Monday, April 30, 2018

THE SOUND OF SCISSORS SNIPPING PLASTIC

   Following the deadly Valentine's Day shooting in Parkland, Fla., banks and credit card companies considered blocking consumers' gun purchases as corporate America engaged in a marathon virtue-signaling session to prove to their customers that they too care about the lives of students being endangered by gun violence.
   Of course, these bans would've likely been temporary. Banks could've quietly withdrawn the restrictions once the public furor quieted down. However, some banks and credit card companies are now considering a more permanent move that would transform them into foot soldiers in the deep state's push to create a register of all gun owners. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that some lenders are now discussing ways to identify purchases of guns through their payment systems. This would effectively transform them into tools of the intelligence services by monitoring virtually all gun sales at sporting goods stores and other merchants that aren't transacted in cash.

CONGRATS TO CHARMAINE STICK & THE CTF

   REGINA, SK: After multiple wins in court, Charmaine Stick, an activist from Onion Lake Cree Nation, and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) have successfully forced Onion Lake’s leaders to publish the band’s basic financial information.
  “I was so excited to read the financial statements, but then I’d get so mad I’d have to take a break and cool off,” said Stick. “Our chief gave himself a nice raise while lots of people on the reserve are struggling. Now that we have the numbers, our leaders are going to have to start answering tough questions.”
   The documents also show the band invested $1 million in a technology partnership and another $404,795 in a technology corporation. Both investments were written down to a value of $1 each. While the documents don’t specify the nature of the failed investments, the timing and amounts correlate with Chief Fox’s controversial decision to invest in a troubled New Zealand tech company.

CARAVAN MIGRANTS MARRY AT THE BORDER

    Migrants associated with a “Central American Caravan” showed up at the United States border Sunday reportedly seeking asylum from gang violence, but many decided to “tie the knot” upon hearing news from their legal counsel that they may face separation when entering the U.S.
   The couples tied the knot before reportedly presenting themselves to United States authorities at the San Ysidro point of entry Sunday after legal counsel for the migrants informed them they could be separated from their children and detained for months.
   But these “marriages” might not work for these migrants because U.S. immigration courts require substantial proof to prove that a marriage is real. When migrants typically apply for asylum, immigration authorities require proof beyond a ceremony and a marriage certificate that the couple married intending to start a life together.
    

BEATINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES

   In effect, the European Union is bribing member states with below-replacement birth rates to go to sleep quietly, while demonizing the duly elected governments of Poland and Hungary, which have essentially told them to take their Muslim and sub-Saharan African "refugees" and "migrants" and shove them elsewhere:
   Tensions have deepened over the last two years after eastern EU countries refused to accept refugee resettlement quotas following the 2015 migrant crisis, and Poland introduced judicial reforms judged anti-democratic by the EU.



SHUTTING NORTH KOREA NUCLEAR SITE IS SYMBOLIC

    The North Korean leader agreed to close the Punggye-ri nuclear test site during his summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Moon’s office announced Sunday.
    The ongoing utility of Punggye-ri is also unclear. Numerous analysts have concluded, based on satellite photos taken before and after a nuclear test carried out by North Korea in September, that portions of the site had collapsed and were no longer useful. Pyongyang claimed it was the successful demonstration of a hydrogen bomb.
   “If reports are true that the tunnels have collapsed, then the test site would be useless for future nuclear tests anyway, so it would just be a symbolic gesture to close it down,” said Duyeon Kim, visiting senior fellow at the Korean Peninsula Future Forum. “It’s not a serious or sincere gesture to denuclearize.”

LIBERALS STILL PANDERING TO TEACHERS

  Toronto Sun:  The Ontario Liberals are poised to scrap province-wide EQAO tests for Grade 3 and Grade 9 students if they get re-elected.
   They’re also proposing to eliminate mandatory requirements for high school students to pass a literacy test to graduate.
   And they’d water down province-wide tests for Grade 6 and Grade 9 students, according to the Ontario: A Learning Province report commissioned by Premier Kathleen Wynne and quietly released Tuesday by Education Minister Indira Naidoo-Harris
In reality, this is more cynical pre-election pandering by the Liberals – in this case to teachers, who have resisted large-scale standardized tests. 


FREELAND CLAIMS REAL ADVANCES ON NAFTA

   WASHINGTON, DC. (NEWS 1130) – The politicians leading the NAFTA negotiations left Washington without a deal on Friday, under a cloud of question marks about the continental trading relationship.
   Canada’s Chrystia Freeland and Mexico’s Ildefonso Guajardo returned home after a week-long round with plans to reconvene around May 7 in hopes of obtaining an agreement this spring.
    Left unresolved are questions of whether an agreement is possible soon, how extensive it might be and whether the United States might in the meantime slap its neighbours with steel and aluminum tariffs — set to take effect Tuesday. That ambiguity appears destined to linger a little longer.

SHE FORGOT ABOUT THE CRUISER'S DASH CAMERA

   A Washington lobbyist who played a leading role in raising money for Hillary Clinton's presidential runs resigned her commission at a top transportation agency after being caught cursing out police on video.
   "You may shut the f--- up!" fumed the lobbyist, Caren Turner, at a Tenafly, New Jersey, cop during a March 31 traffic stop of a car in which Turner's daughter had been a passenger.
   "You're an ass," Turner later told the officer, according to a police report released Wednesday. "Look at that smug-ass look on your face."
It must have been a real treat to work for her.

SPECTACULAR CYNICISM OF TRUDEAU'S PIPELINE MORASS

    Yet as the National Observer report shows, the Liberals’ own consultation process was little more than window dressing for a fundamentally Conservative position: the pipeline is going in, no matter what. Having served as a handy prop during the campaign, dissenting First Nations are now a hindrance to be pushed aside as gently as possible. It underscores a longstanding conceit in this country: Liberals talk like the NDP but govern like Stephen Harper with a hangover.
    Meanwhile, phase two of the government’s pipeline plan lurches on, with key ministers playing a role. Catherine McKenna is Dr. Jekyll, airily tweeting about carbon levies and international commitments. Resources minister Jim Carr, playing the role of Mr. Hyde, grimly reassures Kinder Morgan (and all oil companies by proxy) that the country is open for their business. Together, McKenna and Carr serve the same end: to fluff the government’s environmental bona fides, and to get oil to a coastline despite them.
    Yet politically canny as it is, the Trudeau government’s Jekyll & Hyde approach to pipeline development is utterly hamstrung by its own rhetoric. Trudeau has happily glommed onto the environmental movement, making being one with nature an intrinsic part of his brand. He has also devoted a fair bit political capital to extolling the rights of First Nations in both matters of reconciliation and autonomy. He did both for the same reasons: a soupçon of personal conviction and a heap of political expediency.


SCHEER'S CARBON FANTASIES

    Toronto Sun: It’s bad enough when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau misleads Canadians by claiming we can reach our international commitments to reduce industrial greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change through his national carbon pricing plan.
    But it’s no better when Conservative leader Andrew Scheer claims he can do so without the measure if he wins the 2019 election, as he said Sunday on CTV’s Question Period, adding, “The Liberals would love to have people believe that the choice is a carbon tax or nothing. I reject that.”
   Scheer told Evan Solomon he can “guarantee” the Conservatives will unveil a national climate strategy before next year’s election and that it will “of course” meet Canada’s targets under the United Nations’ Paris climate accord, signed by Trudeau, plus tackle other major environmental issues.

