Notes from the edge of civilization: February 16, 2025
Washington D.C.'s crash and burn means elites are in panic mode; Canada’s economic engine blows a gasket; and the media scrambles to clean up after the COVID narrative implodes.
While D.C.’s bureaucratic apparatus undergoes a controlled demolition and the usual suspects run for cover, D.C.’s housing market is feeling the strain. Ever since Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) began hinting at mass layoffs last fall, median home prices have plummeted, dropping by $139,000 in three months. The Kobeissi Letter notes nearly 15,000 homes are for sale, with half of those listings appearing just in the last 30 days. This appears to be a mass evacuation.
From the looks of it, it’s not just mid-level bureaucrats losing their jobs and selling their condos. Kobeissi notes a surge in high-end listings — 525 properties priced at over $1 million and 44 listed above $5 million. The ruling class is hitting the eject button.
The commercial real estate sector is next. DOGE has announced plans to eliminate up to two-thirds of U.S. government office buildings, noting a report from April 2024 that showed federal agencies only use about 12% of their headquarters space.
The power structure that treated D.C. as an untouchable stronghold is abandoning ship and the fire sale has begun. The question isn’t whether the collapse spreads — it’s how fast.
Meanwhile, as Zero Hedge reports, the city’s digital fingerprints tell the rest of the story.
First, internet searches for "Criminal Defense Lawyer" and "RICO Laws" soared, fueling speculation that Washington's political elites were in panic mode. Then, WikiLeaks showed evidence that search trends for “Swiss bank,” “wire money,” and “wipe hard drive” have exploded. Looks like the elite aren’t just leaving; they’re trying to cover their tracks as they go.
But all of this scrambling is a fools errand.
What will become very obvious very quickly is that Elon has the data. The digital era that has unfolded before our very eyes — innocuous yet seductive — was always about collecting data and squirreling it away for future use. Why else do you think Big Tech is pushing for massive server farms to be built? Analog thinkers, meet the DOGE team and welcome to your digital prison. Just wait until all those Starlink satellites in the sky follow your every move; then it won’t matter because every inch of the globe will be your prison.
North of the border, the foundations for Toronto’s economy are crumbling. X user @Shazigoalie shows commercial properties in Scarborough are slashing prices by six figures with no buyers in sight.
Things are not much better with the housing market. BetterDwelling reports that the country’s largest mortgage lenders are watching arrears rise at one of the fastest rates on record. The number of delinquent mortgages jumped 22% in a single month, reaching 10,480 in November, the highest since March 2021. Over the past two years, defaults have surged 44%, a pace that should be setting off alarms.
What’s even more troubling is the banks aren’t stepping in to help. Instead of absorbing bad loans with new lending, lenders have cut 36,500 mortgages in the last year. This is an extremely rare event in Canada, where mortgage books typically grow without interruption. The system is running out of ways to paper over the cracks, and the Canadian housing market is now facing a long-overdue reckoning.
At the very same moment, Toronto’s unemployment rate has surged to 8.7 percent, the highest since the 2008 financial crisis. Over 350,000 are jobless. The city added 120,000 jobs last year but still lost 76,000 workers.
The numbers are a warning: Toronto is headed for something much worse than a slowdown. With tariffs looming, rising interest rates, and no meaningful job recovery in sight, the city is potentially on the verge of economic armageddon.
In his latest piece for The Atlantic, David Frum, Canadian-American political commentator and a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, has a theory on ‘Why the COVID Deniers Won.’
He describes how the faction that dismissed the severity of COVID, rejected public health mandates, and resisted vaccination has ultimately prevailed in shaping the post-pandemic political landscape. While initially framed as reckless and dangerous, their skepticism — fueled by distrust of shifting expert narratives and political opportunism — has become mainstream, culminating in Trump’s return to power and the elevation of vaccine critics to key government positions.
Frum argues that this victory came at a steep cost, measured in excess deaths and long-term societal damage, but acknowledges that public trust in institutions collapsed largely because of the inconsistencies and perceived hypocrisy of those in charge. If the "forces of science" are to recover, he suggests, they must first understand how they lost the public’s confidence.
The ascendancy of the anti-vaxxers may ultimately prove fleeting. But if the forces of science and health are to stage a comeback, it’s important to understand why those forces have gone into eclipse.
Frum, who ironically moved home to Toronto during the pandemic, seems peeved the establishment lost control, and the people who questioned authority got away with it. He’s baffled at how a skeptical public saw through the charade. How is it, he wonders, that Americans rejected the nanny state, that DeSantis thrived, and that Trump — the guy who launched the vaccine rollout — still ended up as the patron saint of the unvaccinated.
The answer is simple: people remember. They remember how the public health machine told people to stay home, then made exceptions for mass protests. They locked down the masses but held wild parties in private. They silenced dissent, told everyone to Trust The Science,™ and then moved the goalposts on what “the science” was.
Frum’s piece isn’t about reflection—it’s damage control for the elites who lost the plot. Can I interest you in another booster shot, Mr. Frum?
Of course, we now know that the mRNA platform is NOT a vaccine in the true sense of the word. The CDC even had to redefine the term vaccine in order to make it fit the gene therapy they were/are pushing. It took awhile for people to figure out the scam including many disabling injuries and deaths along the way all for power and money. Now, many people have awoken and are rejecting the jab which is why Pfizer and Moderna sales(among others) have tanked and their fancy expensive advertisements are futile. Thank God also for all the brave scientists, physicians and other Health Care professionals who sounded the alarm and are now helping people who have been injured to regain their health and are offering people alternative therapies to strengthen their immune system and thereby able to resist infections and other chronic disease much more safely and naturally. God bless all of you who continue to struggle with mRNA platform injuries. I pray for your recoveries and ask you to continue speaking out about the injustice done to you and to assist others like you.
Your screed on COVID-19 and vaccination is unacceptable and a symptom of what's wrong with internet medical op[inion, know nothing opinion, that is, like yours. Scratch me off of your subscriber list.