better treated under Russian rule than under Swedish rule. The Swedes insisted on Swedish language and culture being taught in schools. The Russians, on the other hand, allowed for free expression of Finnish culture.

Russian troops pulled out of Austria, western Germany, and Norway after the second world war. They kept their promises, so there's no reason to believe that Russia will break any promises or behave badly after winning a war. They are not cultural imperialists, and life under Russian rule is not necessarily any worse than under local rule.

Another thing to keep in mind is the enemy's motives. What is the goal of the expansion? Is it to gain control of resources and land, or is it to gain control of one's own borders? In the case of Russia and Ukraine, we're most likely looking at the enforcement of a doctrine. The Russians want to keep NATO our of Ukraine. Beyond that, they have no special goals. They aren't going to steal anything, or force the Ukrainians to become Russians.

Enlisting to fight the Russians is therefore a highly risky venture that only makes sense to whom a NATO membership and the current Ukrainian government are of great personal importance. My guess is that most Ukrainians are neither particularly fond of NATO nor their own government, so we're not likely to see a rush of young Ukrainians enlisting for a deadly fight. They are better off keeping their heads down while the fighting lasts and then return to their old ways once the dust settles.

As far as practical everyday life is concerned, it makes little difference to the average Ukrainian whether their government is run by NATO friendly stooges or Russia friendly vassals. The differences between the two options are certainly not worth risking one's life over, so I'd be surprised to see a great number of highly motivated Ukrainians taking up weapons against the Russians.

Snipers

By davric - collection personnelle, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

A New Trading Range for Gold

The gold price made some wild moves this week. It was first up 5% on the news that Russia had invaded Ukraine, but fell after this was confirmed, and ended the week lower. Those who bought in panic got their hands burned once again. However, there's good news in this for the patient investor.

The gold price has broken out of the wedge, and is now trading well above it.

Monthly gold chart

What was upward resistance over the past 18 months is now support, making it unlikely that we'll see the price of gold drop below $1800. The handle of the decade old cup formation is being completed.

Going forward, we can expect upwards resistance in the $2000 region, and support in the $1800 region. This may last several months, but the handle will eventually be completed. Once the price of gold goes above $2100, it's likely to go to $3000 within a year or two. That makes now a good time for the patient investor to accumulate more gold.

Rococo Cup with handle

By Vincennes Porcelain (France, circa 1739–1756), Francois Binet (France, active 1750-1775, born 1731) - Image: http://collections.lacma.org/sites/default/files/remote_images/piction/ma-31852871-O3.jpg Gallery: http://collections.lacma.org/node/229367 archive copy, Public Domain, Link

Military Doctrines

Putin mentioned Finland and Sweden the other day, and people are shocked to learn that he's opposed to those two countries joining NATO. It's as if this was completely new to them. But this is how things have been ever since the end of the second world war. It's a fifty year old doctrine. Putin didn't say anything new. He merely reiterated what has been known for decades.

The reason this came up was that Ukraine was also supposed to be a neutral country. As were the Baltic states. But now that the Baltic states have long since joined NATO, and Ukraine is petitioning for membership, Putin's patience has been pushed to his limit. NATO cannot continue its eastwards expansion unopposed, and the situation we currently have is what we got.

Some may say that it's none of Putin's business who may or may not join NATO, but this would ignore the fact that the US has had a similar doctrine in place for itself for more than a century. No forces hostile to the US are allowed on American ground.

These rules that powerful nations impose on their neighbors are known as military doctrines, and they define the geopolitical landscape, allowing for relative peace.

Such doctrines are not to be messed with. This is easy to understand by simply imagining Canada's prime minister petitioning China for membership in an anti-US alliance. Imagine China wholeheartedly supporting such a foolish proposal, talking tough and sending weapons to anti-US rebels. There would be US troops in Ottawa, and the US president would demand to talk to the idiot in charge. The talk could be held in London, a city friendly to the US but technically independent.

This is exactly what has happened with Ukraine. There are Russian troops in Kiev, and Putin demands to talk to the idiot in charge. Putin has proposed Minsk as a suitable place for the talk because it's both pro-Russian and technically independent of Russia.

Chronological map of NATO

By Arz - based on Image:Map of NATO countries.png, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

Everyone is Suddenly an Expert on Ukraine

After months of posturing by Jens Stoltenberg and other NATO clowns, Putin made the decision to invade Ukraine the other day, and the response by the West has been revealing. NATO is divided. The EU indecisive, and the US is nowhere to be seen. The conflict is likely over before any of the tough talking goons are able to muster a response. My premonition from ten weeks ago has so far played out as envisioned. While everyone was busy talking in the West, the Russians made their preparations, and they are now just about to wrap things up as far as Ukraine is concerned.

My guess is that the Ukraine government will fold. There will be a meeting where Putin dictates a new doctrine, after which things will return to normal. Putin will insist on a Russia friendly solution where Ukraine remains a neutral buffer state. Ukraine will officially cede control of Crimea to Russia. They may also give up a few other eastern territories. But the rest of Ukraine will remain independent in much the same way that Finland remained independent from Russia after the second world war.

Had Ukraine avoided a conflict with Russia from the start, and accepted a Finland solution as proposed by Putin many years ago, all of this could have been avoided. What has happened is the result of inept diplomacy. However, I'm not an expert on this, and my opinion is not that of the majority. My Facebook wall is full of insights from people who up to recently were experts on the virus. Pretty much everyone seems to agree with the mainstream narrative. Putin is an evil expansionist dictator, and the analysis ends at that. There's no historical context or any attempts to see the situation from a different angle.

Meanwhile, western leaders keep making things difficult for themselves. They are into green policies that make us dependent on Russian gas. Production is outsourced to China, making trade sanctions pretty much impossible. It is Russia that's running a surplus on trade with the West. It's not the other way around. The only thing we got is a bloated financial market which Russia have largely avoided. Putin swapped Russia's Western papers for gold back in June 2021.

The West is being exposed as a paper tiger. We have nothing but paper assets and woke policies, and there isn't much of anything we can do since we have nothing the Russian's can't live without.

Mark Esper with Jens Stoltenberg

By U.S. Secretary of Defense - 200212-D-AP390-6107, CC BY 2.0, Link

Let them have Communism

People are stupid. That's the big lesson we've learned over the past two years. Even smart people are stupid. They go along with almost anything, especially if there's some call to the common good and the welfare of the disadvantaged.

