Books and Sen. Lamar Alexander
Professor Adam Grant posted a “Public service announcement: You don’t have a moral obligation to finish every book you start.”
This was a valuable lesson I learned in 1996 when then-former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander was running for President. He was gracious to invite those working on his campaign and fundraising bundlers to his house for dinner. While giving a tour of his house, we went to his private study. Lamar was a voracious reader and his library was impressive. I spotted one book that looked interesting and asked him, “how was this book?” (I know, lame small talk). He pulled the book off the shelf and opened the page with a bookmark — he was probably a third of the way through. He closed the book, replaced it, and said (paraphrasing), “Chuck, it doesn’t appear I enjoyed that book very much. Lots of good books in the world. Move on if it doesn’t resonate.”
I have too many books, much to my family’s chagrin, but I have learned to not kill myself with guilt if a book doesn’t tickle my fancy. Simply put, some biographies and autobiographies have specific chapters you want to read and study, certain time periods that interest you, and there are times… the book is just tedious and lacks excitement. Just move on. Lots of great things to read. Besides, public libraries are always looking for contributions.
Argentina President Javier Milei and Inflation
When Argentina Pres. Milei was elected in December 2023, many so-called economic experts predicted the end of Argentina. Doom and gloom was the word… even though Argentina’s inflation rate was 300%. We do not have time to list all the holier-than-thou comments and rolling eye commentary. Guess what? His austerity shock measures (you know, living within your means) took hold, and Argentina’s inflation is down from 300% to 11%.
In the USA Today, Ian Bremmer, the founder of the Eurasia Group political and economic risk consultancy, wrote “in an emailed newsletter late Wednesday that when Milei was elected, many experts expected his plans for the economy would lead to “further collapse in short order.”
“Thankfully for the people of Argentina, that didn’t happen,” he wrote. “Monthly inflation has come down every month for the past three months, from 25% in December to nearly 10% in March, with forecasters expecting the April figure to come in at single digits. The government did this by turning the 5.5% budget deficit it inherited into the country’s first surplus in over a decade, while boosting the central bank’s reserves, lowering its benchmark interest rates, and reducing the money supply − all without destabilizing currency and financial markets.”
Imagine that, markets and prices react to living within your means. Dear Pres. Biden and U.S. Congress, are you watching and learning?
Argentina unions are now going on a 24-hour strike, because, you know, defaulting on your sovereign debt nine times, borrowing tens of billions of dollars from the International Monetary Fund, inflation of 300% (which makes their salaries basically worthless), and being a prime target for China’s loan shark methods, is better than living within your means and having a strong economy long-term.
I wonder how much money George Soros and his like minded billionaires are putting into these protests? I mean, they aren’t just focusing on USA universities, right?
Tyrant Justin Trudeau and Speech
Apparently, Canada isn’t just satisfied with their nationwide euthanasia program MAiD, which in 2022 accounted for 4.1% of all deaths in Canada. Now, Justin Trudeau has decided to imitate and emulate his hero, Fidel Castro.
On February 21st, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave a press conference in Edmonton, announcing his government’s decision to introduce the Online Harms Act, or Bill C-63. He did it under the guise of a law to “protect the kids.” As Matt Taibbi wrote:
“Trudeau was lying when he said C-63 was “very, very specifically focused on correcting kids.” The purview of the Online Harms Act extends far beyond speech, reimagining society as a mandated social engineering project, creating transformational new procedures that would:
enlist Canada’s citizens in an ambitious social monitoring system, with rewards of up to $20,000 for anonymous “informants” of hateful behavior, with the guilty paying penalties up to $50,000, creating a self-funded national spying system;
introduce extraordinary criminal penalties, including life in prison not just for existing crimes like “advocating genocide,” but for any “offence motivated by hatred,” in theory any non-criminal offense, as tiny as littering, committed with hateful intent;
punish Minority Report pre-crime, where if an informant convinces a judge you “will commit” a hate offense, you can be jailed up to a year, put under house arrest, have firearms seized, or be forced into drug/alcohol testing, all for things you haven’t done;
penalize past statements. The law gets around prohibitions against “retroactive” punishment by calling the offense “continuous communication” of hate, i.e. the crime is your failure to take down bad speech;
force corporate Internet platforms to remove “harmful content” virtually on demand (within 24 hours in some cases), the hammer being fines of “up to 6% of… gross global revenue.”
Things you’re saying, things you’ve already said, things an administrative judge thinks you might say, all barred, with neighbors deputized as enforcers? Good times. Leave it to Trudeau, a frequent trailblazer in new forms of illiberalism in the digital age, to come up with this quantum leap downward on the rights front. C-63 is a Frankenstein’s Monster combining the worst censorship ideas already deployed by supposed ally government-in-laws like Europe’s Digital Services Act, Australia’s updated Australian Communications and Media Authority Act (ACMA), and Scotland’s Hate Crime and Public Order Act, which saw 7,152 complaints in its first week when the law took effect last month.
Trudeau’s creation is a turbo-charged social surveillance law aimed first at forcing big platforms like Facebook and Twitter to “self-police,” but secondarily targeting individuals and doling out civil and criminal penalties for speech and thought on a scale not seen anywhere. What constitutes hateful conduct? While the bill newly defines hate speech as “likely to foment detestation or vilification” of Canada’s growing list of protected groups and individuals, Canadian lawyers interviewed were generally unsure of what the standard might look like in practice.”
Justin Trudeau is just a tyrannical leader. Do not be surprised if you see a Canadian migration increase to the United States over the next decade.
By the way, in 2022, regarding the Canadian government sponsored and advertised euthanasia program (MAiD), the Canadian government murders more people (13,241) than old-fashion Law and Order type murderers (874).
He definitely is making his guardian angel Fidel Castro proud. What a putz.
