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As of September 16th 2025 her time in cabinet has come to an end. Freeland says she will not be running for reelection in the future. Kicked out of cabinet she will be a special envoy to Ukraine for the Canadian government. Having strong personal ties to the region, being of Ukrainian descent and studying in the Soviet Union, it seems a dignified way to go. Prime Minister Mark Carney is attempting to rebrand his government away from the Trudeau era Liberal party. Unfortunately for Freeland she was tied too closely to the old guard to stay around even with her attempts to distance herself at the end.

Last year in an attempt to build a life boat for herself Freeland resigned from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet on December 16, 2024, just hours before she was scheduled to deliver the government’s fall economic statement. Many see this as the final nail in the coffin for Justin Trudeau, he resigned just a few weeks later on January 6, 2025.

Months ago Freeland testified before the House of Commons Transport Committee, stating she was “dismayed” by BC Ferries’ decision to purchase vessels from a state-owned Chinese company. Now called to testify again on the BC ferries deal after e-mails show the Transport department knew in advance. Digging through the government financing of this project it was also discovered that they provide a $1 Billion dollar interest free loan for it. This raises questions about federal oversight, procurement processes, and the prioritization of domestic industries.

The timing of the BC ferries scandal and Freeland’s departure is unlikely a coincidence. This may not be on the same level as the SNC-Lavlin scandal that nearly took Trudeau down in 2019 but could have ramifications for Freeland. This is a time where tensions are high on the international stage, especially with China. United States President Donald Trump may not look too kindly to Canada handling his biggest advisory $1 Billion dollars in the middle of trade negotiations.

Over the past decade in cabinet Chrystina Freeland has been the subject of much praise and criticism. Now being banished by her own party she is unlikely to ever taste the highest level of power she so desperately desired. Being usurped by Mark Carney at the final hour she will wait out her days in obsoletion.

With the birth of a martyr comes the death of truth. History tends to idolize those slain and project them into our zeitgeist. Ezra Klein’s recent article in The New York Times “Charlie Kirk Was Practicing Politics the Right Way” attempted to give a favourable viewpoint to the already contorted history of Charlie Kirk. Klein, a prominent supporter of the Democratic Party, attempted to find common ground. He cites many recent and historical acts of political violence. He condemns any act of political violence and glorifies Kirk's political activism. What Klein fails to diagnose is that Kirk's work is the exact kind of malignant presence in the media that led to the division The United States is in today. Kirk did not tour colleges and argue with wide-eyed, naive, children to foster good political discussion. His goal was to generate clips for social media to continue to grow his power, wealth, and influence.

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What Kirk was doing was the antithesis of fostering good political discussion. Does that mean he deserved to die? Of course not. But the reframing of him into an altruistic freedom fighter attempting to catapult him into the ranks of the greats alongside the likes of Malcom X, Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers and the Kennedy brothers is treacherous.

Charlie Kirk and his organizations weaponized their followers, money, and power to actively attempt to break democracy. The Washington Post released an article in 2020 exposing Turning Point USA for paying bot farms to flood social media with disinformation and conservative messaging. The creation of the Professor Watchlist is akin to the McCarthy-era red lists, doxing and tracking college professors whose political ideology does not align with TPUSA’s, fostering intimidation and harassment amplified through social media.

There are countless more ways to demonstrate that Charlie Kirk was not practicing politics “in exactly the right way”. His goal was division not unity, power not common ground, he did not speak on college campuses to change the views of young Americans but embarrass them to extort as much money for his media empire so he could funnel it back into political lobbying.

Klein says in his article “Political violence is a virus. It is contagious.” I will not argue with that statement. Though a much more infectious disease than violence is the corruption of the mind via media manipulation. Ideas travel quicker than bullets. As Chomsky says in Manufacturing Consent, "The mass media serve as a system for communicating messages and symbols to the general populace. It is their function to amuse, entertain, and inform, and to inculcate individuals with the values, beliefs, and codes of behavior that will integrate them into the institutional structures of the larger society." With over 12 million followers on Kirk's personal Instagram account and millions more on his companies and institutions he turned his personal brand and Turning Point USA into a media powerhouse.