Facts and logic are second to feelings, so people will go along with stupidity even after reality hits them in their faces. Instead of admitting to the stupidity of our immediate past, people double down on whatever delusion they're in. Case in point being people getting ill from the vaccine, yet lining up to get the booster.

Another idiotic trend we're seeing is the reaction most people have to the inflation created by lockdowns and money printing. Everyone is suddenly a communist, blaming the free market for what's demonstrably the work of politicians and their corporate cronies. Instead of a call for liberty, we're hearing calls for market regulations and more free stuff paid for by the rich.

In Norway, people call for more regulation of the electricity market, and there's a petition to make dentistry a part of the national health plan. Electricity is after all an essential good and teeth are part of the human body. Hence, it should all be regulated by the good guys in government and not let loose to the whims of market forces.

Not surprisingly, the ones in the crosshairs for paying these bills are leaving Norway in increasing numbers. I found the situation intolerable ten years ago, so I can only imagine how bad things are today. However, I'm past the anger stage. I've been through the five stages of grief, and I've come to accept the situation as an inescapable part of the human condition. There's no point in fighting against this. The only rational thing to do is to navigate as best we can. If they want communism, let them have communism, because the sooner they hit rock bottom the sooner we'll have this over with.

Key to survival in a world gone mad with collectivist thinking is to declare ourselves sovereign; not publically but privately. We don't want to let the enemy know that we're no longer considering ourselves one of them. At most, we let our nearest and dearest in on our secret.

Once the idea of sovereignty is firmly internalized, things become clearer. We see that we're up against a formidable enemy, but that we have the advantage in that they cannot know what we're doing privately, while their thinking is widely known, and their internal machinery is full of inefficiencies caused by the personal ambitions and opinions of bureaucrats entrenched in their petty kingdoms.

Most statutory laws are unenforceable, at least in the way they were intended to work. Creativity used towards finding loopholes and identifying the weaknesses of the system is therefore well advised. I found a way to reduce my tax burden to zero. Others will find similar ways to avoid being the tax donkey charged with paying for all the free stuff.

Leaving a country is a radical but effective way to save on taxes, and my thesis is that the best places to live are civilized countries with little crime, a history of tolerance, and with a relatively small tax base. When the state is poor, there's little room for stupidity, no matter what their rhetoric may be.

Portugal is a socialist country with a socialist government. But it is a poor country. It's also a civilized place with little crime and no tolerance for violence and fraud. It's a good place to live, and I expect it to remain so for a long while still.

Norway, on the other hand, is one of the world's richest states, and it's becoming unbearable to live there. The riches of the state are being used for social engineering, climate projects and foreign aid, all to the detriment of liberties at home.

Offering to Molech

By Charles Foster - Illustrators of the 1897 Bible Pictures and What They Teach Us http://associate.com/photos/Bible-Pictures--1897-W-A-Foster/page-0074-1.jpg, Public Domain, Link

My Vaccine Enthusiast Friend

I have a childhood friend who's always quick to parrot the official narrative, and share this with her friends on Facebook. She lives in Norway, but is allowed to vote in France, so we all got to hear from her how wonderful Macron would be as a president back in the days when he was portrayed in the media as a genius outsider who could fix all that's wrong in France.

That didn't go so well. But never mind that, when the vaccines were all the rage, she was first in line when her age group was called upon, and she recently got her booster.

Everything she does is photo-documented. Her every opinion is widely announced. She's a diligent complicity theorist. So much so that I've mentioned her twice before. First as a contrast to myself who'd rather be in the minority than the majority when the majority is becoming overtly myopic. Then as an example of someone worth supporting despite her ill advised actions. I predicted back then that she would get herself into trouble and that she would be in need of some comforting words.

As it turns out, my vaccine enthusiast friend has gotten so ill with the virus that she's barely able to move. She's been bedridden for ten days straight. But she's in denial as to the cause of all this. She keeps telling us how pleased she is with her three shots, and that she would have been worse off had it not been for the mystery serum.

However, I remember the comments back in May when she decided to take the first two shots. Many were surprised that someone as fit and robust as she would even consider it. Why take the vaccine if the chances of her getting seriously ill are virtually null? Others thought her very wise, of course. But they were not the only ones commenting, and it would be strange if all of the dissenting voices back then have been completely forgotten by now.

I have not written anything on her wall. I don't think I'm the right person to do so. I'm too conspicuously in the other camp. But I do wish her the best. I still like her. She's well meaning, and there's no point in making things harder for her by telling her that she made some stupid mistakes.

Her desire to be an obedient subject made her blind to the dangers. That's sad, but no reason to gloat. My hope is that she'll be better soon, and that the experience has made her wiser and less inclined to parrot the official narrative.

Parrots

By Jan Smith from Brisbane, Australia - Hello, hello! Uploaded by Snowmanradio, CC BY 2.0, Link

Effectiveness of Austrian Vaccination Mandate

As predicted, the Austrian vaccination mandate has been less than effective. Forcing people to take the mystery serum did not produce a rush to vaccination centers. The opposite happened. There are hardly no newcomers to the vaccination roadshow. Almost everyone taking the vaccine are booster groupies.

Assuming that the booster uptake is at about 80% for those already vaccinated, we can predict that only about 50% of Austrians will be freshly vaccinated within a year from now, and that number will fall to about 30% by the time the mandate is up for review in two years from now.

Politicians don't generally care much about the people they pretend to serve, but they do care about re-election, and my guess is therefore that they will want to be seen as representatives of the 70% who'll be officially unvaccinated in two years from now. That means that the mandate is already a zombie, and a giant albatross around the neck of anyone seen overly keen to implement it.

Eva Maria Holzleitner

By SPÖ Presse und Kommunikation - Tagung SPÖ Parlamentsklub, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

A Telling Question with Answers

Suddenly, everybody's getting the virus. Only yesterday, my older brother, my cousin and some acquaintances posted on Facebook that they've caught it. My brother asked if anyone had any experience with the virus so that he could know what to expect, and the answers were very interesting. Some told him that the virus is done and over with in about three days. Others gave some standard advice about getting some rest. Not a single one voiced any real concern, which means that everyone knows by now that the virus is harmless.