CANADA OUT OF TOUCH WITH REALITY

   Ivison, NP: “The level of foreign investment has never been so low and continues to fall off a cliff. There is a real, genuine, honest, non-partisan concern that Canada is so completely out of touch with the real world,” he said.
   The CEO said his contemporaries in corporate Canada speculated that a number of companies, including Enbrige, the country’s fourth biggest company by market capitalization, are set to decamp.
  “The rumour is they’ve been planning to move for a while and the U.S. tax changes sealed the deal,” said the disillusioned CEO.
    It is the problem of Canada’s lack of competitiveness – rather than the re-negotiation of NAFTA or the failure to built a pipeline to tidewater – that may be the gravest danger to the future health of the Canadian economy.
    Jobs, capital and head office functions are not gushing south of the border but a gradual seep is becoming evident.


UPGRADING THE PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS

   Starting in 2018, the Canadian House of Commons will have a new home.
   That’s right — everything from the House itself to the associated committee rooms, offices and even the prime ministerial bathroom will be moving a few hundred metres to the west.
   West Block will become the new centre of power for the country, while Ottawa’s old train station will house the Senate.
       The Centre Block of Parliament is set to close for 10 years this fall as Public Services and Procurement Canada gears up to restore and upgrade the country’s most recognizable symbol of democracy.
   According to PSPC, every aspect of the building is going to be upgraded from the exterior stone shell, the copper roof, the steel structure to the building systems themselves.


Sunday, April 29, 2018

WYNNE'S PALS AT SAMSUNG

“For over 100 years, rural families and farms in this area had access to clean, clear and safe well water from aquifers underground,” said Natyshak. “Now they have black water, contaminated with black shale which adheres with heavy metals that can be released into the stomach if the water is ingested. Hydro One ruled out pile driving because they were concerned about the impact on local wells. Hydro One wouldn’t take the risk – so why did the Premier let Samsung do it?”

PC's PLAN TO SCRAP WIND TURBINE PROJECT

    Sarnia-Lambton MPP Bob Bailey says if a Progressive Conservative government is elected in June, a controversial wind turbine project slated for the border of Lambton County and Chatham-Kent will be scrapped.
    Bailey is concerned that construction of the 12-turbine Otter Creek wind project is near an aquifer that runs in the vicinity of the county border. The Progressive Conservative MPP said the project risks contaminating the water supply for St. Clair Township residents and others who draw their water from private wells in the area.
 Mr. Bailey asked Premier Wynne to take the immediate step of adding the protection of private wells to the mandate of the Thames-Sydenham and Region Source Water Protection Committee. Currently, the mandate of regional Source Water Protection Committees, as with the Thames-Sydenham Committee, is to protect municipal sources of water. But the water from private wells is not considered.


"MEN ONLY" JOB ADS IN CHINA

   Reuters:  Top Chinese tech companies and government departments have been singled out in a Human Rights Watch report that says discriminatory hiring practices based on gender are rife in China.
Shocker!   Time for another lecture from PM Trudeau.

COSBY & CLINTON

Steyn:   By strange serendipity, Bill Cosby was convicted of three counts of sexual assault on the day Juanita Broaddrick marked the 40th anniversary of her rape by Bill Clinton. Mr Cosby is eighty years old and likely to die in prison; Mr Clinton is still, in every sense, at large.

CA PROGRESSIVES CAN AFFORD TO BE IGNORANT

 "The problem with California is Californians." So says Firewall host Bill Whittle, and he ought to know: he's been one of them for thirty years. Is great comfort and great ignorance tied together? Why yes. Yes it is.

CANADA IS ON USA PRIORITY WATCH LIST

   Vancouver Sun:  The United States on Friday added Canada to a priority watch list of countries that it says have failed to enforce intellectual property rights, citing concerns over poor border control and pharmaceutical practices.
     The Office of the United States Trade Representative moved Canada from its watch list to its priority watch list, which includes 11 other countries including China, India and Russia.
     In a news release, the office criticized Canada for “failing to make progress on overcoming important IP enforcement challenges” such as border enforcement, particularly when it comes to inspecting or detaining counterfeit or pirated goods shipped through Canada.
     It also cited procedures related to pharmaceuticals, copyright protection, and inadequate transparency regarding the protection of indications of origin.

LOSING RESPECT FOR THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

   More information came to light this week about the extensive, illegal operations of Obama’s rogue bureaucratic corps. Like the Attorney General, the President, Professor Alan Dershowitz, Joe DiGenova, former Clinton pollster Mark Penn and millions of others, we think this is taking far too long, and the Mueller investigation needs to close its bunker door and fade away. I’m with them.
    Moreover, if indictments of the Obama Bureaucrats who confected this nonsense and tried to cover it up don’t follow quickly on the release of the Inspector General’s report -- now due May 8 -- it is hard to imagine how much more contempt we will have for claims that we must respect the judicial system. Having seen the criminal justice system misused as a vicious political weapon against Lewis Libby, Ted Stevens, and now General Michael Flynn while manifest lawbreakers, including both the Clintons, McCabe, and Comey waltz home free, inspires depths of distrust that only the enemies of a democratic state could hope to accomplish.

Saturday, April 28, 2018

INHERITING ONTARIO'S FINANCIAL SCANDALS

   NP:   The hanky panky Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk uncovered flows from the Liberals’ need to disguise the degree to which they’ve become dependent on borrowed money to finance extravagant election pledges. And that reliance on debt results from 15 years of spending that has left the province $312 billion in debt, with $1 billion a month going to interest payments alone.Now all three parties — not to mention the taxpayers of Ontario — are stuck with the result, and some heavy recalculations may be in order to deal with the fact. Wynne’s Liberals faced a tough enough task convincing Ontarians it was worth an additional $6 billion yearly shortfall to finance the daycare and pharmacare programs they promised in their latest budget; but if the real gap is $12 billion, with no end in sight, the convincing becomes that much more difficult.
    Doug Ford, the Progressive Conservative leader, adopted an appropriately sober air as he assessed the situation. It may be, he suggested, that a Tory government wouldn’t be able to balance the budget as quickly as he had figured. He would, however, make sure voters knew who to blame

HURRY UP & WAIT FOR TRANS MOUNTAIN EXPANSION

  A lawyer for energy giant Kinder Morgan is warning that its Trans Mountain expansion project is facing "significant and unwarranted delay" following an unexpected legal letter filed Thursday in the wake of dramatic revelations reported by National Observer about the project's approval by the Trudeau government.
   Maureen Killoran, a Canadian lawyer for the Texas-based company, drafted the warning in a letter filed Friday with the Federal Court of Appeal in response to a request filed on Thursday by the Tsleil-Waututh Nation in B.C..
   The Tsleil-Waututh Nation is challenging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's approval of the Kinder Morgan project at the Federal Court of Appeal, arguing that the government failed in its legal duty to consult First Nations prior to making its decision. In a letter sent to the court on Thursday, Scott Smith, a lawyer representing the Tsleil-Waututh Nation (TWN), wrote that two recent reports by National Observer confirm allegations it had previously raised that Trudeau's government acted in "bad faith" and is withholding documents that show what happened during its internal review.

WE PAID FOR THIS CBC DRIVEL

When alphas collide: how Trudeau and Macron handle Trump's displays of dominance.

This article is actually classified as "analysis"!  I can think of more accurate classifications, but not one that is printable.

DECLINING VALUE OF A DEGREE FROM NYU

   Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will accept an honorary doctor of laws degree from New York University during a three-day trip to the U.S. next month.
  Trudeau will speak to graduates at the university's 186th commencement ceremony, and will address the Economic Club of New York to promote investment in Canada.

