right now, government subsidies for oil make it extremely difficult for recyclers to compete. high oil prices, consumer carbon taxes and the abolition of oil subsidies would be a boon for the recycling industry.
Pages
▼
Sunday, April 12, 2026
the reality is that housing prices - i mean mortgages - never really come down much in canada because there's a purposeful government policy to keep them high. the government goes way out of it's way to stop prices from falling by buying up mortgages. that's the actual reason that we had interest rate hikes in the pandemic, as the fear was that old people dying would lead to their kids selling their house at below market prices.
for that reason, we can actually have falling rents and increasing property values at the same time, by cutting immigration and buying up canada housing bonds. and, frankly, that's fine with me.
when i talk about housing costs, i'm concerned about my class interests, which means i'm talking about rent. a sufficient supply of new housing is required to keep rents and mortgages down, but i really otherwise don't give the slightest fuck what the cost of buying a house is. from a renter's perspective, i want to minimize the amount of competition i have in the market, meaning i want to keep the population low, in general - i want low birth rates and low levels of immigration at the bottom of the market, so that the supply of housing outstrips demand for it. i am in direct class conflict with property owners on this point, who want to increase the number of renters to increase competition, increase demand and increase prices.
nonetheless, this is the reason why property values in canada, which are not the same thing as rents, are unlikely to crash:
and i don't really give a fuck about that. i just want low rent.
an extended period of extremely high oil prices is exactly what the renewable energy and circular material economies need to get kick started into carbon replacement, rather than merely as supplement.
i'm in strong support and favour of hiking the price of gas through the roof, and in bringing back consumer carbon taxes to give the shift that extra kick.
do you know what will bring down inflation in a renewable energy economy?
recycling. remember that?
when oil is very expensive, recycling will become a competitive source of new plastic, which is far better. it will create an economic, not just an environmental, case for a truly circular economy. further, you can actually convert plastic into fertilizer, we just don't.
we need to stop burning it, first. that's stupid. it's valuable.
listen.
if you're a status quo liberal or a "progressive democrat" or a christian republican, i understand why you're upset about this. you're not getting what you voted for, and this is probably not in your short term self-interest.
but i'm not one of you.
i didn't vote for this, either. i can't even vote in the united states at all. but, this is unfolding like a fever dream for an eco-anarchist, evangelical atheist, revolutionary socialist.
we've tried everything to get you fucking idiots to consume less oil and you won't fucking listen.
let's try hiking the prices. maybe that'll work.
and let's see how long the iranian regime lasts for when it's people begin suffering from bread and meat shortages. we know the regime will tell it's people to eat cake. good. it's in the people's self-interest to rise up and fight.
i didn't expect any of this, but i couldn't imagine or ask for something better than this. the americans just need to follow through on it, now. i certainly hope that they do.
the rest of the world should be reacting by rapidly shifting to renewables, including to electric vehicles.
however, i want to discourage bombing desalination facilities. iran does not rely on desalination, but the gulf states do. that's not a good idea.
meanwhile, there needs to be concrete support for opposition groups on the ground.
there are some situations where you want peace, and there are some situations where you need war.
a smart person should be able to comprehend that war in iran is necessary - perhaps not immediately or imminently, but soon and eventually. now is as good a time as any time. it will be less costly and less deadly if it's done sooner than later.
regime change in saudi arabia and egypt, as well as democratic renewal in turkey, are also on the near horizon. these things are necessary and must occur. they may occur peacefully, but iran cannot be dealt with peacefully.
you can align with appeasement if you insist, but history will not be kind to you.
this is necessary. if you didn't see that 6 weeks ago, you should surely see it now, or you're blind and can't be helped. they have to be defeated and vanquished.
iran's decision to try to control the strait of hormuz was actually incredibly stupid, for the reason that it invited a catastrophic blockade on itself. i immediately realized that and called for the americans to force them to eat their own shit. the americans seem to have been slow to process it, but they figured it out.
meanwhile, the media's been framing it as a stroke of genius and it's not. it's a noose around their own necks. it was a foolish mistake that amounts to them digging their own grave.
the western media has been focusing on how important the strait is for everybody else and has missed the obvious: iran relies on the strait both for imports and for exports, and they import almost all of their food.
an american blockade of the strait will lead to starving iranians very very fast. but they walked into it, it's their fault, and they can fix it by fucking off.
hungry people are also more likely to attack their government than well fed people.
the delicious irony is why i liked this approach and immediately jumped to it. i'm not sure why it took them so long to get to it, but better late than never.
this will work. but i can't predict exactly how. be patient.
iran walked right into this.
they can hardly complain that it isn't fair, when essential goods are prevented from getting to iran, or their own oil exports are prevented from getting to asia.
the world needs some patience, here. you're going to have to make some short term sacrifices while this gets resolved. the plan tehran was trying to implement is a non-starter.
what was winter like this year in southern ontario, according to the data?
it was cyclothymic. we've had a early and warm spring that is about to break out into full summer today, in the second week of april.
november was actually pretty warm. there were 0 subzero days here in november, and 22 days with above normal highs. there were some cold mornings, but it was pretty warm, overall.
december was colder than average, but it was also split in half. a cold front came in over the last few days of november, but then there was a warm front for the last two weeks. the last four days and the first 16 days of december were below average, for an almost three week cold snap, but then there were 13 days in a row above normal, then two more below it. overall, that's 13 days above normal, all in a row, and 18 days below normal.
january was also colder than average and also had 13 days above average, mostly consecutive, and 18 days below average. there were some very cold overnights, as a result of the solar activity breaking up the polar vortex.
but, february and march were actually warmer than average.
february had 15 days above average and 13 days below average. march had 19 days above average, including 7 above 20, which canadians consider to be summer, and only 12 below average.
so far, we've had 6 above average days, including 3 above 20, and 6 below average days in april, but the forecast has a solid 7 days of 20+ degree weather, so april is looking to come out as warmer than average as well.
you will note that the weather network's forecast was wrong, but they always seem to forecast that it's going to be cold. i don't think it's a serious forecast anymore, but is being manipulated for clicks and ratings.
but i'm not quite sure what the media is talking about when it complains about a cold spring that won't warm up. it's been above average here, which can sometimes be misleading, but we've also had several summer days here in february and march, which is not even spring, it's winter. it's legitimately been a warm spring in southern ontario, and it's tripping over into summer very early.
there's been some concern that iran didn't map where it put the mines, which is going to make it hard to find them. that's probably not true; they're probably just refusing to divulge the information. it might also be why they were shooting at people to stay out.
while this may have been a hard problem not too long ago, i don't imagine it would be so hard now. the americans have incredible satellite technology at their disposal. they should be able to write a simple program to find the mines in the satellite data. i don't know why they would send ships out, unless those ships were getting gps co-ordinates from the satellites.
it might be a novel problem.
it shouldn't be a hard one.
for supposed critics of capitalism, the fake left nowadays seems unusually interested in fashion over substance.
listen.
smart children understand that knowledge is more important than popularity. you cast your nets out and you get what you're fishing for. don't say nobody told you to think it through.
i don't think that leftist politics is getting anywhere by adhering to fashion trends.