The whole world is waking up to the harmless nature of the virus, and this makes the tyrants look like the evil fools that they are. They have exposed themselves at the worst possible moment, and can now be defeated simply by pointing out that their measures seem excessive. The more they try to split and divide, the more we can point out that a mild flu is hardly something to warrant emergency measures.

They locked down the economy, destroyed peoples livelihoods, prevented free association and caused untold psychological damage all for a virus that has proven itself no more dangerous than a typical flu. The rush to get everyone vaccinated and tagged with a corona passes looks increasingly absurd, and all we need to do to roll it back is to point out that the virus is harmless and the measures proposed are way out of proportion to the problem at hand. Only politicians can make such a complete mess of things. Their powers should be revoked and liberty restored.

The politicians and their minions will try to distract us with partisan politics. They will try to blame protesters for their own mess. They will do everything in their power to direct attention away from themselves. But if we remain resolute in pointing out the banality of the situation, they will fail, and they will be forced to give up on their totalitarian dreams, possibly for generations to come.

The Emperor's New Clothes

By Vilhelm Pedersen (1820 - 1859) - English Wikipedia (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/47/Emperor_Clothes_01.jpg ), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4038625

The Cost of Dissent

Canadian authorities are now equating dissent to terrorism, and they are using this as an excuse to come down hard on anyone opposed to their plans for the future. Any kind of contribution or statement in favor of the opposition can result in the loss of one's job and the confiscation of one's savings.

It's now up to the tyrants in power to decide who gets to live in relative freedom and who won't, and a likely extension to their rules will be to include vaccine hesitancy in their list of unacceptable behavior. Hence, anyone who's even a little hesitant to taking the annual boosters, should take the necessary precautions to avoid crippling loss of freedom. Money should be withdrawn from banks, and savings should be put into gold and silver.

Canada is one of the most civilized places on our planet, so if this kind of tyranny is in the works over there, it's likely in the works everywhere. We should not think ourselves safe just because we're not in Canada. People everywhere should take basic precautions. What used to be a quirky idea entertained by a small minority of dissenters is suddenly something that should concern us all. Everyone should own a few gold and/or silver coins.

This idea should be spread as much as possible because genuine freedom is directly linked to the soundness of money. A rush to acquire physical gold and silver will therefore have the effect of forcing the hands of governments. This is an aspect we don't have to explain to anyone, because it's both too subversive and a too complicated to understand for the average citizen. However, it's something we should be aware of ourselves. Physical gold and silver is not merely an insurance against government overreach. It's at the heart of any monetary system, regardless of what authorities may claim.

Remember that all things are priced in a hierarchy. There will always be a relationship between silver and eggs, bread, meat and the like. There will also be a relationship between gold, cars, houses and capital goods. However, there's not necessarily a relationship between these things and fiat money. The only connection between the physical world and the world of fiat lies in the trust we have in the system. If trust is lost, the system collapses, and all it takes for this to happen is that either gold or silver becomes impossible to obtain for fiat.

If there's a persistent disconnect between fiat and nature's own money, fiat loses it's purchasing power, not only in respect to gold and silver, but everything else as well. We get what's commonly called hyperinflation. The money that the tyrants rely on for their power becomes worthless, and they can no longer pay for anything. Liberty is thus restored.

Keep in mind that most people don't actually want liberty, so there's no point in explaining this crucial connection to the average Joe. However, people do want freedom for themselves. They are also greedy. They will therefore accept the basic premise, including the likely upside potential for gold and silver as investments now that a lot of people are going to buy it as protection.

If we focus on simple arguments that appeal to people's selfishness, we may achieve far more than we expected, and certainly a lot more than what can be achieved by going into the detailed complexity of our current monetary system.

Liberty

Canadians Being Meek

It's hard to judge what's going on in Canada from a distance of thousands of miles, but from what I can gather, things are moving along a trajectory favorable to the protesters. That may sound strange, considering how the totalitarians have come down hard on dissenters and their backers. Their leaders have been arrested and jackboots have been unleashed on the public, including snipers in battle fatigue. The trucker revolt has been crushed.

However, the totalitarians have only won if what's going on in Canada is merely a trucker revolt, and not something bigger. If this doesn't crush the will of the people to resist, nothing is gained by the totalitarians. All they've achieved is a display of their true nature, which is anything but appealing. The totalitarians have revealed themselves as fundamentally un-Canadian and un-Christian. Their true nature is on display, and it's rather revolting.

My guess is that this is but one battle in a long war of attrition, and if this is so, the totalitarians have blundered. They've come out swinging with all they got, and only inflicted minor damage. People have moved out of their way as they rushed into battle, and now they are easy targets for mockery and persecution. The totalitarian overreach related to what amounts to a flu is making them look pathetic, evil and inept. They have toned their flag so that their names can be compiled into lists based on evidence provided by the totalitarians themselves. They are setting themselves up for a world of hurt, including possible lawsuits in a not too distant future.

Meanwhile, the right thing to do as far as the protests are concerned is to reposition, and come up with some different form of protest. The trucker revolt was a success. They deserve their rest. It's time for others to take up the baton.

The wrong thing to do would be to dig in for a physical battle with the jackboots. The temptation to stand one's ground and fight may be great, but it's not the way attrition wars are won. Damage has to be inflicted where the enemy is weak, not where they have all their heavy guns pointed at us.

Protesters should target the supply lines and the financial infrastructures of the totalitarians. They should withdraw money and buy precious metals. They should encourage a general boycott of those who've encouraged mandates. Spend money with those who support liberty, and avoid trade and commerce with those who oppose it.

Protesters should also demoralize the minions as much as possible. Make it clear to everybody that this is about a flu, and that it's impossible to defend the totalitarian measures based on this. Involvement on the side of the totalitarians is shameful, evil and stupid.

In short, protesters should be meek. They should handle themselves with the discipline and flexibility required for attrition warfare. Creativity and agility is central. Once the enemy catches on to what's going on, change the tactics. Don't hang around for long in the same place. Think ahead and know which battles to fight and which to avoid.