GOVERNMENT APPROVED ANIMAL STARVATION

   It is known as the Dutch Serengeti, a bold project to rewild a vast tract of land east of Amsterdam. But a unique nature reserve where red deer, horses and cattle roam free on low-lying marsh reclaimed from the sea has been savaged by an official report after thousands of animals starved.
    In a blow to the rewilding vision of renowned ecologists, a special committee has criticised the authorities for allowing populations of large herbivores to rise unchecked at Oostvaardersplassen, causing trees to die and wild bird populations to decline.
    “This experiment has absolutely failed,” said Patrick van Veen, an animal biologist whose petition to stop animal cruelty at Oostvaardersplassen has been signed by 125,000 people. “You’d expect 20 or 30% to die of natural causes including starvation each year but the population grows in summertime and there is no control mechanism – normally you’d have predators such as wolves but it’s too small an area to have predators.”

EU PRESIDENT GLORIFYING KARL MARX

   Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will next week deliver a speech at an exhibition commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx. The gesture is likely to provide some ammunition to lovers of controversy.
   The German city of Trier, Marx’s birthplace, will celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth on 5 May with a series of events, including the unveiling of a 5.5 metre-tall statue, a present from the People’s Republic of China.
   The monument has fuelled controversy in the Trier community and in the wider German context in recent months. Overall, glorifying Karl Marx is a controversial thing, especially in countries that have lived under communism.
   Andreeva said that Juncker is “very well aware of the historical facts and sensitivity” and added that “whatever peoples’ views on Karl Marx are, nobody can deny that Karl Marx is a figure who shaped history in one way of the other”.

HONOURING THE GREEN PHONY

   Since University of Alberta president David Turpin is righteously wrapping himself in the cloak of defending free speech to explain its controversial decision to give an honorary degree to David Suzuki, it begs an obvious question.
    How does giving an award to a poster child of the intolerant left defend free speech, “the principles of freedom of inquiry, academic integrity and independence,” as Turpin described them in an Edmonton Journal column?
    When former prime minister Stephen Harper and Alberta premier Ed Stelmach were in government, Suzuki urged a McGill University audience, “to put a lot of effort into trying to see whether there’s a legal way of throwing our so-called leaders into jail because what they’re doing (failing to act on anthropogenic climate change) is a criminal act.”

TRUDEAU'S $10BILLION CARBON PRICING SCHEME

  Edmonton Sun:  Kudos to the Parliamentary Budget Office headed by Jean-Denis Frechette for giving Canadians an objective cost assessment of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s national carbon pricing scheme.
  Especially since Trudeau and Environment Minister Catherine McKenna refuse to do so, or to answer questions about how much Trudeau’s carbon price of $50 per tonne in 2022 will lower industrial greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change.
   On Monday, the PBO said Trudeau’s carbon pricing scheme will cost the Canadian economy $10 billion in 2022, reducing the annual increase in Canada’s Gross Domestic Product by 0.5% compared to what it would have been without it.

DNA-SHARING SERVICES AND PRIVACY

    Montreal Gazette: The use of a genealogy website to track down a suspected California serial killer illustrates both the extraordinary power of DNA-sharing services and the broad privacy concerns that surround the fast-growing commercial market for genetic analysis.
    TV commercials for companies such as 23andMe and Ancestry.com pitch their services as simple and fun ways of learning about family heritage and health. And while those companies on Friday sought to distance themselves from the free GEDmatch website used by police, the California case exposed broader questions about what happens after consumers mail their saliva away for DNA analysis and upload the results to the internet.
   “For those of us who were skeptical about turning over our genetic information to corporations, this case proved all of those fears true,” said Daniel De Simone, a New Jersey researcher whose relatives have used DNA services.

ISLAMIC STATE PROPAGANDA SERVERS SEIZED

 Police around Europe and North America have seized servers and data from Islamic State propaganda outlets in a multi-country operation aimed at tracking down radicals and crimping the group's ability to spread its violent message.
The two-day operation was the culmination of efforts started in late 2015, after coordinated IS attacks that killed 130 people in Paris, according to a statement from European police agency Europol.

TIME FOR TAX REFORM IN ONTARIO

   Fraser Institute:  Over the past fifteen years, Ontario’s provincial economy has struggled relative to the rest of the country. The reasons for Ontario’s economic weakness are complex and varied. However, public policy choices have been a contributing factor.
   One area that stands out as a particularly strong candidate for reform is tax policy. Specifically, Ontario’s personal income tax (PIT) system undermines Ontario’s economic competitiveness and therefore hinders economic growth. With seven brackets and high marginal rates, Ontario’s PIT discourages a wide range of productive activities and makes it more difficult for Ontario to retain and attract higher-earning individuals. These problems are compounded by the fact that Ontario’s PIT is not competitive with peer jurisdictions in North America. Ontario has the second highest top marginal PIT rate in North America (combined federal/provincial or federal/state) at 53.53 percent.

MALDIVES CALL FOR CLIMATE CASH

   Maldives Environment Minister Thoriq Ibrahim has warned that unless the Maldives gets its climate cash before 2020, the 1.5C global warming limit will be breached.
  If rich countries fail to live up to their promises over the next two years, they condemn small islands to catastrophic warming impacts, says Maldives minister.

Friday, April 27, 2018

FINAL REPORT ON ACTIVE RUSSIA MEASURES

     Earlier today the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) released their final report on Russia Active Measures. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes issued the following statement today:
   “The Intelligence Community has finished its declassification review of the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia investigation final report. Given the substantial public interest at stake, the Committee is publishing the redacted version we’ve received. However, we object to the excessive and unjustified number of redactions, many of which do not relate to classified information. The Committee will convey our objections to the appropriate agencies and looks forward to publishing a less redacted version in the near future.”

N & S KOREA AFFIRM COMMITMENT TO PEACE

   Nuclear weapons topped the agenda, and Friday's summit will be the clearest sign yet of whether it's possible to peacefully negotiate those weapons away from a country that has spent decades doggedly building its bombs despite crippling sanctions and near-constant international opprobrium.
   Expectations are generally low, given that past so-called breakthroughs on North Korea's weapons have collapsed amid acrimonious charges of cheating and bad faith. Skeptics of engagement have long said that the North often turns to interminable rounds of diplomacy meant to ease the pain of sanctions - giving it time to perfect its weapons and win aid for unfulfilled nuclear promises.
   Advocates of engagement, however, say the only way to get a deal is to do what the Koreas tried Friday: Sit down and see what's possible.

HILLIER'S ALLEGATIONS ENTIRELY FACTUAL

    The investigation was triggered by a complaint in February from Tory legislator Randy Hillier, who alleged Brown "engaged in dirty and crooked politics."
   Brown, in his first filings to the integrity watchdog in February, called Hillier's allegations "entirely fictional" and a "crass attempt to spin the legal as illegal." In a second filing and later interviews, Brown admitted to certain breaches, Wake noted.
    At the core of the complaint was Brown's 2016 purchase of a $2.3 million five-bedroom lakefront home in his riding of Simcoe-North. In order to close the deal Brown was required by the bank to pay a $575,000 down payment but only had $200,000 himself from the sale of his previous home, Wake's investigation noted.
    Initially, Brown arranged a deal with Johal, who was a personal friend, to sell him his stake in a Barrie, Ont. bar and some Aeroplan miles for $375,000, Wake's decision said. That deal was later dropped and Johal instead loaned Brown the money, the men told Wake during separate interviews.
   "It is clear to me that the non-disclosure was deliberate and not through inadvertence," Wake said in his decision.