I think Klein wrote this article because he feels spiritually tied to Kirk in a diametrical way. As a left-wing thought leader he is attempting to pour some water on the fire. He is attempting to find common ground during a turbulent time, which is noble in a way. Although he is lying to his readers in this article, even if it's in an ever so slight way. He is looking at Charlie Kirk and his legacy in a benevolent retrospective. This kind of absolution for Kirk's actions post mortem may be well intentioned but are a disservice to the American public.

The truth is Charlie Kirk dedicated his life to building a media empire with the intent to manipulate the political landscape to further his contorted political ideology, empower corrupt politicians, and gain personal wealth and power.

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Ezra Kleins NYT Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/opinion/charlie-kirk-assassination-fear-politics.html

Robotics and computer vision are nothing new to manufacturing, some robotics use stretches back to the 1960s with General Motors first implementing a robotic arm for moving die-casting parts. Computer vision has been around since the early 1980s with the most rapid development coming in the past few years. The current technology in the space is clunky, expensive, and time-consuming. Companies spend hundreds of man-hours and millions of dollars to implement then robotics and automation projects. Robotic systems often struggle with the complexity and unpredictability of real-world environments. Tasks that are simple for humans can be incredibly challenging for robots, especially those involving fine motor skills or decision-making in dynamic settings. Most robots are designed for a single specific task and lack the flexibility to change when needed. Programing robotics is difficult and the skills are highly specialized across brands and industries. To put it simply they’re dumb. The introduction of LLMs, semantic segmentation, and multimodality can revolutionize how things are made as we know them. 

A robotic arm or even a humanoid robot will be able to understand the world around it and adapt accordingly. You don’t have to spend countless hours programming it to know what a certain type of bolt is, present it in the correct orientation, and then have it slowly reach down the specified 12 inches before movie its arm 55 inches and down to screw it in. Now you’re able to tell it to pick up the bolt and screw it in the part. It uses visual data to identify objects and tactile feedback to gauge the force needed. Safety is one of the most important concerns across the industry. No company wants to be responsible for a worker's compensation lawsuit. There are two current solutions to this problem, either cage it off or use a cobot. The best way to deal with this problem is for the robot to be able to see that it’s a human and not hit it. Simplifying the implementation of robotic or automation projects is crucial for the advancement of the industry. Having robot-human interaction take place from a natural language standpoint will dramatically save time and ease of use. This will make them far more accessible and easier to control and repurpose. 

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This technology will play a key role in the proxy war that is the reshoring of manufacturing back to America from China. In recent years the United States has seen the economic vulnerability of depending on foreign countries for producing goods. Reshoring manufacturing only works from an economic standpoint with the use of AI in robotics because of the low labor cost overseas. With the tensions rising around the globe and China’s eyes fixed on Tawain, now more than ever the United States needs to make it a priority to be self-sufficient in every way possible. Semi-conductors have been a topic in recent years and for good reason. They’re a vulnerability that America cannot leave unattended for much longer. U.S. Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act, which allocated approximately $52 billion for the development of semiconductor manufacturing facilities in the United States. Leveraging the new technology we have at hand will be the only way America can compete internationally. 

There is a myth that robots powered by AI will come along and steal 100% of American jobs in the manufacturing sector. This is fluffed up by AI doomers. One of the main problems in the manufacturing industry is the lack of labour which is a leading cause of outsourcing to foreign nations. Americans are unwilling to work dull, dirty, and dangerous jobs in factories. Who’s to blame them when your job is stacking boxes on a palletizer all day or feeding parts into a lathe? This is where the strengths of robotics excel. Running 24 hours a day without stop. A humanoid robot has the flexibility to go from one job to the other based on demand with minimal setup time. Humans will still be required for many aspects of the business. Their roles will adapt to the needs of the times. In the 19th century, 70% of Americans worked in agriculture as of spring 2023 that number is as low as 1.5%. Of course, there is the chance for the darkest timeline and we end up in a world similar to Kurt Vonnegut’s Player Piano. A dystopian near future where robots have taken all the jobs except for a select few engineers and managers to oversee production. But I’m more optimistic about the future than that. 