When errors are made, the protesters should be quick to forgive themselves their sins. No-one is perfect. Mistakes are made, and being humble to this fact is essential because a stubborn refusal to change a failing tactic has a tendency to turn a bad situation into something worse. And keep in mind that some battles are not ours to fight. There's a time and a place for everything. Victory comes only when the time is right. With many still deep asleep, we're a long way from regaining the liberties we've lost over the years. But things are moving in the right direction, and time is on our side.

The social contract

Unintended Consequences

The tyrants in power in Canada have invoked emergency powers for themselves, including the power to block bank accounts of people they disagree with. This means that no-one is safe with their money in Canada, because there's no way to know for sure what might inadvertently ire the tyrants.

As far as investments go, Canada has joined the ranks of banana republics. It's no longer a safe place for anything but short term investments with high payouts. Anything with a long time horizon is now too risky. So, the Canadian dollar is taking a beating, and will continue to be under pressure for as long as the tyrants remain in power. However, this is not the worst of it as far as the Canadian economy is concerned.

All this uncertainty is making Canadians weary about their bank accounts. They are withdrawing money, apparently in such quantities that it's causing problems for the banks. The bank systems can't handle the rush, and everyone is suddenly without access to cash.

The tyrants have unleased some serious market forces. But they're not letting this get in the way of their scaremongering, which is continuing unabated. Canada's justice minister has just announced that Trump supporters in the US should worry just as much as Nazi truckers should worry in Canada. It's almost as if he wants US banks to suffer the same disruptions we've seen in Canada.

The tyrants seem to think themselves still in control. The rush towards cash can be fixed by printing up more bank notes. However, withdrawal of cash is but the start of their troubles. Once the cash is out of the system, it will find its way into parallel markets as well as gold and silver, and none of this is under their control.

The tyrants have inadvertently set in motion a move away from centrally controlled systems. Once the full significance of this sinks in, we'll see a rush out of financial assets, including government bonds. People will favor gold and silver as well as capital goods of various kinds. Assets that requires banks or online exchanges will be shunned, while that which can be physically exchanged in secret will be in demand.

Gold and silver will shine while crypto-currencies of various kinds will suffer.

Sovereign

By Heritage Auctions for image, Mary Gillick for coin - Newman Numismatic Portal, Public Domain, Link

Real-Estate Trap Snapping Shut in Norway

I have three brothers living in Norway, all with their own lifestyles, political views and general outlook on life. Considering our common background, it's interesting how our personalities have cut out different paths for each of us, not least in our approach to wealth management. We have each received one quarter of our father's fortune to manage, and the degree to which we've succeeded is starting to show.

My chosen path is the most radical, with two features that distinguish it from the paths of my three brothers. I moved to Portugal where the cost of living is one third of what it is in Norway, and I've cut my tax burden to zero by ridding myself of taxable assets. I sold my house in Norway, and I've distributed my registered wealth among my three children in Norway against a promise from them that they will give me a relatively secure fixed income for the rest of my life.

The proceeds from the sale of my house was moved to Portugal where it served to pay off my wife's debt on her apartment. Additionally, we had enough cash to last us three years, and enough gold to last us twelve years if consumed to support a modest lifestyle. However, we have not consumed any of our gold. Our cash holding has helped us through a tight spot last year, and my children in Norway have sent me the money they promised.

My strategy has in short been to cut down on all types of expenses, and to keep my wealth as unregistered as possible. Hence my preference for gold as a savings vehicle. My reward has been a great deal of freedom. I can spend my days as I please, with no concern for a boss, debt payments or taxes. To me, that's as good as it gets.

My only sacrifice has been to give up on a few luxuries. But what is the value of an expensive vacation if the rest of the year is spent in an office? Not much, I would say, especially since I live in one of the world's most iconic tourist destinations. What others pay a lot of money to see, I see every day with no expense at all.

View of the river Douro

My brothers in Norway have chosen more conventional approaches. My older brother has focused on capital income as a counterweight to taxation. Having cut down on consumption as much as possible, his capital income is keeping him with a lifestyle similar to mine. He doesn't work at an office. But he's not as free as I am, because his savings have been put into real-estate that he rents out to students. He has to keep an eye on what he owns, take care of repairs, pay bills, report income to the state and pay his taxes.

My twin brother has put most of his savings into a small farm in Sweden, which serves as a second home for him and his family. There's virtually no income associated with this investment, so he has to service the bills with other income.

My younger brother has taken a similar path. He owns two small summer houses. One of these, he uses for himself and his family. The other one is a passive investment with no income. He too has to service his bills with income, and spends much time at the office for this purpose.

All of my brothers live in what can be considered upper end houses, making up the bulk of their other savings.

The problem with the approach taken by my brothers is that their savings come with responsibilities, fixed costs and taxes, and recent developments in Norway are likely to make this problem all the more pressing. The state has seen its incomes fall over the last couple of years. It's expenses has also gone up, and this has prompted bureaucrats to look for ways to make up for the shortfall. As I've predicted, their eyes have turned to real-estate, because that's something that cannot be easily hidden.

Real-estate is such a visible display of wealth that it's easy for politicians to make people accept the idea that anyone with more than a modest apartment is rich and therefore perfectly capable of taking on more taxes. However, this is not the reality of it. My brothers have invested in real-estate for much the same reason that I've put my money in gold. They know that fiat money is eaten away by inflation, so they've put their savings in everybody's favorite alternative to cash; namely real-estate.

But real-estate is a trap when it comes to taxation and fixed expenses. My younger brother is spending all of his time at the office merely to pay the bills, and we know for sure that this is the case because I don't spend any time at any office, yet my savings are still equal to his, even after a decade of hard work on his part.

Had my younger brother done what I've done, he too could have spent his days doing whatever he pleases, as long as it doesn't cost a lot of money. But he didn't, and is therefore confined to his office. He's trapped, spending 100% of his office hours servicing bills.

My other brothers are in a similar pickle. They too spend most of their time servicing bills, and this is about to get a lot worse. Meanwhile, gold is doing well. It's up 50% over the last five years. Only yesterday, my local bank had to adjust the price of gold sovereigns up by 3%. I've also noticed a drain on their supply. What used to be a display of two pages with various gold products is now a relatively short list on a single page. It appears that people are waking up to the fact that gold is the best place to hide from socialists hell-bent on taxing the upper middle class to oblivion.