HORGAN'S PLANS FOR ECONOMIC GRIDLOCK

   Canada’s economy will “grind to a halt faster than you can say ‘free trade’” if B.C. gets the regulatory powers it’s seeking under a court reference filed Thursday, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says.
   British Columbia wants the courts to rule the province has the authority to regulate the flow of oil through the $7.4-billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.


LE HORROR!

  Parti Quebecois leader Jean-Francois Lisee’s suggestion that the province should build a fence alongside a border crossing popular with asylum seekers drew widespread condemnation in the National Assembly on Thursday.
   “It fuels the idea that Quebec is under some kind of invasion by asylum seekers and it’s not the case,” said Quebec Solidaire spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois.
   The Roxham Rd. crossing has been among the most trafficked sites for asylum seekers crossing into Quebec from the United States. Last month, Quebec Immigration Minister David Heurtel said the number of asylum seekers entering the province from the U.S. tripled to 6,074 this year, up from about 2,000 at the same time last year.

FRANKLIN'S SHIPS DEEDED TO CANADA & INUIT

   Canada and the Inuit are now officially co-owners of the two long-lost ships from the Franklin expedition.
   The deeds to HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, along with all their remaining contents, were signed over to Canada and the Inuit Heritage Trust after nearly two years of negotiations with the British government over which artifacts Britain would retain.
   Everything left on the ships -- thousands of artifacts remain on board -- will be co-owned by Canada and the Inuit Heritage Trust, an Inuit cultural preservation organization mandated under the Nunavut land claims agreement.
   It was only with Inuit historical accounts and assistance that Parks Canada finally found the ships. Thursday's ceremony paid tribute to Louie Kamookak, who was instrumental in helping to locate the ships and who died last month of cancer.

BREATH-TAKING DUPLICITY OF COMEY

  Comey claimed falsely that the Steele Dossier was initially funded "by Republicans." When it was pointed out the Free Beacon said they had funded Fusion GPS but had not paid for the Steele Dossier, he went into his Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer act and claimed he only knew what he saw in the media.
Also echoing Obama, he claimed he did not know that the DNC and Hillary Clinton had funded the Steele Dossier.        He claimed he'd only heard that in the media, but did not know it for a fact. Bizarrely, he did not seem to think it was necessary to find out who the actual parties were behind the dossier. He claimed that it was enough for him to know that political opponents of Trump had funded it.
    He did not tell Trump about who funded it. Of course, he dismisses this as irrelevant.

EUROPEAN COWARDICE & SELF-HATRED

   The hottest new play in the Czech city of Brno is, according to ČTK, called Our Violence and Your Violence, in which Jesus Christ is depicted raping a Muslim woman.
   This play is a complete inversion of reality. Jesus, of course, never raped anyone. But Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, raped a Christian woman.
   While the play’s producers and supporters are congratulating themselves for being so edgy and courageous, in reality this production sheds new light on European cowardice and self-hatred in the face of mass Muslim migration.
    

JUANITA BROADDRICK: BILL CLINTON IS A RAPIST

    On Wednesday, former nursing home administrator Juanita Broaddrick shared a timeline of her "brutal rape" at the hands of then-Arkansas Attorney General Bill Clinton. The event took place forty years ago. Broaddrick insisted that there was nothing political in her tweetstorm, but she did explain why she supported Donald Trump in the 2016 election.
   "On this morning, 40 years ago, my life changed forever. On 4-25-78, I was brutally raped by Ark AG, Bill Clinton. I have spent the majority of my life trying to forget..... and watching the Evil thrive.
    She concluded her tweetstorm denouncing Bill Clinton and explaining why she voted for Donald Trump. "As Bill Clinton begins his new book tour this month, I want EVERYONE to know ......Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the US, IS A RAPIST," Broaddrick tweeted.

COSBY FOUND GUILTY AT RETRIAL

    In a dramatic scene, a Montgomery County jury of seven men and five women returned guilty verdicts today on three counts of aggravated indecent assault for Cosby’s January 2004 sexual assault of Andrea Constand. Constand, a former Temple University employee, lost consciousness after Cosby gave her three blue pills and a sip of wine.

Thursday, April 26, 2018

THE NERVE OF YOU!

    Part rap superstar, part fashion icon, part professional provocateur, Kanye West turned heads on social media on Wednesday when he posted a picture of himself wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat.
   Chicago-based crooner Chance the Rapper seemed to show his support for fellow Chi-Town artist Kanye West’s beliefs about free thinking by pointing out that black people should not feel obliged to support the Democratic Party.


COMEY CLAIMS FBI NOT POLITICIZED

  Breitbart:  Former FBI Director James Comey charged that the Trump administration views "institutions of justice with contempt -- as just another piece on the board" to be manipulated.
 Comey, on a media tour to promote his new book, fielded questions Wednesday evening from students and faculty at his alma mater, William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va., in a live CNN townhall.
  One member of the audience asked, "In your experience with the Trump administration, what did you feel was the attitude of the administration towards established government institutions such as the FBI? Did you feel that -- did they feel that these institutions were antagonistic towards the goals of the administration or was there some level of willingness to cooperate in your experience?"
    "The FBI is not politicized -- that's nonsense. The FBI, though, is being politically attacked and the reason that is so dangerous and so stupid -- even if you're a Republican, we need those institutions. All of us need those institutions and there's a reason that Lady Justice wears a blindfold, so she's not peeking out to see what president this or president that thinks about her decisions," he said. "Without that blindfold, one of the major pillars of this democracy is lost and that is -- should be deeply worrying to all of us, including Republicans in Congress who know better."

MORE CONCERNED ABOUT LANGUAGE THAN THE ATTACK

Three Front National municipal councillors in the French city of Limoges are to be prosecuted after writing an article in a local magazine highlighting an assault on a hospital worker allegedly committed by a newly arrived migrant.

PHONY BONO CALLING OUT PHONY TRUDEAU

   After the love is gone...... CTV,  OTTAWA -- Justin Trudeau is being lampooned in a new video by the anti-poverty organization led by his friend and U2 frontman Bono for not having a concrete plan to advance his feminist agenda at the G7.
   The one-minute video by the One Campaign, which is to be released today, pokes fun at the prime minister, citing his many photo-ops, his "cool socks" and even dressing up as Superman for Halloween.
   "We like your style, prime minister, like how you play with pandas, photobomb a prom pic, dress up as Superman or show off your cool socks," intones the voiceover, accompanied by various still photos of Trudeau in the aforementioned scenarios.
   "You talk a good talk, prime minister. But where's your plan?"

WHY KIM JONG UN's HEAD IS SQUARE

  BEIJING -- Research by Chinese geologists suggests that the mountain above North Korea's main nuclear test site has likely collapsed, rendering it unsafe for further testing and requiring that it be monitored for any leaking radiation.
  North Korean nuclear tests have caused seismic events in Chinese border towns and cities, forcing evacuations of schools and offices, sparking fears of wind-born radiation and leading to a backlash among some Chinese against their country's unpredictable traditional ally.
   Ties between the sides have been deteriorating for years, although Kim made a long-anticipated visit to Beijing last month after China's implementation of United Nations economic sanctions reduced trade between them by as much as 90 per cent.
   The findings by the scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China may shed new light on North Korean President Kim Jong Un's announcement that his country was ceasing its testing program ahead of planned summit meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump.