Just like any other technological disruption, legacy industry players will not be the ones to spearhead change. This is an opportunity for a startup to go zero-to-one with an AI vision-led approach to robotics. Which is easier said than done. Large amounts of capital are needed and the R&D process is long a difficult. Another contender is large tech moving from the world of bytes into the world of atoms. Tech colossuses like NVIDIA, Meta, Tesla, Microsoft, and Alphabet see this potential and are making plays to be the industry leader in it. On December 13th, 2023 Tesla revealed Optimus Gen 2 leaping forward in not just the world of humanoid robots but an AI-integrated approach to manufacturing. Its technical capabilities are astounding already with the ability to handle precise tasks, see the world around it, and be highly repeatable and accurate. “I was surprised that people do not realize the magnitude of the Optimus robot program,” Musk said in regards to the launch. “Those who are insightful or who listen carefully will understand that Optimus ultimately will be worth more than the car business and worth more than full self-driving. That’s my firm belief.” NVIDIA is leading the way when it comes to digitizing existing factories. Their Isaac Robotics Platform helps the development of robots with AI capabilities. It's a comprehensive set that stretches from software to hardware. They’re looking to take advantage of the recent boom from the rise of GPUs needed for LLMs, not just being a supplier of hardware in the industry but a key player in it as well. 

It seems now that we are off to the races in the robotic AI space. Whether it's a new startup or tech giant we all know the name of, the world of atoms is about to change. This inflection point is crucial for the future of America as a leader in the manufacturing world. As the Visigoths are at our gates we need legislation to propel this technology, not stop it. Every decade there is a new technology that comes around which changes economies slightly. Veering them off in different directions. Most change some aspects of our economies but this is going to flip it on its head. This is the first one since the Industrial Revolution that has the chance to have the same impact.  

In 2014 after working at a hedge fund he founded a biotech company called Roivant Sciences. He raised $100 million dollars from some of the largest institutions in the world (including Visium Asset Management, a hedge fund that has been closed down due to fraud and insider trading). A year later he raised another $350 million dollars from Axovant (now Sio Gene Therapies), a subsidiary of Roivant Sciences, another biotech company he started and took public in 2015.

His string of biotech companies and hedge funds are confusing and intertwined. That is deliberate. A series of corporations in Bermuda, Switzerland, and the United States make keeping track of everything difficult. They swap hundreds of millions of dollars between each other like a friend venmoing another for dinner.

Axovant (Sio Gene Therapies) acquired the patent for intepirdine from GlaxoSmithKline for a mere $5 million. Interpirdine had failed four clinical trials and was deemed essentially worthless by GlaxoSmithKline which is why they sold next to nothing. To turn one of those failed trials into a success he put his mother Dr. Geetha Ramaswamy on the research team. She was the VP, Medical & Scientific Strategy for Axovant Sciences from 2015 - Oct 2017 and Medical Communications Roivant Sciences Oct 2017 - Currently.

With the help of his mother they manipulated the trail and it was then seen as a successful drug that would help treat Alzheimers. Axovant (Sio Gene Therapies) went public for $315 million dollars on anticipation of this drug’s success. The Ramaswamy’s, his hedge fund friends, and the insiders all dumped their shares at its high and made hundreds of millions. Retail investors and funds like the California State Teachers' Retirement System bought the stock at an inflated artificial price. After another clinical trial showed that it was useless the stock plummeted 99% and has since shutdown.

SoftBank invested 1.1 billion in Roivant to help the development of a variety of drugs. In 2020, Japanese pharma giant Sumitomo Dainippon paid $3 billion to acquire five drugs, and took a 10% stake in Roivant. The drugs which they bought look to have legitimate uses and were a massive success for the company.

Like most things in politics the truth is somewhere in the middle. He has had legitimate success in developing drugs but not without getting his hands covered in filth in the start. You cannot look at his track record and call him a fake business man. Vivek became a billionaire through a series of legitimate and gray area tactics in the pharma space.

“I’m the only one on stage that is not bought and paid for” Vivek Claimed during the initial Republican debate. His hundreds of millions from D.E Shaw, SoftBank, and various other institutions beg to differ.

He is another example of a populist framing himself as a man of the people when in reality he is just another man in a suit as corrupt as everyone else on wall street and in Washington.