Gold sovereigns are called sovereigns for a reason. Anyone owning a bag of such coins can do whatever they please for as long as they manage to hold on to it, and no-one can tax it because no-one can find it. It's the only safe haven in a world gone mad with socialist envy and hate.

Sovereign

By Heritage Auctions for image, Mary Gillick for coin - Newman Numismatic Portal, Public Domain, Link

Totalitarian Delusions

There's a widespread belief among ordinary people and politicians alike that laws conjured into existence by fiat are no different than natural laws. Once declared, the machinery of the state will ensure the success of such decrees. However, this has never never been the case. The more a statuary law strays from natural law, the more it leads to unforeseen consequences, counterproductive reactions, subversion and revolt.

The only reason many statuary laws don't fail completely is the belief that such laws are enforceable, and that there's no way to circumvent them. Many list things in their tax returns that the state cannot possibly know about in the false belief that this will make them safe from scrutiny. However, to reveal our every little secret to the state is about as stupid as it's possible to get. Once they know all our secrets, they have all the more things to point at and tax even more.

The same goes for arbitrary laws related to our personal freedoms. They cannot possibly know all that's going on in society, and even if they did, who's going to enforce the law? There are not enough people in the state apparatus to police everybody, so the state has to focus its resources on a few cases and let everybody else go.

Key to personal freedom is to think rationally about what the state can and cannot do, and to act in such a way that we're either technically within the law, or operating in an environment outside of their control.

Keeping a low profile is a good idea, as is being on friendly terms with our neighbors. Most laws are vigorously enforced for a while before they they're largely forgotten, so all we need to do to get around them is to be patient. There's no need for parades and demonstrations.

Statutory laws have loopholes for the simple reason that they are not natural, and this can always be taken advantage of. Truckers in Canada are required by law to inject themselves with a mystery serum in order to do cross border business. But that doesn't prevent them from clogging up streets.

Saying that truckers are terrorists for being opposed to the mystery serum doesn't make them terrorists. It merely replaces one difficulty with another. The tyrants in power are forced to list all the things that apply to their laws, and that results in some mighty long lists and/or some vague wordings. Either way, it's not that hard to find loopholes.

Once the tyrants go full totalitarian, they must abandon the notion of rule by law so that they can simply declare individuals guilty without any further excuse than that they acted in ways undesirable to them. But who's going to go along with that, and how is this making anything easier for them? There will still be ways around the system.

The idea that totalitarian control is possible is nothing but a delusion. We don't have to worry that we'll end up in totalitarian hell, because it cannot be done. All they can do is to make life difficult and miserable for a lot of people, us included. But they cannot stop us. Freedom cannot be declared illegal any more than gravity can be declared non-existent.

Nazi truckers from hell

Totalitarian Paradox Unfolding in Canada

History is being made in Canada these days. It's a fine display of civil disobedience with hardly anyone so far being arrested, and no violence anywhere. Truckers have clogged the streets of Ottawa and hampered traffic at border crossings. But as soon as the police come to arrest them, they've moved on to new destinations.

This has in turn frustrated the totalitarians, who have now granted themselves emergency powers to fight the peaceful protesters. They have labeled them terrorists so as to unleash the full force of the state. However, this draconian measure has hit a snag. Those tasked with the dirty work allocated to them are not playing along. The police chief in Ottawa has resigned, and someone has warned the protesters of an apparent attempt to create a false flag event.

If this is what it appears to be, we're seeing the unfolding of the totalitarian paradox in Canada. It's dawning on the bureaucracy that the political elite has nothing good in store for them, so they either refuse to act on orders, or they deliberately sabotage whatever nefarious plans they were ordered to execute.

Once this starts to happen, things tend to unravel quickly. Ottawa's police chief doesn't have to give any reason for his resignation. He doesn't have to join the protesters. The damage has been done regardless of further action on his part, because everyone in the Ottawa police force now knows that something too distasteful to contemplate has been ordered from higher up. The new leader will find it virtually impossible to get people to act out these orders, no matter how willing he or she may be.

Adding to the totalitarians' woes, we have the people who tipped off the protesters. They are like loose cannons onboard their ship. If they are not found and silenced, all sorts of dirty secrets may leak out to the public. Bureaucrats will scramble to distance themselves from anyone who so much as suggests a dirty trick. They'll refuse to act, and the totalitarians end up impotent in their ivory towers.

This has happened many times before in history, and it has been particularly effective in countries with a high level of civility and genuine tolerance in their culture, so it's not all that surprising that Canada is the place where this scenario is currently unfolding. It's a place where people pride themselves on being honest and good, and there's no tolerance for violence, fraud and trickery. It's not a place where a lie can be pushed for years on end without something like the current protest coming about in the fashion we're seeing. 

Flag of Canada

By The original uploader was Illegitimate Barrister at Wikimedia Commons. The current SVG encoding is a rewrite performed by MapGrid. - This vector image is generated programmatically from geometry defined in File:Flag of Canada (construction sheet - leaf geometry).svg., Public Domain, Link

Newton's Assumptions

Newton is such an iconic figure in physics, and so many of his theorems have been proven right, that it's by now largely forgotten that he made several bold shortcuts in his time, especially when it comes to inertia and gravity.

His greatest unproven assertion is that there's such a thing as mass, and that this property of matter applies equally to gravity and inertia. However, mass has never been found or detected. All we ever measure is either inertia, which is the tendency of matter to resist changes to motion, and gravity which is an attracting force between neutral bodies. No-one ever measured mass. It's either inertia or gravity.

Also unproven is his assertion that gravity is universally the same everywhere, that gravity is independent of other factors than mass, and that gravity is a directionless monopole that acts with equal force in all directions. All of this is merely assumed to be true because Newton happened to believe it to be so. However, there are by now sufficiently many observations to cast doubt on these assumptions.

All sorts of problems are emerging. Our planet is believed to have a super-dense core. Our planet cannot possibly be growing, despite ample evidence of expansion. Mars is believed to have a relatively fluffy core. Comets are believed to be snowballs, despite of their rocky appearance. Galaxies are full of dark matter that defies detection. The list of weirdness is long, and it's all due to a refusal to challenges some of Newton's assumptions.