"SEVERE CONSEQUENCES" OF CHANGING IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL

   BBC:  Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has questioned the legitimacy of efforts by the US and its European allies to change a nuclear deal with his country, saying they had no "right" to renegotiate a seven-party agreement.
   The US and French leaders announced on Tuesday that they were working on a "new deal" that would expand and extend the terms of the 2015 accord.
   Mr Trump has said the US will reimpose sanctions on Iran suspended under the deal on 12 May unless Congress and European powers fix its "disastrous flaws".
   The five other parties to the accord - France, the UK, Germany, China and Russia - see it as the best way to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon and want Mr Trump to continue waiving the sanctions while they try to address his concerns.

AG: ONTARIO'S DEFICIT IS REALLY $11.7BILLION

   Toronto Sun: “We concluded that the Pre-election Report is not a reasonable presentation of Ontario’s finances,” Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk says in her bombshell review of an Ontario’s finances report submitted by the government.
   The auditor general says the province’s operating deficit this year is really $11.7 billion, 75% higher than what was projected in the spring budget.
   Any political party coming into office after the June vote would face a minimum $5 billion deficit – even without matching the billions in promised new spending announced by the Wynne Liberals in their spring budget, Lysyk said.

ONTARIO DUBBED PUBLIC FINANCE DUNCE

   MONTREAL—The bad news just keeps piling up for Ontario, with a provincial election just around the corner. Not only has a key ratings agency just downgraded the province’s financial outlook from “stable” to “negative,” but the Ontario government’s borrowing costs are, for the very first time, higher than those of the Quebec government.
   Even if Quebec has long been known for its poor management of public finances, Ontario, because of its deteriorating management, is now competing for the top prize in terms of financial recklessness, shows an Montreal Economic Institute publication launched today.
   “When you look at debt, spending, and taxes, Ontario looks more and more like Quebec. This is due in part to Quebec’s improved performance recently, but also to the deterioration of Ontario’s public finances over the past decade and a half,” says Jasmin Guénette, vice-president of the MEI and co-author of the publication.


BC FIRST NATION SUPPORTS TRANS MOUNTAIN

  A B.C. First Nation is speaking up in favour of the proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.
   Chief Nathan Matthew of the Simpcw First Nation says he wants to address the impression that B.C.’s Indigenous communities are united in their opposition to the project.
   “That’s why we thought it was time to let people know that there are, or there’s at least one First Nation out there that has an agreement that they’re willing to say we have this agreement."

FORD MOTOR TO TRIM $25.5BILLION

   Dearborn — Ford Motor Co. plans to trim $25.5 billion in operating costs by 2022 and cut its North American passenger car lineup by more than 80 percent, eliminating the Taurus, Fiesta, Fusion, C-Max and Focus sedans within a few years.
    CEO Jim Hackett said Wednesday that Ford will not make the next generation of those sedans, confirming months of reports that the automaker was considering cutting some of its unprofitable car models in favor of trucks and SUVs. The Mustang will be soon be Ford’s only car; the new Focus will launch next year in North America as the Chinese-built Focus Active crossover.
    That’s a deeper cut to the car lineup than industry analysts expected. That move, coupled with the reduction in operating costs and a plan to reduce capital spending from 2019 to 2022 by $5 billion announced Wednesday, come from the “fitness” initiative Hackett outlined in October.

YOU'RE AN INDEPENDENT GOVERNOR, STICK TO YOUR JOB

   Stephen Poloz was accused by a senator of “straying too far” from his mandate by endorsing the policies of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau -- an accusation the Bank of Canada governor said he firmly rejected.
   Senator David Tkachuk, a lawmaker from the opposition Conservatives, cited comments Poloz made in a speech last month about the effects of child-care policy on labor force participation. He also said Poloz has been “heard to endorse” deficit spending and infrastructure spending.
   “As far as I know governor, your job is inflation-targeting, monetary policy,” Tkachuk said during a Senate hearing Wednesday in Ottawa. “People have to have confidence that you’re an independent governor, and I think you may be straying a little bit beyond your mandate with these statements and creating a perception that you’re a little too close to the government in power.” He later said, for emphasis: “I think you are straying too far.”

THOSE GENEROUS CANADIAN TAXPAYERS

   March Madness is a long-observed phenomenon in Ottawa which sees federal departments quickly spend all of their remaining annual budgets in the last month of the fiscal year to avoid losing the cash altogether in the following budget – a use-it-or-lose-it strategy.
   The bonuses paid to some executives in government are also partly dependent on how close to budget they are at year-end, since they're expected to spend all of their budgets in order to fully enact programs and services approved by Parliament.
   On Feb. 20, Shared Services Canada sent an urgent order to Bell Mobility for about 31,000 smartphones, with delivery required within five weeks in order to qualify as 2017-2018 expenditures.
  And that's just ONE department.
Oink oink.


Wednesday, April 25, 2018

LIBERALS TAKING FIRE OVER STALLED TRANS MOUNTAIN

   OTTAWA — The federal Liberal government found itself taking fire over the stalled Trans Mountain pipeline expansion from opposite flanks Wednesday: accused of helping to finance pipeline protesters on the one hand, and rigging the review system in favour of the project on the other.
     Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer led off question period with the revelation that one of the successful applicants to the government’s Canada Summer Jobs program is a B.C. group looking to hire someone “to help … stop the Kinder Morgan pipeline and tanker project.”
    “Does he not realize that he is funding the very groups that are protesting against the project that is in the national interest?” Scheer demanded.

MERKEL'S PICKLE

   German chancellor Angela Merkel's goal for her White House this Friday would be humorous if it weren't so pathetically typical of what America often faces. Here's a brief background on the episode I reference.
   Ever since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and started encroaching on the Ukraine, Western Europe has been demanding that the U.S. sanction the Russians. Whatever was done, however, never seemed to be enough to satisfy the enlighten muckety-mucks in Europe. That brings us to today. President Trump – you know, the man who is said to be beholden to Putin – has recently issued strong sanctions on Russia for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. So far, so good.
   But now Merkel and the rest of the German political establishment have flip-flopped. They want President Trump to exempt their country's companies from these tough new sanctions. Frau Merkel plans to bring this request up at her scheduled meeting with Trump at the White House this week on April 27, along with Germany's concerns about America's newfound attitude toward unbalanced trade, Iran, and Trump's withdrawal from the Paris accord.

ENBRIDGE PIPELINE PROJECT DEALT A BLOW

   This week, an administrative law judge in Minnesota delivered a report for the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC) on Enbridge's application to replace and expand the Line 3 pipeline. Instead of providing a clear verdict about whether the pipeline should be approved, the report complicates the situation even further.
   The PUC will make the final decision on the project in June. Experts say the commission often follows the recommendations it receives.
   "There's a ton riding on this project — not only for Enbridge, but for the whole basin, in general, in Western Canada. It's a very important project," said Patrick Kenny, an analyst with National Bank in Calgary.

THE CUMULATIVE & COSTLY REGULATORY BURDEN

   The food manufacturing sector faces a severe challenge to being internationally competitive because of the rising cost of doing business in this country, says Carla Ventin, Vice-President of Government Relations for Food and Consumer Products of Canada (FCPC).
   The operating environment for food companies is already not competitive with their rivals in the United States, she told the Senate agriculture study on the state of the country’s food value-added sector.
   Food processing is the largest employer in manufacturing in Canada and its more than 6,000 manufacturing facilities employ more workers than the auto and aerospace sectors combined.
    “Our member companies are increasingly concerned with the cumulative and costly regulatory burden,” she said. “Costs relating to energy, labour, taxes and inputs are adding additional pressure on Canadian food manufacturers.