The rise of AI has exploded over the past year, Chat GPT, Midjourney, and various other applications are thrown into your face on a daily basis. People are screaming that the sky is falling and that it will replace all of our jobs, the creative ones in particular. Take me sitting here alone in my apartment writing this article, could it be done better by an AI? Most likely. Will AI replace some art? Yes. All art? No. 

The Artist as Art,

Across all disciplines the art does not end with the consumption of it, that is merely the tip of the iceberg. David Bowie, Andy Warhol, Vincent Van Gogh, and Ernest Hemingway all embody the Artist as Art. They all produce masterpieces in their fields but what makes them live on is the stories behind their art, what they were like as a person. What made them feel a certain way to produce Starry Night, A Farewell to Arms, Campbell's Soup Cans, and Ziggy Stardust. We appreciate the art that they produce because we feel like we know them through their work. They are not a stranger to us but instead a close friend telling us how they feel. 

Van Gogh after losing his mind and cutting off his ear to give as a romantic love gesture to a prostitute checked himself into an asylum. During this time he created some of the most beautiful and world famous paintings in history including Starry Night, Irises, and self portraits. When you look at the painting you can imagine him sitting there in his room looking up at the stars. A Farewell to Arms was based on Hemingway's real life experience serving in WW1. Turning his own personal experiences into art. Crafting a story based on how he felt during that time. People love to bolster the idea of him being a drunken and womanizing then finally meeting his end by swallowing a shotgun. His reputation adds to the experience when you read his books. Bowie was the voice of a generation bringing metrosexuality to the mainstream. People didn’t just think his music was good. They were obsessed with him. Worshiping him like a God. He changed the way people thought and felt about society. He did this using his art as a means of communication with the world. Shot Sage Blue Marilyn sold for 195 Million in 2022 the highest price of any American artist in History, Warhol's legacy continues to explode posthumously like all great artists. He helped shape the modern art world as we see today. Andy Warhol shaped the modern art world as we know it because he as an artist transcended his own art.  

Art is an expression of how one feels and that is what makes individuals great. Although pieces are appreciated for their technical expertise it is mostly the story which makes us fall in love with art. Who is behind the brush strokes and why did they want to share this with me.  

Changing tools,

With every new advancement in technologies new tools are being given to artists and AI is just another one. Some artists will choose to leverage it, others will not. Beeple is one of the most famous artists in recent years and he makes digital art, a far cry from how Van Gogh would have done it all those years ago. But do the tools we choose to use determine if something is great or not? When the camera came out paints were repulsed saying it wasn’t real art just a grotesque use of technology, I see the same thing with AI. It cannot be avoided so the artist must embrace it. AI will change the art industry, just like it will change all industries, but the Artist is not going anywhere. 

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The 2008 financial crisis was the spark that led to the creation of Bitcoin. Distrust in the banks, government, and people forced Satoshi to create a form of digital currency that wasn’t at the will of the elites. It being a store of value, digital gold, means of exchange, etc has been debated into exhaustion. One thing for sure is that now more than ever we need it. With the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank we feel something eerily similar to 2008. Large banks around the world as well such as Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank are wavering. Ramifications of how the United States Federal Reserve responded to the pandemic are now starting to shine through. Massive amounts of dollars were created and once again the policy just like 2008 was quantitative easing. Cable news and mainstream media are once again manipulating the public with jargon and speculation on why this is really happening. It’s very simple and a tale we have heard before. Banks took too much risk and now have to realize their losses.

Federal reserve printed more money inflation went up -> to get inflation down they raise interest rates -> value of bond holdings go down -> do not have enough liquidity to cover depositors money

Fingers are being pointed at everyone from venture capitalists, individual depositors, regulators, and bankers. A scapegoat can be painted on any one of these figures but it was the risk management inside of Silicon Valley Bank and their inability to hedge against rising rates risk and the federal government.

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Government bailout,

Let’s get the first debate out of the way by people saying that this is not a bailout. “When you have people who were going to take losses and now they are not, they are being bailed out by somebody,” said Morgan Ricks, a law professor and financial expert at Vanderbilt University. If this is a good thing or bad thing that is a matter of personal opinion. The government has now come in to secure the deposit including those over the $250,000 threshold. Setting the precedent that any bank can be deemed a systematically important bank and too big to fail. In the short term this will help the economy and calm the storm. In the long term this unleashes Pandora's box.