The way I get around these problems is to break mass into its two detectable components, namely inertia and gravity, and to treat gravity as something dependent on charge in addition to matter. I'm also skeptical to the assumption that gravity acts as a directionless monopole. It seems intuitively more reasonable to believe that gravity has at least some directional component to it. Matter at the other side of our planet is not acting on me completely unhampered by intervening matter. There might not be much interference. But it seems almost inconceivable that intervening matter has no impact at all.

Once we embrace this thought, we see that Newton's shell theorem no longer applies unconditionally to gravity. The perceived center of gravity can be closer to us than the geometrical center of our planet. We get a center of gravity that depends on various factors, such as the thickness of Earth's crust and the position from which gravity is measured. Gravity anomalies and near Earth gravity oddities become easier to explain.

If we allow for charge and capacitance to play a role in gravity, controversial positions such as the hollow and expanding Earth model, become easier to defend. We don't need to invent mechanisms in which super-dense matter is being created out of virtually nothing. Surface gravity increases with Earth's expansion, due to an increase in charge and/or a perceive center of gravity coming closer to the surface.

We also find simple explanations for why Mars and comets are lacking in gravity, and why galaxies spin the way they do. There's no longer any need to invoke dark matter. An increase in capacitance and charge over time is all that's required.

None of this is in any way disrespectful of Newton. He remains the genius that he was. After all, charge and capacitance were poorly understood in his time, and he cannot be blamed for not spotting relationships that he couldn't possibly have known about. Nor can we blame him for having made assumptions about mass and gravity, and some overly sterile premises for his Shell theorem. He knew perfectly well that he was making bold assumptions. It's not his fault that we have taken these assumptions and turned them into dogma, and that we've done this to the point that we spend enormous resources looking for elusive mass particles and dark matter.

Sir Isaac Newton 

By Godfrey Kneller - one or more third parties have made copyright claims against Wikimedia Commons in relation to the work from which this is sourced or a purely mechanical reproduction thereof. This may be due to recognition of the "sweat of the brow" doctrine, allowing works to be eligible for protection through skill and labour, and not purely by originality as is the case in the United States (where this website is hosted). These claims may or may not be valid in all jurisdictions. As such, use of this image in the jurisdiction of the claimant or other countries may be regarded as copyright infringement. Please see Commons:When to use the PD-Art tag for more information., Public Domain, Link

Modified Newtonian Dynamics

Galaxies are large rotating clouds of stars that behave more like storm systems on Earth than solar systems. This has led people like Donald Scott to conclude that galaxies are primarily driven by Birkeland currents and that gravity only plays a secondary role in their behavior. Others have concluded that the anomalous behavior of galaxies are due to dark matter, and others still have concluded that Newton's formula is incorrect when it comes to very large distances.

The problem that these various theories seek to solve is the fact that stars peripheral to a galaxy's center move at speeds in excess of what Newton's formula would predict.

My favorite explanation is Donald Scott's storm analogy. Galaxies are driven externally by large spiraling currents of dark mode plasma that cut through the entire system. However, this doesn't mean that there's no invisible matter. Nor does it mean that Newton's formula is safe from scrutiny.

Nature is a complex place where multiple factors play a role, and galaxies are so large and complex that it would be strange if they can be explained entirely in electrical terms, with no regard to gravity. There's almost certainly a lot of invisible matter mixed up in galaxies, and Newton's formula is in my opinion due for a modification. Charge and capacitance should be incorporated into it since that would help explain gravity anomalies, increases in Earth's gravity over time, and the fact that asteroids are deficient in gravity relative to their size.

A change to Newton's formula would also help explain why galaxies spiral the way they do, because it appears that gravity is something that has a universal tendency to increase in strength over time. It's not only Earth that has seen gravity increase since the time of the dinosaurs. Planets and stars everywhere seem to follow this evolutionary path.

Halton Arp noted in his work on galaxies that they seem to grow larger and more gravitationally strong over time. They start out with a relatively small number of stars that drift outwards from the center where new stars are continuously being created. Hence, the oldest stars and planets are found out towards the periphery with the younger ones closer to the center. If gravity is something that grows stronger over time, it follows that the stars at the distance are more gravitationally strong than the ones closer to the center, and that there's a need to incorporate this into Newton's formula when we deal with galaxies.

The idea that gravity grows stronger over time is so controversial that it's never mentioned as a possibility by mainstream physicists. However, the observational data are undeniable, and a formula called modified Newtonian dynamics has therefore been developed to address this without specifically mentioning Halton Arp or the tendency of gravity to become stronger over time. A new variable has been introduced into Newton's formula without any further explanation than that it's required in order to make observations fit the theory. But closer scrutiny reveals that what this variable actually does is to make gravity a function of distance from the center of galaxies, exactly as Halton Arp would have suggested.

The modified Newtonian dynamics formula works well enough to explain the rotational speed of a large number of galaxies without the need to introduce other factors, and we can see why this is so once we fully understand the problem at hand.

Consider the measured velocities of the following spiral galaxy:

Spiral velocity relative to distance from center of galaxy

By Stefania.deluca - Own work, Public Domain, Link

The measurements make a smooth curve upwards instead of the smooth tapered curve expected from Newton's formula. Hence, all that's needed in order to account for the discrepancy is to add a factor that grows smoothly with distance, and that's precisely what modified Newtonian dynamics does. However, to understand what this added factor represents we have to consider the significance of the measured data.

Stars at a large distance from a galaxy's center move much faster than expected. The centripetal forces at play are such that the stars should escape into space. But they don't. Stars at the peripheral drift away from the center of galaxies at moderate speeds, indicating that some force is keeping them in place.

The formula for centripetal force is F = mv^2/r. It's a force that grows exponentially with velocity, so the discrepancy in speeds from what was expected is a significant problem. The factor added to Newton's formula by modified Newtonian dynamics may look like a small fudge, but it is in fact a big deal, and it must be given a proper name. We can't have gravity becoming stronger with distance from the center of galaxies without some plausible explanation for why this is so.

My position is that gravity is not merely a function of mass. Charge plays an important role in it as well. I've come to this conclusion because surface gravity on Earth appears to have increased by a great deal since the time of the dinosaurs, and there hasn't been enough matter added to our planet during this time to account for this change. However, our planet has also expanded during this time, and that has given our planet a greatly increased capacitance. Our planet is therefore a lot more charged now than it was back in the days of the dinosaurs.