REAL INDIAN CHALLENGES FAUXCAHONTAS

   A candidate for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts who describes himself as a “real Indian” is suing the city of Cambridge for demanding he remove his signs that say his challenger, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), is a “fake Indian.
   Shiva Ayyadurai, who is running for the Senate as an independent, filed a federal lawsuit Sunday accusing the city of Cambridge of violating his First Amendment rights under the Constitution for demanding he remove his signs attacking Warren for her unfounded claims of Native American ancestry, the Washington Times reported.
   Ayyadurai’s campaign bus, which has been parked for more than a month in front of an office building he owns, displays signs depicting the progressive Massachusetts senator in an Indian headdress next to a picture of himself with his campaign slogan: “Only a REAL INDIAN Can Defeat the Fake Indian.”




CARAVAN MIGRANTS NUMBERS DWINDLE

   Several reports indicate that the fragments of the “migrant caravan” are now arriving south of the U.S. border with Mexico. Border Patrol officials in California and Arizona said they have not seen any illegal border crossings between ports of entry this week.
   Over the weekend, about 600 migrants arrived via train in the northern Mexican city of Hermosillo, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday. The group plans to continue to Tijuana in the next few days.
   Late last week, about 50 migrants from Central America arrived in Tijuana, Reuters reported. “Since peaking at around 1,500 people, the so-called migrant ‘caravan’ has dwindled under pressure from Trump and Mexican migration authorities, who vowed to separate those migrants with a right to stay in Mexico from those who did not,” Reuters states. Juventud 2000 director Jose Maria Garcia told the wire service that some crossed the border and requested asylum. He said more are expected in Tijuana in the coming days.

THE MURDERING MISOGYNIST

   G&M:  The passage of a full day added new layers to the profile of the man accused of perpetrating the worst mass murder in decades in Canada – a young man with developmental disorders who failed as a military recruit and publicly embraced a toxic misogynist ideology.
   Alek Minassian, 25, appeared in a north Toronto court Tuesday morning wearing a white police-issued jumpsuit to face 10 counts of first-degree murder and 13 counts of attempted murder. He was arrested Monday afternoon minutes after a white van drove more than two kilometres down Yonge Street in the northern part of Toronto, hitting pedestrians along the way.

A LIBERAL MP WALKS INTO A BAR...

   A Liberal MP who is facing an allegation of assault after a weekend visit to a Halifax bar is speaking out, calling the whole thing a case of mistaken identity.
   Francis Drouin, who represents the eastern Ontario riding of Glengarry-Prescott-Russell, has issued a statement detailing his version of what happened in Halifax in the early hours of Saturday morning.

BERNIE SANDERS'S CUNNING PLAN

  Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is set to unveil a plan that would give American workers who want or need jobs guaranteed government jobs that pay at least $15 per hour and have health benefits.
    The progressive Vermont senator’s guaranteed jobs plan would entitle any American a job or job training in U.S.-funded projects in infrastructure, the environment, caregiving, and education, but he did not provide a cost-estimate or plan to fund the proposal, the Washington Post reported.
   A representative from Sanders’ office said no funding estimate was available for the project because staffers were still crafting the proposal.

A FORCEFUL RESPONSE? FROM THIS GOVERNMENT?

   Conservative MPs are urging the federal government to take "immediate action" to halt illegal border crossings, describing the flow of asylum seekers from the United States as a "crisis without a plan."
   Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel tabled a motion in the House of Commons on Tuesday calling on the Trudeau government to come up with a strategy by May 11 to deal with the spike in migrants crossing the border between legal checkpoints.
   Rempel said she worries that the absence of a more forceful response from the federal government to illegal border crossings could erode Canadians' support for immigration.

DONORS PULL FUNDING FROM U OF ALBERTA

   Backlash toward the University of Alberta is escalating, with donors pulling funding and rallies being planned, but the school's president says he won't compromise academic independence by reversing a decision to award David Suzuki an honorary degree.
    Although some of the school's own faculty staff have spoken out against the decision, U of A president David Turpin confirmed Tuesday the university will go forward in awarding the controversial environmentalist an honorary doctor of science degree this spring.

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

LIBERAL IDENTITY TRADE

   Ivison, NP: Welcome to the concept of identity trade.
   François-Philippe Champagne, the trade minister, tweeted out Sunday that Canada will launch three “landmark” trade missions this year — the first-ever LGBTQ2 mission; the first-ever mission devoted to indigenous business owners; and a women in business mission.
   In the old days — before Champagne revealed his cunning plan — trade policy was based on promoting goods made by low-cost Canadian producers to other countries that might want to buy those goods at competitive prices.
    In Champagne’s world of identity trade, “it’s time for more ambition and a whole lot more of us in the game”, particularly if you are a hyphenated business owner with an eye for some free government money. That should, of course, have read “with an eye for rapidly growing export markets.”

A GOOD NEWS DOG STORY

  A 17-year-old blue heeler remained in the Australian bush overnight with a 3-year-old girl who had wandered away from her home and gotten lost.
   Max the dog showed incredible loyalty by staying with the little girl, sleeping with her on a cold night and alerting searchers in the morning.
  For his heroism, Max was named an "Honorary Police Dog."

WE NEED MORE PEOPLE LIKE JAMES SHAW

  A man who many consider a hero for wrestling a gun away from the suspected shooter in a Tennessee Waffle House raised more than $45,000 for the victims’ families.
   James Shaw Jr., 29, raised $45,668 as of Monday evening from more than 1,200 donors on GoFundMe for the victims in less than 24 hours, surpassing the original fundraising goal of $15,000.
   “Please take the time to donate as all of the proceeds will be given to the families,” the page reads. “Thank you again for your generosity and blessings!”
   Shaw suffered a gunshot wound on his elbow and burns on his hand from grabbing the rifle from the gunman who opened fire on patrons at the restaurant Sunday morning, killing four people and injuring at least three more.

ELECTIONS ONTARIO INVESTIGATING COMPLAINT AGAINST WYNNE

  Elections Ontario says it is investigating a complaint made by the Ontario PC party, arguing that Liberal leader Kathleen Wynne is using taxpayer-supported government announcements to “make political statements to attack her political opponents.”
   In a conference call with reporters on Saturday afternoon, Former MPP Frank Klees said Wynne has targeted the PCs, and more specifically leader Doug Ford, while making announcements about government functions.
   “In the last three weeks, the Liberals have held campaign-style announcements on the taxpayer’s dime, the total cost according to our calculations is $292,500,” Klees said. He added the party is aware of 39 events in the last three weeks, at an average cost to the public purse of $7,500 per event.

WAITING FOR THE LIBERAL STAMP OF APPROVAL

   OTTAWA — It was February 2017 when the first letter about anti-abortion groups and the Canada Summer Jobs program landed in Labour Minister Patty Hajdu's office.
   The Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada wanted Hajdu to keep crisis pregnancy centres — which offer an anti-abortion spin on pregnancy counselling — from getting summer-jobs funding. Applications were already being reviewed, and the centres were likely on the list, the letter warned.
   Religious leaders who met with Hajdu in late March left with the impression there might be some movement on the wording, but a government official said Hajdu only agreed to a review and gave no hint that the language dealing specifically with reproductive rights would be removed.


MURDERING BA$T@RD IN A VAN

   TORONTO — The man suspected of running down numerous pedestrians on a bustling stretch of Yonge Street north of downtown Toronto is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday morning.
   Police say charges against Alek Minassian, 25, of Richmond Hill, Ont., will be revealed at that time.
    Minassian was arrested after a brief sidewalk standoff with a lone police officer not far from the carnage where a van killed 10 people and injured 15 others. Police have not yet released the names and ages of the victims.

Monday, April 23, 2018

ARAB ANTI-SEMITISM IS NEWS TO MERKEL

   German Chancellor Angela Merkel denounced the emergence of "another form of anti-Semitism" from refugees of Arab origin in Germany, in an interview with Israeli television broadcast on Sunday.
   "We have a new phenomenon, as we have many refugees among whom there are, for example, people of Arab origin who bring another form of anti-Semitism into the country," Merkel told the private Channel 10 network.
   The chancellor added that “to our regret, anti-Semitism existed in Germany even before this,” the Jerusalem Post reported.
   In the interview, Merkel said the German government had appointed a commissioner to fight against anti-Semitism.

HOW WYNNE MAKES $BILLIONS OF DEBT DISAPPEAR

G & M:   The Ontario government’s Fair Hydro Plan reduced Ontarian’s electricity bills by about 25%. But the government’s books don’t reflect the costs. The Auditor-General of Ontario says the government used “bogus” accounting to hide the debt from their books.


A VERY BAD WEEK FOR ANTI-TRUMPERS

   Sadly for Trump foes, the U.S. economy is thriving: Market indicators this week continued to rise, pointing to a “robust” 2018. Jobless claims are near a 45 year-low, and “job openings are near a record high, and scattered but growing shortages of skilled labor are forcing companies to increase pay or improve benefits to attract or retain employees,” according to an assessment by MarketWatch.
    Several polls this week show the double-digit lead that Democrats had in the generic congressional ballot at the end of last year is nearly gone. Issues such as immigration and gun control are backfiring, while most voters credit Trump—not Obama—with the strong economy: The Democratic Party is bitter, listless, and devoid of any winning message or policy agenda.
    Which brings us to the week’s worst news for the Left and NeverTrump Republicans, who have devoted 100 percent of their energy to taking down the president via Robert Mueller’s probe into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government before the 2016 election: The credibility of the investigation and the key players involved in the scam is disintegrating.

HIGH ETHICAL STANDARDS OF BANKS

    A CIBC financial adviser says she and her colleagues are "stunned" that a recent report by Canada's banking regulator did not find widespread instances of customers who were upsold due to pressure on employees to meet sales targets.
   "I can't even explain to you how disheartened we all were," says the financial adviser. CBC has confirmed her employment, but is not identifying the woman because she fears she would lose her job.
   "We've been waiting for a year for this report," she says. "It's very hard, because it doesn't feel accurate."
   The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) recently released the findings of a review of sales practices at the country's six big banks. It was prompted by a series of Go Public investigations last year, revealing intense pressure on bank employees to sell customers products and services they may not need in order to meet sales targets.


NOT LISTENING TO THE EXPERTS

  The Edmonton girl made headlines and melted hearts in 2016 with images of her expertly rolling along in a homemade wheelchair that her father fashioned from a foam baby Bumbo seat, a cutting board and bike wheels.
   At four-months-old, Evelyn was diagnosed with cancer and a tumour on her spine left her paralyzed below her arms. After several rounds of chemotherapy, doctors announced she was in remission, but the paralysis was permanent. They told her parents she could be fitted for a wheelchair after she turned two.
  Her parents didn't listen and, a few months later, the tot was in her homemade chair. And now, her blond hair long enough for bitty pigtails, Evelyn is hitting the gym and walking - with the help of machines.

VANCOUVER MODEL OF DRUG TRAFFICKING & MONEY LAUNDERING

   Criminal syndicates that control chemical factories in China’s booming Guangdong province are shipping narcotics, including fentanyl, to Vancouver, washing the drug sales in British Columbia’s casinos and high-priced real estate, and transferring laundered funds back to Chinese factories to repeat this deadly trade cycle, a Global News investigation shows.
   The flow of narcotics and chemical precursors — and a rising death count in western Canada caused by synthetic opioids — is driven by sophisticated organized crime groups known as Triads.
   The Triads have infiltrated Canada’s economy so deeply that Australia’s intelligence community has coined a new term for innovative methods of drug trafficking and money laundering now occurring in B.C.   It is called the “Vancouver Model” of transnational crime.

THE MORAL INDIGNATION OF THE AMORAL

  Toronto Sun:  Fired ex-FBI head James Comey told ABC News “chief anchor” George Stephanopoulos that Donald Trump is “morally unfit to be president”? Think about this. Comey offered this assessment to Stephanopoulos, whose former boss, first candidate and then President Bill Clinton, was credibly accused of rape and sexual assault, had sex in the Oval Office with an intern, and then lied about it under oath, for which he was impeached.
  But Comey tells Stephanopoulos that Trump is “morally unfit to be president”?

WALMART MUSCLES IN ON MILK INDUSTRY

  Smith confirms that Walmart’s decision to open a milk bottling plant in Fort Wayne, Ind., played a part in the decision to fire the dairy farmers. “The introduction of new plants at a time when there is an industry-wide surplus of fluid milk processing capacity forced us into this position,” she said.
   According to Matt Gould, a dairy industry analyst based in Philadelphia, the new Walmart plant, which is supplied by its own cows and will be able to produce about 3 percent of the total annual US milk, could not have come at a worse time for farmers.

NO DATE FOR FINISHING PIPELINE EXTENSION

   Finance Minister Bill Morneau says the federal government sees advantages in getting the Trans Mountain pipeline extension built “rapidly,” but can’t offer a timeline for getting the job done.
    Despite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s attempt to mend fences between Alberta and British Columbia over the contentious project, B.C. Premier John Horgan remains staunchly opposed to the pipeline, which he fears could lead to a catastrophic oil spill along his province’s coast.
   Morneau said the time for expressing concerns about the $7.4-billion project -- which the Liberal government approved in 2016 -- has passed.

Sunday, April 22, 2018

WICKED BAD TIMING, FRANCIS

  The alleged incident occurred early Saturday in Halifax, hours before the federal Liberals took part in anti-harassment forum.
   An Ontario Liberal MP, Glengarry-Prescott-Russell riding, says he is facing an allegation of sexual assault following an incident in Halifax early Saturday morning.
   Halifax Regional Police are investigating an alleged assault they say happened just after 2 a.m. AT on Brunswick Street across from Citadel Hill in downtown Halifax, near where the Liberal Party policy convention was being held.
   Francis Drouin's office confirmed an allegation had been made against him.


RECORD-BREAKING ONTARIO LIBERALS

  Toronto Sun:  When McGuinty made that excuse for breaking his promise and dramatically raising taxes, Ontario’s public debt was $138.8 billion.
  The debt expressed as a percentage of the provincial economy (debt-to-GDP-ratio) was 27.2%.
  And taxpayers were paying $9.6 billion annually in interest on debt.
  Today, after 15 years of Liberal rule, under McGuinty and now Wynne, Ontario’s public debt is projected at $325 billion this year, a 134% increase since 2003 — far outstripping population, inflation and economic growth.
 Today’s debt-to-GDP ratio is 37.6%.


WYNNE'S SMEARS AND LIES ON DISPLAY

Toronto Sun, Marin:  It’s the classic case of Liberal hypocrisy. Between Wynne’s lying attack ad and her party’s “erroneous” tweet, it’s rich of her to point the finger at Ford as one who traffics in smears and lies.
  She predicted the election campaign leading to the June 7 election will be “vicious.” Her actions so far seemed determined to make it so.

READING IT WILL MAKE YOU WANT TO VOTE LIBERAL

  Maclean's:  On Friday night, at the Liberal Party national convention in Halifax, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau addressed a crowd of party members. For half an hour, speaking at times directly to her family seated before the stage, Grégoire Trudeau told personal stories and reinforced the importance of volunteers on the ground.
  "Late nights at the office … Justin sticks to it because of all of you … and I want to tell you, from the bottom of my heart, you can count on us, Justin and I, and we are also counting on you, every single one of you. And Justin, my love, all the people in this room have your back.”

JUDGE LAMBASTES LEGAL AID ONTARIO

    Toronto Star:  In a landmark decision, Ontario Superior Court Justice Edward J. Koke has ruled that Legal Aid’s ongoing support of Kathleen Anne Worrod was an “abuse of process” that undermined the public interest and wasted precious judicial resources meant for low-income Ontarians.
  Worrod’s case forced the family of Muskoka landscaper Kim Kevin Hunt, 57, to needlessly spend hundreds of thousands of dollars of its own money on legal bills, the judge said, ruling that Worrod and Legal Aid are now on the hook.
   As well, Koke said, Legal Aid funding paid for an expert report in 2015 that found Hunt was intellectually incapable of making independent decisions. That finding, the judge said, should have triggered Legal Aid to stop supporting the case. Worrod’s defence at the trial was built on the premise that Hunt was capable of consenting to marriage.
   Koke said Legal Aid failed to “properly and conscientiously” monitor the “meritless” case against Hunt.

ANTI-SEMITIC & DUMB AS A ROCK

  Trayon White is the D.C. Council member who explained that Jewish financiers control the climate and create natural disasters to gain political control.
   To his credit, White has been trying to make amends. Reportedly, he attended a Passover Seder. In addition he visited the Holocaust Museum.
   Unfortunately, the museum visit will only reinforce the “dumb as a rock” tag while doing little to overcome the view that he’s anti-semitic.

SANCTUARY COUNTY FOR GUN OWNERS

  Effingham County, Illinois, on Monday became a "sanctuary county" for gun owners.
  The county board passed the resolution on an 8-1 vote and directed its employees not to enforce any new state law that would “unconstitutionally restrict the Second Amendment.”
  Effingham County State’s Attorney Bryan Kibler said that the action is largely symbolic and will not control decision-making by law enforcement.

NO THOUGHT OF STOPPING THEM AT THE BORDER

  TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada’s government has pledged to help the province of Quebec cope with a growing influx of asylum seekers crossing from the United States, as officials say the province is reaching “saturation point.”
   The vast majority of these refugee claimants crossed into the primarily French-speaking province of Quebec, where the influx sparked political tensions in an election year and backlash from anti-immigrant groups.
   The government must also determine how refugee claimants will travel, and asylum seekers would have to be willing. “We can’t tell people where to go,” said Mathieu Genest, a spokesman for federal Immigration and Refugees Minister Ahmed Hussen.
“If someone is using the U.S. as a conduit to get to Canada it means that they are not using the visa for what the visa’s intended for.”

WIKILEAKS THREATENS COUNTER SUIT AGAINST DNC

  For those wondering how much emotional progress the Democrats have made in the last 16 1/2 months or so, the Democratic National Committee announced on Friday that it is suing the Trump campaign, the Russian government, and WikiLeaks for interfering with the 2016 presidential election.
  WikiLeaks responded: We're counter suing you for fun -- and also because you're lame. "Voters! WikiLeaks took away our right to lie about rigging the primary!" That's some serious one dimensional chess right there.

Saturday, April 21, 2018

WYNNE PLAYING IDENTITY POLITICS

   He does not hesitate when he calls Kathleen Wynne “the most dangerous woman in Canada.” For her part, cat’s got her tongue.
   Just when you might have thought that burning her way through billions of dollars to turn Ontario into a have-not province with a massive debt, while inadvertently putting a lid on investment and business expansion, was Wynne’s most sinister play on her peeps, a clinic psychologist and University of Toronto professor comes along to tell us of offences even worse.
    According to Peterson, she is not even a Liberal. She has moved further left than the NDP. Identity politics is her socialist agenda, creating victims by identifiable groups since the working class is doing just fine. Under Wynne’s watch, universities fanned the flames of hate-filled protests against so-called hate speech that turned out to be simply a difference of opinion. Peterson says she is also responsible for campus social justice tribunals and a human rights tribunal that don’t let the law get in the way of ideological judgments.


STUDENTS SAY REGULATE THE SECOND AMENDMENT

   A small group of mostly high school students gathered in front of the White House on Friday as part of the National School Walkout, an anti-gun protest launched by a Connecticut teen following the shooting deaths of 17 people at a Florida high school in February.
Following a moment of silence plus 13 seconds to honor the 13 people shot and killed at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, the group walked to the Capitol where speakers lashed out at Republicans and the National Rifle Association (NRA).
   "And so too must we regulate the Second Amendment,” Berlin,  a student at a D.C. high school who told Breitbart News he organized the local protest,  said. “Just as the freedoms of the First Amendment are subject to rules and regulation so too must be those protected under the Second.”
  “No amendment is absolute,” Berlin said. “Your right to a gun does not supersede my right to graduate high school.”

DNC HAS CREATED THE ROPE TO HANG ITSELF

    President Trump is eager to go head-to-head with the DNC which filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit on Friday against several parties, including the Russian government, the Trump campaign and the WikiLeaks organization - alleging a "far-reaching conspiracy to disrupt the 2016 campaign and tilt the election to Donald Trump
    Hours after the Washington Post broke the news of the lawsuit, Trump tweeted "Just heard the Campaign was sued by the Obstructionist Democrats. This can be good news in that we will now counter for the DNC server that they refused to give to the FBI," referring to the DNC email breach. Trump also mentioned "the Debbie Wasserman Schultz Servers and Documents held by the Pakistani mystery man and Clinton Emails."

STEYN SHOW DISAPPEARED; CRTV RESPONSIBLE

   Mark Steyn:  Today, Thursday, in the New York Supreme Court in Lower Manhattan, Judge Eileen Bransten confirmed the award to yours truly in the matter of CRTV vs Steyn. Short version: We won.
    For those readers new to this wretched business, last February CRTV canceled my TV show on their subscription network and fired me, precipitating the worst year of my professional life. Over the course of the last twelve months I've been asked regularly by various people: Why don't you just walk away?
   Which is a fair question, with a very simple answer: I couldn't walk away because CRTV sued me for ten million dollars. All this "claimant"/"counterclaimant" mumbo-jumbo obscures the reality: CRTV were the plaintiffs, they brought the suit, they dragged me into a pit of legal hell.

NEW LEADER OF CUBA NOT A RADICAL REFORMER

    Miguel Diaz-Canel, the 57-year-old vice president of Cuba, is set to assume the presidency a day after members of Cuba’s national assembly named him the sole candidate to succeed a dynasty that began when Fidel Castro seized power in 1959.
   While Diaz-Canel’s relative youth, civilian background and advocacy for reforms such as internet access for Cuban civilians have stoked optimism about an economic policy shift, multiple experts on Cuba told FOX Business that the life-long Communist Party member is unlikely to buck the system – especially with Raul Castro installed as head of Cuba’s only political party through 2021.
    With Castro still in control of the political landscape and longtime Communist party hardliners still populating key government positions, economic reforms are expected to unfold at a slow and uneven pace. Any significant changes to economic structure, such as a rollback in restrictions on private industry, could stoke social tensions and destabilize the government’s hold on the island.