FUN THING: WHY THIS FEBRUARY MAY BE THE BEST AND MOST IMPORTANT TIME FOR YOU TO RE-ASSESS YOUR LIFE
Since Governments don’t help, Tariffs surprise and we endorse the idiocy of gambling … there is hope (?!): Astrology!
Saturn and Neptune meet roughly every 36 years, but this exact alignment at 0° Aries appears not to have happened since 4361 BC, around 6,400 years ago, long before recorded history. No writing. No empires. No global systems. Just early human civilisation finding its footing. Just astrological calculation.
February 20th, 2026 marks the exact conjunction of Saturn and Neptune at zero degrees Aries, the World Axis and the beginning of a new 36-year cycle.
- This is what astrologers are calling the Great Materialization.
- The dream meets structure.
- Vision meets action.
- What has lived in imagination for years now receives a foundation in reality.
- This energy lands with undeniable force, activating identity shifts, expansion, and creative legacy.
Within the current 13-day manifestation window, what you begin now carries momentum. The impossible dream is no longer abstract. It is ready to be built. The threshold is here. The choice to step through it is yours.
Make your dreams reality. (If you believe…)
For the astrologer in you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX-VevLuhKk
Good explanations of the timing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMv1LZcxxoc
(Many others urge you to look at your life Feb 17 – Ma 3.)
BC BUDGET Record Deficit and Tax Hikes
The BC 2026-27 budget has a projected $13.3 billion deficit, the largest in the province’s history.
- Increases in personal income tax for all
- Increase in selected PST
- Hitting seniors specifically
- Making Real Estate the villain
Never mind that currently many construction and higher building cost have taxed us into a collapsing construction market. As we said last week that all levels plan to triple DCCs in next 3 years (although some – but certainly not all) put the increases temporarily on hold. We talked about the industry blaming the continuous increases of costs and laying the costs to the developers as a problem for a total halt of most construction,
This week we learned that housing starts in BC are down a further 15%. Nevertheless now the BC budget comes out and adds a plethora of tax increases on the industry and others:
Instead of policies to lower the cost of development, Budget 2026 doubles down on policies that have already proven ineffective at improving affordability:
A. Higher school taxation rates on development lands, which will increase costs that will be downloaded to buyers and further hinder project viability.
B. Applying PST to professional housing-related services, increasing soft costs and further challenging the economic viability of projects.
C. Increasing the Speculation and Vacancy Tax to four per cent for foreign residents and others at a time when BC badly needs to attract capital to increase housing supply.
D. Seniors cannot defer the property taxes as before. New deferrals will have higher interest rates (prime + 2%) and compound interest, making the total amount owed grow faster than before.
Oh that was the provincial government. But in the meantime this week also the Regional water board overwhelmingly endorsed a water development cost charge bylaw that will see developers of new construction projects pay for future regional water-supply programs, starting in April 2027.
The new cost charges, levied based on the number of units in a project, will cover 35% of the cost of planned water capital projects included in a $2-billion water infrastructure program to be built out over the next 30 years.
Here governments at all levels talk about affordability at the same time as they are largest contributor to costs. Oh, you think developers will pay the costs? No the new buyer – likely younger first-time buyers – will bear the cost of ALL (or most) infrastructure costs in all municipalities as well. How is that fair?
The UDI adds:
- Today’s reality is this: the pre-sale market has collapsed.
- Unsold inventory is climbing.
- There is no credible near-term recovery signal from the market.
With immigration remaining low and supply continuing to arrive, rental economics are now deteriorating as well. Municipal partners increasingly understand this.
Planning departments are seeing fewer applications and thinner pipelines. No one is building – but this week’s budget responded to the downturn by making it more expensive to build. There is no credible plan for economic growth.
TARIFFS AND OTHER THINGS
Supreme Court in the US strikes down president Trump’s current ‘assumed authority’ (IEEPA – Emergency power law) to impose tariffs on other countries. A defeat for Trump. However, Trump has plenty of alternatives to IEEPA, the specific authority that was struck down.
The trouble is, all are cumbersome, time consuming and less flexible. That will make the tariff-threat diplomacy of the past year harder to continue. So, instead Trump dropped and imposed tariffs for all countries to 10%. This would be temporary until such time (1 year or more) the cumbersome bureaucratic road is taken to let him impose higher tariffs again.
Will there be refunds? Apparently, that will be the law, but in reality, that can take years. Companies paid millions in tariffs. They cut costs, tapped credit lines to protect customers, and now shareholders, lenders, and partners are all asking the same question: what happens next? There’s no automatic refund process in place right now, and federal guidance is still unclear. If the past is a guideline, it could be 5 years. But initially all countries that already did a trade deal will be down to 10%. Vietnam down from 20% China from 15%, etc.
The largest immediate economic impact will be more uncertainty, as the administration scrambles to rebuild its tariff wall – first all down to 10% after that a jumble of country – and sector-specific duties.
Result: Trump lost, the ruling is retroactive but the largely symbolic victory may see few refunds soon. We need more certainty for business. This does not give it.
What worse thing could he do? Well, he has the right to declare a total embargo.
QUESTIONS & COMMENTS
COMMENT
Further to timeless truths: “I love you”. Here is my 80 second short video on it. If you area into love, you have no time for anything else. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nZ0GZlqd7YI
Q: I don’t think we are in a “K” economy, we are in a total collapse economy.
A: As all of us, we are entitled to our opinion. This kind of statement without back up is only making YOU happy – useless for debate, sharing opinions etc.
Q: I looked it up it’s unhappiness of the tolerant all over Europe. Paradox of Tolerance indeed.
A: Read last month: “A tolerant society must not tolerate those who seek to destroy tolerance.”
Q: I loved the AI comparison. ChatGPT it is!
A: I said compare the 5-7 main ones. Not because I use one or Harry uses another. See where it helps YOU! Because AI can help you, even if most companies AI can become a giant pain in the a…
Q: God. The books you recommend are 50 years old!
A: Yep, and the bible is 2000 … what does age have to do with it. Which one did you read that didn’t resonate with you?
OZZIE DISLIKES GAMBLING
Vancouver city council approved 300 more slot machines (from 600-900) for THE Casino the Parq. I am in total opposition about the legalization and expansion of gambling, sports betting on every Olympic channel. Vancouver used to lead the way being against the addiction and bankruptcy creating proliferation of all gambling.
Let’s remember: Vancouver has a history of officially opposing gambling expansion in the city: As early as 1994, the City of Vancouver Council passed a resolution opposing gaming expansion, including the introduction of Video Lottery Terminals (VLTs) in charity casinos, electronic bingo, and more charity casinos in or near Vancouver.
In 2004, there was significant local opposition when a gaming company proposed installing 600 slot machines at Hastings Racecourse.
And most notably, in 2011 Vancouver City Council unanimously rejected a proposal to build a large “Las Vegas-style” casino and hotel complex near BC Place.
In the lead-up to the 2011 decision, local community coalitions such as “Vancouver Not Vegas” formed to actively oppose the casino and promote public discussion about gambling’s impacts.
In short: Vancouver’s government and many residents have historically opposed significant gambling expansion – from resisting VLTs in the 1990s, pushing back where machines were proposed in local areas, to outright rejecting a massive casino project in 2011 and asking for broader public consultation.
But slowly, steadily gambling has been introduced into every channel every station every sport or other major public event after 2022 onward when provinces like Ontario launch regulated sports betting markets.
To the best of my recollection there wasn’t one single “approval” for everywhere sports betting or Olympic betting across North America (other than in the US 2018 court decision).
Major Point: In the ever-increasing need for taxes, we are destroying the fabric of our society.
The tolerance of drugs, helping addicts, lousy court decisions for dealers and sneaking in more tax grabbing things like gambling. It’s disgusting: Not that they do it, but that we tolerate it.
A great government argument for gambling is: “When sports betting is legal and regulated, governments can tax it and use the revenue for public services like addiction treatment.” It’s too outlandish to make that up.
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