The mystery of the increased gravity can be solved by including charge together with mass as a factor determining gravity. This does not only solve the problem of why dinosaurs were as large as they were back in their time. It explains why asteroids have very little gravity as well, and it provides an explanation for the mystery factor used in modified Newtonian dynamics. All these problems can be solved by incorporating charge into Newton's formula for gravity.

Putting all this together, we get a comprehensive explanation for galaxies. Enormous forces at the center of galaxies condense space into matter. Young stars are born with low mass and low capacitance. These drift out and away from the center. Growing older, they pick up more mass through mass condensation. Their capacitance also increase. They carry more charge over time, and this becomes the main driver for increases in gravity.

This is not to say that modified Newtonian dynamics is the one and only explanation for the observed behavior of galaxies. Dark matter in the form of dust and debris is also a factor, and the electric filament model proposed by Donald Scott remains a favorite of mine. However, modified Newtonian dynamics does make a solid case, especially if we allow for charge as a factor in Newton's formula for gravity.

Spiral galaxy

By The Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI/NASA) NASA Headquarters - Greatest Images of NASA (NASA-HQ-GRIN) - http://nix.larc.nasa.gov/info;jsessionid=1sl2so6lc9mab?id=GPN-2000-000933&orgid=12 http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/images/hs-1999-25-a-full_tif.tif, Public Domain, Link

The Problem with the Growing Earth Model

Onar Åm is a Norwegian physicist with a sufficiently open mind to consider Earth expansion a valid alternative to conventional fixed size Earth plate tectonics. He was the one who first suggested this possibility to me, and therefore the person I can thank for my deep dive into physics that ended up in my theory as laid out in my two books on the subject.

However, I don't think Onar Åm is much impressed by my theory, and he has lately come round to criticize it. In particular, he finds the hollow Earth model that I'm defending difficult to accept. He finds a solid Earth model a more likely explanation for the many oddities related to Earth's geology, gravity and history.

Luckily for the two of us, we agree on the observed facts. We both believe that Earth has expanded over time, and that gravity was weaker in the past. Our disagreement is confined to the mechanisms behind these changes. His criticism of my view was therefore an opportunity for me to explain my position in simple terms.

Here's what I wrote to him in reply to his issues:

The problem with the "growing Earth" model, when it comes to explaining how Earth's gravity has increased over time is that the added matter would have to have been as dense as the original matter in order to produce a linear increase in gravity with the expansion of our planet. With Earth currently having a diameter twice that of Earth during the time of giant insects, gravity would currently be 100% what it was. But calculations made by people like Stephen Hurrell suggest that surface gravity is up a whopping 300% or more since then.

If the added matter is less dense than the original, surface gravity would not go up as much as 100%. It could even go down. The added matter must therefore have been much denser than the original material. Alternatively, Newton was wrong in assuming that mass is the only factor determining the gravity of objects.

This is why I believe charge and capacitance play a role in gravity. The added matter could in that case be much lighter than the original material, because the expansion would cause Earth's capacitance to increase. With added charge, gravity goes up, and we have a solution to the giant insect problem.

This would also solve the asteroid problem. Such rocks have little capacitance, and hold therefore little charge. Hence their low gravity. As for Earth's internals, I suggest you read Jan Lamprecht's paper where he demonstrates that seismic data does in fact support a hollow Earth model. I know sufficiently much about seismology to say that his thinking is both sound and clear. It's a good honest read.

Furthermore, I believe that planets are formed in a swirling fashion. The material that makes up planets spins as it's pulled together. This spinning motion will produce a hollow in much the same fashion that storms have an eye in their middle.

Planets are born with a hollow, and the hollow never disappears because there's no gravity inside this hollow. All the pressure that gravity causes is in the shell. The hollow in the center has no more pressure than whatever atmosphere there is.

My guess is that the central atmosphere is hot, charged and spinning. There's a storm of sorts in Earth's center that contributes in a major way to Earth's magnetic field.

---

This was posted as a comment in a Facebook group, and a certain Kazunori Miura found it sufficiently interesting to add this tidbit of information: Olivine in the mantle increases in volume during the phase transition to granite. 2SiO4 + CH4 -> 2SiO2 + CO2 + 2H2O

Miura's comment fits well with my observations when it comes to the volume of matter inside our planet. There must have been a swelling of matter in order to explain the current geology of our planet. Without a swelling, the crust would not be as thick as it must be to explain earthquakes that go as deep as 700km.

However, Onar Åm must have seen this as further support for a growing Earth model. He wanted me to elaborate on my position, which gave me the opportunity to say the following:

The reason I ended up concluding that Earth is hollow is that I saw no other way to explain how it has been growing. There's not enough radiation to explain a big increase in Earth's mass. Chemical and nuclear processes may cause expansion, but not enough to explain it all.

Furthermore, expansion has been increasing exponentially, which would mean that whatever is going on is also increasing exponentially. The only explanation I could find for all of this was a hollow Earth which would naturally expand at an increasing rate once expansion starts due to its shell becoming thinner.

However, all of this would result in a drop in surface gravity. Hence, the need to modify Newton's assumption about gravity.

---

Still not convinced, Onar Åm repeated his preference for the growing Earth model, to which I replied:

I would stress that the added matter we're talking about must be very dense indeed, so you end up with the need to invent a mechanism where such matter can be created. We're not talking about hydrogen atoms, but iron, silicon and other such heavy elements.

I'd say that it's more likely that Newton overlooked the possibility that charge could have something to do with gravity than that Earth has a mechanism inside of it where heavy material comes into existence from virtually nothing.

Whichever way we look at it, the growing, expanding or swelling Earth poses some fundamental problems, and that in itself is quite exiting. I'm looking forward to your explanation on how all these heavy materials are being created in the depth of our planet. Who knows, you might yet convince me that our planet is indeed growing and not merely expanding.

Meganeura, lifesize model
(from Land of the dead blog)

Working from Home

Every cloud has a silver lining.

- John Milton

One of the best things to have come out of the virus scare is an accelerated trend towards remote working. My wife, who works as an editor for a school book publisher in Porto, has spent most of her time working from home over the past year, and this looks likely to persist.