Balaji’s Bet,

On March 17th Balaji Srinivasan, formerly CTO at Coinbase, entrepreneur, investor, and advocate for cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology tweeted:

He threw down the gauntlet of bitcoin skyrocketing due to the current economic state of the world. Crypto price speculation is something loved by the industry, people make whole careers out of sycophants pumping and dumping but Balaji isn’t some nobody trying to make a buck. His net worth is well into the hundreds of millions. Does he want to just pump up his Bitcoin holdings? Unlikely, he would only benefit if sold to fiat or another coin. Money printing, banks collapsing, and the loss of faith in government organizations are all things that will lead to an exponential adoption of Bitcoin.

Balaji has continued to provide context for the bet over the weeks on twitter and has been unwavering in his conviction. The fall of the US dollar is an absurd concept but when they’re printing an endless supply, not tied to anything, and on a whim pour billions into a failing business it's hard not to be bearish on it.

Don’t dismiss Balaji’s bet for the sake of it being such a drastic increase so fast. Look at the supporting data that justified that line of thinking. Don’t be sycophantic and blindly follow him as well. Research yourself, come to your own conclusion, looking at multiple angles and perspectives. For me I see it as 2008 was the spark that created Bitcoin and 2023 will be what leads to its mass adoption. If Bitcoin will hit 1M in a few months I have no idea.

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Coming from Canada I didn’t expect culture shock when I moved to Boston. The Canadian and American cultures are so intertwined, we share media, language, and our economies are reliant on each other. Culture shock didn’t hit me the moment I landed in Logan, or when I first got out of the cab. It was subtle, slowly growing. My honeymoon phase with the country lasted a few months. Everything was new to me and the excitement was a high, feeling like those first few times with a new lover. Canadians have a superiority complex over Americans, thinking that we’re smarter, healthier, kinder, more worldly, and not as obsessed with politics. All those stereotypes break down on the individual level. People were nice to me, they accepted me, and for a short point of time I felt like this could be my new home. 

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The American dream,

America was founded on the belief that anyone can become a success. Put in the work, keep your head down, do the job at hand. There is some remnant of that still here, but it’s like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands. Over time this country has become a grotesque image of what it once was. Debt is unavoidable and like a tumor it grows. Student debt, medical debt, credit card, car loans, buy now pay later, from the start people are drowning. People have become hedonistic slaves chained to a desk, instead of chasing their dream. This country feels like a poorly written sci-fi novel. The Sackler family makes billions of dollars pumping opioids into the country. The oil companies choose who you go to war with. Wall Street siphons your money. Cable news pours acid into your mind. Madison ave fills you with envy. Politicians get rich by insider trading and nobody bats an eye. America has the economy to have the healthiest and most educated people in the world and the only thing stopping them is themself. Crony capitalism has corrupted this country to the brink of collapse. I hate this country because it could be so much more. There is so much untapped potential. Like seeing a once great man becoming a wino on skid row, America is inflicting their own self sabotage.   

The Visigoths are at the gate,

Empires always fall from within and America is at its tipping point. A once great beacon of light, is becoming dim. Political sycophants, corrupt politicians, and men obsessed with greed are going to bring this nation down. When I first came to this country it was like looking behind the curtain and seeing the man behind the machine. With the rise of identity politics the chance at salvaging this country becomes more and more of a dream fading away. Since the 1960’s America has suffered from a string of poor leaders. Nixon, Ford, Regan, Bush, Clinton, Trump, Biden are all examples of leaders that allow America to crumble. The biggest mistake Marcus Aurileus made in his life was not setting up the Roman Empire for success. He’s known as the last great emperor and by not accepting the common practice of adoption he let his son Commodus take over the empire. J.F.K will be known as the last great President of the United States of America, then leaving a string of leaders whose egos, corruption, and pride bring down the nation. It took another 200 years for Rome to fall after Marcus Aurelius died, maybe America will survive for that much longer but unless the country can heal from within the collapse is inevitable.

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