Every white collar worker on the planet has had a taste of freedom, and a reversal of this seems unlikely because the trend is popular with just about everyone. As a consequence, office spaces will be harder to fill, lunch cafés in office districts will suffer, and there will be less need for petrol. There will be a contraction in consumption, and some economists fret about this because they equate consumption with wealth. But this is a contradiction in terms. If the white collar workers experience a benefit from the trend, it cannot be considered a problem to them. It's a benefit that enhances their lives. The trend is making them feel better about things, and that's the true measure of wealth.

It can be argued that the loss in income by office space owners, restaurant owners and gasoline producers will negatively impact the economy. However, that too is incorrect. The number of people experiencing a benefit from reduced consumption far outnumber the people experiencing a loss. There's a net gain due to reduced consumption, which proves that consumption is not a measure of wealth. Wealth cannot be calculated in the way many economists imagine. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a measure of consumption, not wealth.

Wealth has to do with wellbeing, and money has only a limited part to play in this. Money provides us with flexibility and freedom of choice. Generous savings are a blessing. It allows us to buy things that benefit us. But consumption is only wealth in as far as it provides wellbeing. If consumption is badly directed, it makes us poorer, not richer.

Me, enjoying a cup of coffee

Using the Past Tense

It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.

- Mark Twain

My stepdaughter had plans to go out with a friend of hers the other day, but the date had to be cancelled because her friend was sick as a dog from having taken the booster. So it appears that many are still completely hypnotized by the media. Even young people who run no risk of falling seriously ill from the virus are taking the mystery serum that is known to cause serious illness.

My stepdaughter thought it supremely stupid of her friend to take the booster, but said nothing to the effect. She told her friend instead to take care of herself, giving her the customary advice we used to give people when they fell ill from a cold: Take it easy, stay warm, and get some rest.

There's no point in telling people that they've been conned because no-one will admit to it. With a majority of people now conned, there's enormous resistance to facts that go against the official narrative. People are not going to wake up by us pointing out the flaws, inconsistencies and lies in what they've been led to believe. A different approach is required.

I suggested back in October that we should start talking about Cough It as something that has passed. The idea being that it's easier to admit to having been conned in the past than to admit that we are currently being deceived. The faster we put the whole thing behind us, the sooner we'll get out of this mess. However, Omicron came, and the spin doctors managed to incorporate this harmless virus into their narrative. The people who had been conned embraced the scare crow given to them.

But time is on our side. The use of the past tense becomes more appropriate for every day that passes. Two year old news is so distant that even the most hypnotized will let criticism of it pass without objection. We can point out the deception and mention that it was a well orchestrated con job.

We don't have to tell people that they are currently being deceived. There's plenty of old stories to point to, and no-one gets offended by that. However, such talk is corrosive to the official narrative, and will eventually lead to doubt and a disengagement from the narrative by those who've fallen for it.

One by one, people distance themselves from the deception. Given a few months, they can congratulate themselves for having seen through the scam. They are no longer the deceived ones. They too can point out inconsistencies.

When this happens, we must congratulate them without mentioning their past opinions. It's important to forgive them, and not tell them off for having finally seen the light. This is the central idea behind the concept of forgiveness. It allows people to better themselves, and join the ranks of the righteous, despite errors made in the past. That's a good thing and something to be applauded.

Liberty

The Sniffles

It appears that the winds are changing when it comes to the virus madness that has held the world captive for more than two years. Totalitarians everywhere are in retreat, and it's time to move in and occupy the vacuum left in their wake. Seen in the perspective of attrition warfare, this is the time to capture the hills and redirect our guns for the next battle.

My modest contribution to this has been four Facebook posts that ridicule Trudeau's perilous position over in Canada. Additionally, I've tested out a trick I've suggested in the past. A Facebook group called "Being Liberal" had a post glorifying the collective effort that has gone into fighting the virus. The message being that this is a victory for collectivism and proof that tyranny works to make us safe from the dangers of the world. However, I commented with a counter-argument that passed without negative reactions. I even got two likes.

I pointed out that the resources spent seemed excessive given the relatively harmless nature of the virus. Imagine what else could have been achieved had the resources been spent on something more pressing than a cure for the sniffles.

The lack of negative reactions indicate that the time has come to stress this aspect of the current hysteria. Not even the most hardline believers in collectivism are any longer convinced that the virus is dangerous. No-one was sufficiently triggered to giving me a laugh or care emoji, let alone put together a snarky comment.

If we keep playing down the danger of the virus, it becomes correspondingly more difficult to keep the totalitarian agenda together. If no-one believes the virus is dangerous, why bother with vaccines, passports and the like?

Headache

By Phee - Pixabay, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

The 5th Empire - Libertarian Rapture

The difference between a libertarian and an anarchist is about six months.

- Unknown

Looking at party politics, it would appear that libertarians are a rapidly diminishing breed. Elections everywhere end up with victory for either openly socialist parties, or conservatives with totalitarian ambitions. Libertarian parties are non-existent, or marginalized to such an extent that they might as well not exist at all. However, closer scrutiny reveals that something deeper is going on.

There's a large number of people refusing to vote, and a substantial portion of these have libertarian sympathies. This is clear from comments I come across on Zerohedge and Facebook. People are waking up to the fact that the state is the enemy of liberty and that any attempt at reforming it is doomed. Instead of voting, they declare themselves sovereign.

This was vividly demonstrated in a poll made by the Norwegian Libertarian party on Facebook. It asked its members about their views on how large they wanted the state to be, and the overwhelming majority came out in favor of "no state at all". The Norwegian Libertarian party isn't getting any votes because most of its members have turned anarchist since they joined. It's nothing but a stepping stone towards awakening.

Once we realize that we don't need the state for anything, we also realize that there's no point in convincing anyone about our position. We can ignore the herd, and do things our own way. Security, justice and insurance can be handled privately. We don't need to appoint third party actors to arrange for this. On the contrary, an important aspect of practical anarchy is to avoid such people as much as possible.

The disappearance of libertarians from party politics is not what it seems. People are not giving up on the idea of liberty, they are embracing it. What we are seeing is a Rapture of sorts, where libertarians leave the political landscape in favor of real life experience. We are no longer merely talking about liberty, we're living it.

Café de Flore

People - By Arnaud 25 - Own work, Public Domain, Link

Adolf Trudeau Reacts to Canadian Truckers

Seems like everybody is making memes and videos about Canada these days. I found this one particularly funny:

And here's another meme made by my friend in Norway: